Leaderboard

First visit of the year to Coningsby.... 1440078~3.mp4 1440077~3.mp4

Now if they would make an electric Octavia estate..... that would be my sweet spot.

As an aside, batteries can die very quickly. In my case the car had been driven the previous day but next morning showed no sign of starting. I called the AA (I have Have Start in case my wife needed it) and he started the car after connecting another battery in parrallel. Following an engine start and a 15 minute engine run, he disconnected the jump start battery and the engine immediately stopped. The car battery read 0 Volts and presumed to be open circuit internally. Unfortunately the four year guarranty (well known German make) ran out two weeks earlier.

.

Apparently the problem was only in Germany.

Be warned, on the earth connection the silver nut is painted. You need to make sure you connect to the cable connector inside the nut. I learned this the hard way. ☹️ Thanks. AG Falco

Thanks Dfylaktos judging by this the same part is suitable for all vehicles so the one I have off the diesel pick up should fit . Jackos

Yes.

My 2024 Octavia has now been back to the dealer multiple times for this exact issue, most recently for a three-week period of diagnosis and road testing with Skoda technical involved after we rejected the vehicle. Skoda have emailed the dealer to say the issue is caused by the engine ECU shutting down the engine in order to protect the dual mass flywheel when it detects a potential stall condition at low RPM. So it's working as designed and there is no fault. Their official guidance is to modify your driving style to avoid low RPM in higher gears. I have searched through the user manual and on Skoda's website but can find no mention of this. Learner drivers have been taught the "brakes to slow, gears to go" mantra and to use block gear changes for decades (as per DVSA guidance), so for VW Group to tell us otherwise is astonishing. I have kept a detailed log of incidents and I will now be submitting a report to DVSA.

As some look enviously at the EV Salary sacrifice scheme the is a new scheme to even things up................

Well done for persisting with this and not being fobbed off as so many people have been (including me). It is a victory to have got Skoda to admit to the cause of the problem. Let's hope DVSA will recognise it is a real safety issue. Let us know if there is any benefit in getting several people to back up your story to DVSA.

Thank you! Please can you tell me where I find this board - the old ball and chain is a certified board repairer 👍

hi thanks I had already tried that and it didn't work but I was looking through different things on the vcds and found that the rear fog light was turned off. So turned it back on took it back to the garage and has now passed its MOT. Another problem as I was setting off to the garage was that the engine coolant light came on, checked and was fine. plugged vcds back in and wouldn't clear, so I disabled the sensor. This will be my next problem to look into. I do have a coolant problem as I have to refill it about once a month. This has happened since the water pump was replaced, so presume a leak

Yes. It would have been A LOT easier if I did but I just wrapped along the chrome and tucked/cut in around the mirror base as much as possible. I have no idea how well it will last but it cost me about £15 and a few hours to do so no major loss of it doesn’t last too well.

They are GigiSynergy tyres. I guess I just expected better for such an expensive car. Seems a poor area to cheap out on to be honest. Does anyone know what the peddles do on the steering wheel? I thought they adjusted brake regen, but on my car, I haven't been able to get them to do anything. Regardless of drive mode etc. Unsure if I am doing something wrong. Thanks

Good point. I totally agree, I was thinking of this case as reduced assistance rather than complete loss of all assistance. The vehicle is set up for this assist to be fully working. It's the same with loss of power steering assistance. That's the thing with all these assists (and there are so many with more modern vehicles) great when they're fully working but not so great or good when they aren't fully working (and computer controlled adds another skip full of PITA and misery). I had an old car (called a "classic") with a brake servo and someone else had the same model (but different variant) without servo and just to see I done a brake test in mine and jumped straight into the other car to test for difference in braking and allowing for the slight varince and with and without servo the braking distances on the road were the same but obviously the pedal feel and pressures were different. As I used to be used to swaping from "classic" car use to modern new car use i always done a minor test of the brakes almost immediately after driving off which was easy from home as there's a T-junction not too many yards away. I started this when i'd been driving only a "classic" for a few weeks and then jumped into a nearly new modern car and gently braked at that T-junction and was too suprised at how quickly the car slowed. 😄 Nothing was wrong with either car's brakes they just varied so much in pedal effort and feel.

On some vehicles, it can be quite frightening to feel just much more foot pressure is required if the brake servo fails. Part of the problem is your leg muscles become totally accustomed to the assistance provided. It can be very educational to do a test somewhere totally safe and at low speed, switch off the engine, deplete the reserve vacuum, then try to stop!

