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FRP bonnet + 6 slicks.



Just ordered a GT Lip and a full lexan window kit!

Make: VW
Model : POLO (with heated cloth seats)
Launch Date : 30/04/2007
Numbers Involved : 433
Build Start Date : 01/05/2006
Build End Date : 28/02/2007
Recall Details
Concern : SEAT MAY CATCH FIRE
Description : It has been identified that due to an incorrectly sewn-in tension wire strap for the back-rest cover of the front seats there may be contact between the tension wire of the seat and the filaments of the seat heater. The resulting short circuit can lead to fire damage on the front seat covers.
Remedial Action : Recalled vehicles will have the tension wires of the front seats insulated.

Glad I don't have heated seats..
yes a faulty heated seat can cause fire,i seen 2 cars like that. im glad i dont have any of this bs on my car.
But yeah,pretty much all new cars are crap.and i can tell you what not to get coz i work with them. dont get any benz from 2000 and up,and dont get any bmw from 2003 and up.
Quote from e2mustang :yes a faulty heated seat can cause fire,i seen 2 cars like that. im glad i dont have any of this bs on my car.
But yeah,pretty much all new cars are crap.and i can tell you what not to get coz i work with them. dont get any benz from 2000 and up,and dont get any bmw from 2003 and up.

Reminds me of TopGear with the heated seats : >
Quote from S14 DRIFT :
If you set fire to a diesel engine it will burn but it won't combust, if that makes sense.

Could you please define your definitions of burning and combustion? Is it not the same thing? I always thought that diesel fuel was used in internal combustion engines?

The belief that diesel cannot burn is ludicrous and far too commonly held, once a diesel fire starts it will be pretty much the same as a petrol (or any other kind of oil) fire. The flash point of diesel is circa 55-60°c, the flame point (the temperature at which it will continue to burn after ignition) isn't widely published but according to Wikipedia is about 10°c hotter.

In practice a source of ignition can pretty quickly heat diesel fuel to its flame point. I'm working on a spark ignition diesel engine, it has no problems producing combustion just like a petrol engine.
Quote from ajp71 :Could you please define your definitions of burning and combustion? Is it not the same thing? I always thought that diesel fuel was used in internal combustion engines?

The belief that diesel cannot burn is ludicrous and far too commonly held, once a diesel fire starts it will be pretty much the same as a petrol (or any other kind of oil) fire. The flash point of diesel is circa 55-60°c, the flame point (the temperature at which it will continue to burn after ignition) isn't widely published but according to Wikipedia is about 10°c hotter.

In practice a source of ignition can pretty quickly heat diesel fuel to its flame point. I'm working on a spark ignition diesel engine, it has no problems producing combustion just like a petrol engine.

That's the point. A faulty equipment leading to a possible spark wouldn't be able to heat up Diesel long enough for it to reach it's firepoint if it wasn't for the fact that diesel engines ignite the fuel by air compression (which rises the temperature to autoignition levels, which are much higher than flashpoint temperatures), not spark-plugs.

Outside of engines, however, you're unlikely to see diesel igniting from flash-fires because it does have a much higher firepoint than gasoline, as you cannot compress the atmosphere to the necessary point. You can even flick a lighter next to it that it won't ignite immediately,
I have a diesel, Alex - I'm aware it combusts. (and roughly how, enough so when someone starts going on about how it sounds like a tractor I can bore them with details).

When I say burning I mean if you were to take a match to the fuel source...combust is exactly what it means, the awesome bit during a combustion cycle. While technically yes burning is combusting I very much doubt that London Combusting would have been quite as effective as a title.

It's not like petrol (vapour) in which if you have a pot of freshly poured diesel and freshly poured petrol and you hold a flame to each, the diesel will not catch. I know, I've tried. :sadbanana Much to the disappointment of my friends who wanted to see me catch fire. On a summers day in 35 degree of direct sunlight in a black diesel can, I would presume it was near enough 60 degrees inside and it showed no sign of lighting up! Unfortunately as I said..

Diesel fuel requires compression to combust in a car, now I'm not a scientist and I can't be bothered to be, but from reading online the combustion temps in a diesel engine cylinder are more like 350 degrees which is above the autoignition point of diesel which is like 210..

I've heard of probably 5 or 6 people with the injector failures and not one reported smoke from the front of the vehicle or even any fire. Just a load of beeps and dash lights and an engine that won't run or idle.

