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Just wanted to express joy that i'm back in the mk1 club. I 'upgraded' to a mk2 (1.6 tho) and it earnt the nickname 'the sh**mobile', being towed by the RAC twice in a year a 3x the price of a mk1 on parts!!!? Agonised for months on what to replace it with and in the end went back to mk1 my aim is to totally do it up and have my first half a million miles car!! (Everyone i know is mortified at what i've done lol)

I've been driving Yetis for a while now, currently got a SEL Drive Diesel which I've been quite happy with but got invited to an "event" at the local garage. I went along not expecting to be tempted but I thought I'd have a look at the Karoq and new Octavia. Took the 1.5 SEL First Edition out first and I really liked it. Took a good 20+ mins on everything up to motorway speeds and it was pretty nice. Then took the Karoq out on the same run. It's a nice car but, if I'm honest, it just looks like a Yeti with a bunch of new bits stuck on. I didn't really feel it as much as the Octavia. Soooo after a bit of negotiation, I'm picking up the 1.5 SEL First Edition on 1st Sept (when the new plates come out in the UK)

The biggest shame in all of this is that VAG are not listening, couldn't care less. They know that the vast majority of consumers are more impressed by electronic assists, entertainment and other gadgets than good dynamics and ergonomics, so why bother?

I like to use older cars, from say year 10 of their life and more or less until scrapped. When I do change pre-scrappage it's reason 3, where desireable = price in hundreds rather than thousands.

A pal of mine bought his wife a Lada after she wrecked so many of their vehicles, eventually he resolved the recurring problem by divorce, cars dont crash themselves.

Thanks hugely Wino, I've downloaded the current flow diagram pdf (courtesy of Arkaig - star person!) and will go through it in the next few days. After a very quick glance, it actually looks pretty straightforward even for an 'average Joe' like me) and I've already found the fuse ratings. At the very least it will keep me amused on my days off work (I only work part-time)

We had the same issue on our car that we bought a few months ago. Contacted our local Skoda dealer in Sweden and they had a look at it and they ended up re-painting three doors that was suffering from these bubbles. This job was done under warranty/goodwill. Took about 1 week for them to fix it.

Fleet no 1&2 in the sun. First proper snowfoam two bucket and blue rinse wash for the new octy - She shine! 🕶

4x4 system needs a service every 20-30k I’d say. Haldex oil change and filter clean. Mine was shot when I brought it at 30k but had replaced under warrantee, haldex plates are made of blamanche. Dsg oil change every 40k. Afaik cambelt is 4 years 100k. If you travel lots of distance the 4x4 dsg sportline 190 is ace. That’s what I have. If you don’t do a lot of distance the 4x4 sportline 280 is a beast. 2wd Is generally better on fuel by about 5mpg. If you want more grunt, diesel maps to around 230bhp and 500nm. Petrol 280 is 360bhp with stg 1. Petrol 220 would map to around 300bhp.

Today I got a Hunter 4-wheel alignment done on the Combi. The reason I decided to fork out £140 was that the front offside tyre had a bald strip all the way round the inside shoulder. It wasn't all the way down to the canvas, but pretty alarming once I noticed it. There was no indication when driving the car that anything was amiss in the alignment and it ran straight and true. However, the front toe-in was found to be way out of range and there was a problem with the rear camber. It was a pricey job, but £140 is the cost of just one decent 18" tyre so probably justified. It was most likely wishful thinking, or the placebo effect, but on the 5-6 mile drive home the car did seem to run freer. For the past 2 months I've been running in Eco mode but haven't seen any improvement in fuel economy over normal mode. The best I've done in 18 months of ownership is 48mpg over a full tank, but I keep reading here of people with the same 150hp diesel getting 60 on a good day. After the fix the car did seem to roll further when the drive disengaged on the overrun, so I'm hoping that economy might improve. Logically it should if the excess tyre scrubbing which must have sapped a little engine power, has been removed. Here's hoping.

