Tuesday, December 17, 2019

RL-3331 Emergency Light



RL-3331 is a cheap emergency light from a company with a strange web address http://www.yxdz88.com/

It has 30 LEDs although versions with 60 and 90 LEDs with slightly different model numbers exist.

The package lists specifications as:

Name of Product: Emergency Light
Item No.: RL-3331
Recharging Voltage Rate: AC220V-240V
Battery Voltage Rate: DC 4V
Battery Capacity: 1100mAh
Lighting Source: 30 LED
Duration time: >= 5 hours
Standard No: Q/STLM 0016-2011

As usual for cheap items from AliExpress. Not all these specifications are correct.

Some sellers also sell this item as "with lithium battery" and it is not true. Some list this device as 6W and it is also not true. The item has lead acid battery and LED power is much less....

General Construction

The general construction quality is quite high. The case is very tight and difficult to open even after removing the screws. The board inside has good solder joints, although it looks like it was made by hand. Therefore the quality can vary between units. There are not many component and it is a simple 4.82V transformer with a transistor to switch LEDs ON/OFF.

Charging voltage is 4.82V when the switch is at OFF position, it goes down from 4.82V to 4.76V if the control switch is set to Low or High modes.

Battery

Some sellers advertise this product as with lithium rechargeable batteries. However this is not true. It simply has a 2 cell lead-acid battery. Battery dimensions are 35mm 22mm 96mm
The small black cap can be removed to expose the rubber caps (valves) for this type of battery. It use a mat between the plates so no liquid can leak. After years of use, if the battery becomes weak, you may try to add some distilled water. Usually battery loses some liquid slowly in this type of simple construction.

Based on the 1100mAh specification. I first ran a 1A discharge test from full 4.8V voltage to empty 3V voltage
The battery did go from full to empty in about 42 minutes which totaled to 706mAh capacity. It could have given different results with different discharge currents. However it took over 24 hours to charge back 706mAh back into the battery!
After this test, I have tested the high power mode on the lamp. It took about 1h50m until it dipped under 3V
It is quite visible from the drop on the curve to see when battery was totally empty. However I continued this test much longer just to see what will happen. This also shows that clearly the lamp is much less than 6W as the 1A discharge test resulted in average 3.62V which makes a 3.62W usage. But it was much much more lighter load when you compare the graphs.
The voltage becomes more stable after the first drop but this is the deep-discharge territory and probably harm the battery in the long run.  It is not good to use the lamp over 2 hours on high power mode as this will damage the battery.
The charging back to 4.82V took over 55 hours! Yes, the recovery was really really slow.

The discharge of the light with low power mode results in a much more sensible discharge graph and it achieves about 4h30m before dipping under 3V. So the >=5 hour rating is also imaginary.

I ran the test for an extended period of 7 hours. I do need to get it to recharge for 2+ days for the lead acid battery to recover.

Conclusion

RL-3331 is a cheap product with cheap components. It will probably last about 2-3 years before the liquids inside the lead-acid battery vaporize. The seals are not always 100% airtight. Overall, it is a good product when the price is considered.

Once the battery is empty, you can change it with an actual lithium battery using a lithium BMS. With about 4.8V maximum voltage, you should be able to charge a 4.2V lithium battery fully. Perhaps an 18650 battery with 3000mAh can be installed to improve the performace dramatically. However it is sad that the charging back can take several days with such slow speeds.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Unbranding ZYXEL VMG3625-T20A (Telia/Sonera) Router

This operation can possibly brick your router. So do it only if you know what you are doing. Your router is your own responsibility. There are many so called YouTube videos etc. which have unnecessary and dangerous steps. So use your brain to decide what you need and what you do not. I will stick to bare minimum and as safe as possible steps for this specific router model.

Sometimes ISPs brand the routers and disable features, maybe mess with their settings and perhaps spy on you.

Maybe the router is locked into a specific provider and you need to use it with another. There are many reasons why you may want to install generic ZYXEL firmware to an xDSL router.

