The doom blue Passat - brake broke (again again)

[bunglebus]

The heater is absolutely rubbish, it's been getting worse for years but the latest cold snap has drawn to my attention that the hot air is warm at best. 

Only really two possible causes, a gummed up matrix or one of the flap motor things inside the heater isn't playing ball. As it's 5° rather than -5° today, it's my best shot at sorting it. Drained as much of the coolant as I could so below the level of the matrix and put the hose up it each way - nothing but nice pinky orange coolant came out. I've put a bit of vinegar in it for half an hour but I've got the horrible feeling this is not a simple fix

[Westbay]

Thermostat ?

[beko1987]

Put a garden hose on the inlet then outlet of the matrix? 🤞

I fixed a cold corsa c by doing that once. Ran clear for a while then suddenly something moved and tons of shit came out

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Westbay said:

Thermostat ?

Engine gets up to temp fine, I've changed the stat before. 

I did hose it both ways but it just ran clear, I know these Passats have problems with the servos inside the heater failing, so I think I'm getting a mix of hot and cold air rather than full hot despite the coolant being up to temp

[bunglebus]

OSR caliper is getting stuck on when using the handbrake, lubed it up but it's still happening. It's a cheap eBay Chinese job so no surprise, I should know better. Ordered a Febi Bilstein one as I trust their parts.

This turned up, clearly been opened before 

That's a left side, not a right, here's a crap pic of the current one - cable comes from the front (to our right) and pulls the arm clockwise

Try again, messaged a different seller asking for a pic of the actual item - no response so I ordered anyway, guess what?

Yep, another opened box and the wrong side - it seems Febi have an error in their parts listing, I'm actually in talks with them now to try and get it corrected, but the obvious answer short term was to order a left side...

Sealed box, correct caliper for OSR. Only taken a month to get the right part...

[bunglebus]

Getting a little bit miffed with the rear caliper situation now, had two "rights" which are actually lefts, ordered a left which looked good initially 

But is still different so the flexi won't go on due to different positioning. I'm not convinced the handbrake cable would fit either now looking at the pics

These are the ones Febi list, their UK guy has been really good talking about the problems but I'll have to get another brand now.

We took the handbrake mech off and lubed it up, working well for the moment at least, did have a bit of fun with fluid leaks at the flexi as I didn't want to overtighten the bolt into an ally housing