I'm not't a professional business wendyball (football) fan but shouldn't you be supporting the local team rather than that there Lundun team. 😁 The bottom link seems to work, manuals are in English (well German to Chinise to English perhaps if like the 'Owmer's Manuals') there's also this site's Fabia Mk2 forums for lots of info and real world advice from owners and others. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/166-%C5%A1koda-fabia/ https://cardiagn.com/2007-2014-skoda-fabia-ii-workshop-manuals-wiring-diagrams/#google_vignette HTH.

That's a damned good question! I am sure I had heard several times that it was impossible to just pour fuel in if there is an antisyphon - so I just took it as gospel; having taken the warning onboard, I was not going to test it out for myself for fear of flooding the Evap canister, something I had read about recently on this forum. If I've fallen for some sort of old wives' tale, I feel a right prat! There again, it's only cost me a couple of quid, and I'm still 25 litres of petrol to the good.

A nice bit of morning sunshine and no plans with the family meant I could finally finish wrapping the passenger side chrome strip. The rear quarter light has some dings on the chrome from an unknown event with the previous owner so that took about 4 failed attempts to get right. Eventually got it looking good enough with the only tiny crease of the whole project. It looks great from a distance, just don’t look too closely! As I say with a lot of my projects “Stevie Wonder would be pleased to see it” Just the roof rails to swap out and then the full dechrome is complete. They require a guaranteed dry day so may be some time before I attempt that!

That’s a wrap! pause for applause and general mirth A nice bit of morning sunshine and no plans with the family meant I could finally finish wrapping the passenger side chrome strip. The rear quarter light has some dings on the chrome from an unknown event with the previous owner so that took about 4 failed attempts to get right. Eventually got it looking good enough with the only tiny crease of the whole project. It looks great from a distance, just don’t look too closely! As I say with a lot of my projects “Stevie Wonder would be pleased to see it” Just the roof rails to swap out and then the full dechrome is complete. They require a guaranteed dry day so may be some time before I attempt that!

Loved the Octavias, mk 1 and mk 2 VRSs, petrol of course. Hatchbacks. Best Octavia, surprisingly, I had, was a 1.8 TSI L&K. Supposedly 160 hp but if it was only that I am a Dutch man. Yes the VRSs would show 150 mph on the speedo and still be pulling and most seen on the 1.8 TSI was 135 and still pulling. It was its power delivery. Rev'd to 7k, short stroke EA888 engine. Better mpg and range than the VRSs. 0-60 in 7.5s so not super quick but not bad. All the L&K niceties. Family car but nice place to be. Got a VRSs spoiler from CZ but it was easier then to import as UK was still in the EU. Not as quick accelerating as our Mini Cooper EV but about three times the range.

The OCU's backup battery isn't charging. If you get an error message, good luck replacing it...

New turbo did not fix the oil leak , garage now suspects the seals between the rocker cover and the injectors. Wasn’t having any coolant loss before the new turbo .

Some of the gimmicks on some chargers may or may not recover batteries that have got very, very low. With standard batteries, which the EFBs are, I've never needed these, often expensive, gimmicks chargers. I think the Ring maxes out at around 14.8v but never fully trust the word of some bloke off the internet, check with Ring. "Telephone +44 (0)113 213 2000 Fax +44 (0)113 231 0266 Email [email protected] www.ringautomotive.com" Instructions RSC904 - https://shop.ringautomotive.com/media/catalog/product/file/UINS_RSC90x__ALL_2.pdf

Just a point for future. In the instructions you quoted it says disconnect both terminals from the battery. The same instruction is given with modern battery chargers that can recover over discharged batteries and the reason is that they go over 16V during charging. This can damage some of the electronics.

I built my own module which is freely configurable. I also deactivated the start/stop function. Material costs were €15-20.

DSG service and brake fluid change today at 129,323 miles. As far as I can tell from the service history it’s the first ever brake fluid change and the second DSG service with the first being at 110,000 miles. The garage said the oil looked clean and nothing untoward so hopefully the lack of previous servicing hasn’t done too much damage!

Now fitted on the car and much better clean look I was after.

Thanks @Cairus - really interesting. So far it was serviced at 18months at 12k miles, then 2 years later which has amounted to another 12k miles. It’s due again this September and the mileage will be about 37k by then so just over 12k miles. Autoscan - I can get a VCDS scan of it to you? I’m not absolutely dead set on doing it, if it can’t be done then I’m ok with that. I just sometimes get a little front wheel slip pulling away more enthusiastically and if I could dial that out it would be great. I like the idea of switchable modes so it’s not working all the time (and I appreciate it can’t be more than 50:50 anyway) but it’s great to know more about it anyway!

Or possibly Bewick's Swan.

Yeah, I guess you will need to adapt to the extra torque from the EV. The biggest thing to adapt, is that people really don't expect a car to take off like an EV does, and have a habit of pulling out when you start to overtake, even if you indicate you are doing so.