Luckily it is rather easy to unbrnad the ZYXEL routers. I have performed this operation on a ZYXEL VMG3625-T20A router which was provided free with (also free) VDSL service. Albeit, free service is limited to 10Mbit/s speed but that is a good enough speed for most people.

What Do We Need?

We need few items for this operation.
  • USB TTL Serial adapter
  • Putty or any terminal program which supports serial communication
  • Tftp client (Windows 10 comes with one!) 
 

Opening The Router Case

This router has only 2 screws under the sticker. Some other routers may have 4 screws. You can feel the placements of he screw holes with your finger if you move on the sticker. You can lift the corners of the sticker with a sharp knife and unscrew the screws. I left the screws under the sticker, so they would not go far.

Once the screws are removed, you can use a plastic prying tool to open the clips. The parts are quite tight, so use patience.

I did not make pictures of this as the operation is vey simple. If you can't manage to open a simple plastic cover, you should stop now.

Here is how the router looks like inside. For our purposes, the most important piece is th 4pin connector.






The 4pin connector...


Connecting Rouer To Serial Adapter

We need to connect the router to serial adapter for communication. As you can see, the 4pin connector pins are marked as GND, NC, RX, TX, and 3.3V. For our purposes, we only need to connect RX, TX, and GND pins.

Important: Now you need to set your TTL adapter to use 3.3v. They usually have a jumper or switch for this purpose.

Modem Side - Serial Adapter Side
RX         - TX
TX         - RX
GND        - GND 

The only thing you need to be careful is to connect TX to RX. There is little which can go wrong.

Open your serial communications program and set it to work with 115200 8N1 setting. If everything is corect, you should see boot messages printed to screen when you turn on the router.

Connecting Router To Ethernet

You will also need to connect the router to ethernet as we will use TFTP to push files to the router. You should set your PCs IP address statically to 192.168.1.10 (or anyting else than 192.168.1.1 in 192.168.1.0/24 network).

Getting Ready To Send Firmware

When you turn on the router, it will give you few seconds to abort the boot process. Press a key to abort it!

You should now be at a prompt which says ZHAL> Now we can start some magic.

First run ATSH command to extract some important information. We will not need this information, but it is good to have in case something goes wrong.

The output will look like following
Firmware Version : V5.30(ABIE.6)b2_E0 Bootbase Version : V1.32 | 03/22/2018 16:56:20 Vendor Name : Zyxel Communications Corp. Product Model : VMG3625-T20A Serial Number : SXXXXXXXXXXXX First MAC Address : XXXXXXXXXXX0 Last MAC Address : XXXXXXXXXXXF MAC Address Quantity : 16 Default Country Code : FF Boot Module Debug Flag : 01 RootFS Checksum : e4d28a4b Kernel Checksum : eeba2049 Main Feature Bits : 00 Other Feature Bits : 840291b4: 04050305 00000100 00000000 00000000 840291c4: 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000
Now we need to get the login code. The login code is required for dangerous operaitons. For this purpose we should feed the Product Model from above output usin ATSE command. We will need to decode this. Luckily some nice people provided a C program which can do it. You can compile it with GCC easily. Obviously this program can be used for other ZYXEL routers! Just see the example in comments section of the program to figure out how to proceed!

/* ZyXEL prestige 660HW series password calculator by brainstorm 
  * Thanks to http://www.adslayuda.com/Zyxel650-9.html authors
  *
  * Example usage:
  *
  * Router:
  * ======
  *
  * ATSE
  * 0028D6DF1C03
  * OK
  *
  * Computer:
  * ========
  *
  * ./zyxel 0028D6DF1C03
  * ATEN 1,221E3111
  *
  * Router:
  * ======
  * ATEN 1,221E3111
  * OK
  *
  * "Dangerous" commands enabled :-)
  *
  * */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define magic1  0x10F0A563L
#define magic2  7
#define atse_length 12  /* ATSE command, ZyNOS seed password length */