Now I am not saying it's impossible for that to happen but there would have to be serious complications beyond failing injectors. Most likely electrics related to the injection system melting and catching fire (hey it's a VW it happens). And IF it goes it will 99.99% not be an explosive fire, as in BOOM everyone dead.

Although if it is please let me know so I can salvage some parts.
Quote from S14 DRIFT :Diesel fuel requires compression to combust in a car, now I'm not a scientist and I can't be bothered to be, but from reading online the combustion temps in a diesel engine cylinder are more like 350 degrees which is above the autoignition point of diesel which is like 210..

question, if you hold a match to diesel and it reaches 350 degrees, thats when it will ignite from spark?
if you give it enough compression for it to reach 210 degrees then it will ignite without spark?

am i using the terms right? backwards?

i completely understand how a diesel engine works, compared to a gas engine, but this part is throwing me off a bit.
You're talking about a fluid, then about very very fine droplets "dissolved" in air, two completely different types of matter.

greetz

der butz
Quote from logitekg25 :question, if you hold a match to diesel and it reaches 350 degrees, thats when it will ignite from spark?
if you give it enough compression for it to reach 210 degrees then it will ignite without spark?

am i using the terms right? backwards?

i completely understand how a diesel engine works, compared to a gas engine, but this part is throwing me off a bit.

Well it's how I understood it;

The Auto-Ignition Temperature - or the minimum temperature required to ignite a gas or vapor in air without a spark or flame being present

Now from reading online diesel needs to be at 210 degrees to be at the autoignition temperatures. So the temperature within the cylinder is higher than the auto ignition point of diesel (as there is no spark in a diesel engine). Cylinder temps can be very high (350 degrees in my example)

I was simply using the 350degree figure as an example.

As to whether if you hold a match to diesel, if the match were 350 degrees you'd have died because it would have melted your hand, but yes the theory is that it would ignite.

What I'm trying to say before that I couldn't word until now was that diesel doesn't explode, like a bomb, it burns like a curtain when you light a flame to it. If your 170 TDI engined VW or Audi caught fire it wouldn't be a WHOOOMFMF, it would be steady! Let's see if VW UK will loan me one on a long term test to try and find out for myself.
Quote from logitekg25 :question, if you hold a match to diesel and it reaches 350 degrees, thats when it will ignite from spark?
if you give it enough compression for it to reach 210 degrees then it will ignite without spark?

am i using the terms right? backwards?

i completely understand how a diesel engine works, compared to a gas engine, but this part is throwing me off a bit.

If you hold a match to diesel, it will evaporate and its vapor will ignite from a spark at roughly 50ºC. If you keep the match lit and there's no spark, it will then start burning by itself at 60ºC. If, instead of holding a match directly to it, you hold it close to it long enough for the room temperature to reach 210ºC (or compress the air like you said), then it will ignite spontaneously at that temperature.
Quote from S14 DRIFT :Well it's how I understood it;

How you understood it after reading what I posted and reversing your position entirely.
Ah well, so you're arguing that I am agree with you? I never said it's impossible to set diesel on fire just that compared to petrol it's far, far harder and diesel is a much safer liquid to be around. I didn't reverse any position, I simply read and understood the topic better so I could explain it in a way which matches my view. I find things hard to word so with greater understanding comes a greater ability to explain.

There's no pleasing some people.

The issue is not a fracture in the fuel line, it's the injectors. The risk isn't fire, it's losing all power steering at most of your brakes at any time when the injector(s) decide to fail.

The TDI 170's came with two different injectors depending on manufacture date, batch etc - Siemens and Bosch. People with Siemens ones or injector part numbers ending in M (I think) are the ones who the recalls apply to.

For example the injector would be 3K0 248 189 A-T, where the 3k0 ### string is the part number, the letter at the end is the REVISION number. Normally the parts are interchangable so for example a 3K0 248 189 A could be replaced with a T and vice versa, although that's not true 100% of the time. Normally later revisions are improved versions of earlier revisions or just updated when VW move their part number systems around.

The problem is that it happened so often that people got fed up of paying over £800 a pop PER INJECTOR) so after much complaining to Vosa/VW, VW offered the recall notice. Total cost for 4 new injectors and the wiring loom is around £3250. The fuel lines and fuel pumps aren't even touched.

http://briskoda.net/forums/top ... tor-failures-vosa-action/
http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a ... -2-0-tdi-injectors-2.html

The Siemens one fail and so are replaced. I am not denying the official recall notice states fire but that is not the reason for the recall.
Quote from theirishnoob :original issue DSG box is a 4-5000 euro fix, depending on supply/demand.

though the second issue are good, nothing compares to a well built 5/6 speed imho.

