Passat pass

[Tony]

A local garage did the bearing for us for £75 on Christmas Eve right before needing the car for a long journey.  Very glad I didn't do it myself, as their supplier delivered the bearing as per reg number, and it didn't fit.  Then they said they were closing at 1pm and would rush out the right one.  Second bearing also didn't fit and supplier closed for Xmas.  Chap from the garage went on a tour of Southampton bearing suppliers with the hub parts to find one that did fit, and finally found one.  Apparently some Passats have a heavier duty bearing at the front, and this one has that bearing, though none of the parts suppliers expected it.

They spent a day on it in total and still only charged us £75 so we gave them a generous tip.

The funny groaning noises on braking into left hand turns have disappeared so it was definitely the bearing, though not noises I would normally expect from one failing (sounded more like creaking bushes to me)!

I'll be using that garage again, nice to find a local, honest one that works hard for the customer.

[Julian]

Result, well done. That garage is one in a million!

I've finally sorted the problems on our Golf ... no more spurious alarms, the windows have stopped working of their own accord and now do as they are told, the interior lights operate on cue and the magic of remote locking is still a novelty, oh joy!

[Tony]

Oh well done, what was it?

Our interior lights stopped working when the door opens, the CCM is fine so a break in the wire somewhere, probably from the loom being stepped on multiple times when it was out from the water leak, loose in the footwell.

[Julian]

It was exactly that, the CCM.

No water on or near it, very close inspection showed no dry joints or hot components, but as soon as I changed it for a 25 quid secondhand unit everything jumped into line and worked.

I'd previously changed a whole host of things ... door locks, rear wiper motor, rear boot lock, checked a fair bit of wiring and a load of stuff I've forgotten, but the CCM solved the problem.

Given how difficult some of the wiring is to get at, if you can find a CCM with a matching part number at the right price, I'd try changing that first.  On the Golf you have to code in the number of doors and electric windows, but Passats are probably all four door anyway and most likely all with electric windows.

Coding is quite easy with VCDS I've got a full version if you need to do it.

Thinking about it VCDS will test the interior lights along with loads of other stuff ... all the instruments, the display, buzzer, ABS, I think fuel pump and loads more items I've not yet played with.  If you've not got a copy and want to pop up for a play you're very welcome ... you'll probably understand it all way better than I do!

[Chug]

Good to hear of proper garage service Tony,

the last wheel bearing I did on a daughter in laws saxo had a similar story, started early in the morning as she needed her car early next morning, fitted the bearing to the hub ok but the drive shaft was too big for the centre hole, the parts shop said bring it back undamaged and we will replace with the correct one, but when removing it was slightly damaged, when I got to the parts place they said they wouldn't replace as it was damaged.
I gave them a few choice words about supplying goods not fit for service etc but no joy, so I threatened to stand outside their shop and tell all their customers about their excellent customer service and then they decided they could swap it after all but it took several hours to get the replacement.
Eventually got the car back together just as the light was fading and all for £50 including £22 bearing cost!

[Tony]

VCDS I keep hearing a lot about, it sounds good (if expensive!).

I found the interior light problem was a break in the loom wiring, back to working now a section of wire has been bridged.

[Julian]

Well done for locating the broken wire.

VCDS is very good.

My problem is I don't match its abilities!

I've managed to test several items, reset the service reminder (obviously without servicing the car), diagnose a fuel fault on a mates car and narrow down my alarm problem to the CCM.  I've also managed to code the remote locking on two new keys but now need someone with different software to pull the SKC/PIN from the instrument cluster in order to program the immobiliser.

You can download a free version of VCDS and use a cheap Chinese lead ... Jules has done it, but it just didn't work for me.  The free version obviously doesn't have all the functionality of the full version.

You also get technical backup from RossTec with the full version.  I've contacted them once already and they were extremely helpful.

It would have been interesting to see if VCDS gave any pointers to your broken wire.

[Tony]

OK I might ask Jules exactly what he got and see how it goes.  Can't really have the analyser costing a significant portion of the value of the car, good or not

It would have been useful to switch the output on and off to make tracing quicker, I had to either wait for the internal light to time-out or press the keyfob while probing with the multimeter.

As an aside I had the dubious pleasure of seeing a less than 6 month old Audi Quattro ramming a bollard on the school run today, the plastic breaking noises were painful to hear.

[Chug]

I may be wrong but I think there is some sort of vw based forum tech stuff on VOD for members to borrow similar to forum timing tool, I'm pretty sure I read that someone made up a lead, but like  Julian, it tests my limits

Edit: had a search ere ya go
http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/mybbforum/showthread.php?tid=40756

[Tony]

Well spotted, I'll have a read of that thread.