#define WORD_LENGTH (8*sizeof(value))
int ror(unsigned int value, int places)
{
  return (value>>places)|(value<<(WORD_LENGTH-places));
}


int main (int argc, char* argv[]) {

        char *seed, a[7], c[3];
        unsigned int b,d,e,password;

        if ( argc != 2 ) {
                printf("Only one argument is permitted: 00BDC8667E5B\n");
                exit(-1);

        } else if ( strlen(argv[1]) != atse_length ) {
                printf( "Incorrect parameter length, should be %d characters long\n", atse_length );
                exit (-2);
        }

        seed = argv[1];

        strncpy (a, seed , 6);  //a="ersten" 3Bytes vom seed
        e = strtol(a,NULL,16);  //e=a

        strncpy (c, seed + strlen(seed)-2, 2); //c= last 2 bytes of seed?
        d = strtol(c,NULL,16) & magic2; //d="last byte" AND 7
        b = e + magic1; //

        b = ror(b,d);
        password = b ^ e;
        printf("\nATEN 1,%X\n", password);

        return 0;
}


After entering ATEN command we can finally upload the firmware. If you downloaded the firmware files from ZYXEL site, you will see that there is a BIN file which is about 17Mbyte in size. I renamed this file as zyxel.bin just for easy typing.

Now we need to tell the router that we are about to send it firmware image named, you guessed it, zyxel.bin. The command for tis operation is ZHAL> ATUR zyxel.bin The router will wait you to send the file

Upgrade to rootfs partition 1
TFTP server is started, put your file 'zyxel.bin' to server (IP is 192.168.1.1).

Now from windows we can send the file in binary mode. We need ot use the -i flag for binary transfer with windows tftp client. So the command should look like tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT zyxel.bin. We already set the IP address of our machine statically so it should work just fine. So the complete output should look like below:

ZHAL> ATSE VMG3625-T20A
0EA420ED3340
ZHAL> ATEN 1,10F1EDA3
ZHAL> ATUR zyxel.bin
Upgrade to rootfs partition 1
TFTP server is started, put your file 'zyxel.bin' to server (IP is 192.168.1.1).
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Total 17498534 (0x10B01A6) bytes received

File download to memory address 0x80020000, length is 17498534

Please be patient, start to upgrade RAS!

...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Update boot flag to 1
...
Auto reboot after 2 seconds
ZHAL>


Router will reboot by itself and you need to wait patiently as this will take few minutes at least. Meanwhile, not forget to remove the static IP setting from your ethernet adapter or you may regret not doing it later.

Next Step

Obviously the next step is closing up the router and tightenin the screws. I first installed 5.30(ABIE.4)C0 firmware from ZYXEL site then used the built-in web based upgrade to upgrade to 5.30(ABIE.5)C0 firmware. Also normal VDSL2 connectivity was working fine, including the 6RD tunnel that Telia/Sonera provides. So everything seems to be working fine. I am not sure why Telia/Sonera decided to make their own image, it is slightly suspicious.

Using same method, you can install any firmware to device (as long as it is compatible). For example if you want to brand it as another provider's device. I don't know why you would want to do this, but it is an option.

Caveats

The only problem is that I do not know how to backup existing firmware from the device. Therefore if you want to return back to old firmware, you will need to have access to it as BIN file. If you know how you can backup firmware from a ZYXEL device using serial communications, drop a line.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Ubuntu 19.10 and Namespaces vs Netplan

I am using OpenVPN and namespaces to isolate access to the VPN connection. Originally, I wrote small scripts to bring up the connection and setup the necessary network interfaces.

I used a bridged ethernet inside the namespace as gateway to outside. For this purpose, normally I use brctl to edit bridge configurations. But now that Ubuntu is using netplan, things have changed a little bit.

Some namespace related operations are unclear and not documented at all.

