Colin170CR

My 2016 L&K 280 remembers the driving mode. It's normally left in Sport mode unless "her in doors" is in the car when it has to be changed back to normal or comfort mode. Seems your later models may have been changed for the sake of fuel efficiency but should be able to be modified via VCDS - which I do not have. Anyone else know about this one?

After 25k miles in my time with the car (total now around 45k) my MY2016 280 L&K estate is going in for a 4 wheel alignment check on Monday next. The last set of rears were down to the canvas on the inside shoulder which was not visible from the side of the car. Only when you get under the car or put it up on a ramp was it possible to see how bad the wear was. Outside shoulder & tread was fine with at least 4mm showing. The wear was so bad on the inside shoulder on both rear tyres that one had a slow puncture. The tyre pressure monitoring system is what alerted me to the problem. The car is driven with only one or two people in it for 99% of the time & not much in the boot. I suspect the rear camber is well out of wack. Fronts are wearing OK.

Deffo get it into your dealer before the warranty runs out. I've just had my fuel canister replaced after smelling fuel & the back of the car - unlike others no actual fuel leak in my case. Judging by the amount of other posts / threads on this subject this is known issue & the dealer should do the repair under warranty. Show them your evidence to prove your case. I wasn't so lucky. My car warranty ran out in Dec last year so I had to pay around £120 for a replacement as part of some other work I had done at the same time.

Has it been standing for long periods during lock down with only the odd short journey? If so it could be just a low battery which needs a good long run to get it back up. There have been a few posts on this subject. Mine did the same a few weeks ago. Actually failed to start start on the key after 4 weeks without use & needed a boost charge to get it going. Also the Stop start hasn't kicked in whilst driving for at least 5 weeks now - which is no great loss. Presumably this is due to low charge state of the battery due low usage & short runs. Yours could be a new battery but my guess is its lack of use. If you have one stick a charger on the battery on a trickle charge setting for a few days & see how you go.

Are these the rears? If so I had the same at around 40k. Apparently this VAG chassis is known for uneven rear tyre wear - this from an ex-Audi mechanic who did one of my last services. If they are the fronts then I'd say the tracking was not done properly or the pressure are not correct.

That would be a deal breaker for me. No spare = no sale. None of that gunk in a can stuff either. A skinny space saver is the bare minimum for me. That said, I can't remember the last time I actually had a puncture which needed a wheel change out on the road away from the house. Slow punctures yes a few but I was always able to drive to a tyre place for a repair / replacement or top it up with air from a mini air compressor to get me home.

I thought I had some meths but no luck. White spirit will probably leave an oily residue so I'm reluctant to use that as a cleaning agent on the paint & I don't have any panel wipe either. The wife might have some nail polish remover but will this be safe on the bumper paintwork? Might have to try a bit on a small test patch first. Pic below is of the underside of the SS protector all taped up ready to go having first removed all the old tape with white spirit & washed many times times with washing up liquid to remove any residue. Originally it only had two strips of tape on it so I think I may have over done it a bit. I'll dry fit & see how it goes. However, I have a feeling & might have to reshape the back edge (nearest front of bench) as it does not fit the bumper profile particularly well. The grinder might well be in use tomorrow so I'll put my GCSE in metalwork to the test!

Looks to be a decent fit. I'm going to give my stainless version a second chance. Spent the day yesterday removing all the original double sided adhesive tape which was stuck well to the protector - but not to the bumper. Smoothed the edges & polished the stainless in readiness to apply some new 3m tape & re-fit today. Also need to ensure that the bumper is free from any polish to get best adhesion which was the problem last time.🤞

What was the fit / finish like on that SS bumper protector? I got one in chrome via Amazon which was a fail. It looks OK in the picture but it didn't fit that well (didn't match the contour of the bumper) & the sticky tape has now let go on the outer edges causing them to flex every time the tailgate opens & closes. I removed it yesterday.