A thing that puzzles me is why are you trying to defeat the anti-syphon device while filling the tank? it's not necessary - the clue is in the name, it only there to prevent fuel being drained via the filler.

Yep after looking again reckon its too much for just condensation as Warrior193 said and as your losing coolant and no drips/signs of coolant after pressure test I am afraid the coolant must be going somewhere internal. Dont think you have an oil cooler so probably HG. I would double check for leaks again just in case its not obvious including heater matrix. Alasdair

I bought some black/white Skoda badges from AliExpress but the white wasnt quite right (more like candy white rather than Moon White of my car) and wasn't the clean look I was hoping for. I refuse to pay £100 for two Skoda badges from Kopacek so decided to make my own. I ordered another pair of Black/White badges from AliExpress. I thought I would use the White background ones so that the paint had a pale base layer to go onto. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009424974993.html I then ordered some colour matched spray paint including clear lacquer. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166899014624 And finally some specialist hard plastic glue as SuperGlue doesn't work well on the ABS plastic these badges are made from https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0001OZI5C First step was to dissasemble the badges. These come off quite easily with a slight bend of the back plate and gentle pry from a trim tool. I labelled each badge A/B and put the black parts in labelled bags so that they would reassemble properly. The whole of the white area of the badge as roughed up with some fine sandpaper and then wiped over with Isopropyl alcohol to remove any dust and residue. These then had 3 gentle coats of basecoat At this point I was slightly concerned that the colour didnt look much different so I painted a small portion of the cardboard with OEM touch up paint as comparison and it was spot on. This can be seen at the bottom right of the above picture, so I was happy to crack on. Next was two gentle coats of clear lacquer and this really brought out the colour and the metallic in the base coat. The photos really don't do it justice. Then came reassembly. The glue is the type that gets applied to both parts separately, allowed to dry for a few minutes and then assembled. These went back together well and will be left for a couple of days to fully cure. In between the rain showers I had to have a quick comparison with what I started with. It looks brilliant in person and hopefully shows up on the photo below. With the car clean, and not covered in rain, I think the colour match will be perfect and a certain improvement over the standard AliExpress badge. Total cost was just under £30 so cheaper than one Kopacek badge without delivery and took approx half an hour of work and a couple of hours of drying time all in. No real skill required other than a gentle hand on dissasembly and ensuring light coats of paint to avoid runs. Im not sure if OEM badges dissasemble in the same way, so this could potentially be done with an OEM Monte Carlo badge to ensure fitment to the car is perfect. I shall await some better weather and get them installed on the car and update with further pictures when that's done.

Now installed. Forgot to get a “before” picture of the back! Before: After:

@travs OK, so VW started converting the MQB "Classic" vehicles to GEN6 earlier than expected. The first ones to be converted were, of course, the new models based on the MQB EVO platform. I understand your intentions, but with this type of transfer case with a single clutch, you can essentially only change the fact that you already have more power transmission to the rear axle in normal driving situations. In other words, a bit more "bite" of traction. Many people (Gen5) like to code it for the Audi RS model. However, I see this as a disadvantage because the oil pressure is increased, resulting in more power transmission even during normal driving, and therefore more wear and tear on the clutch plates. The transfer case for R models, etc., internally or project name "Twin" for short, has different friction plates. These individual wheel clutches are briefly subjected to a torque of 1200 Nm during clutch testing on the test track at the end of production (EOL - End Of Line). Tuning in this case wouldn't be my main concern. Back to the Haldex. I personally recommend a Haldex service every 15,000 km. You'll only be doing the clutch a favor by doing so. You have a Autoscan for me of your Car?

Oh no what’s the curse!? Come to think of it my 2005 Skoda Fabia had working air con for 20 years without any need for the system to be regassed. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if the air con stops working or not.

All Credit to Bevinsee customer service. I sent details and photos of issue and a new pair of bulbs are being sent out to me on next day delivery for 50% discount so that I also have a spare. Lets hope this solves it!

Did the AC technician identify (and repair) the refrigerant leak?