Setting Up Namespace

First action is to edit /etc/systemd/network/25-veth.netdev and define 2 virtual ethernets.

[NetDev]
Name=veth0
Kind=veth
[Peer]
Name=veth1

Next action is to edit the /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml and assign one of the ethernets into bridge with main ethernet.

# This file is generated from information provided by
# the datasource.  Changes to it will not persist across an instance.
# To disable cloud-init's network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        enp5s0:
            addresses: []
            dhcp4: false
        veth0: {}
        veth1: {}

    bridges:
      br0:
        dhcp4: yes
        interfaces:
          - enp5s0
          - veth0


So after this I still had to configure few setting using a script. If you know how to convert this to use netplan, please write to comments.
  ip netns add vpn
  ip netns exec vpn ip link set dev lo up
  ip link set veth1 netns vpn
  ip netns exec vpn ifconfig veth1 inet 192.168.1.252 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
  ip netns exec vpn route add default gw 192.168.1.1 dev veth1
  ip netns exec vpn route add -net 10.8.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.1.1 dev veth1

You probably do not need the last line. I needed to add it so that packets for 10.8.0.0/24 network would not go out through VPN.

Name Resolution

One other problem is that Ubuntu 19.10 seem to be using systemd-resolved and therefore /etc/resolv.conf looks like this:

# This file is managed by man:systemd-resolved(8). Do not edit.
#
# This is a dynamic resolv.conf file for connecting local clients to the
# internal DNS stub resolver of systemd-resolved. This file lists all
# configured search domains.
#
# Run "resolvectl status" to see details about the uplink DNS servers
# currently in use.
#
# Third party programs must not access this file directly, but only through the
# symlink at /etc/resolv.conf. To manage man:resolv.conf(5) in a different way,
# replace this symlink by a static file or a different symlink.
#
# See man:systemd-resolved.service(8) for details about the supported modes of
# operation for /etc/resolv.conf.

nameserver 127.0.0.53
options edns0
search lan

Now the fun part is that it is extremely difficult to route localhost addresses from namespace. So I had to use external resolv.conf and hosts files. These files are put to /etc/netns/vpn/ (here "vpn" is my namespace).

resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4


hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost ubuntu
::1             localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6 ubuntu

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Now the reason for using some outside DNS IP addresses is so that the DNS traffic is routed over VPN once it is established. I was not super paranoid about this. But somebody might want to use up/down scripts with openvpn to edit the nameservers.

I had to setup hosts file because sudo command was giving dns resolving errors for the hostname ubuntu

Ubuntu 19.10 & Kodi - How to remove shutdown/restart etc. from exit menu

I recently upgraded my HTPC to Ubuntu 19.10 and a bunch of stuff was broken. (typical).

I had to figure out how to remove the shutdown/restart etc. options from the exit menu of Kodi. I also had a problem that the power button on remote caused machine to shutdown and power off!

Disabling Shutdown, Restart etc. was accomplished by help of PolicyKit. We simply have to define policy file which disables these actions by users. (this obviously won't effect these operations being executed from shell)

Into /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/disable-shutdown.pkla file, added:

[Disable shutdown etc.]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.reboot;org.freedesktop.login1.reboot-multiple-sessions;org.freedesktop.login1.power-off;org.freedesktop.login1.power-off-multiple-sessions;org.freedesktop.login1.suspend;org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-multiple-sessions;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-multiple-sessions
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=no


You can restart it by issuing sudo systemctl restart polkit

Now, disabling the power button on remote is accomplished by editing /etc/systemd/logind.conf and adding the following line HandlePowerKey=ignore. Then you should restart systemd-logind by issuing sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind

Hopefully this would have resolved the issue for you also. Good luck!

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Golf MK4 BCB Engine Measurement Values

These output values were taken from a normally functionung VW Golf MK4 with BCB engine which had fuel tank filled with 95E10 and at about 10C outside temperature. A/C was turned on and this would effect your idle speed. If you are comparing the values, make sure the conditions are similar.






















Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Golf MK4 How To Unlock Deadlocked Passenger Side Front Door

Recently the passenger side door of Golf MK4 got deadlocked and would not unlock. I had to devise a way to unlock the door without destroying the door cart. It was possible to unlock the door without damaging the door cart.

You will need a flexible screwdriver shaft. It has to be as thin as possible. I used a precision screwdriver set's shaft. You will need T20 torx bit to go with this. You will also need a drill. I used a 4mm drill bit but you may want to use 6mm.

Step 1

First step is to remove the cap which covers the screw for the placeholder next to door handle. You will need to open the rear door for this. I used my handy plastic part remover tool for this purpose.

Step 2

Use the flexible screwdriver and T20 bit to loosen the screw
I had to tape the torx bit to the screwdriver as there is risk that it falls inside the door. Also I used an endoscope camera to be able to find the screw without looking. Below is a view from my endescope camera. Make sure the loosen it only enough to remove the placeholder, otherwise it may fall into door as well.

Step 3

Remove the placeholder next to door handle. You will be able to see part of the lock.

Step 4

Drill a hole over the plastic cover of the lock with 4mm - 6mm drill bit.

Below is a more clear picture of the hole
The plastic is very thin and it is easy to drill the hole. You do not have to drill inside, just penetrate the plastic.

Step 5

This is the most important step. You should use a hard metal wire (~4mm thick) and push it inside to reach the lock mechanism. I used a coat hanger. If you have an endoscope camera, you may want to look inside the mechanism to see what you are pushing.

Below is a picture from the side with the cover removed.
Red line shows our approximate approach. The plastic piece is the piece we want to push. This plastic may be black or any other color.

Below is a more detailed picture
Normally when the lock is unlocked the part with dark blue goes down between the release latch and unlocking mechanism. So once you pull the door handle (from inside or outside) the release latch moves with the unlocking to unlock the door.

When the door is deadlocked, the electro-mechanical part won't let the dark blue part to go down. Therefore it won't be possible to unlock the mechanism.

The red line is again our approach. We need to slightly push either the plastic piece or the unlocking mechanism which is under the release latch to be able to open the door.

Obviously you need to do this carefully as the plastic which goes between mechanisms may or may not move enough to unlock the mechanism. In my case it was not very difficult, but maybe I was lucky. You should approach this with care.

Before Installing The Lock Back

If you manage to fix the lock. You can use silicone to close the hole before installing the lock.


Sunday, August 4, 2019

Quality Problems With VW Service At V-Wauhtipiste ( https://www.vauhtipiste.fi/ )

I would not have written this up if I had one or two problems. But I continuously had problems service after service at V-Wauhtipiste ( https://www.vauhtipiste.fi/ ). One good thing was that they tried to fix the issues once I pointed out the problem. However in some cases, while fixing the mustakes, they made new mistakes to be fixed also...

The quality control is non-existent and in some cases they tried to fool me at V-Wauhtipiste. Which was rather annoying. I only caught some of the errors because I had pictures proving before and after conditions. I took more and more pictures when errors occured more and more often.

V-Wauhtipiste have overfilled the brake fluid reservoir (till it was completely full!), removed inner CV boot clamp and never put it back, installed CV inner boot clamp incorrectly, put wrong grease into CV inner boot, installed catalytic converter at incorrect position, broke oxygen sensor etc. When the work was more complicated, the more errors V-Wauhtipiste made.

In some cases having before/after pictures helped proving the issues. But in some cases the problems are difficult to detect unless you watch the mechanic at work. The problem is that when the work quality is so low, you would only realize some issues after a few years when it is too late and caused a larger problem. When that happens, no doubt they will try to tell the customer that the problem was due to normal wear.

First Service

The vehicle was taken to regular maintenance for oil and filter changes. Additionally the catalytic converter was making some noises so it was to be investigated. The brake fluid change was considered but then deemeed unnecessary. However I had to leave the brake fluid bottle in the trunk as I did not want to take it back with me.