The simple fix was to open the loom and repair damaged pvc and seal it to prevent moisture ingress which will lead to black corrosion and future problems (that is why you should backprobe terminals not pierce the insulation with the probe but some will say different which is fine but not on my car) , then run the loom under the metal plate by simply clever turning the plastic cable support 180 degrees so it was pointing up. Now the loom was supported on the same metal bracket, but from underneath with the plastic support. Not a spark plug in sight. It is good to keep things simple yes, but sometimes a simple misfire can be caused by very difficult to pinpoint faults unless you have the right gear and know how to use it.

In the style of Jim from Friday Night Dinner.... "Hello All....." It's been a while, nearly 12 months in fact since I gave a proper update, it's been a busy old year. We moved house mid November 2019, not far, less than 2 miles in fact but we have gone from renting to owning again after a few years. Needless to say, the house that was pretty much perfect, move straight in etc has occupied every single hour of spare time and money and the poor car has sat under cover in the new garage. Good news is the house is pretty much finished and the enforced COVID-19 lockdown period has allowed me to finish 5 years worth of house DIY in 6 months! Some of you may remember the slightly bigger garage at the new house, in fact it's a usable large tandem garage that has been significantly enhanced in the period we have been here. I have insulated the roof, plasterboarded, 7x new 6' Twin LED lights, cut and installed a large double glazed window where there was a plain wall, new composite door to the patio as well as grinding the whole concrete floor by hand before laying a screed of Ardex K301 concrete floor compound. Oh yeah and a new electric roller door. The plan was to build a lovely space to keep the car / cars and have a well lit, warm and dry place to do detailing & maintenance, so I have fitted the end of the garage out with units and worktop/tiles to finish it off. Here is how the garage looked to start with.. Fast forward many months of graft, DIY injuries, late nights, early mornings and we're nearly finished now... Coupled with the internals, we have had the front of the house changed, new driveway, fences, as well as rear decking - and I though cars could absorb money.... Upshot is, if anyone's still reading, is that i'll be back on the car soon, getting some more part from TPS the weekend so I've no excuse now to get stuck into it. Just need to Epoxy resin coat the garage floor first.... Thanks for reading! Matt

Hi all, To make a long story short, we're moving to mainland Europe, my UK MK3 Octy VRS is now on autotrader and i'm looking to buy a 2017 LHD MK3 Octavia Scout TDI (184, 4x4, DSG). I'm not buying the Scout because I need a offroad vehicle, or a raised one, but rather as choice in the UK is quite limited, and importing during covid just wont happen fast enough for our schedule. So i'll have to live with the scout for a while which means i'll do a remap or tuning box (remap preferred if possible with Shark or Revo), and as it's raised i'm assuming it'll be like a boat in corners (if not, please correct me ) During my VRS TSI ownership i've done loads of research on suspension and ended up with Bilstein B12s with Eibach springs which have been amazing. But I can't find a single website, manufacturer, forum topic which would have a MK3 Scout on coilovers, or even lowering springs for that matter (probably for a reason lol), but as i know myself quite well, I'll want to make the Scout handle somewhat well before i'll start enjoying it, so a few questions I'd need help with: - Is the Scout suspension in any way different from the MK3 standard or VRS estate, apart from being raised (i'm assuming via springs only and dampers are probably the same?) and on higher sidewall tires? - Would I be able to just swap the Scout ones with i.e. Bilstein B12s and would it fit and work fine? - i know Scout has an increased towing capability so it sounds like some components have been strengthent, but not sure if springs or dampers would be those - and can I assume that ARB mounts and shape would be identical to the mk3 VRS estate as an example and i'd be able to actually use Eibach ones as an example? Any info would be greatly appreciated, and yes yes i know... scout wasn't made to be fun, but that doesn't mean we can't try and make it fun right?

