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Hi newbie just bought a 4 motion!

2K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  Alx 
#1 ·
Hi people, been checking out the forum for 3 days now and thought I'd join in! Cracking site with loads of useful info.

I was fed up with spending out every month maintaining my previous car due to it's age (1992 Vento VR6 2.9) and thought I'd go for something a bit newer and hopefully have less problems.

I picked up my 2000 model Golf 4motion with 79k on friday and was very pleased with it until christmas eve (2nd day of ownership!)

The car drives lovely, looks nice and it's nice and comfortable but problems have started already!

Firstly the exhaust emissions light came on whilst under normal driving conditions with no affects to the feel of the car. I stopped approx 20 miles later on the way home to get some shopping. Upon returning to the car I noticed a slight burning smell on startup but blamed it on the cortina parked next to me!

As I pulled up at home about 5 miles later steam poured from under the bonnet and the temp went way up near the red!

A small amount of coolant was lost from the overflow of the header tank but the level is still above the min. mark. Upon inspection it seems the header cap may not have been tightened fully.

I've not seen the fan kick in as yet but will investigate further tomorrow if I get a chance with aircon on looking for low speed etc.

Just checked the receipt for the last dealer service which was 500 miles ago, attention note says; engine noisy, fuse for cooling fans has blown new fans required. Engine does not seem too noisy to me but things start to make sense with regards to the overheating now!

Really pi**ed off already and obviously looking to sort it out asap.

I'm located in Northants and would be very grateful if anyone would be willing to check my car for faults using vag-com.

I will be checking out the fan fuse & operation asap and posting results.

The fan resistor mod looks interesting and I thnik I may try this along with a new fuse.

Any thoughts much appreciated

Thanks people!

Cheers Brad
 
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#2 ·
Welcome to the forum. I know how you feel with the fans - mine went within a couple of months of buying my 4mo - luckily they were covered under the (non VW) dealers warranty I got when I bought the car. Also watch out for coil packs - these can fail and make the exhaust emissions light come on. Apart from that enjoy the car - can't get enought of mine, especially in the greasy winter conditions!
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the welcome!

Checked the fan operation earlier and they definatley aren't working, fuse is blown. I take it these fuses are vw only parts?

I'm gonna purchase a few tomorrow hopefully and see what happens.

Can anyone tell me the best way to go about repairing my fan as there seems to be a few different methods on here.

Cheers Brad
 
#8 ·
Royster - Thanks for the offer! you have pm

I have considered going back to the dealer but as they are 100 miles away I have opted for RAC warranty where I have to pay the first few ?'s towards the cost but can go to a local garage. Therefore I would prefer to check it out myself first as it may be easier.

Thanks Brad
 
#10 ·
If you bought it from a VW dealer you will have a years warranty on it which has cost you nothing

So phone them and get them to come and collect it on a low loader as you feel its not safe to drive it back to them and get everything sorted FOC...[:D]

Oh and welcome..[:p]
 
#13 ·
Hi mate!

Yeah I hope so too, Royster off the forum kindly scanned my car with vagcom today. We found some fault codes, erased them, turned the emission light off and took it for a drive. Everything was fine with no further codes but this evening the emission light came back on[:(]

Think I may need to invest in vagcom myself.

Picked up some resistors today and I'll be trying BigAl's fan mod soon.

Will keep everyone updated.

Cheers people!

Brad
 
#18 ·
Were they replaced under warranty Alx? What year is your 4mo
My 4mo is a '51. The coil packs were replaced under what they call 'VW Goodwill contribution' - I didn't buy my car from a VW dealer and was surprised it was done FOC first time round - at the time I wasn't aware of the problem with them. If you do a search for coil packs on the site there is loads of info. On one thread there is a VW statement on them: http://www.uk-mkivs.net/forums/397465/ShowPost.aspx

I was a bit hacked off that they didn't replace all of them when they did the first 3, guess I'm going to have to wait for the last 2 to go now! [:(]

Alex
 
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