When we took the vehicle back, I found out that they have accidentally changed brake fluid (obviously I did not have to pay) and we found out that the catalytic converter needs replacing.

Later when I checked the fluids in the engine bay, I could not see the fluid level of the brake fluid. I thought it was empty. But fluid started leaking when I loosened the cap. It was filled up to the top.

So I had to go back and ask for removal of some fluid. When we were there, the mechanic said it is fine and extra will slowly leak out. I was surprised to hear such response as brake fluid is corrosive. It can strip paintwork and cause damage. Therefore it should not be allowed to leak out. In addition the maximum level mark on the reservoir is there because system needs some air gap so extra fluid can return to the reservoir without building pressure.

I had to explain to the mechanic why there should be space and that brake fluid level must not exceed maxiumum level mark. I also added that the engineer who designed the brake system decided there must be a limit to how much liquid should be inside the reservoir otherwise there would be no reason to put a maximum limit sign. V-Wauhtipiste agreed to remove the extra fluid after the struggle.

First Catalytic Converter Change And Aftermath

In my vehicle, changing the catalytic converter requires changing the front pipe at the same time. As the original pipe is one piece but replacement is in two pieces. I made the mistake of going cheap and getting a part from bm catalysts. It was a mistake as the part bends were badly made and apparently it did not fit well.

Never the less, after the part was changed at V-Wauhtipiste. We were not informed that there were any problems with installation even though there were installation problems. (as we found out later)

Due to the front pipe not fitting properly. The vehicle exhaust sound was rough and caused vibrations between 1800RPM - 1900RPM. After about a month of driving, we went back to ask for why these were happening as I was not sure if V-Wauhtipiste forgot to put some part or did not tighten something.

V-Wauhtipiste took the car to checkup and after half an hour they came back to tell that they broke the oxygen sensor and they have to replace it. They replaced the oxygen sensor for free a week later. Also told us that the exhaust front pipe was not a good fit for the vehicle and it caused the problem. I asked why we were not informed right away when the pipe was installed. But got no response...

Below is a photo of how the pipe was sitting badly (on left) compared to genuine part (on right). If you look at the rubber holder, it was pressed all the way down and therefore it could not absorb vibrations.


Also, on the right you can see how V-Wauhtipiste bashed in the heat shield just under the exhaust pipe. Their excuse was that the heat shield is soft. However, one must be careful when working under the vehicle as scratches etc. on the underbody would eventually cause rust problems.

Genuine Parts Change

When it was obvious that the aftermarket part was the problem. I have procured all genuine parts for the vehicle from VW just to be sure that everything is working perfectly. I have obtained all the bolts, nuts, seals for exhaust system from VW. Then booked a time for the change. Only if I knew what was waiting for me...

So, we took the vehicle to V-Wauhtipiste and got the parts changed to genuine ones. However after 5 minutes of driving there was a terrible burning smell. The smell was so strong that I could not tell if it came from engine compartment or it was something at outside air. I opened the window to check but the smell was so strong outside also.

We had to call to V-Wauhtipiste only to get a response that the smell is probably normal and nothing to worry about. When we looked at the engine bay, the grease was literally boiling on top of the exhaust pipe. Which was most definitely not normal. As seen in picture below:




Returning For Repairs

When we went back to V-Wauhtipiste. We asked how this could happen. We have given few different reasons for why this happened. The mechanic's explanation was that sometimes the clamps come off by themselves, another person there said that the clamp was probably never there, another explanation was that they had to remove the axle to install exhaust pipe. I will now explain why none make any sense...

For the clamps falling off by themselves. The other side was perfecly fine. It would be a hell of a coincidence for right side to fall like that. Also I could see that there were some scratch marks on the axle metal pointing to the clamp being removed. I have a picture which shows some scratches on the surface of the axle pointing that somebody was removing it.