Hi I’m Megs! I’ve had my yellow Octavia now for 2.5 years and although it made me cry when I bought it (silly little faults) Beryl as she is now known has been fab. Well up until recently but I’ll ask for help elsewhere in the forum. So hi!! 😘 xx p.s the pic is when I bought her, she’s pretty filthy (unlike me 😇)

Congratulations on your impending new purchase - I hope you’ll find that like the majority of us you’ll be deeply impressed with your new acquisition. 😊 It’s not a big tech feature but on a geekery level, it’s always worth checking that the umbrella is located in the end of the passenger side rear armrest - (nearside on UK/RHD models At least) as it’s a nice thing to have. If not, replacements are available but it’s nice to still have the original. 👍🏻 Re the Columbus head unit, probably worth makIng sure that the replacement is a) fully-functional (obviously) and b) that it’s coded to the car and working and you get the anti-theft code which should come with it. https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/286611-columbus-code/ there are plenty others here far more equipped to give you pointers but these were a couple which sprung to mind. Good luck, and enjoy! cheers, D.

They’re the same as yours, the Xtremes but refurbed all anthracite with no machine cut finishing.

I passed in a 1976 Toyota Corolla in Berlin. I then bought this for DM4000 =£1200

I just was thinking back to another car. The clutch was giving trouble,letting air into the system and when I checked the reservoir it was coffee coloured. It had a fresh clutch and all and what should have been fresh enough dot (4?) fluid it was dark coloured like coffee. Seemingly it was bringing air and contaminates into the system and that was what caused the colour change,atleast that was what I took it to mean. Will try that, are slaves known to go bad on these cars?

-Get the best light bulbs you can. -Stay on top of oil changes and make sure there are no leaks or oil consumption. Oil brand isn't really important as long as it conforms to the industry standard and you change it regularly. Conversely, get original oil and air filters or at least OEM. -Tyres transform the way the car handles. Get the best ones you can. -Cupra console bushes. Speaking of which, make sure all the rubber components of the suspension are fresh. -Have the car properly detailed, all dents and dings repaired and painted, polish and restore headlamps, treat rust properly. That improves the look of the car much more than any set of wheels. Getting more into the "mods" I would suggest: -Sound insulation. Car audio shops could help you with that. It's a bit expensive but it will improve the sound your speakers make and also will reduce quite a bit of NVH. -Get the seats reupholstered to your taste or get better SEAT/ VW / Audi sport seats from the breakers. Plenty of guides and threads about the subject in the forum. -Upgrade your head unit I guess, hopefully it'll blend nice with the interior and look almost OEM while giving you better functionality. I haven't had problems with my original speakers but if you want to upgrade them, go ahead. -Proper LED interior lights will at least let you see stuff at night. Go for warm white ones. Same with the license plate. I haven't focused much on exterior mods, you're gonna spend more time in the cabin driving than looking at the car from the outside anyway.

After nearly 10 happy years with my CR170 Yeti (unfixed) I've moved on to a Karoq. The gap between the value of the Yeti and a replacement (there isn't one, BTW!) was growing ever greater, so we took the plunge and went for a Karoq. We hope it will be another 10 year 'keeper' and anticipate its eventual replacement will be fully electric! Despite covering less miles this year to date, than we ever have done previously, its proving equal or better in every area except character = no more friendly waves from other Yeti owners! Still visiting here daily, though - such a helpful, supportive and friendly place.

Worth being aware that the stronger common grade of stainless (A2) is weaker than even 8.8 grade high tensile, so don't use them for anything that needs strength.

You should write a book titled "She hasn't written this one off ...........yet".

Are you attempting to replace particular screws or bolts on your vehicle - or are you looking for them just for general use?

@Solly I know how you feel. My mk2 has cost so much more than the mk1 to look after. So much stuff as gone wrong and I deeply regret ditching my mk1!

From Car Magazine 21 January 2020: Ford Focus ST (2019) review: diesel and estate versions driven 'The manual gearbox has a 7% shorter throw than the previous ST’s already snappy shift, and features a flat-shift capability – smoothing and maintaining the engine’s torque delivery if you keep your foot in while changing up (although not recommended for every upshift) – and automatic rev-matching on downshifts in cars equipped with the optional Performance Pack.' ......Or alternatively you could just learn how to drive. If you have any need for this level of assistance you should not be allowed a 276 BHP car.

