Colin170CR

Is France still safe?

I've had stored DAB radio station & logo's disappear from memory recently & the DAB radio reception is a bit sporadic in certain areas. Head unit is also a bit slow to get going on occasions. Mine has to go in for an annual oil & service inspection in a few weeks so I'm wondering if the VAG independent can apply this update together with a few other coding changes. 🤔

👍It seems it's cheaper to convert an attached garage to living space than have a new garage built. We had a quote to convert our attached garage into a room a few years ago. £7k & that including insulating the floor to meet latest building regs. Decided against it because I don't really have anywhere else to put all the stuff in the garage because our garden is quite small with no room left for a shed etc. On the flip side my son is about to buy a 1930's house that has a concrete panel stand alone garage &, wait for it, 6 sheds!! I'm quite jealous. The garage needs to go because it is not big enough, has an asbestos roof & is located where they want to extend the house. Most of the 6 sheds are going as well because they are rotten & will make way for a "work from home" office in the huge 100 x 18m garden. Guess what I'll be doing after they move in?

Ditto. Our place was new when we moved in in 1986 & has a single attached garage. I just about managed to get my wife's Mk1 Seat Ibiza in it when we first moved in & like you had to climb out the hatch to get out. She refused to put it in the garage & we've never had a car in it ever since. Nowadays it's my storage area come shed come workshop & is so rammed with tools, appliances, push & E-bikes, lawnmower, floor to ceiling racking, workbenches &, most recently, a wall mounted Solar inverter & battery that you can only just about walk down the middle of it. As for the cost for a brick garage have a look below. 🤑🤑🤑

I feel your pain.

Bird poop is the bain of my life too. There's a cherry tree across the road from us & the birds gorge on the cherries & then dive bomb our cars with their acid laden poop. I've got a bucket of soapy water & soft brush outside the front door on permanent standby.

Maybe Germany doesn't have potholes? They look good but I too would question the ride quality. So what rubber band profile tyres have you got fitted?

I have an old TomTom unit. The original bow back CRT TV shape but I'm not sure if it still works because I've not used it for years. It was dam expensive when new £500+ if I recall). I also have a more recent Garmin with free map updates for life. I don't really need it for our current cars both of which have sat nav but, it is useful to take on on holiday if we are hiring a car without Sat Nav (in the EU at least). I have taken it abroad in my own car as a backup because the factory fitted Sat Nav's in both our cars can go AWAL sometimes & post code location is a bit of a lottery sometimes. My wife's Karoq has a newer version of the Skoda / VW system. My sat nav does not display road speed limits unless the sat nav / maps is turn on. I believe it can be coded to show the road speed limits when not in sat nav / map mode but I have never got around to having it done. There are quite a few other code changes I'd like to have done (e.g. Skandi rear DRL's) so if there's anyone out there in the Bucks area that has the gizmo that can re-code stuff I would be interested in a "Tinker day".

Yearly oil change / inspection coming up. I just hope it doesn't mushroom into another expensive one like last year - replacement water pump / thermostat & new discs & pads 🤞

Spooky. Got a message today from my Indi VAG garage to say that I'm due for an Oil & service interval service. Got into my car this evening & hey presto I go a "oil & service notification in 27 days" message on my ODI. They are on the case or what! Trouble is I need to sell my wife's Karoq & replace it with an EV before I book mine in for a service otherwise we have no transport while mine is in for service! Anyone need a 2019 Karoq Edition 1.5 4x4 with pano roof, gas bonnet struts, rear bumper protector, door cill protectors etc etc.

That's quite a large investment. I assume you plan to keep the car for some time? Did you ask the garage to change the DCC Normal & Comfort settings or have they done this on their own? Also, how did they change the Comfort & Normal settings for the stock adjustable damper settings? I know this can be done on aftermarket replacement adjustable shock systems but I was not aware it could be done with the OEM shocks. I'm interested because I also find the Comfort & Normal DCC settings rather "soft" which is why I drive mine in DCC Sport mode most of the time.

