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Thanks. I appreciate the advice. A lot of my wanting to throw money at is that I don't know how else to diagnose things. This is probably a stupid question, but do I need to worry about damaging my multimeter when I try to measure 50+ amps? I'm confused about how the plugs could be drawing too much power; shouldn't that be determined by their resistance?
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Nov 14, 2011 03:57
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Opensourcepirate posted:This is probably a stupid question, but do I need to worry about damaging my multimeter when I try to measure 50+ amps? Not a stupid question at all, but the answer is simple: you need to see if your multimeter is rated for that amount of current or not. I don't know what you have, so I can't tell you for sure. A clamp style is often easiest if you can isolate a run of the wire (or make a wire extension for the fuse). Opensourcepirate posted:I'm confused about how the plugs could be drawing too much power; shouldn't that be determined by their resistance? Not really. Measuring resistance in a static state is not going to show you what they are doing in operation. You may be getting a huge amount of inrush current when they are very cold which is blowing your fuse (resistance typically increases with heat, and lowers the amp draw). You might be partially or dead shorting a connector when they start to warm up. You may have low voltage to one due to a poor connection, which will increase its current draw. I'm sure you get the idea: amperage is a live reading. It shows you what is really happening when the circuit is in operation, rather than testing one single component and calculating what it SHOULD be doing based on that reading. Also, I should mention that cruddy terminals for the fuse, relay, or plugs themselves will do this. Make sure they are all clean before calling a part bad. Protect them with dielectric grease to keep them from getting cruddy.
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Nov 14, 2011 04:28
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Motronic posted:If there are ANY good parts on it that is UNREASONABLY LOW. $400-500 is what you should be expecting from a scrap yard that will be coming to you to pick it up. Unfortunately, in Boston, a wrecker will pay $300 for a _running_ car. It doesn't hurt to call around, but that's what I've seen.
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Nov 14, 2011 05:04
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Just ordered a pair of Silverstar Ultras to replace my low beam bulbs. I'm pretty confident in my ability to swap a bulb, but there's a vent on the passenger side that I need to remove to get to the fixture (top right picture). Any suggestions on how to do this? Can I just pry that part of the vent out?
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Nov 14, 2011 23:25
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Blakkout posted:Just ordered a pair of Silverstar Ultras to replace my low beam bulbs. I'm pretty confident in my ability to swap a bulb, but there's a vent on the passenger side that I need to remove to get to the fixture (top right picture). Any suggestions on how to do this? Can I just pry that part of the vent out? Might help if you told us what the car is.
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Nov 15, 2011 13:33
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warcake posted:Might help if you told us what the car is. Looks like a B6/B7 S4 to me. And yes, you do need to remove the air box. And the washer fluid reservoir to change the other side. Are you asking HOW to do this? The pictures you provided show the screws you need to remove (the two phillips heads closer to the center of the car). And yes, it just pulls out of the air pickup coming out of the passenger's side fender. Have fun putting it back in and getting it to stay. It's a horrible setup. Motronic fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Nov 15, 2011 |
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Nov 15, 2011 14:12
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Yeah, it's a B6. I mostly just wasn't sure whether that middle part of the vent would come free after I took those screws out of the piece that touches the front. Clearly they didn't want to make it too easy to replace a dead bulb. I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes. Thanks.
Blakkout fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Nov 15, 2011 |
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Nov 15, 2011 15:13
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Heya, to the best of my knowledge I've got an A4 B6. VIN: WAUJT68E12A098688 I've got a wiper issue. The other day, driving around, I noticed that my passenger wiper was a little bit different than the driver's one. Pictures:     Bad wiper on the left of all pictures, except the last one, of course. So I called the dealership and here it's important to notice that I'm in Brazil, told them about my problem and asked for a replacement to the broken bits. Waited a week and got a call back telling me that the piece was here. The price? 152 dollars. Yeah, really. And that's not even for a brand (or a pair of them!) new complete wiper arm. Just the little plastic clip and that other "aerodynamic" plastic piece that goes before the actual wiper rubber. So I figure that my wiper arms, the mechanical part, are pretty much ok and what I need are some compatible aftermarket wiper blades or whatever they're called, to mount them onto my wiper arms and have it wipe off the rain on my windscreen. Under the wiper blade It's written Valeo P631 but I haven't got much luck with that code. Anyway, if anyone can recommend me something to attach to my wipers that will work without any kind of adaptation, just work straight out of the box on my car model, I would be immensely grateful. Thanks a bunch!
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Nov 17, 2011 00:36
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FWIW I had an '82 Audi that only had a "wing" like that on the drivers wiper arm. As far as I know it left the factory like that.
