Scirocco Central

A few days ago I decided to give my Scirocco an intermediate 3,000 mile oil and oil filter change and check a few other items in the engine bay and around the car. My main reason is because I do short journeys most of the time of around 5 miles and my annual mileage is about 6,000 miles a year.

I went further than just oil & oil filter change, the choice is yours as to what you would like to do yourself.

The tasks are relatively straight forward as with most cars. Only one critical item for the tool box in my opinion to prevent damage if you wish to check the Spark Plugs. That is the VW Coil Pack puller tool T10094A. This can be ordered at the Dealer’s Parts Department as they will recognise the tool as part number T10094A, which saves them the hassle of searching for the tool reference. (The 2.0 ltr Coil Pack Puller Tool - T40039)

Hopefully the following will give people the confidence where they are not quite sure.

With regard to warranty, my dealership service desk actually encouraged the oil change to be done given the low mileage and was quite happy for myself to do it. So armed with Oil and Oil Filter, this is how I went about it

Parts:

For the Oil Service:

Oil 5w30 VW504.00 Standard – 3.6 litres.(or VW504.00/507.00) – Paid £9.60/litre inc. VAT
Oil Filter – Part Number 03C 115 561B - £10.38 inc.VAT
Optional:

Sump Bolt including washer – Part Number N 908 132 02 - £1.55 inc. VAT
Air Filter - Part Number 1K0 129 620D
Pollen Filter – Part Number 1K2 819 653B
Screen Wash Concentrate – Part Number G 052 164 A2 – 1.0 Litres
Engine Coolant Concentrate G12++ - G 012 A8G M1 – 1.5 Litres

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Tools:

Hydraulic Jack and Axle Stand
19mm socket and Torque Wrench
Oil Filter Removal Tool (eg.Stahlwille 3045 with socket drive and ratchet + extension)
VW Coil Pack Puller Tool (for 1.4TSI Coil Packs) – T10094A - £34.80 inc. VAT
T30 Torx Bit and Ratchet
10mm Spark Plug Socket, Ratchet and extension
Feeler gauges (mm or thou)
Spark Plug cleaning brush (Suede Shoe Brush)
Tyre Pressure Gauge & Tyre Foot Pump

Optional Tools:

VCDS Diagnostics & Laptop PC.

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Methods:

Preparation

First warm up the by driving for 10 minutes if it is completely cold.

Start by removing the engine cover while the area is still warm. It will come off easier plus if either of the two little rubber grommets are ripped, they are £5 to replace each!
Lift the cover starting in the front left corner nearest the air filter intake. Then lift the other front corner. With it being warm, they should pop up under gentle lifting force. Now lift both front corners to about 10cm above the securing level and gently ease the cover forward towards you to pull/slide it out of the single centre rear securing position. Put the cover to one side for safety.
Now to prepare for access to the engine oil sump. Jack up the right front side of the car and also place an axle stand under for safety as well. I used my Jack Pad Point and put the axle stand under the car jack point on the undersill. Alternatively use the car jack and place the axle stand under where the suspension control arm joins the subframe.

This both tilts the oil over to the sump drain and gives safe access to undo the sump bolt from the front of the Scirocco underneath the engine. There is no need to remove the engine undercover as the engine oil sump drain bolt is open for direct access.

Draining the Oil:

With access underneath, now undo the sump bolt using a 19mm socket and ratchet. When all is empty a little later, the sump bolt can be re-fitted and tightened to 30Nm (2.0ltr is 30Nm). I was advised to change the sump bolt by the Parts Department but I found the original had been re-used at the first service 6 months previously. On examination, the captive washer was not a compression type. Just needed the mating surfaces to be clean.

As the oil empties from the sump drain hole, it shoots out 15cm rearwards so make sure your collection bowl is well positioned!

Leave the oil draining.

