Gerrycan

The run in the previous post was painless but soon after my post I suffered really bad right foot pains and could barely put my weight on it. Took time off work, some anti-inflammatories, rested for a couple of days and then started some calf raises on the stairs when it felt better. Pain dropped very quickly and I could resume walking and back to work. Things felt really much better today and went for a 4km run. Don't know why but I had the quickest speed I've run in months. So far no adverse reactions either 🤞.

Welcome to the Forum! We have only visited the awesome South Island, but the North Island is next on our agenda. Is your Scout a petrol or diesel? My wife was always keen for us to get one but there were not many sold new and so rarely good ones on the Adelaide 2nd hand market. Hasn't really stopped us from hitting the dirt roads in our 1.4tsi though (when dry). NZ usually gets a bigger range of Skoda vehicle options and well before Australia does, I expect because of our now redundant Aus car industry protection special local design rules.

It may be a conceit, but I believe I have a reasonable idea on how to get good mpg from an ICE vehicle, especially around our urban environment and without breaking laws. I don't hyper-mile or drive slowly or do anything to annoy other drivers, I just allow a couple of extra metres and anticipate traffic conditions. I'm also aware that there is a difference in best economy and best efficiency of an ICE engine. I've got no real experience with EVs other than the occasional drive, but I am interested in them and read/view the reviews of any potential future purchase. The reviews annoy me as they often make illogical claims regarding consumption rates. For instance, there is often the statement that highway consumption is compromised because 'they don't get the opportunity to execute regen braking like they do in urban stop/start traffic'. Sure, regen braking will make some difference (recovering energy rather than wasting it with friction brakes), but surely the biggest influence is speed and overcoming the total drag (frontal area x drag coefficient) which increases fourfold when you double the speed. Open highway and on our rigorously policed speed limits I'm happy to average 100kph (100/110 kph speed limits) around my urban areas I am lucky to average 30kph (40/50/60 kph speed limits) out of peak traffic. Can anyone provide an idea of kw consumption is shown at various constant speeds? say 20/30/40 increments to 110 and I don't care if it is kph or mph. Can you confirm that you are better off using low regen and maintaining a steady speed rather than heavy regen braking? Similarly, can you coast (no regen, no current used) in an EV? Is it more economical to coast than using light regenerative braking? Be interested to hear informed opinions.

I would be inclined to follow procedures previously suggested by others before contemplating walnut blasting. Get a VCDS scan for possible fault codes and more targeted fault analysis. Stick an inspection camera down the intake to look at the intake valves to see how bad, or not, they really are. I'd also do a simple compression test for possible rings wear or valve seat issues.

10 year old battery is a good innings these days with stop/start tech, so yes, a new battery sounds a good idea. Best stick with AGM otherwise you will have to change the battery type coding.

I used to religiously record fills into an app and compare against the results against the 'since refuelled' display. I've posted this before but when my 1.4tsi was brand new the consumption displayed was actually pessimistic (showing about 4mpg worse than actual) but over 120,000km the display has gradually moved through precisely accurate to now being about 4mpg optimistic. I no longer use the app but I do perform a quick calculation to compare each refill (hopefully to a consistent level) for a rough assessment of display accuracy and see if there might be mechanical concerns requiring attention. Actual consumption is down from new but I have a suspicion the current tyres (Continentals) are not the best for consumption as they are quite noisy now. At our current low annual mileage it is going to be while before they are replaced.

It's helpful to others to include engine details. Your profile only says it is a 2014 Octavia Estate. I have similar year and type to yours with a 1.4tsi engine and is a manual. I get between 48 and 65 mpg on a run depending on driving environment and my demeanour. The displayed consumption can be a bit optimistic, and you should compare to manually calculated consumption when refuelling for a reality check. My past two Octavia estates (mk2 and mk3) have been among the most versatile, economical and pleasurable vehicles I have owned. I'm not enamoured with the current crop of 'electronic nannied' new options so hanging on to my current one for now.

If you haven't seen loads of diesels 'broken down' by the roadside so far in your journey through France then I would not worry about it.

The new Asic runners arrived quicker than I expected and the heel felt pretty good after a week's rest, so I went for a 5km run. The Novablasts are definitely providing better cushioning and achieved a better time than expected. Might try to up my asthma meds to see if it improves my breathing shortcomings experienced later in the run.

