Grizz’s OCD Awesome ASTRO Van 🚙 Megane SCENIC 1.5dci 🚙 MX5 JEEP For Sale.🚨 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 USA Road Trip

[grizz]

So agreeing to go see @sammo about some parts I decided to incorporate the trip to see the wheels I had seen on a random Caddy group post, which quickly led to a conversation with the owner 
Sams thread: https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/201579/caddy-van-vr5-project-pedals

So once again, the time frame is back to front, because my 140 mile trip led me to Sams place first. 

But here are the wheels, picture as seen on a chat thread.

They typically were not what I was looking for, but actually ticked a bunch of boxes automatically. 

I like solid spokes, and 5 spokes are great when it comes to cleaning and maintenance. Any lace or multi spokes are beautiful, but on someone else’s car. IYKWIM.

A Messenger exchange and chat with the owner established a few things, yes they fitted, directly, yes they were for sale, yes he would sell me 5 of the 6 wheels as I had no use for a well and truly knackered one. And he seemed a nice guy. Bonus. 

So when I got there, as often is the case, we spent over an hour speaking Caddy mods, issues and life in general.

When I asked how much he wanted for the wheels, his reply was £80.00 please. 

So I agreed and we loaded the 5 wheels I had bought into the Focus.

The 5th black wheel is super scruffy and Kerbed to death…… but as a spare, with a silly stretched tyre, it will do.

Seller also threw in a Caddy rear floor mat, to be used once I have levelled out the rear floor and fitted a better bumper.

Cleaned up at home.

Eventually back home by 3.30pm

I had a coffee and sandwich for lunch, then went to lay stuff out to be cleaned.

At which point first @nickwheeler arrived, and followed later by Mickey next door. 

So 3/4 of a bottle of Jif/Cif/Handy Andy and a couple of brushes later, we had some sparkling purchases.

Very importantly as well, four centre caps, one missing its retaining ring.

And of course a ring found yesterday when collecting the rear bumper 50 miles from here.

Butt ugleee spare. Decent tyre at least.

And the other four wheels had two good tyres and two that I needed to replace. 

Pretty pleased and smug with my relatively cheap find, which would need another £160.00-ish for two new tyres, I told amongst others mate Matt @pegasus later in the evening.

Another exchange ensued, summarised in these comments.

Not always easy, but sometimes the right thing to do. 

Have I mentioned before…….

Next job…….

Try on the wheels on the Caddy.

And buy tyres.
 

[grizz]

Two days later…….

Test fit.

Of course you gotta do this.

Went for a drive to feel the front end.

Then came back, tried them on the rear.

Missing the rear shocks.

And of course all round.

16 inch alloys.

195/55 16 tyres to be ordered.

So…………

Opinions.

Yes, we all have them.

I think that unless some mind blowing wheels come along.

These can stay where they are. 
 

[grizz]

So part one of the day trip to collect the wheels was to go meet up with @sammo at his mums house.

To look at this Caddy…….

Sam had offered me a pair of Golf VR6 seats to fit into the Caddy.

Just plug and play was what he said. 

Greeted by the most awesome cat…… of course.

I managed to buy the seats I had not planned on buying and also robbed the VW badge off the rear door, followed by a set of black bikini caps for the steel wheels I had at home.

Sam also gave me some door lock inners.

Loaded and headed out to Chertsy to see the alloy wheels.

Eventually back at home I got to look at these tired seats that I had bought from Sam.

Cleaned the wheels and rear floor mat.

Then headed back into the seats.

Also cleaned up the small centre caps I had bought for the steel wheels as fitted, as I did not like the flat caps.

Much better I would say.

And straight on. 

Seats after all the effort……..

Yes, not too bad.

And of course approved and became the bed for the next four days 24/7

George cat scanned.

And of course all including a rant in a short clip.

https://youtu.be/ee6fKXnS0Cg?si=8-kFXS1JwooaikZj

Pan fried pork chops and vegetables tonight. 

Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow.

