Colin170CR

Just de-gunked the Karoq washer jets. The drivers windscreen side had stopped working completely. It's the wife's car & she uses the washers a lot & is always running out of fluid. Fiddly job not helped by the fact that the wipers / washer do not work when the bonnet is open for testing. Took a while to clear what looked like limescale dust with a variety of small diameter implements & flush through with neat washer fluid. This time of year I use 100% undiluted washer fluid.

L&K estate here. DCC is useful. I run mine in Sport suspension mode & Normal throttle / steering modes for most of the time & switch to Normal or Comfort suspension mode on bad road surfaces or, when I have passengers who don't like the harder setup. When I'm on my own I often run it in DSG Sport mode which tightens everything up & provides extra throttle response & holds onto the gears a bit longer. Good fun when you need the extra umph to join a motorway etc. It's subjective, but I have to say that in Normal & Comfort mode & on certain types of road the car can feel a bit "floaty" & "wallowy" which is why I keep mine in sport damper mode most of the time. I have to be careful going over certain types of road humps when in Sport mode because there's not much give in the suspension. Too fast & you can find your head hitting the roof lining! There is a Custom mode where you can choose the combination of suspension, steering & throttle settings you want. The Superb is not designed for cornering on it's door handles. It's a spacious comfortable cruiser. Of course if you have the 280 then it can surprise the boy racers if needed in a straight line but even with DCC it's not the best handling car out there due to it's size & weight. As far as I know (others with more knowledge please feel free to jump in here) the aftermarket variable / active damper kits by Koni are designed to replace factory fitted DCC equipped car dampers so I assume they cannot be fitted to non-equipped DCC cars. Koni probably offer a different kit for non-DCC cars. Of course there are other non-adjustable spring / damper kit options out there for non-DCC cars. I guess it depends on whether you want or can find a DCC equipped car at the right price. As you say L&K models had DCC as standard - at least my 280 L&K did. The purists would probably go for a non-DCC car & change the springs, shocks & anti roll bars to achieve the results they want. For what I need the standard DCC options are fine. If it were me I would see if I could find a DCC car at a dealer & request a test drive & see if the DCC options give you what you want. There are quite a few threads on the forum about replacement shocks for DDC & non DCC cars. The search bar up top is your friend. Hope this helps.

My 2 pence worth concerning home EV chargers. After pulling the trigger on a solar PV & battery system for my house (currently at 0% vat) I thought I may as well add in a new consumer unit since the existing plastic one is not up to current code & is full up. I also decided to add an EV charger (Zappi) for a future EV. Both of these items would also be 0% vat rated if they were done at the same time & as part of the solar PV system installation works. All good then. Well, no. Upon inspection the incoming mains electric cable from the street comes into my attached garage outside wall box / meter cupboard & then loops across our side pathway to my neighbours meter cupboard directly opposite. This means both of our houses are sharing the same incoming supply cable from the street & are both fused at only 60amps each. This is not compatible with a 7.4kW 240v 1phase home car charger (32amp) which, in addition to other household appliances, could overload the main cut out fuse in my house (60amp) &/or the mains cable size shared by both houses. E.g. EV charger 32amp + oven(s) 32amp + tumble dryer 16amp + immersion heater 16amp or combinations thereof = main fuse bang. Solution. National Grid (my Distribution Network Operator - DNO) need to un-loop the two houses & lay in a new cable to my neighbours house. This will involve digging up the street & a strip of grass between our two houses & part of my neighbours driveway! National Grid also have to upgrade the meter box cut out fuse to 80 or possibly 100amp & upgrade the meter cables on both houses. This work is scheduled for the end of January '23 before the rest of the works start. Thankfully this N.Grid work is at no cost to me or my neighbour who is fully OK with having the work done because it means he gets a totally independent mains supply which is fully up to spec for a future EV charger if he wants one. Just a bit of inconvenience while the work is being done & new cable connected. It seems that the practice of looping adjacent house electric supplies was common practice when the houses were built in 1986 (money saving) when the average electrical consumption of houses was way lower than it is today. It's been a bit of a journey but National Grid have been great & our solar system installer got involved to make it all got organised in a timely fashion. The fact that they are waiting for batteries means they cannot do the PV system install for another 2 months at least (been waiting for 3 months already). This is just an example of how much our aging UK electrical infrastructure needs to be modified to embrace home charging for EV's & electrical driven heat pump heating systems to replace gas central heating. I have no plans to have an Air to Water heat pump system installed because my existing CH system uses 10mm microbore pipes which are not suitable for an A2W HP system. However, an Air to Air Heat Pump system (my old line of work) may be an option to replace my Gas CH system. Either way even more electrical capacity would be needed than I currently have. However I digress. The NG engineer that I spoke to admitted that if a few more people in our street wanted to have EV chargers &/or heat Pump systems installed then the local electrical substation would have to be replaced or upgraded to coup with the increased demand.

