Reply With QuoteIs it one of these cars where you need to disassemble the whole motor in order to get to the blown main beam bulb?
My 2014 runabout VW Up! is totally reliable and a joy to drive. 50k kms/30k miles coming up and earlier this week I decided to change the plugs. With a workshop at hand and a set of 3 new Bosch sparkplugs, it's something that's pretty easy to do.
Not.
It took me a few hours and a lot of swearing to find out that VW made a mistake when they produced the early Up!s.
Picture this: after removing the air filter housing, you can see that the 3 cylinder engine has three tiny coils on top of the spark plug cap. The connector is easily removed and you see a bolt that needs to come undone to remove the coils. After removing the bolts (easy): no way that the coil + plug gap would come out of the sparkplug hole! I'd watched a movie where someone pours in WD40 to make it easier to slide out. No way! In the end, I phoned the dealer and asked about how and why: "Oh an early type... well, those caps didn't work well with the ceramic of the plug. You need to pull hard. It will snap into pieces. Then use a vacuum cleaner before you undo the plug itself. Then you have to get new caps. They're greased with special grease. These caps are € 8.00/piece!"
I also found out that there are two sorts of coils as well, and they don't mix. Luckily, these came off in one piece.
So... with another runabout to the dealer for 3 lousy pieces of plastic and a small sachet with grease. Changing 3 plugs took me the best part of the morning. Changing a 12 cyl Jag's sparkplugs is a quicker job.
Is it one of these cars where you need to disassemble the whole motor in order to get to the blown main beam bulb?
Fas est ab hoste doceri
Originally Posted by VDG
Close!
It's not too difficult as long as you don't follow the manual... The manual doesn't tell you that the plug sits very, very firmly on the bulb's prongs. One has to use a ridiculously amount of force to separate them.
So many cars are like this. I remember having to disassemble the wheel arch on some in order to get to the headlight housing. Two of the worst I’ve had are a Ford Focus and a Nissan Micra. Why is it so hard for a car designer to make it easy to change a bulb?!
Presumably this is rectified on later models? If so what are would be safer?
It's just a matter of time...
VW has now upgraded the plug caps. They all come with a dash of grease. Applied when you install the plug caps, this should form a sufficient barrier between the ceramic and the plastic. My 30k miles Up! is not really 'run in'; others have much more mileage and have a spark plug change for a second or third time. I suppose that the problem is now solved.
Tip: when your Up! has the same problem and you have to go to the dealer for new caps, take a pic of the coils as well so that you're provided with the correct plug caps.
Menno
i can't remember if it's the Golf V or VI, but changing a thermostat involves the removal of the inlet manifold!!!
Last edited by thieuster; 5th October 2019 at 18:40.
This is why I love my discovery .. plenty of room
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I feel your pain. I’m plucking up the courage to do the plugs on my s3. Ive already had a go at pulling the coils packs and they wouldn’t budge.
We have a 2013 Seat Mii. Think I'll leave them plugs alone. Need to do an oil change though. Have you done one? Have not been under to see where the plug or filter is yet and what fittings they are.
Great little cars though. I tested a few before buying such as Aygo, c1.... This was way better.
I did an oil change three times now (with the car's low annual mileage one service/year). Better than explaining how-to, this video says it all. It's recommended to loosen the oil filler cap on the upper side of the engine first. That way the oil will flush out earlier when you remove the plug. On the video, the guy is struggling with the filter. Other videos show that the filter sticks rock solid to the engine... I haven't had that experience apart from the fact that there's little room to wiggle. But I can use a full workshop with full raising ramps so I can get under the car without any hassle. Ask me and I'll tell you that its dead-easy to do, the men on the video will tell you differently!
Last edited by thieuster; 6th October 2019 at 07:07.
Aren't you supposed to just throw it away and get a new car when the lightbulb goes, nowadays?
On Golf Mk 4's the 'official' way (according to VAG) to change the headlight bulb involves removing the front bumper... I found it was possible to do it from above but it was a real PITA.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
If you have xenon lights on an s3 expect to have the inner wheel arches off and the front bumper too. :-(
Last edited by gazzafaegreenock; 6th October 2019 at 07:50. Reason: Spelling
Thanks. Pretty straight forward then though Looks like taking the filter off could get messy. The vid led onto a spark plug change vidhis coil came out although it looked tough. He sprayed some kind of silicone grease to put them back on. What a balls up in the design department that is.
Have you changed your glow-plugs yet?
Let's say: when someone comes in the workshop and ask us to change the glow-plugs of his Discovery, he's more than welcome for a cup of coffee, but no... we're not doing that. I don't want to be responsible for LandRover's design fault.
Perhaps a lot of people here tell that it's a walk in the park but nearly all Disco owners I know have had a problem like this with a hefty, hefty bill afterwards. (100% of the Discos here are diesels).
There's a tool called 'Vibropac 40' that is a lot of indy workshop use. Word has it that it works perfectly: ultrasound (or similar) breaks the contact between the cylinder head and the glow-plug. The price of the tool is north of 600 GBP. Too expensive for the every-now-and-then diesel that enters our classic car workshop. I know that it is in use in the agricultural world (tractors etc)
Last edited by thieuster; 6th October 2019 at 15:02.
50/50 whether they will come out or snap off!
Let's say: when someone comes in the workshop and ask us to change the glow-plugs of his Discovery, he's more than welcome for a cup of coffee, but no... we're not doing that. I don't want to be responsible for LandRover's design fault.
Perhaps a lot of people here tell that it's a walk in the park but nearly all Disco owners I know have had a problem like this with a hefty, hefty bill afterwards. (100% of the Discos here are diesels)
Luckily mine never failed (D3).
Full body-off access if they snap (in most cases) I am told.
Last edited by Maysie; 6th October 2019 at 15:20.
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