[Noel Tidybeard]

fluffy cat approved

[grizz]

13 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

fluffy cat approved 

Fluffy cat is a dick, even if he is my dick. 

 

But as a stray/abandoned by his owners type cat, he is one of the most unintrusive cats to make my home their home.

I have had better garage cats, always sitting with me, watching the goings on when I was welding, grinding, working, one, Harley would happily tuck up against me when I was welding and grinding, she was a weirdo.

 

George likes his dinner, breakfast, treats and food in between, despite being a smallish, relatively skinny cat and will wait respectfully for me to feed him, most of the time. 

But he will pull a stupid move every now and then, like last night……..


He did get a gentle prod off the table, but still made me laugh. 

Did I mention he is a dickhead?

 

[grizz]

As always, asking opinions on here is like rolling a dice or is that die.

Could this be a gear knob?

Oh, no ?

Not a ratrod or anything else super weird.

My knob is loose (like my morals I hear you say)

But I need to tighten things up.

Having a random collection of gear knobs, collected over the years means I have options.

However……. 

The standard does have a very good ergonomic feel to it. 

I have not tried to remove the knob, so no idea how it is fitted inside the stick.

Screw on, plug in???

https://youtu.be/iKWeb1MwUq0?si=sJCM3P5NoEaHq1eJ

Thanks. 

[grizz]

So.

One side done, loads of swearing under my breath.

Reached out for the matches, could not find them….. 

Carried on installing this hateful stuff.

One side done, eventually.

Drivers side.

Glass out.

Cleaned up first.

Done and refitted, with lodgers help holding mounting button in place.

Last glass done.

And for some reason it was not easy.

Aaaahhh yes, concave glass.

Woke this morning.

And guess what……..?

Kept on working it, eventually settled and happy to move on.

And both sides behaving.

Time to move into the next phase.

Blackout.

Can you see what needs doing?

Template.

CAD to the rescue.

Done.

Needs to be seen stepping back a bit.

And next little job….

Curved ball.

Door window  frame……..

Cut out.

Applied.

AND LOOKING AT THE COMPLETE PICTURE.

MEEHHHH…..

Another small job done.

Time consuming, and many people would neither notice or get it done.

But works for my head and need to make small changes.

Video.

https://youtu.be/mE2D4uY5A2Y?si=G2ua2KlcNw3kp-9v

That’s a load of time consuming, non sweat inducing work done.

Do I like it?/ 

[keith777]

Looks great

 

[grizz]

28 minutes ago, keith777 said:

Looks great

 

Thank you.

 

for a cheap runaround, I seem to have forgotten the rules already. 

 

 

 

 

Like @sparkplug I should not be left alone for extended periods.

So these were clearly in mind a while back.

Do I need them though?

Looks nice ehh. 

One resembles my van.

One does not.

[Zelandeth]

Looking good, Grizz.  The black on the door pillar makes it look a lot more cohesive as a design I think.

I'd always pondered switching to clear indicators, just never came across a set that were cheap enough while I was actually thinking about it.  I can't remember for certain whether the broken bit of clip on the offside one is on the headlight or the indicator itself...I *think* the latter.

I'd (personally) not be wanting to switch to any lower profile tyres without also making tweaks to the suspension given how firm the ride already is - which was probably the only thing about the vehicle itself that I really wasn't a fan of.

[grizz]

On 06/11/2023 at 23:32, Zelandeth said:

Looking good, Grizz.  The black on the door pillar makes it look a lot more cohesive as a design I think.

I'd always pondered switching to clear indicators, just never came across a set that were cheap enough while I was actually thinking about it.  I can't remember for certain whether the broken bit of clip on the offside one is on the headlight or the indicator itself...I *think* the latter.

I'd (personally) not be wanting to switch to any lower profile tyres without also making tweaks to the suspension given how firm the ride already is - which was probably the only thing about the vehicle itself that I really wasn't a fan of.

I prefer a taller tyre.

Much more comfortable.

