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The Polo is doing well.

Not bad for a car I said I'd keep for a year. Nearly been five years.

Sold my Kodiaq last month which proved to be the best car I've owned. Have owned the four big VW group manufacturers now, and despite them being basically the same car underneath, without doubt Skoda have been the most impressive. In the coming weeks I'll write a review of each Skoda I've owned and add some real-world figures rather than what professional motoring hacks or armchair experts tell you. Hopefully it'll help someone decide if they're in the market for such a car. So why not another new Skoda? Well that's easy. I much prefer to buy my car rather than lease it. The Skodas I've owned have gone from fantastic to outstanding value for money, however despite hefty discounting, I couldn't make the figures work on another brand new car. One thing I loved about Skoda was the std equipment levels, and if I wanted extras, I could easily option them, but then their marketing changed and Skoda followed others by introducing packs. Because these packs only contain one of my desired options, it meant paying for lots of equipment that I didn't want. Add several different packs and the price skyrockets. And then there's the cost of individual options. A sunroof on a Kodiaq now costs an eyewatering £1850. That's substantially more expensive than other VW group manufacturers ask for the exact same sunroof on their models. Long story short, I gave up the idea of buying another SUV and went back to an estate but even on Octavia, they want £1700 for a sunroof. That's just insane for a brand that peddles value. Why not a nearly new Skoda? Skoda seem to be holding back on std equipment these days meaning I need options, but given the price of these, I find very few cars with the options I want. Or rather, I can't find a single car with the options I want. And when you do find one with a good number of options, well... the cost is often more than a brand new car after discounts. Another Octavia? It's a great car however what it isn't is a luxury car. (Neither is a Superb in my book.) When I do spec up an Octavia ( not even a Vrs ) it lists over £40k, the luxury tax threshold meaning an additional £425 a year in tax. That would bug me everytime I drove it. Skoda still works brilliantly in lower trim levels but their higher trim cars no longer make sense - not for me anyway. The best thing I can say about the Skodas I've owned, especially the kodiaq is I normally change my car every two or three years. In 40 years of owning many cars, there are only four I've kept for over 3 years: Golf GT 2007 ( 3.5years ) Octavia SEL estate 2017 ( 4 years ) Karoq Edition 2019 ( 4 years ) Kodiaq Sportline ( 5 years ) And I'd have been happy to have kept that Kodiaq until it became economically unviable, it was that good. Best wishes to everyone and good luck with your Skoda.

Have a look in the market place, Anyone who is thinking about it will have to put an ad there as non-freedom member selling or advertising is frowned upon and swatted quickly by the mod team.

5k a month is a lot of miles!

You’re right about the AEB when manoeuvring. Several times it has activated with such a bang, I thought that I had actually hit something solid, which I hadn’t. Scared the hell out of me! Got out to look for the expected damage and was surprised to find none. During normal driving I have had no issues with it. I’m now of an age where I don’t have to rush anywhere so just chill and enjoy the ride. I use ACC set to the standard settings, all the time with lane assist turned off and often use travel assist on long motorway journeys. I guess it all comes down to learning the systems limitations, accepting the shortcomings and learning how to manage them.

It says 2.25C, I think. Which may be consistent with no flow through rad at that stage. So radiator outlet temp sensor probably OK, main engine one not so good.

DSG oil change using @Bap33 's excellent guide, £69.74 for a Febi service kit from eBay and £7.19 for the filling hose and 14mm hex key needed from AliExpress.

So we traded our Kodiaq in just before Christmas for a new Scala Monte Carlo Edition 1.5 tsi in Moon White. Wanted a smaller car with good mpg but enough space for normal everyday use. So far I have been generally impressed, mid 50's mpg and it's reasonably spritely too. Love the pano roof, heated stearing wheel, wireless Android auto and wireless charging. It has knobs for heating controls and the infotainment screen isn't the size of a small TV, seats are comfortable and the boot is a good size. One thing that is annoying though is the design of the wheels, whoever thought it was a good idea to have a 20mm trough running around behind the spokes without a drain channel really needs to think about what they have done. Each wheel collects a pool of water that sits in the channel until you remove it with a cloth or sponge, just argh... Have a few niggles for my dealer to look at, had a few miscellaneous dashboard messages that have come and gone and come and gone again, one related to speed or traffic sign, one airbag that came and went. The rear discs are all grooved like they have done 1000's of miles, they haven't bedded in like the fronts. Sometimes when pulling away from a standstill it makes a noise a bit like it's wheelspinning but is not, worse when cold. Otherwise it's a great little car.

