I posted this in another section of the forum and then I came across this section so I'm reposting it here. BTW, that's supposed to be "number of issues."

A friend gave me his 2001 Golf because he bought a new car and my current car. . . . well, it isn't even mine, it's borrowed. So now I have this Golf but it has some problems, large and small and I could use the collective expertise of this forum to get this car up to snuff.

Need to say that there is no owner's manual so I can't read it to see if answers are in it.

I guess the engine is important. 2.0 Liter, 4 cylinder, gasoline.

Let's start small.

Interior lights. The lights come on with the passenger door opening, no problem there. However, they don't come on when the driver's door opens UNLESS the key is in the ignition. That just strikes me as strange.

Transmission. It doesn't want to go into reverse all the time. Shift from P into R and you might as well be in N. Sometimes if I slam it into 1 and then R it will engage. Other times not so much.

Check Engine Light. I borrowed an OBD II code reader but they don't make sense. The last car that I tinkered with was an 1988 BMW so it was a bit simpler. The codes are

P0411 Secondary Air Injector Incorrect Flow
P0170 Fuel Trim (Bank 1)
P1296 No description


One forum says that 1296 is a cooling system problem and another says that it is fuel air metering.

Any ideas what the codes mean? What is the "secondary air injector"? What is "Fuel Trim?

Thanks.