Colin170CR

Necessity is the mother of all inventions & in this case a cheap one too 👍

What make / model of throttle pedal did you get? Earlier this year I put a RaceChip XLR throttle pedal box on my wife's Karoq 1.5 DSG 4 x 4 & it certainly livened it up no end & took out the biblical hesitation it had. It even feels like it now has an extra 20-30hp which of course it doesn't. Like all DSG equipped cars my 280 (now running stage 1 360) does hesitate a bit from take off as well. Sport mode improves it a bit but there's still an underlying delay between the right foot & any forward motion until it gets into it's stride when it's inner hooligan takes over. Sounds like a a cost effective solution to the hesitation problem that all DSG's seem to have without having to resort to a DSG remap.

I'm surprised the battery lasted as long as it did. The cheap OEM batteries fitted at the factory normally only last 3-4 years at best. FYI changing an AGM stop start battery needs a coding reprogram so if you don't have the kit to do it, it needs to go to a garage. It's really annoying that a simple battery change is no longer errr, simple😖. After shopping around I took my 2016 280 L&K to a local Kwik Fit who supplied & fitted a Platinum battery at short notice for £186 in March 2021. Price included coding, fitting & disposal of old battery & a 3 year warranty. I'm guessing your would probably be a bit cheaper.

Impressive. I'm on my 2nd battery after the original died on my drive during lockdown 1. 3-4 years is about all you seem to get out of the cheap OEM batteries.

Well the plot deepens. I had the tracking done this morning at the local Kwik Fit & sure enough the left front was out of wack - but only a little bit. It got adjusted. I think the tyre wear issue on my wife's Karoq can only be down to the local "MK roundabout factor" (apparently we have 130 of them) not enough longer journeys on straight roads driving style - it's my wife's car🤔 I'll swap the front & rear wheels to even up the tyre wear & keep an eye on the fronts. Don't know what else I can do really. Interestingly I do not get this problem on my Superb tyres.

What product did you use?

No limestone gravel drive here. Actually we have relatively new tarmac on our drive which I repainted earlier this year with Tarmaseal so it's looking pretty smart. The grit you see on the tyre is from the road & path outside our house which is sun bleached Tarmac but it is failing so the surface is starting to break up. It's not the cause of the tyre wear. Tracking visit on Tuesday should reveal the reason I think.

Further to my post earlier in this thread, here's a pic of my wife's 1.5 Edition 4 x 4 front left tyre at 13,500 miles. Front right is in a similar condition. 19 inch rims. I'm having a wheel alignment check done next week. I know I said earlier that we have a lot of roundabouts locally but this sort of wear is a bit excessive IMO. If I were a betting man I would put money on a tracking issue which would probably have been present from the factory. We bought the car with only 9,000 on the clock so I'm guessing the Bridgestone's are the original tyres. I will definitely switch the fronts to the back as well to try & eek a few more miles out of these.

I thought mixing different tyres on the same axle was a no no. It's definitely worth checking the tracking though - front & back. When I got mine the front tracking was Ok but the rears were way out of wack (probably from the factory). I didn't realise it until the car went in for a service & the garage called to say that the inside of the rear tyres were down to the canvass while the outside edges still had 3-4mm of tread. On a ramp it's an obvious spot but when the car is on the ground it's not easy to see the tyre wear of the inside of the rears. I had a Hunter 4 wheel alignment done to make sure it was as good as it could be & to prolong tyre life. According to a garage tech I spoke to about it, this particular VAG chassis is known for wheel tracking issues. Who knew? If you can visually see a wheel tipped in / out I would have a closer look at the suspension in case it's had a wack. My son carried on driving his Polo for weeks after curbing it to miss a cyclist & wore out a tyre on the outside edge in double quick time. Turned out he had bent a control arm so no tracking adjustment was going to fix that.

I have only just come across your post today Alan. Must remember to turn on that Follow Topic witch. Now you've got me worried. Mine's a year older & at 56k miles. Expensive fix. I had to have a water pump & thermostat replaced on mine a few weeks ago for similar money + new rear discs & pads. That's the best part of 2 months pension payments 😖

I had the same thing on my 2016 280 earlier this year at 54,000 miles. Same as you, after the warning light came on back in February I topped it up & all was well. I even took it over to France for a few weeks in June. No problems at all. Then, a few weeks ago an "interim service" message pops up on my dash so I booked in to a local VAG independent garage. I did not mention anything about the earlier coolant leak / top up. 2hrs after I left the car with the garage they called me to advise that I needed a new water pump & thermostat. They had seen the error code in the ECU when they ran a diagnostic check & confirmed there was a small leak on the water pump housing. Something about a metal to plastic gasket issue that was a known problem on these engines. Cost, gulp, £734.26+VAT! They said it would have been nearer £1,300 at a main Skoda dealer. Add to that a new set of rear discs & pads plus the cost of the mini service & the total was £1,256 incl VAT, ouch😖 Be prepared for a big bill.

It's toss up between the hatch or the estate for practicality vs looks. For me it's the estate for it's squarer back end & more practical load carrying capacity up to the roof. The L&K is nicely spec'd & yours has a few extras by the looks of it. After two years of owning mine I found out I had the Virtual Boot opening pedal thingy with your foot which is handy from time to time. I have turned off the Lane Assist (really annoying thing) & I never use the Auto Park Assist. I would have gladly swapped those features two for a sun roof but when you buy used you have to take what you get in terms of spec & colour. That said I'm happy with mine after 5 years of ownership. A limo with a fair turn of speed & sure footed 4 x 4 system.