Hi, I have a 2024 Skoda Superb Mk4 (I call it Mr. Hyde) for obvious reasons. For some reason it has suddenly started showing two lit red LED's; one either side of the SOS button in the pod above the rear view mirror. It still shows the green LED; I suppose to say the SOZS function is working. I questioned this with my local dealer with the expected answer... not sure, if there are no other warning lights on the dash just ignore it! They went off briefly driving back from town, but then came on again a few miles further along. They must be trying to tell me something? Does anyone out there know what?

Spent a bit of time on this wildlife shot using Lightroom. Before and after below, Reduced the noise as it was shot at 2000 ISO. Not sure if it made a huge difference as the camera is pretty good at high ISO. Also removed some of the distractions around the bird. Shooting across to Arran so made a camera door mount out of a few bits. Helps when using the car as a hide. It raises the camera above the door mirror and keeps it in place to enable me to move the car, albeit slowly to get the shot.

Unlocking the door has nothing to do with the speedometer. This function is controlled by the BCM (Body Control Module). Of course, the immobilizer can be adjusted without a second key.

After 7 years of 2 x new Octavia VRS I sold my mk4 back to the dealer yesterday and am gonna grab a used Golf or the like as it's replacement. Both the mk3 and mk4 were awesome cars, I had little to no trouble (nothing at all with the mk4) and would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone wanting a spacious, subtle, powerful and comfortable car. I've only owned either VW, Audi, Skoda or Ford my whole motoring life (30yrs) and the two Skoda's have been the best. I just didn't need mine any more and it was sat on the drive depreciating, where as it should be being used and enjoyed. Whoever buys it will get a great car in practically new condition. I will miss it and may well be back, but in the meantime, thanks for the knowledge and friendly help. All the best.

All the best pal

I’m sure others will chime in with specific diesel experience but if the car is older and high mileage you could have leaking injectors or high pressure fuel pump putting diesel into the oil. Not good.

Last update for me here .. I ended up with an AAWireless Two and it works perfectly, unlike the Ottocast. I'll be passing the latter on to AN other.

Works perfectly on our 2016 (oh wow - it’s 10 years old!!) 280!

I do not believe this guff about 36% and 5 minutes if it was even just for Edinburgh & Glasgow. It could be just about true in Dundee for a very fit person that can jog or run. But it is Motability that comes away with this stuff.

Hope you enjoy whatever sled you move on to next and hopefully see you back in a Skoda in future @dan245. Au revoir and farewell for now. Don't forget the social sections on here if you fancy popping your head in in the meanwhile 👍

Bosch wipers a big step up from originals imo Got them F & R and very good

didnt think you still had this!

The immobilizer has nothing to do with the battery in the key.

Link to MST2_EU_SK_ZR_P0253T sent in PM

Sounds fine for a 15 minute drive but ultimately oil temp is controlled by a number of factors so can fluctuate depending on all sorts of factors. No red flags from what you’ve said.

Heres a link to KYB europe. https://kyb-europe.com/catalogue/ Alasdair

Hello Figtree Cold greetings from the warm South 😁 (Well 7ºC, so not that warm, but warmer than you, probably). Gaz

My policy with repairs is to fix each evidenced problem as they become apparent. If the overall situation doesn't improve, look for the next bit of evidence. Quite often the first repair is sufficient, without it necessarily being clear why. I'm not sure that the thermostat was ever misbehaving. If the engine ECU was getting unreliable temperature info, it can't control things correctly.