Checking Coolant & Screen Wash:

The pink coolant should be at the approximate level show in the photograph, between the minimum and maximum lines in the black dotted shaded area.
If the coolant level is low, top up with G12++ - part no. G 012 A8G M1. It should be mixed with the water as 2 parts coolant concentrate /3 parts water for -25’C protection as supplied in the engine for UK use from the factory. If it has gone down below the lower level, keep an eye on it in the coming weeks as there is a leak somewhere. A good engine does not loose coolant!
It is difficult to see the level in the screen wash reservoir. So mix the concentrate G 052 164 A2 with water and top up the mixture.
Summer: 1 part concentrate : 4 parts water
Winter to -16’C: 1 part concentrate : 2 parts water.

Checking and Re-Gapping the Spark Plugs:

(NB: You have to be very careful re-gapping fine wire spark plugs that have very small diameter platinum or iridium alloy electrodes. Feeler gauges or wire gauges should be used with gentle care when testing the gap by comparing with the feeler gauage. Otherwise the central electrode tip will be damaged.).

The revised NGK plug 03C 905 601A VW have introduced (September 2011) on the Scirocco 1.4TSi 160PS is NGK PZFR6R8EG. "8" refers to the plug gap... 0.8mm. Link to description

(VW have officially recognised the 1.4TSi 160PS spark plug gap at 0.7mm
Revised plug part number (again!) 03C 905 601B.)

The safe way of gapping these wire tip electrode plugs. Note the comment about breaking the tip if you are rough with them.

Spark plugs are not normally changed until 37,500 miles (60,000Km), ie 40,000 mile service. For my Scirocco, cleaning the spark plugs will be advantageous due to the short journeys. Also, it is worth taking them out to re-gap them as the factory do not check and so far all the plugs I have both in the engine as supplied and a set of spares have been over gapped.

The correct gapping is 0.8mm to 0.9mm (31.5 thou - 35.5 thou). I have found re-gapping the spark plugs to 0.74mm - 0.79mm (29 - 31 thou) results in a very smooth running engine. Hesitancy and axle tramp banging have gone. Still get left front wheel spinning occasionally but not as much.

To remove the spark plugs, the coil packs have to be removed using the Coil Pack Removal Tool T10094A. Without it, it is very difficult as the first time, the Coil Packs will held in with thick solid grease used for moisture protection which makes extraction very difficult. It is not advisable to try and pry the Coil Packs out as they will be damaged. Secondly as will be explained shortly, No.1 cylinder Coil Pack is very awkward to remove without the correct extraction tool T10094A or equivalent 3rd party tool.
So it is advisable to start at the easy end with No.4 cylinder Coil Pack and lift this out. No.4 cylinder is the left side of the engine bay near the Air Filter Housing and the Fusebox. Initially release the Coil Pack off the spark plug and raise it no more than about 2.5cm.
Now release No.4 Coil Pack’s electrical connector by placing the finger on the connector’s securing clip release bar on the underside of the connector, first pushing the connector inwards to the Coil Pack head, followed by pushing the release bar inwards to the connector body and then pulling the connector off the Coil Pack at the same time. Learn this method as you will struggle with No1’s connector in its tight confines when you get to it.

This was the state of my four coil packs at 10,000 miles.
Now the Spark Plug can be removed. The Extension Bar is a full length item. A half length bar will be sufficient to gain access to removing the spark plugs.
Next clean up the plug tip. Mine were not clean due to short runs.
I use a suede brush for the task. Then check and re-gap the plugs to a tight fitting 0.79mm (31 thou).
[Later in Sept'11 reset to 0.74mm (29 thou) Revised again in June 2012 to 0.70mm, (28 thou)]

(NB: You have to be very careful re-gapping fine wire spark plugs that have very small diameter platinum or iridium alloy electrodes. Feeler gauges or wire gauges should be used with gentle care when testing the gap by comparing with the feeler gauage. Otherwise the central electrode tip will be damaged.).

