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Sorry - read this last night and then got sidetracked. Please let me know if I've missed anyting. A FL Octavia vRS 230 does not have the VAQ diff. The easiest and most foolproof way to check is to confirm that the interior stitching is white, and that you have solid rear brake discs (which will be 272mm), rather than vented (310mm)? Did you get a good deal? How much did you pay, and what is the mileage? I'd normally avoid buying from Cinch as the majority of their stuff is part-ex/leasure return stock obtained from BCA and WBAC (their parent company). If it's a good deal, however, then that's a different story, provided you know what you're buying. An EPC light can mean a million things. In the simplest form, it means the car has detected a fault with the throttle, engine management or the electronic system. The first step is to see what DTCs have been thrown. I doubt it's the battery, given your description of events. My money would be on an ignition coil having an issue under load, a boost issue, or potentially a fuelling issue. At high RPM (above 5k) these cars can also suffer with oil pressure problems. Reading everything, it does potentially indicate a car that hasn't been cared for that well. Two cut tyres, one over-worn and one being the incorrect size... none of these are good things! The oil seperator is interesting though, as that's part of the PCV system that is a) known to be an issue and b) could be relevant to the EPC light. The boost pipe is also intersting, see my above point on a boost issue. I'm a bit confused about the first point on their list... leaking engine oil, so the water pump/therm housing was replaced? Eh? For context, these engines, along with many, many more, have a plastic housing on the thermostat/water pump. Over time, and many heat cycles, this housing becomes weak, cracks and leaks coolant. I think my car (a very tidy 2020 on 40k miles) may have this issue developing. Okay, sure, the housing is right next to the oil filter, etc, but there's no relation. I think the car had a coolant leak (hence the new pump) and an oil leak (hence the new VVT seals and timing cover). What would I do? That's a tricky one. I purchased my car as part of an agreement with a main SEAT/Skoda/CUPRA dealer as a replacement for a previous car they sold me with hidden crash damage. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, and checked everything myself, before having my mechanic tear the car apart too. Hell, I was sat on the forecourt running diagnostics and checking the specs list against the PR codes and VIN. It's good that you've done your research and checks. None of these issues are great, but they're also not terrible. Crap tyres, leaky shock, knackered water pump and some dinged body panels are par for the course on an eight year old Skoda. I would see what they say about the cause of the EPC light, and go from there.

I couldn't find any suitable tools to use the same approach as OP, so after work today I removed the rear bumper completely, reconnected the valance / under tray with the bumper off the car and reassembled. Probably took 30 to 45 minutes in total, and was quite straight forward. I took the valance / under tray off in the first place to allow access to replace a faulty parking sensor, but doing it that way was a complete pain. If I ever have to replace a another sensor I will absolutely just remove the bumper from the outset. As an aside, my local Skoda dealership wanted 2 or 3 hundred quid just to investigate the parking sensor issue I had, and another independent garage I went to refused to change the faulty sensor for me as their scan for faults didn't show an issue with the parking distance control system, even though I was convinced one sensor in particular was broken. I bought a new sensor from eBay for 35 quid and changed it myself, and all is now working perfectly. Just glad I pushed through my apprehension and did it myself for minimal cost and a whole load of satisfaction 👍🏻

Cairngorm Mountain showed snow yesterday at the CAIRNGORM sign and somebody said 'First Snow of Winter'. But it would be the first snow of Autumn 2026, Surely they should know the seasons. Frosty this morning and lovely blue cloudless sky.

I did ask for clarification on where they inserted their nozzle! I also asked if their warranty dept could ring me the next day.

Going for the matte black instead of the red. Looks mean! Stage 2, +300ps, +500nm, now on Michelin PS5, 245/35/19. Next on the list: Sachs performance clutch, upgraded turbo (Garret G2260) and Bilsteins B8

Doesn’t give much to go on. Although the yellow battery indicator on the right; is OBD11 saying battery is one of the error codes? A battery on its way out is famous for all the most random errors - can you get a decent tester on it? How old is it?

Agreed. I’m imagining they’re Gemini wheels, so it could be one for the issue, one for the refurb/diamond cut? Not sure. I wouldn’t really worry about the tyres - any used dealership car ever comes with unbranded crap. I’ve been with someone to pick up a 718 GT4 with mismatched tyres!

