Brake fluid?

[RUM4MO]

American ways of thinking have a lot to do with how everyone needs to operate it seems.

[wolfie]

I think that a bit of over thinking is going on here, VW Group will write these official workshop manuals in a way that either fits in with their already established procedures, ie "copy and paste" and/or in a way that minimises labour time to keep productivity up in workshops, and costs down to owners.

I don't think you are wrong there. I'm shocking for over thinking stuff and faffing. Used to be, I wouldn't use anything unless it was genuine and by the book. I've eased up over time and I'm happy to use OEM or good quality equivalents. Hence my recently plumbing for the Ate DOT4.SL6.

The "Bleeding-order" differing from the "Fluid-Change-order" may be down to purging the ABS pump of old fluid??

I'm sure the old "start furthest away and work clockwise" would suffice. I think we started seeing recommended bleeding orders with the advent of split/diagonal braking circuits?? If the information is out there I'll follow the book as a matter of course. Now I'm sure I've read somewhere that it's a good idea to stand on the brakes post-bleed, to the point where the ABS activates (preferably on all 4 wheels) to ensure any remnants of old fluid are flushed. I'd put money on VCDS being able energise the motors stationary???

[RUM4MO]

Oh yes VCDS has a directed procedure for purging the ABS block of air and old fluid - but so far I’ve not ever carried that out.

I think that most people interested to doing a job right do over think things, people that just want to “tick that job off as done” never think that way!

I my case with my 2011 Audi S4 bought at just over 2 years old, I accidentally poked the air distribution control panel in deepest winter, immediately the car started misting up the windows, co-driver, ie wife, was tasked with sorting that out ASAP! Move forward in time to maybe 10 days ago, we were away for a couple of days holiday and I found that I could not get any air on my side of the car out of the face level vents, so after servicing the car, I pulled off the dashboard end cap as I was convinced it was only the right hand side vent that was the issue, so a pipe must have come off - all pipes fitted as expected! So I left things and went to read my proper workshop manual only to discover that there is a control flap that opens the outlet to either side face level vents, being a bit concerned I quickly worked out that it must be a faulty flap valve motor, so next day went to check this out, first thing I discovered, that might back that up was that it was both face level air vents on my side that were not handing out fresh air, so to minimise any more worrying, I opened up the LHS options on the MMI screen then did the same for the RHS options - they were different, so I made the settings for the RHS the same as the LHS - and air started coming out of the RHS face level vents!!!