Tango91

Any idea what caused the valve to get all chewed up? Any marks on the #2 piston?

Hi. I can't get the boot of my 2001 Arosa S open. The central locking won't unlock it it although it does make straining motor noises for a second or two when the car is locked or unlocked. Similarly, I can't get the key to rotate properly in the lock, and any rotation that does happen doesn't seen to do anything. I've not been able to use the key in the boot since I've owned the car though, so that's not new. The actual boot handle it self doesn't have much resistance to movement, it moves smoothly and springs closed when I let go, but it doesn't actually feel as though it's connected to anything mechanically. I can't remember what it felt like before, it might have always been like that. I've read that some of the VAG boot locking mechanisms are prone to jamming and need cleaning and lubricating periodically, but to do this I presumably need to get the bugger open. Anyone got any ideas? Would it be worthwhile to pull the interior plastic panel off of the boot from the inside of the car? Ta EDIT: got the interior trim off and had a poke about, the problem did indeed seem to be that parts of the mechanism were sticking enough to prevent them from springing back to where they should be. Also the white electronic actuator seems to be completely dead now, so until I manage to track down a replacement I've unhooked it from the manual locking mechanism.

Where's the fun in that?

I was about to say "I feel your pain" with regards to the window switches, but your fix sounds great. When my driver's side switch/circuit went for the Nth time I took it to my father and we basically amputated the entire crappy jamming 'safety' circuit that VW so kindly provided, and replaced it with some big ol' relays. Those 4 little springy discs inside the switch are a PITA though, it took forever to get the damn things just right.

Alternative title: the equally catchy "do it yourself light emitting diode chip on board daytime running lights". So, I wanted some nice daytime running lights for the front of my '99 Arosa. I did NOT, however, want to shell out upwards of £60 for a kit, plus I like to bugger about with stuff like this. I had a Google, did some reading, and [these] seemed to be just what I was looking for in a daytime running light. Low power consumption, aluminium body, insanely bright and reasonably priced. A year or so ago I used the older surface-mounted LED boards for this type of thing, my last project was running lights for my Suzuki Bandit, but these things are just in a different league in terms of material quality and brightness. I'm pleased with the result but pictures don't do these lights justice: I started by experimenting with mounting the lights in/on the stock 'honeycomb' infills... that didn't go so well. On a completely unrelated note, if anyone has any unmolested Mk2 infills kicking around the garage then I'd like to buy you a beer... Anyway. For the infills the lights are mounted on here, I used one of the finest sources of tough plastic you can find today: £2 chopping boards from Wilko's. (no, really). They're pretty flexible, have a texture that more or less matches plastic bumpers and they're pretty tough while being easy to work with with hand tools. With some flat black Plasti-Kote enamel paint on them they look pretty good, I think. When I get around to washing the rest of the car they might even match the plastic trim. I'll be replacing the fugly rusted screws asap. The LED lights came with some beastly 3M foam tape that would probably just pull the bumper off if you tried to pull them off hard enough, but I supplemented this by running a pair of zip ties around both ends of the lights. This also provides strain relief for the slightly wimpy wires that they come with. I cut them short and put on some insulated spade connectors behind the panels with some more manly wires. I would have just soldered the wires directly but I want these to be easily removable in case my MOT tester is having a bad day next time around. Wiring Parts list: 2x 6.8" COB LED lights from here1x 12v 30A 4-pin relay, available here1x inline mini blade fuse holder & 15A fuse1x 12v illuminated rocker switch, SPSTWire, lots of wire, some rated for >12wMale and female spade connectors2x ring connectors for the battery terminal boltsMetric d***ton of cable ties & shrink wrap tubingI pulled three (blue) wires for the switch through the rubber grommet in the bulkhead that the main loom runs through, and after breaking my own arms I was able to pull them into the passenger footwell, and from there, feed them through the holes for the blanking plates below the heater controls. The switch has 3 terminals: ground, +12v and Accessory. Obviously, +12v should be connected to the positive terminal of the battery, via a fuse. Accessory can be considered the 'ouput' from the switch and runs to the control circuit on the relay. I didn't see anywhere obvious to ground it under the centre console, so I ran three wires through the bulkhead and just wired it with the other negative parts of the circuit to the negative battery terminal with a large ring connector. The relay is wired thusly: the control circuit takes the (positive) input from the switch, and is also grounded. The load circuit takes +12v from the battery via the fuse and is wired to both LED lights in parallel. The LED lights are grounded directly to the negative terminal of the battery, for simplicity's sake. Once I'd gotten all the wire lengths right and the whole lot soldered and crimped together I went to town with the shrink wrap, electrical tape and zip ties, and even some bicycle inner tube for the relay. It's not pretty but it could've looked a hell of a lot worse and I'm confident that none of the wires will rub through and short: NB: anywhere you see electrical tape is just some extra insurance against the wires rubbing through, all the joints are shrink-wrapped. I'm sure these lights'll go some way to making sure dear old grandma notices me before she pulls her 3.5k mile beige Vauxhall out of that side turning on her way to buy cat food. Maybe they'll damage her retinas enough to finally get her off the road. As an added bonus, once it gets dark, I look forward to getting my own back on the d***heads in their BMWs who enjoy blinding you with their full beams. I hope you guys like the way this turned out and if anyone wants more information or a badly drawn circuit diagram, let me know. Apologies if none of this makes sense, I've been awake for a looong time.

