John Oldfield : Car, Bike and Gadget Blog: 2025

Monday, 23 June 2025

2017 VW TIGUAN Rear Passengers door damage, full replacement with a second hand door (2021 model)

picture the scene, parked up in a multistory carpark for a basketball game, taken ages to park, reversed into a space next to a wall to make sure theres loads of space and only a car parked on one side....

spend the day watching basketball...

leave and attempt to pull out quickly from the parking space, forgetting theres a concrete bollard on an acute angle!

Needless to say there was a large scraping noise, at which point I knew it was bad, but then continued to drive home without looking!!

and so this was the damage....

nicely pushed in the entire door, including the chrome trim and lower painted section.

Luckily the sill was untouched.

At this point we are looking at options

1. Leave it
2. Get the door repaired inc paint (we pay ourselves)
3. Get the door replaced inc paint (we pay ourselves

4. Options 2 or 3 using Insurance claim (our excess is £500)

I consulted a local damage repair company who said is was marginal on dent fixing the original door and probably need a new skin

as well as the chrome trim and lower plastic part also supplied/painted.

At this point I considered whether I could find a full replacement door and swap it (by myself or by the damage repair company)

In the end I found a complete later (2021) rear door in white from a breakers.
It was £300

Actually removing the door is very simple.

unclip cable connector in door frame
2 bolts top and bottom and you just lift off the pins (you dont need to touch the actual hinges)

what I hadnt bargained on was that the interior electrics (and loom) on the later tiguan door were completely different from 2017 (our car) to 2021 (the donor door). Our had a door control module that doesnt seem present on later cars....
and the window motor plugs are different

So I had to swap over the door looms and the window electric motor.
relatively easy just take your time.

I drilled some holes in the replacement door which I could use to attach the door module to. the door has template patterns so its easy to see where there needs to be holes

The door aligned perfect first time
The paint match was perfect
Everything worked once Id swapped the loom and motor

Cant believe it went as well as it did, although I one point I thought Id wasted money on a door.

the replacement door 2021 , note theres no seperate door module.

heres the damaged door (2017), ready to come off, note the door module top left
and a different window motor

no door at all

replacement door fitted, note colour match and alignment

BMW S1000R new front and rear wheel bearings at 21444 miles.

Some odd noises on Day 2 of the Scotland trip.....

We lifted the bike and sure enough it all sounded pretty rough...

I rode for Day 3 and brought the bike home...

Convinced they were a wheel bearing problem, I stopped riding the bike and booked in AGMotorcycles to replace both front and rear bearings.

It wasnt 100% definite that was the problem, but on the day Adam certainly proved it was!.....

Front on one side was very much toast....with some of the ball bearings actually gone awol into the hub

making them a right pain to remove

new front fitted

Rear one replaced too (more preventative maintenance, this one appeared ok)

Had both wheel bearings replaced, as it was cost effective while Adam visited my house, and good preventative maintenance.

All in £120 for front and rear wheel bearings supplied and fitted at my house.

Outstanding service as usual, and the bike is back to normal.

The difference in how easy it is to wheel the bike around is surprising.

I can only assume they are the original bearings so have done 21000 miles
I dont perform wheelies, but maybe it theres a lot of wear due to the fact it was a demonstrator or the previous owner, who knows.

BMW 2017 Gen 2 S1000R new battery , swapping the OE BMW for a Yuasa YTX9

On the Scotland trip, my battery went flat on Day 3 .

Its been poor for a while now, and Ive been band-aiding the issue by always having it plugged into a trickle charger

Ive always theorised that the issue was the tracker but the tracker company is confident the sleep settings are correct and the device should not cause drain.

Anyway I decided it was time to replace the battery anyway (I still think its the original one supplied from new 2017!) so 8 yrs old.

The original was a BMW branded Absorbant Glass Mat (AGM) 12V 8Ah 12A

(Note its not a lithium)

replaced with a Yuasa equivalent

Yuasa Motorcycle Battery - YTX9
https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/549051

£40 delivered from SBS

Many people fit Lithium replacements as they are much lighter, but my existing charger is NOT Lithium compatible, and I'm not entirely sure the Gen 2 charging circuit is ok with a Lithium style battery (it may be as it appears many have swapped to Lithium ok)

AND

it would appear that later models S1000R moved to a Lithium battery from factory.

Fitting was very simple

Seat off
remove terminals
replace battery
replace terminals
check bike starts

seat back on.

My bike now starts much quicker, but I still have it connected to the trickle charger while not in use.