I procrastinated too long over replacing my inadequately cushioning running shoes and have developed some pain in my heel after a 7.5 km run, which was probably a bit too much after a heavy 20k step workday the previous day. Anyway, I have ordered some Asic Novablast which should offer far more on-road run cushioning than my present pair. I would have liked a pair of SuperBlast but they were just a bit too expensive. While I wait delivery I will assess whether it is heel bone bruising, plantar fasciitis or even a mild fracture, all of which I have experienced over the last thirty years. It pretty mild at this stage so a couple of weeks should see improvements.

I have to mention the incredible London Marathon results. The winner Sawe in 1:59:30 and Kejelcha only 11 seconds behind. The breakdown of the results is almost beyond belief Averaging a smidge over 21 kph, the 2nd 21km in 59 minutes, the last 5km a couple of seconds faster that the fastest Parkrun registered (allowing that Parkruns are 'for fun' so distance and timing accuracy can be very 'iffy'). Apparently Sawe has been drug tested once every 3 days on average over the last few months at his own request since a few African based athletes have recently been detected taking either performance enhancing drugs or masking agents.

Both of my sport watches have accuracy issues counting my steps at work due to my wrist being stabilised when pushing product around on trolleys. So, I put one in my pocket and the other on my wrist. The wrist unit counted around 18k steps and the one in the pocket 40k steps. Similar results when I reversed the watches being worn and carried in pocket. During free walking (ie not at work) they both register near identical results. I'm still unable to work out the huge disparity in pulse count between the two units during exercise. I'd have to borrow either my son's or his wife's chest monitoring units to do this, but they both take their daily gym session monitoring very seriously. I might have a chance to borrow one when they take a family holiday to Fiji, that is if they treat it as a real holiday.

Last week I came home very late from work to find my wife had gone to bed, but ominously the car manual was left open where it references 'low coolant warning'. A small puddle of coolant under the pump confirmed that the pump replaced in early 2020 had failed again. Luckily the warning happened close to home and there was no overheating. Quoted A$2000 from the dealers and A$1700 by an VW independent specialist (halve those prices for UK pound conversion). The independent said they could do it straight away once they had confirmed the problem and sourced the parts required which usually have to be sourced from the eastern states with a couple of days delay especially with current Hormuz situation created diesel shortages. The leak was slow enough for me to drop it in on Tuesday morning on the way to work (cycled the rest) and fixed by Wednesday arvo (cycled from home to pick up) for less than A$1500 (inc our 10% goods and services tax), so well pleased. Although we have been lucky to avoid any engine damage with the failed pumps it is concerning how unreliable this part is when I consider the remote parts of Australia, we have travelled to in this car. I'm talking dirt roads and no mobile phone cover and the few other cars we meet are usually heavy duty 4WD. Might have to look at some satellite options next time we venture further afield whenever fuel is again more abundant and hopefully cheaper.

I'm no expert but thought that SCR dosing (Urea based?) was injected into the exhaust gases to reduce NOx and so would have no effect on the buildup of intake carbon deposits. I think my 12yo and 120km 1.4tsi (direct injection) is experiencing a similar issue. Car drives perfectly well but consumption at highway speeds has worsened noticeable since it was new. Not unexpected since 90% of the time the vehicle is driven short distances in an urban environment. I love the old diesels to drive but would not consider a diesel, new or old, unless I was doing a lot of long distance driving, preferably pulling a caravan .

Spoke to someone recently who describes himself as 'semi-retired from running' as he only (lol) currently does about 120km a week! He is tossing up whether to increase his training to try to get to the next Olympics! He works for a living, married and his wife is expecting their first. Puts a different perspective on the attitudes of some very entitled and overpaid professional athletes.

The run was completed in somewhat hot, humid and therefore uncomfortable conditions which forced a few stops, but it did reveal a few things. a) I am hopeless at putting a watch on a 'wrong' wrist ie using my left hand to put it on my right wrist. b) My dominant right wrist is unexpectantly smaller than my left. c) The distance measurement was pretty close at 0.02km (20 metre) variation overall, but the new unit was far faster reporting distance travelled and more consistent on reporting current speed. d) The new unit reveals that the old unit was probably not accurate reporting heart rate during the run, and the new Garmin much more in line with what I would expect at my age. The average heart rate for the run varied by a considerable 20 bpm. More independent checking required, I think. e) Both units reporting of my vO2 max for the run were identical. One funny thing though is that I had set up a Garmin Connect account about 10 years ago with a cheap unit I found on the beach (I tried contacting Garmin to find the owner to no effect) and did not bother to put in my birth date but accepted the default which now thinks I'm a 36 year old. On the basis of a couple of runs the Garmin says I have a biological age of 32. Be interesting to how that stat changes when Garmin respond to my request (can't do it online myself apparently) to double my real age on the system.

