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Schoolboy error. Forgot to remove wheel chocks I'd set on the other wheel. 😂

A couple from a recent trip to Longleat, the remaining are to large to upload 🤦‍♂️

H2 rt by geof worrall, on Flickr little moreton hall, cheshire

Lubrication/Treatment of Sunroof Seals In my initial research into my leaky roof i kept coming across a lot of VW EOS Convertible owners boards - it appears that the EOS is basically a collander! One of the solutions VW have offered to fix the problem was treating the various rubber seals on the convertible roof using a special lubricant oil. This lubricant is called 'Krytox' manufactured by DuPont and is an expensive, super high specification PFPE lubricant. It seems that it has the effect of rejuvenating seals causing them to swell and remain water tight - it is also extremely durable and does not react to the elements and contaminants. VW sell this stuff under three part numbers: G 052 141 A1 - Oil based G 052 141 A2 - Paste based G 052 141 A3 - Aerosol based It can also be bought direct from DuPonts UK distributor GBRTech.co.uk who quoted me £30.30 for the 30ml of the oil (Krytox GPL-105) and £38.90 for 2oz of the paste (Krytox GPL-205), not including VAT and £13 fedex delivery. A lot of chat on the forums suggests it can go a considerable time before needing reapplying and that a little goes a very long way, however the oil based version apparently contains a lower quantity of the actual lubricant compared to the paste. There are several alternative PFPE type lubricants that can be found cheaper on ebay etc. including Zarox, Fluorofluid and Whiteline bicycle lubricants - however anecdotal evidence is that these, despite being cheaper are still fairly expensive and are not as good as the Krytox and this a bit of a false economy. Interestingly the Golf and Leon workshop manuals refer to applying the Krytox paste to the seals, however there is no mention of it in the Octavia manual. As such i was a bit reluctant to spend £50 quid on something that may or may not be necessary. In my research i found a lot of references to 'Gummipflege', particularly among owners of MB and BMW cabriolets. This stuff is a rubber conditioner which also appears to rejuvenate the condition of seals (unlike normal rubber dressings which simply make it look shinier) although the reports are that it is nowhere near as durable as the Krytox stuff as it isn't really meant for external use. There are several brands of Gummiplege - Sonax, Liqui-Moly, BMW and Nextzett. The Nextzett stuff seems to be the best rated and i got a 100ml tube from MicksGarage for about £6 delivered so thought it was worth a whirl. It comes in one of those Kiwi-Shoe Polish type applicators with a foam pad on the end. Having wiped the seals down with a damp cloth and dillute washing up liquid and water mix which i allowed to dry, i applied it to all of the rubber seals around the inside and outside of the roof panel as well as all my door and boot seals. There's still loads left in the bottle which i can see lasting sometime. I will see how it goes, but even if i feel the need to reapply every couple of months or so at this stage I dont feel as if im losing anything by trying this first as an alternative to the Krytox. Hope this has all been of use to you folks

I believe the general consensus was don’t mess with an airbag as it’s dangerous. Cover the current badge with a stick on of sorts. Even if you managed to remove, whatever you replace it with could be flying in your face at the speed of light if the airbag went off in an accident.

Given the difficulty of sourcing the facelift tail lights, and the astronomical prices to get a set landed in here in Oz, I improvised n did my own Chrome stripe across the back of the car. It's subtle, n sits perfectly on the lip without interfering with the light stripes, nor the RVC. I also did the same with the lower door trims, as I've seen on Sportline (black) and some L&K (chrome) models.

