Leaderboard

I understand your frustration and airing it on this forum, but reject the car and let your blood pressure get back to normal. I am not trying to be funny when i say this and there may be other factors that don’t allow you to do this, but it’s exactly what i would be doing in your situation. I was looking to change to a Mk4, but think I will stick with my Mk3 for now. Vehicles are just becoming too complicated and any issues they experience has a bigger effect on the whole vehicle than the original, probably small problem.

The subframe tools allow you to put the thing back exactly where it came from, rather than to some particular fixed position. As each bolt comes out, you replace it with one of the tool 'bolts' which has freedom of movement to 'keep' the relative positions of the holes in the subframe and the chassis. I've got a set somewhere that I bought many years ago, just to see how they worked! Then, when ready to refit, you slip the subframe over them, and replace one by one with the real bolts, restoring the original position, and therefore any alignment.

You don’t need a memory saver of any kind. Not really a thing on modern cars at all. Replace battery start engine and turn wheel lock to lock slowly. restart engine clear fault codes done

Couple from this evening...............

If you are going with a Skoda used warranty, they will wash their hands of the issue quicker than knife through butter if something goes wrong. However, with that said and done, it all depends on the mileage of the car you are looking at. Its also worth chatting with the servicing dealers and see if the work was done (check job cards etc) as it might have not been mentioned in the service invoice.

Skoda (in fact all VAG) temperature gauges show 90 degs for a wide range of temperatures (too many owners were reporting problems which were just normal variation in temperature when going downhill or driving hard), so don't believe the temperature gauge as an accurate measure of actual coolant temperature.

The other day I had to replace the battery in wife's car and to avoid the hassle of recording, I decided, first time in my life, to use the "connect leads to another battery" method. Besides a lot of extra cursing and manouvering because of the leads' clamps in the way, so moving sideways and whatnot, when I finally managed to put the thing in its place and tighten everything, I went to start the car and I noticed I must have man-handled one clamp and lost contact and the effort was useless. 🤪😁 Moreover, only the trip and clock were reset, but the radio kept all the stations! 😆

More background than foreground!

Its not going to be the oil - although it should be ideally running on 0W30 LL FSIII VAG 504/507 spec oil. P0148 is generally a priority 2 fault code (high) and is usually to do with either fuel pressure, fuel regulation or according to Ross-Tech, this code is associated with Fuel Temperature Sensor A being faulty. Can you get us a full VCDS/ODBEleven scan please?

Milton is less aggressive than bleach and very effective at cleaning things like that.

What specs did you use to tighten them? It's not really possible to check afterwards, if they are torque plus angle tightened (which most suspension and engine bolts are specified as these days, and which does not define them as 'torque to yield' types necessarily, it's just a more accurate way of achieving a given pre-tension level).

These bolts need replacing. they are stretch bolts. If they aren’t replaced you’ll snap them getting the same level of torque they had previously. TTY bolts aren’t some government conspiracy as some may think, they are a legit thing used in safety critical applications to apply a lot of torque and prevent undoing. you could also fit the subframe alignment kit which stops any side to side moment of the entire frame itself.

something not adding up to me a car could not use a full tank to do 50 miles its impossible.

