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Dear colleagues after 68 week my Škoda Octavia RS finally arrive. 🥳🥳🥂 pictures from the salon, waiting to be picked up:

Thought I'd update in case this helps anyone else. I popped the b-pillar trim off & checked/cleaned the seat belt yellow connector at the bottom. It all looked ok but since doing it & resetting the light it has stayed off. No pics buts easy enough. Took 10mins.

Still going strong after 6 years

Have just had an email from my dealer confirming delivery of my new Octavia Estate to his premises . This car was ordered on 28 Aug 21. I will not be able to take delivery until Sept as I am abroad for the next 3 months .

Hello there, I have received a VIN number on our Octavia vRS, ordered in July 2021. The dealer didn't say anything about the car waiting parts.

For anyone interested I sorted the Component Protection. Disconnected the battery and reconnected. Radio and display working again and the Driver Assist is back on line.

Having been piggy-backing on an Antipodean thread about a 1964 Skoda Octavia until now, I thought it only fair that I should start my own, and so I'll summarise what's happened with the car so far: I acquired the car in December 2020, from a guy in Kent, in whose family it had been since it was new. I bought it "sight unseen" and, while appreciating the risks this might involve, I had long conversations with the owner and felt comfortable with things, not least because the cars are so rare I'd be lucky to ever see another one! The car was delivered by transporter to a lock-up I'd rented in Whetstone, north London, exclusively for storing the car and I quickly realised what a great car I had! The boot was crammed with parts, the engine turned over happily and the bodywork looked pretty good. In addition, the previous owner handed me an ENORMOUS file, including the original bill of sale, numerous M.O.T.s and associated documents-brilliant! The boot contained the car's original number-plates, although the car sported a newer registration. The previous owner had already explained that the car had "slid off the radar" of the D.V.L.A. & so had received a new number. Fortunately I managed to re-register the car with its original number, with the assistance of the the Skoda Owners Club, and sort out another anomaly in the car's details at the same time-result! The entire process took less than a fortnight and, as this was over the Christmas and New Year festivities, I was most impressed with the speed of the service! All the engine needed was a battery & new plugs and I had it running in no time, albeit from a 5 litre can. Later I changed the fuel pump, to assist the fuel delivery, but there was (and still is!) a problem with the fuel line, but that's for another day! The car had no brakes at all, a fact of which I was aware, so progress up and down the road adjacent to the lock-up was, of necessity, limited. The intervention of more stringent Covid restrictions meant very little could be done for several months, and when I did have a chance to work on the car again, the starter motor had failed! To describe the removal of the starter motor from a Skoda Octavia as "difficult" would be an understatement of a magnitude unimaginable! Oddly, there's a trailer for a new series of "Bangers and Cash Restorations" on T.V. at the moment, in which a restoration mechanic says that it's possible to spend 4 hours just undoing one nut........I know how he feels! The starter is held in by two 17mm nuts, one of which it's just possible to get at, with the aid of extreme dexterity. The other one-forget it! The workshop manual says 2 specific spanners are needed and lists the part numbers......some hope! No-one had them, or had even heard of them. But this morning, I "bit the bullet" and e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y I removed it! I suspect the right-hand drive cars had several design problems, not least being the removal of said starter motor. I removed the gearbox link from the steering column, the metal heater pipe linking the front lower hose to the heater matrix, the vacuum pipe from the carburettor to the distributor and this allowed me to get a 17mm spanner onto the inner nut, between the engine block and the starter motor. I "cracked" it and, once cracked, the 17mm socket slowly shifted it & the starter came free..... Removing it from the engine bay meant unscrewing the 4 nuts holding the down pipe to the exhaust manifold, and, once shifted, I extracted the starter motor. By now it was 3pm on a sunny Saturday, so I adjourned to a "local hostelry" for several "cold ones". On Monday I'll take the starter to Unit Exchange in Borehamwood, for a refurbish.

It's not really surprising J.R. Even if sales were buoyant, corporate VAG policy would have dictated a change to the MQB platform for a vehicle in that segment. They wouldn't have continued to build Mk5 Golf (A5 - PQ35) platforms just to build a small, quirky crossover. Greater alignment with the mothership and ever increasing component sharing is the name of the game.

Given that there seems to be no comparable vehicle now and peoples fondness for them its surprising they stopped production.

The load carrying capacity volume wise is the only thing that dissapoints me in the Yeti, although coming from Octavia Estates it never had a chance and I do realise its comparative shortness, realise and appreciate because when it is loaded it does not sink like the Octavias and is 10 times better as a towcar when massively exceeding the towing limits. I do appreciate also the flexibility and ease of removal of the rear seating, I have them out permanently at present and its a lot better but still lacking in height and length compared to the Octavias and I never once had need to remove the rear seats in them.

Stu , in a very similar place to you. Just today the Yeti took me and my mountain bike plus gear for a day out. We have been clearing out my mother in laws house so numerous trips to the charity shops or tip. The Yeti does it all. so Im at 5 years AND contemplating the £500 cam chain service. I think on balance I will keep it and await developments in EV’s as the next option

I have had 3 wheel bearings replaced on my mk2 over a number of years. Not wishing to question your mechanical ability, on one occasion I was assured by a reputable garage who checked the car out that it was not a wheel bearing. After eliminating other possible causes I had the bearing replaced anyway. Solved the problem.