Delayed a day by Mum being a bit unwell. After chat with my home mechanic I bit the bullet & paid £60 for a diagnostic check in case there was anything serious. Among a whole list of stuff the likely culprits were a couple of Glow plugs, one active one passive and a passive Active Grill Air Shutter 'A' Suck On. All cleared and we drove home with none reappearing. As they were nearly all passive and I've a service due soon I'll probably leave it a week or two & see what happens.

I don’t think so. Just have to wait our turn. Still waiting on our kodiaq

@petertr Yes, I did the same but with Archoil, Millers wasn't available at the moment - I bought 5L can and refill a small bottle before or after I go to the gas station. Premium diesel is good, but with these fuel prices, it's just not an option. Adding this stuff makes the engine less noisy and reduces the DPF regens, or at least I think it does :D

Or message me with VIN.

I looked into this years ago when I worked night shifts and had countless hours on my hands. Came to the conclusion that Millers Diesel Eco Max or whatever it is called wouldn't hurt, and could well help. Found it was largely the same thing that fuel stations add to their standard fuel to make it their premium version, just that it works out miles cheaper to do it yourself. So yeah, I bought a huge can of the stuff, and added it to all the diesel cars I had from then onwards. No longer own one but gave the leftovers to my dad who uses it in his Seat.

Several duplications of faults regarding the scratched wheels appear to 'pad' the rectification list, plus look to have fitted cheap replacement tyres.

Still having the issue, assume I'm on an old FW version - is that the fix, updating the FW? Is there a simple guide to doing that?

I lubricated mine and manually operated until smooth. It was sticking at a certain point. Lasted another two years plus without any further problems. Alas old skoda is now a parts donor due to rust. Thats a fair list of repairs but nothing serious (mostly cosmetic). Tyres I havent heard of ?? See how they are when driving. They are Xload so will have stiffer side walls. Only thing that jumps out is shock absorber replaced due to leaking. They are normally done in pairs to keep suspension in balance and I would have replaced timing chain etc as they had the cover off but at 86k reckon wouldnt need doing. Alasdair

First wash today, good job I am retired and have time. Tried the bent toothbrushes and the didn’t work that well, ended up pushing a wet lump of paper towel round the channel behind the spokes to get it clean. Best implement remains the long brush from Lakeland (see photo of brush selection). The bent toothbrushes came from Asda, 25p for two. Read the instructions on the Autoglym can and remembered why I didn’t use it last time - I takes over an hour to cure! They did get treated with the Turtlewax ceramic spray that was used on the rest of the car.

Thanks for the advice. To be fair the car is on 86k miles, doing about 15k miles per year for the last 3 years, so maybe the tires being shot makes more sense in hindsight. Cinch have finally given me the list of repairs and rectifications they made before selling the car. I’ll attach the list below. Do these fixes give cause for concern, or should I be happy that these have now been sorted before my ownership? I know the cooling system is a common fault from what Ive read. Thank you so much, I appreciate any insight you may have!

I get Kamiqs as a courtesy car each time my Karoq is serviced, and I definitely find the Kamiq is smaller and lower down. I need the Karoq for its boot size, and would not fit my holiday luggage in a Kamiq as easily as it goes in the Karoq. I can't really judge the performance and ride of the Kamiq as I only get the basic version, while my Karoq is the 2.0TSI 4x4 with DCC. Chris

The accelerating hard then stumble and limp mode but cleared when stopped and restarted does sound like what warrior said sticking actuator or if its variable vein turbo they may be carbon up. My old 1.9tdi used to do exactly the same thing. Slight blow off noise then down on power. Pull into layby and stop then start and back to normal. Slightly sticky actuator in my case. Alasdair

It's Highway, I believe, as Jaguar thinks they are American these days but my point is they openly admit that WLTP figures aren't really applicable to their cars' real-world performance. A bit more honesty with these things is good imho

As with any Global or World Wide Recall with VW Group you need to check see if your vehicle is involved and The Globe includes the EU / Europe / UK and not just a Service Campaign where eventually you get a RECALL message or not. Skoda Secret Service Service Campaigns. Need to know basis. The Dealership Service Receptionists might not know.