And the closest I'll get to a Bonfire this week 🔥 😀 20241103_170436.mp4

So this thread is going to be a bit of a hybrid! As well as outlining the projects I am doing on my car, Ill supply as much detail along the way for new projects to hopefully allow others to do the same and also to answer any questions you may have. Lets start with the car itself; Car Skoda Superb MK3 TSI Sportline Estate in Laser White Engine Standard 2.0 TSI EA888 with 220bhp Racingline air intake Racingline turbo intake pipe Racingline turbo intake elbow Transmission Standard 6 speed DSG DQ250 Suspension Currently standard original Brakes Audi S3 Front Calipers with plain fascia plates Superb 280 Rear Calipers with vented discs Drilled and grooved black discs OE brake pads Braided stainless brake lines Wheels & Tyres Standard Vega 19 inch alloy wheels with 235/40R19 Bridgestone T005 Spare wheel - Full size, same as above Exterior Standard sportline black pack Maxton side skirts Rear mudflaps Maxton splitter Maxton fog surrounds Interior Rear seat release from boot area LED boot lights White LED boot torch Electric tailgate Heated front seats Heated rear seats Heated steering wheel Ambient LED footwell lights LED front door puddle lights LED rear door puddle lights Electric/Memory front seats ICE & Security Canton sound system Rear door keyless entry Tailgate easy open/close 12 parking sensors MIB2.5 Columbus radio Virtual cockpit 3 zone climate control Heated windscreen Heated washer jets Front and rear dash cam ADAS Adaptive cruise control Predictive cruise control Adaptive lane assist High beam assistance SLA headlights Side assist Cross traffic assist Self park Rear view camera with lens washer As you can see, for a Sportline that started off with only the following optional extras: Electric tailgate, MIB2.5. Its came quite a long way and heres a few photos to show the work done so far, if anyone wants further details on any of the current retrofits, let me know, the future ones will be documented as I go. Lane Assist 3Q0980654 camera fitted as well as a new windscreen - all features enabled and fusion canbus ran to the front radar. Heated windscreen Canton soundsystem An absolutly massive retrofit requiring around 150 meters of new wiring, all corners of the car, a lot of new speakers and a lot of custom made wiring 0 Side assist/Cross traffic detection Another expensive retrofit requiring new wing mirror glass at £400 each side, new radars and brackets behind the rear bumper and all associated coding and wiring Release rear seats from luggage area & Heated rear seat elements 3 Zone climate control Another massive retrofit - stripping the entire dashboard from the car to replace the complete heater assembly to allow the 3rd climate zone, this also gave me a good chance to neaten everything up behind the dashboard and also flush the heater core. pACC/Predictive cruise control Required replacing the front radar and also a calibration of it - done perfectly with any solid smooth object and a few tape measures and patience. Facelift tailights Fitting these allowed for dynamic indicators and unlocking animation - these arent a straight fit and require custom wiring adapters and new wires running to the BCM Virtual Cockpit Quite a specialist retrofit this one, needs access to the main dealer tool for component protection and immobiliser recoding - but so worth it! Carbon clean @ 50k miles Not much a retrofit but after 50k of constant motorway miles i thought it would be a good time to give it a walnut blast. Cost around £40 in parts and my already owned air compressor and garage vacuum LED boot lights and engine styling Nothing too special, just a custom made LED torch, LED lights that dont fault and Racingline air intake and associated parts

It's a DSG, and occasionally I would like to use the "manual" gearing option and change each gear myself. My problem is that pushing the stick forward equals upshift which is completely backwards and frustrates me every time(it feels super akward). When we need to downshift is when we are slowing down and we will be pushed forward by gravity and vice verca for when we accelerate. This is why the only rational way of deciding the direction the stick should be pushed or pulled should be the same as the direction of gravity. You being pushed back in the seat it will feel natural to pull back on the lever, and vice versa. So, is this something than can be easily done on this car and without any need for any coding or any of that, or am I stuck with the stupid stock option?

Thanks Nigel - yes I had, and I also own a 7.5 GTI. They're certainly similar. We eventually got in by jacking it up and dropping the OSF wheel arch liner to gain access. It wasn't as onerous as I thought. And the injector came out beautifully 😁 Gaz

The workshop manual suggests applying grease. Doubt it does much harm, but in many cases these bits of plastic are probably 20 + years old, so may have worn to nearly nothing.

I got the pagid one from carparts4less. Comes with everything except the guide pad plastic button things. Found it quite easy to do really, well other than the final result being wrong that is....