€4-5k? Are you sure, or are you just talking out of your arse again? From what I recall of your previous posts about your technical "knowledge", I'm going to go with the latter. Even dealers are charging less than that for a completely new 7 speed!

Since moving to Ireland, I have rebuilt plenty of DSG's. In fact, I'm usually building at least two a month. During these builds, the one that I've charged the most for was €3200+VAT, and that was for a full rebuild including the replacement of the mechatronics module, de-contamination and a 12,000 mile/12 months warranty. Maybe that's why I've been so busy since moving here. You are scaring all your customers away by charging them such a ludicrous ammount, and as a result, they are coming to me! Thanks for that mate!

Anyway, seeing as I should stay on topic. Gave my Lexus a proper going over the other day as it hasn't been touched in ages due to the work load I've been getting. Glad I done it now though, as I hate having a dirty car!

Few befores...










Now for the afters. Car has a 2BM Wash using Wookie Mitts, and had a Snowfoam soak beforehand. Wheels and tyres were washed using Meguiars Wheelz, and the car was then dried with an air line. No polish was put on as I will be doing a full paint correction on the car after it has the rear wing resprayed in the new year. For now, I've just put on two coats of Dode Juice Black Haze wax. Interior was vacuumed and plastics were dressed, but forgot to take pictures of this.











I'm really happy with the results and I think that for a nearly 14 year old car, it looks pretty good! Unfortunately, I still hate driving the bloody thing and cant wait to get rid of it once the my 12 month ownership enforcement from the Irish government (WHO I BLOODY HATE!) is up!

Oh, update on the Honda btw. All the welding that it needed doing to stop the water entering the cabin has been done. Just waiting on some more free time before I can order some of the NCT parts and get the registration process started. Can't wait!
Quote from amp88 :What do you mean by "an explosive fire"?




Well, clearly it would be a fire caused by an explosion, rather than a fire that's been ignited and burning constantly.

Besides, to think diesel leaking from an injector is just going to create a fire is quite naive. There's plenty of old diesel motors running around where the injectors seap diesel out with no fire.
When you say "electronic", what do you mean exactly? If you mean the whole wiring loom for the solenoids and what not, then yes it would cost much more than £3k.

However, the one that I rebuilt did not have a loom failure. It just required a rebuild, new mechatronics unit and a new top main bearing as the original failed which is a common problem on DSG's.

This particular rebuild was quite straight forward. I simply stripped and inspected the box and cleaned everything neccesary, and then proceeded to fit new bearings, clutch plates and modified solenoids. I then reassemble the box and give it a few coats of paint, not only to improve the appearance but also as a way to recognise the boxes incase they suffer a problem after the rebuild. Out of the €3200 or so that I charged the customer, €1200 was for parts.

You need to bare in mind that even though I am very capable of doing so, I don't remove or fit the gearboxes anymore. I simply pick up the gearbox or they bring it to me, I recondition it, and they then pay me. To be honest, I may look into doing fitting again as me and my father will soon be expanding, but for now I love doing it on my workbench and there is a silly ammount of work here for me, so I'm in no rush. I'm already fully booked for January!
By electronics I mean the mechatronics unit. 90% of failures of DSG are rectified by a new mechatronics box. Which is sort of odd because for the size of it, it's probably the most expensive box ever made!!
Personally, only a couple of the 100 or so DSG's that I have rebuilt have had a mechatronics failure. Most have just had the typical wear and tear problems, like clutch plate wear/failure or borked solenoids.

Ah well, guess I've just been lucky. I will say though that no matter what it is, unless you have hand first hand experience of it, you only seem to find nothing but horror stories about stuff on the internet!

Thats one of the reasons I decided to do Gearboxes over here tbh. For a starter, in the UK there is a guy round every corner who has got a set of spanners for his birthday and now thinks he can rebuilds gearboxes and offers to do so for pennies. Then, you get the guys who bring there car to you and you instantly diagnose the fault on that particular car as it's a common issue and the car is showing the correct symptoms. They then come back the next day and say "well i've been on the internet and one guy said this and another said that...." ARGH!!