There seems to be a couple of other threads about this steering bolt issue, not surprisingly as a range of models are affected: I've just put my VIN (2018 Golf 7.5 GTI) into the main VW website as 17016R may affect me, and I just get red text saying it's not a recognised VIN: So I phoned my local VW main dealer, who checked and advised there was nothing outstanding at the moment, but if that changed I would be contacted. Not completely inspired with confidence. Gaz

Tory Boy Andrew Bowie MP thinks that the next Elected Conservative & Unionist Government can impose New Nuclear plants on Scotland. About time if there is to be New Nuclear in Scotland that they get building it. Start at Dumfries House, Balmoral Estate, Castle of May and any other Royal Residences. KC3 can just give his permission & lets see what the Local Authority Planning make of that. In England Jacob Rees Mogg's Estate looks like an ideal location for a Small Nuclear Modular installation. Maybe a AI Data Centre as well.

Indeed, but the reason why I commented on it in the first place is that A) it is not a PSA on TV where they normally show warnings/advice such as this, B) it is extremely early for such warnings and was possibly so because of the real threat to global oil because of the Donalds' illegal war, and C) it appeared on a site that I just happened to be one of long standing local moderators on, and this is the very first time that such a warning has appeared, and hence why I thought that EVr's might like to know.

I've had my 22 plate for over a year now and no phantom braking but the 19 plate one did it once on a heavily wooded road where I thought it may have been a bird or something that flew close enough for it to register in the system.

I've owned a 2024 Karoq for 7 months & driven it for over 4k miles on all types of roads with no phantom braking.

Yeah, figured it wasn't a simple job 😅. No garage and scandinavian weather tells me this is a job for the summer season, probably doing this next year!

My less than a year old battery (and car) would makes a very big meal of trying to reach 85% SOC (don't even mention 100%), you can see below that it took 7.5hrs (smart charging) to get a tiny increases in SOC by 2% and a usable battery charge increase of 1AH, the battery energy counter shows a increase of a average of 2.8A over 7.5hrs, 0.37A per hour. My M.meter, in series with the charger showed a charging rate of < 0.2A for the majority of the 7.5 hr charging period. Also, later, on a 25 minute non stop run under varying driving conditions, the DVM showed that the charging voltage never went higher than 13.4V even on overrun and spent most of its time charging at 12.8V. Maybe a "smarter" smart charger than mine would get the SOC up to 100% eventually, if so, I'd like to see it confirmed by someone with VCDS. MAS16744-IDE01836 12-volt battery-Battery current -8.825 A MAS16744-IDE01839 12-volt battery-Battery charge status 75 % MAS16744-IDE01841 12-volt battery-Battery internal resistance 7.4 mOhm MAS16744-IDE01842 12-volt battery-Usable battery charge 26 Ah MAS16744-MAS06086 12-volt battery-Total re-charge 592.4 Ah MAS16744-MAS06087 12-volt battery-Entire energy throughput 598.1 Ah MAS16745-IDE01843 Quiescent current management-Battery voltage at rest 12.5 V After a further 7.5 hrs charging at 12.7, occasionally 13.4V. Charger is a Ultimate Speed ULGD 5.0 C1, (a 5.0A charger) MAS16744-IDE01836 12-volt battery-Battery current -6.729 A MAS16744-IDE01839 12-volt battery-Battery charge status 77 % MAS16744-IDE01841 12-volt battery-Battery internal resistance 7.4 mOhm MAS16744-IDE01842 12-volt battery-Usable battery charge 27 Ah MAS16744-MAS06086 12-volt battery-Total re-charge 594.3 Ah MAS16744-MAS06087 12-volt battery-Entire energy throughput 599.0 Ah MAS16745-IDE01843 Quiescent current management-Battery voltage at rest 12.5 V

Re the clogged rear wash. Lift up the plastic cover on end of the wiper arm and remove the plastic spray head from the top of rear wash discharge tube; it’s on tight but it will come off. Get a 16cm (6in) length of thin welding rod and push this gently down the tube til you reach the bottom and gently twist it whilst moving it up and down. That should clear the crystallised screen wash which is clogging the outlet. Leave the spray head off and engage the wash cycle and hopefully you should have a 2m jet of washer fluid flying out of the tube! If not, repeat the cleaning process. Also, I suggest you put the detached head in a solution of kettle descaler (citric acid) to descale the jets before you refit it to the discharge tube.

