New Sportswagen Owner, Two Questions

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Reading through the manual, it mentions that cars with keyless entry have to be towed with the ignition on. Exactly how does that work with the push button start/stop?

Related to that, if the button turns the engine on, how do the glow plugs pre-heat before ignition in cold weather?

Thank you.

 

[pedroYUL]

Ignition on means pushing the button without pressing the brake, or the clutch.

Glow plugs are commanded by the ECU depending on temp, the colder it is, the longer the pause between when you press the button and the car does fire.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Wow. Thank you. If I’m ever towed I hope I remember to press the button.

 

[740GLE]

Also when cold don't go and hold the button thinking you need to hold it to start cranking, it'll bypass the delay wait for the GP.

It drives me crazy the wife does this, 95% of the time its a none issue in the garage and temps >60F.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Thanks for that. So I should just press and release the button.

 

[Datalore]

Thanks for that. So I should just press and release the button.

Yes. Foot on brake, press button. It will turn on the glow plugs if needed. When really cold, there MFD will say, "engine is starting" or something like that. It is waiting on the glow plugs to warm up before it turns over. Still just foot on brake and press start.

 

[Nuje]

...or foot on brake and clutch pressed to the floor if on the 6MT.
(One time, after owning my car for over a year (and driving manual cars for 40yrs), I couldn't get the engine to turn over AT ALL; pulled the Mk4 car around and was just about to connect the jumper cables when it struck me...."wait - did I push in the clutch pedal when trying to start?" )

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Yes, I’ve already forgotten to push the clutch pedal. These dang buttons!

 

[pedroYUL]

Manual is just clutch, no need to press the brake, unless you don't use the handbrake at all! lol

 

[Nuje]

Also when cold don't go and hold the button thinking you need to hold it to start cranking, it'll bypass the delay wait for the GP.

I did the timing belt on someone's Mk6 car, and once I was sure that everything was aligned I went to start it (push-button) and....it just barely turned over.
****! What did I forget?! Turn the engine over by hand again a couple times....no problem. Everything aligns at TDC....try again - same thing. Cranks for maybe half an engine turn.

Then, in a fit of pique, I push and hold the START button hard (annoyed-like) and it turns over a little bit longer and almost catches...

So then (the bulb in my brain coming on) I pressed and held for like a full second and it fired right up.
Didn't realize that on those cars, the engine cranked only as long as you held the button - much like how long you'd turn the key in a non-push-button car. Totally different from how the Mk7 push-button start works (push the button simply tells the car to figure out what it needs to do to start).

You can also cancel the cranking (e.g., taking too long to start) by hitting the start-stop button again.

 

[Nuje]

Manual is just clutch, no need to press the brake, unless you don't use the handbrake at all! lol

Force of habit / best practice - I've got two feet down there, might as well make use of them.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Force of habit / best practice - I've got two feet down there, might as well make use of them.

Same here.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

One big thing I miss from my MK4 is how you can slowly pump fuel to actually fill the tank. Is there a way to do that with the MK7’s restrictive fill opening?

 

[RIP TDI]

One big thing I miss from my MK4 is how you can slowly pump fuel to actually fill the tank. Is there a way to do that with the MK7’s restrictive fill opening?

No, there is no additional fuel capacity available by slow filling, but you can remove the restrictor in the filler neck to accommodate larger truck stop dispenser nozzles without an adaptor. More importantly, removing the restrictor allows you to see the rising fuel level in the neck more clearly to avoid overflows.

If you do remove it, don't throw it away. Keep it so that you can temporarily reinstall it before bringing the car in for warranty service at the dealer.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Would removing it let me see how close to the top the fuel’s getting so I can put more in?

 

[Nuje]

There's not a specific venting mechanism that allows you the extra capacity like in the Mk4, but I can always cram in an extra 4-5L after the filler nozzle first auto-stops. The diesel is always foaming, but I can get most filler nozzles down to a relatively slow trickle so that I end up being able to see fuel resting in the filler opening. When it starts oozing around the nozzle / filler opening, I know I'm pretty close to full.
Got to 960km (just a couple miles short of 600miles) on the most recent fill - I was on "0km to empty" for the last 2-3km of that.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

It doesn’t seem easy to pull back the nozzle while filling to allow seeing the fuel level.

 

[Nuje]

Yeah - it's a two-hand operation for me to regulate how far the nozzle comes back because it's a snug fit.

I'd be interested in removing the filler neck restrictor to get rid of that annoyance, and to be able to use the large-mouth nozzles. Anyone have a how-to on that?

 

[Nuje]

(...kinda answering his own question...)
Not an actual "showing it done in action", but at least covers what you're looking to accomplish.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Nice video!

 

[Nuje]

Yeah - pretty simple and straightforward - just pulled mine this afternoon.
(While not the same end-effect), if you've done a ventectomy on a Mk4 car before, this is even easier.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Glad it’s easier. I never did that to my ‘03.

 

[tdidieselbobny]

Would removing it let me see how close to the top the fuel’s getting so I can put more in?

I always take the extra couple minutes to top off right to edge of filler neck. It's a PITA, I have the nozzle just inside the edge of the neck, and trigger control on nozzle is the key. If you've got a trigger with a lot of tension on it, it's tough to get it so fuel just trickles out of pump nozzle. I am talking about the car size nozzles, never have tried the large truck nozzle to fill it up. I basically use 1 station for fillups....

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

And that’s filling up with the nozzle guard on?

 

[740GLE]

im able to slowly top up with the guard on, it may take a second or so longer but not enough to be a pain.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

I don’t understand how you’d do that. The filler is so restrictive.

 

[Nuje]

The trick is to really feather the flow-control handle from the fuel pump - it's possible (on most pumps, even Costco) to get it slowed down to a trickle so that it's not foaming. Then you just watch and wait for it to start oozing out from between the filler nozzle and restrictor. The wait a couple beats and squeeze lightly again; repeat as necessary.

 

[740GLE]

its a slow dribble, like 20 min/gal, so it does take 5-10 min if i want to really brim the tank. I pull the nozzle out enough that just the tip is pushing that gaurd out of the way.

Also note the guard isn't a perfect sealing surface, its main design is just to prevent full insertion of the nozzle.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Would removing the guard make filling a lot easier?

 

[Nuje]

Ask most owners and they'd probably say that filling the car already is pretty easy.

But to get it filled to the brim, I haven't tried yet, but I assume it would. But like stated above - the stumbling point of filling to the brim is slowing down the rate of fuel coming out of the nozzle.
Removing the filler neck simply makes it easier to see the level coming up once you slow down - and keep in mind that you're slowing down to the point that if you hold it there, it'll completely overflow, whether you have the restrictor in there or not.