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Bloody low drivers

She's Taxed. And almost ready to get out.. I reckon I'll have some cleaning to do before Skodafest.

A few from this evenings walk............

A wabbit

I bought a second hand PHEV in February. I fitted a Garmin dashcam powered off the mirror USB C port. The car came with a 10A charger cable which plugs into a domestic 13A socket and a cable for a home charger. I use the 10A cable and can charge the car in about 6 hours. If I use the 'time of departure' charging option then I have a range of 34 miles, if I charge it and do not use it immediately then I have a range of 29 miles.

I'm non dcc, and ive got koni's and eibach springs (same ride height), and its just perfect.

will be all sorted once they move production to China ;o)

If you are prepared top pay the sort of money to swap out a 1.2 for a 1.4, I would be looking for an alternative car!!

235x45 20 are the correct and approved size and will be shown on back of fuel filler flap.

The phone holder arrived. Using it now to hold various cables, including the plug for a 12V charger extension block which I don't always keep plugged in.

If the UK did not promote immigration, population would be decreasing now. The birth rate in the UK is below Two per Woman. So as the globe becomes more advanced the birth rate in more Countries will drop It is true that Global population has been predicted to start falling in the next decade by more than one set of genius' Having said that the Office for National Statistics has projected that the UK population would grow to 72.4m by mid-2045.

I'm not sure what your knowledge level is, so I'll go back a few steps. Oil gets thinner as it warms up, quite a bit through the temperature an engine will span from cold start up to normal operating temperature. A single grade oil that works well in a cold engine will be poor at operating temperature. If this single grade oil is optimised for normal operating conditions, it's going to be like treacle in a cold engine. Multigrade oil overcomes this by changing viscosity characteristics as it heats up, resulting in a constant effective viscosity through the temperature range. Oil works as a lubricant by creating a film between the two parts so that they don't rub on each other. Lubricity is a measure of how well the oil does this. Lubricity is a function of viscosity and the oil's chemistry. Thicker oils create a thicker film and improve separation between the parts (up to the limit of the tolerances between the parts). Oil chemistry looks at improving the oil's ability to prevent contact and friction at a given film thickness (basically making it more slippery). This is a way to give low viscosity oils better lubricity. It's a combination of basic oil chemistry and additive packages. Lower viscosity oils take less energy to pump around, reducing parasitic losses. They will also make it into all of the oil galleries faster from startup, so you improve cold running protection. Manufacturers like this because they can improve efficiency in the first instance, and protect the engine better from ignorant owners in the second. An additional consequence of lower viscosity is that it allows tighter tolerances between parts which can improve performance. So that 0W8 oil is going to be pretty thin all the way through the operating temperature range, and provided the chemistry is good enough, it should be more reliable and efficient. A side note on test cycles: they are not a reliable prediction of how the vehicle will perform on the road due to the variation of real world conditions from the test. What they do give is a basis for comparison: a better WLTP figure will on average mean better fuel consumption/lower emissions on the road. So if Toyota's test with the 0W8 has improved its official test rating, then it will also have improved its real world performance by some amount. Even if the test is done in bad faith by the manufacturer, basic physics still dictates that improvement in the test figure will improve real world too.

Looks like my module has slightly different numbers which could explain compatibility issues.

This is why I feel it's important for PHEV to ditch reliance on ICE, make it an EV first and ICE only as backup. It's not 2010's anymore. Today's PHEV architecture should now be similar to i3 REx.

And yet you write them well.

Indeed. Some PHEV drivers have never unwrapped the charging cable in the boot. Have no intention of ever charging it up, either at home on AC charging or Rapid DC charging. Even worse, and this is something one can setup in the menu's of some PHEVs is they can choose to have the electric power to mostly be there to assist the acceleration, say adding 100 hp to the 250 hp ICE. Driving the PHEV like some F1 car to do the fastest times from A to B. Now I would expect even with this setup the PHEV would go in to pure EV mode when they enter a 30 mph zone and the cabin is toastie etc but these drivers get unbelievably bad fuel consumption ie down towards 30 mpg by having the car setup this way and driving briskly. Perhaps they think time is money and have a PHEV for tax avoidance and with a big salary are not worried about fuel consumption, maybe have a company fuel card too. Such is life. I imagine this cars are semi-automatic like my hybrids ie have a gearbox with a bunch of fixed ratios but an auto changing gear changing system which works in combo with the electric assist and sometime solo EV mode.