Here is a quick guide on how to remove and install the rear make and model badges / Emblems. What you need Adhesive Remover (Autoglym Tar Remover , WD40 etc) Trim removal tool or dental floss Microfiber Cloth Tape (Electrical or Masking tape) New badges / Emblems (Rapid in Black Magic and Skoda in Black Magic) or lesser quality but cheaper (Ebay Acrylic Skoda Emblem and eBay Acrylic Black Rapid) Step one Make sure the working area is clean as possible. No need to wash the car completely down, but give the area a quick wash with soapy water and rinse with clean water. Ensure the working area is completely dry before going any further and out of the elements / weather. Step two Using the masking tape or electrical tape, mark the area around the badge as close as possible. This will help when installing the new badges. If you're just removing the badges completely then there is no need to carry out this step. Step three There are a couple of ways this step can be done so pick which one you prefer. First, using dental floss (this is a favorite) in a sawing motion from top to bottom. Draw the floss through the adhesive backing until each individual letter becomes lose. This method will prevent any undue damage to the paintwork but can be time consuming. Second method is what i used. Using plastic trim removal tools, use the most appropriate tool and push it in behind the lettering. Ensuring to not use to much force, lever the letters away from the body of the vehicle. You may need to adjust the position of the tool around the same letter to lever sections off at a time. This is quicker but could cause damage to the paintwork if you're not careful. The final way is risky but is lots quicker and less messy if you do it right. Using a heat gun or hair drier, apply heat to an individual letter at a time to reduce the effectiveness of the adhesive. As it heats up the letter will become lose and can simply be pulled away from the body. Be careful as applying to much heat in one area could cause the paint to burn or burn the adhesive onto the paint leaving unsightly marks. If you use a hair drier the risks of burning the paint is much lower but will take a lot longer for the lettering to become lose and can still leave a lot of residue behind. Step Four You need to remove the left over adhesive. To do this, use the adhesive remove and apply small quantities either to a microfiber cloth if you have a bottle of the stuff or spray directly onto the adhesive remains if it comes in a spray bottle. Allow a few minutes for the adhesive remover to do its work and then using a microfiber cloth to rub the remaining adhesive away. You may need to use a plastic spatula to help remove some of the more stubborn material or just your nails if you're careful. The area behind the emblems will have residual road grime, this is nothing to worry about and can be removed, so be sure to give the area a good clean before moving on. Step Five If you're removing the badges / emblems completely then you can now remove the tape and you're done! If you're adding alternative badges / emblems then you need to give the area a clean down with some clean water to that no adhesive remover remains. This will give a good surface for the new adhesive to adhere too. Peel the backing paper off from the new emblems. DO NOT REMOVE THE CLEAR FRONT! This is what holds the letters equally apart and remains on until later. You'll then need to line up the new badge within the edges of the tape that you put on earlier. Be careful to hold the badge / emblem away from the body as it is extremely sticky and will grab immediately. (I can assure you that although the car is dirty, the working area was clean in this picture) Once lined up press the badge onto the body, ensuring to press all parts of the letters and not just the center area to ensure the adhesive has grab entirely. With this done you can now remove the clear front and all the tape. I would advise not washing for at least 24hrs to give the adhesive enough to fix itself. Now repeat on the alternative side.

Fitted a black grill surround, wind deflectors, and rear bumper protector for the dog, new blue badges and spoiler extensions just arrived from Aliexpress, will get those fitted in due course. 👍 Not 100% sold on the spoiler extensions, think a bluetac test fit is the way forward! 🤣 10mb upload limit due to me being a tightwad! 😅

That sounds like me 10 years ago, I had 4 weeks from the first few running paces I had done for 35 years and gave myself what I believed to be the impossible target of the local 5km race in September, it may have been 6 weeks my memory is hazy, its unimportant. Soon I was running 5km and thinking about possibly trying the 10km race, my docteur said definitely not which was all the encouragement that I needed! Not long after I found that I could actually run 10km albeit with some stopping but 5km by then was relatively easy. I signed up for the half marathon, my target time was 2 hrs 40 minutes and I did it in I think 2 hours 20 minutes and the time dropped each year after that. I am up to 12k again but with several stops, a half marathon seems like a dream at present. Your 6 week thing will be a good time to review my progress, I just hope that it gets back to feeling normal again because its hell at the moment but I have the mental knowledge that it will be better, the last time I started from scratch again was after sepsis, I was very weak but still an athletic weight, its the 10kg that is holding me back. Sleep is very very important and good quality sleep as well, if you buy a runners watch or any fitness watch it will monitor your sleep time and more importantly how many hours deep sleep and how many light REM sleep. I knew that I had not been sleeping well since the confinement, the isolation and also the money concerns, since I have finally got the government support and know that it will continue till the end of the year I am sleeping much better, last night I got 4.5 hours deep sleep as opposed to 1.5-2hrs normally and I can always feel the results the next day, any injuries aches & pains just dissapear whereas they linger and get worse when sleep is not good. Editted, so much for the 6 weeks, its been 11 weeks since I restarted 🙁 Maybe I should count the 6 weeks from when I got my mind straight and my mojo back in which case its only been 2 weeks!

