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It's been a three day marathon, I'm knackered. I got the starter back on, clutch inspection plate back on, clutch hooked up and the electrics hooked back up. Started it up, chucked it in gear and one shaft rotates, obviously we don't have an LSD in these things 😛 (is an LSD an option?) Anyhoo I dropped it off the stands back on to its feet and drove it up the drive and back. yay. Spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the filth of a chain smoker and a decade parked in a disgusting shed off the interior parts which were all in the bed. I seem to have about 99% of the interior present which is great news. just stuff like turning into A pal took me to pick up a sheet of steel for fixing up the rusty bits and i've ordered new wings for it which might turn up on Tuesday. I will need to find out what the clip things are which go into the body into which the wing's bolt into are called and where I can buy some. One thing the interior IS lacking is almost all of the screws and bolts. It's still a little smelly but it's bearable, and time is on my side.

Just collected today. 6000 kilometres showing and very happy after a few hours behind the wheel. mk111 , I assume but registered Feb this year. Pleased to say it has all of the kit I wanted, inc reversing camera, heated seats, heated steering wheel. In fact the only (very small) thing missing is wireless charging. Sure I will get over it !

Apologies if the two bits here are repetitive of other previously expressed views. If you think the touch screen and various other controls on the Octavia MkIV are bad, you should experience the current gen VW Golf and various Seat and Cupra models that do not have the short cut buttons at the bottom of the screen and made do with unlit control sliders at night, which were only recently "improved" with the facelift versions. The Golf has also ditched the haptic steering wheel controls in the facelift models. The lane keep feature is legally mandated by the EU bureaucrats who think they know better and who probably do not drive themselves but are chauffeured to their venues. It is required to default to the ON setting every time upon starting up. At least, it can be easily disengaged via the steering wheel controls. Any new car, regardless of whether it has physical knobs and buttons or functions accessed by a touch screen, requires bedding in time to grow accustomed to its controls and the way it handles and drives. Although I am still not totally won over by the touch screen after over 18 months with my vRS, the Octavia MkIV is better than most other VAG products and outside rivals in this regard. My biggest bugbear is the intelligent cruise control being too sensitive and slowing the car down too often when there is no need to.

There were various arguments for the change: All neighbouring countries drive on the right, including Norway and Finland, with which Sweden shares land borders, with five million vehicles crossing annually.[4] More than 90 percent of Swedes drove left-hand drive vehicles,[4] and this led to many head-on collisions when passing on narrow two-lane highways.[5] City buses were among the very few vehicles that conformed to the normal opposite-steering wheel rule, being right-hand drive (RHD).[6] However, the change was unpopular; in a 1955 referendum, 83 percent voted to keep driving on the left. Nevertheless, the Riksdag approved Prime Minister Tage Erlander's proposal on 10 May 1963 of right-hand traffic beginning in 1967, as the number of cars on the road tripled from 500,000 to 1.5 million and was expected to reach 2.8 million by 1975.[7] The Swedish Commission for the Introduction of Right-Hand Driving (Statens högertrafikkommission, HTK) was established to oversee the change.[8] It also began implementing a four-year education programme on the advice of psychologists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

Try to resist hating the tech from the outset or you may never allow yourself to get accustomed to it. The Mk4 Octavia is a very sophisticated machine and if you follow the sage advice from @SteveTheElder your car will become much more pleasurable to live with. If you need to disable or change certain features quickly, the shortcut buttons along the bottom of the screen are very useful in minimising the amount of 'touches' necessary on the screen itself.

Check they play normally elsewhere then check the sampling rate/speed https://ownersmanuals.blob.core.windows.net/ownersmanuals/en/Octavia_5E/07-2018/OwnersManual.pdf

There is quite a bit of new tech in the mk4 Octavia compared to previous models - and it can take a while to get used to it. My best advice is to be patient, take some time to go through all the menus in the infotainment system and configure it best you can referring to the manual for things that are not obvious (as was the case for me, switching from a Mk2 Superb to the Mk4 Octavia SEL FE). Once set up to your liking it's dead easy to use. The Lane control can be tedious, irritating, down right annoying, or a useful safety feature. All opinions are valid and rehearsed many a time in this forum over the four years of so of the Mk4 (There many strong opinions expressed over the years!). Personally, I rarely get wound up by it nowadays as I have learnt to know the types of scenario it will try to do what it's programmed to do yet - as an example, when a single lane becomes two lanes mine tries to keep me central between the white lines whilst I'm choosing to take one of the two lanes ahead well before the central line appears. Yes, another thing to anticipate but soon get used to it. I have turned off the steering wheel vibration (which stays off thankfully). As for the Infotainment being a distraction, that lessens with familiarity. If your car has voice control then start using it, so much easier for radio, music, temperature control. Similarly with CarPlay or AndroidAuto - the voice control is a big help.

