Remember the car that wouldn’t stop, and the garage that possibly ripped me off?

Well, after watching the brake lights flickering randomly regardless of the car being on or off, I searched again for anyone with symptoms similar to that. One bloke with I think a Skoda had the rear wash wipe fluid hose come off in his car and spray water around the boot, resulting in similar symptoms. He also mentioned water in the trailer control module.

Now I have one of these, fitted aftermarket, but I didn’t know where it was. So after work I pulled apart the boot and found it and hey presto, it’s little casing is full of brown corroded water and a smell of burned electronics!

Disconnected it, the brake lights started working perfectly. I WIN!

Except I’m £750 worse off and the gearbox is behaving weirdly. I don’t think I needed a new ECU, but I do wonder if the different unit is making my gearbox do weird things.

Time for a new car?

Why?

It’s not clear how water got in there, no other evidence of water was present which was odd. And there aren’t great big holes in the body or anything. There are however frequently bottles of water rolling around in there.

Brilliant piece of diagnosis :). Sometimes I get fed up of ‘professionals’ that come in without an ability to fault find but with an ability to get you to pay for their guesses 🙁

leffeboy – that’s why I didn’t let the mobile guy take it to the mystery ECU-flogging specialists, I didn’t want to pay for them to scratch their chins.

Why?

Seriously? Because you’ve thrown lord knows how much money away servicing and repairing it (to my knowledge, never mind what you never mention) and its simply not a good, reliable car. It’s a money pit.
I honestly, seriously don’t think I’ve spent as much money in total repairing and servicing cars since I met Mrs PP 13-ish years ago than you have on that one car alone.
You and my mother in law have (again, seriously) between you put me off VAG group cars for life, and I’ve had 4 in the past.
I also know this – You’ve never once complained about your Prius.

(I actually considered buying one of those a couple of weeks ago until I discovered you can’t fit a tow bar….)

One bloke with I think a Skoda had the rear wash wipe fluid hose come off in his car

Had this happen to my Audi. Its a known VAG problem. Cost me £300 to repair reduced from £430 because Audi f**ked up.

Still the interesting thing was I suggested that maybe Audi would like to cover the cost and they told me no its not possible because my car had the retro fix kit (cable tie) to stop the hose coming off. I asked did the hose come off? Yes… but your car had the retro fix kit….. But the hose came off…….. Yes…. but your car….

Did you ever see the old ecu with the water in ?

How does a washer hose coming unconnected cost £3-400?!

My Mondeo’s came off after the washer jet became clogged, I think it cost a fiver for a new one, and I had to undo a handful of screws to fit it…

Avoid VAG for your next car

It’s a well known problem with a lot of cars. They clog it freeze and people keep pressing the washer switch to see where the water is. I’ve had it with 2 of my pugs and none of my VAGs to date.

Didnt’t cost anything as fixed it myself and there was no damage.

How does a washer hose coming unconnected cost £3-400?!

because water and electronics generally don’t mix well…

Its an Audi!

It went something like this. I think the rear wiper motor is fried, highly likely the pipe has come off.

Sorry sir we need to diagnose the problem – cost £120. Hmmm okay.

Sir you’re wrong its the stalk. Cost £100. New stalk.

Has it cured the problem. No. Hmmmm okay maybe its not the stalk but do you mind paying for it? No remove it? That will cost you? I don’t think so!

Guess what sir it is the rear wiper motor and the hose had come off.

The bill was £430 but we’ve discounted it to £300 because of the problems.Shouldn’t this be covered by warranty. No Sir because your car had the fix. But the hose came off!?

An alternator pulley seized (another known problem) and this cost £530 for a new alternator.

I hate Audi cars. Once bitten…… Sold it with 67k on the clock and went back to BMW.

Why’d you go to Audi dealer or in fact garage at all when you knew what it was?

Its an Audi!

There was an A4 estate for sale not so long ago here on STW and it had listed a recent bill for 4k – including air bag etc etc. I thought ‘suspicious’ – repaired? Asked around and apparently its not unknown for an Audi to throw up such bills when out of warranty……… Yes you can ignore the ‘niggles’ etc but if you decided to fix them it’d cost you BIG.

I had the same leak on my Golf. No electrical issues, but it rusted a hole through the bottom of the boot door (or whatever its called).

My Golf had Haldex and gear box issues, so I scrapped it – wasn’t worth spending £ks fixing them…

found a bit of water had been getting in around the wiper hole on my estate and damaged the motor relay. So, after sealing the hole better I waterproofed a spare relay pinched from an old car I use for spares:

Cost = £0 (as it was a chocolate flavour condom given out at freshers week)

Both my friend and my uncle are VAG mechanics, one at VW one at Audi, both worked at Audi. They advised me to steer clear of the cars. My friend said the trouble is people buy them thinking it is bespoke and while the cars are very well screwed together there are so many things that can go wrong on them that are often diagnosed by trial and error at the consumers expense. Their households non-company cars are Honda and Toyota. On the flip side my sister has had golfs for about 8 years, R32, GTi & GTD 170 and had no real problems with any of them.

