Leaderboard

Reliability of Skoda Octavia mk3 and mk4, according to WhatCar: Most reliable family car: Skoda Octavia mk3 petrol, with a 99.3% reliability rating. Less reliable family car: Skoda Octavia mk4 is third, with a 80.3% reliability rating, after current VW Golf diesel and Seat Leon. Quote from the site, about Octavia mk4: „Issues with non-engine electrical systems, in particular sat-nav/infotainment, blighted the latest Octavia, accounting for 52% of all reported faults. Overall, 35% of cars had a problem; most could still be driven, but 52% were out of action for more than a week. Skoda stumped up for 97% of repairs, though”.

For those of you in the UK who want to express your frustration, annoyance etc, may I suggest you email Mathew Bowden the director of Skoda [email protected] This is a genuine address, if he is bombarded with emails expressing dissatisfaction, he might do something.

The latest I had from the Executive Office received on Tuesday is: With regard to the release of the software update required to rectify the issues with your vehicle, until the Škoda Factory provide me with a date that will be released, I cannot provide any further information. Any information that I would be able to provide at this time would be purely speculation on my part and this is not something that I am able to provide.

It’s the first time I have put a Varta battery in a car and I won’t be using one again. I know it’s not a regularly driven car; but I agree the lifespan of the Varta has been very poor. It replaced the factory battery and that was 8+ years old by the time it was done. My Rapid Spadeback was 9 years old when I traded it in, still had the factory battery in it and it was fine.

You'll have to excuse my hieroglyphics.

Position of cabin relay carrier in car for RHD vaguely indicated as 1 here, probably need to remove some lower dash trim from beneath the steering wheel to access. Relay layout shown here, with 4 and 11b marked up by me: Position 4 houses X contact relay J59, position 11b has X-contact relay 2, J339 The circuit diagram for these is a little strange, but as far as I can make out, the one in position 11b is energised when ignition is on, but not when cranking. This supplies one connection pole of the light switch which supplies the dipped beams, but also drives the coil of the other relay, in position 4, which powers both the blower motor and another connection of the light switch. So if J339 in position 11b isn't working right, it will disable the dipped beams, and the other relay, supplying the blower. Maybe it has just become loose? Fuse 19, that I suggest you double check, supplies the coil power to J339, when ignition switch is on (but not cranking).

@Martinsg I've added some photos I took while I was swapping mine. I can send a picture of the old part tomorrow. It is a relatively straightforward forward process. Disconnected the battery terminals. Disconnected the positive wire running to the fuse box. There is a cable tie to cut on the firewall side of the fusebox and then with some careful persuasion the fusebox can be lifted free. Each wire then needs to be disconnected. I made the tools from a paperclip and bobby pin. I can send a photo of these tomorrow too. James

I'm happy when the stop start doesn't activate! Especially with my Volvo as it can no longer be turned off.

I'll have another look at wiring diags shortly. Should have a location for relay panel.

For the upper glove box: under the mat. For the lower one there are two from the bottom, 3 inside IIRC and then another on the outside (you will need to remove part of the cover towards the door). Maybe buy the workshop manual from erwin for €8 or so? Would tell you how to do all of this stuff. My radio won't come out without the entire glovebox out, the cables are tied in place and super short. The upper one won't stay shut, either - very, very silly design with it only remaining closed if there is zero pull on the cable. Be very careful when taking out the lower one as you'll need to remove the cable - NOTE THE ROUTING!

Future Headline? Growth of EV adoption leads to increase in obesity figures 🤪🤪🤪 https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxY0XkYfPab6fJ4iVMHNmq5mFc-wGZeFlT?si=cVbJDYtLcMVYfaie

Thanks - I wondered if it could be something like this. The way I assumed it would work is that the Ohme app will allow the car to draw power from 6am onwards (the Ohme app allows up to an hour for preconditioning), but the car itself would decide when to actually pull the power. Reading between the lines of this then, I wonder if the issue is that the car, today, decided it needed longer than an hour, tried to turn on before the charger would let it, found that there was no power and so gave up -- and didn't try again when the charger "turned on". I guess the other thing to try apart from your suggestion (which sounds sensible) is to try allowing preconditioning on battery -- so it can start when it wants and presumably when the charger allows power, it will also recharge the battery. Maybe.... I'll try it and see!