Took it out for a short drive yesterday, and to be honest, not at all as warty as your P4 but not like driving on wooden blocks.

I am also cheap…..so cheap lenses would do me.

[bezzabsa]

those 5 spokes would look great on my Bini.....wanna sell em??? LOL

[grizz]

18 hours ago, bezzabsa said:

those 5 spokes would look great on my Bini.....wanna sell em??? LOL

They are already costing me more than I paid, having ordered fresh new VW badges for the centre caps.

And what would I fit then?

 I am sure you could find a decent set somewhere if you keep an eye open. 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Looks really smart on the steelies with the centre caps. I've a bit of a thing for black centre caps on silver steelies. When the ones on our old work's Crafter started to fade and develop unsightly white patches I took it upon myself to buy a black rattle can and sort them out. Couldn't do with it.

Good luck with the van, this thread has been an enjoyable read so far. I admire your attitude towards life.

[grizz]

22 hours ago, Captain Mainwaring said:

Looks really smart on the steelies with the centre caps. I've a bit of a thing for black centre caps on silver steelies. When the ones on our old work's Crafter started to fade and develop unsightly white patches I took it upon myself to buy a black rattle can and sort them out. Couldn't do with it.

Good luck with the van, this thread has been an enjoyable read so far. I admire your attitude towards life.

Thank you very much.

 I actually have a dilemma, as I like the steeliest as much if not more than the 16” alloys.

They came up nice. 

[grizz]

Yesterday ended up a bit corporate.

I had not done expenses since July, and that includes daily mileage claims.

Thankfully I am a bit weird, as I actually do keep a daily, written mileage logbook of my own in the cars door pocket.

But every trip has to be entered from postcode to postcode for the whole day, so minimum three lines of entries.

Departure, arrival, return destinations, get why it is a ball ache 

Today it is all my parking, and other expenses from August on to next week when they collect all the IT stuff.

Posting up, video editing, all the stuff I use the company iPad for will cease.

As I do not own an iPad or such to work/play on.

Back to replacing the teats in the Caddy with Car seats from a VR6 as bought from @sammo from his VR5 Caddy build project.

The Caddy’s standard seats are such that a courier or longer day user would be comfortable, and they are good seats, but of course we always want to modify stuff, well…… I do.

So the standard VW interior, hard wearing, functional, dull.

Seats bought from Sam.

Before.

Grizzified (cleaned)

Changing seats should be a 5 minute job per side.
If you have the right tools on site , 10mm spanner and Allen key.
Undo a single retaining bolt, slide out original seat, remove.
Slide in replacement seat on rails, bolt down, Done.

But of course it took me two hours or more over two days.

Problem number 1 was this is a converted Caddy.

Done by a disability type company.

Cheaply as possible.

One directional “engineering” so not much stance of restoring to original.

Obstruction number 1 and 2.

Wheelchair safety belts. Electronic.

Made removing the original seats quite awkward.

Removing them, a significant hurdle as access to the retaining nut was zero.

So alternative leverage plans needed to be figured out and applied.

Locking the nut to the body with force.

Cats are weirdos, I am sure they watch their subjects die, and then start eating them…..

George waiting for me to die or give up.

Horrible back seats came out to give access, and coz they suck.
.

No chance getting in there, all closed and welded shut after original bracing had been removed.

Much struggling and swearing later…..

First one fitted, or was it just placed in position while I tried to figure how to fit it.

Problem was that the wheelchair seat belts stick into the rear footwell by 100mm and the rear seat back brace on the VR6 seats fouled against it, meaning you just could not get the runners to engage with the rails.

Trust me.

Drivers seat was a lot easier once the seatbelt was removed.

Another interesting thing you will see in the video, is that the adjustment lever for forward/rearward move,ent on the Caddy seats are to the left…….. under the seat.
On the VR6 seats, they are to the left.
So I had to modify and flip the release levers as well.
Nothing in the manual to warn you about it.

Once done, it looked great and like it was always this way.