I cleaned my roof bars the other week with some Meguiars compound which was semi successful so I'd be interested to see how you get on get on with this product.

I'd go independent Skoda, VW, Sear, Audi specialist. Worth seeking one out local to you. If you let us know where you are located others here may be able to make some suggestions. E.g. I use https://www.inde-tech.co.uk/ for my general servicing.

Sounds suspicious. New cat at such low mileage & emissions issues? Might be worth having a diagnostic done on it to see if there are any hidden / historical faults.

E mode is pretty pointless on a 272 / 280 &, as you say, the coasting is really annoying. 99Ron fuel does make a difference (more power) & smoother running. I have Start Stop turned off as well.

Heavy right foot?😉. Excess use of Sport mode or manual / paddle changes? I run mine in D mode 95% of the time & S mode only when needed or to get engine braking when approaching red lights or roundabouts. What fuel & you putting in it? I only use 99 Ron Momentum from Tesco where possible. Mine is also a 6 speed so 7 speeders should get better mpg on a run or on the motorway. Others on here may have some extra ideas.

In eco mode perhaps, but I doubt if anyone fitting a Throttle Pedal is going to run it in Eco mode. As always it's down to how the car is driven. I don't rag mine but I do like to get up to the road speed limit quickly & then cruise along in top gear as much as possible. Originally I had the XLR set for R+ mode but found it too aggressive so backed it off to R then S+ then S where it is now. As I suspected my wife has not said anything since I took the XLR out of her Karoq & put it into my Superb.

Likewise. I'm averaging 27.5mpg currently. I used to get over 65mpg from my old MkII 2.0 TDi 170 DSG when I was commuting up & down the M1. Thankfully I don't have to do that trip anymore.

I got a low coolant alarm on my dash first. Went looking for the leak & couldn't find it. Topped it up & forgot about it until it went in for a routine service which is when I got the call to saw the pump was leaking. I guess they new what to look for at that age & mileage. As you say it is a common problem on that engine.

I know. Some silly prices out there but I think there are some bargains out there if your not too picky - which is where I will come unstuck. Of course it depends on what your budget is but I would have thought there would be plenty of previous gen Fabia's out there.

Been there & done that with the water pump & thermostat change. In my case some discs & pads were needed at the same time. Bill was around £1k at my independent. It hurts when its an out of the blue necessity. I'm seriously looking at a used Electric car now for my wife & I to use as a daily driver & keep the 280 for long distance / holidays.

Early days yet but so far I've not seen any change in mpg. After the Stg 1 remap the mpg stayed pretty much the same as the stock engine at 25 around town & up to 36-38mpg on a run.

I believe there is an "Audi Throttle" setting that can be activated / adjusted with VCDS / HEX software which sharpens up the throttle response. Some reports say it works & others say it doesn't make any difference. Worth a try if you have software (I don't). In fact I would be interested in a group "software change day" if within reasonable distance of my home & be prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the privilege of having some settings tweaked / activated e.g. Scandi rear DRLs, speed sign recognition & other hidden features.

I have a Revo Stage 1 remap. Nothing else. Revo

Not really. Before the remap there was always a bit of a "dead spot" between idle & the first bit of pedal travel. After the remap it was still there albeit reduced. Personally I think it's the lag on the turbo spooling up more than anything else. Now with the RC XLR on S+ setting it does sharpen it up in D mode which now feels more like the old DSG S mode but there is still a tiny bit of hesitation. TBF I am spitting hairs here because once it gets off the line the pick up is very fast. What I have noticed is that in D mode it changes up lower in the rev range & uses the increased Torque (from the remap) to gain rapid forward motion. I have a K&N air filter fitted & you can hear the roar of the air being sucked into the engine just after each gearchange. Put the XLR into R or R+ (Race) mode & with S mode selected on the DSG it becomes a Hooligan. Very rapid. Almost too rapid & the gearchanges become quite savage. Don't think I'll be using that mode unless I take down the Santa Pod 1/4 mile. 🏎️