dirk1978

So I bought a battery charger, charged the battery full, drove around for a bit and it's been fine. The wife drove it to work this morning and it cut out in the middle of the road. I went out with jump leads, jumped it, it went a bit further and stopped again. When it cuts out, the dashboard goes mental with ticking, beeping, airbag and ABS lights first. It's the alternator isn't it? Hard job on these? It's got aircon.

Thanks (everyone) I've got a charger turning up today so will let it charge and see what happens. It does sit for days on end and then only get driven a short distance so possibly never gets charged back up.

Sorry what do you mean? Pull the radio and interior light fuses before the battery is recharged, or after? And watch what? The current draw? What would pulling those fuses do? Cheers

Hi all, The battery on the GTI went flat when the wife did a night shift at the hospital the other day so I had to go and jump start it. It had been sat for a week or so though before that. After driving for half an hour I left the car for a day and it was flat again. The battery is about 3 or 4 years old but it wasn't a top brand. Something from Halfords I think. What's the order of elimination on these problems? Get a clamp multimeter first to check the power drain, then if excessive it's pulling fuses until it goes down? Or is it worth just ordering a new battery to see if it fixes it? I'm sure it can't be the alternator because once jump started it was fine while driving. Cheers.

Yeah the raven blue: https://goo.gl/photos/5m6WAwxRhvz1XSHy5

If you find them you can sell the passenger side to me

You're welcome to my spare one. It's raven blue obviously.

Anyone got one of these for sale / spare? It's the off side cover. Came back from a garage once without it. They claimed no knowledge of course. Weirdly I've got 1 spare of the other side.

It's more of a ponder. I'm not a collector or a big enthusiast. I like the car but I'm more about the practicalities. So if it's worth my while keeping it to increase in value I'll do that. And I don't know if the money I would spend on trying to improve it (rather than just servicing and maintenance) would be worth it in the long run, because I don't know if the mileage will always be an issue.

So my GTI has done 132,000. It's 17 years old. Old wisdom is that it's 10,000 a year average. Nowawadays it's more like 12,000. So my car is still a fair bit below the average. But it's got too many miles to be collectable. What are my options? If I sell the car it'll be devaluing it compared to cars with maybe 50,000 less on but haven't gone over the magic 100k watermark in people's minds. But if I keep it and keep spending money to keep it working well, or improve it towards factory, is it worth doing that? Will it ever be worth it? Or when you get to 130k ish, will it always be a dead duck, even if the steering and suspension is replaced, the interior is perfect, the bodywork has no rust, and the engine has been rebuilt?

I was getting confused and my roofbox is the Thule Pacific 200 which is 410L https://www.thule.com/en/be/cargo-carrier/car-top-carrier/thule-pacific-m-_-631215 Probably won't be that different to the silver one above. That's got a maximum load of 50KG anyway. The roof box is 13 KG and the wing bars weigh almost nothing. I think I'd be OK with 37 KG in the box.

Thanks but I've already got most of the bits. Good finds. Thanks for the info. Looks about a metre to me. I might try the 500L roof box for a laugh.

Does anyone know the measurement between the feet or bars on the roof racks on Lupos? I've already got various bike racks and a 500L roof box and some 961 wing bars (apparently the right ones for Lupos?) but I need to get a foot pack and fitting kit. Just wondering if my Thule 500L box and bike carriers will fit.

Resurrecting this thread. Is it fairly safe to run without a tray for a week or so? Judging by the replies here some people run without them anyway? Isn't the aluminium sump a bit exposed?

I've put oil back in and a guy offered to tap it for me but it seems a waste to drive it there with new oil, drain it, tap it, new oil and it may need the sump off anyway. It isn't leaking now with oil in so I'll leave it to dry properly overnight and see what the leak is like in the morning then just book it in somewhere to helicoil it. Cheers for the help.