If your heater matrix is blocked the engine won’t overheat. There are three separate coolant circuits on the engine, engine, egr cooler and charge cooler. If the matrix is blocked when doing a regen the egr cooler gets substantially hotter and it can’t then pass through the full circuit to be cooled as the matrix is blocked so bypasses it back to the tank where it can boil the coolant out of the thank. The engine temperature sensor is on the block so will still read a steady 90

I don't know if you saw this video but if the Caddy is the same, gives a general idea of layout too. -

PM

So we are all due an update I believe, So first of all ive been flat out with my new job to the point ive hardly had any time to do any car work! But ill update the small amount that has been done! Calibrate areaview - this still is yet to be done, got to find time on a sunday before it gets dark to find an empty well lit car park to get this sorted hopefully! Check the coolant leak repair - So, since the coolant pipe clips have been replaced with the constant tension type, opposed to the single ear type, i have done around 500 miles without a coolant top up! This is now called a success! I mentioned an alarm fault before replacing the battery - since replacing the battery the alarm is yet to go off, so thats a very good sign! Ambient lighting fault - Earlier I complained of an ambient light fault, this is still yet to be investigated although there are no visible symptoms. So basically, we are all on track, but I will have to scan for fault codes next weekend to see if the alarm or ambient light faults have returned! Fingers crossed no. Next up, we finally got round to fitting the canton grills in the front doors, So I first took a cut out of the fabric from the old doors and laid it on top of the sportline doorcards. This was then all marked out with a marker pen. After this we drilled out the holes, these were all odd sizes, from 6mm up to 11mm. Then the centre hole was cut out, this was done by drilling lots of 1mm holes and then using a blade to join them all together. The fabric then overhung the holes a fair bit, so the solution to this was to heat up a step drill bit till it was red hot, put it in some grips and poke it into each hole to slightly melt the fabric and allow it to retract from the hole. Next the grill itself was fitted, and as much as I wanted the backside to look pretty and as OE as possible, it was near impossible to apply pressure to the grill, keep it aligned, keep it pressed in, and keep it face down for the glue to flow into the holes, so the glue spreading on the back was my lowest concern. The 2 part epoxy was allowed to dry for 48 hours to be sure it wouldnt crack or come loose. The speaker itself was then refitted - 3V0035411E (its the same as the speaker in the centre of the dashboard) A tip to note, ETKA shows the required screws for this as N10549603 which are 4mm wide, 16mm long with a Torx 20 head. This is close, but not close enough! The actual screws are 4mm wide, 8mm long with a Torx 20 head and couldnt find a part number for these so ended up buying some from my local hardware shop. So speakers, grill and doorcard refitted, now the final product:

Owners here have had VAQ Diff failures, leaks / cracks with non serviced ones. So if any VW Group cars, Skoda, Audi, VW or SEAT have VW Approved used cars with a Warranty and they know the VAQ has not been serviced but are selling with FMDSH they are at it. They know not 'Serviced to the manufacturers recommendations'. But then Service Desk Staff or even Workshop do not know the Recommendations, Guidelines, Advice, Spec or Schedule. If you buy a car, and all is well, and you buy a Approved Extended Warranty remember they will sell it but if you claim for the likes of a failed VAQ Diff they might come back and say 'No Servicing record'. If you buy one cost in getting the servicing done. New car Manufacturers warranty. Used /Extended Warranty much the same. SKODA_Warranty_Terms_July_2023.pdf

I think I might have read it somewhere now that you mention it. Did a quick temp check when I was about to pick the kids up from school. Was around 6⁰c out and the heater thermostat hadn't shut it off. Temp gauge showed 55⁰c when I turned the car on, if one would assume it's linear scale

It's unlikely I'll be buying from a main dealer to be honest as even fewer come up for sale there. For context though I've discussed cars with an exclusively main dealer service history with no mention of a VAQ service but I take your point of potentially being able to find out more by contacting the dealership that did the servicing.

yes, they can, mine are the 20" alloys, I have removed the plastic stuf, bought the centre and the wheel nut caps, looks much better IMHO:

Beautiful color, it was among my favorite options but could not find a suitable one ...

Wire breaks or corroded connector contacts are usually obvious to the naked eye, but yeah, if you have a meter, testing from lock connector to a-pillar connector is worth doing.

Thanks for the comments guys. Need a phone buddy who is happy to keep phoning me even though I am deliberately ending the call either to check how I can do it or trying to phone him back to ask him to call me back (it gets old VERY quickly😁) Now wondering if a double tap on the right hand roller would work ? Superb doesn't have a dedicated button......................