Refit the Spark Plug taking care not to cross-thread the Spark Plug into the cylinder head. The Spark Plug is tightened to a torque of 25Nm. Insert the Coil Pack into the Spark Plug hole and drop to the 2.5cm position above fully home by hand. Reconnect the electrical connection. The connector is fully connected when you hear a click sound.
Now engage the Coil Pack Tool T10094A and push the Coil Pack home onto the Spark Plug. Take care to align the Coil Pack Head with its plastic channelling. Alignment plastic walls are show as the RED arrows. If not aligned, damage could be made to the thin plastic channel walls. Do not push the Coil Pack into final position using pressure on its head top surface as damage may occur to the Coil Pack electronics in its head area. As it goes in place should lock onto the Spark Plug.

Repeat this set of operations for each cylinder, in the order of No.3, No.2 and No.1. No.3 cylinder Coil Pack & Spark Plug is exactly the same procedure as No.4. But note the following for No.2 and No.1.

Now the trickier cylinders to deal with. To remove No.2 Coil Pack, the procedure is the same but you must take car to move out of the way without damaging the rubber pipe indicated by the GREEN arrow. To do this remove the two Torx T30 head bolts (RED arrows), then pull upwards (YELLOW arrow first) the oil breather hose out of the chain housing and the Charge Pressure Control Valve (Faded YELLOW arrow second) which is held in position by a stud from its body into the Cam Cover. The Chain Cover end of the breather pipe will only be free enough to raise it about 5cm. The Charge Pressure Control Valve about 3 cm maximum raised height. Coil Pack removal/fitting is as before with No.3 and No.4 cylinders.

Now the real tricky one, No.1 Cylinder. With the Oil Breather pipe partially out of the way still, also disconnect the two electrical connectors indicated (PURPLE arrows) and stow the connectors out of the way of No.1 Coil Pack area. Disconnection of the electrical connectors is exactly the same procedure as the Coil Pack connections to release. As before gently ease upwards (2cm this time) No. 1 Coil Pack while avoiding damage to the Oil Breather pipe. Disconnect the Coil Pack connector and remove the Coil Pack carefully due to the Coil Pack’s cramped location. The No.1 Spark Plug removal/Cleaning/Gapping/Fitting is the same as the other cylinders.
When No1. Coil Pack is re-installed, refit the two electrical connections (PURPLE arrows), refit the Oil Breather to the Chain Cover . Locate the Charge Pressure Control Valve into the Cam Cover. Fit and tighten the two T30 Torx Head bolts (RED arrows). Lightly torque to 10Nm.

Refit the Engine Cover by sliding in the back rubber mount into its location and then pushing the two front mounts onto their black plastics studs. Don’t push too hard as you can rip the rubber grommets in the Engine Cover. Not cheap at £5 each if damaged!

Changing the Oil Filter:
Following the 1st service at the dealership, I anticipated some oil leakage as the Oil Filter was removed. They had returned the Scirocco with oil on the alternator body and engine undercover. It appears that by the time I reached this task from stopping the engine (1 hour), all the oil had drained away from the Oil Filter into the oil sump. So not a drop of oil was spilt. I would still advise something in place just in case oil is still being held by the filter.

Smear a little engine oil on the outer rubber seal of the new Oil Filter next to the canister body lip and sldo the shiny flat ring surface of the Oil Filter mounting on the engine block.

Refit the new Oil Filter by hand, making sure not to cross-thread it. Finally, tighten the Oil Filter to 20Nm (2.0ltr TSi 20Nm, TDi 25Nm).

There is no need to prime the Oil Filter before fitting nor can it be done due to its inverted position.

Filling Up with New Oil:

Firstly, wipe clean the engine sump drain surface area and sump bolt. Then re-fit the engine Sump Bolt. Tighten it to 30Nm (2.0ltrs are same, 30Nm). Move your old oil collection vessel away from under the Scirocco for later disposal

Remove the axle stand and let down and remove the hydraulic jack from under the Scirocco. The Scirocco is now level again to enable the oil level to be checked correctly.

