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Free pads for you then... Please send me a PM and I can get some out to you.

From the House of Too Many Skoda's; Dear all, Recently picked up and traded in my Octavia 3 VRS TSI for a similar year but older mileage TDI. However, the TDI is something a bit special. The selling dealer didn't really know what they had 🤣 so undersold the car massively. It has many many factory fitted options (over 212 shown on Erwin) Bad for them, good for me, but this is not a perfect car. It will be a high days and holidays car as well as a project car. From the top: It is a Quartz Grey 2018 TDI 2.0 4x4 with ACC. The car has over 58000 miles on the clock but drives like a car that has done 20000 miles fewer. It has: KESSY, finger touch opening on door handle, Dynamic Chassis Control, 4x4, sun roof, flappy paddles, full winter pack,tow bar and 18" wheels plus a 6 speed DQ 250 auto box plus all the usual VRS features. My local dealer (oddly enough the same dealer who originally sold the car from new) gave it a clean bill of health but there is a list as long as your arm to look at (because I'm a perfectionist). 1) Battery - it's on the edge of acceptability. The standard VAG battery tester shows it just to be in the green but it loose voltage very quickly in the cooler weather up here on Scotland. I'm looking at a high-end BOSCH battery to replace it with. 2) The windscreen is scratched to hell and has an almighty crack from a stone on the edge of the passenger side. I put new windscreen wipers on but it needs replacing. I'll see how much a new screen from Autoglass will cost. It looks horrible. 3) The headlights are scratched to buggery. I'm going to try some Autoglym headlight rejuvenater for starters but it could be two new headlights if push comes to shove. 4) The interior is clean - a horrible scratch on the passenger side dash needs some attention. It also needs a full leather clean on the half leather interior. 5) Header tank....needs a new one due to Silicon bag nonsense. That should stop that ticking timebomb. 6) The selling dealer has identified that whilst a HALDEX oil change has been done, nobody has cleaned the filter to the pump. I'll book it in shortly to have that done. 7) The paint work needs attention. We are going to deal with stone chips galore (especially around the rear off-side). It needs a proper clean and detail too. 8) All the usual SuperSkoda accessories to be applied. Bright Boot lights, Puddle Spots and interior lights to be installed. Front and Rear Mudguards (because it's the Scottish Borders and the roads are rubbish), LED Audi style Indicators, Alloy-Style foot rest (to match up with rest of the car pedals), VRS seat handle inserts. That will do for starters. 9) From my old VRS, I have transferred: Kopacek VRS Boot Mat LED Boot Lights Skoda Warning Triangle Skoda First Aid Kit (in Czech) Floor Mats were purchased new from the selling dealer. Bonnet Struts 10) It needs a proper 17" full sized or 18" skinny spare (I'm not doing foam because it's useless). To be purchased. 11) Things done already: Firmware 0478 has been applied to the MIB2.5 system. I've enable a small number of options via ODBEleven but I need a nice quiet day with my laptop and VCDS to really enable lots of options (like Lights Assist, Traffic Sign Assist) and other tweaks like enabling the second fog light. I'll be speaking with @SashaGrace and @langers2k for their advice on what to do to make this beasty amazing. 12) My husband has informed me that the dashboard plastic cover is badly scratched. It needs replacing.

I can explain for you.......... The Brake requirements for the vehicle is 58% of its measured weight over ALL 4 wheels, so yours achieved 82% which is BOTH axles added together But..........the efficiency is calculated on the force applied by the brakes under test............BUT both the front wheels "locked" (which is best) as you cannot better a locked wheel, but the effeiciency is calculated still on the force applied (in Kg's), hence the figure of 56% for the front brakes. So your front brakes were 308 + 345 = 653KG divide that by the weight 1160 x 100 = 56% for front axle.......rear axle is worked the same way and then added to the front. When your wheels lock you can ignore the "efficiency" figure as it's met 100% as the wheel is locked by the brake. The requirement for Park is 16% of GVW, so yours made 25% which is absolutley fine, more than enough and flown through the test Hope that makes sense, by all means ask more if you wish.

Finally both are under the roof.

