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The drivers side is 650mm (26") , the passenger side 450mm (18"). Just get the Bosch twin pack A864S https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-A864S-Aerotwin-Wiperblade-Set/dp/B00W1KKYUI and have done with it!. I tolerated the original wiper blades on my car for a whole two weeks of juddering before replacing with the Bosch ones...

Got my Octavia a week ago. The first 900 km have been driven and I am very satisfied with my choice.

Just completed 1500 miles to/from the French Alps. 4 adults and a 5 year old, A full loadspace and with secondhand Mercedes roofbox with 4 pairs of skis. Weather on the way out was very windy in Northern France - horizontal windsocks, but improved on 2nd day. Arrived at destination just as it was snowing, but got away without snow socks or chains. On the day of the return journey, there was 6 inches of snow on the roads at 12:00 but by 16:00 when we left, it had gone and the roads were dry, such is the strength of the sun at that altitude. Typically drove at 75 mph on the autoroutes as wind noise from the roofbars/box became excessive at the legal 81 mph. Otherwise, there was only one short traffic jam on the A43 travelling west from Chambery. We have one of those Peage 'T' tags and as far as I recall we only had to stop once at a peage and then only for a few seconds. The worst hold up was for British/French border control at Folkstone - about 30 minutes. The car is an absolute joy to drive especially on the run up to the resort. There's so much power that the steep gradients are taken in their stride, even when heavily laden. As always, the busiest roads were in the UK - M20, M25, M1.

The main difference between an e-tec and non- e-tec vehicle are: - starter generator instead of traditional generator - additional 48V battery under the front passenger seat. The starter generator feeds from and into 48V battery and it's used to: - Start the engine - Provide a small amount of additional power to supplement internal combustion engine when the car starts to move. The benefit of this setup is that you have a marginal improvement in fuel economy and much better engine start / stop experience. The latter is actually pretty impressive. You can't feel the engine turning on or off. In normal and eco mode the car does it all the time - when braking for traffic light, coasting down the hill or simply stopping for whatever reason. There is no noise, no vibrations. Feel like magic compared to my previous vehicle with Start/Stop which I had to deactivate as it was extremely irritating. One additional interesting feature I noticed is enhanced engine/generator braking in my car. When coming to roundabout or traffic light with car before you and lifting the gas pedal, the car starts to very noticeably slow down using a combination of engine and generator. The effect is not as strong as in electric vehicles with recuperation, but I find it quite handy. Should save some brake pads wear and tear. This might require SatNav and adaptive cruise control to work so that the car is aware of it's surroundings. Finally on the fuel economy. My long term average so far in two months since delivery is 6.7 l/100 km. About 1/3 town and 2/3 highway. Last weekend I went to a national park. The route there was mainly highway with 90-120 km/h speed mode. Almost fully on ACC. That gave me a very impressive 4.7 l/100 km.

Hi, Just an update should anyone need it. Car was in at the stealership and they said battery was OK and that the message Engine needs to run longer message is normal and will go away after you have been driving constantly for at least one hour. It's the petrol filtering system doing a regen similar to a DPF on a diesel. Since I drive 98% on pure EV I hadn't seen that error before and driving to York from Scarborough and back obviously wasn't long enough in a single trip. Car is now working again as it should, i.e. switching to EV driving through towns and stopping the engine at traffic lights. So, if you see this message pop up with a picture of a car with an exclamation mark through it then now you you need to take your baby for a wee drive John

I wish you all the best with cleaning these alloys

my local tesla place is supposed to be one of the better ones too. But they seemed to get fed up trying to fix the issues after about a year or so. It allwent wrong from day 1 (on reflection I should have really rejected the car) . Instead I waited 6 months for parts to fix defects the car had on delivery (it needed a new front bumper/ nose), then it started to whine noisly on the driveway - eventually they worked out there was insufficient coolant in the battery system, then they realised they hadn't repaired that properly so they had to replace the cooling system, another 4 weeks waiting for those parts. In 14 months of owning the car I had 11 other cars on loan while mine was in for repair. Eventually they refused to deal with the sand and grit embedded in the paint and said I had caused it. they're an absolute nightmare to deal with, an utter shower.