In this instance OCU is the acronym for an Online Connectivity Unit. It's purpose is described here https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/BEJTLVHE4IU-E/4434703.pdf and an example is shown here Over-The-Air (OTA) software updates are described on this Skoda webpage https://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/software-update but (based on my own experience) for a new owner the current Fabia's OTA updating system is decidedly unfriendly. I'm an old (80 next month) long-retired old-school computer programmer/systems analyst and, although I'm comfortable enough with the mechanical side of my Fabia and how it drives, I could happily dispense with most of the tech. Skoda's advert says "Like your computer or smartphone, your vehicle has embedded software fully integrated into the vehicle", but I'm an Apple iMac/iPad/iPhone aficionado nowadays (I've never forgiven Microsoft for Windows) and Skoda's fully integrated embedded software seems to have been deliberately designed by a North Korean technician employed to drive car owners in non-Communist countries to distraction.

Update - had it reset, (not on my launch) but thru vcds and a few thousand kms now absolutely no problems so guess it had an hissy fit, glad it is back again, amount km's I do really missed it

Eco mode to coast here too. I think we’ve established your colleague's recollection is incorrect.

curious. It has RFID which is shortrange so must have had a fob or a phone app ah here we go https://www.transportengineer.org.uk/transport-engineer-news/masternaut-releases-telematics-hub-for-improved-connectivity/62552 Its a GPS tracker Edit , that looks to be just one part of it, you may have some other bits hidden away https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266376374775

So little bit of a side line now... and something I am 99.9% hasnt been done before... Ventilated Sportline Seats So this was an all new project and going in blind! So a bit of theory behind it first: On the superb, all seat frames are near enough the same, then the difference between the leather and sportline seats is the foam insides and the headrest. There are no ventilated parts for the sportline and the ones built into the leather seat foam are far from the right shape, so it meant starting from scratch. Also something to note - the fans suck air through the seat, not blow air onto you. The parts that were needed for this: 4x Fans Wiring Plugs Terminals Diffuser sheet Isolator sheet Fan mounting Now the fans, wiring and terminals are easy to source but the sheets and mountings are actually built into the seat foam and cant be purchased separately. I then found a company that sold me all 4 diffuser and isolator sheets and some mountings that would work. Now we are in business! There are 2 fans per seat, and they are wired exactly the same (almost) and controlled by LIN. Each seat gets a power on pin 1, a LIN on pin 3 and a ground on pin 2. Pins 4-6 are then grounded differently depending on the fans position and this is how the LIN knows what each seat fan is doing and where it is. Thats the wiring out of the way, next the physical mounting of everything: So this is a cross section of how it currently looks: Yellow is the solid seat foam Red is the heated seat element Black is the seat fabric itself. And this is how it ended up looking: Yellow is the seat foam which now has holes going through it completely, indicated by the brown lines Red is the heated seat element which is porous so needed no modification Black is the seat fabric, again it was porous and luckily no modification needed. Blue is the diffuser sheet - which is a semi rigid sheet that is full of holes allowing the air to distribute fully across all the holes, even with a persons weight pushing on them. Green is the isolator sheet - this is what seals the area to allow the only air being sucked it to be from the front of the seat, via the holes in the foam. Brown circle is the fan. And now some photos of it all - the parts and strip down first: A rough marking of the fan location and the foam being cut The seat base to show the 2 circle holes where the fan could possibly mount The fan, mounting, diffuser sheet and isolator sheet Decided on mounting the fan is the forward seat base hole A torch behind the fabric to show the holes are require permiable, so air wont have an issue. Next is the actual building of it all: Seat back wired up and fully ready to refit, fan installed Seat base foam cut, very roughly before sanding it flat to give a better finish Diffuser mat laid in the cut out All the holes, and the foam pieces ready to fit back on top at the end to maintain its shape Diffuser mat glued in place and trimmed to fit perfectly. A sportline seat base - the head rest is what gives it its shape, very odd design Back of the sportline foam before i began cutting The cut out for the diffuser foam. The holes - drilling these is pointless - i heated up a piece of rebar and melted the holes through - a drill just pushes the foam out the way. Diffuser, isolator and fan mount fitted. And some photos of the controls now fully working! And all of that, took 2 whole days for a single seat! Next is the drivers seat! It did get me thinking though.... the 4B module often refered to as the headlight control module, is actually a multi function control module and it has a lot of other odd options too - almost like extra pins for the BCM. But anyway, it has functions on there for rear seat ventilation too... just a thought. But that would mean a completely custom rear temperature control panel, intercept and inject LIN and canbus signals through my own controller... but yeah, just a thought.

