Stuart's Volkswagen Golf Mk 5/V Forum

we have test driven a Mark 5 at a VW dealership and was due to pick up the car yesterday but noticed the drivers electric window - when it was halfway down and pulled the switch to lift the window - it started to go up slightly and then fully went down.

The garage said they took it into their service centre for diagnostics today but no fault was found. Is this normal? If so does it happen often or once in a while?

Hi,

I think all that happened was the controlling mechanism for the window
sensed a higher level of resistance than it was expecting as the window
started to move up and so it automatically wound the window down as a safety measure.

This has very occasionally (i.e a couple of times in nearly 6 years)
happened in my car. All you need to do is retrain the controlling mechanism
to the normal level of resistance. From memory I think you do this by
pushing and holding the open button on the driver's door window control
until the window opens fully. Then push and hold the close button until the
window fully closes. That's it. You should not have this problem again.

Hope that helps. Let me know how you get on,
Stuart

ok thanks i will try that.

We are picking the car up tomorrow from the showroom - they told me when they tested it they found no fault.

Do you still have your mark 5 Golf or have you since changed it for a mark 6?

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Hope you enjoy your Mk V. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Yes I still have my Mk V. It's just over 6 years old now and running great. I have driven a Mk 6 and do like them but have no plans to upgrade anytime soon.

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Thank you for your help a few weeks ago.

Just to update you, i have had the car two weeks now:

On a few occasions now the drivers elctric windows has gone down when i go to lift it up - so i have taken the car in to the main dealer service centre today where i bought the car from to hopefully get this fixed.

Also the rubber door seals around the doors themselves are all coming away - the adhesion seems to be failing so they are looking into this and repalcing any seals that are coming adrift. I noticed on my old Mark 4 Golf that there were no rubber seals on the doors themselves, only on the main frame of the car so this problem could not occur.

The engine fan often stays on for ages after i switch the car off when the air con has been on - this often used to happen on my Mark 4 but only for a couple of minutes - here it can be up to 20 mins. Does this happen to you?

Do you have an aerial on the roof of your car for the radio? This one doesn't but i noticed some do and some dont?

Regards

Daniel

Hi again,

Further to the e-mail i just sent i have another question:

One of the things i mentioned when i took the car into the main dealer was an occasional pinging noise coming from the engine.

I took the car out round the block with a technician as it usually happens when accelerating from standstill. We heard it brifly and he said its most likely caused from using a bad quality fuel e.g from Tesco or Sainsbury's. He said if i next fill up at a Shell or Esso service centre or use higher octane fuel this wont happen.

Is this correct?
I found this article about it:

http://peugeotlogic.com/info/info1.htm.

Let me know what you think

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Two of the problems you mention, I've experienced.

My car's electric windows going down when I want them to go up has only happened once or twice in 6 years. Like I think I said before, I don't think this is a fault, but rather the electric windows need to re-learn the normal resistance. Hopefully this can be easily fixed for your car.

I've only had problems with the front passenger's door rubber seal. This started hanging off quite early on (about 6 months old). Fortunately a bit of Epoxy-resin type glue sorted that out easily enough. I think the earlier you catch this problem, the easier it is to fix because once they start hanging down, I imagine the rest of the seal will quickly become detached.

The engine fan staying on for 20 minutes does sound excessive. The only time I've noticed the fan after turning off the ignition is on a hot day when the air conditioning has been running. But then it only continues to run at full speed for a couple of seconds before taking about a minute to stop completely.

My car doesn't have an external aerial either. The aerial is integrated into the rear window demister element. Apparently it's a fancy type of aerial called a Diversity aerial. There are 2 separate aerials and the stereo picks which provides the strongest signal. Apparently some people reported poor reception and VW appear to have switched back to using a single, external aerial on newer cars. I've never had any complaints and like not having an external aerial.

Finally, your other email mentioned pinking. I take it then that your Mk V is a petrol rather than my 1.9 TDI? I have experience of pinking in other (petrol) cars. My understanding is a little pinking is ok but it shouldn't be too noticeable under normal driving. Also, I think the FSI VW engines are optimised to run on 97RON unleaded. They can run on 95RON (normal unleaded) but might use slightly more fuel. Also, it might take a tank or two for the control systems to adjust. I agree with the technician: try a branded fuel for a tank or two.

Let me know how you get on,
Stuart

Hi Stuart

Many thanks for your time and e-mail.

Hopefully the garage can sort out the electric window issue. The door seals look as though they have been left for too long without repair so they may have to replace the whole lot.

The description of your engine fan sounds just like my old Mark 4 Golf - the newer car sometimes stays on for a long time - a few times well over 10 mins. They are checking this out too.

The version we have is a 1.6 FSI auto. Funny thing is when we were test driving the car it ran low on fuel and the salesman told us to drive into a sainsburys service centre and filled up on standard unleaded. When we picked up the car they threw in a full tank of petrol and i imagine it was filled up at sainsburys. Net time i will try Esso or 97 Octane fuel (which i believe is also more efficient)

Other than that it seems a very nicely designed car - althogh not quite the bullet proff build quality of the Mark 4. May because its an early 04 plate model.

Will keep you posted.

Daniel