I guess that is more difficult, have you tried to look under the car? It was kind of between the cabin the and engine wall in the middle. As of now it is hard for me to take a picture of it as i can't get under the car atm.

keep open doors for one minute before leave car to make interior temperature closer to outside

Yes it was very dirty! when i purchased the car, the car history showed that the cabin filter wase replaced in April, that was full lie, as the cabin filter was from 2022. lesson learned

My sincere apologies, I usually write what an acronym is in brackets. NVH is a motor industry term for noise vibration and harshness. And yes I agree that sound is a good way to describe the noise component of NVH, the other components are felt by the other senses.

Removing the magnets and using the wipers in service position to hold the cover down is probably a better position.

So now you have Bolero MIB1, with Bluetooth, without DAB, part number 5E0035819A and fortunately you don't have CANTON sound system (as your Bolero has no MOST). You can install one of four different OEM glove box units: - MIB2 Bolero - MIB2 Amundsen - MIB2 Columbus - MIB2.5 Columbus You also need to replace display unit: - for MIB2 Bolero you can use either 6.5" model number 5E0919605H or 8" model number 5E0919605N - for MIB2 Amundsen and MIB2 Columbus you can use listed above display as well as 6.5" model number 5E0919605J, 8" model number 5E0919606, 8" model number 5E0919605M - for MIB2.5 Columbus the only display unit that works is 5E0919606D If you woulkd like to use Apple CarPlay then you also have to replace USB port (if you have Media In interface instead of USB then it must be replaced with USB anyway). The question is what is your budget and which of listed below features are "must have": - Video playback from DVD, USB, SD - CD playback - OEM navigation - displaying OEM maps in Virtual Cluster (Active Info Display). All units support SmartLink (Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, MirrorLink), rear view camera, voice command. features that differ them: - MIB2 Bolero - no OEM navigation, no CD/DVD drive, no video playback from SD/USB - MIB2 Amundsen - OEM navigation, no CD/DVD drive, no video playback from SD/USB, support for displaying OEM maps in Active Info Display (Virtual Cluster) - MIB2 Columbus - OEM navigation, CD/DVD drive, video playback from SD/USB, no support for displaying OEM maps in Active Info Display (Virtual Cluster) - MIB2.5 Columbus - OEM navigation, CD/DVD drive, video playback from SD/USB, support for displaying OEM maps in Active Info Display (Virtual Cluster)

Amazon isn't the only 'retailer' in the world and not always the best prices. My wife was given a Halfords quilted windscreen cover for Xmas a couple of years back used a lot as we don't have a garage, it does the job very well and no need to put the windscreen wipers in "service" position as it covers them, held on by the front doors closing on to it and mirror mitts plus three magnets at bottom that hold the bottom edge on to the bonnet. Downsides, it's quite big and bulky but can be folded into its bag, normally we through it on the back seats or hang it in the bathroom to dry the outer side. The magnets are powerful and have put some minor scratches on the bonnet so I have thought about removing them and tucking the front edge under the bonnet but its quite windy where we live and I've yet to bother really looking into this. I've had top covers before and I think (don't know) you might need quite a bulky one to keep the frost off. Not related to frost but we also use a couple of Pingi dehumidifier bags as my wife's Fabia Mk3 gets an enormous amount of condensation on the inside of windscreen on occasions and it can be many minutes to clear the clear to is kept in the car to cause or add to this issue, never had such a problem with other cars.

Hi, not the exact product I got, but yes, anything similar should work. Note to self, time to apply some to Octavia's doors.

