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"We need to talk" ...

More bang for your buck?

Hello and bonjour all! A few weeks ago I sold my 2Cv to get a van, but decided to get an interim car to last me a couple of years before I do that. Sat in the back of a car sales place (in Beziers if you're interested) was a sad looking 1999 Octavia estate with towbar. Not prepped, no MOT (CT here) but clean and tidy, and good service history. I found the issue with reverse gear online, so that wasn't scary, just a couple of electrical issues to deal with. At the price I paid I can get a bit of work done on it so hopefully I'll be on the forum for a while to come! Tchin!

Update. I read on another forum (a VW golf one ) of someone having the exact same issue as mine. (Cutting out going into reverse and other gremlins). Guy had tried loads of different things and then replaced the ignition switch just to see (which cured his problem ). So, I removed the ignition switch, took it apart and sprayed gt85 inside. Buttoned it all back up and it's running perfect again !....very pleased and the fab lives on

i think ive gone insane... and feel i gave in to some peer pressure that i created in my own head ... what is the hyrox you ask? just some self inflicted torture and suffering https://hyrox.com/the-fitness-race/

From the Tilly Butcher. The Steak & black pudding, a Game Pie & Chicken white sauce and bacon. Standard Sausage roll & a Roasted Black Garlic & Jim Beam Sausage roll

Possibly but my general view is that if you have been asked to carry out some work on a car that improves its chance of passing an MOT then it makes sense to do that first? It's not as if the wiper blades would have taken them a long time, a couple of minutes at most.

Friday, it’ll be cod and chips from the chippy - not an every week indulgence, perhaps fortnightly

Your symptoms do not indicate a problem with the accumulator, which is what the basic repair kit comprises of, so an trans & mech oil change followed by the software update would be my first choice options If the repair kit was needed you would likely have fault codes showing and warning messages/lights on the dash and a transmission that doesn't work at all. The mineral mech oil required is power steering fluid and it should be bright green.

LoL probably even more years ago than you I was on a PGL holiday there!

Main event tonight was couscous, roasted veg and goat's feta: This is one of those meals I'd be happy to have every week Gaz

A promised earlier, a chunky Pork Chop, 5 veg, avec onion gravy & a bottle of Badger tonight.

Well the 19” Craters went for a refresh at www.fixawheel.co.uk. Full chemical strip and then powdercoated in a delightful shade of dark grey. Very happy how they turned out. l’ll be selling my winter wheels shortly which are Škoda Mytikas 18 x 7j with 7mm of Nokian tread, which incidentally have an almost identical rolling diameter as the Craters! Expect a full advert with pictures in a few weeks!

picked up my used 2.0 TDI 4x4 DSG Tuesday, drove it home today. Happily, it's snowed, so I can go test the Haldex in the morning...

Doubly bad.

That is the site that motability link to

Nice one. Much appreciated.

Following the Friday theme I defrosted the last Sea Bass & poached it in Soya Sauce, Lime juice, garlic, ginger, Bay leaves, Coriander & served with some Pilau Rice on the side. Had to fight off one of our cats but all good in the end.

I used the same station for many, many years until they got a mot nazi on the team - he tried, but conceded defeat (couldn’t find the relevant section) when trying to fail my Golf for not having the plastic engine cover on!

Brittany Ferries offerings ended up as Salad Nicoise....I thought it was normally with Tuna not Chicken? Tonight's Fish Friday was Crevettes and Salad... The Cats were happy being chosen first 😃

Surely, if an item is continually appearing year-on-year as an advisory then it should not have been flagged as such in the first place, I thought the idea was that at the time of the test the item was not bad enough to fail, but warranted attention before the next MOT as it would fail that unless it was done. As a potential buyer and you saw something keep appearing year-on-year as an advisory, then that would suggest to me that it was more than likely the garage trying to upsell something that did not really need doing in the first place, otherwise it would not have passed the test. My old Superb had an advisory on it that the O/S/F coil spring was rusty, and that was the only advisory the car had ever had. I checked the spring, and it did have slight surface rust on it, and I left it because so did the N/S/F spring but not mentioned. My Superbs have all been serviced and tested at the same garage and the car sailed through the next 3 years MOTs with no mention of that spring or any other advisories. The conclusion I can make from that is that either they were trying to upsell the first time, or that on the other occasions it was a different person doing the testing and deemed the spring to be OK?

