Myran

Observation from another Scandinavian is that the Shell V-power sold here in Norway is not influencing power, torque or economy in any amount I have managed to detect compared to the usual Shell diesel I normally tank. But, last summer, going through Germany towing a trailer, so obviously keeping a relative constant speed on the Autobahn, I filled up at an Aral station with Aral Ultimate. The small rest I had on the tank were standard Norwegian Shell diesel, and the difference were beyond what I thought possible. The engine (the nightmare 2.0 PD) ran much more smooth, and the consumption sank 10 - 15%. I can't really say anything about power, but it felt better. I also heard stories about truck drivers, talking about Russian diesel, where they could feel a real difference in power compared to Norwegian diesel, real Russian power! A theory is that the bio-diesel they are blending in all diesel here in Norway, and perhaps also other places is not very good for the performance. Perhaps the bio-diesel mix is not containing the same energy amount, or is making the blend not so efficient in the combustion, lowering the performance? I think the diesel at the pumps here in Norway by law must contain at least 5% bio-diesel. And yes, I can definitely measure a difference on the consumption during the winter compared to summer. My average winter consumption is approx 10% higher than in summer. In my area they are starting to sell "winter diesel" in September, normally guaranteed not to "wax" at temperatures down to -30 deg C. It's probably not just the diesel, as cold weather making all movements harder, winter tires with worse performance and snow on the roads probably also is contributing.

A little bit off-topic perhaps, but here in Scandinavia many cars are equipped with additional heaters. It is more and more popular with fuel based heaters (Webasto or Eberspächer), but these are rather expensive. Another alternative is a mains powered system, most popular here in Norway is DEFA: http://www.defa.com/...omotive/warmup/ It's a modular system, and they offer engine heating, interior heating and battery chargers. I had this kind of equipment on all of my cars so far. It is making it possible to actually start a diesel engine when it is -35 deg. C. Preheating saves fuel and wear on the engine, and if you have an interior heater as well you do not need to scrape ice anymore. Of course you will need a mains power outlet close to your car... myran

Hi Please forgive the long post… I have a 2007 model Superb with parking sensors both front and rear. Last October I had a vacation in Czech Republic , and had the car serviced there. The workshop where the service were done is an authorized Skoda shop. When picking up the car, the front parking sensors were not working any more. Due to time shortage and the workshops limited interest to solve the problem, we were forced to go home to Norway without the front sensors working. The car has now been to my local Skoda Service shop several times, and they have not been able to locate the problem. I have spoken directly to the master technician working on the car, and he has really tried everything, also consulting external resources. What he says, is that he cannot log any faults from the parking sensor system, even if the sensors are obviously not working. He has also checked all connectors, checking that the sensors are actually connected to the control unit. I have observed that the tone I hear when activating the parking sensor system has changed. Earlier I had a higher frequency tone for the front, and a lower for the rear. I guess the frequency for the working rear sensors are now somewhere between the two. Secondly I can observe that there are a green light in the parking sensor switch placed right in front of the hand brake. Earlier I could activate the parking sensor system while going forward by pressing this. Then the light would turn orange. The light is now green constantly, also when revers is selected. I therefore have a small suspicion that the problem might be the control unit. My question to you gurus out there: do you know if the control unit for the parking sensors are identical for cars with and without the sensors in front? Will the control unit from a VW Passat B5 fit? Any coding necessary to get a different control unit working in my car? Are there anyone with any ideas of what could be wrong? I am very satisfied with the local Skoda shop where I live, and trying to fix this might be a long shot, but as I am working with electronics, and even ultrasonic sensors on a daily basis, I will give it a try.

The test I was referring to had all tires in the dimension 205/55-16, fitted to a Ford Focus during the test. I have no experience with 205 tires personally, but my current Skoda has Michelin Maxi Ice 225/45-17 fitted, and it does definitely not feel as good as previous cars I had, latest with 195/65-15, same brand and type tires. When my current tires are worn out, the rims will be for sale, and I will invest in new, and more narrow winter tires, like 195/65-16 Perhaps I am wrong, but it might be that the conditions we experience in parts of Scandinavia is somehow different from what you have further south in Europe, so different qualities of the tires are judged differently. I think the most important thing is to use winter tires, driving on snow or ice with summer tires is considered madness and illegal where I come from. myran

I am not from Finland, but in my part of Norway I am driving 3 - 4 months a year on snow or ice. My experience through 20 winters of driving is absolutely corresponding to Superbjoser's. During winter time, here in Scandinavia, wide tires is of no use at all. My feeling is that it in loose or especially wet snow wider tires tend to "float" more on top, not reaching the harder surface below. Here is a test done by the Norwegian Drivers association, translated by Google from Norwegian to some kind of English. I do not know if it is understandable: http://translate.google.no/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naf.no%2FForbrukertester%2FDekk%2FDekktester%2FVinterdekktest-2010%2F&act=url It features both studded and non studded winter tires. I guess that the tires in the test made for the central European market is also available in the UK. Myran

Hi, Did you manage to fix your display? Reason I ask is that I experienced the same thing with my car today. Thank you

