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Wookies in the Wild Episode IV - Return to Ohakune I've promised to take my quattro to a Wookies event four times, and each year I have failed and attended in my daily. This time I was determined to make it, with my project car. It was with great excitement and some apprehension that I set off on the weekend trip to Ohakune in Rusty, knowing that I still had an oil leak from the back of the engine somewhere, and having only driven about 300km since Wellington European did lots of work - new oil pump and gasket, cam and crank seals, sump gasket, boost leak fixed, fuel filling issue looked at, new coolant, oil and filters, leaking brake line replace, the list goes on... First stop was to meet up with the Wellington Wookie crew at BP where I put in $175 of 98RON and stopped before the tank was full! It was way easier to get fuel into the tank than before but there's quite a strong smell of petrol inside the car so I still have something to fix there. The rest of the trip went mostly well, Rusty cruising nicely along the highways. I discovered it has a flashing warning on the dash after 2 hours' driving to tell you to rest. Pretty advanced for 1985. The car has a strong tendency to tramline, following the slight ruts in the highway made by heavy trucks. Something modern cars seem to have overcome. I do have lowered springs, big wheels and harder bushes, so probably doesn't represent how a standard ur might feel. It does make my car pretty tiring to drive. We had planned a break in Mangaweka, about 2.5 hours from Wellington, and by then Rusty was holding back on acceleration over 4k RPM as though I had a boost leak again. After 20 minutes or so of cooling off, I had a look around the engine, but couldn't see anything amiss. I slightly tightened the wastegate banjo bolt as that had been the source of the previous boost leak. The rest of the way everything was back to normal, so either it was a heat thing or that bolt. We arrived in Ohakune in plenty of time for the evening meal and to reconnect with Wookie driving friends. Next day was the main Wookies event: a relaxed breakfast followed by a cruise up the mountain from Ohakune to Turoa Ski Field. Then back down, around to the other side of the mountain, lunch by the chateau at Whakapapa village, up to the Whakapapa ski field, then back to camp for a barbecue. Interspersed with lots of parking up, taking photos, laughter and socialising. Driving up that first tree-lined twisty road was a sublime experience. The 80kph limit is plenty to have a great time in an old sports car. Leading the pack up the hill, the inline-5 on song and the turbo whooshing, wastegate chattering, blipping the throttle on downshifts, taking pleasure in timing it just right. Awesome. The quattro is front-heavy and has a tendency to understeer, which you can combat by being on the throttle sooner than you would in other cars. I soon found the rhythm of it, revelling in the feeling of grip, power down all the way around the corners. Not worrying how delicate my old car might be, just going for it and loving the experience. It was here that I discovered another feature - the rev counter flashes to warn you to change up All too soon we were standing at the top, enveloped in cloud, shivering in the icy wind. The rest of the day was a similar blur of driving and socialising. Great times, great roads and great people. This event is a great concept - pick a place where where everyone has to make a trip to get there. Then just spend the day doing nothing but driving and socialising. Friendly, relaxed, no silliness, no racing or anything like that, but some excellent roads for a cruise. I'm happy to say the quattro made the whole trip with no real issues. I've expanded my list of things to fix - rattles, creaks, dim rear light bulbs etc etc, but everything important was good. When warm it drips - brownish-gold, looks, smells and feels like oil, but none of the fluid levels are reducing. So that's a mystery. It doesn't smell unpleasant enough to be gear oil. 850km driven, 750 or so on state highways, 100 up and down twisty mountain roads up to 1600m elevation and back. About 12l/100km consumed. On the Sunday I popped out for morning coffee and to take a photo with the Ohakune carrot. It was a beautiful clear morning and on a whim I decided to take one more drive up Mt Ruapehu to Turoa Ski Field. Not an opportunity to miss especially when it was so quiet. I was in quattro heaven on the twisty empty road, windows down listening to turbo and 5 cylinder noises when suddenly there was a blue Ferrari 328 on my tail! How could this get any better? I pulled over on a straight section and he howled past me with a glorious wail. At the top I found not one but a whole group of Ferraris and other sports cars. I joined in their group at the end, subtle like. It was a Wellington car club on a weekend run. Absolutely awesome! Then back down the hill to breakfast and to say goodbye to the Wookies crew before driving back to Wellington.