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Nov 17, 2011 05:39
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Thumposaurus posted:FWIW I had an '82 Audi that only had a "wing" like that on the drivers wiper arm. As far as I know it left the factory like that. More 80s cars needed this. I know I've hit 100 when the wiper arms start to lift off the windshield in my 944.
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Nov 17, 2011 14:20
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Thumposaurus posted:FWIW I had an '82 Audi that only had a "wing" like that on the drivers wiper arm. As far as I know it left the factory like that. My 04 gli had the wing on the driver's side wiper arm. So I'm currently driving an '11 Golf Tdi, I'm still trying to track down all the different springs that the golf can come with, I know there are at least 4 different springs. Gti, golf tdi and standard golf. There are also sport springs, if I want to bring the car down around 1" to 1.5", just enough to close the wheel gap, anyone know which spring I should go with? Not really looking to go with a heavy aftermarket spring, was looking mainly at the VW sport springs as the car is in warranty for the next 7 years and we all know how much fun VW is to deal with when a warranty item crops up.
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Nov 17, 2011 16:21
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Speaking of GLIs has anyone driven or had a look at the new 2012 version? Where I live in Canada at least it approaches the same price as the 2012 Golf TDI so I'm wondering which the better deal is. The GTI is considerably more expensive by comparison. It seems the GLI has all the features the GTI has only in sedan form but still it comes out cheaper somehow. I'm just wondering where the money is coming from, what was sacrificed to make it this cheap. Looking at the GLI's list of features it seems to have all the same stuff you'd expect: soft touch interior, 2.0L TFSI engine, independent rear suspension even a premium audio system with touchscreen and everything. DerDestroyer fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Nov 17, 2011 |
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Nov 17, 2011 19:19
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Looks like GLIs don't get the multifunction steering wheel, the HID headlights (that turn with the steering wheel!) and no rear wiper. And I believe that the interior has less of the soft touch parts, lesser quality on some of the materials and less sound dampening on the car overall. Its built in Mexico rather than Germany so that's part of the cost savings as well.
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Nov 18, 2011 05:40
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I don't think any Jettas have a rear wiper.
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Nov 19, 2011 00:21
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598 posts since I last visited this thread... that must be good news for my Jetta. Now... I need an oil pan, for a 2002 Jetts GLX. The drain is wore and leaks a little around the plug. My oil change place usually just seals around it with something... (Pyrex? that isn't right I'm sure because that is glass cooking ware)... anyway they pretty much told me to just get a new oil pan becuase it gets harder and harder to patch each time and they are sick of doing it basically... which I understand. Can they just re-thread it? They didn't mention this as an option so maybe they don't want to do that. $200 for a new oil pan? I'll probably just call around to some junk yards. Advice? Thanks. VVVV That is a great idea I have no idea why I didn't think of... also wondering why my oil change guys didn't think of this... FrankeeFrankFrank fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Nov 24, 2011 |
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Nov 23, 2011 15:31
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I'd get a new crush washer first and see if that works. I can't tell you many oil leaks I've fixed on various cars with just a new washer on the plug.
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Nov 23, 2011 23:50
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Idle bitching post: On Wed morning, my S4 (the one I bought new on 11/4, still under 1500 miles) wouldn't start. By Thursday I could drive it for an hour, park it and leave it on a 2A trickle charger for six hours, and it still wouldn't start. This seems like a fairly obvious case of bad battery for me, but my dealer insisted on charging the battery and then analyzing it. Irritating result: over Thanksgiving, instead of oohing and aaahing over my new S4, my family got to be puzzled by my loaner Passat. My nephews, who rely on their uncle to show them the ways of driving too fast, were quite disappointed. I guess I shouldn't be too pissed at the dealer, since they did give me a loaner, but in six years my WRX never missed a beat, so it's pretty irritating that the S4 didn't make it three weeks.
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Nov 27, 2011 03:39
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Idle bitching post: On Wed morning, my S4 (the one I bought new on 11/4, still under 1500 miles) wouldn't start. By Thursday I could drive it for an hour, park it and leave it on a 2A trickle charger for six hours, and it still wouldn't start. This seems like a fairly obvious case of bad battery for me, but my dealer insisted on charging the battery and then analyzing it. Irritating result: over Thanksgiving, instead of oohing and aaahing over my new S4, my family got to be puzzled by my loaner Passat. My nephews, who rely on their uncle to show them the ways of driving too fast, were quite disappointed. I guess I shouldn't be too pissed at the dealer, since they did give me a loaner, but in six years my WRX never missed a beat, so it's pretty irritating that the S4 didn't make it three weeks. That's sloppy as hell, sorry to hear that. Which dealer did you get it from, Rochester Hills or Ann Arbor? (Assuming that you are in still in Michigan)
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Nov 27, 2011 09:12
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Zorak of Michigan posted:so it's pretty irritating that the S4 didn't make it three weeks. They replaced the entire transmission in mine (including sport differential) at 1200 miles. It was fun waiting for that to be shipped from germany.