Remove bumper & crash bar,disconnect, unbolt & remove condensor. Same amount of words as your question

Takes 5 minutes to check your oil. Anyone who lets it get that low and can't even be bothered to check it before taking it for an MOT shouldn't even be allowed to own a car in my opinion. I would avoid that car on that principle alone. I wanted a combi, but never found one. Good luck!

@Solly They clearly don’t know! What did you get in the end?

Yes, twice now. Towed down to Cornwall when it had 1k on the clock and then to Shrewsbury the other weekend. It isn't as good as the Yeti towing, but then I didn't expect it to be, but it coped more than adequately and was certainly as stable. Found the DCT box coped very well. Tried it in manual/sport mode as well and decided auto was best! Regenerative braking was useful on some of the hills on the A30 west of the Cornish border. Petrol consumption was obviously higher but that was expected, and we don't normally go that far very often. Did find that reversing the van just using the electric motor was excellent as it is so gentle. It does seem to be improving as we get more miles done.

The trouble is its only those with a gripe that tend to fill in these surveys. If you are really happy with your car and it has never let you down, you are much less likely to go to the bother of responding to the survey.

I think it will probably end up at the stealers service dept, but since it is intermittent the more you can do to identify where the problem lies (or doesn't) before going there the better. Sadly the days are long gone when a problem starting could be cured by some percussive maintenance on the starter motor.

Been running a stage 1 map on my 272 hatch since Feb 2020 and fuel consumption keeps improving now at 39.5mpg overall after 7,300 miles since I bought it 8 months ago. My car new (Sportline Plus) would have been £39,000 before any discount yet I paid just £23,840 from a Skoda dealer and £450 for the remap and it's very fast but cheap to run as road tax will be £150 when I renew in December. Mine had just 4,900 miles on the clock direct from Skoda UK Milton Keynes and has been 100% reliable.

Hi mate, I've just done the same - have a mk2 FL, so not sure if they're different, but mine are: 90mm Front 80mm Rear Cheers!

Current flow diagrams together with a number of other workshop manuals for Kodiaqs are available to download here:- https://www.briskoda.net/forums/files/category/8-skoda-kodiaq/

more power (booked in to get it mapped) More noise (currently looking at exhausts( AWD, it struggles in the wet with 220, gonna be a handful with over 300

EXACTLY THIS! I was trying to watch the rev counter and he wasn’t even going fast or rev’d it past 4K. They’ve got a terrible flat spot between 4K-5K which plays havoc with mappers and they do generally feel slow even when ragging them. I guess at the time they felt fast as there wasn’t to much out around them times, unless you went for big money.

Get them to refurb them in full anthracite without the diamond cut face. They look so much better. Imo of course

You can g have the 2 grounds and illumination connected to ESP switch which is easy near it and should be same colored accordingly , and the rest 2 to the T16 connector CAN as the numbered pins 1to13 and 6to4.

But again, while someone, somewhere in the organisation would for sure be able to respond, it still involves someones time somewhere and therefore money (time is ALWAYS money). So there is a difference between able to respond, and willing to do it, especially for nothing. The 'experts at Skoda HQ' have plenty to do already. On the other hand, a forum like this is the place where you might get the answer. I don't have this information for Kodis but maybe somebody here does. I have current flow diagrams for older models (up to about 2012) and have looked up the info for people. Even then it can take half an hour or more just to research, and is information that I had to pay to obtain, though it's info that I can still get at. No issue with you asking for help, but I don't agree with your opinion on the support from SUK and dealers.

Tip for your mechanic, tie wire to the pimp plug, much less frustrating routing it across the diff unit.

So since lock down not much has changed as I’ve had little to no time to myself and kids are apparently extremely demanding. my birthday came and went and the other half treated me to a new head unit which I was in desperate need off. so I obviously went a head and bought what I needed to prep for the sub and amp install as well as the rear view camera. i finished installing the rear speakers which my Fabia didn’t have standard being poverty spec lol installing the rear view camera was a pain in the ass just because the led on the reverse lens of the camera was way brighter than standard bulbs so I had to remedy that by removing the glued in led and attaching the standard bulb fitting. then after ending up with a birds nest full of wiring I ran the wiring under the carpet and under all the trims, despite removing a fair bit of trim I didn’t snap a single clip which is an achievement for me lol. I then gave both cars a wash then found out that for some reason neither of the number plate lights work even though only one was ever unplugged 🤪 but that’s something for another day.

