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Spectacular sky this evening (and a gratuitous Jag picture!).........

I know, the trouble being that EVERY car brand suffers from gremlins and faults from time to time, from your Dacia to your Rolls Royce. Jumping from one brand to another does not guarantee a faultless driving/owning experience. Yes, you might have a car for 2/3/4 years and have nothing go wrong BUT that particular manufacturer will still have common problems…..no matter what the car. Ive driven and owned enough cars now to realise that the grass is definitely not always greener……and having driven/owned cars from pretty much every manufacturer you could name the fact is that my most reliable car in over 30 years was my Skoda Fabia vRS. I had that from new in 2004 and drove it every day for 14 years….and literally nothing went wrong/broke or failed. So, in my experience Skoda are still number one in reliability despite the Kamiq’s little quirks👍

owner of the garage was pretty up front. He’s got an older GTS himself. Said he loves it but don’t expect Mid 90s VW reliable. However internet chatter is that they are better than their reputation. It’s coming with 12M aftermarket warranty that’s nothing like approved used warranty but it’ll cover the big stuff. I am quite childishly looking forward to being asked what i drive, it’ll be nice to say “Maserati” rather than BMW, Audi, Ford etc. It’s exotic (say with a Waynetta Slob voice).

Tonights sky

There isn't such a fuse. The switch wires direct to pin 21 of the 32-way connector at the instrument cluster, the other side going to earth/chassis. You should be able to simulate the handbrake being off by either shorting these wires together or just leaving the connector unplugged from the switch.

Zero….

I'm Nathan and I've just recently bought a 2018 Skoda Karoq. First forum I've joined so I'm looking forward to browsing and learning.

The Ford is poorly and off the road for first time, so it's backup taking up the slack on the commutes this week and hit another standard one

Just stumbled across this on YouTube, it doesn’t mention ACT so may not be relevant but may be of interest anyway…

I get MUCH worse economy figures than that with my 1.6tdi, do you draught buses and HGV's, or have pedals fitted ?

I test mine quickly and get a nice healthy 12.3V (60%) after one week... higher if tested after 2hrs.

A good and valid point, I will.

They are Automated Manuals. Is it when you are shifting manually that you mean? The reason they ignore the gear who chose if it really is the wrong one is to stop them being wrecked. I had a DQ250 in a 2.0 TDI SEAT and i had wished it had ignored me when i went down 2 gears and knew all about it as it was like hitting a wall.

Been a while, busy renovating and building.. though managed to get to Knockhill today for a Rally event. A few shots below.

I did help and my opinion of your abilities is increasing slightly, mind you it was starting from a low base! A new actuator needs adapting after fitting.

AFAIK any car with the naff fake sound actuator, and VCDS/OBDeleven that can address module A9 will be OK. I have only older VCDS that failed to find A9 (as you need newer interface)

Mine was the mk 1 vRS and it was bulletproof from day 1. It was driven hard for 14 years solid and it never went into a garage unless for servicing. So, having owned Audi’s, Fords, Peugeots, Mercs, VW’s etc etc with ALL having suffered various issues I cannot class Skoda as anything less than the most reliable manufacturer. If you have a look you will find issues with literally every car manufacturer in the world, so Skoda aren’t in an exclusive club for rubbish reliability issues. I could sell my MC tomorrow and get a Vauxhall, a Ford or a VW, but all I’ll be doing is jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Better the devil you know👍

I doubt it, but I'd be able to tell if I opened the bonnet, removed the engine cover and used a torch and my eyeses...

@XTad There’s some incidental info on this thread about removing the glovebox…

That's low 30% State of Charge, not very healthy value at all. It should be 12.5V or close too after such a short time 80% SoC.

Battery voltage was exactly 12.0v after a few hours rest so I've put it on charge. I'm not convinced that's the cause of the Fabia's faults but I will let you know.