It's doing well at 5 years old. Both my Mk2 & Mk3 Superb batteries failed at around 3.5 & 4 years respectively. My current car's stop start AGM battery lasted a bit longer but sitting for long periods during 2020 lockdowns did for it. The first signs were that the stop-start stopped working for long periods of time which indicates a low state of charge. I don't think the OEM batteries were of the best quality. I changed the M2 Superb battery myself but the Mk3 needs to be recoded when changed so I had to have it supplied & fitted by others. After that experience I too got a Noco charger & a Noco boost jump starter which lives in the boot. Not had to use either since😒 I charge up the booster from time to time at home or, on a longer trip, I plug it into the boot 12v socket to charge. Just have to remember to disconnect it at the end of the trip cos the 12v & USB sockets stay live all the time which could, ironically, drain the battery if anything is left plugged in.

After a certain age ICE cars are a black hole for money which kind of forces you to keep them for longer in order to justify the cost you have invested in them. It's the reason most companies replace their lease cars after a year or 25k before the big bills start rolling in. It's also one of the reasons I'm considering switching one of our cars to electric which have much lower maintenance requirements - engine parts at least. Add to that next year we will be able to charge it for free from solar & it all starts to make a lot of financial sense. The question is which car to sell / trade in & what EV to get. I'm an estate man but apart from the MG5 there are no affordable decent sized estate EV's out there yet. As such I'm not ready to give up my 280 estate yet so it may have to be the wife's Karoq that gets the chop. But what to replace it with? She doesn't really need an SUV so a 5 door hatch for local driving will do her fine so, I'm considering the MG4 or something smaller like a Corsa-e or E-208. Decisions, decisions.

I did say "not cheap". TBH my initial reaction was similar. Apparently a main dealer would have wanted north of £1,100 just for the W.pump & Thermostat! Water pump leaks are a known problem on many VAG engines - apparently. If yours ain't leaking them maybe leave it alone for a bit longer & start saving!!

Supply & fit new Water Pump & Thermostat assembly = £734.26 And that was at a VAG independent / specialist in M.Keynes. At the same time I had a interim service = £130 & Supply & fit new rear disks & pads = £190. Sub Total = £1,054.26 +Vat = £210.85 Total = £1,265.11p - 😖

Not sure but I had mine replaced earlier this year (55k) due to a small leak - same year as yours. Not cheap.

I got mine powder coated here (Milton Keynes). Choice of colours & customisation options. Mine were repaired, black powder coated, balanced with new valves for £67/wheel excl Vat. Cash is King.😉 They also put on two new tyres which I left in the boot & disposed of old ones. No extra for leaving car with them. 2-3 day turn around. They are very busy so 7-10 day lead in time is normal. I gather most of the local car dealerships use them.

I feel your pain & apprehension. After refurbing a couple of my diamond cut alloys after my wife managed to curb them, I decided to get them power coated instead (same cost). I now have gloss black Trinity wheels to go with the Black Magic bodywork. Well, they would be gloss if they were not currently covered in brake dust & road grim which makes them look matt black. I call that a result because they don't look obviously dirty like a silver alloy would. No excuse really the car does need a clean but can't quite bring myself to do it when I know that within a day it will be dirty again.

Out of interest what LED bulb did you use as a replacement?

