Gerrycan

That is the first time I have seen anyone confirm in this forum the 1.4tsi 140bhp fuel standards as 95 RON and 91 RON emergency. Australian fuels are a somewhat unique mix. We have a 91RON (max 150ppm sulphur), 95 and 98 RON (max 40ppm sulphur), E10 and E85 and in the outback a special 91 RON substitute called 'Opal'. The manual and filler cap of my car just says 95RON minimum recommended but I was advised by the dealer early in the ownership to run it on 98RON. I tried a few concurrent tanks of 98 but did not detect any improvement in response or economy so I went back to using the cheaper 95 RON which mine is happy on. I shudder at the thought of putting our 91 RON in. The E10 is a couple of cents a litre cheaper than 91RON and used to be advertised as having a 94RON rating, which would make sense with the ethanol added to the 91RON, but this advertised rating has been dropped. I recently had a look at an E10 bowser and it had a small sticker attached saying that Ethanol content could vary between 0 and 10%!!! Pretty much a backyard operation it seems. Ironically our government has deemed our last two or three remaining refineries to be strategic assets and have agreed to pay the owners an extortionate amount to stay open and upgrade their facilities to meet EU 10ppm sulphur content standards. It could also mean that 91RON is dropped and 95RON is achieved with 10% ethanol as per the EU and UK. Very few road cars can run the E85 ( it was a short fad for Holden, one of our now closed car manufacturers) and they are not optimised for it so they cannot really use the 105RON rating effectively and consumption is reported as being unusually bad although power seems not to be a problem. There are a couple of local racing categories that specify it and the engines are tuned solely for it. 'Opal' is a BP product with a low 5% aromatics (Tuolene etc) content to combat the incredibly damaging effects of petrol sniffing in aboriginal communities, and it has worked. Expensive to produce but it is subsidised at 33c/litre by our Government. I've seen literature suggesting that engines running it develop far less carbon deposits than standard 91RON but it is not available in metropolitan areas otherwise I'd put some in my 25 year old lawnmower.

Was that fitting the spare, or all tyres, or having the (front) wheel tracking done? The 16" spacesaver (Nexen) tyre on my car is incredibly and unbearably noisy when fitted Have you tried switching the tyres diagonally back to front to see if anything changes at all with the reversal of tread?

The 1.4tsi Octavia does not have irs rear suspension it has a torsion beam rear. My understanding is that there is nothing they can adjust but I could be wrong. IF I'm right then it suggests the back has taken a knock which may require a new part to correct the misalignment?

@themanwithnoaim ran a DTUK box on his 1.4tsi DSG for a few years with no problems. His average 30mpg consumption was confirmation of his 'drive it like you stole it' approach. The turbo is relatively small to boost low down torque and that aspect is accentuated by a remap according to 'tmwna' so there was little benefit in revving to the redline. I know he moved onto vehicles more appropriate to his driving philosophy so we haven't heard much from him lately.

The SUV shape is very fashionable at the moment and fashion is not necessarily sensible, think high-heels, flared trousers or smoking The Achilles heel of the SUV shape is the large frontal area and relatively poor drag coefficient. The Enyaq is quoted at 0.27 whereas the mk4 Octavia sedan is 0.25 and that is despite including a possible 30% penalty for the ICE engine radiator. You would think an EV optimised version of the Octavia sedan would achieve about 0.23 , maybe better? The proposed Mercedes EQS EV is quoted at 0.2 but that efficiency is achieved at the expense of a jelly mould shape, although I personally don't mind it. My ideal EV specification is not yet available: Affordably priced Battery technology more simple and durable than current Lithium tech with no complex cooling/heating requirements for rapid charging, and also lighter than current batteries. Relatively small battery capacity with say a useable 50kWh capacity Efficient aerodynamics and low weight that allow 500km cruising range at 100kph, although capable of cruising at higher speeds (with increased consumption). There are some very interesting new battery chemistries that hold some promise for what I am looking for, but they are a few years from production.

Don't forget insurance.

I'm pretty sure the coolant system for the head and exhaust manifold is temporarily isolated from the rest of the engine by a valve to allow it warm up quickly to operating temp and reduce emissions. Bonus is that it includes the heater matrix so even in winter you get warm air reasonably quickly, however in colder air temperatures turning the heater full on will extend the time it takes the water temp to reach 90 deg when it presumably integrates the whole coolant system. My old 1.9pd seemed to take about 10km in our mild winters before even slightly warm air came out vents, and about 15 minutes to reach 90 deg on the gauge. Engine was too efficient and a lot of iron in the engine block to heat.

