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... and the deal looks complete. Kodiaq should be here next week at some point, maybe still this week, let's see.

A little spoiler....

Some bits arrived today: Some eBay special balljoints. I might have mentioned this already, but eventually the rest of the suspension beyond the dampers will probably be replaced, especially given the amount of rust seen. So eventually the lower arms would have been replaced, so didn't want to commit anything on these balljoints. Got the pair for £19. Also this: A 2l top up of Lanoguard, as I already have the spray trigger from using it on other cars. I'll probably go over the underside as best as I can and the wheel arches probably a couple of times over the course of a weekend I reckon. Hopefully that'll at the very least stave off any further rot, until I mentally prepare for a proper job. I imagine this stuff is more a triumph of marketing given its relative stranglehold in terms of pricing. It was £62.94, £56.99 with £5.95 shipping. I'm hoping two litres will probably be enough for 2 coats, then another two next year, so I suppose it's actually not terrible value for money. This box also arrived: More stuff from Skoda Parts. Essentially, front mudflaps to replace the broken one, but also got some rear ones as they're only about £12 front and back. When I had my Peugeot 205 GTI, mudflaps became so rare that some people were pricing them at around £200! Don't think this Superb will have that same aura though... Also got some aftermarket driveshaft bolts, some clips for the mudflaps (and maybe other things), and the plastic covers for the rear seat hinges. The front was a little bit bent, and these were only a few pounds. It came to €54.87 which the credit card determined to be £46.96. So stuff ready hopefully for the weekend. Over lunch, started looking at the brake pad carrier/caliper mount: Took the sliders out without drama which were sliding absolutely fine. Pic shows them well greased. Well greased, huh. The mounts themselves are just in the sort of the state that is best described as never cleaned. Caked in a layer of grease, brake dust and general mankiness. Didn't really want to throw too much brake cleaner at it (even though I will have to), so for the afternoon, just soaked it in a soapy bucket of Fairy Liquid: Probably needs soaking in something more aggressive, and if anything elbow grease. Will probably get some sort of rust removal attachment for the drill or angle grinder to clean this up, especially where the pads slide, as they're far from clean. I then spotted something in the workshop manual. About the rear differential oil refill and drain areas. There are two bolts on the rear differential that look the same as the Haldex fill bolt. This seems to be something that isn't really mentioned in anything. Some swotting up on the forums here suggests the use of 75w85. I don't have that, but do have this: The Ford Focus used GL4/GL5 spec manual transmission oil, 75w90 in this case. I'll probably be using this to replace the rear differential oil on this car, as I imagine it'll be close enough, plus as per the pic, I already have a pump used for this, so no major additional expense. Will probably get a couple of replacement bolts for the drain and fill, which look to be the same. I'll assume the rear differential is no different to a manual gearbox in terms of service life, and I'll consider it as part of the 4 year interval services. Makes sense to tackle both over the weekend as they're right next to each other. I'll have to get the car as level as possible not just for this but for the DSG as well. Maintenance: £1985.98 (+£128.90) Upgrades: £1020.69 Miscellaneous: £637.12

Experiment no.2 - record a noisy sparrow and play it back to him: IMG_9193.mov Mr Sparrow was not amused and got quite intense 😂 I did wonder if he might come down for a scuffle, but I seem to have gotten away with it. G

It is a Plug in Hybrid / 1.4 TSI. Known issues, TPI covering them. Only the trained technicians can work on them. Make the electrified system safe. That is the issue, even if anything wrong is minor.

I've been doing important stuff this afternoon Challenge no.1 - get a hoverfly and tortoise in the same photo: Task completed ✅ Gaz

Used the wrong term. No letter, just told about it when it went in for a service at a main dealer. Should have been a recall in my opinion to avoid more expensive claims for damaged gearboxes.

Services at last seem to be getting their act together with regards charging. I suspect this is the pay-off to the government Rapid Charging Fund helping pay to upgrade power supplies to MSAs starting to come through.

Mail on line, running an article, yes they can get statistics. They have a whole story on an ambulance fire. The one we are talking about. Risks with the gasses carried. They will be carried in the BEV vehicles as well when they are out and about. In Wales 11 years ago there were questions needing answers, and before and since.