Because I didn’t have the time. Just like I don’t service my cars or motorbike anymore.

I’m fortunate to have spare income but it doesn’t mean I like being ripped off. I did have a look at removing the panel but its concealed fix and I didn’t want a rattle. Audi did it and I had a rattle afterwards. Didn’t think the labour would be too much and I would have had to pay for the part anyway.

In the end Audi would say you need this and I would say how much!

I do all my bike stuff though!

Agree with the above. My Audi had a 3year old sell by date. After 3 years silly thing went wrong and I paid through the noise. Sharp suited Passat / Skoda for mugs.

Servicing was £££££.

we ve had the rear washer liberally spray the boot of our octavia.. thought it was just the mrs..

PP, seriously, thanks for your advice but I am not going to take it so you nay as well save your fingers. I have not spent that much on the car, it has been good for 50 k miles and will be good for many more. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it, and I see no reason to spend money to gamble on the possibility of saving money. Remember, cars are all a lottery, and your wonderful Focus could pack up tomorrow. That is all I have to say on the matter.

Did you ever see the old ecu with the water in ?

No, and that whole thing stinks worse than the wet and burned trailer module. I will be on the phone to the mobile guy …

(I actually considered buying one of those a couple of weeks ago until I discovered you can’t fit a tow bar….)

You can, but it’s admittedly a hassle. They’re sold online in the US. I wouldn’t hesitate to use one for tow bar bike racks or light trailers, and doubt really whether you couldn’t use the same weight trailers you would use with any other car with a similarly small petrol engine. But the faff of getting it sent from the US has meant I havent bothered.

we ve had the rear washer liberally spray the boot of our octavia.. thought it was just the mrs..

This is a family forum you know!

Remember, in my experience cars are all a lottery, and your wonderful Focus could pack up tomorrow has been independantly recorded as having better reliability than a VW, but has the wrong badge on the hood

😀

I asked did the hose come off? Yes… but your car had the retro fix kit….. But the hose came off…….. Yes…. but your car….

To which your reply might have been…

Well, the retro fit fix has failed… So, its not exactly a Fix is it. Smug Audi person… So, its over to Audi

Yep thats how it went but they kept insisting that as it had the “fix” and as such it wouldn’t be covered. I told them to listen to what they were saying but still they didn’t understand the logic. After 10mins having the same conversation I decided life was too short….

All of this saga reflects the fact that cars are TOO complicated for their own good and that the majority of garages employ fitters rather than mechanics / engineers. Also over-reliance on machines to tell you what the fault is, when logic would suggest its something else first.

You can, but it’s admittedly a hassle

Well, not as such. The thing you can get in the US is not a towbar as such, it’s a bracket for mounting bike racks. There is no towbar that’s type approved for the vehicle, so if you bodge one and tow you’ll be breaking the law I think.

There is a bike rack bracket made by Thule, I’m sure you can get it here. I’ve seen one on a car in Germany. It’s actually better than a towbar mounted rack because it’s a dedicated bike rack bracket.

EDIT hmm.. can’t see it on Thule’s site now.. I’ve definitely seen one though, a car regularly parked up by our flat had one.

has been independantly recorded as having better reliability than a VW, but has the wrong badge on the hood I didn’t like their cars as much

My Fabia’s rear-wash-hose came off a couple of times with a bit of subsequent leakage – added some superglue to the plastics involved… no more leaks *simples*.

The thing you can get in the US is not a towbar as such, it’s a bracket for mounting bike racks. There is no towbar that’s type approved for the vehicle, so if you bodge one and tow you’ll be breaking the law I think.

I might be getting my lingo mixed up but this is what I mean:

That wouldn’t be ‘type approved’ in the UK and hence would not be legal. However if you didn’t fit a towball so therefore could not tow, you might be ok. Dunno.

How do you tell if something is type approved?

More importantly, would anyone notice? Most boy racer mods aren’t type approved eg HID light upgrades, but no one really cares…..

I dunno, the manufacturer would not be able to sell it afaik so if it exists and is from a reputable manuf, it would presumably be ok.

Which is why Prius towbars are not available here. I don’t know if silly lights and whatnot are even subject to approval.

I didn’t know that Type Approval was ever implemented in the UK.

http://www.witter-towbars.co.uk/towbars/faq1.php#

Apparently, if you can find one, fitting a towbar to a vehicle that’s not type approved is actually an offence even if you never tow with it.

So it’s roof bars all the way, if you are a Prius or Ka driver.