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Nov 27, 2011 17:04
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movax posted:That's sloppy as hell, sorry to hear that. Which dealer did you get it from, Rochester Hills or Ann Arbor? (Assuming that you are in still in Michigan) Howard Cooper in Ann Arbor.
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Nov 27, 2011 18:54
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Idle bitching post: On Wed morning, my S4 (the one I bought new on 11/4, still under 1500 miles) wouldn't start. By Thursday I could drive it for an hour, park it and leave it on a 2A trickle charger for six hours, and it still wouldn't start. This seems like a fairly obvious case of bad battery for me, but my dealer insisted on charging the battery and then analyzing it. Irritating result: over Thanksgiving, instead of oohing and aaahing over my new S4, my family got to be puzzled by my loaner Passat. My nephews, who rely on their uncle to show them the ways of driving too fast, were quite disappointed. I guess I shouldn't be too pissed at the dealer, since they did give me a loaner, but in six years my WRX never missed a beat, so it's pretty irritating that the S4 didn't make it three weeks. If it was just a battery problem I don't think your dealer would need to keep the car there for a while and give you a loaner. I still can't believe a brand new 60k+ car has all these problems out of the box. Kinda makes you wanna say "gently caress it" and get a Lexus.
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Nov 28, 2011 05:57
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God no, all the Lexus/Acura's look cheap for what you paid. Hell, the Lexus IS models used to have almost the same instrument cluster as the Civics.
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Nov 28, 2011 06:41
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DerDestroyer posted:If it was just a battery problem I don't think your dealer would need to keep the car there for a while and give you a loaner. The problem started the day before the holiday, when everyone wants their oil changed before they drive to Grandma's house. I brought the car in for service the day after Thanksgiving, when they were short staffed. As far as I know, they kept the car because they haven't had time to properly look into it. Lexus is dead to me since they don't offer a manual. The Acura TL tempted me, but it was just too ugly to be taken seriously.
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Nov 28, 2011 07:20
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Bovril Delight posted:God no, all the Lexus/Acura's look cheap for what you paid. Hell, the Lexus IS models used to have almost the same instrument cluster as the Civics. Zorak of Michigan posted:Lexus is dead to me since they don't offer a manual. The Acura TL tempted me, but it was just too ugly to be taken seriously. Yeah I know how you guys feel about that and you'll have no argument from me there. It's just unfortunate that for all the talk of prestige, quality and engineering excellence they can't make the drat cars run properly. The best part is they got us by the balls because in spite of these issues we'll still own the cars because the alternatives are either boring or just not as fun to drive. It's like Audi, BMW and Merc decided they'd copy Alfa Romeo's business model.
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Nov 28, 2011 09:16
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This is from a few pages back but I somehow deleted this thread from my bookmarks and never replied. I was then wondering what to do with my trusty old Jetta Trek and I really appreciate the advice you guys gave me. I ended up selling it for almost nothing to a coworker/friend of mine for next to nothing because we're boys and he was a mechanic back in Nairobi (so I don't feel bad about taking money for a car that's a few miles from a meltdown - this dude can fix anything on the cheap). But anyway to the half-dozen folks who replied to me I'd like to thank you, I'm shopping for a new VW so I'll be back in this thread soon enough.
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Nov 28, 2011 09:24
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Bovril Delight posted:Hell, the Lexus IS models used to have almost the same instrument cluster as the Civics. I'd need to see some picture support on this. Sounds like you're just throwing out random cars. The IS never had a cluster anywhere remotely approaching the design as that of any Civic, as far as I know. But to go through that trouble with a battery on a brand new S4? That would be the cause of me pounding on some eardrums... from the dealer to Audi's regional management.
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Nov 28, 2011 11:47
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EVERYWHERE 
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meatpimp posted:I'd need to see some picture support on this. Sounds like you're just throwing out random cars. The IS never had a cluster anywhere remotely approaching the design as that of any Civic, as far as I know. The cheapness of the first-gen IS interior is appalling. He's being hyperbolic, but not by much. Not only is it ugly looking, but the plastics all feel crappy and the dials/knobs are lightweight and flimsy. 
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Nov 28, 2011 13:45
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DerDestroyer posted:Yeah I know how you guys feel about that and you'll have no argument from me there. It's just unfortunate that for all the talk of prestige, quality and engineering excellence they can't make the drat cars run properly. The best part is they got us by the balls because in spite of these issues we'll still own the cars because the alternatives are either boring or just not as fun to drive. It's like Audi, BMW and Merc decided they'd copy Alfa Romeo's business model. I'm feeling pretty pissy about the way my car trouble affected Thanksgiving, but to be fair, problems like a defective battery can happen to anyone. Buying a Ford or a Honda gives you better odds, not certainty. My impression from reading Audiworld and Audizine is that the B8s were rushed to market a bit, and Audi deserves some blame for the plastic water pump, but the new ones are usually pretty solid. Heck, Audi doesn't even make batteries, so all I can blame them for is chosing an OEM that doesn't achieve 100% perfection.