I had this on my 2016 2.0TSi Superb a while ago at 52k miles. Slow water leak & low coolant warning turned out to be a water pump / thermostat issue. Not cheap. £734.26 + VAT to supply & fit a new pump & thermostat by an independent VAG specialist garage. Rear discs & pads also needed at the same time. Total bill £1,265.11☹️ including an annual service for what started out as an "interim service message". God knows what the price would have been at a main dealer.

Hi Baz9. We have a DSG 1.5 Edition. I know you are after a manual but I think the software fix for both manual & DSG 1.5 litre engines introduced a noticeable accelerator pedal lag / hesitation to dial out the kangarooing issue. It fixed one problem but created another. To compensate I found myself having be more aggressive on the throttle to get the faster response I was after. It was most noticeable when trying to go for a gap to join a roundabout where you want a quick & positive response from the engine. It's my wife's car & she could live with it but for me it was a problem when I drove it. The solution for me was to fit a Race Chip Throttle Pedal Box. Easy to fit & adjustable. This has sharpened up the throttle response no end to the point where it feels like a different car with an extra 25hp. The test drive should tell you what you need to know.

And fill it with a hose🤣

Mine badly needs a clean but I'm not sure the local "hose pipe police" would be too happy until we get a bit more rain. Your garage must be wider than normal cos there's no way a modern car would fit in my single garage.

Ouch! Hang on, £114.71 / 57.1 = £2.008 per litre. That's nuts & I presume that's just for 95RON & nothing more exotic. I couldn't get more than £99 of 99RON Momentum into my tank at Tesco the other day which is the financial limit for the Pay at the Pump option. Fuel gauge was reading just under full afterwards but I don't remember how many litres went in, probably around 45. There's supposed to be an enquiry into why pump prices aren't reflecting the drop in crude oil prices. Same old story, quick to go up & slow to come down. After filling up at Tesco I read that the big Supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Morrisons & Sainsbury's) were amongst the slowest to drop their fuel prices. Independent garages were among the quickest to drop their prices. According to Confussed.com the lowest price for fuel in my area right now is £169.9/litre at BP Collingtree near Northampton. That would be a 30mile round trip to fill up for me so that's not going to happen. Next cheapest is a Tesco 5 miles away @£171.9 getting to which I would pass at least 4 other petrol stations. I guess these would be 95RON E10 prices & not my normal diet of 99RON E5 which costs more. I'm just thankful that I'm not doing stupid mileages any more otherwise the costs would be prohibitive & I would have to seriously consider changing cars or perhaps dropping down to a 1 car household - which may be on the cards anyway. There again we could be paying more for our Gas & electric next year than the fuel for our cars!! The world has truly gone mad & there's some serious profiteering going on here which I hope comes back to bite those responsible in the arse big time.

I bought one of these for my wife's Karoq 1.5 DSG to cure the biblical right foot take off lag it had. I suspect this problem was the result of the fix they had to do to cure the jerky engine the 1.5's had a while ago. Like you I detected no real difference at the bottom end settings but there was a noticeable improvement further up the scale. Now it responds far more quickly & allows you to go for the gaps in traffic at roundabouts which before was always a bit hit & miss. I was thinking about fitting one to my Superb but so far I have resisted.

I don't mind the garden centres but I draw the line at clothes shops. The problem now is that there is a water shortage in our area so washing the car on your drive is frowned upon - even if you're paying through the nose for the water you use. Our cars are very dusty again but I'm holding off washing them until it rains & fills up my rain butts which I can then use for washing the cars - you get less spotting with rain water as well.

I use old Tabaco tins when at home. Most Faraday pouches I've seen are too small to hold everything on the key ring - especially my wife's. She looks like a prison warden with all the keys she carries.

Famous last words ☹️. Just had the garage on the blower. New water pump needed (had to top up the coolant a few months ago so this is the reason), rear pads at 90% worn & discs not great & new plugs needed. Looks like it's going to be an expensive one.!

Mine's in for it's 53k "inspection" service tomorrow. Hopefully just an oil change. The air filter is washable now (with a big sticker on it not to replace it) & I replaced the pollen filter earlier this year. DSG & Haldex was done at 43k so should be OK for a bit. No doubt they will find something else but the indie garage I take it to are pretty honest & realistic in terms of what needs doing & what can wait.

👍 The local hand wash near me is now charging £18 inside & out for cars & £22 for SUV's. I decided to upgrade my own wash gear instead & save myself around £440 a year. New longer flexy hose for the Karcher, swivel short trigger gun, MJJC snow foam cannon, BH chemicals /polishes, buckets, mits, micro fibre cloths etc etc. The only snag is it takes me at least 4 hrs to do 2 cars as opposed to 20mins each car down the hand wash.

That's the problem at the moment. Can't clean the car because of the heat unless I get the pressure washer out very earlier or very late which ain't happening. I only cleaned mine last week & it's already covered in dust again. I'm going through BH Touchless like it's going out of fashion 🚿

Dare I ask the cost? Mine's just flashed up an "Inspection in 30 days" message at 53k. Not sure what that entails.