Multiple Failures - A bad Week!!

[goose]

Hey all,

I'm hoping this is all just coincidence, however after the £350 air-con belt disaster of last month, i was hoping to be bill free for a few months whilst i save for my wedding.....

Things did not get off to a good start though when last weekend I noticed I'm in need of a pair of new rear tyres... hhmm not too bad i thought.

Then I went to check the fluids and the bonnet would not stay open as the gas-strut has pissed itself... grr. (EDIT: £30 part, 5 days to arrive and 5 mins to fit!)

I think the front drivers side ballast unit is on the way out, as the light flickers all the time then goes off (not good at night on b roads!). If you turn the lights right off and then back on again they work.. but the other day they went off about 6 times on a 13 mile trip.

2x bulbs blew

On a trip to see a customer on Thurs, i had the cruise control on whilst in the average speed monitoring on the M1... then on the way back an hour later, it wont come on (and still wont!).

Finally sat night, with a range of 10 miles left in the fuel tank, i pull up at Tesco for some 99 Oct and the fuel cap will not open.... lock car, unlock car and repeat.. nothing! Find my tools, remove cap in boot, and rear light cluster retaining bolt and pull manual orange fuel cap pull - phew! I think it may be the solenoid tho?

i always knew these cars were pricey to run.. but man, i'm pretty much fixing something every month, and this month looks to be another biggie.

Am i just unlucky, or have i got a - that's the question!

goose

[gottanS]

Sounds like an expensive month but the cruise control could be a faulty switch on the clutch or brake pedal, believe only a £15 part, has been mentioned on the forums before.

When you use the remote to unlock the car, can you hear the filler cap release? makes quite a racket if listening close up, if working then could be a linkage has come off.

[Ian_C]

Very annoying and unlucky. Whilst they were dangerously tempting fate, another B6 owner on this or 'the other forum' was only saying the other day their S4 has been bullet proof, needed like one small item in the years of ownership.

[xyber]

Mines playing up now. New bulbs, a new ballast, the bottom arms aren't far off and a position sensor on the top dash vent has failed.

[goose]

Sounds like an expensive month but the cruise control could be a faulty switch on the clutch or brake pedal, believe only a £15 part, has been mentioned on the forums before.

When you use the remote to unlock the car, can you hear the filler cap release? makes quite a racket if listening close up, if working then could be a linkage has come off.

If it is just a faulty switch on one of the pedals, can my Indie identify it with the laptop and SW (i forget the name of it!) ?

And no, you cant hear the filler cap release.. thats why i guessed at the solenoid... again, can this be located with the above?

ta

goose

[goose]

Mines playing up now. New bulbs, a new ballast, the bottom arms aren't far off and a position sensor on the top dash vent has failed.

Sorry to hear this xyber... like mine, most these are not too big a problem (except maybe bottom arms!) - they're just bloody irratating!

I'm not sure about yours, but mines only done 44k and i'm the second owner... so am starting to think the guy who bought it from new was not too mechanically friendly

Hope you get things sorted

goose

ps. is there a reason why the bite point on my clutch would have got higher? it seems to be right up the top now, and sure it used to be lower

[gottanS]

The clutch pedal is self adjusting so it should keep the same relative position, I can only guess that is has run out of adjustment and the clutch is near end of life. The clutch does take a beating on high performance cars, mine is similar but at 60k miles, if it is not slipping I wouldn't worry about it.

Not sure if Vagcom can identify which switch it is but there might be a fault code that may help in the diagnosis.