New Member here, 2021 Superb IV that I've had from ex demo. It has been a great car for most of the 3 years and 25,000 miles I have covered in it, then 2 months ago, I started getting all of the Lane Assist and ACC unavailable error messages. My local dealership have had it back twice for multiple days said they fixed it (recalibrated, checked connections, updated software, etc. etc.) but errors came back immediately both times. Now they have said that they are awaiting a new software release from Skoda, so bizarrely, it looks like they have introduced new faults via software onto cars that were otherwise fine before... I'm glad I took out the extended warranty and that it's not just my car that's suffering with the issues. I have also spoken with Skoda customer services and asked them to confirm to me that this is a software issue and if it is, when can an update be expected? Regards Mark

Welcome. Best stick to posting your qustions in just in one section. Someone will be along to help hopefully.

It is not a big job to change the one way pulley, many videos in youtube. However it is easy only if you get the right tool to change it. I think there is two variants for the tool (different type inner bit, hex or torx if i remember correctly), depending on alternator manufacturer. Check ie. LLLparts or 7zap to find correct part number for your car and alternator manufacturer to get right tool. I recommend using pulleys made by INA. Check ie. this video, bit older car but the principle is same (or was in 2015 2.0 tdi octavia). However, you dont need to rise the car to remove the belt, easy to do from above. Also you dont need to raise the engine. https://youtu.be/il7CN53qQjg?si=iU7H9IYJTIhsUI0Y Btw, while there and since the pulley has been faulty, changing the belt is recommended.

Someone at Skoda / VW UK is maybe reading this forum and realised 'Honesty is the best policy' They needed to stop leading people on. So back to treating as Mushrooms. 'Keep in the dark and shovel with poo'.

No, it comes as a complete assembly.

Check cabin fuse 19, rated 7.5 Amp before doing anything else. Does the car have start/stop? I'd guess not.

This engine seems to eat plugs, I had two sets fitted on my previous 68 plate 1.5tsi act engine. First set started to fail under 10k, codes were random misfires and single cylinder misfires. My engine started to randomly run rough on tickover and then gradually became worse from a cold start over time, until eventually the engine ran on 3 cylinders from a cold start. Once the plugs were changed again the engine was back to A1 again. My current 19 plate 1.5tsi (different car now), had its plugs changed 10 months ago, up to now I've experienced no engine issues whist running or during tick over, its now covered 70k. Always ran smoothly within any conditions.

Tried the first one on MartiniBs list ?. MartiniB has his sniffing out program, evident he's not found the group of RoW November 2024 maps yet. Probably not loaded up into the Skoda filestore yet, which is why. Ozzie summer time drives at Xmas may have to be done with older maps till then. Few more days left in November for that or may be a late running release. On the positive side MartiniB said recently that these maps (Mib3) were only being release 12 monthly rather than the 6 monthly mib2 cycle to get you to buy the connect services contract for maps. The European November release popped out 🎉 which suggests they are keeping to the six monthly release. In some world markets the online connect services maps won't be released which is why one suspects you see the detailed release by country in the filestore of MartiniB's previous posts. It's just going to be late I guess. Somebody hasn't loaded them up yet or they haven't all been run off yet.

Thanks for this. The fuse bit is particularly helpful! The car is under warranty so whatever the resolution is, it won't be at my cost. I have it booked in with Skoda service for next week and will update the thread after that.

From what I've read it's for cars aged 3 to 6, up to 100k on the clock. One minor & one major service inc plugs if you have a petrol car.

Yes I'd pay monthly, too, interest free. I was just pointing it out that it was £200 cheaper at the moment. I'll probably take up their offer. As my years Skoda extended warranty runs out in Jan, my car is 6 next year. I took this out on my previous Octavia, cancelled it half way through to buy my current estate. I wasn't charged an excessive amount either for breaking my contract, just paid for what I'd already used.

A problem with one of the relays that are supposed to switch off these items while, and only while, the starter motor is cranking the engine, I believe. These relays are in position 4 and position 11b on the cabin relay carrier.

Have you tried applying a door seal rejuvenator product to them? I have seen references to a German one (Gummi Pflege) Also helps prevent door freezing to door frame seals in winter.