Sure, in Ireland there are still a few people like that, but there are much fewer. Even before we advertised, we had people coming from the other side of the country to have us repair there gearbox and that was from word of mouth!

The only thing I hate here, is the car laws. Tax is €1300 a year for the Lexus...Count yourself lucky you dont have your Golf here Jamie. Would cost you a grand! The insurance is the only thing that does good here though. Traders policy was £5k last renewal, where as I am paying €1350 or so a year now, which is a great price imo for someone who has just 2 years no claims.

Gah that turned into a rant. My bad.
Quote from Nathan_French_14 :
Sure, in Ireland there are still a few people like that, but there are much fewer. Even before we advertised, we had people coming from the other side of the country to have us repair there gearbox and that was from word of mouth!

The only thing I hate here, is the car laws. Tax is €1300 a year for the Lexus...Count yourself lucky you dont have your Golf here Jamie. Would cost you a grand! The insurance is the only thing that does good here though. Traders policy was £5k last renewal, where as I am paying €1350 or so a year now, which is a great price imo for someone who has just 2 years no claims.

Gah that turned into a rant. My bad.

Yah stuff on the internet can be wrong, depends weather you read "review" websites or actual owners club info, generally owners clubs tend to be comprised of people with a more level head and more interest for the oily bits anyway. Although some people have all the tools but not a single clue what to do with any of it. *facepalm* Yet some people know what they need to do but don't have the tools!!!!

I wish I had some spanners, I can dream of a nice garage space, I'd put in floor ramps and everything if I could.
I think my cars emission rating is like 140g/km, seriously that's 1000 Ooh-rows? And I thought 60 odd quid every 6 months was steep..
Quote from BlueFlame :Well, clearly it would be a fire caused by an explosion, rather than a fire that's been ignited and burning constantly.

Given S14's confusion over definitions I wanted him to try and explain what he was thinking.

Quote from BlueFlame :Besides, to think diesel leaking from an injector is just going to create a fire is quite naive. There's plenty of old diesel motors running around where the injectors seap diesel out with no fire.

A little diesel seeping from a dodgy seal or joint is different from atomised/aerosolised diesel being sprayed over the engine bay. What temperature would the exhaust manifold be during normal running? What is the autoignition temperature of diesel?

Listen, you can think there won't be a fire as much as you like, but consider this: Why would the manufacturer concede that a fire was possible if it wasn't?
Quote from amp88 :Given S14's confusion over definitions I wanted him to try and explain what he was thinking.



A little diesel seeping from a dodgy seal or joint is different from atomised/aerosolised diesel being sprayed over the engine bay. What temperature would the exhaust manifold be during normal running? What is the autoignition temperature of diesel?

Listen, you can think there won't be a fire as much as you like, but consider this: Why would the manufacturer concede that a fire was possible if it wasn't?

Well manufacturers or companies of any sort have to consider the worst possible scenario so they don't get sued.

Like on some medication the side-effects list are random as hell, because idiots believe painkillers per example can give them x side-effect when in reality it was caused by something else.
Feck DSG, manual ftw...
I have driven and always preferred manuals but when I test drove a DSG last month I was completely sold. It was quick, smooth, responsive to manual inputs, a very good gearbox. You literally could not tell when an upshift occurred and I'm not just bleating marketing spiel. In sport mode it would blip aggressively on the downchanges to match the revs perfectly each time, if you were decelerating the downchanges were equally as smooth as the upchanges. Although if you were accelerating and you decided to change down, you would feel it but it's no worse than any of the regular ZF automatics such as BMW, Jaguar, etc.

In "D" it would shift "economically" so at around 2300rpm in the Golf 1.4 TSI 170 I tried. In "S" depending on throttle input, it would shift much higher, around 4500rpm unless you floored it, in which case it would pull to just below the redline and shift up. In manual mode it would do what you wanted, when you wanted.

Not only that but it's quicker than a manual, more tunable (can take more torque) and you get better miles to ze gallon.

I want a Golf Mk5 GTI as my next car and will definitely be getting the DSG. And because I want the DSG I'll be getting it from a VW dealer with a warranty. The only thing I will make sure is that I get the flappy paddles as those are awesome.
Quote from BlueFlame :Like on some medication the side-effects list are random as hell, because idiots believe painkillers per example can give them x side-effect when in reality it was caused by something else.

are you really that stupid? the side effects are determined by clinical trials
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