TFM does not say which are the better brands of higher output bulbs. RTFQ first.

I had a similar noise at low speeds only, I was convinced that it was a wheel bearing except it did not change amplitude when I threw the weight of the car from one side to the other. I checked everything and could not find any play anywhere then I realised that it was only doing it in the UK on the rotten roads around my property in Sussex and only when I drove on a rare badly surfaced road in France, that gave me the clue that it was the anti-roll bar drop links, no visible play but some wear and the noise dissapeared when I changed them. They are cheap and easy to replace so it wont do you any harm to change yours to eliminate the possibility. If the rumbling noise is very regular like your description of the rumble strips and proportional to your speed then ignore my suggestion.

Hmm. Maybe sawtoothing on the tyre/s? If you are confident it's not the bearing or CV there's only a few more things it can be.

68 (sixty eight!!!) weeks Jerry!!! Outstanding patience sir. Enjoy

The introduction was meant for those who weren’t aware, because not everyone is, but no worries mate👍

Hello, thanks for your advise Nigel, I will attempt at some point to record the audio and post it, I might try using some spray on the door seals just on the off chance it does anything, ill see how I get on trying a few things and will post to let you know if anything is successful.

I'd be looking at replacing with hydraulics.....tektro or clarks can be had for peanuts, frisking ebay usually comes up with plenty of others as people upgrade. I replaced my Whytes with Magura so I do have 2 calipers/levers but the thought of selling on eBay means they are sitting in a draw

Let me know VIN on PM

I have not, it’s hard to decipher but what I can say is that it sounds a lot like going over rumble strips on a dual carriageway approaching a roundabout

People use all sorts of grease on slider pins; usually what they have to hand at that moment. Quite a lot are unsuitable for long term use and will migrate from the bearing surface, damage the bearing surface, rot the rubber and generally cause headaches. Silicone grease is not normally recommended for metal/metal surfaces and what you have may not have the high temperature / pressure specifications of a dedicated guide pin grease like Molykote G-3407 https://www.dupont.com/products/molykote-g-3407-caliper-pin-grease.html. Hard to find in small quantities but occasionally pops up on your favourite auction site. Wurth make a brake paste but only rate it to 160C and not the 200C of the G-3407. But at least you can buy it easily in sachets. Or Proslip pin grease. Ceratec from Mintex is OK. New pins are cheap enough and will remove any doubts about galling caused by incorrect lubrication.

Have you confirmed it's linked to car speed and not engine speed?

it's good quality and very easy, i just use the steering wheel buttons to answer and call or talk to google to make a call, it also shows contacts and call logs on the mfd

I suspect you know what a dealership is. There you might find a dealer principal or manager. In a physical building you might go to. There are cars bought or leased that might be supplied by whoever and delivered to you. They are all coming from Skoda and into the UK because Skoda / VW UK are the importer.

@george4064best touch nothing and get the fault reported and booked in to be repaired using the warranty the car has. Do not leave too long before doing this.

The Workshop manual is available on the net as a pdf but I can't remember where I got my copy. (hope this all displays for you)

Thinking it through, it'd make sense to move the calliper as close to the moving brake pad as possible, without it fouling the disk, then adjust the fixed pad into the disc, that way I'd be reducing the amount of movement at the moving pad and therefore giving more useful travel (i.e. less non-useful travel) at the brake lever. Time to get a replacement bolt first methinks. G

I Googled it. Basically small bit sellotape over the switch to fool the computer the switch is in off position. So simple

If you see the little white slider on the left, you have two positions to slide it from. One is a locked position and other is unlocked. Wrapping tape around one missing the white tab fools reader into thinking it is an unlocked card, so can be formatted/written to.

Stick a piece of sellotape over the lock window, this fools the switch in the drive to think the card is unlocked.

Disconnect the negative terminal of the 12v battery under the bonnet. You will have some errors on the dash afterwards - take a short drive to clear them.

I booked it with another garage for Monday. £60 to regas. Fingers crossed

I started to do this the other day, but it was tedious, and I decided it to be a waste of time as the part number of these servo hoses is printed clearly along the rigid plastic sections. For RHD cars the base part number will be 6Q2 612 041 and then there will be a letter or pair of letters after it. For LHD cars the third character is 1 instead of 2. These suffix letters are what differentiates the hose designs that suit the different engines. If you don't match these letters, you're buying the wrong hose. I doubt these are available in new condition anywhere other than VW group dealerships (e.g. Skoda) or TPS, both of whom will want to check part identity against your VIN/ reg number anyway, so no real need to tell them the part number. Edit: If you still want to know the right part number for your car, message me with the VIN as I can now look up current part numbers and retail price; but only with VIN.

