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Thanks for the extensive reply, David. Edinburgh is probably a little too far for me, but @Evolution13 has kindly given me a couple of pointers for recommended Skoda dealers closer to home. My nearest main dealership was adequate when buying a new car, but servicing and after-sales is far from good. Prices quoted randomly got VAT added afterwards, work was done and then needed to be re-done because their 'fix' did not address the actual problem, lack of communication, etc. And don't get me started on their salesman who told me with a completely straight face that he would sell a new L&K 4x4 with all options (i.e. around £55k list price) for well under £40k while we were negotiating a trade-in price 🤨 With my previous car, which I owned for 10 years from new, I gave up on the dealership after 5 years and had all servicing done by a local, non-affiliated, garage who were much better in every way. With the new car, however, I feel I should go back to an official dealership - at least in the early years - to maintain a full 'dealer' service history. The work won't be any better than my local garage would do, but fussy buyers will prefer to see it in the documentation when I come to sell. Hence my search for somewhere I can trust. Also, with the greater level of software in the Mk4 compared to my old Mk3, it probably needs more specialist attention anyway. Skoda seems to be progressively locking down the software systems so that non-approved technicians and owners cannot tinker with the cars. From this forum, I see that there are reports of more things to go wrong with the new models - although many of them seem to be teething problems with the very early Mk4 cars so (fingers-crossed) I may be unaffected. But again, it all points to needing to engage with an official dealer. BTW, I saw that you have the 19" Veritate wheels on Rosie. They look great, but they are a pain to clean because of the limited access behind the spokes and the strange design of the wheel barrel. Take a look at my posts in this forum for a possible solution if you intend to wash them yourself.

Pinout/wiring shown here Grey box at top is engine ECU. Brown wire is earth. 5V on pin 1. No idea whether there are any common loom damage points; probably quite tricky to see if it's down the back of the engine.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/127634514424?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5339164750&toolid=20006&customid=EAIaIQobChMIkpW18LuVlgMV2o9QBh2-hgdZEAQYCiABEgL6IPD_BwE%7C0AAAAAoWc2zeN1v54gWQF2Zb8scW667Y5k%7CCkEKCQjwyuDTBhD5ARIwAJzC9ixLEt3plGK6o3f_9V61n61J6hVAPQfhEfk3Hr0DILcdFIWrIf6t7iTPXd7gGgJ7lA&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkpW18LuVlgMV2o9QBh2-hgdZEAQYCiABEgL6IPD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAoWc2zeN1v54gWQF2Zb8scW667Y5k&wbraid=CkEKCQjwyuDTBhD5ARIwAJzC9ixLEt3plGK6o3f_9V61n61J6hVAPQfhEfk3Hr0DILcdFIWrIf6t7iTPXd7gGgJ7lA&loc_interest_ms=&loc_physical_ms=1007089&adtype=pla&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23227905555&gbraid=0AAAAAoWc2zeN1v54gWQF2Zb8scW667Y5k Just seen this on EBay, which I guess is all I need. Just then to transfer the “inside” into it. Has anyone used this form before?