Finally replaced air conditioning filter. Did check also ECU. All functioning fine

hi Jocko. thanks for your help. i will continue to try and solve the problem and will post if succesful. merry christmas and to yourself north of the border have great new year. cheers tommie

If its the turbo veins stuck I have seen folks recomending spraying Mr Muscle oven cleaner into it to clear the carbon. Never tried it as it to me seems a bit dodgy. Read something about not getting the cleaner on alloy as it tends to eat it. Hope its just a stuck actuator. There is on mine a vaccum unit on top of engine to the right of the egr valve that I assume does EGR and turbo etc. I originally bought a replacement for about £30-00 on ebay as I wrongly assumed it was the problem. It could also be the diaphram in the actuator that has gone. I don't think they are repairable. If it wont free up then a replacement isn't too expensive. I remember finding a few on ebay for around £40-00. I put the car on a couple of ramps and removed undertray to get to it. Not the most accessible place and you get a sore neck while your at it. Would be a lot easier on garage lift. Alasdair

this was mid december 2022 just about to go on holland/germany xmass trip. cant expect any of those safety systems to work. Only gets worse in jan/feb. constant errors which are just ignored as part of life. And that is why i will turn them all off in VCDS once warranty and data connection is done. Best part was the dealer complaining when i gave this car back as trade-in for my L&K 2.0 4x4. We dont have a service history after the warranty time. I just said yes cause you are overpriced and pretty clueless on actual work. "but we cant see it in our systems". I told them it was serviced and the rest is their problem.

I dont know the rules in the UK in detail but in Finland these assist warnings wont cause any MOT fails or anything else. In the deep of winter our cars are covered in snow and ice and ofcourse then the camera's and sensors dont work. I had this on my MK3 and fully expect on my MK4 in the next months. Anyways they are bloody annoying so i turn them off anyways every time drive. However i do agree it has taken them a long time to fix it (not only for the superb but for all cars like the Kodiaq, passat etc. There are two things they need to do: 1. Acknowledge the problem - They have with the TPI (most if not all dealers are usless and dont know about, including mine, but i told him about it) 2. Give a fix indication timeline - This is where they have failed. I work in IT myself and know timelines are indicative but give updates to the people and extend if needed. But just communicate

But those of us who do drive, either because of necessity (work, non-existent public transport, etc.) or because we like driving, will have no choice from 2030 onwards when we buy new to buy an EV (I'm ignoring Hydrogen vehicles as the refuelling infrastructure and model choice is so limited). So Government policy IS forcing anyone who drives to switch to an EV in the coming years.

amended brochure/pricelist dated 18.10.24 now online which is now almost accurate (I want to say down to me as I monitor these very closely and inform Skoda Customer Services when they are wrong - often one part of document contradicts another) - only obvious thing still wrong - which I advised them about - is that the tyre sizes for edition models are all incorrect - now just got to wait til Feb/March for my Sportline

Couple of photos taken last night in an empty car park illuminated by LED lamppost!, after I'd spent all day applying AutoGlym Super Resin polish followed by a coating of HD wax to protect it for the winter. Wish I'd wiped the moisture off the windscreen though!

Wow, that was more play than it is supposed to be. I would really recommend to check wheel bearing and both outer and inner drive shafts. Also check lower control arm nuts and bolts. If all is good, it could be something inside the bevelbox since you habe 4x4. Do check the inner axle drive shaft that there are 6 bolts M10 xzn and all are present and tightened. I could be wrong of course, but I have not experienced that much play on drive shaft/wheel...

We should NOT have to mess around disconnecting the battery every other day on what is supposed to be Skoda's premier car . The car should be Superb when it leaves the factory, it is not, it is 3rd rate. Why did Skoda sell a faulty 3rd rate product? Why do they not communicate with their customers? Why has it taken 4 months to sort out the problem. Skoda should be ASHAMED they have let their customers down

That's what I meant. You just explained it better. And with photos too. Good job JeremyS.