This is my first car. For example, I know what is a vehicle snorkel is. (There is an example on the Land Rover picture above) The air box extension in our cars is going into the front bumper for fresh cold air. I knew, if water reaches bumper level, that means wet air filter and immediate engine stall or worse, engine sucks water and gets hydro-locked. So I thought, if I find myself trapped somewhere that I have to go through water which is high enough to reach bumper level, I must disconnect the air box extension first to make air intake higher. But this is a simple knowledge. What you wrote above is a well written, detailed, in-depth explanation that gives you a live experience feeling when you think about it. Which is very valuable for me.

Cable brakes are really poor from an efficiency point of view because as you realise most of the effort goes into bending the disc! Being the rear they don't do much (10-15%) so once you've got correct clearance, clean pads and discs it will take ages to wear out the pads, though adjustment might be every few weeks depending on mileage, (with (hydro) brakes I get 1 rear to 3-4 front pads on an acoustic road bike).

that's rubbish, the Stellantis products seem a bit cr*p

Brands Hatch today.

mine also had the parrot kit, i removed it, activated bluetooth with vcds and bought mic

pleased for you.been told i should get my this month.it does look like deliveries are starting to pick up.which will i hope cut these long long waits for our cars.

The regulator and brush pack can usually be removed and replaced if the aftermarket has started manufacturing them, a hell of a lot cheaper than a new alternator and on many vehicles a lot easier to fit, on my MK1 Octavia it could be done from above (just) without removing the alternator and power steering pump involving grovelling underneath. For an 09 vehicle I would be confident that the regulator/brush pack will be available.

As you've already found sometimes buying a part or component that is "cheap" at initial purchase price can work out to be expensive or very expensive in the long, medium and even short term. As a generalisation a tyre that gives very high miles of tread wear isn't very grippy and with an AWD you may without realising it well drive faster than you think so put more wear to the tyres. For price it's often lower to order off their website than at the actual tyre place, crazy I know but there you are, don't forget to add in to your web order any extras you want or need (wheel alignment, any special balancing, etc.).

Hi peeps,,, fitted a new inlet due to P2015 code,, all good so far after a week or so,, was I bit of a faff but with my limited knowledge I managed it. forgot to take photos in stages but I got carried away and just ploughed on 🤣. The red circles are were I unclipped hoses so I could wangle it out and get other clips cables etc past to tuck out of the. the inlet is held on by T27 torx I bought a 100mm deep one to get into them, you also need a10mm spline socket for the injector rail and EGR pipe,, 10mm socket for the dipstick bolt, flathead screwdriver for jubilee clips or 7mm socket (I think), 17mm spanner for the injector pipe nuts, I started with unplugging all electrical clips to injectors, rail, egr, throttle body, and then I undid the 4 injector pipe bolts and the one one the left hand side or the rail, unbolted the 2 spline bolts hiding down the rail, then unclipped the injector wiring and pulled the glow plug sockets off and lifted up and to the right out of the way then unclipped the red circled hoses and all the torx holding down the pipes that clipped to the inlet,, removed the rail completely then I just unbolted the inlet and the jubilee clip on the throttle body bottom, EGR pipe making sure not drop the gasket,,and just wiggled the thing out to the right just moving odd pipe clip that got in the way,, kinda like this prior to removing. Once removed I just removed EGR, throttle body cleaned them up , absolutely caked in carbon build up, I then put them on the new inlet and then refitted,, I say it took about 2 hours to do but I spent 30 mins on cleaning EGR ,, oh and don’t forget to unbolt the dipstick I did 🤣 sorry it’s a bit vague but I’ll try n do a bit of a video with pointing at things and where I moved them 🤣🤣 I got the inlet from eBay to £72.88 2 year warranty

Had a catch up with a fellow enthusiast yesterday. The work he has put into his ex Thames Valley police Omega to bring it back to spec is outstanding.

Hi buddy, I do believe so, i am new to skoda but on scanning with a VCDS i am 95% positive i saw use foglights as DRLs If someone could confirm Fisher

To anyone following this thread - I complained to Skoda UK and after a few e-mails (and an escalation) my car was booked in for a software update - that was yesterday and it has been fixed! I have used it a few times since picking it up and each time it has remembered addresses and settings. Tested and working: Addresses/favourites saved. Last Journey details saved. Addresses sync from online (although there is a bug in their online system so I wouldn't spend much time on that!) Settings (such as traffic signs) saved. (Note: I do not know about the ACC lane/undertaking issue as I'm not even sure if I had that problem anyway). (I should add that they failed to address the two recall/notices outstanding on the car but this seems to be a general issue with parts and training - that should happen in a few weeks).

Hi Nigel, so after trying what you suggested I have driven my car and it has not really got any quieter which is a shame, it is definitely a rattle as oppose to a knock, perhaps knock was the wrong term, I am at the moment trying different seating positions and seatbelt height to see if that helps any further. It is such a minor thing but so frustrating when I have a rattle in my ear, I do not want to let it get to me too much cos I have done this in the past with other cars when I hear a noise, it really puts me off! haha. the only solution that works at the moment really is louder music, but I do not always want to have my music loud enough for it not to be heard. Finally I called Skoda just to ask if this is something they have dealt with before in Fabias, however the technician did not seem to recall having a noise in the B pillar/Seatbelt adjuster before, must just be my luck! Cheers.