Cactusjack

Same situation at night? They are notoriously dim so seeing them in anything but darkness is almost impossible... Unless mine are knackered also!

Aux water pump on this engine is below the oil filter, between sump and rad. I put a link on a recent thread here about my cracked head, same engine, same symptoms as yours... Small crack in exhaust side to water jacket, closed when cooled down and kept pressure in header tank.

Only sign whilst driving was low coolant, so I was topping up every 200 miles or so. Never overheated, no smoke signs from the exhaust... Extensive testing was carried out by a previous owner and a Skoda delarer but never found anything. Head gasket, and all coolers were replaced by them with a lot of warranty work but problem was never sorted. Previous owner quickly got rid and I bought it from a local garage during COVID so I didn't realise a problem until after the warranty ran out! Sniff test showed exhaust mixing with coolant only after extensive use when hot... So off comes the cylinder head! No harm in getting it tested properly as gaskets need changing anyway. All running smooth after head replacement with no further coolant issues, that was 4 years and 31k miles ago.

Have a read through this thread reference my cracked head. Useless dealer couldn't diagnose and wasted a lot of the previous owners money making up faults...

2018 280, 13k 😂

Sounds decent for the price to be fair, a bit louder in general with a hint of drone when cruising, full throttle is a blast with the "DSG farts"!

Done it... 2nd cut was an absolute pig, cheap exhaust cutter blunted really quick! Fits well, sounds a little better at idle,with a bit more burble under load. Will do a proper listen tomorrow on the way to work.

Yes it will fit, just the natural break forward of the box is a bit further forward here so you have to make 2 cuts rather than 1, then rejoin it behind the existing clamp on the right of the pic.

My mistake, missed your post on previous page and concentrated on the pipe you linked! Thanks for your reply though. I'm confident it will fit, I'll do it tomorrow when the extra clamp arrives.

Did you have to cut behind the clamp forward of the resonator and use an additional clamp? I've just mocked mine up (Cupra Formentor pipe) and it sits some way behind the natural break with the hangar in the correct position. Guessing OEM has a bit of extra length due to the size of the car compared to the smaller hatch's...

Not sure about in the menus... Just hold down the menu switch button on the steering wheel to close it down and use stock software.

Hi, apologies but I have no idea where the instruction manual is! If I remember rightly, it wasn't much help anyway...

Done this on my old MK2, needed seat out and the cover is attached with hog rings which needed special pliers as they're unbelievably fiddly! Struggled to get the cover back on as tight as before too... I don't think a MK3 would be much different.

The standard phantom fault for long crank times at random startups that can't seemed to replicated or diagnosed... Some say ECU update fixes, some mechs say random parts changes to line their pockets... I say live with it, we all have it sometimes...

Could be blown head gasket, leak in egr cooler as above or charge air cooler, or at worst a cracked cylinder head... If there's definitely no leaks visible on the outside of the engine, or no coolant/oil mixing then it's getting into the exhaust gas from one of the coolers, or a gasket fault from water jacket to exhaust, or a crack inside a cylinder to the exhaust manifold... Buy a sniff check kit from Amazon/eBay and let it run at temperature for a while, a small leak will show eventually if you have one! I had a hairline crack in number 2 cylinder on my VRS TDI and would need to refill the expansion tank every few hundred miles, it never overheated but would blow the exhaust gas temperature sensor in the manifold overy so often, I lived with it for almost a year!