There will be new content interspersed with old content for a while…
It’s weird to do car diagnostics from no where near the car. Email diagnostics were taken to a new level with one of the old Golfs – a Brasilian Golf IV TDI that had massive electronic issues. After throwing parts at it for two months under warranty, I called in the help of a trusted friend and VW tech, emailing the longest list of codes I had ever seen: 174 in total. The solution, according to the friend, was to search every ground lug in the car out, and check it. This is a seven hour job, and the dealer was not interested until I threatened to lemon the poor car. I did not want to do that, but hey, it worked. The culprit ended up being a $1.50 acorn nut that was loose on the ground point under the battery. For nine more years under our ownership, the car went without a single problem that could be traced to bad electronics. Actually, it went without any problem that could not be solved in an hour in the driveway, or a call to the warranty office. It was a good car, afterall.