Have VW ruined my car???

[Smiler634]

Hello all, new to the forum but need some major help with trying to put the blame on VW Haysleden in Doncaster. This is long winded I know but please read all!! And beware of taking your car to VW Haysleden of Doncaster.
I broke down in derby in my 52 Plate Vw Golf V6 4Motion, The cluth pedal snak to the ground and suspect master/slave cylinder has gone. Got recovered on the back of a AA wagon to VW Haysleden in Doncaster. The mechanics change the master cylinder and still there was a problem, so they went into the clutch housing (6 hour job apparently) and changed he slave cylinder, whilst they were in there i got them to change the clutch plates oo because the master and slave were covered by the AA break down packing i had. On picking the car up, the speedo my intermitant and not working properly, And the dash cluster unit was broke and not showing the same information as it did before it when in the garage, i'e when the car doors were open i would have a large picture of a birds eye view of the car and the door highlighted in red to indicate what door was open, now i have a small very faint picture above the trip computer screen and words telling me the doors are open. It also does not show what radio station or tack cd i am listening to. So i took it back to VW asking why and they took it back in and ran a diagonostic on it, the computer came back with 'dash clucter' and coolant sensor. Nothing about the speedo, they said replaceing the dash cluster which they quoted me at £540 would cure it all. I said i aint paying for something they must have caused. And they argued the fact they only did mechanical repairs not eletrical. But surely there is some sort of electrical work done on the speedo sensor??? I took the car to another vw/audi side garage buiseness who plugged it into another diagnostic and this time the speed sensor came up faulty. On the mechanic checking the connector (whilst i was present) there was contamination of some sort in the connector and it not being clipped in proper. This cured the speedo for now. I went back to vw telling them of how this garage found the fault on the speedo and the fact of them changing the dash cluster would of done nothing to rectify the fault. They gave me a free service for next time due and i went on my way. I then dove to stafford and half way down i went to over take (safely) and upon getting to 5000 revs the car slowed it slf down like i either red lined it or the traction control kicked in, this car revs to 6700 or something like that, and then the speedo started bouncing around again. I was close to my destination so took it careful and left my car for the week checking everything was ok. I took the time on one day to inspect the speedo connectors where the mechanic from the previous garage had shown me and upon opening it it was full of liquid (water???) Now i have no speedo again what so ever!! And now the engine mangement light has come on!!! So what i am asking is, can VW have caused water/liquid to be in the connector, which has fused some sort of electrics to mess my dash cluster up and why my speedo does not work now?? My car was good as gold untill the cluch wnet and it came out of VW Hayselden. So since the cluch i have no speedo with liquid in the block connector, engine management light on, dash centre screen on a different setting to what was previous, with top half extremely dim, and not showng radio/cd. And also occasionally telling me to refuel when there is a full/half a tank in! Please someone help and give advise thankyou, your help will be appriciated. Mitch

[Crasher]

How water would be continuously getting into the connector is odd but there is a coolant housing over that side which may be leaking, is it using any water? If the small rectangular silicon seal is missing from inside the plug, water will get in when it is wet. I can’t see how water in the plug can do any damage to the dash though. Golf 4 instrument panels are prone to failure and this can be caused by an electrical spike from a flat battery or, the most common reason, neglecting to re-fit the body to engine earth cable when putting the gearbox back in. Unfortunately it is impossible to prove this. There are companies that will repair the instrument cluster for far less than VW have quoted you. As far as the engine check light coming on is concerned, that may be a faulty coolant temp sender if it was not replaced.

[Blackthorn]

Slightly off topic, but is your clutch fixed? I've had a similar issue on mine for years where the clutch pedal would (vary rarely, say every 2- 3 months) drop to the floor. Sometimes you could feel it going and hook your foot underneath it to pull it back up. If you missed it you had to get out the car and pull it back up with your hand. Either way, it would be fine until next time. A bit of a pain, but as it happened so infrequently and was easily fixed, I wasn't too bothered. VW had quoted £200 for a new master cylinder which "may or may not" have fixed the problem.
In the end though, my local (non VW) garage said it definately was the master cylinder and offered to do it for £130. In the event they too had problems saying it still wasn't working, and ended up replacing it again, and the slave. They billed me for 1.9 hours though, so I don't know where your 6 came from?
The problem now though is that although they've fixed that fault, they too have introduced two more. On occasions, sometimes quite often, the clutch pedal will stick part way up when you take your foot off. This doesn't affect the operation of it, but is a bit disconcerting. The second is that I now get a judder when releasing the clutch, generally in first or second, and more so when the car is cold. It's been back a couple of times but is no better.
Any ideas greatfully received!

[Crasher]

You need a new clutch, slave cylinder and possibly flywheel depending on which engine you have.

[tdigolf]

where is the body to earth connection? the dials on my golf every now and again go down then straight back up when i am driving.

[Smiler634]

cheers for the replies, hi crasher, the two pipes that run above the block connector are sealed and have the silver protective coat on them. As for the seal i am not sure but recall a orange rectangular shape in the upper connector, as for the female i cant really look inside. I had an earth problem a while a go and you say they may have tampered with this while doing this job? And also why cant i go above 5000 rpm? I know of the common fault on the dash but for it to go into VW perfect then be stripped and given back *******, bit too much of a coincedence for me?
Blackthorn, my clutch after master/slave cylinder and new paltes is perfect, i get no problems what so ever and i never had any of the problems you had before, mine was just a little stiff at times but when taking it to a non VW garage they told me there was no problem, then it broke lol.
After tampering with the connector earlier i have now got no speedo what so ever (it use to work then bounce around and go off scale) and now my odemeter does not work, hence car is now fully off road.

[Crasher]

The main body to engine earth is on one of the top gearbox to engine bolts.

Smiler, that silver jacket is to protect the heater hoses from exhaust heat.

Golf 4 dash units do fail for no good reason and coincidences do happen.

[Smiler634]

The main body to engine earth is on one of the top gearbox to engine bolts.

Smiler, that silver jacket is to protect the heater hoses from exhaust heat.

Golf 4 dash units do fail for no good reason and coincidences do happen.

Yeh but to have your car working perfect, then get stripped apart and come out of the garage f****d is too much of a coincedence to me, especially when something like an earth fault can be linked to it.
I dont understand how coolant can get into this block connector tho? or water, what ever it is