Took delivery of my brand new 21 plate TSI 1.5 SL last weekend after a short wait (it was already "at the port" and built) and am loving it so far. 400 miles in after a great roadtrip across the country last week from home in the east of Scotland to the west and enjoying the ride, comfort, spec, everything really! Had the transit tyre pressure issue, hadn't been reduced at the dealers but realised immediately and let out air to the recommended PSI. They were at 52, should be around 34! Notified dealer and told them it might not be a big deal for me as I keep an eye on things but could be potentially hazardous (or uncomfortable at least) for those who will assume all is well when they drive off the forecourt and not bother checking. No torch on the MY21 model as noted elsewhere but all good otherwise, quite liking the new steering wheel with the missing spoke. Quartz Grey is lovely, glad I chose it over business grey in the end .

My lovely "Blackin"

Thanks again for the advice guys, sorry its caused things to get a little heated. The garage quoted me £150 for the leads, plugs and coil pack (all in) Having read through your replies, I don't think I'll follow this work up with the local garage and perhaps ask skoda when it's in on Friday. Would that be my best bet?

It was nice having Ben Edwards on the BBC 5 live team for a change, but some of his pronunciation made me think there was a new Scottish driver and someone named after sleeping pills: McSchumacher and Nicky Temazepan

CMH - if your Yeti is 2017 then it is “only” one year out of warranty and you have a good chance of getting a major contribution from Skoda for its repair. I would take it back to the dealer and insist they talk to Skoda (UK) to get them to repair it free of charge - "it’s only 4 years old and many other Yeti owners are having the same problem” . Nothing to lose and hopefully you will get a positive response and a qualified Skoda repair.

At least you get to eat the culprit.

Some epic photos coming in from the Wookies event. I'm wearing my "I'm driving a quattro on a volcano" grin.

Yeah it had gone really brittle and split in a couple of places was taped up lol.

http://updateportal.skoda-auto.com/en-GB

In fairness I like the std setup on the Octy. Mine is totally standard apart from the blanking plate on the intake. It does roll a bit but that is just generating grip. I do balance the car through corners etc as I am trained to the system of car control and it shifts. I think this is the first car I have not modified apart from some coding.

Ignore it then, it's a load of crap and it's distracting you. Smartphone nonsense.

...but you've flown off on a massive tangent, erected a giant wall of text and completely failed to address the OP's problem, then facepalmed me for drawing this to your attention. Are you actually lucid? Seriously!

Yeah it’s a S2000 bonnet direct from Skoda. Not cheap and you need to go through an application process which goes to the head of Skoda motorsport to decide if they want to sell to you or not too

OT but in the early 1990's me and some colleagues when out on a work trip use to have a competition with each other to see who could get the lowest instantaneous MPG figure on a Vauxhall Astra GTE (2L 16V) - I won with 1.2MPG

Ok, adding "supermarket diesel" to list of possible reasons thanks.

@AMD87 might well be along to assist.

You will notice a difference especially at low rpms, the 1.4 turbo spools much slower so it's got that going against it too. You will certainly notice the difference when you have it mapped in properly.

Damn water ingress! I knew it was a common fault and so I asked about this when buying the car. The seller wasn't aware of any issues, although the boot liner did indicate this had been a problem before. Then, after a heavy week of rain I was greeted with this. Balls. Anyways, I actually have water ingress pooling on both sides of the car in the same place, but because of different types of leaking. It's pooling in these cavities behind the lights; The Offside (pictured above) is running in from higher up, along the tailgate itself and behind the plastic speaker/parcel shelf mount. It then drips down when it reaches the lowest point. You can see the drip forming here; The nearside issue seems to be clearer; it's the seal around the rear light, from what I can tell. The orange dirty water marks suggest so, but may also indicate this is also occurring (or was a previous issue) on the offside as well. Oh joy! At least it gives me something to do, eh? I'll use the opportunity to take out the boot lining and rear seats to clean them up. Any thoughts on this or previous experience with water ingress would be gratefully received

Can't see anything in the fuse box guys, any other way how can I check this little s*it?