Despite liking and being very happy with the original Caddy seats, the replacements are a lot nicer.

I found myself going and sitting in both after fitting them, grinning and gloating to myself as they are that nice.

Video is a bit longwinded, but it captures some of the process and fighting to fit these 5 minute job seats.

https://youtu.be/yDGPDgdkB_s?si=HWvdpspLIpFX0Sca

Hopefully the video is of value to anyone who is faced with this sort of change.

.

 

[grizz]

While I was over at mate Darren’s engineering shop to get some steel for @pauly to build a restoration rotisserie I noticed this car he is currently building.

3.5l V8 Ally block Rover.

The rest of it weighs almost nothing as well.

He was saying that just test driving it locally on some private land was “Interesting, scary” 

So it will be run at Pendine Sands in Wales at the next beach races.

Check out on GOOGLE if you want to see more. 

It is along the same theme as these races in France:

CLICK LINK FOR PHOTOS:

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/225827/normandy-beach-races-2023-photos

Looks a great day out. 

.

[Noel Tidybeard]

will the old front seat fit in the back?

[Zelandeth]

24 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

will the old front seat fit in the back?

Sadly not without fabricating some completely custom mounts for the bases to attach to, and then similarly suitably sturdy mounting points for seatbelts.

[Noel Tidybeard]

so with grizz thats a maybe then🤣

[grizz]

18 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

will the old front seat fit in the back?

I need a van, not a car.

[grizz]

18 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Sadly not without fabricating some completely custom mounts for the bases to attach to, and then similarly suitably sturdy mounting points for seatbelts.

Agreed.

And if anything, in my case….. remove the horrible ones fitted to the rear.

Already sold the seats to a mate who bought a very dirty one for his son.

[grizz]

18 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

so with grizz thats a maybe then🤣

LOLOLOLOL !!!


You know me way too well.

 

And a Maybe is a yes……? 

 

I am not planning any add ins, rather deletes. 

[grizz]

So the Caddy continues to:

Firstly, MAKE ME SMILE
Secondly, MAKE ME WORRY
Thirdly, CHALLENGE ME.

I have never owned a diesel, Fly by wire type car, company cars are fully maintained, so do not count.

Having bought it and faultlessly driven home the first 104 miles, then refusing to start outside the MOT station, followed by later self correcting and starting 3 hours later, I was still happy to do stuff to it, and for it. 

When you buy an old car, or a new one (enough examples out there) you buy it with a great big prayer stuffed in your top pocket that it will just keep going until it is time for you to move it on for something else, or it becomes part of your deceased estate/fails MOT catastrophically.

So having done 13k plus miles in the last 22 months, my expectations are that it will always need some wear and tear fettling, and service maintenance.

AND OF COURSE MODIFYING.

So on Tuesday I headed out to go price up some 16” tyres for the alloy wheels I had bought previously, before going online and looking at Black Circles and other options. Despite spending unnecessarily on the Caddy, I want to still try contain the fiscal damage.

So I headed out, enjoying the clatter of the diesel and the drive, which in all honesty, is MUCH MUCH BETTER than some people make out, this includes people who have actually never driven or lived with one. 
It has to be pretty decent, or else you would not have seem as many sold in the years of productions, and most of them being commercial vehicles, they would have been ragged to an inch of their lives. 

Imagine my surprise when I left the second roundabout from home, a mile or 1.6km away when suddenly there was no throttle to accelerate from the roundabout…… The engine was idling happily, but prodding, feathering, stomping, swearing at the throttle and car made absolutely not one iota of a difference. 

So I cruised to a standstill at the bottom of the road, even trying to bump start and turn the ignition off and on before coming to a halt, all four wheels, only just on the grass verge, but it beats the way I have seen people break down and abandon cars halfway in the road before. 
This road is used by loads of heavy goods vehicle and construction and farm vehicles, and there was no side road to drop into.

Opened the bonnet/hood, of course greeted by a beautiful expanse of plastic, no tools in the Caddy because not expecting to have to undo anything, except a spare wheel in case of a flat. 