I had a similar problem with an old Audi once. I removed the headlights from the car, removed the bulbs and sprayed a nice amount of window cleaner fluid inside the unit. Then moved it around, to be sure the fluid reached all parts of the reflector and glass. Next step I filled it 1/4 full with warm water, still with the window cleaner inn, and shook the whole thing for a while, trying to hold my hands over the openings. The water/window cleaner mix getting out were showing that dirt indeed were present in the headlight. Next step was getting out the window cleaner, filling up partially with clean, warm water, shaking and pouring it out again. I repeated this till I was sure the window cleaner was out. Last step I put the headlights on a warm surface (not too warm), letting it stay there till all moisture were dried out. Might be smart to have the front of the headlight up, so the remains of water will get out, not gather at the front glass before it dries. This procedure really helped, lights were as new, and I had the car with these headlights for five years after this operation, with no signs of problems related to this cleaning. How ever, this were on more old fashion headlights, with prisms in the glass, have no idea how this will work on more modern headlights. Myran

[Have a 2007 model 2.0 tdi L&K, bought it September 2008. Living in Norway, we measure distance in km here. The car had done 17 000 km when I bought it, and the current reading is now approx 45 000 km. So far following things has happened: 1: LED light under right side mirror defect, short circuit. This short circuit also destroyed the comfort module. All parts and labour covered by warranty. 2: Right front light got a crack in the glass, with moisture in the unit as a result. No sign of any thing hitting the glass. Parts and labour covered by warranty. 3: Rust in the lights for rear number plate, corrosion causing bad contact to the light bulbs, with no light as a result. Rust is also appearing around the light. Having this issue under evaluation from the main dealer now, expect it to be covered by warranty. 4: Periodically getting message “Zielfuerung nicht aktiv” on the screen in the dashboard. Message means that the “target guidance is not active”. By turning radio/sat nav off/on, this message disappears. As I understand from my dealer, this is something that might happen every now and then. No problem for me, as long as the message is easily removed. 5: Rear backing sensor defect. This will be changed soon, hopefully under warranty as well. I can see that a lot of people is sceptic to the 2.0 tdi engine. So far I had no problems whit the engine at all, knock wood! DPF regenerates approx every 700 km, but the light for re-generating the DPF has never been on. I think the engine performs nice, but have not tried the 1.9 tdi in a Superb, so cannot compare. We just had a rather cold period here, with colder than -20 deg C for almost two weeks. Were actually able to start the car and drive home from work one day we had -33 deg C. Had to double clutch until the gear box got warm, that was actually the only noticeable thing happening. So far I am happy with the Superb, and hope that it will keep that way. The Skoda dealer in my district is known to be one of the best and most service minded service centres, and I hope to still be able to say this in the future. Sorry for the long post...

Hi everyone, Yesterday afternoon, while washing my car, I saw that the right headlight glass had a crack, from the top, starting from under the bonnet, and going 1/3 of the way down. No other signs of anything hitting the glass or anything near, it looks like it has appeared more or less by it self, perhaps from internal stress forces in the headlight glass? Of course this is difficult to tell. In any case, do anyone here know if it is possible to change only the glass, or do I have to change the whole headlight? I want to change it, as water has already started to get inside the unit. The car is an 2007 model, facelift, with HID lights. I will talk to my local Skoda dealer on Monday, so we will see if they will accept this as a warranty issue, or if my wallet will suffer... I am afraid they will not accept this as a warranty issue, what do you think? Thanks in advance for any info. Myran

Well, I have also experienced this problem a few times, always when starting the car. Approx. 20 years ago I had German in school, but unfortunately it has not been used too much. But I think "Zielfuehrung" actually means, directly translated to English, something like "Goal guidance", or "destination guidance", and I guess this is a German expression for GPS satelite navigation. This didn't exist in cars 20 years ago So "Zielfuehrung nicht aktiv" would be "GPS not active" or something like that. Please excuse, my English is also from school 20 years ago When I have experienced this, I have simply turned the radio/sat-nav off and on, and then the problems have disappeared. The conclution I have made personally is that during start up of the different units, the sat-nat does not start correctly,or communication fails somehow, and the trip computer is not able to find or communicate correctly to the sat-nav. I searched a bit, and I think the previous discussion is here: http://briskoda.net/superb/help-zielfuehrung-nicht-aktiv/62820/ Myran

Thanks, then I think I understand.. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I then guess that the regeneration process will happen without any visible sign (other than the smell or increased idle speed), and the yellow sign on the dash will only appear if this process of some reason fails? I can not say to have noticed any smell or increased idle, but then again, if this happens during a long trip, I would probably never mention. When thinking of it, I have mentioned a few times the fuel consumption has been higher than normal. Perhaps this also is a sign that the regeneration process is going on? Thanks for the info, I like to understand what is going on when driving Bjarte

Yes, I would also think that motorway driving, and long trips would be better for the DPF. But, I do not think I am really driving that much on motorways. In general I guess that only 25 % of the km's are done on trips longer than 15 km, the rest on short distances, and on typically bad Norwegian roads, not allowing very high speed. But I am definetely not complaining as long as everything seem to work

Hello everyone, I have a Skoda Superb 2.0 tdi, 2007 model, and I have read about the problems with the DPF with this engine in the car. I got the car in September 2008, since then I have driven approx. 8500 km, and I have still not experienced any regeneration process. If I havent misunderstood completely, a yellow sign will appear, telling to drive with specified speed/rpm to clean the DPF? Does anyone here have any experience with the frequency of the regeneration process? Regards from Norway, Myran

So, after browsing the forum for a while I decided to join in, looks like a forum with a lot of knowledge. I bougth my first Skoda four months ago, a 2007 Skoda Superb 2.0 tdi L&K. So far everything is working like a dream. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! With greetings from Norway, Myran