@J.R. chip in any time i encourage sharing experience inspiration to shift my arse..... so, over the last couple of months, i started using spotify. i then went looking for a meditation podcast to help with the sleeping. found one, "mindful in minutes" m. and while i know Kelly's accent may be a bit... american.. it works, i am sleeping better. i accidentally then listened to "The Blindboy Podcast" he is one half of "The Rubberbandits" who did a lot of stuff on youtube a few yrs ago. but i found the couple of podcasts of his i listened to (expecting slightly madcap stories etc) to be very articulate etc. i went back to the start of his pod casts, and have been listening to them since - about 3 weeks at this stage. he talks a lot about mental health and stuff, and how he finds running really helps with his creativity and generally well being. he also said something i had never really heard - "running is f%&@ing horrible, for about the 1st 6 weeks until your body starts to get good at it" i dont really know what about that made me make a decision, but i decided that i was going to try this running ****e and i had a target - get past the first 6 weeks and see what happens, get to running a 5k. so, on Sunday 19th July at about 830, i left the house with an idea, and a bottle of water....

OK, I don’t have an eco map, but my car has been mapped..... You’re getting good fuel economy as it is, which I have no doubt will get worse once you get it mapped as you’ll enjoy the change in performance Plus, at 150k you may find that the increase in performance will put extra strain on old parts which may not like it! Then you’ll probably wanna beef up the brakes... then it will take you a wee while to get back the money you’ve saved on fuel to cover the cost of the map and brakes, if you do at all. If I were you I would Keep it as it is and save your money, or change your car for one with a bit of performance.

Like my Mk3 Superb. Painted them metallic Rallye Green.

Some pics from @Fred66 relating to steering wheel removal:

Just had a look, I ordered on the 25th of July, that's quicker than some stuff from within the UK! 🤣

The blue badges look spot on! Ive just ordered 2x 90mm ones from Aliexpress this morning, hopefully they won't take months to arrive!

A super feature I spec'd for my car it will keep you moving in stop start traffic. If you are stationery too long it will stop engine and restart when car infront moves, you hear this if you are not paying attention and then a gentle dab of accelerator gets you moving again. Great for the motorway jams you invariably get in the UK.

that looks like it would do the job fine thanks guys, shame to use the phone battery but im sure i can plug it in somewhere to charge ?

Certainly have, that's not going anywhere! Even that will do 40 plus on a run with a bit more power but less weight. They compliment each other nicely on the drive! Chris

Excellent work - now I've got a Skoda with a satnav this perfect. Much appreciated!

Hi - average from when bought is 33.3 mpg (mainly short journeys) according to display and will exceed 40 mpg on a run which for a 2.0 litre petrol with a torque-converter auto and a heavy SUV body is fine for me as not doing the miles anymore. Didn't try the T3 as was already set on the 4 cylinder (I'm still old school!) but from what I've read the T3 would be fine for our use. Glad we got the T4 though as it's effortless. The hybrids are now being picked up by customers (too expensive) and already there's been a couple of issues with power delivery when it switches between petrol/electric. If you haven't looked already XCForums has plenty of discussion on mpg with the diesels getting a bit of a slating. What sort of mileage do you do? Chris

We tend to treat the battery in my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI with a lot of consideration, well I tend to do most of the driving of this car and I certainly do as much as possible with the frequent use of the "Auto Stop/Start Off" switch, and I had been noticing a predictable drop off year by year in its capacity when tested using my CTEK (Midcounties designed) battery tester, and over the lockdown I've been treating it to occasional sessions with a CTEK charger/maintenance thing. So, having time on my hands, while I was servicing it, I hooked it up to the CTEK, then on the next morning, I removed the charger about 09:00 finished off putting the Summer wheels on and tidying up the garage - decanting used oil into a container and absorbing used brake fluid into sawdust etc. Had lunch and at around 15:00 I checked that battery using the tester, it was still sitting above the normal voltage for a fully charged battery, ie it read 13.1V but its capacity was up to its original rated value - so maybe the plan to fit a slightly bigger AGM battery along with a new battery tray and battery insulator will need to wait a bit longer, a pleasant surprise I must admit influenced slightly by the state of charge or PD across the battery. I don't seem to have recorded that batteries manufacturer anywhere - yet.