So obviously not much I could do there.
In the mean time, the engine was happily sitting idling away.

So I considered calling Green Flag recovery, of course the last time,  they never actually made it to me as after 3 hours the car fixed itself. 

So plan B

Call Mickey next door, he is a good one for helping with recovery and having towed him home years ago in his Focus that had stopped running one day, knowing he would have some heavy duty strops/straps to tow me home with.
He agreed and said give him 5 minutes.
So I set to, removing the cover over the towing eye in the lower bumper, using the key to get it removed, Zelandeth had engineered it into position before. 
Once removed, I tossed it in the rear along with the little blanket I had kneeled on.
Tried to turn on the car again, success !!!!!!
And the throttle, which was dead 5 minutes before, was functioning like before……
So I called Mickey to tell him it was working and that I would drive it home in front of him, just as he came off the roundabout in the distance.
Drove it home, accelerated a few times, pulled up onto the drive and thanked Mickey. 

I needed to get to the GP and a couple of other appointments, so took the Company car, Focus.

On the way back, I stopped at a local garage that Sally and her sons uses, I have used their tools before and gave them some tools a few years ago when a lodger brought some massive sockets home, they also did the servicing and some repairs on the MX5 for me years ago. 
I went in and said that I had a problem with the Caddy and needed to read the codes that it would obviously throw up, what charge, and did they have some time to pop it on for me same day.
Yes, bring it down or take the OBD reader, so I opted to fetch the car and hope it would go the one kilometre down to their workshop without bother.
So we hooked it all up when I got there, Cliff headed out to get their own work van MOT’d and some tyres fitted, so Steve the other mechanic helped me, fortunately, they were waiting for parts delivery on two vehicles on their lifts.

Steve crawling around

Cubby hole/glovebox held in place with a panel screw….. Yup the result of 21 years and 103k miles on the road. 
Stuff wears out and breaks.

The reading.

Steve Checking and cross referencing results, also a phone call to some specialist, and more Google searching. 

Next up, we opened the air intake just to see if the throttle body was maybe dirty, causing something, like the butterfly to get stuck open and send an error message to put the car into limp mode.

What we found.

No butterfly and no screws.

120 miles of my driving and it had never felt weird, hesitant, or made a scary noise.

So we checked the price of a new throttle body, only available on back order, and at £628.00 plus 20% VAT it was going to mean a car scrapped……

BUT…… if I could find a broken throttle body, I could rob the butterfly from it and fit it to the van. Searches by @westbay Tony revealed that the price of a used unit was a whole lot more palatable. 

So I stood chatting cars, bikes and trials riding with Cliff and Steve for another half hour or so and agreed that I would try source the parts and then fit them.

Feeling quite insecure because of the missing parts, but also a certain amount of F@CK1T I drove the van home and pulled it through to the back drive. I still had tinting to do to the glass. 

Next, I went indoors, made a coffee and started a WhatsApp chat with @zelandeth who once again engaged in a chat and explained stuff to me. 
I am so thankful for the times he has patiently answered the phone or text messages to talk me through stuff.
Conversation as per WhatsApp below. 

Grizz

Morning, 
My little VW Caddy van just stopped working a mile from home. Engine running and no acceleration on pressing accelerator pedal. Called my neighbor to tow me. 5 minutes later I tried throttle again and it was fine. 
Are they drive by wire? 
Guess I need to find out.

Zelandeth 

That's an odd one, yes it is fully fly by wire, so hopefully just a pedal sensor on the way out.

Grizz

Well…… 
The throttle boddy is missing its butterfly and screws. 
Somewhere something happened.

Zelandeth 

That can be disregarded - that throttle body is only used by the EGR system to generate manifold vacuum, and apparently they are well known for disintegrating so the plate was removed when that throttle body was replaced when I first got the van as it was acting up then.

There is no throttle in the traditional sense on a diesel, it's all done by controlling the fuelling.

