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Taken at the 2022 Plains Rally in Clocaenog Forest. I Tried to go for something a bit more "atmospheric" when taking photos. I also took a brave pill and shot in full manual mode, so I think it paid off quite well! I'm chuffed with how it's turned out. It may be a bit dark at the bottom right and the car is a bit more blurred than i'd have liked, but it's a start!

A couple of shots from yesterday with two mates racing in the minirods at Lydden Hill.

Had a phone call today to say the new Karoq is at the dealers and arranged to collect on Tuesday. Ordered 2nd March hopefully collecting 24th May so again, just under 3 months from order to collection.

St Mary's Church, Fairford. Interesting because it's the only medieval Parish Church in the Country with a full set of 28 stained glass windows, one of which is the origin (allegedly) of the phrase 'Going to hell in a hand cart': Fairford's a smashing little village to visit and while away a day. Gaz

If you've got the stuff then it's a very straightforward job as gearboxes go, just be careful of damaging the wiring loom where it passes close to the gearbox, make sure you've tied all the wiring up out of the way before removing the last couple of bolts and lowering the gearbox to the ground.

No prizes for quality, but I was quite pleased to have snapped this brown trout as it made its way past a heron at Bourton-on-the-Water:

Well picked up my Model 3 Performance and I love it.

Top tip. Slide every thing that comes off onto a cable tie when you are dismantling. That way things stay in the right order and in the right orientation. It will all be covered in thick grey grease so hard to tell what’s what. I once forgot to replace the thrust washer when doing a CV joint many years ago. It was horrible and noisy. Basically had to do the whole job again at 6pm at night.

The airbag module is separate from the instruments but is connected, the codes taken together suggest a connection fault where the wiring meets the instruments, probably a dry solder joint. If this all sounds like Greek to you then I suggest you take it to an auto electrician rather than a mechanic.

I think £6 profit may go to my head 😅

It was bound to happen at some point. The rear offside door deadlocked itself during the week with no prior warning- maybe it was the shock of passing the 120k mark the other day. Whatever, I had to get it sorted as the MOT will be coming up soon and a deadlocked door is an instant fail. I looked around on the forum for guides and set about taking the door card off from the inside. To be fair, it was fairly simple & nothing broke or snapped in the process of removing the card. I was a bit surprised to see that the membrane behind the card was an old plastic bag. Having said that it must have been doing a good job over the years as there haven't been any issues of water ingress. I then tried to get into the lock mechanism with a blade but in the end it needed drilling. Once I'd wound the lock far enough the door popped open. All I need to do now is order a new lock from Ebay and fit it all back together. I'll not be putting the door card on until the new lock is fitted, just in case.

it never got completed by him, was brought by someone else then went to darkside developments who fitted a 2.0 16v diesel lump in

Not that obvious. Since 2020, there are SFD additional protections, which require a dongle. It may be not as easy as it used to be with VCDS.

Good luck in the future. I have always found your wisdom very rewarding. I had one Rapid and two Toledos ( the last Toledo is now in my daughters possession and she loves it). I do not think that we shall see a bargain like the Rapid in the car world again.

I did my 4x4 transmission working from a pit, it was a bit too heavy and cumbersome to have done on my back using axle stands, doable when I was younger and more stupid but you would need more height than standard axles stands would give. I would have no hesitation doing a 2wd VAG transmission on the drive, there are some very good youtube videos of a guy who does mobile clutches doing them on his back on customers driveways, he doesn't even use an engine support bar but he knows exactly what he is doing, what to support and where. I bought an engine support frame and having used it would consider it essential, it wil also serve as a support for ratchet straps to take the strain of lowering the gearbox if you have someone to help you who can be above to manipulate them, the gearbox is rather unbalanced and really needs a transmission jack attached with chains, not possible on a driveway and you will see the guy initially lower the gearbox on the trolley jack before rolling it onto his chest and down to the ground, you dont want to be doing that with the 68kg weight of a 4x4 6 speed transmission. Because of the weight, that there wasn't really room for two of us in the pit (one should always be above in case of emergency) and the danger of the transmission falling 1.5m (we didn't have a transmission jack) or simply me trying to pass out a 68kg weight above my head or lower it to the bottom of a confined pit we chose to put a platform across the pit, jack the vehicle up so as to lower the transmission onto the platform and slide it out, so effectively it was removed in the same way as on a driveway using the same trolley jack and axle stands, I did have the advantage of standing upright though rather than lying on my back. Both of us were over 60, at 30 I would have done it unaided.