Ive never heard such a load of old crap about a requirement for a more powerful graphics processor to get updated graphics. The 1st Mk4 models are exactly the same as those on the 2021 Seat Leon, Golfs and Audi A3's which all show a combination of maps and standard clocks. The Octavia Mk3 had a digital cluster upgrade with clocks and maps on the same screen. I remember when buying my Octavia Mk4 the rep was telling me you could choose from millions of colours for the background graphics. turned out to be 9. Sales reps will tell you anything to get a sale As usual Skoda holds back on features to differentiate from Seat, VW and Audi.

Likely it's been helping that little bit here n there. I've been doing lots of twisty mountain road driving with plenty of braking, over the years. Not sure if it's related, but Gandalf has done almost 75k kms now and still plenty of meat left in the factory original brakes.

Will try that tommorrow

Just do not go at it too hard. You are only supposed to be removing oxidisation. Fall out etc. The car should have had paint detailed over a decade ago. If your lacquer / top coat is brittle now or had any peeling you are not wanting to disturb. If there had been touch up,s. Or repairs, paint matches you can make them dead obvious. So claybar away but maybe try roof first and see. Always well lubricated. Not bonnet or boot or doors. I would rather just dewax / de polish and see how it looks, then wax the car very well. This is because it is not a new car and no knowledge of the history. If it has good thick paint, top coat lacquer then cars can be wet sanded, machine polished etc. If it has had years if being T-cutted, compounded, already machined polished then you preserve as best you can.

vRS trim piece? I like your ambition 😉

Properly fitted "tha blue teeth" the other day... That's the second one of those Kenwood stereos I've bought. The first ended up in my Gran and Grampa's caravan. Additionally, the rust has been properly repaired on one of the sill ends, but the sill is getting scabby elsewhere, but remains very solid. The work I've done would have Dali doing barrel rolls in his wooden box but it's functional. There's plenty other places I've still to do on the car, but will get around to.

Washed it for the first time since last year - I do few miles so it doesn't get that dirty. Please ignore the paint swirl marks, the whiteworm on the alloys and the bent chrome strip on the rear door. It is 7 years old after all 🙂 Of course I polished up the exhaust tips.

Black cap and a goldfinch just two of many garden visitors

Maybe i will cancel my order of a vRS iV. I’ve been waiting 14 months now and no info at all from the dealer. Called two weeks ago and he said that he would contact Skoda Sweden for info but i haven’t heard anything since then. I’ve driven Skoda for 20 years but this is getting ridiculous, they could at least give us some timeframe like summer, autumn, 2036 or something.

OEM VAG brake pads last quite a lot. My Mk3 is currently 92000 km on the clock and still with its original brake pads. My wife's Audi Q3 is 152000 km on the clock and still with its original brake pads too. Maybe too inspired by the Steve McQueen drive style? 😄

Bump - Anyone able to offer assistance?

The shop offered 4 options, from very light to Limo. I’ve got one less than Limo, so Dark I guess. Did not touch the tailgate as I do a lot of reversing and like to see out the window. The new reversing camera is merely a novelty toy to let me see where I’ve parked. I’m a Reverse Parker, every time. I just like the look. Keeps the peeping Toms at bay, reduces the solar gain on 5 grandchildren (back door blinds don’t cut it for 7 seats) and a little bit more privacy for the folk I chauffeur around (charity before anyone tells me I have to notify my insurance company about taxi driving).

You can dismantle it but you can't rebuild it because the block cannot be rebored due to the cast-in steel dry liners.

ECP's web search by reg number is notoriously bad. Visit in branch or phone them and chat to a human, they have better data available on their screens.

Personally, I have to direct them all the way up. Otherwise yes, it is blowing on my arm and it is annoying when it blows cold air. Most of the time I shut them completely.

Adds five horsepower, dontchaknow? The real reason is that it was a quid cheaper than a regular one...

