Magnet

Many thanks Steve for clarifying this for the benefit of others. Hello Tony, I’m not sure what you now want to believe, but you have a battery of dubious origins, and I believe until you replace it with a reputable branded one, and get it coded to the car, you stand little chance of getting anywhere with this, but it must be your choice. From my side, and apologies if this appears critical, but you seem to be bombarding us with unnecessary detail. Anyway, back to your battery and charging check:- A couple of observations - the charging voltage measured at 13.8v at best, is below par, and I would be expecting around 14.5 volts. I’m not sure what he told you about CCA measurements, but surely Cold Cranking Current would be measured in what it is - amps. not volts. If you are going to decide on fitting a reputable branded battery, you won’t go far wrong with a correct-for-car Exide from Tayna Batteries. Give them your reg. no., and they will advise on the correct one. You will need to further investigate the alternator output.

Apologies Miley, Missed the ‘front’ bit, and I went on to talk about the rear bashes and saddles. Sorry-senior moment!

Hello Miley, First problem first:- what is the (cleaned up sufficiently to measure) dia. of your ARB? Believe it could be either 18mm or 21mm. Getting old ones out? Um! - splined fixings! - you will end up having to drill them out, and refit the new ones using suitable bolts and nuts. Dependent on what size your bar is, I might have a new and unused ‘bought the wrong size’ set here. I will have to check what diameter bar this set is for. Kind regards, Gareth.

CAB Matty - as soon as possible.

Thanks Tony, There’s an awful lot of information there that we don’t need, but…. You bought the latest battery because it was the cheapest you could get at the time-? Did you get it on-line or locally. It’s likely the battery should have been coded to the car, but not absolutely certain of that for your age car. Hopefully we will get some more experienced opinion on that. If it does need coding, then failure to code it can ( I believe) lead to over- charging, since the car will treat it as if it’s still the old one. Over charging can result in toasting the battery. Pulling terminals off should be totally unnecessary and should not be done. Let us know how you get on Tony, and give us an answer as to why you bought the brand you have now. Good batteries are an investment.

Hello Richard, Can we take it you aren’t including discs and pads in your quest to find secondhand parts? Worth trying Parts in Motion for these - there are many more on-line factors, but I’ve always had good service at competitive prices from this company. Kind regards, Gareth.

Or indeed a broken-near-end spring, which maybe difficult to see without close examination. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Tony, With any persisting electrical issue, it’s always worth getting the battery efficiency measured to establish whether it’s a contributory cause or not. Perhaps you could let us know whether you acquired the car with that battery, or if you bought it during your (how long?) ownership. Way forward:- take the car to an Halfords store and ask them to check the battery’s efficiency for you. Get the alternator output checked at the same time. If the battery is found to be sub standard, you may want to come back to us, before you buy a replacement from Halfords. My take on it, for what it’s worth:- It wouldn’t surprise me that the battery you have is ‘reconditioned reject’ bought because it was cheap. Please come back with the outcome - as Cliff says.

Hello Tony, Saying it as I see it, I don’t have any interest in the battery at the moment - and certainly no intention of clicking on the link - other than to say it looks like a spurious brand to me. What I am interested in, and I’m not sure why you aren’t telling us! :- what symptoms is the car is suffering from? Typed while Cliff was responding. Sorry Cliff, I’ll leave this one to you to try to get to the bottom of. Bit odd?

Hello Tony, I think you are getting your amps and milli-amps in a twist. If you genuinely have a ‘parasitic drain’ of 0.06mA, you don’t have a parasitic drain! Interpreting your meter reading:- your meter is reading 0.06 of an amp, which equals 60mA. Does a drain of 60mA point to an issue? No - there or there abouts normal in my book. If you have say a 60Ah capacity battery, and left the car unattended, it would theoretically take around 42 days to drain the battery. Apologies, but what I’m missing here is what are you considering is wrong, and what are the symptoms?

Hello Dave, Tank capacity is 54 litres by what I understand, so you a work out how much it will cost to fill the tank - based on the cost/ltr. in your area for the fuel brand you choose. Hopefully you will get responses to question (2) which will allow you to work out the answer to question (3). Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Matty, Arrange a visit to your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau, and ask their advice on how to make an official written complaint to the selling dealer. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello, whoever you are, Can you please take a little bit of your time to complete your profile properly. Thank you.

Hello David, Fingers crossed all will be well. Perhaps you can update us once the job has been finished. Kind regards, Gareth.

You do seem to be rather ‘fixated’ on this gearbox issue, when there are far more things that can, and do, go wrong despite the proof of FSH. Rather surprised that the car has a service book as posed to be recorded on the VAG ( International I guess) computer service record. That would be my main chasing point. Personally I cannot add to what I said in yesterday’s post in terms of gearbox service. They are going to do it and warrant it, so….? Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks Denis, but you said Kms. in your original post.

Hello both, The OP joined, posted on the same day, and never returned to the forum after that. You could try sending him a PM in the hope that he retains the same e-mail address. Please let us know if you have a response. Kind regards, Gareth.

Are we considering just over 100K miles (170kms) high, for an 8 year old vehicle? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Derek, I’m pretty certain you are stuck with this, but it has been subject to another thread, so well worth doing a search on here for ‘pre sense’. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Joe, Welcome and thanks for joining. It’s difficult to answer your question without knowledge of the mileage this 9 year old car has covered - we take it you know that. As I see it:- unless this car has covered a galaxial mileage, then I don’t see an issue. After all, the seller (direct importer?) has promised to carry out your gearbox oil change and offer a guarantee, so…? My ‘concerns’ would be:- have you already had sight of the service history, have you actually viewed the car, is the seller going to give you a receipt for the work they intend to do pre-purchase, and do they have the facility to input that data ( via. the VIN) onto the VAG on-line service history system? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello David, To my logic, the suffix A denotes an earlier version of your later B, so possibly from a pre 2009. Significance?? If it remanufactured as opposed to just ‘secondhand’, then the remanufacturer will/ should have the experience to answer any questions about specific differences. Have you asked, and have you had a reply? Kind regards, Gareth.

Or you can knock the door Ian if anything goes wrong!

Hello Wendy, Welcome, and sorry to hear of your issue. This just isn’t acceptable. Have you tried a search on here for ‘pre sense’? I’m sure there is a thread going on it. If it were mine, I would be threatening ( in writing) to reject the vehicle. Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks Ian, Please come back when you believe you have narrowed it down to a more specific location. Differential noise can usually be made to alter by assessing whether the noise changes on smooth acceleration and decelerating. Kind regards, Gareth. p.s. please do not assume that a private purchase results in no comebacks. The vehicle must still be as described. That is why sellers now simply state ‘ Starts, stops, drives.’

Of course you are both right, and on reflection, the £130 charged wasn’t too bad. It’s just my mind would have been set on the very low cost resolution of a squirt of WD40 and a light tap on the offender. It’s a Welsh thing of short arms and deep pockets! Glad it’s fixed, and thanks for returning me to the true scene of economics? Kind regards, Gareth.