DJ's adventures in A2 land

My own A2 will also do this, but I never allow it to. Even if the VGT turbo in the TDI90 allows enough torque to be developed and the engine seems comfortable, low-rev, high-load scenarios are terrible for the engine and gearbox bearings, and are thought to be a major contributor to oil-pump-mechanism wear. As such, the moment that I go below 60mph, I change down to 5th, even if that increases fuel consumption slightly. Long term, I believe this to be the lesser evil.

Cheers,

Tom

I agree with your logic Tom and will now follow the same methodology going forward, I guess it’s the equivalent of doing <1200 rpm in top in the Touran, with its additional cylinder - which I would never do either: 1400 is my minimum for that and only on the flat. Any incline or need for acceleration and I change down.

Still, interesting that the car will do it!
 
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I agree with your logic Tom and will now follow the same methodology going forward, I guess it’s the equivalent of doing <1200 rpm in top in the Touran, with its additional cylinder - which I would never do either: 1400 is my minimum for that and only on the flat. Any incline or need for acceleration and I change down.

Still, interesting that the car will do it!
My parents have a VW Touran 1.9 TDI with a 6-speed 'box. Like you, I've found that it'll chug along seemingly quite happily in high gears at low revs ...but I can't bring myself to allow it. :)
 
Evening all,

Today I spent an enjoyable couple of hours cleaning all the winter muck that clings to all cars round ‘ere in the country - For the first time it allowed me to inspect the bodywork and clear the bonnet vent of leaves / detritus - on that note, when I picked the bonnet off for this purpose it was full of water where the two rubber drain ends on it’s underside were totally blocked!

I know this thread has precious few pics so I thought I’d post a few showing the results. There are a few stone chips on the bonnet that will require a touch-up so I’ll need to order a pen or pot & fine brush. Other than this however the body and paint is as good as it looks in the pics, save for a very small patch of lacquer peel on the roof where it can’t ordinarily be seen.

The interior could really do with a thorough valet but that will have to wait for now.

Oh and final point - My wife and her family have decreed that Merlin shall henceforth be called Audrey, not exactly sure why!! Thread title and my avatar to be updated based on this post.


EDIT, I remember why Audrey now, it goes back to my bro-in-law’s assessment of her as being “a souped up granny wagon” - there was an old Aunty called Audrey in the family at one time, so there it is!
 

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David,

You really do have a great looking A2 there. It polishes up beautifully, a stunning colour! Have you fitted the Auto Headlight Switch yet?

Is the interior just as nice as the outside?

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Thanks both, yes the winter grime does make it look very dull so I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely it came up with a pre-wash, snow foam, two bucket Zip Wax with a wash mitt, then a spray of Sonax detailer which acts a long-lasting wax when you then dry the car with microfibre towels. Should be good for 2/3 months in terms of protection, although I fully expect the car to look terrible again the next time it goes anywhere - there’s so many farms surrounding our village that the roads just get covered in mud and manure!

Tom, I have both the foot rest and also the headlight switch safely stored in the garage awaiting the time Audrey comes fully back into our household as my car again - I was only washing it as I need to send some pictures to Adrian Flux in order to activate the agreed-value element of the insurance policy. Currently the car is still on loan to my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, so neither is a priority for me right now, especially with two toddlers and a young baby in the family taking up the vast majority of my non-work time!

Rest assured, I am very much looking forward to getting both upgrades installed when the timing is right - I remain extremely grateful to you on both counts. ?
 
I am trying to imagine what the lovely Audrey would look like with a set of A1 9 spokes on her in bright silver? what a beautiful premium colour cherry red is and a fine example with no expensive and care being lavished on her, pic of Audrey ( merlin ) on the transporter with the pepperpots is A2 perfection.
 
Yes my preference would have been pepper pots + CrossClimates all year round, but as mentioned earlier in the thread, the summer tyres that are on them are almost new so separate winter wheels it is - these don’t look bad with the @depronman refurbished centre caps though.
 
Evening all,

Today I spent an enjoyable couple of hours cleaning all the winter muck that clings to all cars round ‘ere in the country - For the first time it allowed me to inspect the bodywork and clear the bonnet vent of leaves / detritus - on that note, when I picked the bonnet off for this purpose it was full of water where the two rubber drain ends on it’s underside were totally blocked!

I know this thread has precious few pics so I thought I’d post a few showing the results. There are a few stone chips on the bonnet that will require a touch-up so I’ll need to order a pen or pot & fine brush. Other than this however the body and paint is as good as it looks in the pics, save for a very small patch of lacquer peel on the roof where it can’t ordinarily be seen.

The interior could really do with a thorough valet but that will have to wait for now.

Oh and final point - My wife and her family have decreed that Merlin shall henceforth be called Audrey, not exactly sure why!! Thread title and my avatar to be updated based on this post.


EDIT, I remember why Audrey now, it goes back to my bro-in-law’s assessment of her as being “a souped up granny wagon” - there was an old Aunty called Audrey in the family at one time, so there it is!
Audrey is a good name, it is my mum's name and she loves the A2 and says she misses mine being parked on her drive, I might have to buy another one just to leave on here drive ?
 
Following on from my posts in the cetane booster thread, some of you may now that I’ve been using the Millers diesel ecomax additive in my Touran and have been keeping the bottle in the oil top-up bag in the boot:


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I am aware this is non-A2 content but I intend to do the same with Audrey when she comes back into the family full-time, so I though this may still be of interest to some here.

