Crash Damaged VW Golf AF69NGV Unrecorded Accident

 While searching for a new Golf to buy I spotted this car advertised on eBay. It's a 2019 VW Golf that has suffered some serious side damage to the passenger side yet is advertised as unrecorded. This means it can be repaired and put back on the road and the new owner will be none the wiser that they're driving a car that has been in a serious crash. At least with an insurance repair the quality should be guaranteed but with this anyone could repair it without the proper tools and an unsuspecting buyer will be unaware.

Some people are wary about buying Cat N or Cat S cars when looking for a new vehicle, these pictures are one reason I wouldn't rule them out as at least you know the damage has taken place.

Crash Damaged VW Golf AF69NGV

Crash Damaged VW Golf AF69NGV

Crash Damaged VW Golf AF69NGV Interior with airbags gone off

Crash Damaged VW Golf AF69NGV

VW Golf TDI Diesel Fuel Leaking from Engine Bay

When I had my MOT recently the tester pointed out that there was diesel sitting on the edge on top of the fuel filter and asked if I'd changed it recently (I had). On further inspection and after cleaning the diesel off it reappeared a few days later so there was clearly a leak from somewhere.

VW Golf TDI Diesel Leaking

There are 2 main places that diesel can leak from around the fuel filter, one is the valve on the top, the other is the drain tap at the bottom. If you find diesel leaking out of your car onto the drive it's more likely to be the drain tap but this was from the top so appeared to be the valve.

A brand new valve was only £8 on eBay so I bought one to fit which was a really easy job. There wasn't any obvious crack in the old valve but there was diesel around it so it appeared to be the culprit.

This video shows the steps to replace the diesel fuel filter valve.

https://youtu.be/px2K8SlCO0A

VW Golf Door Grab Handles Scratched and Worn - How to Fix/Replace Coating

 The plastic coating on the interior door grab handles on the MK4 Golf is very soft and over time can get badly scratched and worn away making the interior of the car look really shabby and tired.

I found some spray paint that will allow you to recoat them and get the handles looking good as new. This video shows you how

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x97MPs5Xd7I&feature=youtu.be

Audi A3 V6 3.2 Review - Bargain Golf R32 Alternative?

We've owned the 2004 Audi A3 for 3 months now and got an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the car. The Audi A3 V6 is massively cheaper than the VW Golf R32 that uses the same 3.2 litre engine but is it any good?

Watch my review on the AJVW channel here

 https://youtu.be/PI0UtAIk6Yk

Despite having the same 3.2 litre V6 engine as the VW Golf R32 the Audi Quattro seems to be a bit of an unknown bargain in comparison. I picked up my Audi A3 for £2000. It had some cosmetic bodywork issues and then turned out to have a few mechanical ones too that the dealer refused to do anything about but the purchase price was £2000. Others are available between £2000 and £3000 but there aren’t any running Golf R32 cars available for that sort of money. In comparison the cheapest VW Golf R32 I could find was £5000 with over 100k miles.

I don’t know why the Audi 3.2 is so much less popular but it means if you want a performance car like an R32 then you can get one for a lot less. The other benefit of the Audi is much lower insurance compared to the Golf R32.

The thing that the Audi does have in common with the R32 is the same issues with the 3.2 litre engine such as the timing chain stretching and tensioners wearing both of which will cause engine fault lights.

Ravenor Cars Greenford London Reviews - Misleading Car Dealer

My son recently bought a car from Ravenor Cars based in Greenford, London. The alarm bells should have been ringing when he first arrived and there was no obvious premises for the dealer. After a phone call a metal gate opened with a selection of cars tightly parked behind it.

After some juggling around of the cars the one he was interested in was moved out so it could be viewed. It was in a much worse condition than appeared in the advert online. Admittedly sometimes it's not always possible to see every dent or mark from photos and it's in a dealers interest to make the car look as good as they can but some were quite significant dents or parking damage.

The car was taken for a test drive and all seemed to be ok mechanically. A price was agreed based on the fact the car was in cosmetically worse condition than was expected. The dealer tried to say that it was due to the age of the car but the car we arrived in was 4 years older without any of the dents or damage!

Payment was made online although payment was made to Mr MA Khan rather than Ravenor Cars.

Problems with the car have included failed lambda sensors, failed clutch, timing chain stretch, cam adjuster fault and serious leak from Haldex transfer box. Mr Khan had no interest in dealing with any of these issues and has tried claiming that he has zero responsibility. There is the option to take legal action through the small claims court but it is probably more effective to make readers aware of the problems they are likely to face buying a car from Ravenor Cars in London.

Ravenor Cars Greenford London Beware This Car Dealer

Golf R32/Audi A3 V6 3.2 Engine Timing chain adjuster problems 022 109 088J

The Audi A3 V6 and Golf R32 are well known for timing chain issues so it wasn't a surprise to have to change the chain on my 2004 model A3 3.2 V6.

The car was giving an engine warning light and fault codes via VCDS which kept coming back. As the clutch needed doing we decided that doing all the jobs at the same time would make sense so out the engine came!

Everything was straightforward, luckily no snapped bolts unlike our Jag X type project and after a full day of work in the garage the engine was removed from the car.

Next stage was to replace the timing chain, guides and tensioners which was all easy to access with the engine out. However coming to time the car up once all the new parts were in place was proving rather problematic. After 2 rotations the exhaust camshaft was out of line every time.

We then noticed that the exhaust cam adjust sprocket had quite a lot of play in it so every time the inlet cam moved the chain, the exhaust didnt move immediately until the slack was taken up.

We took the exhaust cam adjuster apart by removing the Torx T30 bolts that were holding it together to look inside. There's a pin that is meant to lock into a hole to stop the adjuster moving and this can be moved by the oil pressure.

Over time the hole that the pin drops into can widen so that it no longer locks the adjuster into place and it appears that this is what has happened to our one. It's apparently a common issue but there seemed to be very little information about it online, possibly because very few people go to this level of taking cars apart at home and documenting it.

Next stage is ordering a new one from Audi. There are many different versions of the adjusters available for different cars but unfortunately no aftermarket ones for this version so £540 lighter we got one from Audi themselves.

Inside the timing chain adjuster sprocket on the Audi A3 V6

VW Passat B6 Uneven Rear Brake Pad Wear

The rear brakes on my 2008 VW Passat were making a terrible metallic grating sound, on initial inspection the pads looked to have a decent amount of material left.

VW Passat B6 Uneven Rear Brake Pad Wear

It was only with the caliper removed and both pads taken out that it was possible to clearly see how different the wear was between the outside and inside pads. The outer had several mm of friction pad left, the inside was worn down to the metal across half of the pad.

I first thought that the caliper had stuck on this side to give such uneven wear to the pads but the other side of the car was identical with different wear levels although not quite as severe. It appears from other posts online that this is a fairly common occurrence with the Passat possibly due to the way the electric handbrake works.

On the plus side these pads had lasted 12 years from new and had covered 76000 miles so I'd definitely got a good life out them!