It had no discernible effect. I'm reluctant to narrow it further as that will take me outside the range the gap is "supposed" to be, and I might be getting rid of the car soonish. Thank you for the tip concerning valve sticking, btw. If I end up keeping the car, I might give it a go.RW1 wrote:When you narrowed the gap from 0.9mm to 0.8mm, did this lessen the effect. If so, narrow the gap to 0.7mm.
There's a new update to make as well. I didn't get far before further problems manisfested themselves. Some weeks ago the handbrake got stuck, which apparently isn't rare if you own a Volkswagen in Finland. During warmer periods (or if you take the car to a warm garage), water can sometimes end up inside the handbrake wire casing through cracks or seams. When the car is again exposed to freezing temperatures, the water inside the wire casing gets frozen and the wire gets stuck, hampering the release of the handbrake. In my case the left hand side rear brake got slightly stuck, which I noticed from the consumption figures as well as the slightly sticky feel when I let the car coast along. On its own this wouldn't be a huge problem as the wire could simply be changed, but thinking I managed to get it unstuck, I managed to scorch the brake disc while doing 62 mph on a motorway. The pad had been in very very light contact with the disc (unnoticeable in normal driving or coasting), but as heat had started to build up, heat expansion had kicked in and the contact got less light. I of course saw this as an increase in consumption figures and knew I had to stop the car. By the time I pulled the car over, the disk was already red hot like I had been doing laps on Nürburgring. I had the car checked up by a professional and although initial estimates were that the disc is probably fine, they eventually recommended that everything be changed due to the changed coloring of the disc. And if you change everything on one side, you need to have everything changed on the other side as well... The car is being serviced at this very moment and I'm looking at a ~800 e (about 685 pounds) bill.