No recharging needed, just a 12700km extension lead taking the shortest pole to pole route: https://thunderbirds.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mole

I think that warrants an "Ooooooh shiny"

The only digital readout on a (or at least my) Superb is for Oil Temperature, and 109 deg is fine.

Here is FULL In-depth review. I should get one tomorrow for a test.

Just an update - my Fabia clocked up a total of 268k miles, really trouble free. The 1.6 TDI is a superb engine in my opinion - still not using oil and sweet to drive. I kept to servicing at my trusted local independent garage every 15k miles with no problem at all. The centre arm rest needs replacing - fabric worn out and the central locking button stopped working after a coffee spill. I don’t drive as much now because of Covid, but my brother does so I give it to keep racking up the miles. He has a big Merc but loves the economy of the Fabia. We have my wife’s Fabia Mk2 that I am now using - 102k on the clock and I am going to keep putting on the miles until it becomes uneconomical to run. For me the mk2 Fabia has been the ultimate “workhorse” car that I have owned.

Having taken delivery of a new MY21 Superb Sportline 280 hatch, I thought I would provide a little summary of my observations compared to my previous MY19 Sportline. Background: I had a MY19 Sportline 280 hatch for just over a year until it was written off in a collision last September by an SUV driver running a red light and t-boning my vehicle in the side and front (car safety was excellent and I walked away without a scratch). My insurance cover was for a full new vehicle replacement and after allowing for COVID factory shutdowns, semi-conductor shortages and shipping delays, I finally received a replacement MY21 Sportline 280 hatch just over a week ago. Note: The Aus-Spec MY21 Sportlines do not (yet) need to conform to Euro 6 regulations so my new vehicle retains the 280hp engine without a particulate filter. It is also retains the 6 Speed DQ250 DSG transmission. Everything else is consistent with European MY21 vehicles. Pros: DSG appears to be recalibrated and is far more lively and crisp than previous versions with virtually none of the dreaded hesitation and lurch at initial take off. It’s the first time I can say I’m actually enjoying a DSG. Paddle shifters are larger and better shaped (but see cons below) Matrix LED headlights work well and rear LED light animations are cool ‘Sportline’ start-up instrument panel animations add a little theatre More bass/mid/treble settings for the Columbus Canton system than before, although the overall Canton sound is much the same The black lettering on the rear suits a Sportline, as do the rear dark tinted and smoked light lenses KESSY on the rear doors as well now Wireless Apple CarPlay works seamlessly The blindspot warning light in the mirrors has been relocated to a much larger warning light on the car window side of the external mirror housings. This is a great improvement over the MY19, which had a tiny light built into the mirrors surface and was impossible to see in bright sunlight Cons: The quad outlet exhausts with valves has been deleted. Despite retaining the previous 280 engine and running gear, the quad outlets and valves I had on my MY19 vehicle have been replaced by a simple dual exhaust and no valves (single outlet each side). Rather sad about that… Related to the above, it seems that Skoda spent whole minutes working closely with Dyson to specially tune the exhaust note. A little rumble would have been nice (and no, I don't want a resonator-delete and I'm not taken with the couple of aftermarket systems I've seen on here for the Superb) MIB III infotainment system ‘user experience’ is definitely a step backwards. The Skoda dealer warned me everyone hates it and I’m starting to join that club. The menus are clunky and finding some of the settings buried in sub-menus and sub-sub-menus with odd titles takes way more time than it should The Performance Gauges with configurable dials like turbo boost etc that used to appear on the centre screen has gone completely (thanks again MIB III) Driver profile settings are not remembered when you switch off the vehicle. So, if you set 'Individual' with your own settings (for example: DCC and Steering switched to Sport), the vehicle will automatically revert to the standard default settings when you next start it up, and you will then need to flick through the menu to put the vehicle back into 'Individual' mode again. My previous MY19 vehicle stuck with whatever Individual settings I had when the car was restarted. Paddle shifter shape appears to be unique. ie. different shape to previous Superb (MY19 and earlier), and looks like a different shape to VW Golf Mk8 etc. So no paddle extensions available to fit, nor can you easily fit full replacement shifter paddles as the fastening pins that were accessible on previous models have been hidden inside the wheel boss. I have both Carista and Ross-Tech VCDS and it’s clear VW/Skoda have locked out a great many features previously accessible on my MY19 – there are very few VCDS tweaks available on MY21 (at least at this stage) Only one USB-C port and one standard USB port in the entire vehicle and none in the rear. This should have been resolved for the MY21 update I like the new steering wheel overall, but the leather stitching design is more basic and less attractive than on the previous wheel You now only get one Skoda umbrella per vehicle, just in the driver’s door (although the Skoda dealer was kind enough to put another one in the front passenger door for me) The removable flashlight in the boot has been deleted, even the mount Modifications so far: · BMS Throttle Controller (best value single upgrade in my opinion) · 034 Motorsport Air Intake with a Pipercross panel filter · HG-Motorsport hi-flow aluminium Turbo Inlet Pipe · JB1 stage 1 piggy back ECU ...and a full tank of 98RON! Overall, the 2021 Sportline is a fantastic car: well built, quiet, sure footed AWD and genuinely fast. After six months in a little Hyundai rental car, it’s a joy to be back behind the wheel.