Why do manufacturers think that painting things black make them sporty? To me it just makes them dull. Give me chrome and a light interior anytime, no dingy black thanks.

Just watched this video and if true (no reason to doubt otherwise) then this just highlights the problems of poor decisions our politicians make and how much they manage to squirrel away from the public purse in the long term, preventing other more important uses of the public money. I'm not saying that any politician benefits directly from these decisions, but I suspect that many have had their ears bent back by some of the well known think tanks, which are nothing more than lobby groups for already wealthy clients looking to become even wealthier, in my opinion. Any thoughts on this?

Good cars. My own 1.9 TDI from 2005 is facing a big anniversary next year. Not only will be it be the big 2-0 years old but should also hit (around January/February) 250,000 miles. Still just needs wear and tear parts replacements.

As an update for all, the issue was resolved by a good natured mechanic. His OBD reader suggested that there were problems with the spark plugs, but upon swapping the plugs out with one another and reattaching the ignition coils, the issue completely resolved. I was able to drive ~1000 miles on that fix. However, now the situation has reappeared. I believe there's the ignition coils are getting loose. A friend of mine is suggesting replacing them altogether. Does that sound like the right choice? @Ootohere, given your knowledge of this, do you have any recommendations for particular ignition coils and/or armoured leads? I'll purchase them now if so!

Well, I have the simple system, but (now) have a wide angle view. As a point of principle I never bet my life on things but I'm certain it wasn't that wide before - it was more like Berisford's first image. I mentioned about using the image to watch for people walking past the end of our drive and I recall that I really couldn't see much wider than the drive itself. Now the view is much wider - you can nearly see the full width of my garden and there's no way it was like before.

Yap,seems to have sorted it. Thank you

The factory OE thermostat housing has gone through the following revisions: 06L121111H 06L121111J 06L121111K 06L121111L 06L121111M 06L121111P - CURRENT So i would hope it has been upgraded and repaired since then so it doesnt fail easily.... The coolant pump has gone through the following 06L121012A 06L121012H 06L121012K 06L121012L - CURRENT

The only positive thing about this is, that in the case of crash, you won't get the key wedged into knee.

Thanks for the info - that's helped me fix my rear wiper problem, which had exactly the same fault with the circuit board.

Technical training video describing the immobiliser system on the Skoda Felicia.

Hope the info helps you sort it out

So to add a bit of clarity, its never actually the water pump that leaks... The water pump is belt driven by the balance shafts and this pump bolts to the side of the complicated thermostat housing which bolts to the block. The 2 places that tend to leak are the plastic welds within the thermostat housing or the thermostat housing to engine block seal. The first one is simply poor quality parts, the second is caused by incorrect coolant or concentration or by the bolts not being torqued correctly. In this case based on the corrosion, id say its a coolant related issue.

Ok, given what @Winston_Woof has said, I have a suspicion here. Would you describe, as completely as you can remember, the design of this key?

Yes that is the key to success, took me years to learn of it. If you are working from the top then an Allen Key works well to block the tensioner as you dont have to try and turn your hands sideways. Hand singular as the other one will be releasing the tension with a long 19mm open ended spanner. Make a note of the belt route before removing, once its off it is anything but obvious.

Cannot help with diagrams but I think you will find the Mic in console near where the front courtesy lights are

Don't blame you If they accept bookings they can't cope with, then they are wasting customers time and deserve to get negative reviews.

In the past the Kodiaq was sharing production line at Kvasinsy with higher volume Superb and others. As part of introduction of mk4 Superb, Skoda moved Superb production to Bratislava (the VW factory), so the Kvasinsy plant is concentrating on Kodiaq, Karoq and Octavia production. Octavia continue to be built at Mladá Boleslav too. With the aging Karoq due to be phased out soon (the similar size Elroq is about to be launched) presumably the factory will no longer have the big post covid era production backlog and delays.

I took a 1.4TSI estate to France several times with a roofbox and never felt it lacked performance or hill climbing ability.

Indeed. The rest of the loom is still fine.

The repair kits with connector and terminated wires to splice into existing loom are a fraction of the cost.

A final reply to my own thread the mk 2 went to wbac today with 145k on it still going strong but turbo vane overboost limp mode was getting more frequent there were also a couple of other thing needing doing from the last mot. What finally prompted the sale was having to pay £12.50 to visit my son who lives in London. In its place is a 2020 mk 3 petrol in lovely race blue. Good luck all Regards Roger.