Remove the oil dipstick and clean so that the new oil level can be measured.
Remove the Oil Filler Cap and slowly pour in 3.6 litres of oil. The oil filler is not a fast flowing filling rate. The 3.6 litres brings the oil level to the correct level on the dip stick. There is no additional oil top-up required for filling the Oil Filter after the engine has run.
After about 5 minutes, put the Oil Dip Stick into the engine and withdraw to check the level.

Finally, start the engine and run for one minute and check no oil pressure warning appears in the dash. On some Scirocco models, the warning is an oil can symbol, for some Sciroccos like mine with the Highline MFD, it is a worded message in the MFD display.

Air Filter Check/Change:

It is generally reckoned that a Paper Air Filter is past its prime at around 10,000 miles. VW recommend the Air Filter is changed at 90,000Km (56,250 miles) or 6 years on a 1.4TSi (same on 2.0Ltr except the “R” – 40,000Km or 4 years).

Also, a useful check to make sure there is no debris ahead of the Air Filter in the intake housing.
Firstly using a Philips head screwdriver, undo and turn until free the 8 screws.
Lift the upper half of the Air Filter housing and check/replace the Air Filter as necessary. I had already changed mine at the first service at 7,000 miles with one I got for half price at a VW show although its part number is for a VW New Beetle rather than 1K0 129 620D as is fitted to the Scirocco. Also check below the Air Filter and Filter housing for trapped debris and remove if found.

Refit the Air Filter top half housing and lightly tighten the 8 screws to 9Nm.

Pollen Filter Change:

I changed my Pollen Filter at the first service. The removal/replacement is straight forward and is covered here. It is normally changed every 2 years or 60,000Km (37,500 mils) by VW servicing. Make sure the replacement filter is light charcoal in colour – part number 1K2 819 653B. A pure white one if given does not remove airborne smells due to the lack of activated charcoal in the filter.

Checking the Tyres:

Always useful while the tyres are cool to check their pressures as per the inside of the fuel filler flap. I have been running my Bridgestone Potenzas (17”) as supplied by the factory at 30psi rather than the flap label setting of 33 psi. This is to counter centre area of the tread wearing faster than the outer/inner areas and it also gives better grip. If you adjust the tyre pressure, don’t forget to rest the Tyre Pressure Monitor System with the button in the centre dash console or later Sciroccos, inside the front of the glove box.

Inspect each tyre tread face on all its circumference for legal tread depth. Particularly the central areas of the tread on some tyre manufacturers, as the wide tyres such as fitted to the Scirocco are prone to increased centre tread wear. They can suffer from centrifugal forces forcing the central area outwards, causing increased wear.

Also inspect each tyre both outside and inside for damage to the side walls, any rips, gouges or otherwise should be referred to a tyre specialist or the dealers for a safety opinion.

Checking the Lights:

Even though the Scirocco has a bulb failure warning system fitted, not all are self checked. I performed a check of all lamps for correct operation.

Sidelights - front & rear (3 bulbs each side in rear light units)
Rear number plate lights
Headlights – dipped (outers) and full beam (outers & inners – Halogen, outers - Xenon)
Foglights – Front and single Rear
Indicators
Reversing lights (Ignition on, engine stopped, reverse selected)
Brake lights (Ignition on, prop a bar (hydraulic jack handle) between the brake pedal & driver’s seat base)

Diagnostics check with VCDS:

Finally a quick check on the Scirocco’s diagnostics with VCDS using the Autoscan facility of all the Controller Modules.
Oh dear, a problem in 09 – Central Electrics Controller.
The Autoscan revealed this as it reached the 09 – Central Electrics Controller.