I've got the bog standard 60, but I'm not 18 any more and it's a family car so accelaration ins't somethign I'm really bothered about , My wife and son used to complain about feeling sick in the tesla, so we used to take my wife's petrol golf if we were going anywhere as a family. The enyaq is a much nicer place to be. And it's not back at the workshop every month either. My local tesla service centre is suposedly one of the better ones 😕

14 miles might be longer but it not a very long run. By coincidence my wife was just now working out fuel consumption (gallons into miles) and it was 44.88mpg, not that it means much to you and others. In my experience it is very common for garages and tyre places to overinflate tyres you want to check them as soon as you can on collection, they often overfill engine oil too in my experience (whatever method you use to check). That's just an engine oil and filter change, not even a full engine service let alone a full car service. Brakes, steering, suspension (all three include tyres) and safety electrics are more important. Check if brake fluid needs changing. And as has been put sparkplugs and air filter ... The two spring clips are the worse, IIRC then disconnect 90 degree small hose and the you heave the plastic airbox off the rubber locators, take it away turn it upside down to remove the screws, bit of a faff because of its size and shape, quality engineering!

Comparing the three photos below it looks like the blue and red car have lowered/sports suspension. Octavia MK3 with standard ride height https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Škoda_Octavia#/media/File:2016_Skoda_Octavia_SE_L_TSi_Estate_1.4_Front.jp 15mm Lowered ride height, ie. sports suspension 15mm Lowered ride height, ie. sports suspension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Škoda_Octavia#/media/File:2015_Skoda_Octavia_VRS_TDi_CR_2.0_Rear.jpg

Looking at Honest John's Real MPG site it appears the 1.5 TSi engine offers very similar efficiency to the 1.0 TSi

My off side started ok, but the nearside took a spanner on the tool to get it going. Wasn't too bad once started.

That's the one, it worked a treat, the pistons took a bit of getting going back but once they started they went in just fine.👍

No Mk3 Octavia has EPB.

'A teeny bit excited....': Definitely a Harry's car 😎 Gaz

Didn't try this specifically. But in the manual it says the car will lock itself if no door is opened within 45s after unlocking.

A new version of UK brochure has been issued April 2023 Prices now £24,540 - 39,180 before options just 3 spec levels, with various engines, 3 manuals and 7 DSG giving 10 combinations, all available in hatch or estate There are 10 paint colours, but restricted to choice of 8 for each spec level https://www.skoda.co.uk/_doc/0bcfc2d5-654f-49b2-a524-91e141293e36 here is link to accessories brochure https://www.skoda.co.uk/_doc/43543ebe-b876-4be5-9692-5aa8d68b302b There is also a brochure covering all the models in SE technology spec, Octavia has a lower power diesel or same petrol engines. Some extra features over SE spec, but others features are more basic. Prices £24,820 - 29,715 https://www.skoda.co.uk/_doc/8db7a881-8116-4b2a-9848-47cfcb6ee0ea

I do not know the spec but my Pixel 3a phone which supports fast charging and comes with an 18W charger indicates fast charging when connected to the Octavia via a USB C cable to the front console USB ports and it charges back up to full in an hour or so while driving, even with Android Auto running and music and navigation active. This indicates to me that it probably offers at least 15-18W. The other ports might differ - 1 near the mirror, or 2 in the rear.