I like the way Jaguar has quoted an alleged real-world motorway style mileage range figure, rather than just the nonsense fairyland numbers EVs often give.

What’s the error on OBD11? Driving at high revs heats up the exhaust and helps cause a passive regen (burning off the soot) but if that’s not the key issue then it’s not the solution to the problem. You could have a sensor breaking down which is sometimes causing an implausible signal - driving at high revs does nothing for that.

Any petrol model Octavia would be better than a second hand out of warranty PHEV.

Cinch engineer visited as promised. Couldn't find anything out of spec with either the battery or alternator. Although didn't put a charger on to boost the storage. Other than visiting a main dealer not much else I can do. But prior to that I've a couple of lengthy runs (100miles each way) so will have a see if that makes a difference when compared to the short ones I've being doing.

@OccyVRS knows these cars, I don't. Hopefully he will be along.

I think at this point I'd be concerned where they put it, rather than presume it being a case of administrative ineptitude 🤔

Hi, thank you once again for your help! So, this is where it gets interesting... Cinch, being a massive moneysupermarket of cars, don't tend to give out much service history. I therefore did my own digging (calling MOT centres, online paid searches etc) to build a picture of the service history. Looks likes its head general maintenance (oil change, brakes +fluid, plenty of tires etc), but no indication of any other major services that I could find. I know, a little dodgy already, but that's just how they operate. Maybe car people like us are not their target market! In terms of remap, i have no idea if it would have had one, and I have no idea how to check. It hadn't occurred to me that it would have. VAQ wise, I'm pretty sure as this is a 2018 230ps model, it didn't come with a VAQ unlike the 245 editions? But please correct me if I'm wrong, and advise on how I can check if I have one or not. Is there any way for me to check any of the things you mention out through the infotainment system (in the Car tab, or settings etc?), or would it need to be OBD read to determine these things? I appreciate I sound like a novice, and to anything post 2000s, I am! But I would really appreciate any help I can get on this so that I can make a more informed decision as to whether to keep the car or not. It's a Meteor Grey Petrol Manual Estate which to me is the ultimate spec for these cars, so I don't want my attraction to blind me, and leave me stuck with a very expensive paperweight when it turns out to be a dud. Thank you so much for your help :)

Just posted in the past day or so: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/skoda-issues-massive-recall-17-million-vehicles-feature-tiny-steering-bolt-that-can-snap-276674.html I searched for "48LS", which the article says is Skoda's tracking number for the recall, but I only find that in a small number of news articles. Anyone have an inside scoop on which Skoda (Octavia wagon) vehicles are included in this recall?

Metal grey, matte, match with the mirrors (golf r doing that with the blue, looks cool)

I notice that resetting a VW Group DSG gearbox has ben discussed online ever since this type of transmission was introduced and there are numerous YouTube videos describing the required resetting procedure (example here) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eJBc-IusOZA It is commonly claimed that the software of the ECU that controls a DSG transmission uses fuzzy-logic that allows the transmission to adapt its behaviour to a driver's driving style, but that would mean that a 'poor' driver could cause the transmission to adapt negatively and function worse than when using its original baseline settings, or that a 'good' driving style could result in the transmission's original behaviour improving. The following comment appeared in 2015 on a VW-related forum Some have said that the DSG transmission adapts to your driving style but this is incorrect. The DSG transmission shift behaviour adapts to variables like internal wear, D or S mode, and other input factors like throttle position and rate of change, uphill or downhill, and applies these variables over an existing shift map. Learning or adapting to your driving style is the wrong term since it would mean acquiring new knowledge that wasn't present before. The transmission cannot learn anything new, it just applies variables to existing maps. The perception of a reaction to driving style is the result of the change in a number of variables applied to the shift maps. So Yes the transmission adapts but not how most people think. Although "learn" might be used in marketing literature, it's not the right word to use when describing technical operation. As the video says, if your car's DSG gearbox is behaving in a way that you think it should not (eg. the shifts are jerky) it would be worth using the reset procedure to see if that improves matters. But, whatever the cause of the jerkiness, it won't be because the gearbox has learnt 'bad habits' from the car's driver(s).