Are there some apps which would have the TV channels you might want which you could stream to the cars display or watch via CarPlay/Android auto instead?

Your Superb MK3 1.6TDI estate has lowered ride height...which Skoda also calls sports suspension. Lowered ride height means that the unladen ride height is about 15mm lower than standard ride height. Going back to your first post, you have retrofitted 19" wheels...presumably 235/40R19 tyres and yet you want a comfortable ride. Fitting such low profile tyres, ie. tyres with only 94mm of sidewall height (235mm x 0.4 = 94mm) is not the way to get the best ride comfort. 16" and 17" tyres with their much bigger sidewalls are going to put the ride comfort in a different league compared to these hard riding 19" tyres. For the standard ride height Superb MK3 1.6TDI estate Kilen/Lesjofors and gknautomotive.com list 5Q0411105GL front springs and 3Q0511115AK rear springs. Even if you have factory fitted lowered ride height shock absorbers, you could probably get away with fitting them without changing the shock absorbers...although if you do change the shock absorbers it makes sense to match them with standard ride height shock absorbers...which including the Bilstein B6. Superb MK3 1.6TDI estate - standard ride height front springs that are sold to replace 5Q0411105GL include the following two springs (actually the same spring, made in the same factory in Sweden) but there are many other brands Kilen 23131 Lesjofors 4085732 https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/oem/5q0411105gl?supplier[]=253&supplier[]=246 Superb MK3 1.6TDI estate - standard ride height rear springs that are sold to replace 3Q0511115AK include the following two springs (actually the same spring, made in the same factory in Sweden) but there are many other brands Kilen 65124 Lesforfors 4295134 https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/oem/3q0511115ak?supplier[]=253&supplier[]=246 Kilen/Lesjofors aren't listing any sports springs for the Superb MK3 1.6TDI estate, but gknautomotive.com are listing 5Q0411105HD front sports springs and 3Q0511115AB rear sports springs. Front springs on hatchback and estate versions of the same car are usually the same because the front axle weight is the same...however, gknautomotive.com are listing slightly stiffer 5Q0411105HE front sports springs for the Superb MK3 1.6TDI hatchback. Note that the actual springs fitted by Skoda in the factory will often be slightly different to what is shown in the various online spring catalogues...but there shouldn't be much difference, often only one weight range difference if there is a difference. According to Sachs, the 5Q0411105GL standard ride height front springs have a wire diameter of 12mm and the 5Q0411105HD lowered ride height front springs have a wire diameter of 12.25mm...so are about 5% stiffer than the standard ride height springs. According to Sachs, the 3Q0511115AK standard ride height rear springs have a wire diameter of 12.25mm and the 3Q0511115AB lowered ride height rear springs have a wire diameter of 13mm...so would be about 15% stiffer, but 3Q0511115AB also has a smaller number of coil turns so are about 20% stiffer. 20% is a lot, so changing to standard ride height springs would help soften the rear axle a lot. Because 3Q0511115AK standard ride height rear springs are so much softer than 3Q0511115AB lowered ride height rear springs, you may prefer the slightly stiffer 3Q0511115AL rear springs...but these are still about 15% softer than the hard riding 3Q0511115AB rear sports springs. Bear in mind, that many Superb MK3 estate owners complain that their standard ride height rear springs feel a bit too soft...so these 3Q0511115AL standard ride height rear springs being about 5% stiffer (this is a small amount that you will only just notice) might feel just right, yet still much softer than the hard riding lowered ride height rear springs. 3Q0511115AL standard ride height rear springs (one weight range higher than 3Q0511115AK, which is about 5% stiffer) Kilen 65125 Lesjofors 4295135 https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/oem/3q0511115al?supplier[]=253&supplier[]=246

The red square below is the bit I chopped off. That helped the pin to touch the contacts

Possibly a problem with the headlamps in hot countries only?

i put a little bit of fast glue on both sides on point where pops out (just to be sure) ready for instalation