1 Fault Found:
00907 - Intervention load Management
000 - -
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 01100000
Fault Priority: 6
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 227
Mileage: 16041 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2018.14.05
Time: 18:04:07

Freeze Frame:
Term 15 On
Voltage: 11.60 V
ON
ON
OFF
OFF
OFF

That wasn’t there 3 weeks ago! The fault is a warning that the Battery Management is has requested at some point the 09- Central Electrics to shut down some Scirocco electrical functions to shed load off the battery which is at a low charge level, indicated by the 11.60 volts. That ties in with the lack of use recently.

I later ran the engine to see if the alternator was outputting 14 volts. It was, so I hooked up the battery charger for a few hours. We’ll have to see how it goes and monitor it.

Service Log Book:

No action needs to be taken as this is not a VW service or annual/mileage service. The service interval indication doesn't need to be reset as that will warn when the next VW service is due.

Note the next “service due” at VW for your own reference.

00907 - Intervention load Management

Fault code has self cleared as anticipated. Battery voltage without the engine running reading through VCDS was 11.60 volts. Today after driving a little yesterday/today, 11.90 volts.

C.

After 2nd VW Service – Before 3rd VW Service 28th April 2012 @ 14,735 miles.

An after-winter service was done 28th April 2012. With the short journey’s of six miles, the engine only just reaches 90’C water coolant temperature and oil temp of 70’C in 16 minutes each time.

The spark plugs were looked at a couple of weeks earlier. All looked OK despite all the short 6 mile trips with an very occasional long motorway trip. Just cleaned them up, check the gaps were still at 29 thou (0.74mm). No change since setting to this gap 2,560 miles ago.
I added some Forté Specialist Injector Cleaner last week to the fuel tank which appears to have improved the engine’s running.
The rest of the servicing yesterday was to top up the windscreen wash tank which was almost empty after 6 months.

Check the tyres for damage. Nothing found. Tyre pressure as expected at 31 psi all round. Tyre wear has markedly slowed up since using a spark plug gap of 29 thou. (0.74mm). I was expecting to have to replace the tyres at 14,000 miles but it is now looking more like 18,000 to 20,000 miles.

Check the Coolant Header tank. It had dropped 2mm, but didn’t top up. Could not find any weep for this loss and have put it down to trapped air being forced out still since draining the coolant to change the two cooling system thermostats in December 2010. First sudden drop of level was 3mm. (the 1.4TSi cooling system is filled using a vacuum method to remove air first, which I couldn’t replicate.)

Checked the engine oil level with the dip stick. Was still the same as when VW did the 2nd service last October 2011. Right on the mark like this. Check with VCDS, 51mm depth.

Prior to changing the oil and oil filter, added some Forté Advanced Formula Motor Flush to clean the engine internals out and as a finishing point to the Camshaft Adjuster rattle on cold start up. http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... termediate" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I had solved by exercising the Camshaft Adjuster Solenoid Control Valve a few weeks prior to the service, this was belt and braces to makes sure any oil sludge was removed from the Camshaft Adjuster oil cavities and Solenoid Control Valve's shaft.

Ran the engine for 40 minutes with Forté Advanced Formula Motor Flush. Within about 10 minutes, the engine became very quiet, tappets quietened down very noticeably.

The old engine oil that came out of the sump was black, very much darker than last year and smelt fouler.

New oil added, 3.6 litres of Shell Helix Ultra AV-L 5w30 at £8/litres and a new oil filter 03C 115 561B.

Finally, a quick look round with VCDS diagnostics.......

Firstly the oil level in the Engine ECU – 01 Controller. 51mm depth registering.
Then a quick check for faults using VCDS Autoscan.
Not so happy, a problem with the Central Electrics – 09 Controller.

A check on Central Electrics – 09’s fault memory.....
No fault! OK, check the Scirocco’s battery voltage in the 09 Controller Measuring Blocks....
11.60 volts. Low again, so fault code 00907 - Intervention load Management is about to appear as at the previous service. The battery never gets a good charge on the short runs I do.

So next service (VW dealers 3rd annual service), due in late October 2012 at about 17,500 miles.

C.