Thought I would update with the conclusion. The battery was fine after all, after a lot of driving , 200 miles I would say the start & stop came back! Sick of going for battery tests at kwik fit although the guys at nuneaton were really brilliant helping me!, telling me the battery is probably fine, just keep driving it and come back for another test, Issue was not knowing how to measure how well the battery was charging or retaining charge. I bought this little gadget Which gave the understanding of what was happening with my battery after each drive and after leaving it idle over night, I could see what the problem, I stopped going to kwik fit for tests, so I highly recommend getting something like this, every morning I would just plug it in and check the level before I turned the car on. I took the dog out for a walk early one freezing morning, and saw 2 people having to jump start their cars, I thought oh god, but I tried my car and it turned over straight away, that gave me confidence, few days later I went on Holiday left the car on the drive 7 days and no issues starting it. Thanks for everyone's advice, my advice buy one of these little gadgets to check your battery they really do work.

Hi, oil was topped up but filter wasn't changed. Been using the car without problem.

They possibly used a trim restorer dye or similar just to hide it long enough to hand it over.

Was west end Skoda in Edinburgh. I think it wasn’t on order and was basically a new order.

Yes, it means you were using HFP profile, not RSAP

Managed to finally get some canton grills - shame they are the wrong colour. a bit of gentle spray painting to get them to the black plastic look. why you may ask? I’m not paying £1000 for 2 front sportline door cards with canton grills!

And he will wish he didn’t drop the Skoda brand🤣

Interesting as I’ve ordered a VRs and was quoted 12 weeks.

FEC codes are bought whe i ordered the car, none was hacked

@DBSurrey I’m waiting on my 1.5 TSI to arrive so I’ll potentially have a vested interest in this.

WOW!, almost 75MPG!, that is truly amazing!. One of the reasons for driving the Yeti was the fuel consumption, but to say I'm disappointed is an understatement, however, it's still fairly economical, we were on the same road as you were on Thursday, coming up from Portpatrick to Livingston via Ayr and kilmarnock, with the cruise on at 60mpg, I achieved an all time record of 46.6MPG, very little wind. I'll most certainly try leaving the cruise off on the next longish journey, nothing ventured etc. I shall report back. The car is going in for a remap on Tuesday, so I will record the MPG with the cruise on the first tank full, then without on the second Blackbird, when I ride my motorcycle my pals ask me if I noticed the milk float behind me flashing it's lights to get past?, my pals have a well developed sense of humour! Alan.

I’ve got one of these Wallbox, pulsar plus it’s been great so far. It’s really small, which is handy as I was able to get it where I wanted it. it can charge up to 7kw, which is overkill for the phev as it tops out at 4. but I’m sure there will be an electric car there one day that will benefit. its tethered so there’s no messing about looking for cables when i arrive home in the dark and wet. the app is great too, and tracks all the charges and costs as you go along. I paid £800 to have it installed with a 30m ish run down the drive, back in 2021. I suspect costs will have gone up a bit since then. I sometimes use the granny charger when at work, and it takes 5 plus hours of the day to charge from empty. this will do it in under 4.

I managed to replace it yesterday, it was the feed line.

Hi everyone, just introducing myself. I am only new to the Skoda community. I’ve only gotten my license last year. I own a 2014 skoda fabia Monte Carlo mk2. I’ve not a whole bunch of knowledge on cars. But I am here to widen my knowledge. I’ve added a photo of my car on this.

Years, as long as you don't drive the car. Weeks or maybe months if you do.