Yeah, my next job will be to take it to the place I get the MOT done, I took the Yeti to a different KwikFit before for it's service and MOT, and I kept getting Oil Service warning lights, took it to KwikFit they reset it, two weeks later it was back, took it to the local(ish) garage, they had a look, reset the service light properly and it's been good since. Every time I go to KwikFit I like them a little less, but I also like not having to leave the car at the garage for a whole day.

good work! if you're doing rides like this often and go full sus get one with a rear lockout will help loads, obviously disregard for a hard tail

Locate and visually inspect the pressure sensor, they've been known to melt! Photo in this post: Is this pressure sensor missing a pipe? - Skoda Octavia Mk II (2004 - 2013) - BRISKODA

Any hit you will take selling to buy a LHD car will be miniscule compared to the hit you will take buying an equivalent LHD car in France with the exception of a brand new vehicle & even then they are a lot more expensive and you have the malus taxes to pay. My last vehicle was the same as yours but one year older, I bought it in the UK, French registration was only €130 although you would probably have to pay 20% TVA now on its UK value, I drove mine for 2 years, added 20K miles and then sold it for 3 times the price I paid in the UK, I was advised to put it up for 4 times the price and should have done because I had to switch my phone off, it sold for full asking price within the hour sight unseen and by the evening I had 4 others wanting first refusal at the full asking price, the buyer even paid for me to drive it down and my return journey by TGV. I commend you for wanting a LHD car in France but dont strap yourself up with something newer to depreciate at this time, get your aircon repaired by a specialist and if you move to France then register it, drive it around till you are ready to find a LHD version and make a killing on your existing vehicle.

Since 1968 at least...

You win a pile of shiny internets for that. 2 minor points though:- Where were the Wookies? I could only see humans. Rusty was the most interesting car there, even when you found all those Smiths!

They did come 1st equal but it does note the Michelin is not most sporty feeling or responsive. So for me the Goodyears Asy 5s are the better option. Cost less with the same performance. The last Pilots I had were the 3s until I got my Focus ST with Goodyear Asy 2 fitted. That was the changing point when I made the switch and havent had Michelins since.

I’ve forgotten what the McLaren/Gulf connection was. I can only relate it to the Le Mans GT40s. Can you remind me please? Thx

AQW engine has no timing belt, so it must mean the timing chain.

Admittedly mine was the plug and play version for my Amundsen unit, but I couldn’t get it to work at all initially. I was convinced it was installed correctly, and that all the connections were secure. However, with nothing to lose, I pulled the glove box etc out, undid all the connections, and redid them, and it then worked perfectly. I have no idea which connector was to blame, only that one of them was! Also, I made sure that when I pushed the unit back in, it didn’t foul any of the cabling, as this might have pulled a joint slightly out of place. Possibly worth a try? Hope you can solve it.

Took my 2019 sportline plus 272 4x4 for some coding mods this morning including lane assist and traffic sign recognition in addition to many more!!! Loving the new toys!!

Thanks to @RomanB for being on the ball in spotting the latest files and also to @MartiniB who has linked where we normally have all the download options. The latest ones are always pinned and updated when new links become available.

Is the UAE in Western Europe then?

We're not great at this but had a bash at cleaning it today..

MP3 files are compressed to reduce the file size, this can result in a slightly reduced sound fidelity: not normally noticed in a car. Flac files are uncompressed and lossless. This gives a sound that is exactly as it is on the CD.