That's what I said for the Fiesta, only got it to have somewhere to park my extra set of NCD until I found something I wanted and 7 years later it's still here.

Not with the Kodiaq in general... "Your" Kodiaq maybe.....my Kodiaq "remembered" the existence of aeb just a couple of times during parking process, and were absolutely justified, as there were a couple of pedestrians that I had not seen....and once more during driving, where I was trying to fasten seat belt during driving over me jacket, and aeb got involved as soon as it realised I had raised myself from the seat for a second.....other than that, no issues at all...quite a few times red warning of an oncoming collision, but no action....cross fingers....6 months, 14.000 Kms, no problems....

Got my eye on a Garmin mini 3 for a clean, low key install via rear view mirror usb. Spent a ton of money on a thinkware 4K webcam hardwired to fuse box on the RS4 … this will be a much cheaper install!

With Motability people just need to look at if the vehicle will have them paying the total weekly benefit or with some cheaper cars maybe £60 a week instead of £77.05 (£333.80 a month) and that going up with the benefit increase each of the next 2 years. & if they are choosing a car with Nil advance payment or anything from £300 to £6,000.

Hi Evolution13 , No , the gearbox is being serviced by an independent VW specialist in Worcester. The Supplying Skoda dealer of my car refused to quote as they say that's it's not necessary.The other Skoda dealer never replied to my enquiry. Skoda have written to me twice stating the gearbox oil change is not necessary. A mechanic I know well (Audi mastertech ) says it's down to the useage of the car. I use the car round town so the gearbox is used in a severe cycle so he recommended that I had the oil changed.What he did say if you don't have the oil changed now don't change it.( He did make it clear to me that this was his opinion and not of the VW group ) For your information using VW oil the cost was £220.00 including VAT Using OEM oil the cost was £175.00 including VAT The gearbox does not have a replacement oil filter as such. A friend of mine has a 2016 Superb and he very recently had the box oil changed , 2 litre diesel dsg cost £220.00 including VAT in Worcester.

Hi nta16 , I have the car serviced annually by Skoda in October. I live in Portugal for 4/5 months of the year so I want clean oil in the engine over the winter months. When I get back to the UK I am having the gear box serviced as the car now has covered 65,000 Kms.

Pretty sure you can map out ACT as I've heard folk map out ACT when they get it remapped as it suppose to make it smoother. Probably need to speaker to a VAG tuner.

80-90%. 84% in 2022. AI and statistics are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Then the % of leased Company Cars in the UK. Or cars that are just being Purchased / Leased to be handed back / traded in in 2-3 years. Salary Sacrifice, Business use, BIK. Looking forward to seeing reports of those that BOUGHT a car on Tick / never never even with 0% finance then buying it with their or borrowed money when the contract is up and then selling it privately making a profit.

If the funnel caught the sediment I would just fill the tank with a premium diesel fuel. Five weeks is a short time for the fuel to go off it's possible the sediment was in the jerry can when you put it in. "AI response: Since the fuel was only 5 weeks old, those grains weren't "growth" or "dirt"—they were almost certainly paraffin wax crystals" In the winter fuel stations normally sell diesel treated for winter to stop it waxing, beware of your supplier.

Do you know, until this thread, I hadn't even noticed them 🤣

Maybe the new stat is deffective or something in the coolant system has jammed it open. Reckon the only way to be sure will be to remove it and check its operation. Its not unknown for any new part to be dodgy or fail very quickly

I understand that KESSY places a strain on the keyfob battery so that would suggest that the battery will need to be replaced more often. Given the ease with which the battery can be replaced, and the low cost of the battery itself, this is not a deal breaker. Deactivating the KESSY system is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

For further explanation of this see the red lights in the photo?

That setup sounds solid, so the intermittent preset display is likely software related rather than signal or hardware. Several MIB2 users have noticed DAB text not refreshing correctly after updates. A reboot of the unit or clearing and re saving presets sometimes helps. In some cases, the issue only gets resolved with a later firmware revision, even when everything else reports as up to date.

A few from today..............