The white colour of the black/white Skoda badges from AliExpress I now have on the car isn't quite right (more like candy white rather than Moon White) and doesn't give the clean look I was hoping for. I refuse to pay £100 for two Skoda badges from Kopacek so decided to make my own. I ordered another pair of Black/White badges from AliExpress. I thought I would use the White background ones so that the paint had a pale base layer to go onto. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009424974993.html I then ordered some colour matched spray paint including clear lacquer. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166899014624 And finally some specialist hard plastic glue as SuperGlue doesn't work well on the ABS plastic these badges are made from https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0001OZI5C First step was to dissasemble the badges. These come off quite easily with a slight bend of the back plate and gentle pry from a trim tool. I labelled each badge A/B and put the black parts in labelled bags so that they would reassemble properly. The whole of the white area of the badge as roughed up with some fine sandpaper and then wiped over with Isopropyl alcohol to remove any dust and residue. These then had 3 gentle coats of basecoat At this point I was slightly concerned that the colour didnt look much different so I painted a small portion of the cardboard with OEM touch up paint as comparison and it was spot on. This can be seen at the bottom right of the above picture, so I was happy to crack on. Next was two gentle coats of clear lacquer and this really brought out the colour and the metallic in the base coat. The photos really don't do it justice. Then came reassembly. The glue is the type that gets applied to both parts separately, allowed to dry for a few minutes and then assembled. These went back together well and will be left for a couple of days to fully cure. In between the rain showers I had to have a quick comparison with what I started with. It looks brilliant in person and hopefully shows up on the photo below. With the car clean, and not covered in rain, I think the colour match will be perfect and a certain improvement over the standard AliExpress badge. Total cost was just under £30 so cheaper than one Kopacek badge without delivery and took approx half an hour of work and a couple of hours of drying time all in. No real skill required other than a gentle hand on dissasembly and ensuring light coats of paint to avoid runs. Im not sure if OEM badges dissasemble in the same way, so this could potentially be done with an OEM Monte Carlo badge to ensure fitment to the car is perfect. I shall await some better weather and get them installed on the car and update with further pictures when that's done.

Merc 190SL with a missing bootlock at the supermarket today.

Took the green one out today after a quick blast with the pressure washer.

Just posting this for the info of others who don't already own a VCDS and/or OBDeleven device, and don't want to spend a lot of money on either of those (or a subscription). This may be common knowledge to many but I've only seen reference to it in passing, in various places around the forum. Use at your own risk. For reference, this is what I own and have used: MY2017 (registered 2016) Skoda Fabia Mk3 (PQ26 platform) SE Combi with EA211 1.2 TSI 66kW engine (CJZC). MIB2 with 5Q0035842B control unit, supporting Android Auto/Carplay and without navigation. Redmi 9 running MIUI 13, on Android 12. Generic wifi ELM327 dongle*, purchased in 2016 from eBay for £6.50. Car Scanner ELM OBD app, which is free to use with adverts and some limits to parameter monitoring and coding. Costs £4.99 (Android) or £7.99 (iOS) for the lifetime 'pro' version with no ads or limits. *My unbranded wifi dongle is not recommended by the developer of the app, as apparently many dodgy clones and spoof devices have popped up over the years which may not work properly at best, and may cause costly software corruption issues at worst. I've clearly got lucky here. The branded Bluetooth models they suggest start from about £25 on eBay or £30 on Amazon. https://www.carscanner.info/choosing-obdii-adapter/ So apart from the basics - reading and clearing fault OBD codes for diagnostic purposes, for which I've also used it on my 2011 BMW E92 3 Series - it turns out this app can be used to do some coding on the Fabia. The capability list for PQ26 platforms is here: https://www.carscanner.info/coding-pq26/ I have no particular intention of customising the car, however the reason for the post and what I have successfully used it for, is properly registering a new battery to the car, and removing the unclearable 1555 software version management fault code left behind after updating the MIB2. The latter doesn't even require messing about with reading and calculating HEX codes, like other methods. It just does the calculation for you and applies it automatically. Fault code gone, no bother. It's obviously nowhere near as polished as OBDeleven, or as fully-featured and well supported as VCDS, but as a novice I'm chuffed with what I've been able to do with it for a fiver. Highly recommended for the cheapskates among us. 🤣

Not a great pic half in the shade and not a particularly nice backdrop either. But it's a Chevvy Impala so thought I'd take a pic anyways.

Coincidence is a funny old thing. I was rummaging around last night and came across this of my old Superb from July 2012: Fond memories 😊 Gaz

It looks like it does a lot of offroading!!

On Blakey Ridge today.

Piggybacking on this thread, has anyone found a decent guide on replacing the Bonne locks on a MK2 fl Octavia. I have the bonnet open but can't get the plastic trim away from the metal bar the lock ataches to.

I did not mention the temperature readings because they were an anomoly that I don't have an answer for and may even be a red herring, the statement I made was correct and should be read as it was written, I was not aware that I was under an obligation to have an answer for all the symptoms that you percieve. The expansion bottle is exactly that, for expansion, it does not form part of the water circulation circuit, I made no mention of it as it was irrelevant to your problem of the temperature warning light coming on immediately on first start up of a cold engine. A less adversarial posting style and not calling people "buddy" or "pal" will be more appealing to those who have the knowledge to help you.