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Nov 28, 2011 17:36
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Trip Report: Swapped the headlight bulbs out of my 2005 A4 (B6) this weekend. What a bitch. There's really no way to do it without taking the actual headlamps out of the car, and you'll need an extended-length T30 screwdriver to get to some of the screws. Also had to take out three pieces of an air duct to get to the screws on the passenger side. On the plus side, I realized how easy it is to get to the air filter. I gave it a quick cleaning, and I'll definitely be replacing that myself from now on.
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Nov 28, 2011 17:47
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Heck, Audi doesn't even make batteries, so all I can blame them for is chosing an OEM that doesn't achieve 100% perfection. Absolutely true. You can, though, blame them for keeping the car over Thanksgiving weekend for the warranty service when you could have gone to Napa or Autozone and had it replaced while you waited. In other words, batteries are so common, the dealership should have been prepared, especially since they had advance notice of your failure.
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Nov 28, 2011 17:49
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They actually tested the battery to confirm that it was bad, and so I'm OK with what they did. The number of batteries that fail so badly in the first few months dang well ought to be low enough that it's worth making sure that really was the problem. I do wish they'd found time to do that on Friday, but if I was a car tech, I wouldn't want to work the day after Thanksgiving either. Anyway, while this experience has made me cranky, it won't have me bashing Audi or Howard Cooper yet. I'm not sure who made the battery, but I'll happily bash them when I find out.
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Nov 28, 2011 18:00
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Zorak of Michigan posted:I'm not sure who made the battery, but I'll happily bash them when I find out. Probably Moll Batterien. They generally aren't too bad. Porsche, Lambo and I think BMW use them.
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Nov 28, 2011 18:07
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an oddly awful oud posted:The cheapness of the first-gen IS interior is appalling. He's being hyperbolic, but not by much. Not only is it ugly looking, but the plastics all feel crappy and the dials/knobs are lightweight and flimsy. What are those flimsy push buttons for by the shifter?
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Nov 28, 2011 22:57
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Viggen posted:What are those flimsy push buttons for by the shifter? After too much Googling, they are Power and Snow modes for the shifting.
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Nov 28, 2011 23:12
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The thing about a Lexus (or Toyota for that matter) interior is it looks kind of crappy/flimsy to start off with but will look exactly the same 15 years down the track. Nothing will break, nothing will wear out. Whereas a VW/Audi interior looks and feels great when new but its all downhill from there.
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Nov 29, 2011 00:11
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For Audi warranty to cover a defective battery it has to fail a test that is administered by the VAG scan tool (on newer models). Some shops are still using the older VAG battery tester that occasionally instructs the tech to charge and re-test the battery. If your shop didn't have the correct replacement battery in stock or they were concerned that you'd be stranded then they tried to do you a favor by calling your car "down" so you'd be eligible for a free loaner car.
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Nov 29, 2011 00:46
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kimbo305 posted:After too much Googling, they are Power and Snow modes for the shifting. Looked like left arrows, and right arrows from the picture, and I was quite confused. On today's LCD, though, it looks like mangled text. I need to get rid of that CRT. dissss posted:The thing about a Lexus (or Toyota for that matter) interior is it looks kind of crappy/flimsy to start off with but will look exactly the same 15 years down the track. Nothing will break, nothing will wear out. You could almost use the same excuse for GM's crappy plastic interior, except poo poo breaks all of the time. 
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Nov 29, 2011 18:45
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I just got a Safety Recall for 23J9/V5 (Golf TDI) Common Rail Diesel Engine/Clean Diesel Engine Fuel Injection Lines It sounds like my car can spontaneously burst into flames. Should I be hauling rear end to the dealer to get this fixed? Anyone have had this fix done on their car and have some stuff to point out when I take it in?
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Nov 30, 2011 10:15
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Hey my1999gsr, what do you know about the current gen Golf springs. How much lower are the VW "sport springs" vs the stock TDI Golf springs?
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Nov 30, 2011 17:27
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veedubfreak posted:Hey my1999gsr, what do you know about the current gen Golf springs. How much lower are the VW "sport springs" vs the stock TDI Golf springs? In Canada the MKVI Golf TDIs have sport suspension as a standard option, presumably to increase the fun of the ride because you took the horsepower hit.
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Nov 30, 2011 19:35
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