So the components of that are not in the engine you'll be glad to know.

Grizz

Lololol. 

And……. 
You will know by now that I am no mechanic. 
The quote for a replacement on back order was £628 plus vat. 
I am suspecting it could be the actual throttle pedal whatever thingy.
And 13k miles later it still was not needed. 
I said to Steve the mechanic that I had done 120 miles without hassle, except the non start at the MOT station.

Zelandeth 

Yeah, the replacement cost £35 on eBay for a used one which I then removed the guts from as you've seen as it serves no real useful purpose.
Throttle position sensor error code definitely fits - it's a moving part that's got 120K miles and 22 years behind it so not a hugely unexpected item to be wearing out.
The original throttle had completely lost its marbles and was randomly closing on light throttle, causing loss of power and a proper James Bond smoke screen.

Grizz

I honestly have no clue. 
Other than losing the ability to fuel and rev up today, and being a smelly diesel, and then 5 minutes later being fine…… I have xero clue. 
But if the throttle regulator needs replacing that would be a good/great fix. 
You type fast like a teenager

Zelandeth 

Wouldn't surprise me if it was related to the non-start you had before, hard to say for certain but it seems suspicious that it's popped up very soon after that happened.

Grizz

And there is an intermittent immobiliser fault

Zelandeth 

Missed that, that could also explain it.  Though I've no real advice on that one as it's modern enough stuff I've no prior experience to call on.

Grizz 

Gotcha. 
Driving it, still is a pleasure. And I like it. 
Just glad you are prepared to share your 22 months, 13k miles of experience as I am clueless.

Zelandeth 

It's by a long shot the most modern vehicle I'd owned until the current Peugeot in terms of engine electronics etc, so there was definitely a learning process for me too!

First common rail diesel, first using fly by wire nonsense, and only the second vehicle made this side of 2000.

So that was last Tuesday.

Since then I have been occupied by various things that needed doing. 

Over the weekend @joem83 and I had a chat that ended up with his reply confirming more wear and tear theories.

Including this……

This is what problem I had lol.

At the top of the pedal in the car is the poteniometer thing, it's just hooked to a normal accelerator pedal. It's dead easy to replace. I replaced mine to no avail.

Ended up pulling the ecu, taking the pcb out and cleaning all the corrosion off with PCB cleaner and a toothbrush.
Put it back in, cleared code and it was fine.

I made a rain cover for the ecu out of a plastic folder thing & cleared all the drain holes.

So this is possibly the culprit.

So at the weekend, between all the rain I crawled into the drivers door-twill, did a bit of disassembling and found this……

Glovebox removed, cover in place.

Exposed. 

And the possible culprit. 

There certainly is some damp in there, so of course 101 other gremlins could be waiting to be flushed out.

We will see.

There you go, always interesting stuff happening here. 

.

[grizz]

Late yesterday afternoon while dry, I went and removed Relay 109 after some more reading about it and other reasons for the potential failures.

Seems Relay 109 is a really big culprit in the VW scene for letting people down, and causing intermittent break downs, limp modes and various issues, that then resolve once replaced.

So I pulled it and went down to Euro Carparts. 

Price quoted by the really helpful lady behind the counter, an eye watering £28.00

Knowing that a Chinese version would take up to 3 weeks and more to arrive, we looked at other parts suppliers, not much better news, then I checked my Amazon app and came up with a variety of prices.

I do not have Amazon Prime as I am not a very regular user, maybe 5 transactions a year, so £8.00 per month to save the £5.00 shipping fee makes not a lot of sense to me on a £10.00 part.
To the rescue comes @craigrk whose home runs on Amazon products, and Ienvy him for it, but not enough to justify his lifestyle.

So he placed the order on my behalf, hopefully delivered later today. 

Prices vary widely on here as well. 

Ordered.

While I was there, I also bought a tin of electrical contact cleaner for when I go in under the hood and under the dash later.

£5.39 hopefully well spent. 