There's definitely something that can be done. How widely accessible it is across models is another matter. It was either on here, SpeakEV, Rosstech or OBDeleven. I really should have made better effort to save it. At the time I thought it would be easy enough to get back to. I'll let you know if I find something. I don't have Lane assist unfortunately. Maybe I just need a session digging through the modules.

The blue/yellow and purple/yellow wires of the white 6-way connector at the A-pillar are the ones that go to the motor in the door lock (from the central convenience unit). Some other pins in the same connector also are lock related. Green or white residues on the loom connector inserts is usually the giveaway that rain has got to them.

PoGo are the Ultra-rapid charging arm of SWARCO/eVolt. Hence why they work with Electroverse as all of SWARCO managed charger do now.

Holy moly. That's some oil loss. For an engine to loose that much, that I would be expecting a constantly stream of oil coming from somewhere, probably from the belly pan area. I would suggest, don't drive it unless to your nearest Skoda dealer.

I frequent that particular Morrisons car park semi-regularly for the Chinese food hall upstairs. Mobile signal is non existence in the semi-underground car park. The old set of AC charging posts by Chargemaster Polar were luck of draw. Sometimes works with my expired card and charge for free Hopefully payment wouldn't be an issue, but I wouldn't know because I would never spend more than home peak rate for charging a few miles from home. PoGo charge, first I've heard of them. Great to see Electroverse works with them. One card to rule them all.

Thanks @ApertureS, I've ordered them after @Breezy_Pete helped find them last night so i'll switch them over whilst looking for the issue. @Breezy_Pete, I tightened them as per the manual, 70nm torque plus 180 i think it was for the 4 main bolts. @ApertureS, I looked into the subframe fixing kit but couldn't find one to buy and seemed to simply locate 'fixed' positions on the assembly with 'fixed' positions on the chassis so felt more like it was just for making 'lining up' easier rather than actually preventing movement so I didn't bother. Mistake??? Thanks both.

Hmm, I have grave doubts about the complete truth of that. Lots of folk including lots of professionals in non-Skoda garages will have done this many times to many different so-called stretch bolts,, and very few bolts will ever snap. And if they do, they're by far most likely to do so whilst being tensioned so the spannerer will find out.

The SEL presumably has the lift out seats with the roll top boot cover. This does not do as good an acoustic isolation job from rear noises as the lower market fixed seat SE version, which has a more solid shelf/boot separator. My 2019 1.0 3cyl DSG has a slight LF drone between 1500 & 2000 rpm when the engine is working hard going uphill. It isn't very prominent at all really, but I still change the DSG into Sport mode to raise the revs a bit. I'm fussy about noise like this, but road noise in particular. When I got the car I noticed that the car exhaust terminated under the boot, rather than sticking out slightly at the rear and as well as worrying about noise, I wondered if there might be a danger of fumes getting into the car - presumably totally unfounded as Skoda's development of the car would have no doubt checked for this. Anyhow, I bought a short boy racer SS exhaust extension and clamped that onto the rear exhaust, just to try it. Whether it actually reduced that slight boom I can't really confirm, as I undertook various other panel damping measures to reduce noise from the rear, road noise being my primary concern. The exhaust extension might be worth a try as it didn't cost much and doesn't seem to have affected emissions, as the car flies through MOTs. The 1.0 Karoq installation results in a particularly quiet engine, being inaudible on the move in many situations, particularly on motorways. My noise abatement mods + changing to 16" wheels with All Weather tyres (these seemingly inherently quieter) have made a substantial reduction in road noise levels and this is now the quietest car I've ever owned, past cars including a BMW E39 6cyl 523i with that super smooth engine.

I would suggest a RARB, but they actually work by reducing front grip... Is there anything you can do to reduce weight other than taking out "luxuries" that make the car easier to drive such as air con and PAS? (Learnt from Porsche AG)

when i had to remove my battery, i didn't connect any "memory saver" device to my car. the battery was disconnected for a couple of hours whilst i did some work on the car. the result was that my Trip computer mileage readings reset - but that's no biggie. i also needed to re-learn the power windows one touch auto up/down - it is however a simple process. plenty of youtube vids showing how to do it. apart from that - everything else was fine.