A clean MOT is much more attractive to a buyer or at least me. If there’s a simple advisory that’s been there for years it shouts neglected to me. That reminds me, must sort suspension out on my wife’s Fiat 500, been an advisory for years and years 🤫

2008 2.0TDI in black currently on 325,000 miles and still going strong

Nah, most decent garages will do a free retest if its within x days of the original test.

UK's Brexit import checks set to be postponed again again. It's seemingly unworkable in practice without causing huge delays and possible price rises so instead, the UK's just waving any old crap through. Taking back control etc etc... 🤦‍♂️ https://archive.ph/vOnRv https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/04/19/london-halts-post-brexit-checks-over-risk-of-disruptions-in-goods-delivery/ https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2024-03-25/25m-border-control-building-at-portsmouth-port-could-be-demolished

I wonder if it is just due to "workshop loading", I'd be a bit pee'd off if that happened to me, mind you, I'd have fitted new wipers after checking them prior to booking it in. Really, a professionally run and honest workshop should not be trying to accumulate as many fails or advisories as possible simply by running the MOT before a service - unless the customer is a total tight ass and requested that order of jobs.

any replacement for fossil fuel powered cars should not be reliant on the ability of users to "refuel" at home especially given the majority of people (in many countries not just the UK) do not have dedicated off road parking for their vehicles at home.

It is good whilst the "Free" and reduced home charging tariffs exist. My suspicion of the way this is going to go in the future is backed up by the changes made to feed in tariffs etc for solar panel users and the "benefits" have slowly been eroded over time. Once everyone is hooked in it will be too late. I confess to be a 64 yo cynic. Nothing is ever done by governments that isn't designed to help big business and the select few as the goal.

£11.96 it was for that 54 miles and that was not back to 100%. The next 50 miles took me to 50% battery from 98% and I am charging free just now on a 11kW AC charger. So that might be 30 free gratis when done.

I had a bit of an annoying experience last week when I booked my Polo GTI in for a major service, brake fluid change and new front wiper blades (knowing they were a bit knackered) along with an MOT. The independent VW place I use promptly failed it on the the MOT due to the wipers and then passed it (with no advisories) on the retest once they had fitted the replacement. Why on earth they tested it before fitting the wipers is completely beyond me - it wasn't as if they had to call me up and say 'your car has failed but it will pass if we fit new wiper blades' as I had instructed them to fit new blades weeks in advance.

Going forward, when helping on any car that has SRS stuff, like airbags, is to always disconnect the battery before working on these systems, for your own safety and to avoid the system logging a fault. The way to sort this out has been given to you already.

Is that one dwelling or a block of flats? It looks more like the latter. I cant zoom large enough but I think there were service gates there before and behind them looks like grass concrete (the base with holes where grass can grow through) which would tie in with it being the service entrance for the block of flats and maybe the bin storage was at the rear, the photo being taken on collection day. So is he a ground floor tenant/flat owner taking a liberty with a common area or has the person bought the block of flats? There is no longer the keep clear marking. Whatever is the real story you can trust the paper to ignore it in favor of their "angle".

I’ve done the fronts on mine twice. It’s one of the easiest jobs on a car I’ve ever done. Used Brembo parts. Cost me about £70 in total. I’ve never done the rears. Did you just use a standard caliper rewind tool???

@Rooted thanks a lot for the detailed reply, skoda egypt informed me that there is no recall/ update for this car when i went to them after reading the replies on this post history. When i tried the gearbox specialists in an Egyptian form for technicians they suggested different approaches like: 1- mechatronics replacement. 2- gearbox oil change 3- stop sensor 4- hydraulic oil not full 5- mechatronic oil pressure leak Since they didnt agree on one fix i though to ask here if the original poster had ever fixed the problem

@MoSalah Welcome. How many miles / km has your car done. Is it a 1.4 TSI with a DQ200 7 speed Twin Dry Clutch DSG, & which country are you in? ? If a DQ200 DSG is there any record of the Service Campaign '34H5' having been carried out since 2017? A software update, preventative because of possible leaks from high pressure / temperatures. Recalls in Australia, New Zealand and other world regions. Service Campaign only in Europe / EU. Many never done. Not all 2013-2015 did need doing supposedly. eg. http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/512772-dsg7-recall-advice-accumulator-component More than just a Software Update here. Back in 2012 the World Wide Recall excluded Europe / EU / UK and that was '34F7' Synthetic Oil changed to Mineral Oil, & a software update. In New Zealand all vehicles with a DQ200 got new MCU,s fitted. Eventually in 2014 in Europe a service campaign was started on cars / vans 2009-2012.