Always good to see symmetrical pipes. Are you with or without exhaust Flaps? Is the 280 badged as a VRS in Aus?

Wish mine was looking like that. Not worth cleaning it now that winter has set in & there's a building site down the road from me which is dragging mud onto the roads. I drove past it the other day & now my car now looks like its done a Welsh rally stage.😖

Not a 1.4TSi here but I had a coolant leak (very small / almost non-existent) on my 2.0TSi. My car went in for a routine service & the garage found a low coolant fault code in the ECU memory. I remembered topping up the coolant 6 months earlier & the reservoir level had not changed since. The garage (independent VAG specialist) explained that it was a fairly common issue on many VAG engines related to connected plastic / metal parts leaking due to differing expansion / contraction rates & water pump corrosion / bearing issues. They changed the pump, thermostat housing & thermostat with a revised set of factory parts in a kit which confirms it is a known issue. Be prepared for a big bill🤑. My "routine / intermediate" service landed up costing £1,250 - & that's not main dealer pricing. New rear discs & pads were also included in my bill.

Nice job. I envy the space you have to get a car inside your garage with enough space to work on it under cover. My single attached garage is rammed & has become my workshop. Even if my garage was totally clear it's still not wide enough to get a modern car in it.

Impressive results for a self confessed beginner with a DA. What products did you use? e.g. cutting compound, polish etc. I'm interested in doing something similar on my car which has swirls & a few bird lime marks.

Yep, it's a mains powered DA. 1500-6400rpm with 150 &130mm dia pads. Cost about £75 from Amazon. I plan to test it on something before I use it on the car. I have an old beer fridge in the garage that could be a good test piece.

I know what you mean. I had a go at some scratches on my roof back in the summer. They needed filling with a body coloured paint pen first (black), then polishing by hand. I do have a random orbital polisher but decided not to use it this time. The result was reasonable but it only served to highlight other swirls elsewhere on the roof. Black shows every imperfection. There is a chance that I might sell my 280 when we get an EV for my wife next year so it would make sense to have the whole car detailed to make it look it's best before the sale. Alternatively I could take it to a detailer to have the whole car done professionally. If I do sell my 280 I would take over my wife's current 1.5 Karoq but I would badly miss the power of the Superb. Decisions decisions!

Chipped windscreens are like busses. Get one & another comes along soon after. I dread having to replace my screen as it is a heated one. Insurance will cover it (minus the excess) but I've heard that there are often problems with the heated elements after fitting a new screen.

Interesting. I wonder if there is an upgrade option available which could be added on to my next service maybe? I think I will enquire with my local Revo VAG independent when the time comes. Having said that, some of those features mentioned under "gauge config" look like they are related to a digital dash which I don't have so this latest revision of the software may not be backwards compatible with older Superb III models. I might just ask Revo directly & see what they say.

That must be a new feature because I don't have that on my Revo stg1 which was installed in 2020.

Thanks for that. It's tempting. But after some expensive recent purchases I really do need to tighten my belt. Next project is 57m2 of extra insulation in my loft + a raised chipboard floor over the top of it for storage of all the existing stuff I have up there now. As such all unnecessary spending is on hold for now.

No issues at all. Fitted / programmed by a local VAG independent & authorised Revo specialist in 2020 & all coded up (whatever that entailed). https://www.vagtech.co.uk/ Mine's a 2016 (66 plate) 280 L&K estate. New water pump & thermostat fitted earlier this year but that was nothing to do with the remap, just a naff VW designed plastic / metal leaking joint issue which I'm told is common to many VW engines. Insured (with remap declared) with LV for little or not much more than the std car. I might have to switch next year as like all insurers they have a habit of increasing their premiums on a depreciating value car which is a particular bug bare of mine. That said, 280's are not that common & seem to hold their value better than others.

Mine is a Revo remap. Torque is between 450 & 480nm. Revo

You're probably right. The pedals & connections are probably the same on the Superb & Karoq so I will have a look to see if a swap is possible. I was thinking about getting one for my Superb but due to all the price increases lately I've had to cut back on all unnecessary spending for the time being.