I have experienced really bad sawtoothing (unbearable noise) on previous cars which was immediately cured with a change of tyres and 4 wheel realignment (independent rear suspension). My current car has mild sawtoothing (bearable noise levels) but the tyres will soon be due for replacement so I can live with it until then. However the noise and vibration I experienced, while variable on different surfaces and speeds, was/is always present whatever the speed so I'm not totally confident that the OP's speed specific issue is necessarily attributable to tyres . As mentioned previously by someone else, the simple test is to run the hand over the tyres in each direction to feel for variation in the levels between the start/finish of each tread block.

It is a pretty high percentage of the price of a brand new car for ONE headlight and it was just a pigeon I mean if he hit something like an emu then yeah, that could be expensive.

Many years back, when we were looking for a new car (and eventually bought mk2 Octavia), my wife took out a Mondeo for a test drive by herself. She was only doing 60kph limit in the 'fast' lane of an urban multi-lane when a large flock of pigeons flew out of the centre nature strip and she drove straight through them. No damage done to the car fortunately, and my wife was horrified but steered straight. She said the salesman's face said it all when he first saw all the blood and feathers that smothered the front of his brand new demo from a 15 minute test drive. Some years later we discovered there was a local bird fancier who fed them there for years, hence the concentration of birds. He probably remembers it as the 'Great Mondeo Massacre'. I find the costs being quoted for replacing damaged higher spec headlights (xenon, led) does seem extraordinarily high.

Cheap option if you have newish high spec Apple or Samsung phones are the apple Airtag or Samsung Smart tag+. There is a review here https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/car-tracking-apple-airtag-v-samsung-smarttag-v-gps-comparison-review-which-is-best

I disagree but since I could only afford one pound for the 5 minute argument we will have stop now. However the bit about the 'pedal reset' does sound relevant. Are you saying that you can factory reset a DSG without having to use VCDS or similar?

When you get defensive you do come out with some irrelevant and difficult to understand twaddle. Again I ask what does any of that have to do with the OP's comments on his 'wet' 6 speed DSG?

A local (australian) national tyre distributor suggests 5 years is the point where extra vigilance is required for things like cracking from a ageing tyre Which raises the interesting issue of my now 7 year old space saver spare which has only done about 500 km (I've had a lot of punctures). I guess your decision will also be influenced by how many miles you are likely to do a year now you are out of lockdown? I'm just thankful that I don't live in climate where I have to deal with all the faff of storing and fitting summer and winter tyres. Just for your amusement my state of South Australia has just gone into an initial 7 day total lockdown because we now have 5 cases of Delta variant in our approx 2 million population and low (11.2%) fully vaccinated cover. I get my 2nd Astra Zeneca tomorrow.

I think the question you should ask yourself is how safe your existing tyres are now, or going to be when the the weather gets cooler, seeing as how they are so hard. Be a shame for them to fail their first true test in an emergency braking situation in adverse conditions and regret not fitting the new tyres in the shed. By the way I now notice all I did was paraphrase your post so I think you already know the right thing to do. Quite a few years back there was a Briskoda Octavia owner who complained about his OEM Dunlop being noisy and giving very poor ride and handling. As a road warrior he doing some amazing annual mileage and was determined to wear them out. I think he gave up at 96k miles. Obviously his tyres were defective, yours might be too.

Had similar problems with my mk2 Octavia where the OE Dunlop Sportmaxx developed a really bad serrated tread noise from a misaligned rear over a similar distance. Bit the bullet and replaced them very early with re-alignment and the subsequent serenity was bliss, hated the unnecessary expense though. To get that little wear over 12k miles suggest they are a little 'hard' and you will have to endure the noise for years to come if you retain them. I'd go for the promotion price, change the lot and see if you can sell the P7's, but not to a Briskoda member of course Damn sight cheaper than changing the car.

I'm not sure how what you are saying ties in with the point of this thread where the OP reset the gearbox adaptations (back to factory spec?) and was happy with the results?

Sounds like the 'learning to adapt to a driver' feature is a bit too smart for its own good. I had a casual pre-covid job where I drove hundreds of customer's vehicles (over relatively short distances of up to 5km) and the variation between like models could be surprisingly large. To be honest I was not that impressed with most autos I drove, even luxury brands. I always preferred the manuals (especially the Mustang V8/manual combination which just seduced me) There was one standout car, a simple brand new Mk7 Golf with 1.4tsi and 7 speed dry DSG. It was just so incredibly smooth, and changed imperceptibly at the perfect revs (for me) I could not believe how good it was relative to others I had driven. A colleague drove it and agreed it was unusually good. Funnily enough the car I drove immediately after was a Tesla S, with no gears, and I was a bit less 'wowed' than I thought I would be because the Golf made that much impact.