They're adjustable 😉

I own a lot of wheels. Even considering that I have three viable cars and the same number of projects, I have sufficient wheels that I have avoided keeping them all in the same place for fear that my partner might notice how many there are. Once I finally accepted I had thirteen Oz F-1s in 16” that I was unlikely ever to have a use for I reluctantly advertised them for sale. Two sets (the grey and the silver ones in the picture) had tyres which were worn or perished or both, and I sold those quickly and cheaply to people who needed a different size of tyres anyway. The yellow ones had a decent set of Toyo T1-Rs on them so I wanted to see a better price, which was not forthcoming at the time. My solution to this would not be the obvious one to most people, because my plan was to buy another set of wheels. I reasoned that if I found a set of 16” steel wheels for the Caddy, I could fit the Toyos to those, then sell the yellow Oz wheels without tyres, and also sell the black 15” steel wheels which are on the Caddy in earlier posts on this thread. It took a while, but eventually I found a set of Renault Megane Scenic 16” steel wheels which are 4x100 PCD to suit the Caddy. I had been debating whether to paint them in the same grey as the bodywork, but instead I decided on VW LA7Y which is my favoured gunmetal shade for alloy wheels. I wanted to put a red pinstripe on them but I could not work out how to do this neatly until I noticed the lip on the rim. The backs and lips were painted in the same Hammerite ruby red I used on the fronts of the other 15” wheels, and finally after three coats the coverage of the gunmetal looked passable too. Once the T1-Rs (in 205/45 R16) came off the Oz F-1s and onto these Renault wheels, the F-1s went back on eBay. Ironically, they sold for a price that I would happily have accepted for them previously complete with tyres. Happy days indeed. The Renault wheels sat in a stack in the corner of the workshop for a while, but eventually I got them onto the Caddy. They look a bit more ‘scene’ than I was hoping, but I am pretty pleased with them nonetheless. This does now mean I have more Winter-oriented tyres on my 16” wheels and more Summer rubber on the 15” wheels, which is probably the wrong way round, but as part of the object of the exercise was to find a use for the good Toyo tyres this was unavoidable. Meanwhile the black 15” steel wheels were also sold. Having rationalised my wheel collection by selling thirteen Oz F-1s and four steel wheels, I am still not exactly suffering from a wheel shortage!

I use an old fashioned "belt it with a hammer" impact driver for disc/drum retaining screws. As long as the screw head's not wrecked before I get there, it works every time.

Got the base fitted today after removing all of the screws holding the centre console in place. Still a pain getting it in but it's not moving anywhere now. Realised that bolt number 27 was missing so have ordered it from eBay so should be able to get it finished next weekend

It's so called NextGen version. I purchases it when it came out as I had iphone back then. Sadly they changes business model so Obd11 is now subscription based, 2years is the duration of subscription. Old users (including myself) have lifetime subscription. Carista can work similarly if not the same as Obd11 without this subscription based model. Never used it myself though.

That's only for vRS models, especially at "meets", right?

Here’s my Elegance. I paid £250 for it nearly three years ago. It’s been ideal for the job I’ve been doing in some dodgy locations where I feel confident it will still be there when I get back!! It’s kept me reasonably busy with jobs, especially at the beginning but never let me down yet.

Recently purchased this blue beauty, its a 1.5tsi dsg, four years old, so I'm trying to steer clear of the cambelt thread 😁

With some insurers and brokers yes but possibly not with others, note the post from Adrian Flux. If you get your insurance through one of the comparison sites that's usually fine for ordinary cars or vanilla models but often specialist insurers or brokers can offer more suitable policies for vehicles that are not ordinary or vanilla models and sometimes the premiums can work out lower (or much lower). For 3 decades I had "classics" (over-priced, over-priced old cars) and low volume manufacture sportscars and the specialist insurance providers provided very wide range cover at very reasonable premiums and most of these cars were also daily use cars and for work, no garage or mileage limits, fully comp, UK & Europe breakdown cover included in many policies. My last "classic" was modified some insurers didn't like that but the one I was with just wanted the modifications listed, premiums remained the same. Look around someone wants your business at a reasonable premium -unless you have high risk factors.

I know I don't own a VRS but spent ages trying to find some nice mats and had to get these as they match the rest of the interior so well and look awesome, very chuffed!

This is common right across the VAG range, the A5 saloon is the worst.

Many thanks, mattft86 -- that is very helpful 👍

Some more progress From this point To this state A plus: since the whole dash was out for replacement (airbag deployment) I decided to add the cruise control. The 1.6l petrol has the ecu loom ready (like the diesels) so only the stalk loom was needed and with no dash in place - piece of cake! Technically, from this point on, the car can return on the roads. But it needs some more TLC. The best yet to come!

Being in the trade myself I see this more than often. so many times people will come to me for brakes cause I’m cheaper than most - when they arrive I’ll take a look and the multiple times I’ve turned people away and returned the parts because they’re brakes are perfectly fine only to find out they were told at their mot/service that the brakes are almost metal to metal or something along those lines. I hate that people do this cause it gives a bad reputation for all mechanics and make us all look stupid. it’s not just dealers that do this, independent garages do this too!

Given the rest of this post, may I suggest that this main stealer is well due a report in the dealer's area?