My 2017 is at 353,000 km, and is mostly original apart from the usual wear and tear items, only replaced the interior blower, interior fan resistor and boot struts, the MK3 is an amazing milage eater

Another vote for grey/charcoal/anthracite. I find black wheels tend to lose any definition in the design. A lighter shade helps bring out the difference.

100% black

Great to see Elfyn become WRC Champion 2026. Commiserations to Olly Solberg. Coverage on C4 was good and helping my Welsh come along. Usually watch on TNT though. Hope Welsh government does a parade. Also congrats to Latvala, team Principal. Nice guy, spoke to him on one of the last WRC Welsh rally.

Karoq 2020

Only the Forward Collision Warning sensitivity can be turned down (Low or Late, not sure which is the wording used by Skoda). This setting is saved between ignition cycles No. Stop with the engine running. AEB requests a deceleration, so with an automatic gearbox this implies the gearbox will downshift to match the vehicle speed. In a vehicle with manual gearbox, the signal for Brake/Deceleration Request from AEB might be used by the engine ECU as a "Torque cut-off" signal, to supress the engine trying to increase the speed, thus adding additional stress on the drivetrain* Most likely, yes. If vehicles use the same platform (Octavia and Golf), there might be small changes to each AEB configuration (tuning parameters), but don't expect major differences in behavior * Not sure if you read the manual, but there are ways to abort a wrong AEB intervention, either by pressing hard on the acceleratior pedal or by a sharp turn of the steering wheel (depends on the scenario, which option is more suitable).

That’s low miles really, my mk4 TSI vrs when I had it was capable of 42mpg+ just cruising on motorway. Petrol is cheaper as well.

So in November I was in a non-fault collision and my 17 plate mk3.5 vRS was written off as a result. I recently found a hyper green mk4 vRS TDI but it went before I could purchase it due to the distance from my house and work 😢 I really like the colour so begs the question, as most of the hyper green cars are TSI do I make the switch to petrol or continue the hunt for a hyper green TDI? My journey is mainly motorway and a normal round trip is 40 miles which is why I have always chose diesel! What are people’s thoughts? I appreciate this will have been asked and answered before.

I live in a semi-rural village & so drive lots of small lanes with overhanging vegetation. In the 15 months I've owned mine I've had a few warnings come up, but no actuation. The rear seems much more sensitive & has slammed on several times when I've reversed too close to a nettle for the car's liking. That is quite alarming because it feels like you've actually hit something.

I've just got my Jag back from its service and MOT everything is good, although the rear tyres are apparently quite worn But as is typical of a Jag dealership, the actual service is a bit patchy. I wonder if some of Jaguar's woes are because of this rather than their cars. I've had a couple of problems before with Jaguar and my car being in their hands and this time was not totally smooth either. The F Type is by far the most expensive car I've had and I did think I might get the same sort of excellent service I've had from BMW, but as usual....no. I dropped the car off and made a big point that I didn't want my car washed (the last time I did this they started to wash the car before I could stop them!!) anyhoo they put a big lable in the car saying not to touch it with a soggy sponge. No, my trouble this time was I asked them to let me know the moment the car was ready, as I was walking to the dealership and it was a couple of miles, which by the time I'd crossed a few roads probably means nearly 40 mins to get there. Sooo when it got to 17:00hrs I figured I'd better set off even though they hadn't bothered to ring me. On arrival, the service department seemed to be in the process of going home, at least I guessed this by their absence. Reception had certainly gone and it was thanks to the nice lady who makes tea, that she was able to find the service chap to sort my car out. Then came the bill, it was very big! Personally, if I worked in the service dept I'd have stayed all night if a customer was going to pay such a large invoice, but that's just me perhaps? I did query the bill however, when I was told that my AdBlue had been topped up, so they had to charge for it. I think you can guess what happened next..... 🤬 I realise in hindsight that it is possible, if unlikely, that it might not be obvious that I have a (very) petrol powered car, not a diesel

I miss the knowledge we used to get from ApertureS - such a shame he moved on…..?