Hi, I didn’t use any memory saver when I changed the battery of my MY18 Mk3. All data where kept in memory though (daily trip mileage, radio stations, etc.)

I get what you mean. In Skye, there were once where the location wasn't what we thought and trying to find next stop with phone proved difficult due to poor mobile signal. Luckily my car had some signal and I was able to navigate to the next stop. For autonomous driving, I'm pretty sure the actual compute will be local inside the vehicle, don't need mobile signal. In Tesla's case, they have yet to unlock full capability of their HW4 processor. Everything still runs on HW3 whilst HW4 is said to be ~4x faster in AI tasks. I've been playing with AI models recently using Ollama and nvidia AI playground, there's impressive models that can be run locally. I've also got iPhone 16 and enabled Apple Intelligence by switching language to US. It all works very well without internet connection.

But do use decent screenwash, you can use a mild antibacterial thing like some white vinegar in the solution. I've used Halfords premixed for years and Prestone screen wash which you can get in larger Tescos and Costco.

If the radiator has also become blocked, the coolant loss could be the result from overheating - has this been happening?

The part from eBay came with a 12 month warranty. Got the old one out and the new one in (took about 20 minutes after finding my t15 screwdriver) now got working heating again 👍

Hydrate 80 ideally used on clean metal. Plenty of people say to put on rust, but that’s the advice I got a month ago from Bilt Hamber. I was trying to buy it as prep for a subframe with surface corrosion. The guy who replied was surname Hamber, so I’m guessing he knew what he was on about. If you want to protect it for a short time while waiting to have it done, I think there a few ways. It depends on extent of rust, how much is hidden, how much work you want to do etc. Not an expert, suggestions… Remove loose stuff. Then degrease/clean. Bilt Hamber Surfex HD is just a generally superb product to have around for cleaning just about anything. Get 5L and you won’t regret it (dilutes a lot). Use it very diluted and make sure surfaces are very well rinsed afterwards. The surfactants in it can otherwise prevent some of the products working (according to BH). If it’s not very dirty, or as a way to ensure a clean surface after Surfex HD degreasing , spray and wipe with isopropyl alcohol or a 50/50 mix with water. Getting areas dry afterwards is obviously tricky at this time of year, so patience may be needed. A blower and or heat gun used carefully may help. Then… Spray with Bilt Hamber Atom Mac. Cheap and quick. Perhaps suitable for short term protection. This can be used also if you prep to bare metal and wash to prevent flash rusting. or Coat with a grease or wax product. I’ve just slapped a blob of Corrosion Block (made by people who make ACF50) on a stone chip on the Yeti until I can paint. or Try a paint on rust converter like Kurust. I’ve found it to be good stuff. It needs to work on rust rather than bare metal although it does still react and coat bare metal. Won’t work well on thick rust as it can’t get to stuff underneath so that would need wire brushing or similar. I use before stone chip touch ups, but have also used on a mower deck about 3 years ago which then remained unpainted. Not always out in the rain of course, but stayed protected. Rust starting to reappear now on that. Do not get on skin or eyes. I know most products say this, but take the warning seriously for Kurust. or Use BH Dynax UB or UC (UB brown, UC clear). I recently did the subframe and suspension members on another car after wire brushing, cleaning and Kurust. Dynax can be bought in a tin for brushing or in an aerosol. Protect surrounding ares, clothes, wear a mask. They also do S50 which is for internal cavities. For body panels, you find an access whole and use a straw on a spray can to coat inside. Not tried this yet. BH have rust remover (not converter) called Deox. They do a powder and a gel. I have used the powder for (which you dissolve) for rust removal in a fuel tank. It’s intended for parts which can be immersed. I found it decent, but also used citric acid which I found to do a similar job. The gel is more suited to body panels. I think it can do a good job, but it’s much more difficult and you would then need to protect bare metal. This video shows a way to use it on a wheelarch:

Glorious autumnal colours this afternoon 🍂

got a picture I'm afraid but it was a mint late edition, Golf R32. Looked completely standard. Was silver though rather than the blue it looks best in.

Fantastic news. always best to have it load tested, even if you'd previously tested it with a multi meter.