I didn't know anything about the emissions scandal when I bought my s/h 2015 one, even though, apparently, it wasn't affected by it. But it is affected by Campaign 23ax and I want to know exactly what it does. I'm sceptical Skoda can change the NOX emissions and prolong the life of the DPF (which is what they say) without having some sort of other impact somewhere else. I've asked Skoda for a breakdown of what Campaign 23ax does and what exactly is changed. I don't know if I'll get an answer, but fingers crossed and I'll post if I do. Nick

If you use a sensible sized brush and have not enlisted a 5 year old to do the painting you should be able to paint the bit inbetween the caliper no bother.

After hunting through eBay, Gumtree et al, I found the Breakerlink site. Entered details of what I required and within a couple of hours I had a call from Seat & Skoda breakers in Oldham, resulting in a unused full size spare, foam insert and toolkit being delivered 2 days later for £100 all in. Would definitely recommend Seat & Skoda breakers on the back of this 👍

thats down to the number of mamils one sees on the roads here, esp of a weekend. pods of lads in full TdF/Giro gear, who seem to think they are the tour peleton, even though not one of them would win a childrens bike race they tend to upgrade their equipment alot and want to be seen in their top end gear by everyone else, coz dey iz da cool guyz... they dont realise most people think theyre just muppets needlessly clogging up the road refusing to make space for traffic

Kopacek.com

205/50 and 225/45 have about the same sidewall height. To calculate the sidewall height, multiple the aspect ratio by the nominal tyre width. Sidewall Height 205/50 = 102.5mm 225/45 = 101.25mm

@Tilt i aint on the flat anymore todays gradients

I have had number 1, but my car was an absolute mess by the time I rejected it and it was but one of many error messages and faults happening over a two day period. I doubt it even was a sensor failure and more likely just the car's frazzled brain not having a clue what was going on.

I’d second that about normal mode. My 1.4 gets better economy in normal and sport than it does in eco mode, I personally find it’s nicer to drive in normal mode as well, so just leave it on that. There’s a link to my fuelly mpg tracker in my signature. Mine has consistently returned around 40 mpg (apparently approx 7.1 litres/100km), I don’t thrash it, but I don’t hang around and don’t try to get extra mpg. It gets what it gets. I love Diesel engines and used to make my living repairing them, but the emissions systems now are garbage. They have to eat their own sh#t with egr systems, dpf’s are a con - they have to literally burn diesel on a regular basis to turn soot into ash !! Ad blue is another complication/cost which is a sticking plaster to get Diesel through another decade.

Hey my fellow Skoda people. No news from the trimmer, he said he was flat out and of course i said "no rush" so i'll be back of the queue, ho hum. In the meantime i have yet another distraction arriving in the next day or so which will no doubt delay the completion of the Yellow Fabia..... A little old British lady (51 yrs old - GILF??) is coming to live in the garage with the bright and bold teenager from the Czech Republic, lets lope there is harmony? Matt

I'd try removing it entirely and see what condition the clips that hold it in place are in. Sometimes the clips can bend and it feels like the panel has popped in when it hasn't really.

Fitting a towbar and ball and then using the car to tow when it is not approved to tow is an issue with the Insurers and the Police. Many do it and might never have an issue if not involved in an accident while towing or stopped at Roadside checks with the DVSA and Police. Professional / companies that are Towbar fitters know the law as far as them fitting towbars to vehicles without the Approval to tow. Edit. http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/429261-dont-buy-a-201718-150ps-4wd-7-seat-if-you-tow This is the Kodiaq that can not legally tow on the Public Highway. Just the same as Fabia vRS & Mk2 Fabia vRS.

Hi @tobster911 . I’ve checked my VIN plate and rather surprisingly it is identical to the plate shown in your picture (except the VIN number). My towbar was fitted through DM Keith in Grimsby and nothing was mentioned. I had best have a conversation with them about the legality of fitting a towbar. Not sure if it makes a difference or not but I use mine predominantly for a bike carrier rather than towing but on occasion use it to pull a small erde 120 trailer.