Sounds like Traffic Jam Assist if you've got that feature?? Though you've presumably got a manual gearbox so the car won't actually move forward on its own as well??

I was at Silverstone in 2013. lots of tyre issues that day not saying Lewis is Lucky - as in benefits from "good luck" more than he should, or more than others do - but he doesn't seem to suffer from the same "bad" luck as others. how would the race have looked if the Mercedes' tyre issues had happened the other way round ?

Open your fuel flap and you can see all the sizes that will fit

I'll be attending in my slightly modified blue Mk3 vRS, got a mate who lives in Meon with a Scirocco R, so I apologise if he shows us up a little bit!

Thanks wino I'll contact Mike, and have another attempt with a different skoda dealer, in person this time. Auto doc e mailed me with this morning saying this cheap valeo wasn't compatible, Here https://www.autodoc.co.uk/vemo/13855090 as you suspected, they linked me here,(below) saying this is the part, also confirming it is out of stock. "These spares are out of stock. We have requested all our suppliers regarding their availability." https://www.autodoc.co.uk/metzger/14548951

May be the second one here to have sold up. The mt09sp and the Monkey went a couple of months back now. just not getting the use out of them to warrant having them really. All is not lost. I bought an Audi TTS for a weekend car, which seems to be getting more use so far..

I agree, that is a choice we make for the car that must get me to work and that takes us all over Europe when we are on holiday. The wife doesn't work and is never more than 20 miles from home in her car, we have just replaced it with a one year old car so missed the worst of the depreciation. The point of the thread wasn't to compare leasing with bangernomics but to compare leasing with purchasing new and changing at 3 years.

It will be interesting to see what deals (if any) are available. COVID has surely dampened sales projections. Possibly they may want to counteract that. Otherwise the may see very low sales on a brand new model. A model that will already be starting off more expensive than its predecessor. I reckon the same spec’d VRS I got 4 years ago is likely to be about 4K + more. Skoda running a fine line now between value & quality. It has been a no brainer for a few years now. But each year sees them creep closer to VW & Audi in price. The gap is shrinking which gives anyone with that money to spend more options. Seat are kinda where Skoda was 10 years ago. Building cars that are turning heads & for a considerable saving. UK have launched the non-VRS versions already & they have some discounts attached straight away. I think £2500 deposit contribution or something. So I expect something on the Irish one also which is usually in the way of lower % finance options. Got my last one on 0%. And with Brexit it will be interesting to see how cross border “second hand” car sales are affected. Could well be severe enough to practically remove that as an option all together. Then we really are cornered here in Ireland in terms of selection, & not just price. We will be prisoner to whatever options Skoda IRL deem appropriate. Have a look at the new Superb for example and the difference of engine options available in Ire compared to UK. I sincerely hope they don’t take the same approach with the Octy iV

Greetings, I had a Witter detachable with dedicated electrics fitted to my 2014 Estate in 2015 by Indespension for £525. Working on 5% inflation per year thats around £670 today so £700 could be about right. Try ringing Indespension, they seem to be nationwide. Hope that helps - AndyW

This is all about perspective and you seem to have created a very limited one to view this from. Constant leasing always puts you in the steepest part of the depreciation curve (until you die or stop leasing, whatever comes first). Compared to buying 2-3 year old cars and hanging onto them for 5 or so.

