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Srs hell could this be the end please help


lindylou
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These are my two babies x

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13 hours ago, lindylou said:

It was but the hardest thing is trying to diagnose where the fault is in the first place and that’s where everybody’s advice has really helped big time 😁x

Well done on fixing it.

Don't use the dealers really. Most of the wisdom on Lupo's has disappeared out of VW unfortunately.

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 Thanks couldn’t have done it without you Actually you are right skezza cos main dealer said to me they don’t  really have any way of fixing lupos any more their ecu tech is unable to give an in depth diagnosis and partly because they don’t make the parts now!! 😢

8 hours ago, Skezza said:

Well done on fixing it.

Don't use the dealers really. Most of the wisdom on Lupo's has disappeared out of VW unfortunately

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5 hours ago, Rich said:

Screw car pics, hands on Lupo girly......

Thanks rich I am gonna keep this baby on the road!!😁💖

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14 hours ago, lindylou said:

 Thanks couldn’t have done it without you Actually you are right skezza cos main dealer said to me they don’t  really have any way of fixing lupos any more their ecu tech is unable to give an in depth diagnosis and partly because they don’t make the parts now!! 😢

The Lupo is now considered an old car, despite it's relative modernness.... sure enough VW are slowly phasing out the replacement parts and then it will become a bit of a lottery. Luckily there remains a lot of spares and shared parts and stuff. I doubt they'll ever get to the point of total obscurity, but who knows? 

Much like the Polo's and Golf's of previous eras, has a bit of a cult following and the most knowledge you'll ever find is shared amongst members on here. I would back this forum to diagnose almost any issue, be it engine, electrical, ECU etc, before a main dealer. I'd be very doubtful there's an issue on a Lupo that hasn't been experienced by someone like @Rich, @mk2, @mattarosa, myself and various others.

I said clock spring because ultimately, I also had a clock spring fail on me years ago and after dissembling the system, somewhat noticed a poor(ish) design. You go from experience. What surprises me is that clock springs are almost always considered the weak part in the 'drivers side' airbag system, because it's a moving part.... so regardless of my experience, common sense from any dealer should prevail? Even a dealer with no knowledge of the car but with scanned codes should have been able to at least start with that as their basis...

Just a note: Clock spring, slip ring, squib, spiral cable, coil spring, all appear to be interchangeable names for what is essentially, a clock spring (correct name imo).

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Here's a pic of the really fragile internals (not a lupo one, but you get the idea).

Basically a ribbon circuit that allows limited axial movement between moving steering wheel and stationary steering column. It relies on the whole thing being slack, so the ribbons can slide over each other. One end connected to the outside, other to the middle. Turn one way winds up the 'coil', turn the other unwinds. They break if you remove the steering wheel, turn the clock spring to a new position, then reassemble. They are designed for only 3 whole turns or there abouts. But they absolutely guarantee a connection to the safety critical airbag, all of the time. Sliding contacts can't provide a 100% connection.

I managed to use the geeky word "axial" today. I'm sure @Rich will have something to say about that :)

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@mk2 - Great explanation, but the real design flaw in the Lupo one is that the length of the ribbon is so limited. You have at most a quarter of turn excess before you are straining those very fragile contacts, whereas other vehicles (including other VAG cars) have a significant amount of excess. Even the Audi ones have multiple turns extra which can really allow for some monumental screw ups..... not that I'm recommending it. 

If the clock spring is centralised by the factory, then simply, the only time is 'de-centralised' is when it's off the car and the chances of it failing mostly come down to the length and odds are a Lupo one will fail unless very close to the centre. Ultimately, no human can guarantee that a coiled ribbon cable is totally centralised. Here's a great video on YouTube that shows how a machine does it.

At best, you can roughly follow that process..... spin all the way till you feel resistance, spin all the way to the other end till you feel resistance, then essentially halve that number and add the number of spins back in. That would work very well so long as the ribbon cable inside is nice and long and has enough free cable to survive an offset of a few degrees. Going back to the problem, the Lupo's doesn't, so you have to be absolutely triple sure that you're almost perfectly centre. There is actually a marking on the column itself to help you align your clock spring, but this is again assuming you already know your spring is centralised to begin with. 

Good thing a Lupo clock spring is only about £15 these days. The Audi ones are a lot more expensive.

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Hi guys my garage (who I always use because they know I know what’s what with cars .. even though I’m a girl!!  ) was super impressed with my clock spring change and luppy passed her mot today 🍾🥂🥰💪 adding to your comments at least most polo parts fit lupos and the Haynes manual for polo is the nearest you can get to a lupo so hopefully there will still be old parts available 🤞one of the main issues I have found after her 19 years is the switches all giving up and so far I have replaced the instrument light switch the headlight switch the heater switch and the cigarette lighter/ power ashtray . I am putting photos of her on as a celebration I know she is just a 1 litre but has only done 71000 miles and the engine is still awesome. She also has the first design yellow seats and has no rust x

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Mk2 the old ones had coloured seats to match the outside paint colour so there were red ones and blue ones same interior as mine but haven’t seen any of those for years and years wheels were on there when I bought car they are ripspeed alloys with the wider tyre which does look good x

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47 minutes ago, Rich said:

Less car, more something else...

The early pastel ones were cool.

Pastel ones? Oh not sure I’ve seen that x any pictures x are they the follow on seat design I think that they changed it in 2001?

Edited by lindylou
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9 minutes ago, Skezza said:

Those wheels make me happy. Even if they are multifits. They're actually not bad looking :D

😁I think they are Halfords own make ripspeed 

Edited by lindylou
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These were the little wheels that came as standard x

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Nice Lupo! We nearly bought a yellow one but fell in love with the green matching seats on this one. The wheels that came on ours are multi fit too. I was surprised to see that.

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Edited by oprn
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9 hours ago, oprn said:

Nice Lupo! We nearly bought a yellow one but fell in love with the green matching seats on this one. The wheels that came on ours are multi fit too. I was surprised to see that.

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Yes rpon  these are the next design seats which I think rich was talking about and I think they were brought in in 2003 ... I had totally forgotten about the lime green lupos ! Thanks for sharing what year is your lupo? And can you put on some more pictures ❤️

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I see you found my thread so I will just put one here there are a number of pictures there. Let me see... With his winter wellies on parked by a defunct town site close to home here.

bullwark 1.jpg

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@oprn, I notice you have a small blemish to your driver's seat base... otherwise your car is immaculate! One of my cars had much worse and i thought the only option was either a new interior, new seat or completely reupholster it with the closest match cloth that i could source. Then I had an idea where I thought "why not find someone in Germany with a left hand drive car. Get them to dismantle their passenger seat by simply unclipping the material, send it over to me as a small cloth parcel, then i could strip and rebuild mine to keep it 100% original and in near mint condition." I did, perfect match and it didn't cost me that much. Best thing is passenger seats in small cars hardly get used, as they are mostly used as commuter machines. Cloth like new! Much cheaper and easier than sending over a complete seat.

using google translate and this web site works... Germans are generally a helpful lot especially if you tell them where you are and that you're restoring a car :)

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-lupo-schlachtfest/k0

schlachtfest literally means "destruction party", but actually means "breaking" or "dismantling" for parts.

 

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Yes this seat had a cigarette burn on it from the previous owner otherwise you would hardly know the seat was sat in.. Good idea I shall follow that up.

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