That looks to be quite an undertaking. What sort of cost did you inure & how long did it take? Was it worth the effort?

My problem is that my first house (two up two down terraced in Watford) in 1980 cost £22k & I had to get an £18k mortgage. My disposable income was zero & I thought my world had ended. Back then I was driving a a company Cavalier Mk1 or Mk2 I think with free petrol & limited government tax hits. Those were the days. Now I have to buy my own cars so any car costing more than £23k triggers my inner "not on your frigging life mate" response. As such I'm limited to used 2-3 year old examples at 50% of original list.

Yes I now have 360 horses. TBH, yes it feels different but not 80hp more than stock. I guess thats the very linear power delivery of the re-map & the fact it's going to all 4 wheels - not just 2. Getting to the legal limit was all to easy previously but now, it's like engaging warp speed! Good to know you've got it if you need it. I may have to look into getting the DSG re-mapped to remove the hesitation when you stamp on the loud pedal. And I must start using the Eco mode a bit more often - yeah right 🤣 I used to be an Audi driver (had an A6 Avant for 10 years) - but I saw the light. Audi & BMW are very common cars these days so are no longer appealing to me. I also get a nosebleed when a car costs more than my 1st house😡

Looking at this pic again I've got to do something about the average fuel consumption. 24.9 mpg is due to short local trips & over use of the S mode 💨

Very fetching. Below are my new polarised fishing sunglasses c/w built in 2 x reading panels so I can see close up for tying hooks / reading etc. Bifocal Polaroids - who knew? £15 on Amazon.

1 week? Not me. Original post by Yesman mentioned having his Sportline 1 week.

My car was registered was 1st registered in Dec 2016. I bought it used in Feb last year from a Skoda dealer in Bournemouth. The Skoda 3 year OEM warranty ran out Dec 2019 & the dealer used car 12 month warranty ran out in Feb this year. I'll see how it goes & see it the SS starts working again if I can take it for a long run - not easy at the moment. Alternatively I'll stick the battery on charge for a couple of days then check the SS. Past experience tells me that depending on use after 3-4 years the battery on most VAG models are getting past it & a replacement is due. Had the same issue with a previous Audi A6 (not SS) -2 batteries in a 9 year period & 140k miles + a clutch, 2 cam belts etc etc. Halfords AGM battery has a 5 year warranty. The joys or running 2nd hand cars bought with hard earned cash. This will probably be the last car I buy so I'm prepared to make it last🤑

To avoid all the button pressing can SS be coded out altogether?

You have me wondering about my battery now. The stop start on my 2016 280 has not been working for the last 4-5 weeks (yes it is switched on). I put this down to it being idle for long periods & only short journeys during the lockdown period. In fact the battery actually went flat at on point because I forgot to switch off the dash cam. New batteries after 3-4 years appears to be a re-occurring thing. My previous S2 Superb needed one almost straight after I bought it at 3yrs old. No SS on that one though. Seems they don't like being left idle for long periods of time. Think I'll keep the SS switched off from now on.

Snap. Same thing for me this week. I guess the service techs turn off the lights to stop them coming on in auto in the darker work spaces & killing your battery. They also put the seats in the lowest "F1" style position & fiddle with the radio. Takes me 3 mins to reset everything before I can drive it home 😠

It would appear so. My previous S2 Superb Elegance was beige / brown (Cappuccino perhaps?) colour with cream leather interior. It looked OK to me but when you buy cars 2nd hand like I do then you don't get to choose the colour because it's the price, mileage & spec that determines what you get. My current S3 Superb Estate is black with black leather interior which wouldn't have been my choice if I had bought it new. Black paint is mare to keep looking clean & shows every little imperfection. But it does but look good when clean. A previous Audi A6 Avant I had was silver & that looked good even when dirty!

You might want to double check that. Below are screen shots of the Go Comp web pages that I was using which has a long list of engine & transmission changes to choose from. There are even longer lists for other categories e.g. bodywork, paint / stickers, suspension, brakes, wheels & tyres etc.