About the clamp never being there. Luckily I took a picture right after we looked at the engine bay (the picture above). It was clearly visible that the clamp was recently removed because it was clean where it was removed. Below is the zoomed picture and I marked with red arrow where the clamp was suppose to be.



They dropped the claim that it was never there once I showed them the picture. Luckily I had a picture, otherwise it would have been tough to prove.

About removing the axle for inserting the exhaust pipe. First of all, it is not necessary to remove the axle to install the exhaust pipe. If I didn't know it, I could have believed that. But more importantly it is not how you remove the axle. Axle is removed by taking off the bolts above. Either V-Wauhtipiste did not know at all how an axle is removed  from a VW vehicle or they were trying to fool us.

Clamp Reinstallation Part 1

When I went there, I asked the guys if I could watch what they are doing. First thing that mechanic did was trying to put the clamp back. I had to stop him because a lot of grease flew out from the boot when the vehicle was driven without the boot clamp.

I asked to the mechanic if he will put grease to replace the missing amount. He first tried to tell me that there is probably still enough grease. Naturally, I told him to replenish it. If I was not there, he would have installed the clamp without the grease.

Mechanic agreed to put more grease before clamping and he came back with a tube of grease and squezed it inside the boot. I took a picture of the grease he added for reference (G 052 738 A2).

Later, I found out that G 052 738 A2 was wrong grease and you can find the details below. That was a facepalm moment as I told him to replenish the lost grease. I should have known that no work can be done without fatal mistakes.

Clamp Reinstallation Part 2

I had to leave the guys to work there because apparently they like to work in secret. I can't blame them. I would also would not want people see me working if I was doing such a terrible job.

However they called me to check the clamp installation before they installed bottom plate. It was rather funny because the clamp was installed incorrectly as I expected at that point.

First it looked good from one side as seen below. By the way, in the picture, red arrows show the marks they made when removing the clamp.



However when I turned the wheel, I realized that the rubber was not properly under the clamp all the way around. It was half way out under the clamp. The picture is somewhat blurred but you can see that the rubber is not flush with the clamp on this side easily and grease is leaking out.



When I showed it to the manager, he said I am right and they should do it again. Then I heard him shout at the mechanic that he should turn the wheel.

The bigger problem is that if I was not there. They would have done a very low quality job and this would not have been detected. After a year or two, I could have ended up with worn axle. I am sure they would have never mentioned that the clamp was installed incorrectly even if they detected it.

Catalytic Converter Position

One would assume that the mechanics at garage which claim to specialize servicing VAG vehicles should be able to install a catalytic converter at correct position. But, maybe it is too much to assume? Even if they don't know the correct position, they would stop when they see that nothing is straight, right? hmm?

It was good that I went to look under the car when they were installing the clamp. Because I realized they had installed the catalytic converter sideways. It was installed so badly that I could see the whole exhaust pipe system bent sideways and causing stress on the rubber holders.



As you can see, the middle pipe has turned left and does not sit straight anymore. Also in the picture below you can see that the oxygen sensor is downwards and it should be looking upwards about 45 degrees when catalytic converter is installed properly. Sensor being upwards also protect the sensor itself to some degree. So, install like this and it is doomed to be broken sooner than later.


So, I had to leave them to work again when the mechanic adjusted catalytic converter, then they called me back to workshop to check the result. Below is picture of how the oxygen sensor should look (upwards) when the catalytic converter is installed correctly. As you can see, sensor is better protected in this position.


Below is the picture of center exhaust pipe holder when the catalytic converter is installed correctly. Perfectly horizontal and at center. The picture is taken after the mechanic at V-Wauhtipiste re-aligned the catalytic converter based on my instructions.


Exhaust Manifolt Nuts And Grease Cleanup

When I left, I was very tired so I was happy that at least things were somewhat looking alright. However the few days later I made inventory and then checked the surrounding work area.