For anyone who fancies building a new Kodiaq, the online configurator on Skoda.cz is up and running… https://www.skoda-auto.cz/modely/novy-kodiaq/kodiaq

If they had an electric car i wonder if they could be used to charge it?

If you look at the cable with the Road Angel Hardwire Kit for Road Angel Halo Ultra Aura HD4 you will see a block in the cable that steps the voltage down to 5V the clue is in the name "Image is HWK5V"? https://www.roadangelgroup.com/products/road-angel-halo-dash-cam-hardwiring-kit-for-halo-ultra I suggest the op tries a different usbc to usbc cable before doing anything else

@Rooted it's a company car so a lot of it is out of my hands. All I can do is apply pressure to the company who manage our fleet.

@Robster59 Is it out of manufacturers warranty? Even if it is it is a Safety Matter, car off the road. Skoda / VW UK and an Authorised repairer is what is needed. It will still be a while. There are no techs available. 24th April sounds reasonable. But are they actually even starting to look then @ Ingrams Ayr? Quite possibly not. Parks Skoda Hamilton and Parks anyplace have the technology, just not the employees.

At least that’s one patient that won’t have complained about the ambulance not being warm enough 😏

To preface this, I am a young driver and had my licence for 7 years. I bought a 2016 Rapid spaceback two years ago at 104K Km (~65K miles) and currently it's at 115K km (71K miles). Soon after I had maintenance done (brakes, spark plugs, brake fluid, etc). But I drive only 5K km (~3K miles) a year. So the "oil and inspection" alert happens every 365 days with thousands of miles left on the countdown. And so I had oil change last year, but for this year I don't know what to do. Change interval for different parts depends on either time or distance (e.g. brake fluid every 2 years), but the exact maintenance schedule is not posted anywhere. On my local skoda dealership's website the maintenance service interval is shown in distance (every 15K km or ~10K miles). I wrote them explaining my situation but didn't hear from them. So what should I do now? Just have the oil and filters changed, and do the maintenance when I reach 120K km (75K miles)? What about the brake fluid, can it withstand another year?

Thanks spcdust. I'll renew the Remote Access and leave the Infotainment Online to expire and see what happens...

The software update is based on user complaint - not just as part of a service or any other work. I can see from your software number it’s not been done, but certain versions needed a replacement model as they were too old for the update, yours may or may not be in that TPI

Original radio is still fitted to the car.

Thanks for this. Have just updated to 1941 - All seems fine, and just had the OTA for the manual come through. Going to let it settle in for a week or 2 before I update to 1969. 👍🏻

I think it's suitable for Gen3, check the link below & see if your vehicle is listed but I'm sure it's Gen3. I have a Golf (R) estate 2020 mk7.5 & it says it fits this along with other models. https://mst-performance.co.uk/mst-vw-mk710-air-intake-silicone-hose-oversize-turbo-inlet-elbow/

Yep, will work no issues

What Gen of EA888 is this suitable for? I have a set of Racingline versions but found the intake hose doesn’t have a connection to spur in an oil breather - which means it’s for the Gen3 and my engine is the Gen4. If your stuff is for Gen4 then I’d be interested! Otherwise, it’s the same issue as what I already have. Cheers!

Another 'partnership' starting to bear fruit. A new Osprey hub at a Tesco Extra in Leicester as a result of the site owner (REIT) and Osprey striking a deal for Osprey to provide charging at REIT's retail parks. https://www.ospreycharging.co.uk/post/new-hub-tesco-extra-leicester

Hi Stonekeeper, Looks like I did. A "registration fee" of £55 was included on my original purchase invoice but I was unclear as to was it was for... John

Hopefully it's clear why controversial EV contents are being made by the dozens, a lot of the time by non-EV or even non-car channels. End of the day, it's all about the attention economy. Feed the algorithm, feed the entrenched ideals.