Had my 2015 MK3 1.6 CR Tdi in for its yearly taxi inspection and MOT on Thursday. 190k miles and only two advisories (brake pads wearing thin) which I knew about anyway. In all those miles I’ve replaced one droplink and two front shock absorbers (after 155k) on the suspension. Still on original clutch and flywheel. Its cost me about £700 in running costs (tyres/brakes/services) each year except for 2019 when the timing belt and waterpump were done. A testament to the reliability and build quality of the Octavia, I’d happily recommend these cars to anyone. We have 12 year age limits on cars in my local authority area but sadly this car will have to go as it has a Euro 5 engine and will be banned from the city centre in 2022. Not to worry though, a diesel vRS will be its replacement. 😁

Press and hold the power button for several seconds. That should restart the whole infotainment system.

Enjoy the extra Bhp. How much? Did you get that exhaust you were looking at?

I read that about Bear Grylls in the Cairngorms. Seemingly it had been a long time since he had seen his family so they were in the Hilton @ Colyumbridge. @wyx087 On BBC Reporting Scotland they just showed the route right up the Americas. http://pluginadventure.com

Re the brake figures, someone else will explain better than me but its a function of how many kgf of retardation before the wheel locks compared to the recorded weight of the vehicle, the rear brakes on a FWD do very little work before locking up, I would say that yours are in excellent condition. Why? Because you have the same figures for the handbrake as the footbrake. The pass figure is 16%

Yep. Ignition switched 12v. Well the engine runs like butter and everything works now. Noe to retrofit the fog lights wiring and put on a 9n3 front end and the car is finished haha

Wow Thanks a lot @EBCBrakesUK I never hardly win anything...Well happy mate, will PM you now

If you just want the DSG paddles you just need to swap the wheel over to one with paddles, no other changes required (no software and no hardware changes). I'm sure I've seen new wheels being sold on eBay.de with heated elements and paddles for around 200 euros

Caught him in a good moment Not sure his response will help you much but here it is anyway: "On IOS? Not really. On Mac OS, yes, using Parallels or VMWare, but I'm not sure that it would actually work (i.e. you might be able to run the program, but if the calibration would work, I have no clue)"

I can't claim any IOS expertise (other than that it's a variant of Linux) but I understamnd there's a Windows emulator available. In the words of the old AA adverts "I know a man who can" so I'll drop him a line and see what he has to say. He's Stateside so could be a day or two before I get a response.

I just ordered one of those from skodaparts. two left in the country now apparently.

I've got an induction hob after having a gas one and it's so much better. Apart from the clean lines, the best feature is that individual areas can have separate timers.

Success!!!😄. Updated this afternoon, using the 64gb sdxc as soon as I put the card into the reader it came up update available & took about 40 mins

The tappets aren't faulty, it's the design that's flawed, as these engines age they develop lifter tick and there appears to be no cure, it maybe due to reduction in oil pressure caused by gradual flow restriction in the cylinder head casting or a localised drop in oil pressure from wearing cam bearings. As I very clearly stated right at the top, it doesn't affect reliability or performance so there's really no need to worry about it.