I've noticed that as I get older, I get more and more annoyed at anything that is badly designed. Car parts, food packaging, road junctions - you name it !

Realised then cruise control wasn't working. Spent ages trying to sort it as i thought I had a dodgy clock spring. Put the old wheel on and off several times. Then realised the clock spring itself needed to be coded under steering column. After this everything worked. And randomly the fault code above has disappeared for now

For the UK climate, unless you change to winter tyres, not great idea to have modern summer tyres (with their eco bias). Performance in wet falls off rapidly below +10c, and rain in UK is generally cold, depending on where you live, rain might only be above 10c for 4 or months of the year. I would go for best all season set you can find. Depending on price and availability in your size would suggest any of (no particular order) Goodyear vector 4season gen 3, Michelin cross climate 2, Bridgestone Turanza all season 6, Continental all season contact 2, Pirelli Cinturato all season SF3, Kleber Quadraxer 3, Vredestein Quatrac

OK so I know everyone is talking modifications, remaps and the ultimate performance, but today for the first time I 'launched' my standard, stock Superb 280 and was pleasantly surprised. Absolutely no drama, no wheelspin and a recorded time of 4.96 for a 0-60 mph

TFTD THURSDAY! “I remember it like it was yesterday. Of course, I don’t really remember yesterday all that well.” — Dory, “Finding Dory”

I didn't know that I came to the wrong forum and I'm seeing a psychologist 🙈😁 who is analyzing my diagnosis 🙃 so maybe I'm weird but you'll understand me one day or maybe in the second life 😁 when you grow up watching Chip Foose, West Coast Customs and similar shows😎

Couldn't put it better myself. Splash out on a decent battery conditioner like C-Tek and you'll save money in the long run - not just on the car.

full size Wiper Blades (from Passat) 3-397-007-863 650; 450mm Bosch AeroTwin A 863 S (Superb; Golf; . .) 3-397-014-116 650; 475mm Bosch AeroTwin A 102 S (Passat; Arteon; . .) !!! part codes are LHD, not UK; AU etc. !!! next upgrade waits for springs

7v = battery well and truly f.....k....d

MAY HAVE DONE A THING MK4 Golf R32 Konig seats in oe black leather with vrs centres 🤡

Having taken the non working heat unit out we had a look at repairing it, but we're a bit stumped 🤔. Neither of us at that technically minded. So we fitted the unit I purchased when I was in the UK. All seems to be ok so far, radio, Bluetooth and WiFi all working.

Disconnect negative battery cable. 1) Check visually the wiring associated with headlights, from switches to headlights. Tug lightly on wires around connectors. Look for peelings, cracks, corrosion, shorts. 2) Check very carefully the entire wiring that was added for front fog lights. No amateurish job allowed. No twisted / taped wires, no piggy-backed wiring, no fuses on wires. Everything not original must go and wiring repaired. 3) Check earth points for integrity as follows: E2 On (he right side of the engine compartment E7 On the left side of the engine compartment E5 Near steering column Disconnect each earth point, clean, spray some WD40, reconnect.. After you are 100% sure the wiring is intact and original, go further. Use an ohmmeter from now on. 4) Remove both headlight bulbs. Look for corrosion inside both sockets. Measure each filament. Measure for short between filaments. Reconnect bulbs. 5) Remove marked fuses, inspect for melting signs, measure resistance. Anything different from 0 ohms must be replaced. 6) Measure correct operation of side lights switch. 7) Measure correct operation of dip beam switch. 8) Measure correct operation of lights stalk 9) Measure correct operation of DRL relay. Supply 12V between pins 86 (+) and 85 (-).