For me, whilst the interior trim is a lot better put together and the car 'feels' a lot more premium than my previous Octavia's, when you actually sit in them a white and start to look at them there are some noticeable backwards steps compared to my 14 year old MkII. The door plastics are noticeably harder and the door cards are basically a slab of plastic where on the old car they were a cushioned p-leather type material. The sports seats are much nicer looking than on the older cars however the fabric inner sections arent much to write home about and don't look as if they will be as durable as the fabric/foam weave thing on the older cars. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the stuff in front of you as a driver is very nice - i love the sports steering wheel in particular - but look closer and there are bits that have clearly not moved forwards or even gotten worse likely in the name of cost. I always find the throttle response on VAG cars to be a bit mushy at the start of the pedal travel - i know this is partly drive by wire throttles but i drive loads of different makes and models and it is particularly noticeable on VAG cars, especially when double de-clutching. The newer car is better for this than my MkII was but its a shame that the missus Fiesta still has a better throttle response. On a daft and purely subjective note, the engine - the TDI VRS is fine around the doors for most of your daily driving needs and is a wonderfully economical thing, but properly quick it is not im afraid. I read a comment on here before i got mine that the diesel VRS is just a family car with a sporty body kit rather than actually being sporty and in terms of power I have to agree - it does handle very well though - it makes me wonder why the engine wasn't refreshed at some stage as with an extra 200-210bhp it would probably be ideal. And on another personal note... the panoramic roof... never again 😨

Drainage Tubes - Continued: While not specific to the Octavia - the Leon Workshop Manual pretty much shows the layout of the drain tubes as they are on the Octavia in quite a lot of details as well as the cleaning procedure: http://www.seatia.com/secon-887.html

Where to being with this, I recently bought my Mk3 VRS used (but new to me) from a good friend. The car has a pano-roof, which i wasn't massively fussed about and on the basis of my experiences so far I will never buy a car with again. Long story short within a few days of buying the car i found the roof was leaking. The issued appears to have been fixed now by my local VW independent specialist who had to remove the roof, fit a new seal, re-bond the roof to the plastic frame and then refit. As a result of my issues I've done a LOT of research into these roofs the last few weeks so prepare for a long winded response. The roofs themselves appear to be manufactured by Webasto however the VAG appear to have a particularly poor track record in terms of leaks and drainage issues when compared to other marques. Clearing Drainage Tubes The most common issues are the sunroof drains themselves becoming clogged and flooding. The way to test this is to carefully run some water into the sunroof tray (i used a squeezy mineral water bottle) and see if it drains effectively - the drain points are at the front and rear wheel arches. Even if still draining okay i would suggest this should be a yearly job. My front drains were nowhere near as efficient as the rear drains. With the roof open, the drainage points can be found in the four corners of the plastic sunroof tray, however the two rears ones are not readily visible and are hidden by the mechanisms. The two front ones are easily identifiable and are circular holes a few millimetres in diameter. These drain points are bonded to drain tubes - I've seen other people have these bonds fail and leak or become disconnected and they have had to drop the headliner and re-bond the pipes to the roof. The front drainage tubes run down the A-Pillar and exit at the bulkhead in the engine bay. The drain tubes themselves are just push fit into a rubber boot at the bulkhead and again in mu opinion there is the potential for this to work loose and leak. The procedure i used to clear the front drains was firstly to open the bonnet and remove the rubber stripping from the plenum chamber cover - it will just pull off. From there you will see there are several metal clips which secure the plenum cover, again these will pull out and you should be able to lift both corners of the plastic plenum chamber cover. The workshop manual suggests the windscreen wipers need removing, but even with my shovel hands i was able to reach in under the plenum chamber cover and feel towards the base of the A-Pillar where you will feel a rubber nipple. You need to manipulate this and you should feel an amount of gunk work clear from the nipples, this in itself should improve the efficiency of the drainage tubes markedly. To clear the tubes themselves some recommend blowing compressed air from the drain point in the roof tray, however VW seem to advise against this and the workshop manuals refer to using a bowden cable or similar as a drain snake. Personally i wouldn't use anything metal or too rigid as the drain pipes themselves aren't especially heavy duty and i could see the potential to cause damage. I purchased some plastic garden strimmer line for a couple of quid from the DIY shop - 2mm diameter, in reality i could probably have done with using the same stuff but a bit thicker as this was a bit too malleable and not strong enough. As such i doubled it up and taped it at several points to double its thickness and make it a bit stronger. It was then a case of gently feeding it down the two drainage pipes - if you hit any snags its probably a bit of blockage, working the cable back an forth it should push through and i was eventually able to get my cable to appear out of the bulkhead nipple and then basically 'flossed' the drainage tube. I repeated this several times and quite a bit of gunk was loosened. I then repeated this on the other side front drain. Finally i used a large syringe containing hot (but not too hot) water and washing up liquid and injected this directly into the drain point just to try and degrease and clean any final bits out. As discussed the rear drainage tubes cant be easily accessed from the top by my eyes. The workshop manual suggests these exit by the rear wheel arch and that access to clear the drain point nipple can only be gained by removing the rear bumper - which looks a right ball ache. I have seen some suggests that taking off the wheel and arch liner should also get you access. You could also clear the tube from within the car - removing it from the rubber boot where it enters the drainage nipple and exits the car, but this would mean removing a lot of the boot trim. This was all a bit involved for me as my rear drains seemed okay, however i will keep an eye on this. My research suggests that the way to clean these drains is again using your improvised drain snake - however this time from the bottom up, feeding it from the wheel arch nipple up towards the roof where it should emerge. I will stick another post on shortly re: the lubrication of the mechanism and seals