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

May 2025 Day 3 North West Scotland 430 miles / 12hrs

Mon 5th May

Day 3 430 miles / 12 hrs

08:15 AM leave lodge

EML lights at lodge / poor starting

battery flat at fuel stop, buy jump leads! jump start

0950 Dalwhinnie Distillery

11am Townhouse Aberfeldy breakfast

13:50 Town & Country Designs coffee shop Killearn

17:50 M6 Southwaite

19:30 Home (Warrington

May 2025 Day 2 North West Scotland 335 miles / 14hrs

Sun 4th May

Day 2 335 miles / 14 hrs

815 leave cottage

9am mcdonalds fort william

John leads out to Skye A87

11am Eilean Donan Castle

12:45 Jans Portree ?

14:30 Kilt Rock

Ride back with some unknown pillion riders

20:00 Spice Tandoori (Fort William)

21:50 ride in the dark back to cottage

May 2025 Day 1 North West Scotland 431 miles / 17hrs

Every year theres one planned trip over multiple days

Sat 3rd May 2025

Day 1 431 miles / 17hrs

up at 330am!

4am leave : Warrington to Carnforth (meetup point with the lads)

09:15 to 10:30 Troon ferry to Arran

trip round Arran

14:15 Ferry Arran to Claonaig

The Forest of the Falls lunch

Fresh Connection coffee Campbelltown

19:45 LochLeven seafood cottage (our place of residence for 2 nights)

21:30 Del and Ant went out for chinese takeaway dinner and beers

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

seat height locked in position ? replacing the drivers side seat height adjuster Golf GTI Edition 35 Mk6 Part numbers 8313993K / 1K0881054A2 a how to guide

Golf Mk6 GTI Edition 35

Problem

seat adjuster would only just move slightly then lock either up or down.
seat was in the fully down position (note this made replacement harder)
my wife couldnt use the car without a booster cushion.

this would appear to be a fault with the height adjuster.

Context

part that came off my original seat 8313993K

numbers that appear to also match from a web search are

1K0881053A Left Passengers side (nearside)

1K0881054A Right Drivers side (offside)

Understanding how to take the seat apart and replace adjuster

I first reviewed this youtube video , which although its not on a edition 35 leather seat it was very useful

Armed with this knowledge I bought a 2nd hand part from ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165654339841

This stated the item as
"VW Golf MK5 MK6 Passat Drivers Right Seat Height Adjuster Genuine 1K0881054A2"

advert suggests it fits

Model: Golf MK5 MK6 MK7 Passat

Year: Golf 2004-2016 (so Mk5/Mk6)

Passat 2006-2010

cost was £39.99

or if you want a brand new item , it would appear to be available from
https://www.lllparts.co.uk/product/1K0881053A/adjuster-br-height-adjustment

£130

all you have to do is fit it now....

make sure the car ignition is off
if you want to be really careful you could disconnect the battery, but I didnt, as long as you dont switch the ignition on while the airbag etc is disconnected. (if you do , youll need to get VCDS to remove fault codes)

push seat back on runners, remove front bolts (2)

push seat forward on runners, remove rear bolts (2)

tilt seat up at the front and disconnect the airbag/seatbelt/heated seat plugs

lift seat out of car (note you may want to remove headrest to make this easier)

placing seat on its side

remove the backrest tilt turn handle cover (it just clips off)

lift up the height adjuster , using a screwdriver push in the clip in the side hole and pull the adjuster handle off
NOTE on my edition 35 seat there was a small bung in the front hole, which you do not need to remove

now we need to remove the base plastic surround.
2 screws at the front , and a small round clip at the back.
(I mangled the clip at the back, but you dont see it so its no loss in my opinion)
I used a small drill to drill out the centre of the rear clip)

this now gives you access to the height adjuster

(note mine is in the almost fully down position)

now remove the nut on the inside of the adjuster

now we can undo the bolts that hold the adjuster in place.

there are 3
they are hard to get to , and you have very little vertical room (so a ratchet wont fit) and they unscrew from the outside to inside
I used a bit and a spanner and did it in very small increments!

NOTE when I did fully undo all 3 screws the adjuster jumped off, and the seat raised to the max height position (its sprung loaded to the full height position) , so be careful

now you just replace the old height adjuster with the replacement part and refit, and do everything in reverse. you dont need to push down on the seat, just fit the adjuster with it at full height.

heres the seat with the adjuster removed and sprung to full height

all fixed , ready to go back in !

All in all, not a difficult job but tricky given the space constraints, and the fact Ive never done it before.

But well chuffed that I now have working height adjustment again for £40 and some of my own time.

At least my wife can use the car now without needing a booster cushion.