I did and it was fabulous. I felt it made a difference, stiffened the car up nicely but it can be frustrating as the bars are made to order in mainland Europe and shipped in batches so it is a long lead time. Glad I got one though, finished my car off for sure

Tonight I finally went and changed the settings from the default max speed of 40kph and minimum steering angle (seems to not be consistent, may actually be yaw angle) of 30deg to 120kph and 15deg. Those settings work noticeably better on windy country roads at night.

No, I haven't had to resort to that, yet. I don't have the rubber seal sliding out of position like you do. Only the trim shifts, I suppose from expansion/contraction with temperature changes. I'm guessing your car is out of warranty, so you'd have to rely on your dealer doing a "good will" repair, as it has been a documented problem. Can't hurt to ask. Škoda repaired mine for free last time, but they had previous repairs for my car on their system. Gluing into place would prevent heat expansion, which might lead to buckling? Like I say, it would be a last resort. It would only be a dab on the end, rather than gluing the whole strip.

Thanks for the review. I ordered the exact same combination as you - red/hatch rs tdi200 and I must say it looks amazing. Can`t wait to get it.

Mine is at dealers already, just now accepted lease terms, yesterday got my custom license plate, I hope to get car on Friday, hopefully they can prep the car in one day. I am excited, first time new car. Not nervous, just kinda preparing myself that there will be some things I will hate about that car: Stance of the car- my friends comment on picture of my car(''is this allroad option?'') it should be sports car so it should be lowered properly from factory, same with spacers, tires do not look in place, wheels look ugly in my opinion, so my plan is to get proper wheels an maybe some spacers, to fix that ugly stance. all these assists will be frustrating for me. current car has none of that, even ESP is off by default, so if I want to have rubber smell I can have it every time. But in the end I really hope that engine and dsg will make me smile, and if not then they do remap very well, but that needs to be done properly so that dealer does not void warranty I will for sure post my impressions here, once i drive the car

@sneal thank you. It works. I would never thought of this on my own.

I will go and check which Śkoda garages serviced it. Bitz garage in Nairn couldn’t fix my Transporter years ago so I go to a friends garage in Inverness. The Haldex oil has been changed I remember seeing it in the book. I am annoyed that such an expensive thing has went wrong with only 70,000 miles. Trying to find ways to prevent this in the future, all garages say is go very fast once a week🤔

My 2006 pre-fl has holes BUT as I was swapping off the original damaged green badge I discovered it was a foil over a black plastic blank. It'd be worth a breakers yard explore or buy an oem badge to strip back and prep if you wanted a 'button'. Personally I'm all for personalising your ride, but to remove, fill and paint badge depressions seems a lot of hassle.

All the wiring for PDC sensors and virtual pedal connectors come up to this one plug, which connects to the CANBUS wiring that runs into the car body under the master (right side) BSM radar.

Hi all over in Glasgow i have not seen any VRS's and that's good. I get loads of looks and i really enjoy the car. Yes the software is ****e but i have a dealer appointment next week for a full update. I did this week get 39.9 mpg on eco on the motorway. YEEE , prob the best it will do. I'm not bothered as moving from a Superb 190 dsg sportline to this showed me that the Superb was big heavy and not as responsive. When i had the Superb i thought it was fast and responsive. Here is a wee pic of mine

Fantastic review. I've a petrol estate and have to agree it's a great car. Since using mine daily it seems to not log me out nearly as often as it did initially. Managed 38mpg on a motorway run today.

Check the handke to drop the seats and the air vent controls for the rear passengers. Easily kicked and broken. Haldex and DSG services as mentioned above. Check tyre wear is even. See if the DSG lever has been changed as its a part thats been known to fail. Its a ling read but the 280 thread is great. May even find your car's original purchase. ( i did). If driving find some speed bumps and listen for noise. Absolutely great cars. Great engine. Great space and invisible to most. (If yiu can bear to leave the exhaust tips sooty for extra stealth - i can't)

Thanks so much to @JR RS for this picture. so helpful. Now I just need to figure out where the wires should enter the boot, and where the little 'connector block' that the 'aerial' plugs into should be mounted, and what parts the chinese aidu auto kit is missing

You can via Android auto or Apple carplay. Not sure if you can via Bluetooth. But your car supports both android auto and apple carplay so your definitely able.

