This past week the fuel gauge on my GTi stopped responding properly. The needle would swing to full and stay there; I know my mileage isn’t that good. A search on the net turned up a couple of people who had similar problems, but they’d filled the car while the key was in the ignition. Apparently the gauge doesn’t reset properly.

My scenario was different - I always keep my keys in my pocket when fuelling - but it got to think about “rebooting” the car by disconnecting the battery for a minute. Sure enough, the gauge seems to be working again.

This isn’t the first time I’ve “fixed” a problem on the car this way, and none of the problems have resurfaced later (other than when I had a faulty mass airflow sensor). I can only imagine how much I’d have paid the dealer to fix this.