I had one speaker not working and the other very crackly when I bought the car so today was the day for the speaker upgrade. Thought I would write it as a bit of a how to/ how I did it post for anyone interested. I wasn’t aiming for a significant upgrade, more a replacement so I actually had a bit of bass in the music. I knew the audio was already split so didn’t want to get coaxial speakers as the tweeter would be pretty redundant. I chose these speakers: https://incartec.co.uk/product/pioneer-ts-g1710f-6-5-g-series-dual-cone-car-speakers-280w This fitting kit: https://incartec.co.uk/product/Skoda-165mm-6-5-Inch-front-rear-door-speaker-upgrade-fitting-kit-SFKU-SKO01-165?srsltid=AfmBOoq5Y4bVhgm-VHjXMRIz6i9xjxSMSXPjPpqMCMTggDuQCZcx55rH And got these foam rings to feed the sound through the door card and also apply a bit of pressure to the door card so it doesn’t rattle: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHv7xCk Removal of the door card was a bit nerve racking as it needs a strong pull to undo the clips. This video is a brilliant guide of removal and refitting: Once the door card is removed you have to drill out the pop rivets holding the speaker in. Top tip I learned from an engineer at work is you get a small (4mm) drill bit and use it as a punch and hammer the centre out the pop rivet. It makes it much easier to drill out. I used a 5.5mm drill bit then had to hammer the remaining parts out of the door metal. Be sure to retrieve the bits of rivet that fall into the door. I could then use M5 bolts with nylock nuts to install the adaptor rings. The speakers then screw into these nicely. Take note to correctly position the cut out in the adaptor rings for the wiring. I then added a bit of self adhesive Velcro to the back of the plug and stuck it to the door so that it doesn’t rattle. I then stuck the foam rings onto the front of the speakers and it was time to refit the door card. Be sure to check all the clips are in the right position as per the video above before refitting the door card. It wasn’t too bad but just a bit fiddly to make sure all the wires went back through the right holes. Then repeat for the passenger side, which was slightly easier as there were less wires to worry about. Both doors took about about 2.5 hours including tidying up etc. The original speakers had catastrophically failed so much so that the magnet had come right off one and was stuck to the inside of the door! All in all a decent upgrade. I’m sure it’s probably not a massive improvement over OEM but it’s definitely an improvement on non-working speakers!

The Service Desk person or the Service Manager needs to go speak with the Master Tech or ask them to come talk to you. Maybe go out driving with you. No point the desk jockeys with no Mechanical Engineering training spouting whatever.

Reading through this I come to the conclusion that many people buy cars and have absolutely no idea what they bought. Fine, but then why complain? 1st - learn what tech you have in your car and how it works 2nd - decide what suits your needs 3rd - disable what you don't like/need 4th - if you can't disable something, then is mandatory, so you should not be allowed to disable it, so you should not even try or complain about it, rather vote to put in power people that share the same vision as yours, someone with whom you can align 5th - if you bought something without being considerate enough to learn about it first, and then you realize it's not what you want, then is completely your fault, Especially when the thing you bought is 40-60 k GBP/EUR, so once again you should not even complain about it, rather grow up and learn from your mistake

Today’s job was to replace the front door speakers which weren’t working. Thought it worthy of its own post.

I’ll bet that’s only the “seat belt” tensioners tightening up not the brakes.🤩 A new system to me as well, but I did read parts of the user guide.

I was told to reboot by holding the power button on info system. This worked.