@Coral-C - I feel for you, having endured the misery of Lloyd Group for the past few years. Excellent at the beginning but then lost all.of their good employees and became so bad it was best described as 'dark comedy'. To be fair, they recruited a new Service Manager and he has tried to turn Lloyd Kelso around with a degree of success. The dealership even issued a public newsletter by email to their customers apologising for what went before. Thing is, at approx. £170 per hour labour and the usual 'premium badge tax' associated with Land Rover, it hurts even more than similar poor service from a mainstream franchise garage. My Skoda dealership is West End Skoda in Edinburgh. They are a privately owned group of just three Skoda dealerships which are all based in Scotland. They have been very fair, respectful and gracious as we worked through the rejection of Rosie 1 back in March. My Senior Sales Executive is also excellent and he has messaged me every month on or around the 1st with an order update. It feels personal. The Sales Manager is also a good guy and both have worked at the dealership for many years. Continuity and consistency are severely underrated these days. They're not perfect but who is, especially in the world of car sales, and so patience is needed in the relationship. The caveat is that I have no experience yet of the aftersales service since we haven't collected Rosie 2 yet. That's crucial because the folk in the service team are the ones that really matter for the long-term ownership experience. When we visit for our own personal PDI, I hope to spend a few minutes chatting with the Service Manager and perhaps a member of his/her team. What I can say is that this dealership doesn't have a 'hostess welcome' person (Edinburgh Audi) whose sole job purpose is to greet you on entry and simply show you to a seat - this lady must have had a substantial clothing allowance included in her remuneration package because she always looked stunning! Neither do they have a receptionist which initially feels odd until you realise that our experience of dealership receptionists is simply to try and transfer your call before telling you that the line is busy and they will ask someone to call you back, which has a less than 50% hit rate. At Lloyd Kelso, I was on first name terms with the receptionist who was a very kind lady and who eventually couldn't apologise sincerely enough for her colleagues after many weeks of no returned calls. We made it a game in the end and laughed together at the utter stupidity of the whole process. At West End, you choose the department you need on your keypad and get straight through - no call centre,no receptionist and no hostess service. And no £170 per hour labour charges! That's refreshing. No palacial glass and marble showroom which attempts to shrink you in the way a global bank's HQ attempts to do (here's looking at you, RBS Gogarburn before you crashed the economy in 2008 with your subprime loan book and over extended debt). Smoke and mirrors. West End is a decent, real world kind of place which feels normal.....and the toilets are spotless, always a good sign! But we shall see how collection goes and the follow through thereafter. Honestly, I'm not asking for much: an unspectacular but straightforward customer journey will be just fine. No ribbons, no dustsheet reveal, no fanfare. Just a Sales Exec who is happy to help me set up my user account with Rosie and a bunch of experienced, salt of the earth technicians who understand what the strainer is on the Haldex 4x4 system. Substance matters, gloss is superfluous. I will let the Briskoda Community know how it all goes, including the follow through with the all important team in the service department. Hope this has been helpful! David.

Did a 381 mile round trip [ mostly motorway mies] to North Wales last week in my 2025 1.5 SEL DSG Karoq. Screen info says average speed 50mph and fuel consuption 53 mpg so Im really pleased with those figures.

NGK - 94833 platinum 17,20 euros a piece. It's what I used on my 2014 vers which is also ea 888 3'rd gen Works perfect. Getting the coils off is a pitta. Warm up the car and they will be easier to remove if you do it by hand. Beware of burns...

Thanks for that guys. So it sounds like a space saver will fit in a 4x4 seven seater, its just that I might have to be a bit inventive with the foam trays. 👍

OBD fault code Starter motor has an intermittent fault. It is fine for weeks and then will not start. The fault clears somehow if the car if left or the DSG lever is moved or the fault code is cleared. The fault description is mechanical or electrical malfunction. If the motor does eventually start does this suggest an electrical fault, or not necessarily? I’m having the motor replaced this week or next but this may be only part of the problem. Any suggestions?

Hi SteveF, temptation beyon endurance as they say. Great car!

Hello, I’m Steve and I’m going to be collecting my new Octavia in 3 weeks. I’ve never personally owned a Škoda but, as the family’s official petrolhead, I’ve been instrumental in the purchase of several Skodas, by various friends and family members. I helped my late father buy his first ever brand new car, back in 2006. A Fabia. I helped my son source two MK3 Octavias. (First one was unfortunately rear ended!) Advised a friend to look for an Octavia, when replacing an aging Toyota Avensis. They’ve had their MK2 for approximately 8+years now and it has, this week, been relegated to 2nd car duties as they didn’t want to part with it but wanted a newer car. I, personally, have lusted after an Octavia vRS for the best part of 15yrs. Somehow, when it came to buying a replacement car, I always ended up buying something different. There was always some other consideration, whether practical, financial or logistical, which meant a different purchase was made! As I retired a year ago, we have decided to change our current car for a brand new “something that I promise to keep for longer than my usual 3-5yrs” (I’ve had to sign something to that effect!). Having thoroughly researched possibilities, I kept coming back to the fact that I’ve always liked/wanted an Octavia vRS! Upshot is, I found a lovely 8 mth old example, 2hrs drive away and organised a test drive last week. It was lovely to drive and a good deal was struck. However , they had a lovely, discounted, new example in the showroom. I casually enquired about it and we pick it up on Sept 1st! It’s a tad more than I wanted to spend but the discount and Škoda pcp deposit definitely brought the two closer together and being as this car must be a keeper, I thought we’d make the stretch! Can’t wait! Look forward to learning lots of stuff from you guys on here!

There should be a search function at the top of your page.

Left tail gate strut failed - lots of beeping not much moving. Popped it off to find the wires have broken. Quick + dirty repair to make it work again whilst I order replacements.

I`ve attached pics of the unit and as you can see when you look at the second pic, the bluetooth audio is greyed out and press it as much as you like that doesn`t change. When paired with the car andI check the phone settings it`s set to play blutooth audio through the skoda pairing so I really am at a loss to undestand why this won`t work..