A few from Rutland water earlier this afternoon (and another colourful sunset on the way home)

Arrived here about the same time as your Spaceback. Still got our second one,( and a Dacia.) Good luck with the MG.

If you are reading this post do not despair! The horrible burning smell coming from your new diesel car is OK. When you stop and turn the engine off and the fan stays on and the engine seems to be super hot, the car is OK. The above are clear signs of an active DPF regeneration and is normal for your new diesel Skoda car. To comply with the latest emission levels diesels have to capture the large soot particles and burn them up into smaller particles which are kept in the DPF, this process is called regeneration. A lot of regenerations take place during normal driving where the exhaust is hot enough to burn the soot in the DPF and are unnoticed and are known as passive regeneration. When the temperature in the DPF is not hot enough for an passive regeneration, the ECU injects diesel into the DPF which burns up the soot and is known as an active regeneration. When you stop the car part way through an active regeneration, often the car smells like it's burning and the engine fan will stay on to cool the car. Mods could you please edit this thread (if needed) and make it a sticky or just delete, thanks

New seat belt now fitted by Skoda. All sorted for now. New tyres, new wishbones and new seat belt. Suspension next. Far too hard and looks too low. That's for another day and a new thread. Thanks all.

i think the people in power will know all about the problems.that is why they have so called public relations people that dont even work for skoda doing there dirty work for them.

Hi, The LEDs are excellent the beam pattern and focus are exactly the same as when the halogen bulbs was fitted that's on the H7s. The H1 bulbs I had to modify the bulb holder as the LED was horizontal and the beam pattern was awful, modified the bulb holder so the LED was vertical and they are spot on, the difference is amazing, I had HIDS before but these are ten times brighter, never been flashed by an oncoming vehicle. Yes the LEDs do have some sort of driver box on them, I might try load resistors if they don't work I have a set of H7s without the driver box on, and they did bring the bulb out warning on, and yes they did flash too so may try them with the load resistors if they do not work on the other ones.

@Gaz Thanks mate. The one in the link isn't full suss though. Having said that, I always think a used bike that is a few years old is worth about 50% of it's retail. That is if it is in good condition.

Hi Ryan... Didn't you want a head unit to work with a CD changer? If so I'm pretty certain an ms202 won't as we had one in our estate and I changed it to a symphony out of an Octavia so we could use a changer

Thank you.

I used to have a VAG serial number decoder that on some radios worked but I've used the ebay services twice now with no problem just send them the serial number engraved into the case and short time later the code was emailed

Fingers crossed for you Alex, am sure all will be well and it's on its way. Let me know how the fitting goes as am tempted to fit one onto my 2.0tsi.

Do not do lots of short journeys from cold starts so where the engine oil is not getting up to the correct and efficient operating temp is something that applies with just about all engines. You need to get the engine and oil up to temp regularly. & do oil and filter changes according to how the car is used. As to anything particular for your engine i have no idea sorry.

Hi Mate, i am from New Zealand, and my car has the same issue, no DLA option, and don't know how to enable it...