I think I'm being a divvy 🙄 I can find lots of reference to the '100 checks', but not what each one of those 100 is. I'm sure I used to have a link to them - but I've obviously put it somewhere safe I've done a search on here, but maybe need to try harder. Can anyone help please? Ta Gaz

Hi Guys, I have a 2009 plate Fabia. A strange thing has started to happen, if I try one open the boot with the key fob I can hear a click but the boot stays locked. The strange part is, if having done this, I then open the rear passenger door then I can open the boot! This has happened several times so to get the dog out of the boot I have to open the rear drivers door first. Are they linked mechanically or electrically? thanks Dace

The 2.0TSI 190 is a cracking engine and suits the Superb well. Its very responsive and quiet ,

How the mitsubishi outlander works

Will just be condensation caused during those recent short trips. Irrelevant.

Thanks for trying them - I was pretty sure I wasn't being dim, but you never know! I don't see it being flap related as there's no separate rear controls - I'm going with they've just forgotten to connect it up. There's a bung goes in the air-box if there's no rear vents so maybe that's been left in place. The fan profile thing is a new one on me - Kamiq isn't here at the moment but looked at out Karoq, and blow (excuse the pun) me, it's pretty well the same: Behind the window there's a fan symbol but it's not obvious that touching it would do anything. The Kamiq doesn't have that - just the three settings appear - and it doesn't say "A/C profile", there's just the three options.

Lots of short journeys?

So the revs drop to idle when you take your foot off the accelerator? You’re absolutely sure? Ahhhhhh, so you have a sentient DSG box too? When does it decide to coast - when it’s tired or just really hot?

Only just back - the bloody A27 is a dreadful road 🤬 When I put the postcode in my satnav, it said I'd get there at 2:45pm, but I got there at 3:15pm. Arundel and Chichester were the usual bottlenecks 🙄 Well I liked it. Both front wheels have been kerbed, minor stone chip on the roof above the rear view mirror, but it's only gone down to the white undercoat, not the tin, and that's about it. Two new tyres on the rear (Sunny make), front's at 6mm. DCC was on normal for the road test. I'm guessing having the DQ381 seven speed might make it feel a little less torquey than the six speed 280? I find it odd the lack of a reversing camera. The sensors were going bananas when I was a good three feet away from anything. Minor but: It's obviously on long life, because it has a Skoda first service in 2022 and then nothing until this garage got it. They've serviced it and change the haldex fluid. When I asked about the gauze/filter, their mechanic told me there wasn't one, and then started waffling about some 'aftermarket' kit...... blah blah, I stopped listening. They'll do the wheels, but won't budge on price, offering me £16k for the GTI. I didn't commit to buying it. I saw a Petrol Blue L&K up in north Wales for £21k last night, but the Autotrader ad seems to have gone, so I'm guessing I was too slow. Gaz

Sounds like you've got mixed priorities to be honest. The towing question answers itself and you might as well just remap a 1.2TSI otherwise to avoid the roof but get identical performance to a std 1.4. The 1.2 is nice enough especially with DSG which is snappy and makes good use of the torque. I thought my other half would have one this time, but she preferred another loaded diesel (minus sunroof!)

The same size that you have fitted to your vehicle, measure it because nobody on here can.

Same for oil mining on sacred land, just doesn't make as big news. Quick google comes up 2 in the last 12 months: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/on-indonesias-seram-island-a-massive-oil-find-lies-beneath-sacred-land/ https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4194271-dont-sacrifice-sacred-lands-to-the-oil-industry/

This weeks i watched the Native Americans riding their horses across the very beautiful sacred lands that are going to have lithium mining on them or near them. I watched a longer version later on and there was there Pick Up Trucks and Horse Trailers. Built from materials mined at other people lands, and maybe from fuel from there.

@Graham Butcher The video under his (London to Edinburgh) where the Scottish person drives from Lockerbie to his home in the south of the UK in a Renault EV with some charging sessions including at a Porsche Dealership The MacMaster uses, but using a Shell Recharge card. (As i used a Shell Recharge card yesterday at Ionity.) I posted the video below the BMW i3 vid where The MacMaster is with the people who are collecting a New Skoda Enyaq. (His titles are usually click bait.) When we use chargers so often even though they are different with different providers anyone with a bit of a memory remembers the sequence. As to the 1/5 th of EV,s needing to be First Registered it is more than a 1/5th, 22% this year in the UK. Hard to believe he has not ready that and has no need to be asking other, and repeating and repeating. But Clicks means prizes. 10% of vans.