I dont think that mine was fully engaged when I got the car and I had never engaged it fully, as a consequence I had been slightly overfilling the sump. My neighbour with the same engine pointed it out to me, it took a big shove to take its virginity and its still a little stiff to withdraw. Phnaar Phnaar

The obvious question is - has it had the "EA898 emissions fix"? If so, it's likely that has led to failure of the EGR.

Is that a London brick, an engineering brick, a low mass thermal brick If it's anything like some of the ratings, some manufacturer will have focussed all the heat on the area where the brick is, ignoring the rest of the oven. Great for the tests, useless for actually cooking anything. Anyway, thanks for the replies, it confirms what I thought, so I'll just keep the oven we have, check the thermostat is accurate with a manual one and carry on as I was

that 50-75 will be the 1.8 because the 2.0 is around 45-55 in real world driving , i nearly bought the estate in silver ,cracker looking and as smooth as silk the drive, but it was murder getting in an out and i am only 5ft 10, and 12 stone but i am 60 now hahaha, not as flexible shall we say.

The cooker energy rating does not appear to be "real life" unless you like eating bricks! From the Currys website about the new scale for energy efficiency of appliances:- The energy ratings for cookers are staying just the same. When a cooker’s being tested, the size of the internal space is measured against the amount of energy it uses to heat a brick to 55°C. The less energy used to heat the brick, the better the cooker's energy rating!

Ratings on appliances bear the same relationship to the truth as MPG on cars. Why do think the eco setting on your washing machine takes 5hr? Reckon that actually takes less electricity than a 1hr warmer cycle or do you just think it games the efficiency rating?* *Disclaimer - I am an appallingly cynical person but also normally right Just be glad you don't have an Aga

OK. Visited the garage yesterday - a 1 hour drive away to try and fuind out what is happening. They took logs and a detailed report from myself including photos when the issues arose. I get the feeling that Skoda will do NOTHING unless the customer complaints process is backed up and linked to a formal technical report from a dealer. When there have been a sufficient number of technical fault reports then it will trigger an investigation. I am aghast at the UK forums for T-Roc, Tiguan, Volkswagen, Skoda etc that are awash with all the issues we are reporting here as well and yet VW who are the source of this appalling MIB system seem to be focusing all their engineers on electric cars and not these issues. I have on good authority that customers are not buying new cars once they see the 'new' nav systems. My 'older' Columbus has performed flawlessly and that is 3 years old so we know there was a good, solid solution that VW and their subsidiaries have royally messed up. The issues I have now formally had lodged are; GPS Failures and car position 40 miles from where it actually is No local ability to update via USB SOS warning lights in large amber letters on the maxidot and MIB display Loss of phone connection coupled with loss of internet connection in the car by the ESim - probably a complete module failure? Failure to import addresses from the contacts list on a Samsung Galaxy phone as invalid format Connect App fails to send destination/route data to the MIB3 (the garage said that this was seen top be working on a training course!) with no error messages Inability to locally update via USB C but this 'may' be possible with the MIB3 in 'Engineering Mode'. To get this highlighted it is imperative that anyone with issues sees their dealer to get a formal technical complaint/fault raised by them on Skoda UK. It is a shame that what are otherwise excellent cars are being so badly let down by the MIB3 which at present seems 'not fit for purpose' and fails to meet any sort of acceptable product standards for the price paid and restore confidence in using the system. Interesting the comment about Carplay needing the cars GPS - I wonder if it is the same for Android Auto? I also see that VW are apparently recalling Golf 8s now for a software update but I do not know if this is related to our issues here. I would happily have an older system retrofitted.

@Cole. It is not a surprise how many criticise a vehicles handling having never checked tyre pressures. Even talking about modding a vehicle. That is not only new owners it is professional roadtesters like motoring journalists, bloggers, vloggers and floggers like car salespeople. Bloody dangerous risking you and others safety to someone you have never met setting tyre pressures on vehicles you are going to drive. The TPMS will need resetting if tyres pressures are changed. Needs checking anyway.

I do a 59mile journey each way for work and my car is a 2011 and only problem I had with injectors was in 2017 no 1 injector gave up others are still fine well over 271k on it

If you wait long enough the chrome trim around the doors will fall off!

Yes, its excessive condensation. Take her out for an hour or so (within the 5 miles of your house) and problem should disappear.