The exhaust front pipe is connected to exhaust manifold with 4 self-locking nuts and there is a seal in between. The self-locking nuts should be replaced if they are removed. I have provided V-Wauhtipiste with 8 nuts in the same bag with the seal and the bag was attached to the side of the pipe where they go. However when I did inventory, I found 7 nuts (not sure wher 1 went). I checked my pictures and it looked like they have used the old nuts in place. I don't understand this because they should know better to replace the self-locking nuts. Especially since I provided the nuts.

It looks like they kept the nuts which came with previous pipe as seen below.


Here is how the original VW locking nuts look like. Round hole in the back and oval hole in the front.

Then I have realized that while the mechanic cleaned the big blob on the bottom plate cover, he left a lot of grease all around the transmission, intake manifold and surroundings.


So we had to book another time for cleanup and nut change. If I did not provide the nuts. I would have never known if they changed them or not.

Incorrect Grease Usage (G 052 738 A2)



As I mentioned earlier the mechanic added more grease (G 052 738 A2). Luckily I took picture of the tube after he put it into the boot. Otherwise I would have never remembered the part number. Later when I checked this grease. I found out that the mechanic put the wrong type. Because many VW axles have triple roller joints for inner joint and universal joints for outer joint. They have different types of grease. The mechanic put the grease intended for outer joint into inner joint.


The correct grease is G 052 186 A3. The difference is that the inner joint grease is black colored, thick (high viscosity) and sticky. Meanwhile the outer joint grease is brownish color and not so thick (low viscosity).

Some inside information:
The inner joint uses tripod needle bearing (triple bearing) and the needle bearing needs more fluid low viscosity grease to be able to go into small areas between needle rollers.

Meanwhile the universal joint uses large balls which require thicker grease.

Below is a picture of what the greases should look like (more or less)

 
I have seen the original grease in the engine bay as it was spread around there.


I realized the wrong grease error when I went through my pictures a few weeks later. I had to go back to V-Wauhtipiste for inquiring about this mishap. However again, they tried to talk us out of their error. First, V-Wauhtipiste tried to tell that they used G 052 186 A3 but I had the picture I took at workshop to prove it was not the case. In addition, when we went there, it became apparent that they do not even keep inner cv boot grease in stock at all. Because V-Wauhtipiste did not have the inner CV grease in stock when I asked them to check inside the tubes if the grease looks same. I got the impression that it was because they thought all these years that inner and outer CV boots use the same grease.

Then V-Wauhtipiste tried to tell that the difference is only 20G and otherwise the grease are the same inside the tube, which is also not true. I am not sure what is more disturbing. That they do not know the difference of greases used in the vehicle or they know it but they try to fool the customers.

I tried to explain them it is not possible that contents are same since the part numbers are completely different and also grease names are completely different and grease in question were designed for different types of parts. In addition, there was significant price difference as the 140g grease was cheaper than 120g grease, which would make no sense if they were same grease inside the tubes.

In either case this issue is discussed on some forums. Where it is discussed in a VW forum thread that in UK the parts reseller TPS Trade confirmed that the grease are different. However when I mentioned it to the lady at V-Wauhtipiste the lady who works there said internet is not reliable. I guess it was good that I was at Volkswagen Center Turku which is an authorized VW repair center. Because Volkswagen Center Turku also told us independently that the inner CV boot grease is runnier (lower viscosity). When I mentioned that, the lady at V-Wauhtipiste claimed the axle is a wear item etc. and she knows what she is talking about because she has been doing that job for 27 years. I had to tell her that how long she has been doing something is not proof that she is right about this specific issue.

To be honest I was rattled with this non-sense and decided to go back to Volkswagen Center Turku and reserve time for cleaning up incorrect grease and replacing it with correct grease. I couldn't really justify dealing with V-Wauhtipiste anymore even if they agreed to replace the wrong grease with correct one as I was not sure what new faults they would introduce when they open the inner CV boot for cleaning.