I Just need 6mm silicone straight one, 1m. Give me quote please? For wenting of my custom water cooling system TOPLO means hot, and HLADNO means cold

It’s all completely on screen. Designed by Apple (or android).

Less road noise and better quality plastics inside ,and the piano black door shuts are a pain with finger marks and swirls

And yesterday got home after 1 night away. 700+ miles on glorious roads. I didn’t see any other track bikes on my travels.

That wife of yours is alway mucky but, what about the car😂😂😂

If you google rns510 maps download you will get quite a few hits. I have used VW sites Mk5golfgti, my-gti.com. The digital eliteboard has got most maps and the maps tools. https://www.digital-eliteboard.com/forums/volkswagen-rns-510-rns-810.1425/ With GPS power just create a new profile if your last one was binned. They are probably useful for sat navs on other makes too.

Cutt Mill just outside Sturminster Newton, this Mill has been around since the early 18th Century and ravaged by 2 fires, the first being March 1817, the Mill was rebuilt but its believed commercial milling ceased in the 1920's, the building was set upon by arsonists in 2003 and has lied in ruin since.

Come on @Rustynuts, confess! What do you do with all those £10 / year subscription fees? 😋

The echo can be switched off whilst going through the media settings. I can't off the top of my head remember its name, but it's something like voice enhancer. Good luck with the other faults. I hope they don't spoil your new car for you

The Skoda dealer checked my SD card in another car and looked at the map in one of their cars. They confirmed that the latest version of the UK map (ECE 1 2020-21) does not provide village place names. I was both relieved and annoyed to have this confirmation; relieved because the fault was not due to any error on my part or in downloading and unzipping the files; annoyed because Skoda UK, to whom I have reported this fault, did not take the trouble to have a look for themselves. The fault is also present on VW cars, because I tried downloading from their portal just in case. I do not understand why no other customers are complaining.

Fawnrush, they look short, so it ought to be to somewhere fairly near, perhaps it's worth using a small compact mirror and shining a bright torch into any concealed areas?

Yesterday. Track session. Captain Slow. But was fun. Even when it rained.

Hello guys/girls/aliens! My name is Mike, used to work for Listers Group and ran a large online enterprise from the Worcester branch and used to help many of you with your parts. I've since moved away from the group and set up on my own. I now run and own Coverdale Car Parts. https://www.facebook.com/COVERDALECP/ Our website is in development but not to worry, you can still message me on the Facebook page or of course send me a PM on here. I cover genuine parts for the big 4, as you can imagine, but i also cover most other vehicles if you have the need. All parts are posted/couriered or personally delivered if you are local to Worcester. Please jump over to Facebook, give it a like and a share for me and of course let me know if you need anything. I need your help at this early stage of business to get off the ground! - The service books on the site are on order, so please show your interest in the pinned post. ( I know the Skoda lot were very interested in these as they were the first to go on the digital servicing and if like me like a book stamped then these will probably be for you! Even did you a Skoda green version! Books due late next week. Colin is also setting up a landing page for you to order parts too from Briskoda, so you'll be able to do it that way too. Cheers Mike

Could there be a link up into the forum software to have a "Tree" icon next to your username perhaps? Like next to the "Freedom" moniker.

Passed this on the way to work this morning. Shame I hadn't set the trip at the right place. (89.0 miles). but still.