Thanks for the reply, I'll have a look round Halfords and a search online. Would you happen to know the model of the head units fitted to Arosas as in the picture above? I've searched but come up blank The little booklet that comes with the car manual simply says 'Radio Mod Arosa' and googling this gets me precisely nowhere. I've subsequently read that in theory the radio should talk to the car's ECU and unlock itself, unless it gets moved to a different vehicle. Here's hoping! Edit: I think I found the VWVortex thread: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4988871-DIY-quot-JB-Mod-quot-Auxiliary-iPod-Input-to-OEM-Head-Unit-via-Tape-Deck-Hack

Ah, I'd forgotten these existed, I think I have one in a drawer somewhere. I guess it'll do as a stopgap, thanks!

Hi all, My Arosa has a radio that looks like this (apologies for huge picture): It's ok but I'd like to have an 3.5mm auxiliary input for my iPod/phone/whatever. I could buy an aftermarket head unit but that's a fairly expensive option and I'd like to keep this cheap if possible. I know this model of radio can accept a cd-changer and that it's possible to wire an aux-input into this. The trouble is that I haven't been able to find a definitive answer as to the kind of adaptor that is required and I don't want to go fishing around behind the dash if I can help it, because the previous owners were nice enough to not write the radio code on the card in the car's paperwork folder. Does anyone have any information on the kind of adaptor I should be looking for, or whether it would be easier to go and pick up a used head unit with a front mounted aux input? Thanks, Tango.

Hi All, just picked up my first Arosa and I love it! It came with a driver side window that wouldn't move at all, having previously been sticking halfway. My father and I tried a bunch of things I've seen suggested on various forums, including here, greased the runners, oiled the cables, greased the worm gear, etc, nothing presented a permanent solution, the window would work ok, but once it met any resistance it would just refuse to go any further. Switchgear was ok. After a while we had it so that it would move, but only up or down one step at a time, and you had to taker your finger off the button and press it again to get it to move another half an inch. Then it just stopped again and the relay would just click, as before, no movement. Having fished the glass out of the door and taken the mechanism back off, we tried something new. Turns out the problem was in the motor. The contacts were A-OK but there was a bunch of carbon dust in and around there and, importantly, the plastic/brass ring that the motor speed sensors pick up on. Pulled the shaft including the windings out of the gearbox and pulley housing, removed the motor casing, and blasted everything out with an air line. Greased the shaft ends up, put it back together and it works perfectly! I guess the dust was causing shorts or making the electronics think the window had jammed or something, thus preventing movement for safety. Anyway, just thought I'd share in case anyone has had a similar problem but not been able to fix theirs, I don't think I've seen this solution posted anywhere. Apologies if it was common knowledge. Love my new '01 Arosa S 1.0, love the forums! Thanks, Tango