Q for maybe @Milky or @Dubs ? 2000 6n2 Polo, suffering from the usual Pinball Machine Dash Syndrome. How hell do you get dash cowl off? Torx screw removed, I've eased and squeezed and used Maximum Profanity. Still won't unclip (even Haynes reckons it's a beggar). Any tips?
No idea! I don’t think I have ever had one off. I assume you have googled it, and despaired at the AI overview, which was something like “undo screws, remove cowl”
That's beauty of generalised AI - it will soon have no knowledge except what it tells itself and be stuck in a permanent loop. Narrow use AI seems to have some very useful medical uses though, and some very bad ones.
AI seems to think that the torque setting for the sump plug on a 2000 type 4 is 30nm! It seems to ignore the fact that different engines have a different requirement. Also, an Atari 2600 console can beat AI at chess.
I hate AI with a passion… I’m sure somewhere it’s doing some good, but trying to find actual information now is a right pain… YouTube was bad enough for having to listen to a load of waffle to find one sentence of use, but now we have to put up with chatbots or whatever it is, adding 63 superfluous words to an answer , before getting to anything of use. And then it’s probably wrong. You can’t beat a couple of boffins on a forum if you ask me
Right, it's out, after being subjected to paint-blistering profanity. The secret, should you wish to do the same, is to tape up the end of your widest flat-blade screwdriver and carefully prise down the slot between upper and lower cowl. They're held together with four thermonuclear spring clips, gripping plastic that's an estimated 0.0006mm thick. Only managed to bust one trim clip, which is pretty good going. I hate modern cars. Pod can go off to the repairers, who seem entirely familiar with the problem (seems to afflict older Golfs as well). Dodgy connectors or voltage regulator failure or somesuch. Random warning lights, followed by the expiry of the speedometer. You may get a constantly flashing coolant light as a bonus.
Which is exactly what Google AI said, followed by "remove instrument pod and send it to a suitable repairers". Well, f- me rigid. Why didn't I think of that? Amazing. Given that AI just feeds on itself, it will become progressively more stupid, like someone talking to themselves in a darkened room.
Good work - what was the pinball problem - ghosting LCD display, half- lit digits etc? My 2006 Fox suffered this, only to right itself about 3 months ago, I can now see the time and the mileage! I thought it might have been crusty ECU plug connections, so dismantled the wipers and wiper/screen cover plate, wiggled the ECU plugs (can't unplug them as VW installed tamperproof bolts) and put it all back together. All I achieved was a blown fuselink that sent the ABS into fault.
Incessantly flashing coolant light, spurious half-brightness warning lights, intermittent LCD, then failure of the speedo. We'll see if they can fix it. Stuffed if not.
As they say on the Samba, the likes of ChatGPT are making life better for people who fix old cars because it increases the number of screwed up cars that turn up for repair, owned by people who believe the AI "instructions" . Trouble is because the AI is fed off Facebook and Twitter/X ramblings it really is as good as the bloke down the pub - it comes out with exactly what they would say on average. These days on Google I ignore the AI summary and the three pages of sponsored listings and find the gold just above the "you searched for torque settings, do you want to search for torture settings?"
You could fix this, @snotty, the connection header gets pulled off the board by the weight of the ribbon cable attached to it. Took me 5 minutes with a soldering iron to reflow the header and 20 minutes to reset everything via the diagnostic port. Edit; mine was a 2002 model, if that helps?
You could try to tighten/clean the ECU plug connections. Didnt make much difference on my Fox, but they do crud up apparently especially if, like mine, they are installed in the windscreen drain channel under the windscreen wiper panel.....
No, this is the instrument pod ECU, not the engine ECU (which does live under the wiper scuttle). Engine runs ok.
Any tips on undoing the 9,000 clips that hold the front of the pod to the back? I'm tempted just to cut them off and stick it back together with silicon.