My neighbour got a X1 PHEV and plug it in at home all the time. They do very local journey most of the time, transporting stuff for kids birthday party as entertainer. Car also used for odd road trips. These type of driving fits current type of PHEV nicely. Their previous Euro 5 diesel only done ~30k miles in 9-10 years when they swapped to the X1 PHEV before ULEZ expansion came into force. But apart from that particular use-case, PHEV doesn't work very well if need to drive longer distance daily. I need to commute 60 miles a day, 30 miles PHEV that is usually 20 miles is completely useless to me. edit: CTRL + Enter submits a post.

Following your journey with interest...

Does the "P" in "PHEV" stand for "Pointless" ;o)

Ha ha yes. Setup is really easy. Plug it in the usb socket When the light turns blue, search for the Bluetooth unit and connect. It will then activate the wifi on your phone and switch the bt to the car The WiFi sort of replaces the usb cord. Once this is done, the new connections will be automatic. I highly suggest doing an update before first use. All the steps are described in the leaflet in the box

I have the same, 2019 face lift and it has only ever coasted in eco without any cruise control active.

I thought he got were he did with acquisitions of many dealerships All dealers can sell a lemon This recent watchdog on Cinch ? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001yc1x/the-one-show-17042024?seriesId=unsliced

The world is full of people who know better. Who gives a 5hite what someone coming from a position of ignorance says? A You Tuber is making money from hits and subscribers so it's in their interest to create havoc. I changed the Karoq for a Toyota last year. I couldn't give a *** what the Toyota main dealer uses, it could be Flora cooking oil for all I care. What I do care about is as long as the car is serviced my a main dealer each year, Toyota will warranty the car for 10 years. If I go on what some, here today gone tomorrow, YouTuber says, my car will be warranted for 3yr from the date of registration. It's not rocket science folks. Here endith the lesson. Buy the way, what's all this crap about manufacturers changing the oil spec because the car wasn't achieving it's claimed mpg. No car achieves it's claimed mpg - the results are based on laboratory conditions. The manufacturer doesn't test the car going up and down hills in the rain and cold ...and high winds ...and effects of surrounding traffic ...and different road surfaces ...and with different loads etc etc etc Are people really that gullable?

Well, for a grand more than the 2018 one, there's this just along the coast: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202404188797499?sort=distance&advertising-location=at_cars&drivetrain=Four Wheel Drive&make=Skoda&model=Superb&postcode=BN213UU&transmission=Automatic&fromsra It's certainly got potential. I'll give them a ring tomorrow. Gaz

I used to granny charge my PHEV. Never caused me any issues but I was never really comfortable with it . We got a tethered Zappi installed which I think is an excellent charger and saves getting the cables out the boot - it's mainly for my wife's EV but is great for the Octavia. I've been using a Garmin 57 dash cam connected to the port behind the mirror which I think is a decent camera.

The smaller Toyota's have the legendary Toyota drive trains but they have some questionable plastics.

This could be a good test. Do a review after a week of using it so we know what you think. 👍 You might find it useful . Cheers

Interesting video, it led me to this one about electric cars Can anyone else see the error at 1 minute 24 seconds? I wondered why Raymond Baxter was wearing a huge coat which obsructed him from getting out of the Peel until later on I noticed the electric cable trailing out of it, the car may have been battery powered but the presenter wasn't. If he can extract himself from a Peel I do not accept Graham with the big feet's claims that he cannot get into anything smaller than a Skoda Superb especially when he said he once drove a Mini, the original one that is not the obese abortion that carries the name today. * The original Mini not the original Graham* 😃

Try this:- ''Good afternoon, a family member has a 2009 Skoda Fabia Greenline, the rear parking sensors stopped working, the beep is ok! I was looking for the Sensor Module next to the driver's seat belt, there is only the Beep Sound from the sensors, but after assembling the plastics next to the belt the Airbag light is always on, I would like your help with these two problems Thanks''

bungs; sealing strip; mask film - Fabia(FAB) [EUROPA 2012 year] (7zap.com) This info is based on 2012 model year that you may want to change. Sizes may be useable for alternates.