4000km report + some questions

[FSI 220]

Getting on three months now... really enjoying the car... but first the questions.

None of these are huge, but with the 5000km dealer inspection coming up;

auto lights - (no, not the xenons... they allways think its the xenons...) OK so i have ye olde fashioned incandescent... I am beginning to think my car thinks it's a volvo... the lights are on about 90% the time when on auto, they might switch to DRL mode at midday on ultra sunny days when I choose to duck out for lunch... started happening when the mornings got below 10 degrees... is this a feature? (ony other difference in my behavior is i use the demist and seat warmers, surely the car doesnt take that into account and assume fog)

Random acts of Memory seat weirdness - Ocasionally, out of the blue the memory seats seem to go awry... I get in the car and the seats are weird to start, push my m1 button and the thing tries to turn me into a pretzle, it is as if the key has suddenly picked up a new default... or the car has reverted to a factory setting (where m1 is the 80th percentile human) does this happen to anyone else? about once a fortnight it happens. It isn't like anyone else drives my car.

Rear wiper cap. Is there meant to be a cap? If I look at the base of the wiper, I can see the nut, there looks like there should be a half crescent cap... but if I mosey on over to check out the rear wipers of the odd golf , there are also missing this cap. Is there a cap? it would make things a lot neater, or there is a cap that keeps falling off . I wouldnt think that all the cheap cars on earth dont have an exposed nuts on the rear wiper, but VW is too lazy to put one on.


As for the car in general...

Loving it, loving the look (apart from the cherry tails, anyone know of someone that can apply a quality film - not to go black, but just smoke them a little so they are similar to a Golf R in colour?), liking the wheels (painful to clean tho - when I am washing the car I wish they were Kanzas).

Loving the interior, nice place to be (i like it simple and classic), the RCD looks the part and makes it look smic - but

Audio head unit: Maybe someone can give me tips.... but i find the RCD is a turkey to actually use, navigating through menus to adjust something doesnt revert back to the home screen you have to explicitly "back" or click on the "radio" button to get back to the radio screen, navigating music selections (eg when using the iPod connection) is laborious if you are in the mood for a particular artist or album, i cant pick a letter... I have to pull over (cant do it driving) and drag the bar (without dynamic scroll - you have to guess roughly where C for Cake is ) find the selection then kick it off.

Still, it looks good... just clunky to use, it is a bottom end head unit in a flashy frock.

Dynaudio: Ok, this has changed... When I first got it i hated it, the tweets were harsh, like cleaning your ears out with drill bits... so i never ran it loud... after a month or two these came good, so i finaly started pumping it a bit more this meant the wooly mid and base finally started getting a work out... these are finally loosening up with a bit of volume.

So where are we now? Staging height is good, imaging is not so good (the tweets in the door sails are never going to help) and it sounds good (tweet, mid and higher bass) on about 80% of music if it is run loud, but that is it... has to be loud and a quality feed (crap or lossy recordings are reproduced faithfully)... really needs a sub for lower bass, and it gets wooly when there is a wall of frequencies (eg the verve).

if it aint loud, no base comes through, an you cant really wind up the base as the trebble mid bass controls are two blocky, it really needs a "loud" button (back to the 80's) at least I dont want to fling it out the window though! The actual speakers seem like they are great, but IMHO they are not being fed the right signals, it really needs a good EQ.

I like the suspension controls, but I seem to touch down everywhere, i cant even use the old El Rancho carpark on Epping rd without scraping over every speedhump... i have to put the suspension into SPORT over speedhumps in general to prevent compression to lessen the graunch, but it is worse than my old WRX or even RX5 (that was relatively long and low). I would hate to be in one of them stanceworks cars...

Engine is loosening up, what was 13.5 l/100 is now 12.5 ... goes well , love the DSG (in sport)... love the sunroof, the flat cornering (in sport)... all in a car that looks like it couldn't pull the skin off hot milk (shouldnt have put my displacement on my number plate!)

Cheers

John

[entice]

seats.

are you using different keys? the keys have memory too


Wiper cap:
the washer squirter is in there so the top half is open.

The Dyn's.
Well, I'm afraid I cant help you there. Getting audio right in a car at all volumes is tricky. It's a unique and confined environment that has it's own compromises.

[R36 DSG]

Good to hear your enjoying the car. I've recently had the light sensor recoded by the dealer cause I was having the same problem, seems to be ok now. In regards to the memory seat might just need to reset the settings. This can be done by sliding the seat base all the way forward then the seat height all the way up then the backrest all the way forward, making sure to tap the lever again at the end of each movement. If done correctly you will hear a couple of beeps. You'll then need to reprogram the memory settings.
We've been averaging between 10-11 L/100 with a lot of hwy driving, you should be able to get similar if not better fuel consumption as I believe the gearing is slightly taller compared with the R36

[FSI 220]

seats.

are you using different keys? the keys have memory too


Wiper cap:
the washer squirter is in there so the top half is open.

.... baghead for the squirter thing, never noticed it squirt from below... as for the keys, we only run one set of keys on either car, the other is hidden... next time the seats go weird I'll try that process...

[Riker]

Good little write up mate & on most points from my perspective a slice out of the same pie. I have been 5.5 months with 4700km's covered..... I too like the look, especially the dark tint on white. The power, DSG, ride/suspension, seats, quality, driver aid goodies etc, etc, etc... Only recall one mild scraping incident over an island sized speed bump. I drive mostly in standard susp mode.

Can't help with the non xenon auto lights question nor the memory seats poltergeist that has taken control of your seat. My electric/memory seats have been very well natured & have shown no signs of extraordinary activity. We too only use the one key, with the other hidden away so it seems your little conundrum is quite paranormal indeed. A story of similar interest, I had my Passat in for the first 'health check' service last week & got to chatting with my service rep. Anyway, they had a blue B7 125Tdi in with an electric seat issue. Seems the electric function is operating fine but the memory function is not working at all. They couldn't diagnose the cause & need the car back apparently. Seems a small number of the B7's electric/memory seats come free with little poltergeists........

As for the Vicenza wheels, the thought of cleaning them was one reason why I swapped my Vicenza's to the Kansas wheels. Easy to clean & they look great.

The rear wiper head unit does have a wide opening, nothing missing. See the quick & dirty pic below......