Hi Toot, I beg to differ on the cruise control. In the mid to late 70's I was head research technician on the "electronic cruise control project" working for Eaton corporation in Battle Creek Michigan, I was working with Cadillac, Buick, Chevy, Ford and all of the big manufacturers in Detroit, as a matter of course we data logged many different performance characteristics on a set route on the I94, not just the cruise control, and also on a rolling road in the lab and at the Ford test track, which as I remember was in Dearborn?. We had a simulation program which was rigged to the accelerator pedal of the car being tested on the rolling road, and on the highway we had test drivers from all of the big companies driving for economy , we averaged out the manual input from the drivers on those particular vehicles, and also had a "standard" of all of the manual input from every car, regardless of the make, we always recorded a 3% to 5% better fuel consumption on every car tested using the cruise control, apart from the AMC pacers we had, they recorded only 2% to 3%, not the most efficient straight 6 motor. probably 80% or so of the cars were automatic, but we had a representative cross section of Auto V Manual based on sales. We data logged in every season, as the weather was so variable. All of the road tests and simulated tests observed the speed limits of the time. Nowadays I notice increased response times and almost no hysteresis to speak of, they are certainly more responsive, practically zero hunting. I realise it's difficult to equate a 1.6 diesel performance with a 6 litre V8, but we also used chevy vega's and ford pinto's (petrol) a lot as things were changing rapidly thanks to Ralph Nader and the oil crisis, they also were logged as being more efficient using the cruise, auto or manual. I had as a company car a Chevy Vega manual and travelled well over 100 miles a day commuting from Three Rivers, I would always get a better fuel consumption using the cruise, I put over 140,000 miles on that car. I also moonlighted on the Valve disabler project for Cadillac, and I can definitely say that was a disaster, and used more fuel, when it was working!. Which wasn't often. I believe the modern version doesn't have much success either? I can almost match the fuel consumption not using the cruise on the Yeti, but I'm usually at least 2mpg worse, and yes I know it's very sad recording all of these numbers, but hey, I enjoy doing it. We found that driver fatigue was a major factor however, because if it were possible to manually get a better fuel consumption than using the cruise control, over miles and time, tiredness would take it's toll and speed and smoothness would be much more variable, using more fuel, and of course the cruise control isn't subject to those variables Alan.

Aaaand I’ve gone and bought a Maserati. 2016 Quattroporte diesel. Time will tell if this was a terrible mistake. But it’s a very pretty mistake

Adding a charger is one of the things most likely to improve the saleability of your house. No more granny charger out the window. And on Bulb/Octopus tariff between 2 and 6 am it’s a ¼ of the normal charging price, although the day rate is a little more. So even for for the iV small battery I get to drive all my local errands and trips way cheaper than petrol. But, just don’t get a Project EV. Horrific app. I should have gone Podpoint or Ohme

I'm just loving this sidelights are better because they're 50% brighter. It's style over substance in my book. 1. many older cars don't have DRL's - is that a problem? 2. Sidelights are perfectly visable, if not get your eyes tested. but best of all 3. I wonder how many people say that 50% is better also have argued about brake lights ( when auto hold is engaged )' blinds them. There are many cars where oncoming DRL's momentarily blind me. The size of some DRLs is ridiculous. As I say, style over substance. I'd also argue that in some cars, the design of DRL's is such that it's very difficult to see when a car is indicating simply because of their intensity. It's only quite recently they've recognised this and one DRLs dims or switches off completely when the indicator functions. Back in the older days before I had Volvo's I used to drive with my side lights on which for some obscure reason used to upset some people... they argued it binded them, armchair experts said it drained the battery and caused less MPG ( yes really... that's what they said ! ) Oh how times and opinions have changed. 🤣

So there we go. 83 weeks after initial order I took the delivery According to the spreadsheet I am so far winning the 'delay edition' competition. Weather was pretty awful, so no good pics and the car got dirty immediately Anyway, quite happy with it so far. Lot's of things to tweak and annoying behavior when having to manage multiple users with Skoda app and in-car. But otherwise so far so good.

I suppose that depends on if it matters to you that the front rear of the car is always as visible as possible or not? By turning the sidelights on the DRL's then dim down to approx 50% brightness. As above the only issue with this is by turning the sidelights on the DRL's then dim down to approx 50% brightness. But this way you have increased the rear visibility but only by decreasing the front visibility. To answer the question, yes the rear sidelights can be coded to come on with the front DRL's (at the full brightness). The cheapest way for this is to find someone with VCDS and give them a 'drink' for coding them.

