Leeboy

Time for an update here, although I actually did the work a few weekends back. Car had a bad oil leak and was ready to have the painted manifold fitted also. I also wanted to install additional gauges in the way of oil temp and pressure and have previously used a combined SPA digital gauge so put one on order last month. The oil leak seemed to be coming from the oil filter take off probably because when I built up the spare engine I used a cheap pattern part gasket from GSF. I sourced a genuine Skoda part which had rubberised beading on both sides of the metal so looked like it was going to do a better job from the start. I also had a leak from the turbo oil return pipe where it bolts into the sump. So to get at the oil filter take off meant stripping of the front of the engine so an ideal time to change the manifold too. First off was get the car up on ramps which is quicker than faffing about with axle stands. Just needs the front bumper removed though. I also took the opportunity to tidy up the brackets and paint work of the FMIC. Once I'd got access to the oil filter take off and having drained the oil, I set about installing the sensor for the oil pressure gauge by removing the 10mm plug in the spare port. The pressure sensor has a 1/8 bsp fitting so a 10mm to 1/8 bsp fitting was screwed in first. Followed by the sensor Then it was just a question of spanner the filter take-off off the block, fit the new gasket and put it back together. No need to drain the coolant system as the oil cooler pack can be moved out of the way to access lower bolts. Then fit a new filter, clean up the oil splattered mess underneath the car and job's a good'um. New gasket was fitted to the turbo oil return pipe too. As for oil temp probe, I used an easy solution of fitting a 14mm brass sump plug that is tapped for a 1/8 nsp thread and fitted the oil temp probe down there - didn't take a photo at the time but will get one next I'm under the car. Wiring looms for both have been routed up to the bulkhead ready to be passed to the inside of the car; a job for another weekend. With that all done, on went the painted manifold and throttle body. All looks pretty now! After a few hundred miles over the following two weeks there is unfortunately a bit of an oil leak which I can now pin down to the seal between the block and the sump so that's got to come off next and as I'm not keen on the longevity of sealant particularly if applied in excess, I have bought a sheet of nitrile rubber to make a proper gasket for the sump, cost about £6 off ebay. I will report back on this in due course.

Your best bet is get along to euro car parts or GSF whichever is closest if you're fortunate enough and do a exchange on your old knackered unit for a new pattern part. Should work fine and much cheaper than main dealer, I've had one on mine for a year now and so far so good. And yeah, need to find out if the wiring is all OK so it doesn't happen again.

Glad you like the car and welcome with your first post. Rear centre head rest is how it is on account of the centre fold down arm rest and as such the sliders don't have the depth in the seat to be any longer.

Brakes, wheels yes, coilovers yes in principle but rear spring and shock rates won't be right for the car as Octy had quite a bit of tail over hang after the rear wheels so car with squat a bit more than ideal under acceleration, but if you don't know any better you may not even notice. Exhaust though is a no no. Different downpipe unless you swap turbo KO4 over, but even then cats and rest of system is different. Search on here and you'll find plenty of Cupra R front sub frame, steering rack, control and and hubs have been swapped onto Octy mk1s over the years.

Not had such a problem you describe but do sometimes find it will allow undertaking and other times will not when traveling through 50mph narrow lane motorway roadworks. Haven't been able to identify the circumstances that are particular to allowing the car to travel faster in the middle lane than say the outside lane when traffic ahead is clear.

Not had such a problem you describe but do sometimes find it will allow undertaking and other times will not when traveling through 50mph narrow lane motorway roadworks. Haven't been able to identify the circumstances that are particular to allowing the car to travel faster in the middle lane than say the outside lane when traffic ahead is clear.

Yes I tried this too and seems a rather mechanically unsympathetic means of cleaning up the rear discs. Certainly don't do it above 20mph and make sure no one is behind you. Maybe I need to remove the rear discs and have then skimmed to remove the scoring and try again?

12.5k down the road on my 1.4tsi ACT. Driver's door bright work trim needs sorting, Rear two thirds seat upright clonks when engaged and locked in place, There is a vibration somewhere connected with the driver's doorcard, possibly the inner guide bit for the window, this is not especially annoying as it only buzzes when I catch a cat eye or the like when changing lanes at motorway speeds. And rear brake discs are badly marked but I actually think it's because of under use and without a old school hand brake I can't clean them up. On a different note, I saw for the first and only time to date a mk3 Superb broken down on the M3 this morning with AA man poking around under the bonnet!

If you've go a good strong Stanley knife blade, the plastic is actually soft enough to cut through with just pressure on the blade once you've made the initial cut, especially if you warm up the plastic a little first with a hair drier or hot air gun on low seeing. Just be careful and take it slow age keep fingers out of the way, I take no responsibility for any missing fingers!