Never mind just the engine, what on earth has made you change from a Honda or Toyota to a VW!? These cars are far from simple and will require more looking after and parts than a Honda or Toyota. Do you perhaps not keep your cars long. Welcome to the world of German cars, it's different to Toyota and Honda as you'll no doubt discover. I've got an old MG now, decades back I had another old MG and I used to go over to the MG Owners Club garage sometimes and they had a new garage manager start from outside instead of promoting an excellent and thorough mechanic, so the mechanic left to set up his own business. I was talking to the new guy and he said he used to be a workshop manager at a Honda Dealership and coming to the classic & modern (MG/Rover) MG garage had been a BIG eye opener to him, he couldn't believe the difference.

Taking inspiration from Gears and Gasoline for the jobs list...

I wanted to do the seat centres in something like the Golf GTI interior, but I have sewing skills comparable to the darts skills of Stevie Wonder.

I'd do yours in tartan fabric

@roottoot You just made the blocked list!

I'd forgotten about boss fox's citigo... Can't quite remember what happened to it...

My wife's late June 2015 build VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS does not prime at "unlock" or "driver's door opening" - though her August 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V did, I've forgotten if my older daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16V did or didn't do that.

Or " 'fabia mk3 fuel rail' & briskoda" which confines your search to threads that mention 'fabia mk3 fuel rail' ON briskoda rather than 'fabia mk3 fuel rail' and Briskoda. See the difference?

Mine was delivered in June 2016 as a factory order so build just before. I have inspected the fuel rail/injector bolts and all is good on mine. Now up to 64 K miles on mine now with problems at all. Probabally would have happened by now if it is/was going to happen. Thanks, AG Falco

i drawed a whale last night in the forest not a bad overall pace, for the length and mix of climbs and descents the last km, from the right hand tip of the whales tail back up to the road gate is what strava missed on Wednesday. edit: screenshot taken out, it was the wrong one... tha ks for the like Ryan, clicking the notification drewmy attention to the error

I bought my Fabia 5 years ago and now it has 120000 kilometers. The only problem I had was with one of the engine mounts(it was causing a rattling noise). Not a single issue with the engine, drivetrain or the car in general. Not single warning light on the dash for now.

So relieved to see these two are doing well (the nest was attacked by a mink a few weeks ago)

100% better than my Latvian !! 😆

This might help to work it out. There's a mini xls showing when items need to be done.

Some epic photos from other Wookies attendees

2.0 TSI 4x4 DSG 272. Best car I’ve ever owned, love it!

Normal cambelt is on same (UK drivers) side of the car as the aux belt. Water pump toothed belt, and waterpump on opposite, gearbox end.

The cambelt on the left hand side of the engine gets changed every 5 years. The independent VW specialist I use recommended that the water pump & its belt, on the right hand side, get replaced every other cambelt change to mitigate failure i.e. every 10 years. There is an aux belt that also drives the alternator and A/C Pump - That I guess is just inspect and replace if needed. So we are talking about 3 belts on the TSI Engine. It actually has 2 water pumps too, the one on the right side of the engine driven by that small toothed belt and an electric water pump. There is no second cambelt, it is a twin cam engine and both cams are driven by the single cambelt under the plastic cover on the left hand side of the engine.

I have can’t see there being 2 cambelts Cambelts are used to keep the crank and camshaft in time with each other, so really no need for 2 of them on a small engine. it’ll be an aux belt that drives the alternator, A/C and maybe the power steering (not overly familiar with your engine, but stick me in front of it and i’d be able to tell you) plus an actual cambelt that won’t be visible without removing a plastic cover. Some cars have water pumps that are driven by the cambelt, some are driven by the aux belt. Hopefully, someone with direct knowledge of the 1.2tsi engine will come along and clarify.

Hi PetrolDave, I am not a big fan of halfords as well. It would be the last shop for me to go to. In this case, for battery I think physical shop is batter than online shop. Moreover I got them replace, recycle and coding for £148 with 5years warranty. aIn case nything goes wrong i can go back to them.

It's the 2.0TSI petrol with 190hp (well, it used to have 190hp!) You can get decent gains from a tune/remap on the 2.0TDI as well