@RootedI'm still not convinced, yes no doubt there is an element of playing to the gallery and the EV haters in parts of his videos, as you say about the stretching of the lead to make it reach etc but one thing I'm clear about in my mind is that the Taycan was purchased as a natural progression from the previous Porsches he has owned as it was at the time the only electric car they made, I can believe that he chose to go with the Taycan following all the guff that has been sprouted about 2030 and the national charging network massive growth plans. I can also believe that he is disillusioned by the reality and that these videos are not the reason for the purchase of the car, but are born out of his personal experiences, and he has discovered a way to actually make some money out of that. His main videos are about being a food critic and travel and as a regular viewer of his videos you will be aware that many of the EV videos are actually shot as part of his journey to various restaurants to shoot a food video, so I don't dismiss everything as being BS, there is some factual content as well.

@Graham Butcher Simples really. I watch the video,s and listen and remember. The amount of times he needs charging before heading off is numerous. The miles off route is a PITA. But really this does not apply with the big car, the big battery. It is the planning to arrive at places with poor charging for the sake of the agenda in many instances. I wonder how many views he will get of trips in a 911 just filling up at filling stations and driving till the next fill up! Do 40,000 miles in a car in 2 years and really it is not much of your brain cells used to remember to unlock the car to get the charger head out. The struggling a bit to pull it out is really taking the p1th for the audience. PS I have all the time in the world and can come on the forum while charging, as working people are often doing while repping around the country in EV,s. Not forums, calls, appointments, paper / screen work, and maybe eating. As to the eating and drinking in places with ridiculous prices at every charge stop, that might be for people that like that sort of thing. Is The MacMaster ever actually in a hurry during the driving the EV & filming to make videos which is part of his freelance work. Income.

Indeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor

@TheWandererI have VCDS, but as you say, more hassle than it's worth. It was just an observation, having not noticed it before. VCDS could do it, as mentioned above, but i'll leave alone,

Thank you all. The suggestion by brigades worked so I did not need to factory reset.

It is unlikely people will drive 250+ miles 2 days in a roll. So 7.5p/kWh for 6 hours is typically more than enough. It would charge just over 50% for a ~78 kWh car (GV60 or MYLR). That translates to around 130 miles. Gotta stop thinking with empty-to-full mentality. It is possible to "smart" charge fully overnight by utilising extra cheap slots offered by Octopus intelligent: https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/ Regarding day time premium, just get a way to time-shift to cheap energy. 1 month figures: Before you say home storage it's expensive, my V2H + brand new home charger (I sold my old Podpoint that was installed in 2017) costed me £2200. 10p/mile saving + 20p/kWh home use saving means less than 1 year ROI. 3 phase is not needed. I'm charging 2 EV's at combined 14 kW, ~60 amps. I try to move washing machine and dishwasher away from Leaf's brief 2hr charging, but even with those it would not exceed the 100 amp incoming. I guess the reason 600 miles was quoted because it lines up with 50% public charging cost estimate for a 600 miles trip. 300 miles from home, 300 miles public charging.

They are completely the same until the rear doors which are different.

Hello, welcome to the forum. I do not know for sure - but I would consider it highly unlikely that there are any differences in the front panels - that would not make any sense, cost-wise, for manufacturing.

Morning had someone come out and look at the car last night and removed the plug from cylinder 2 which was black and covered in soot. The plug from cylinder 2 was the one the mechanic replaced last time and it's not lasted 2 months. The guy that saw the car last night suggested that it could be the cam/lifters and that a compression test would be the way forward and then to see if the valves have been damaged or cam shafts. Does that seem right?

This is in km/h. Never bothered me. Why would this be an issue?

I just answered my own question. The software train appears to be the same as the EU for Rest of the World vehicles such as my Australian delivered Octavia.

Hello All, Just wanted to give an update. I finally managed to look at the wiper motor and all there looked fine including connector contact. All contacts looked clean (after quite a struggle to get that D connector off ). Since the wipers were working, I couldn't do much else there to test. I also did another test run with the car in pouring rain and drizzle, and it worked fine with all wiper settings (fast, normal, intermittent), so I'll test it a few more times in the rain and see how it goes, before doing anything else. As said there was damp in the car which is now dried out, so I am hoping that caused it. The wipers did seem to squeak a bit more after reinstalling the wiper arms (also in the wet). Could I have tightened the nuts to tight (don't have a torque wrench) or done something else wrong on reassembly? I put masking tape to replace the wiper arms in the original orientation. Thanks again for everyone's help here! Cheers, Sebastiaan

2 of our plant hire contractors have them fitted for rail mounting and with one pulling and one pushing for brakes can haul over 500 Tonnes of ballast across 8 tipping rail trailers. unimogs are brilliant.