LED number plate lights from Skoda and LED boot lights from Kopacek also fitted…

How much tyre pressure you would have to overinflate the following tyres by to feel the same hardness as the ridiculously hard riding 255/30R20 tyre 245/45R18 +15psi soft ride when fitted to 8J rim 245/40R19 +12psi soft to medium ride when fitted to 8J rim 245/35R20 +8psi medium ride when fitted to 8J rim 255/30R20 hard ride when fitted to 9J rim Most people would agree, that the 245/45R18 is a very comfortable tyre size due to its relatively high sidewalls. After all, 245/45R18 has a similar sidewall height to 225/50R17 and 205/55R16. You can see from the above chart that 245/40R19 only has a modest drop in comfort compared to 245/45R19. If the 255/30R20 was fitted to a narrower 8.5J rim, the difference in ride comfort between these four tyre sizes would be a little closer, but doesn't change the order 245/45R18 +13psi soft ride when fitted to 8J rim 245/40R19 +10psi soft to medium ride when fitted to 8J rim 245/35R20 +6psi medium ride when fitted to 8J rim 255/30R20 hard ride when fitted to 8.5J rim What many might find surprising, is just how much better the ride is of a 245/35R20 compared to a 255/30R20. The ride of a 245/35R20 is roughly in the middle of the soft riding 245/45R18 and the hard riding 255/30R20. Just by looking at the 255/30R20 and 245/35R20 the difference in ride comfort isn't obvious. It's only when you look at the numbers that things become clear. Sometime a little difference can make a really big difference. The above should also explain why Skoda would never fit 255/30R20 tyres to a Superb, because they would have too many unhappy customers.

Agree with toot and varooom. Why not check the oil. Provided the level's right and it's oily - as in not like black rainwater, or molasses (gloopy), or has swarf or glittery bits in it, then simply reset the warning to stop the reminder. Then plan to have it serviced when the year is up, ask them to ensure the correct oil is used, and noted, and that the service regime reminder is set to what you expect it to be. Yearly/10k would make sense. Gaz

Report to an authorised repairer, so a Skoda main dealer ASAP and have their technician do their job. Do not have a salesperson drive it and tell you they all do that.

Loved Reading this from start to finish tonight!! Liking the all white look BTW 👌 I've got a 2014 Sliver and Black estate Monte Carlo 1.6 Tdi, currently mapped to around 140bhp / 310 Nm but would love a little more for the motor way and longer trips. Already planned to lower it and put new rims on but now after reading this thread, the turbo will be getting a hike too, closely followed by a brake overhaul. Your car is a beauty Brimma, the looks, the handling mods and the power to match, great work! Thanks for sharing the journey 🙏👍👊

The whole cambelt debate. Earlier Mk3 cars - definately do at 60k/5 years - waterpump. Later MK3/FL cars - you can leave it for 120k miles, but I wouldn't want to risk it.

We have a 2015 Skoda Fabia III with the 80 bhp 1.2l 4-cylinder engine. It's just had a routine cambelt change (together with a service, MOT etc.) at our Skoda main dealer. When I booked the car in I was told that they may need to replace the water pump as it's driven by the cambelt, but on collecting the car, I was told that they didn't need to "because the water pump is at the opposite end of the engine to the cambelt". Which is correct?

For info, our Fabia which had the new cambelt has 13,700 miles registered after 5 years as it's a second car to our brilliant 2015 Skoda Octavia Scout. Clearly belts and other similar items can deteriorate due to age rather than wear. We've had to replace the original tyres on the Fabia this year as they were cracking, but they had loads of tread left. Similar story with the Octavia tyres last year. Also I've replaced the Fabia's original battery as it was failing to hold it's charge, but this could also be due to the low mileage and little use. On my 1998 Honda VFR 800, the camshafts are gear-driven so the gears are unlikely to ever wear out, and also gives the engine it's distinctive whine when in the higher reaches of the rev counter. Honda VFR's from 2002 (VTEC model) have chain-driven camshafts. Great bike!