So you bought an A2....

[bret]

Hello,

so you bought an A2. But....

 

Climate does hot / cold when it shouldn't? Doesn't push air around correctly? Flaps. Scan. 

 

Water in the boot? If there's no damp roof lining, it's the flaps behind the bumper (4A0.....), if there's damp in the roof and you have an OSS, open it and clean the junk out of the drainage system.

No one-shot on the windows? Press down and hold 2 seconds at fully down. Pull up and hold for 2 seconds at fully up. Press down and hold again. Now retry.

A specific door doesn't trigger the interior light? Microswitch. Scan and then replace the lock or massage the length of the switch trigger.

Boost problems with a TDI under load? You probably have a hole in one of the boost pipes. Search with soapy water. It's also possible your intercooler leaks (oil is a clue!), but start with the rubber pipes and work your way through all of them.

Rear interior light doesn't work properly? Make sure the solder pads on the connector are good. 

Clunks when moving the steering wheel but the car is stationary? Upper mounts. 

Clunks with slight steering lock going over bumps? Droplinks. Strong recommend: Meyle HD.

Gearchange isn't slick? Try adjusting: see youtube for videos on how to do it, you'll need something with exactly 5mm diameter, I'd suggest a drill bit.

 

Misfires on the 1.4 Petrol: depends on what the engine is. BBY has multiple coils, AUA only one. BBY is picky about genuine packs or not. 
AUA doesn't care as much. Both are picky about spark plugs and cables. 
If you've already proved that the coil packs are fine (by moving them to a different cylinder and seeing if the misfire moves or not) then a last resort would be the wiring loom. Injectors rarely fail - though it's possible - and a dirty throttle body should just create poor performance. However, I'd also recommend cleaning that as a matter of course.

 

"leaks" from the front of an OSS are generally because the front drainage pipes are clogged. As with the others, clear with a small cable tie.

 

Door cards: the doors have two sections, the window frame and the base. They are bolted together with two tx40 bolts. If there is excessive wind noise, adjustment may help.

The cards themselves are bolted to the door inner skin. The inner skin is the seal between the window side and the dry interior, so if there's a poor seal behind that aluminium inner skin, you may get damp in the car. Taking the door cards off themselves is easy (2 x tx25 under the armrest, one in the tweeter location), then check what's leaking.

 

OSS also fails reasonably often if it's not looked after. Fixing one is neither cheap, easy or fast, so either check it is working before purchase or be prepared for a several hundred  € / £bill, at least, depending on where you take it. A replacement essentially needs a jig to be positioned correctly.

 

A K&N doesn't appear to make much difference in the numbers.

 

An FSI really does run at 110C. It's also probably the least reliable of the bunch.

 

Only 90TDIs and FSIs have Disc brakes at the rear as standard. Chipping TDIs is done frequently with decent results; performance improvement on a 1.4 is difficult to say the least.

 

Yes, there is only one rear foglight.

 

No, there isn't an easy way to replace the speakers.

[bret]

"limp mode" - see "Boost problems with a TDI under load". This can also mean the car refuses to go more than 60mph / 100km/h, maybe slower. A restart may "cure" it, it may not.

 

Gearboxes go before engines and clutches tend to last very nicely indeed.

 

[udovdh]

Yes, chipping is quick and has nice effects, but a GTD1752 turbo can really make the 1.4 TDI shine.

A visit to the folks at http://das6-gang-getriebe.de/ can reduce RPMs and/or increase speed somewhat.

The issues you mention are mostly due to age, I guess.