Yes, the wife has been added as an additional driver, not than she will ever voluntarily drive my car because she's scared of the it - even before the re-map. Not quite sure how she has come to that conclusion because she hasn't even tried to drive it yet. Granted it's a little bit different to her Fiat 500 1.2 Lounge 🤣 & it has way more tech than she is used to. I think that's part of her problem. Last time we went out to see some friends for a drink back in Feb I had to drive the Fiat 500 there just so she could avoid having to drive the 280 on the return trip. That was quite an eye opener for me. A - it's a manual, B - it's a god awful ride & C -I think our lawnmower has more power! It's amazing what you get used to. I'll check out Go Compare. I had done a Compare The Market comparison which is where I found LV might be be an option. I then went direct to the LV website to double check that the re-map modification was included. Apparently some of the info you put in on these comparison websites is not always carried over correctly so the resulting quotes / cover could be wrong - not something you want find out if you have to make claim.

Thanks. You must be psychic I'm on LV's website as we speak. With the re-map their price is about the same as I'm already paying & cheaper still if I add on the Mrs car as a Multi car policy which in itself is also about half of what she's paying with Direct Line as a separate policy. So a win win if I go with them. I was with LV a few years ago but after teasing me to join them with a low first year rate on my old S2 Superb they wanted a 16% increase in the 2nd year for a depreciating asset so I went elsewhere. It just seems that switching house / car insurance every year is now the norm as it is for Gas & Electricity as each supplier is only interested in giving new customers the best rates while stiffing their existing customers with ever increasing premiums. Loyalty gets you nothing these days. I need to get get this buttoned up over the weekend & cancel my old policy so I can keep mobile!

That's in process. The car is off the road now after I found out that my current insurer wouldn't cover me for the stage 1 re-map cos it was more than +26% extra BHP! Not sure why because I could have gone out & bought a 500BHP Alfa Stevio Quadrifoglio & they would have quite happily quoted me for insuring that. I guess they just don't do modified cars. I'm currently comparing quotes & the best one so far looks like it will be an extra £80 pa on my current policy amount. Not too bad.

I had the fuel Evap Canister replaced on my 280 yesterday by my local VAG independent (smell of petrol at rear of car - but no actual leak visible). I know others on this forum have had much worse issues with physical fuel leaks because of faulty canisters (other threads) but I didn't want to take the chance. The car was re-coded after fitting & no errors were present. Fingers crossed this solves the problem. While the car was in for that I bit the bullet & had a Revo Stage 1 remap done. I've not had a proper chance to play with the extra 80 bhp yet but the added torque is noticeable because in D it can run in higher gears at lower speeds & isn't so ready to kick down a gear when accelerating. However, in Sport mode it feels even more of a hooligan than it already was. Can't wait to take it on a longer run to fully appreciate the extra performance. I also took a chance on a set of low cost (approx £19 incl del) car specific mud flaps which I got on Amazon. Superb Mud Flaps I have to say for the low price point they are very reasonable quality & were a surprisingly good fit - well what do you expect for less than £20! My only gripe was the 5 week delivery (slow boat from China). An added bonus was that the rear flaps were embossed with the Superb name which is not shown on the Amazon page photos. I re-used the existing wheel well liner T25 torx screws to fit the flaps straight on. The only snag I encountered was on the rear flaps which have 3 fixings. 2 x existing wheel well liner torx screws were used into the arches but there is only a hole on the underside of the rear bumper for the 3rd fixing & no captive nuts were supplied with the kit - only some screws which to this point I had not used. After a rummage through my numerous jars of spare fixings & I found a couple of spire clips / captive nuts. Job done & without having to remove any of the wheels (T25 Torx bit & an adjustable wrench @ 90 degrees gets inside the rear wheel /arch & bumper). Well I think that's enough car fiddling for now. Now that we are allowed to go fishing again I think I'll dust off my fishing gear & go drown some maggots.