From the new to the old (older anyway)

[co11lng]

Hi all,

After years of being suckered into buying new cars to drive to and from work in, the latest of which was a 2011 Octavia VRS, *preceded by Auris SR180, C4 VTS, Stilo abarth etc) I decided to buy a 1999 Jersey registered Polo GTI for what I feel like was a good deal for a car with 64k on the clock, paintwork is a little ropey corners scuffed, clearcoat peeling in places.

I've been stalking the forum for the past few weeks whilst I carried out works such as full filter renewal, gearbox oil, NGK spark plugs, timing belt kit, Brembo brake pads and discs [albeit Brembo don't make front discs for the GTI so had to settle for some febi's on the front], new Eagle f1 tyres. The car is great fun and keeps a smile on my face (for now) more than any of the cars mentioned previously, takes me back to the G40 I had for a few weeks when I has 17, that is until it went backwards through a fence and was Donald ducked.

Back to the present, had a little issue with the central locking but thanks to prior forum posts managed to track it down to the locking pump being wet and circuit corroded. Jet washed the back of the car to look for leaks but nothing was apparent. Sprayed the seals around window, under spoiler around 3rd brake light etc - bone dry. New unit now fitted inside a bin bag to hopefully keep the water off it does get back in - hopefully it wont overheat, guessing they don't get hot?

Couple of things I need to sort, firstly is the remote central locking, which I hope someone can help with, basically it don't work, tried programming keys manually, and also took to bosch centre to recode on VCDS but the technician said there was no signal and would need further investigation with a cost of £300, so I left. What's the most likely failure, keys i.e transmitter or convenience module i.e receiver? Everything else works as it should. If keys, would note that my keys state 433mhz, but had read in prior posts that flip keys should be bought at 434mhz - is this correct?

Also a minor annoyance is the boot light not working and cant figure out why. Bulb had 12v going to it - shows 12v at both sides of bulb - i.e. bulb is letting voltage travel through it - has continuity. tried earthing it at one end but still nothing - strange.

Anyways apologies for the long thread, just thought I would start with some foreplay before jumping straight in! (which according to the wife is so not me!)

Will get some photos up once the bad weather has gone and I can get the poorboys goodies out of the garage.

Cheers

Chris.