Tail gate struts replaced for £128? WTF!! I've got a vrs hatch and replaced mine recently. Had a spare set in the garage from years back but even then I did look on eBay and you can get a pair delivered for £25 or so. Fitting requires a screwdriver and ideally a helper to hold the tailgate open one you remove the first strut, although I managed single handed. Ping off the spring clips the push the new ones in place on the mounting pegs. Job done in under ten minutes including giving the paint work a clean up after removal of old and fitting of new. I did use my local dealer for two jobs this year though, one was change brake fluid (which I supplied) cost around £50, and likewise same price for an air-con recharge, although in that case I was charged for it by the receptionist on collecting the car only to have the service manager follow me out to the car and tell me they had to refund me as the system was leaking and in fact it hadn't been recharged at all. They told me the car was ready over the phone but elected not to tell me the air con was fudged as they could at least have offered to diagnosis the problem for me and advise me where the leak was. So wasn't especially impressed lack of understanding what the car was booked in for...

Water pump is a possible shout. You won't see a wet patch under the car as it may only be leaking through the seal to the external belt drive sprocket when it is spinning and subsequent leaking coolant is evaporating off on the hot engine. Otherwise have you checked condition of the oil, Any mayo coloured gunk on the underside of the oil filter cap indicating possible head gasket issues?

I think we need some categories, Worst diesel consumption Worst 280 Worst 2.0 tsi Worst 1.4 tsi That should cover all popular engine choices and state if it's dsg or manual!

Well done there, over the weekend I was making some much needed repairs to my oil filter take off as it was leaking a shed load of oil which I'm putting down to going cheapstake on a pattern part gasket from gsf. To get to this I removed my inlet manifold and also while in there started fitting a oil pressure sender for an additional gauge. I used the spare blanking plug. If you didn't have the inlet manifol off you did well too get in there with a wrench and the like. Here's a couple of photos of my work in progress. Needed to bend the bracket that holds the wiring loom to allow good access to my oil pressure sensor.

Are you still on the side mount intercooler? If so it maybe that you find the fins are clagged up with detritus after all these years so you're not getting effective air flow through the elements. Pikey wheel arch liner vent mod maybe worth considering too, search for it and you shall find threads going back years....

As above, it you are going to the effort of replacing the wishbones, then invest in new bolts is sensible, especially as they will be stretch bolts are designed to be torqued up once and only once.

Thanks, I will give this a go as my clonk certainly seems to originate from immediately behind me.

You should indeed get a buzzer of you open the drivers door with lights on. Are you also missing the red door open symbol on the dash display too?

I have a similar problem with AM and the standard head unit. It does OK in strong signal areas but in rural Wiltshire AM is pants. I'm going to try making an earth lead to ground the case directly to the chassis to see if that makes a difference first before I investigate the original aerial which is now some 13 years old, but a new OEM aerial is around £50 as far as I've ascertained.

Back on topic, is it not the case that fogs are not LEDs because a yellow light produced by incandescent bulbs is more useful in foggy conditions than the whiter light emitted by LEDs which will cause more reflection back off the aerosol water droplets. Bit like when you put main beam on in fog and end up seeing less than with dipped beam alone? Fogs are for seeing, not posing. However I will admit to using them on a certain country lane near me which is notorious for errant deer as I hope the fact that fogs cover more of the verge side and hopefully are more visible to deer making them think twice before jumping out into the road. So far despite meeting many such creatures, I've not had an accident just yet, although close on a couple of occasions. Sorry, going off topic myself...

With stop start, if you do manage to stall as I did yesterday, so long as you immediately depress the clutch, I like the fact that it'll restart for you without the driver needing to intervene with the ignition key.

I couldn't make out from the configurator nor you tube video but what are the dash and door inserts on the Sportline, piano black or brushed metal effect as on the SE L? I specced one in red with pretty much same options as my SE L but this time with sunroof, so it would have a black roof and of course 280 4x4 dsg . £33K, hmm wonder how much more that is a month on PCP than what I currently spend out? (£300 a month just over on 42 month term, 20K miles pa.)

Fancied doing a spot of baking last week... And then proceeded to fit the cam cover. So first off with the old. With new gasket installed and chance to inspect cam lobes for anything iffy looking. Then bolt down the refurbished cover done out in crinkle finish red together with 2.0 TSI coil packs and spacer. Heat shield I made previously does a great job at minimising heat exposure of the coil pack wiring loom too. Inlet manifold is next to be fitted but waiting on delivery of a dual oil pressure and temp gauge which will need access to the oil filter housing so inlet manifold will need to come off then in any case. That will also give me a chance to sort the oil leak that is coming from between the oil filter take off and oil cooler pack. That job will be the next update.

Earthing continuity OK Rob?

Start with an inspection of the main wiring loom connector that you will find inside the drivers door. This will mean taking off the door card and peeling back the foam sheet that sits behind it. Then unplug the big connector located near the window motor and look for corrosion on the pins. This is often a cause of problems when it comes to central locking problems on all doors.

Yep, look for damage to the wiring harness between the A pillar and door within the rubber flexi gator.