It happens now and again without anything getting trapped in the window.

Karoq waterproof . . . hihihih 🤑

"At least the Kamiq has a low fuel warning light which the Citigo doesn't" err my Citigo does, and it dings too!

Drove our 07 1.9tdi Scout this afternoon after months of exclusively driving our 2.0tdi 110hp Yeti. Oh dear, the Scout felt like a tractor with an asthmatic engine, and the cabin felt cramped and oppressive. Wife loves it dearly, but I think it might be time to let the Scout go.

Update: Got a full refund on the purchase price, settled very amicably.

To offer a different perspective - I have an Octavia 3, the recirc button gets pressed quite often when we're following a diesel that is badly setup and producing a lot of smoke (which happens a few times each month), plus SWMBO and I like different temperature settings so the temperature settings get changed every time we swap drivers. Having to hunt around on a touch screen for functions we use regularly will basically rule out replacing our Octavia 3 with an Octavia 4.

So how much did it drop and how does it look? Here are some not ideal photos I could take at the moment (from a photography point of view) but they do ok to provide the comparison: For me it's almost perfect. The front is exactly as I wish it would be: 20-25mm drop measured. The rear seems to have dropped more (in comparison) a 25-30mm in total. As stock, the rear was sitting 10mm higher than the front (clearly visible on the top part of the photos), now both ends sit at the same height. This looks pretty sweet I have to admit as the car sits level now, but I wonder how it will be once fully loaded with 4 people and luggage. Need to check this. For sure, if i hadn't opted for the 6.5mm thicker Audi TT bushings I'd be in trouble and the rear would be lower than the front so my recommendation: If you have a 272, you most probably need the Audi bushings too (they were 16 EUR in total) A couple more: I have to say I absolutely love the look of the car right now with the wider alloys and the new ride height, clearly purposeful and as aggressive as it should be (for what it is with near 400bhp) without getting too extreme. But the best thing was the handling improvement. I really didn't expect that amount of change as I've experienced in my first test drive an I can only attribute it to the Sportline's DCC set up which, has to be different than the L&K's otherwise my findings simply don't match the ones from L&K owners at all. As short as I can put it, the springs almost eliminated the effects of weight transfer during almost every change of balance. Gone is the squatting during acceleration, the brake diving and the bit of initial roll still left even after the arb upgrade. In Sport, it's a real performance machine now but the weird thing is that the comfort hasn't been compromised at all. The car turns in and corners almost flat, and what I noticed is that the point of the thicker arb's intervention became imperceptible now. No more "bit of roll - then lock yaw" behaviour, just an increased opposition to roll right from the start and much more tendency to follow whatever your input is. Driving it "blind" you would have to assume it's some focused GTI and I did live with one for 3 years so I have a good reference I think. The exploiting of the extra power now is so much nicer, you don't feel as if you're forcing the car to do something too hard but rather something it was designed to do from factory. Everything just works better and doesn't stand out. Obviously the Sportline's damping (on Sport) was set up right from the start but the stock springs were the weak link letting it down. I can't explain it any other way. I'm usually picky with suspension and handling and as it stands, changing the dampers doesn't even cross my mind, it's that good now. On the other hand, if you don't have a Sportline DCC and decide to change springs on your own, do yourself a favour and put some new shocks in (Koni Actives got great reviews recently here) while you're at it. The thought of having to do that if my DCC-springs combo wasn't up to the job made me dizzy, thankfully it wasn't the case on my car. The only other thing needed now is brakes I feel. On an open road, you are now getting so tempted to attack anything not in a straight line and once you do the limit has been raised that much that you find yourself needing to stop from higher speeds way more often than before. So it's something that needs looking at at some point. Overall a great transformation into something so much more potent and enjoyable helped by all new bits in place, looking forward to just find time to drive it now...