Another Motorway service quadrupling it availability of charges, this time Warwick South, just after recent similar, or in fact bigger upgrades to Hopwood and Frankley South. Hopefully the Northern Frankley and Warwick will also be done soon but looking like the steep adoption curve of EVs is starting to get matched by rapid charger being brought on line at the Motorway services....... tion

It wasn't clear to me from the original post whether the new battery was actually giving any trouble or not. Seemed more like the unexpected charging voltages were giving the OP the (false) impression that there was a residual problem.

And in either case it will not destroy either the old or the new battery.

They are all standard features on the Elegance.

prices of the power may be going down but the grid connection charges are up 500% in the last year. Now several thousand pounds per connector just to have power to a unit

So this week involved the final push for all the wiring! Bringing (almost) everything together and even getting some bits finally working. So to get started the entire dashboard had to come out - Ive done this too many times now that i can whip it out in under 2 hours The photos also show the sheer amount of wiring that was tucked behind the drivers footwell Once the dash was out it was a job of locating where all the wiring was going as well as adding the extra wires for things behind the dash So basically everything on the right side of the dash went to either left footwell to join the engine bay harness fuse box BCM everything in the right footwell went to either centre console fuse box BCM 5F radio Then the following was added behind the dash into the rat nest of wires power and ground for heated steering wheel USB hub HSD cables, power and ground Wireless charger harness which split to 5F, fusebox and to left footwell MOST cables from TV tuner to instrument cluster There was also a few wires to neaten up on my travels. So once all the wires were roughly draped in their needed final locations it was then a job of wrapping harnesses to secure all the wires and give it that OE look. Sadly didnt get any photos after this was all wrapped and secured but basically, it looked like no one was ever there. To show the extend of the modifications, the fuse box now gained an additional 9 fuses! A small side note but something that was on my list - everytime the car was started I was greeted by what can only be described as the car yawning at me - the grease on the heater direction flaps had dried out and caused as a squeaking sound almost. So the motors and gears came out, all grease was removed and relubricated with lithium grease. (Even with the entire dashboard out, some of these motors were near impossible to remove!) Back on track.... so all powers and grounds ran, all wires in their final locations, now time to terminate! A custom fakra to quadlock micro pin was created at the 5F unit which is a fancy way of saying, the outer braid had its own terminal and the inner core did too. This was for the 360 camera video feed to the 5F. A few wires were added to the gateway canbus wires as it was the easiest location to access them. A fakra connection in the centre console was added for the signal booster from the wireless charger HSD cables were ran to the rear of the centre console for the usb hub and the usb hub tucked under the centre console area 4 wires were added to the BCM - ventilated seat LINbus, wake up signal from charger, wake up signal from DCC module, heated washer jet power One of the hardest parts came next, 16 loose wires in the left footwell with nothing to connect to! The wires from the engine bay now needed to get to the left footwell and the access point is buried behind the complete heater assembly and behind the ABS module. Neither of these were coming out so i struggled for hours to run the wires and securely waterproof the OE gasket with my new wire feed. First picture shows where it was buried, second shows the wires now emerging. 16 wires, and a HSD cable. All 16 wires were then terminated male and female and the new red plug was added and connected (look factory enough for you?) the blue HSD connector was then terminated male and female and connected up. And this basically summed up the wiring! 4 days work 150 meters of loom tape roughly 530 meters of new wiring a lot of blood and sweat and what do we have to show for it.... well youll have to wait for the next post!