I am now the 'proud' owner of two working GPS sports smart watches. After I bought a new Garmin unit as replacement for my malfunctioning Fitbit, I chanced on a web site with suggestions on how to factory reset the 'dead' Fitbit with a complex sequence of activations on the one external button.....and it worked. I will adopt the new one as it has several features I like but it will be interesting to compare how the two units report the same run. Yes, I will be the idiot runner wearing two units tomorrow morning.

The internet was right, the Fitbit Versa 3 is not a reliable unit having irrevocably failed the other day after about 2.5 years. I cosseted it more than previous units, like avoiding swimming with it, although it was worn every day, but still disappointed. A few days to my birthday so will probably go for a Garmin unit and accept contributions from the family toward its purchase. Don't need an elite unit but would like GPS, running and activity stats, and 'advanced' heart rate functions, as well as the ability to answer phone calls on my mobile (which has been a surprisingly useful feature). Not sure which specific unit yet but probably priced in the two to three hundred pound price range. Garmins can be quite large and clunky though which do not suit my skinny wrists.

No current lung infection - tick Recovered from medical procedure - tick Run out of excuses - tick So out for some light morning runs before the sun gets up and temperature gets too unbearable. I can't work out whether I was shamed or inspired to run again by my daughter in law getting up at 4 am on Christmas morning for a 25 km run and my uk great nephew participating in a Christmas morning parkrun in near zero temps.

Annnnnd then after only two runs I contracted another respiratory virus. Had to have a clinical PCR test to find out, this time, I had 'Human pneumovirus' and the planned medical procedure deferred. Pretty fed up with just coughing and not running this year, to be honest.

Have you managed to get any test drives of your choices? What did you think of each?

Annnnd then I get a bronchial infection that took me out of running action during the four weeks break I had from work.🤧 Resumed running yesterday and back to 6 minute kms but no ambition to improve for the moment with a small medical procedure due.

Might be the dpf sensor was stuffed up by the cleaning process or not reattached properly?

Since I have had access to a gps I have confirmed that nearly all my cars odometers are accurate (depending on tyre wear) within a couple of percent. The exception was a Hyundai Santa Fe mk1 V6 which turned out to be about 8% optimistic. The speedometers on a previous mk2 and current mk3 Octavia were/are about 7% optimistic. The Santa Fe was 10% optimistic. I don't really care about speedo accuracy once I know the variance as I can allow for it. An optimistic speedo is useful if lending the car to my son :) Fuel economy display figures are based on fuel used and distance travelled and do not use the display speed. So I always do a quick calculation when I refuel with actual distance and refuel amount. My 2014 Octavia mk3 1.4tsi fuel display was slightly pessimistic when new but over its life and 117k km the display has progressed through very accurate to increasingly optimistic, so I now have to take off 0.3l/100 off the display to a more accurate figure. A simple test is to set the cruise control (which is related to the speedo display) for a set figure (say 60kph) and then reset the average speed display for journey while in motion, after a few hundred uninterrupted metres the average speed calculated by distance travelled is shown and can be compared against the speedo. I would have hoped that VCDS would have allowed adjusting the displays for speed, distance and consumption separately, but according to the OP this might not be the case?

I've never owned or even driven a VW 1.0mpi but I have great respect for it from some of the consumption claims in the Briskoda Citigo section. The power figure of 75ps at 6200 rpm is respectable although not unremarkable as is the torque figure of 95Nm but the kicker is that maximum torque is achieved at a comparatively low 3000 rpm and I think that is almost unique for its size and type. Not many engines, regardless of size, could match that and small capacity engines usually produce their max torque at 4000+ rpm, like my 22yo 1.3L Toyota requires 4400 rpm. Having extoled its virtues, it is still only a normally aspirated 1 litre engine and you can't expect too much of it. I can't find much on the web about performance of the 1.0mpi but there were figures that said acceleration from 80 to 120 kph was 31 seconds in 5th gear and 20 seconds in 4th gear. To me that suggests the manufacturer's gearing is (not surprisingly) about optimal and that a longer top gear is likely to worsen performance and consumption. I have driven a more powerful 1.0tsi Fabia manual and was extremely impressed by consumption and ability to cruise economically at highway speeds, with a load, at sub 3k rpm. That would be my choice if looking for a better balance than you currently have. Like others, I see little point in all the work and expense involved for an extra gear and a potentially less satisfying car.