I think tyou are right Trev, I said on post #20 it didn't look like a water pump, post #21 from RichardHelen262 thought similar and we are both ex trade, to be honest I don't have much confidence with whoever is doing the repair
I'm girding my loins to get down to the garage this week and find out what's going on.
I know they haven't started doing the MOT yet and they are snowed under with other work, so the camper is currently sitting in their (very secure) storage yard and they probably haven't looked at any of it properly yet.
To be fair I haven't really looked into the problem myself and I think Neil had assumed it was a problem with the water pump when he mentioned it to the garage? Not sure what kind of conversation he's had with the garage about it since, communication is not his strongest point...!
It could be that when I get a chance to talk to them myself that they are already on the case, and if Welsh Will says parts for that engine are no longer manufactured then it's likely that they will be checking various sources for second hand parts, which we now realise are difficult to source.
Unfortunately it’s been like this for a long time now, we no longer have mechanics, they are just fitters nowGarages these days are just fitters,dont know how to fix or repair things.
Again as time goes on words and names get corrupted. Once upon a time, being a “Fitter“ was a highly skilled job. Machinists used to have difficulties in holding tight tolerances, it was the fitters job to make it fit. Either by selective assembly or by fine finishing the mating surfaces.
With parts so cheap and labour so expensive its nearly always in the customers and the garages advantage to fit a new guaranteed partGarages these days are just fitters,dont know how to fix or repair things.
as confirmed by my recent experience at the main VW dealer
Obviously, but when the parts are no longer available you don't have much option.
The difficulty then becomes in finding an old-fashioned 'fitter' as @SquirrellCook says.
hmmm not sure id agree with this comment. Admit the industry is going to be in trouble in maybe 10 years as the quality just isnt coming through anymore. But technology has advanced from what it use to be. Iv been on the tools fòr 30 years and its nothing like it use to be. Electrics is all networked now which can be corrupted by something not even on that network and as for components? Its cheaper and easier to just replace whole thing than to lose labour in removing and carrying out a repair which may only last until something else fails, why bother when you can replace whole thing. 
Exactly right, my van wouldn't start once and the engine light was on, so I plugged my laptop on and it pointed to a couple of sensors, I bought the sensors and changed them but I had the same fault codes, I looked further and eventually found a blown 2A fuse behind a cover in the engine bay, replaced the fuse and no code faults, I had already fitted the new sensors so I couldn't return them so I carry my old ones as spares
