New member with some problems

[stefanhenchoz]

ah thats a pain in the nads. just remember the internet is your friend. great forums like this one are worth joining and reading extensively - there's so much valuable information that could save you £££'s or at the very least give you a heads up on what to expect before you do the job yourself. replacing my coolant sensor yesterday for eg, did a forum search and found a guide on here that really helped me out.

going to tackle my manked up wheels next all thanks to the restoration guide on this forum.

[stefanhenchoz]

alex have you replaced your clutch yet? what kind of timeframe am i looking at?

[alexperkins]

I did mine last weekend

Took around the 7 hour mark, but I had a rounded bolt and I had to replace the drive shaft seals

Without that, I would say 6 hours ish.

[stefanhenchoz]

cheers dude appreciate that.

has anyone ever swapped out a window switch? mine is definitely footoo. i had a try at prising it out with a flat blade screwdriver yesterday but it seemed pretty well held in there.

car is now running a treat compared to how it did 2 weeks ago. had been sat for roughly 6 months. here's the crazy thing its done 11,000 miles in the last 5 years. couldn't believe it. just hit 65k this afternoon. looking forward to getting my hands on it for a good detail. will post some pics up soon

[alexperkins]

It's easier to pop the door card off and release the window switch from underneath.

[stefanhenchoz]

yeah ive popped the door card off and prised out the block that holds the switches and lock buttons in place but its removing the switch from this plastic block that i am struggling with

[alexperkins]

Oh

You need two small flat head screwdrivers one each side to release the tabs

[stefanhenchoz]

ok cool. thanks for that. going to tackle the wheel refurb this week

[stefanhenchoz]

had a bit of free time this afternoon so thought i would have a little look at the niggles.

have changed out both gti badges for new ones.

managed to get sound out of the front drivers side speaker recently but it cuts out again when the volume is lowered. turn the volume up and theres only sound from passenger side and then all of a sudden out comes the sound out of the drivers side too. also theres no sound what so ever coming out the rear drivers side. a quick look at the cabling within the front doors rubber boot and i noticed a thicker black and white colour cable that has partially split and a thin blue cable also partially split. do these relate to the dead rear speaker?

anyone managed to resolve this issue?

[stefanhenchoz]

it appears that a bigger problem has come back to haunt me. scanned the car and back came the fault code:

16688 - Cylinder 4: Misfire Detected
P0304 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent

this is after replacing the plugs, the leads and the ignition pack. im going to check the resistance of the lead on the meter tomorrow with an electrician friend but is there a specific reading i should be getting?

also if the leads fine what else can i check?

[alexperkins]

The blue cable is likely the speaker cable (blue and blue/brown are the normal wires)

It could be a faulty headunit - what do you have fitted?

As for your misfire, what are you scanning and clearing the faults with? Is the misfire noticeable?

I cant remember what the resistance is supposed to be, but ill see if I can find out for you. Memory says 45 ohms but that is probably wrong lol

There isnt much left to cause it apart from like a dirt injector, or a fouled up inlet valve etc.

[stefanhenchoz]

Cheers Alex

The standard VW single din with in dash cd player is currently fitted. strange that volume affects whether i get sound out of this speaker or not - very strange

Im now scanning and clearing with a fully registered version of vagcom. I have to say that under normal driving conditions it runs great. At idle the revs stay constant however there is a very faint splutter that you can feel within the car every 15-30 seconds or so. Its an audible, deep low pitched "bloop" sound but it doesnt affect the needle on the rev counter at all.

Its worth mentioning that when i originally changed the leads and plugs i didnt notice that number 4 on the ignition pack was completely missing a pin and drove it for a while after this on the new leads. Then when the misfire fault came back I checked the ignition pack again and noticed the pin completely missing. Could I have damaged the lead by running it like this?

is injector a simple one to remove and clean?

[alexperkins]

It could be the head unit as opposed to anything else - the volume knobs have a habit of getting scratchy on these

My advice would be swap it out, or change it for something new and exciting!

Ok thats interesting. I would check the PCV system (ultimately the crankcase breather and EGR valve) to check they are functioning properly as this can cause alot of odd little misfires

Its possible you have damaged the lead and/or plug by doing this

I would swap the plugs cylinders 1 and 4 and see if it stays

If it does, you know its the lead, or the DIS module is faulty.

Injector isnt hard to clean, but its unlikely its dirty

For good measure, chuck some redex in the next few tanks of fuel. That might clear it up

[stefanhenchoz]

Funny you mention it I have been browsing at some double din head units recently.

Yeah chucked some redex in this weekend funnily enough. The fuel filter had been replaced in the service but i thought it would help clean up the rest of the fuel system including injectors.

right i will swap out the plugs first and go from there. if it turns out not to be plug or lead how/where do i check the crankcase breather and EGR valve. what am i looking for?

[stefanhenchoz]

right touch wood the issue has been resolved. last night i had the leads metered and suspect one and another both came in at the same rating - so figured it couldnt be the lead. after work today i swapped out misfiring cylinder 4 plug with working cylinder 1 plug and hey presto all is fixed. been driving a few times tonight and each time no fault codes have shown. and the difference in performance is night and day. immediate throttle response and generally much better engine response, plus the thump thump has gone on idle.

m;y girlfriend has fallen for my polo and she has gone and bought herself a 2001 1.4mpi. scanned it this afternoon and sure enough cylinder 1,2,3,4 all misfiring, but unlike mine its also showing codes for the injectors cylinders 1-4 as well. is it worth doing what i have done here and replace plugs, leads and coil?

thanks for all you input guys really appreciate it. finally i have a gti that is running perfect with no codes. its by far the most enjoyable drive of all the cars ive owned