I don't think you will regret the move Pete, I never ever wanted to drive a diesel but ended up in a 98 1.9TDi Alhambra 90hp which was OK for my work but did not really inspire me, the economy was good though. Then the day before I was moving to France with the Alhambra loaded to the gills my chauffeur pal offered me his 3 year old Octavia with 188k miles on it for £3.5K and the impulsive person I am said OK! I had to squeeze all the stuff into the Octavia and to my great surprise it swallowed the bulk of it, 20 years later I am still driving Skoda TDi's and would not consider anything else although I will one day add an EV as a second vehicle. The 1.9TDi PD engine in the subsequent MK2 Octavia was a little gruff after remapping but had huge torque and you are absolutely right it is the sweet spot for uncomplicated reliability. I think there will be no going back for you!

Hi @Devan112 Have a look at this video:

It will go back to normal when dry. They extra lit icons on the dash varied, depending on the indicator stalk and other controls.

They are feeding you Bull***t as is common, there is no machining on the master cylinder, its a plastic moulding with a moulded plastic operating rod and a single plastic piston with a sintered toroidal magnet to activate the pedal sensor. It cannot be disassembled unless cut apart with a grinder or making special tooling as it is clipped together during manufacture. The fault will have been the concentric slave cylinder drawing in air through the O ring joining the feed pipe to the cylinder, more moulded plastic parts, lifting the pedal up causes a partial vacuum and draws even more air in. If they really did replace the master cylinder the only reason it is working now is because the system has been bled, the fault will reappear unless they actually replaced the slave cylinder, its an odds on chance that they may have done as they are story tellers.

I sent link to th elatest SW on PM however IMHO this is HW, not SW issue.

Nice and classy upgrade ! Also much easier to clean! No dust in the small gaps around buttons anymore.

Mission accomplished - MIB2 to MIB2.5 conversion on Gandalf! The whole process was quite easy to do. Those with a MIB2 unit, aka Columbus (Harman version) with 8" screen can do the upgrade. i.e. MY15 to MY17. No need to change the glovebox head unit. Just the screen. I sourced a secondhand 9.2" Screen from a MY18 Superb being wrecked. Got the G11 to G13 firmware conversion from mibsolution. Then once done, reinstalled the latest maps. I'll need getting used to where the things r cause there r no more physical buttons. Will do a how-to-guide soon. The trim piece is not flush behind the top of the screen though, but u don't notice it unless u look through the windscreen. Will need to sort this trim piece at some point in the future.

Superb joins the Sportline family The car also has an array of top-level accessories and equipment elements typical for Sportline. These include LED Matrix front headlights, progressive steering, a sports chassis, which is 15 millimetres lower in the case of the Superb Sportline, and sports wheels. A DCC Sport chassis is also available as an option. With the Superb Sportline, customers are again given a choice: either the standard 18-inch anthracite polished Vela wheels with matt aerodynamic covers, or the optional 19-inch Aniara wheels in a combination of silver-coloured rims and black covers and 19-inch Torcular wheels in a black design. The classic black details like the radiator grille frame, window surrounds, exterior mirror caps, black Škoda lettering on the rear, Sportline logos and other details are complemented here by a specifically shaped front bumper and blacked-out rear windows in SunSet design. All these features emphasise the car’s sporty character. The Sportline trim is available for both the Superb Combi and the hatchback version, and for any powertrain. https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/skoda-world/sportline-models-dynamic-elegance-for-every-day/

I found the 1.4 TSI non act nicer to drive, I have 2020 1.5.tsi just feels very boring and uninspiring. Economy is very random too sometimes 38 and then others over 60mpg.

I'm fairly new to Vag/Skoda, only owned 2, 1.5tsi's & the 1.0tsi in the scala. The 1.5tsi doesn't seem a bad engine within my experience, very economical as it shuts off 2 cylinders around 30% of the time. I've noticed no increased economy between e5 or e10 or any performance difference. Not that I bought my Octavia estate for performance. I've mainly owned vauxhalls from the the 80's onwards, but they've took a nose dive of recent, especially since Stellantis has took them over. I've avoided any wet belt engines up to now.

Have you tried putting car in sport mode to see if it still kangaroos

I can't speak for the 1.5TSI, but I consistently see approx. 2 to 3% calculated better economy when I use E5 in my 1.4 - glad to have dodged the 1.5 bullet.

New Sportline trim announced https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/skoda-world/meet-the-new-superb-sportline/

Welcome to the zoo. Our O4 more often jerking on start, 1.5 TSI manual, then it starts smoothly. It is better when AC is off. Looks like they have never resolved auto-stall issue or something else. It also has significant delay on reaction on throttle, and this is since beginning. Other than that, the car is really good, engine strong, but only you need to pass this jerking around 1400rpm during initial acceleration from stand still. What is interesting, people who drive roughly, and clutch above 1500rpm on start, will not notice our little down under friend.