It is in Germany, a driver was found guilty, appealed they were adjusting wiper speed, lost and still guilty. The diesels in question were mk2 and mk3 octy with additional soundproofing added in boot and rear seat areas. The NVH isn’t bad, but all I am saying is I would want to take a second break, but don’t feel the need in the EV. Most weeks I do 250 mile round trips. The infrastructure does need to improve, but pick the right car and you’re fine. 600 miles at home rates is less than £13. 600 miles 50% at home rest at full is £60 600 miles at 11MPL (50mpg) @1.50 is £81 600 miles at 14MPL (63mpg) @1.50 is £65 Swings and roundabouts there too, but I will say I have heating and radio on and don’t try to save energy and more than I would in a diesel.

Fitted five new All Season tyres last November. As well as doing the brake strip, clean and regrease I do in the autumn. So 6th service done on Saturday and MOT today. Service is an oil, oil filter and cabin cabin filter one. Battery wanted charging but the car has had less use than in previous years. It is now up to 49 K miles. The tyres/wheels were rotated and alignment checked as usual. MOT was straight through no problems. Brake and emission test results all good. Removed O-S-R wheel arch liner and still all good with no signs of rust around fuel filler. Sprayed a layer of paint around the neck while it was off. After 2.5 years the small plastic bung I found in the car when I bought it, has been put where it should go. It was missing from a hole below the left side B pillar under the car by the sill. I knew it was worth keeping it. It just took me a long time to find where it went. 😒 Checked for fault codes, only one historic one that I cleared. Updated the service history on ERWIN and reset the service warning using OBDII. All good with 'GoGo' and plan to keep this one long term as well. Thanks. AG Falco

The car bought for members of the family to learn to drive in has now clocked up fifty thousand miles! I bought it pre-registered in January 2019, in the 'pre-crazy car price' era for £7500 and in fact it was worth more than its purchase price for at least the first 3 years of its life!! I swopped all 4 tyres for Michelin Cross Climate all-seasons 20k miles ago. Beyond annual servicing, it needed new front discs and pads and the rear drum brakes have never worked satisfactorily, despite repeated attention by 2 different main dealers. Whilst under manufacturer warranty it needed a new electric power steering motor and replacement rear shock absorbers. None of the SEAT main dealers we used were especially helpful, or offered exceptional service, so it now goes to an independent VAG specialist for annual servicing - https://autohausdolby.co.uk/services-volkswagen-passenger-cars/ Despite 'only' 59 BHP it's great fun to drive and has averaged more than 50 mpg (at a fuel cost of 12.5p/mile) thus far👍 Total fuel cost has been £6268.68😳 Despite CO2 emmisions of 96 g/km the government's ill-considered VED policy means I pay the same for annual road Tax as a similarly aged Range Rover😠 I now primarily use it to carry bike(s), which had less effect on MPG than anticipated (September 2023 onwards). I'm hoping for a similarly uneventful next 50k miles, although I guess that might be wishful thinking🤞 In my view it is a sad reflection of the car industry (? possibly driven by government policy) that such inexpensive cars are no longer readily available at reasonable cost.

3 places to check The small PCV valve at the rear and mid to right of the cam cover, often breaks and is left dangling on the rubber hose to the air filter box. Leaving hole open on cam cover blowing oil mist. The crankshaft seal on the timing cover. It looks like the timing cover has been removed judging from the sealant to change the timing chain. Often garages neglect to change the crankshaft seal on the timing cover which invariably leaks after being removed. If the timing chain has been changed, sometimes mechanics don't properly clean off the old liquid gasket seal on the sump and block ( sump has to be removed to do a timing chain) and/or are sloppy on reapplying the correct oe liquid gasket, which requires a bit of skill to do properly. Check around the sump seal gasket, if its leaking, the sump has to be removed, cleaned and new sealant reapplied. The sealant takes over 2 hours to cure, so delay refilling oil and restarting the engine. Also there is some evidence on the photos of the oil filler cap leaking.

I am thinking of using a decent smart charger on my 1.5 Scala, so I would like to know whether the (start stop) battery is EFL or AGM. The Halfords guy says AGM, so I tend to the opposite view! MY 2020. Maybe somebody knows? Unfortunately the battery label is totally obscured by the wiring clipped to the top. Does anyone know how to safely remove it? I have sausage fingers and don’t want to break anything!