Golf IV 00 and Airbag - where to service

redman

I am looking for an alternative to MSL to send my wife's 00 Golf to.

It has the airbag light on but my experiences of MSL has been poor.
Anyone know of someone reputable in the Dun Laoghaire/Cabinteely area to use that is reasonable?

Cheers
Redman

crosstownk

I know a guy in the North Dublin City area - excellent with VWs. I know it's not exactly the area you're looking for but if you don't get anything more local send me a PM and I'll give you the details.

I sympathise with your experiences with MSL - but its typical of them, tbh.

cwriley

redman wrote:

I am looking for an alternative to MSL to send my wife's 00 Golf to.

It has the airbag light on but my experiences of MSL has been poor.
Anyone know of someone reputable in the Dun Laoghaire/Cabinteely area to use that is reasonable?

Cheers
Redman

I too am looking for a reliable mechanic for a '94 Golf in the Dun Laoghaire / Dublin 18 area. Did you have any luck finding anyone local?

Regards,

Chris

fixxation

Hi

Did anyone having any luck finding a reliable mechanic in the Dun Laoghaire? I took my Golf into MSL last week and when the car was returned, my Bluetooth headset has "mysteriously" gone missing from the glove compartment... ! The battle with them begins now... :mad:

A.

redman

no luck still!!

skibum

I have used two garages in Bray over the last 10 years to look after our cars,

Abbeyview motors, 70 / 80 greenpark road, Bray. 286 8421

and

Hopkins Garage, Beside Dargle Bridge, Bray. 286 1863.

Both nice places to deal with.

My mum had her 00 polo serviced with MSL and I honestly couldn't believe the bill, never again. She got abbeyview to do her last service and it was a little over half the cost of the MSL service.

podgee

Jetstar (www.jetstar.ie) in Deansgrange is your answer. They are down the road that is opposite Dun Laoire IT - beside Ashgrove Interparts.

Like you, I am not a Pottery Road fan - I have found Jetstar on the other hand to be very good - they're a VW Service Agent.

Hope this helps

Podgee

redman

Sorry just saw that last post now. Thanks a lot for that !

Calibos

I can relate to this thread on so many levels!!

The brother who I just sold my A3 to is selling is 00 Mark IV golf with airbag light permanently on and car in need of a service to a another brother. He wants to get it serviced before handing it over to the second brother and asked me where he should bring it to.

He asked whether he should bring it to the Service Centre I got my A3 serviced in.

I said "at MSL!!??", "Not on your $^&$ing nelly!!"

Had my first 'MSL experience' last year when my A3 went in for a service and flywheel recall.

Told me car would be ready next day. Rang next day to 'I don't knows' and "get someone to call you back" several times. Finally got a callback after 3 or 4 callbacks by me! Eventually told car could be collected that evening. Are you sure? Eh hold on I'll double check.......Eh no tomorrow afternoon actually.

Same I dunno and failed call back scenario again the next day and unbelievably the same, Yeah collect this evening....are you sure.....eh no tomorrow actually. How many effing times would I have driven in to collect a car that was not ready would I have done had I not double checked before making the journey!!

On the third day I was assured the car was ready for morning collection. About to head out the door at about 10am and rang again 'just in case'....You guessed it. Actually wouldn't be ready till the early evening.

When I finally went in to collect the car I dropped the hire car back to the car rental place up the road where I found out I had being driving uninsured for three days as the monkies there had transferred my insurance to the wrong $*%&ing hire car!!

Someone from the hire place dropped me back up the road to MSL to collect my A3. The recall work had been done and because my car was such low mileage for a 2 yo car the service Rep said it had only needed a Lube service. Eh....so why have you charged me for a full service then??!!........Oh dear, sorry 'bout that!!!!! :rolleyes:

Luckily I was on the ball and saved several wasted journeys and a few hundred quid.

................Wasn't on the ball last week though...........

Dropped my new TT in to get the alarm blip turned on after MSL monkies had forgot to do it during PDI.

After arguing for 20 minutes up through the several members of the chain of command at MSL, I finally persuaded the monkies that the TT had an Audi factory fit alarm who's alarm blip could be enabled with the diagnostic computers out back in about 2 minutes. Well convinced them of this after I demanded they ring someone in Germany to confirm. The monkies all the way up the chain kept on insisting it was an aftermarket alarm and was nothing to do with them.

Finally came back and said that Germany said it was a factory fit alarm.

YEAH, I %*&*ing know already!!

To cut a long story short I waited another 2 hours and they finally brought the car back out front with the alarm blip finally enabled just as the doors were being closed and staff were leaving. I now had only 5 minutes to get somewhere else I needed to be before 6pm and was glad to get out of that #$^%hole.....and..I ....didn't give the car......a once over.....inspection

Guess What??

THEY CURBED MY 1 WEEK OLD $%^&ing TT ALLOY

I have no comeback because I didn't point out the car was pristine going in and didn't check it and find the curbed wheel when I left.

AARRGGHHH

So the Lesson for other readers is.......Avoid MSL like the $%^&ing plague!!

mendo

Thanks good that I didn't even think to go to MSL (that is just down the road to where I live) and I fixed the airbag problem myself.

I have to get a second key for my '99 Polo and I was going to post here to find out about the WV dealers.

Thank you very much for the advice.

Mendo

redman

Mendo , how did you fix the airbag problem?

mendo

The fault was that the "airbag coil" (or "clock spring" in USA) was broken.

I had to buy the VAG-COM cable (from ebay a serial one is 24 euro including delivery) and I've downloaded the software from Ross Tech (the free version) to scan the ECU .

In the airbag module I had a "fault no 0588 - resistance too high".
This meant that the cable between the airbag and the ECU is broken.
When I looked at the back of the steering wheel the cable was broken in the airbag coil.
The airbag coil is making the connection between the airbag and the ECU.

It was a straight forward fault, but it took me some time to figure it out, because I didn't have all the tools from the start.

I was lucky and I've got the a second hand airbag coil from a friend ( a new one is 120 euro). Or I found a SH steering wheel with the airbag and the coil for 90 euro (but I didn't have to buy it at the end).

The VAG-COM cable is good to have, even to give you an idea where the problem is, even if you are not going to fix the problem yourself.

The most common problem with the airbag are the connections, the airbag unit itself (the one in the steering wheel) and the last, the airbag module of the ECU.
The first two are easy to fix by replacing the connectors, cables, coil, airbag unit (most of the time the connectors/cables are part of the coil and can only be replaced with the coil unit).
When the airbag module in the ECU is faulty, is a bigger job.
I haven't investigated further because I've managed to fix the problem I had.

If you want more details with pictures let me know.

Mendo

mendo

Redman, I can do a scan for you if you want (and of course is for free, I am not a mecanic but just a guy that likes to know what is wrong with his car).

Mendo

redman

Cheers Mendo, I'll PM you.