@nbramwel Is that a place that is not VAT registered you use? Fluid & a very very low hourly rate, very low if there is VAT included and only £35.

I have discovered my 2006 mk2 Octavia 1.9 tdi hatchback has a factory fitted tow bar with detachable swan neck. (Manufactured by a Czech company called PROF SVAR.) The swan neck, however, is missing. I am hoping someone out there has one of these lying about that they do not need and are willing to sell it. TIA. I have attached pictures to assist identification.

@Coral-C Dundee has a Courtesy Transport Driver, or a Courtesy Car. Victoria Garage good for a stay over and maybe a Courtesy car.

Hmm, this may be the issue then as although the option is there to play bluetooth media the button is always "greyed" out?

That's another option. Maud looks excellent, but Dundee is probably easier for public transport if I need to leave the car with them for any length of time.

John Clark Skoda Dundee are considered by some including me much better for Customer services than they are in Aberdeen or Perth.

That's not a million miles away 😀 I'll check them out. Thanks, @Evolution13

@Coral-C Are you in a part of the Scottish Highlands too far from the excellent Victoria Garage Maud, Peterhead. (Skoda) Aberdeenshire? http://victoriagarage-maud.co.uk

Hi Arianne Just picking up on a sidebar comment in one of your posts... you mentioned that your dealership is "a smaller, family and privately owned franchise as I wanted to avoid the big car dealership groups like Arnold Clark or Lloyd Group". I'm also in Scotland (Highlands rather than the Borders) and have to suffer with a national dealership that is, shall we say, "not excellent". Can you share who your dealer is? Best wishes for Rosie 2 - not long to wait now until you have somewhere to put that USB stick 😉. I recently moved to a 2025 L&K 4x4 and the drive is perfect for me. Rosie will be a joy for your long-haul trans-Europe journeys; Superbs are magnificent on the motorway. I wasn't sure about the massage seats on the L&K, but after a 600-mile-in-a-day run, I wouldn't want to be without them now. And I enjoy the understated power on the rare occasions when you need it: sub-6 seconds to 60mph leaves the boy racers open-jawed at the lights.

I can totally understand why you want to do it. I'm a bit of a sucker for all the latest bells and whistles myself, and if there's a way of making the car do something that a higher-spec model does, I'm usually the first to start wondering how it can be done! 😄 Having looked at what would potentially be involved with the Mk4 though, I'm not sure I'd actually go ahead with this one. The thing is, what you've already got isn't really a "lesser" TPMS system in terms of what it's there to do. It uses the ABS/wheel-speed sensors to monitor for a loss of pressure and, if it detects one, it tells you about it. So the important bit — knowing you've got a tyre that's losing pressure — is already covered. To get the actual numbers on the screen, you're potentially looking at four direct TPMS sensors, a receiver and possibly another module/wiring, plus fitting, coding etc. And then, at some point down the line, you've got four little batteries in the wheels that are going to run out and need dealing with. All of that just to change the information from: "There's a problem with this tyre" to: "This tyre is currently at 2.1 bar." And I completely get why you'd want the second one! 😂 It's just that I'm not sure I'd want to spend potentially quite a bit of money and introduce extra hardware into an otherwise perfectly happy car purely to get that information. A decent digital pressure gauge will give you the actual figures whenever you want them, and you can check all four tyres in a couple of minutes before a long journey. If I'd been speccing the car from new and direct TPMS was an option, I'd definitely have ticked the box. But as a retrofit, I'd probably put this one in the "nice to have" column and keep it on the bucket list for the next car. Then when the next Superb comes along, you can tick the box for direct TPMS from the factory or make sure thee used car has it and enjoy watching all four pressures appear on the screen without having to retrofit half the car to make it happen! 😁 That's just my take on it though — if seeing those four numbers on the OEM screen every time you get in the car is going to make you happy, then I completely understand why you'd want to do it. Sometimes that's reason enough!

I bought a new Kodiaq SE L 7 seater in February this year. Like you, I wanted a space saver wheel. I found the 2 best sources were Skoda Parts Direct and Caffyns Parts. Decided to go with Caffyns. Bought the space saver wheel and the foam kit on their ebay site because delivery was only £12 on eBay but more than £30 if I bought direct from Caffyns!! Fitted everything myself although some parts are a bit tricky. Guess you won’t have that problem with a factory order.

Thanks for reply. Yes, that does look straight forward. But video doesn’t quite show how the old key fits into the new hinge though.