Topping up the oil in my Bora 130TDI today, I noticed that my 1 litre top up bottle was now empty.
Doing a bit of searching for the cheapest supplier of the stuff, I found out that this oil, which is specified for variable service intervals on the pump duse engine has now been replaced by Castrol.

The oil that replaces it is Castrol Edge 5w 30 which has VW specification VW 504 00/507 00.

So all you fellow Longlife oil users take note.

It is still confusing as there are a number of oils with the "Edge" name that are suitable for Turbo diesels but are 505 spec and not the new 507 spec.

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tried to put battery in after recently changing whole engine gearbox and clutch. had to jump it because it was dead but when i connected the leads the battery sparked into life and locked my car...

heres the bad bit, not knowing it would do this,,, (i dont know a lot about cars) i left my keys in the car... GREAT... now its blocking neighbours drive and i cant get in... spare keyfob and key were not given when i bought the car and i havent had chance to get a copy...

breaking the small rear window looks tempting,,, ive tried the coathanger but its hard because the door handle goes into the door curvature.

is it easy to replace the small rear window? Read more

hi, wonder if any of you guys can help me with this, i know these cars pretty well but seem to have ran to a dead end. basically from fully cold ie. left overnight then the car is a pig to start and when it does it smokes heavily with grey fumes for 5 minutes or so. the glow plugs have been replaced yesterday and i can confirm they definately work by putting them across a battery and they glow brightly at the tip, one was dead so it now catches first turn of the key but you need to keep the accelerater pressed down then rev the car to get it to fire properly and settle to idle, it's like a massive flat spot when you first start it which makes me suspect it's suffer from fuel drain back overnight, priming the bulb doesn't make much difference and ive replaced the leak of pipes and fuel filter seal as they are the most common points of air ingress.

ive measured the glow plug feed whilst running and it stays more or less at 13.4 volts for circa 3 minutes then the relay switch's off so im ruling that out. having read the xantia thread that's running at the minute it could be exhaust valve clearences but id have thought this would affect more than just the very 1st start of the day, you can start the car leave it to idle for 5 minutes (thermostat still closed so don't really suspect you could say it's warmed up) stop it and it restarts fine with no smoke, the cold start waxstat is taught when cold and goes slack as it warms so suspect it works, ive also tried removing the waxstat wire and fully adjusting the arm on the bosch pump by levering with a screwdriver so it is definately in the cold start position and again it has no effect,

so now im at a loss to explain what's happening, so all help would be gratefully received.

cheers
chris Read more

We are positively shocked at the minute at what we are being offered for our Mazda Tribute (part-ex price). Our tribute has 35K and is A1 condition, 03 reg, serviced at main dealer since new). We have been offered 20 to 30% less than the Glass's price (which is already much lower than the Parker's) by 6 dealers (4 different makes).

I have checked on Auto Trader, the same Tributes as ours are being sold by the trade between 5.5K and 8K.

Is there any reasons for this or are they just trying it on?


I thought it was a good time of the year to do a deal! Not really as it seems. Read more

I have maintained the family VW Golf 1994 1.6CL (ABU engine) whilst it has been in our ownership for the last 10 years. It has provided totally reliable service for all of its 100+k miles.

Recently an intermittent fault is proving illusive to locate and solve.

When travelling at M-way speeds, or around town, the engine cuts for approximately 1 second then cuts back in. It is a sharp loss / restoration barely noticeable on the M-way. In town it can cause a stall. Can occur when the engine is cold or at normal temperature and with a frequency of say, once per 50 miles.

When cut happens a red warning light illuminates for the 1 second which I initially presumed to be the ignition light. All the warning lights are coloured red.

I replaced the spark plugs, HT leads, rotor arm, distributor cap and coil without improvement then realised it was in fact the oil light that was coming on. Although it is difficult to be sure, the Rev counter may also cut.

Replacing both the oil pressure switches has not solved the problem.

My feeling is that the problem is electrical / electronic rather than fuel / oil pressure.

But where to look next ?

Be grateful for any ideas !


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