Just returning to this thread to update it - and to say thanks for all the input. When I first saw the Christmas Tree of warning lights I feared the very worst, but the problem was exactly as stated here by so many knowledgeable people - a failed ABS sensor. If I had any mechanical skills it would have been a relatively cheap job, but I don't, so it was a dealer job. £120 for the diagnostics and £500 for the job (including bearing). I know a non-franchised garage would have done it for less (and who knows whether the reported corrosion on the ABS ring really necessitated changing the bearing as well as the sensor?) but we don't have one round here any longer post-Covid so it wasn't really an option. And, rightly or wrongly, I do trust this particular dealer. Anyway - thanks for the information, guys. It was invaluable and reassuring.

The Rapid rims won't fit the Octavia MK3, because the Rapid rims have a Bolt Circle Diameter of 5/100, whereas the Octavia MK3 rims have a Bolt Circle Diameter of 5/112. There will be a very noticeable difference in the ride comfort for most people between 225/45R17 and 205/55R16. It will help further if you go for 205/55R16 tyres with soft and flexible sidewalls, such as good quality all-season tyres. For best ride comfort avoid UHP (Ultra High Performance) summer tyres because these are made for drivers who like their cars to feel like racing cars through the corners...so have stiffer and less flexible sidewalls, which results in a harder ride. Without the tyres, you might find a set of four Skoda alloys (from Skoda's accessory catalogue, not their usual parts catalogue which can be over twice the price) for about £700. Steel rims will be much less, perhaps about £240 for a set of four from an aftermarket manufacturer such as Alcar...although you would need to add a set of wheel trims for a neat appearance. Here's some examples of suitable tyres and rims. 6.5Jx16 ET46 5/112 57.1 alloy rim 5E0071496D 8Z8 https://eshop.skoda-auto.cz/cs_CZ/alu-kolo-ilias-16-octavia-iii/p/5E0071496D+8Z8 6.5Jx16 ET46 5/112 57.1 alloy rim 5E0071496L 8Z8 https://eshop.skoda-auto.cz/cs_CZ/alu-kolo-new-velorum-16-octavia-iii-octavia-iv/p/5E0071496L+8Z8 Continental AllSeasonContact 2 205/55R16 91V (Euro label C B 70dB) https://www.camskill.co.uk/m139b0s8003p221962/Continental_Tyres_All_Season_Car_Continental_Conti_All_Season_Contact_2_205_55_R16_91V_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_C_Wet_Grip%3A_B_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_70dB Vredestein Quatrac 6 205/55R16 91V (Euro label C B 70dB) https://www.camskill.co.uk/m139b0s8003p202105/Vredestein_Tyres_All_Season_Car_Vredestein_Quatrac_6_205_55_R16_91V_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_C_Wet_Grip%3A_B_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_70dBhttps://www.camskill.co.uk/m139b0s8003p202105/Vredestein_Tyres_All_Season_Car_Vredestein_Quatrac_6_205_55_R16_91V_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_C_Wet_Grip%3A_B_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_70dB In the chart below, you can see that 205/55R16 has a 0.4% smaller outside diameter compared to 225/45R17. Less than 1.5% difference is generally considered insignificant...and besides they are both Skoda approved sizes for the Octavia MK3 so this point isn't something that needs to be considered because Skoda has given both of these tyre sizes the OK. Outside diameter of tyre 225/45R17 634.3mm 205/55R16 631.9mm (0.4% smaller outside diameter compared to 225/45R17)

Moved things around to have a section for parts cars Carbs on Can do it with my eyes closed. Couldnt find a gasket set so had to wait to get material and make one. Gave it a service while I was waiting for the gasket stuff to come. Oil change plus fuel filters. Some gunk in old ones but not major like I'm used to seeing. All looking nice and standard. Fitted the spots but didn't wire them in yet. Took it for a run and it drove very well, filled it with fresh fuel plus used an E10 additive. And took it to a local car show yesterday. Only gave it a quick wash as it was raining, just to get the dust off. Going very well so far so.

Rear wheels will toe in as will the front, thrust angle should be zero, there is never a stagger or offset to one side on any road vehicle, that is the domain of oval track racers.

A very British solution - one that is perfectly acceptable and ultimately, a great solution as it avoids being disturbed by the light on the screen at night. Absolutely first-class sir 👍

What I use lately is that I put my phone in the tray with the screen facing down. This way wireless charging is not triggered. 😁

Good work.