NOTE: before you begin with the distributor it is recommended that you first set the valve clearances on a cold engine. NOTE: distributor timing between 135 & 136 engines vary so the figures are as follows: - 135 engine's timing is "2 +- 2 degrees" (ie between 0 & 4 degrees) so ideally the timing for a 135 engine would be 2 degrees - 136 engine's timing is "5 +- 2 degrees" (ie between 3 & 7 degrees) so ideally the timing for a 136 engine would be 5 degrees Equipment needed: - Stroboscope This is the one that I use: https://www.kroftools.com/en/regulation-and-test/digital-display-timing-light_p1781.html - Ratchet - Flathead screwdriver - Philips screwdriver - White permanent marker or pen corrector fluid - A bolt or a screw Procedure is as follows: Step 1: Locate the crankshaft pulley on the right side of the engine and find a little "V" shaped notch on it. NOTE: when looking at the engine that would be your left hand side, the same side where the water pump is located, right next to it is your No.1 cylinder. Step 2: Take a white permanent marker or a pen corrector fluid and mark that "V" shaped notch. Step 3: Take a white permanent marker or a pen corrector fluid and mark approximately between 3 & 7 (also mark 5 degrees (ie in between 3 & 7 degrees)) degrees for 136 engine and 0 & 4 degrees (also mark 2 degrees (ie in between 0 & 4 degrees)) for 135 engine on the timing chain cover. Step 4: Disconnect the battery negative terminal and unclip the distributor cap. Step 5: Take a philips screwdriver and remove the right hand side engine undershield. Step 6: Using a ratchet, rotate the crankshaft bolt clockwise until the "V" notch on the crankshaft pulley is aligned with the "0" on the timing chain cover. Step 7: With the crankshaft in this position No.1 cylinder is at the Top Dead Center (TDC). Now take a look at the distributor rotor arm. If the distributor rotor arm is pointing at the notch in the distributor rim, then No.1 cylinder is correctly positioned and on compression. If the distributor rotor arm is pointing in the opposite direction, the No.4 cylinder is on compression, in that case you need to rotate the crankshaft one full turn clockwise until the rotor arm points at the notch. NOTE: if your distributor does not have a notch on the inner rim, the distributor rotor needs to be pointing upwards, not downwards. Step 8: Reconnect the battery negative terminal. Take your timing light and connect it to the battery's + & - terminals and the HT lead of No.1 cylinder's sparkplug. NOTE: if you are using the same/similar timing light as I have, you will need to adjust the timing on the stroboscope according to the engine type that you have (135 or 136 engine). Step 9: Refit the distributor cap. Step 10: Start the car and let it get to it's operating temperature. Step 11: Take a flathead screwdriver and unscrew the screw band clamp that's retaining the distributor's vacuum advance hose. Take a bolt or a screw and plug it temporarily. Step 12: Take a ratchet and unscrew the distributor retaining bolt just enough so that it can be rotated. Step 13: Point the stroboscope at the crankshaft pulley and press the trigger. The "V" shaped notch should match to the marked point on the timing chain cover that you marked. NOTE: this is for 136 engine. - If the "V" notch appears above 7 degrees rotate the distributor (retard the timing), if the "V" notch appears below 3 degrees rotate the distributor (advance the timing). Ideally you would aim for 5 degrees. NOTE: this is for 135 engine. - If the "V" notch appears above 4 degrees rotate the distributor (retard the timing), if the "V" notch appears below 0 degrees rotate the distributor (advance the timing). Ideally you would aim for 2 degrees. Step 14: The timing should now be set correctly. Grab a ratchet and tighten the distributor retaining bolt. Step 15: Turn off the car and grab a flathead screwdriver. Unplug the distributor's vacuum advance hose, reconnect the hose back to the distributor and tighten it. Step 16: Disconnect the stroboscope from the battery's terminals and from the No.1 cylinder's sparkplug HT lead. Take a philips screwdriver and install the right hand side engine undershield. Congratulations, you have correctly set the distributor timing! Cheers!

I didn't really think anything of it. I drive probably 4 months of the year on ice / snow, so when it thumped a couple of times after crossing other roads and the power being allowed through and then not again, I didn't really think much of it, just that that was "how it should be" but "that was not good, should get that sorted if it happens too much". You could really feel the power being pushed around though, also on gravel (we have lots, and lots of it is 80km/h limited). With the oil changed, that completely went away. Was a joy to drift on the ice, just needed to remember to keep my foot in to prolong the slide... and then sit and wait for the power and grip to be enough to push it straight again. Same thing at any traffic light or roundabout - keep the foot in a little too long, a dab of oppo and we're good. ESP even allows it, especially in ESC sport mode. correct, my mistake.