Anyway, although I’m seeing enough good results on the Touran for it to be worth the effort to me (one assumes the effect will be at least the same on Audrey - to be discovered), one thing that always bugged me was the design of the bottle - no matter how careful I was, I ended up spilling a few drops down the side, which meant that even when inside a plastic re-sealable bag instead of the supermarket bag pictured above - then stowed inside the top-up bottle bag - the Millers bottle would always stink the car out. Clearly I needed a better solution.

First, I thought a preloaded syringe with a bung on the end might be a good idea, but this was swiftly discounted on the grounds that a syringe that can hold 55-60ml as needed each time would be too long to fit in the oil bag, also I didn’t know whether the seals in the syringes I saw would be sufficiently chemically-stable so as not to be dissolved by the Millers.

Whilst browsing Amazon searching with keywords like “long-neck small bottle”, something caught my eye:
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Perfect! These squeezable machine oilers hold 120 ml - perfect for both the Touran (which takes 55ml of additive per tank) and Audrey (35-40ml), have a graduated scale on the side so I can accurately meter each dose and crucially, a nice long cranked neck made of steel that I can use to push open the filler flap, complete with a screw cap on the end: This should mean I can accurately meter a dose of Millers and not have it dribble down the neck and bottle - plus two of them should easily fit in the top-up oil bag, which will give me 4 tankfuls on the Touran or 6 in Audrey - hooray!

So a few days later they arrived.
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They seemed as good as I’d hope at first glance, however one of my criteria was of course that they must not leak the liquid as although they will be stored in the top-up bag upright, they might get squeezed due to the load in the boot shifting round corners and resting on the bag. When I tested one by filling it with water and squeezing it with the cap done up tight, the metal nozzle cap (which has no sealing washer built into it) leaked.
 
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I was disappointed and almost gave up on the oiler idea to be honest - however, I hit upon the idea of replacing the nozzle’s metal screw cap with some kind of bung instead; 10 mins measuring the nozzle diameter and some further searching on Amazon later and I found exactly what I was looking for; I think they are designed to protect / sheath threads of bolts where the thread sticks out when in situ, however in this application they are air tight and the bottle does not leak even when compressed hard with the bung nice and snugly in place - They are now under observation for a couple of weeks whilst filled with Millers - just to check they don’t start dissolving!!!

Hope this is of interest to anyone else who is thinking of using a fuel additive but is put off by the same crap bottle design.
 

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I was disappointed and almost gave up on the oiler idea to be honest - however, I hit upon the idea of replacing the nozzle’s metal screw cap with some kind of bung instead; 10 mins measuring the nozzle diameter and some further searching on Amazon later and I found exactly what I was looking for; I think they are designed to protect / sheath threads of bolts where the thread sticks out when in situ, however in this application they are air tight and the bottle does not leak even when compressed hard with the bung nice and snugly in place - They are now under observation for a couple of weeks whilst filled with Millers - just to check they don’t start dissolving!!!

Hope this is of interest to anyone else who is thinking of using a fuel additive but is put off by the same crap bottle design.
Hi David,

Both my dad and I use the same additive. Obviously hard to say what the actual benefit is but it certainly doesn’t do any harm and (purely anecdotally) the engine does seem a little quieter with it than prior to me using it.

Im struggling to understand the issue you’re having with the bottle it comes in though. I’m far from the most precise or careful of people in honesty (Bull in a China shop and fat handed have been levelled at me in the past!) but I’ve always found the ‘squeeze the desired amount into the filling chamber’ then ‘down the hatch in one’ delivery method pretty efficacious and don’t ever remember spilling a drop? I may be missing something though?
Erling
 
For some reason, I always seem to get two or three drops dribbling down the outside of the bottle neck and behind the black collar that you use to help push open the little tank flap, meaning you can’t wipe it off and even those couple of drops are enough to ensure the car then absolutely stinks in the back / boot area where the top-up bag is kept.

It could be that it’s more of a problem on the Touran due to the vertical nature of the bodywork where the flap is, meaning the millers bottle is a bit more cumbersome- I’m not sure; but as I say, I find it impossible not to spill a couple of drops, and that’s all it takes to be an issue.
 
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For some reason, I always seem to get two or three drops dribbling down the outside of the bottle neck and behind the black collar that you use to help push open the little tank flap, meaning you can’t wipe it off and even those couple of drops are enough to ensure the car then absolutely stinks in the back.

It could be that it’s more of a problem on the Touran due to the vertical nature of the bodywork where the flap is, meaning the millers bottle is a bit more cumbersome- I’m not sure; but as I say, I find it impossible not to spill a couple of drops, and that’s all it takes to be an issue.
I know what you mean re the smell. I managed to not put the lid back on properly and had it in my glove box. Lost half a bottle and it reeked for months. Fat handed as I said.
 
Well, so far so good, it seems that after several days of testing, these bottles have proven leak-free:
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I will therefore transfer them to oil top-up bottle in a plastic bag and see how I get on at the next fill-up, which won’t be for a while due to lockdown!
 
Where did you get that nice VW bag for the boot of your car?
Afternoon,

The oil bag/pouch was an OEM item with all A2s when new (I think). I’ve actually had these with the latest 4 A2s I’ve purchased.

They fit a 1l bottle of oil in perfectly and have a velcro strip on the back so you can adhere it to the luggage compartment carpeted panels.

I’m sure members like @A2Steve or @Clackers have a few in their spares box.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
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