Next job is to dress warmly, including shoes and then head out and see what I can find under the hood/bonnet.

Wish me luck. 

[grizz]

And another quick question.

Possibly for the likes of @joem83 and other VW buffs.

I noticed this bridge, which seems to be “aftermarket” but clearly has a role to play.

Any ideas? 

ONLINE EXAMPLE. Not bridged.

Thanks.

[Zelandeth]

Interesting...my guess is that it's making whatever that's powering permeant rather than ignition switched.  My first suspect would be something to do with the really shoddily installed aftermarket alarm system - which I thought I'd got rid of the spaghetti from!

That is a guess though - aside from a couple of dead bulbs and initially dealing with the faulty air intake throttle body which it had when I bought it and that one random check engine light, I've really not had reason to poke anything electrically.

If there's a relay that's well known for causing issues though that's not a bad place to start - nor indeed a bad spare to keep on hand in the car.

See also: The red double-relay used by Saab for the headlights on the 9000...keeping a spare on hand is pretty standard practice there!

[grizz]

55 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Interesting...my guess is that it's making whatever that's powering permeant rather than ignition switched.  My first suspect would be something to do with the really shoddily installed aftermarket alarm system - which I thought I'd got rid of the spaghetti from!

That is a guess though - aside from a couple of dead bulbs and initially dealing with the faulty air intake throttle body which it had when I bought it and that one random check engine light, I've really not had reason to poke anything electrically.

If there's a relay that's well known for causing issues though that's not a bad place to start - nor indeed a bad spare to keep on hand in the car.

See also: The red double-relay used by Saab for the headlights on the 9000...keeping a spare on hand is pretty standard practice there!

I really do dislike aftermarket (and maybe original immobilisers and alarms) anti theft stuff, invariably works at the outset, but it seems most fail at some point,for some reason nobody can quite establish later. 

I will always admire you for tracing and fixing the stuff you did in the dash originally, were it mine,you would have bought it, still non functioning.

Interestingly, the 109 was identified, named and shamed from the start, at the MOT station point already. 

And suggestions were to keep a spare. (I will retain the one removed, if intermittently failing, then it is a good spare option, isn’t it?) 

Like the SAAB problem, these are all fine, as long as they do not surprise you.

And in my case, by the 10th December, the company car will be gone, so I will be more reliant on this car, rather than the other two highly impractical (well, kinda) cars I have on the road, being a roofless Jeep and a Fossil fuel hungry 4.3l V6 van. 

So I just need to get it back to reliably boring, which I believe it is.

 

 

 

 

 

Feels like the South of England is sliding toward the West, into Wales 😉 

 

With me not getting much done yet.

 

And in the mean time.

 

It’s raining.

 

Loads

[grizz]

Amazon delivered last night.

So we have Relay 109 which is often blamed for issues.

Interestingly, half the address was not on the label, including house number and postcode and of course it was Craigs surname on the label.

Yet it made it here.

Pretty Pleased about that. 

Made in Germany.

Overnight, another response to a damp interior question from another guy that I had replied to, got another definitive answer.

It confirms in part my and @kevins thoughts about drying out the interior to possibly solve or prevent recurrent issues.

I will report from my iPhone later today as the company iPad and phone are being collected later today.

I will be so naked and vulnerable 😉 

 

[Zelandeth]

That would track well with what we've both seen.  It was doggedly reliable when in regular use, and I always tend to drive with the window at least cracked, so moisture build-up was unlikely to be an issue.  It was only when it had sat for a few weeks not being used daily that it seemingly got cranky.  Was parked under trees a lot of that time too, so not impossible the scuttle drains have got clogged with leaves.

I do remember the scuttle to screen seam looking crusty and showing evidence of having been sealed up before, so reckon you're on the right track.  I'd thought about pulling it all apart and re-sealing it, but as the plastic heads on the screws/clips/whatever VW used had already been rounded out by someone else it got bumped down the to do list and was eventually forgotten about as it seemed to be a purely cosmetic matter at the time.