My previous mk2 1.9pd Octavia had a basic climate controlled aircon system with a manual rotating temperature control (temps marked around the dial) and manual fan speed selection. To be honest it was not very good and seemed to have a mind of its own as what temperature it chose to support in what conditions. The current 2014 mk3 1.4tsi just has an honest simple aircon system that does what I want and like @J.R.I find it quite efficient and effective for my needs. My consumption is set to metric L/100 and when stationary and ticking over (no stop/start) the consumption shows as 0.5L/hour with no aircon on. If the outside temperature is in the mid 20's, and sun shining (you get a lot of radiant heat from the Australian sun), then I will have the aircon on and fan set to the lowest '1' speed. When the aircon cuts in the idling consumption will increase to 0.8L/hour, it will hold that until it reduces the cooling matrix to a couple of degrees above freezing (to avoid icing up) and then cut out until the matrix warms up to a point where the aircon starts again. in those conditions I'd say it runs at the higher consumption for about 66% of time. So if I extrapolate that to travelling at 100kph in similar conditions then consumption is only affected by about 0.2L/100 when running the aircon. I reckon that is pretty good. When temps are in the 30's and aircon on with higher internal fan speed then idling consumption will rise to 1.2L/100 and drop back to 0.8L/100 which affects higher speed running consumption by about 0.5L/100. In an extreme situation where I had 4 people in the car, in the city, with 47C outside temperatures, I had the internal fan on the highest speed, the radiator fan was going full bore and idling consumption was 2.3L/hour. It was the first time I had wished the aircon had a bit more reserve, but it was still a lot better than opening the window. To be fair the water temperature gauge still did not move off 'normal'. Our other runabout is a 2003 Toyota Echo with a 1.3L engine. The aircon still has the original gas, never been serviced and still works well, however it takes a lot of the engines power and the aircon gets turned off when overtaking or wishing to get up steep long hills on hot days. I still can't believe that we did not option aircon in the first new car we bought here because we could not afford it! We must have been a lot tougher then.

In the Skoda range I have only seen the 1.4tsi with ACT mentioned in conjunction with the Superb. I have been considering the Scala as that is now available in Australia, the base model comes with a manual box and 1.5tsi with ACT without PPF, and non climate controlled aircon which I like.

Based on my experiments in my mk3 1.4tsi estate then if the OP was travelling at an accurate 70 mph on a flat stretch of motorway, ambient 20C temp, no other traffic and little to no wind then he would struggle to achieve 50mpg, and yet he is claiming 60mpg, and I believe him. Its 35 years since I lived in the UK but when I return I am appalled by how much traffic load on highways has increased and the close proximity that cars travel behind each other. On UK motorways if I left what I consider a reasonably safe 2.5 second distance to the vehicle in front then it seemed to be an open invitation for everyone to cut in which was ridiculous, so I found myself driving almost as close as everyone else does to the vehicle in front. Not surprisingly my consumption improved significantly, and all I was doing was driving like everyone else. Although I consider my car gives very good consumption it is only typical of the breed, but I am well aware of how the driving environment affects my consumption. By the way I agree with you that using the air conditioning in warmer weather is vital and when travelling at speed it has far less effect on consumption and is more comfortable than opening a window. Mark you when the temp pushes over 40C in urban conditions then consumption will worsen by 40% or more.

Excellent returns by any measure did you use cruise control a lot? What sort of cruise control do you have fitted, vanilla or ACC. Our 1.4tsi only have ordinary cruise but it manages consumption really well especially on the flat. I can really only better it when it gets a bit hilly. 60 mpg equates to 4.7L/100 and probably reflects a slightly optimistic speedo, not going quite as fast as you think although 60mph average is pretty good, and the peloton effect of driving on busy British motorways. We rented a Kia diesel on a UK visit a few years back and averaged 60mpg for one tank and over 70mpg on two other refills (actual, not computer) while touring around. Seems you only travel distances with a gearbox in the back lol. Where are based? My recently deceased brother-in-law was an enthusiastic member of the Essex TR owners club and my sister and he did a few club trips in UK and continent in their TR3A. As an ex mechanic he restored a few and helped other club members with theirs.

The mk3 Octavia below VRS or AWD versions only has a torsion beam rear suspension and so little to no adjustment. My former mk2 Octavia had independent rear and that was out of adjustment from new. The Dunlop fitted were initially very quiet but within 10k km sawtoothed badly and were really noisy. Realignment and new tyres fixed it for the rest of its tenure My current 2014 Mk3 1.4tsi came with Dunlop when new and they were quiet upto replacement at 40k km with Michelin Premacy. These have been quiet up until recently but have now at 78k km developed a noise and some sawtoothing, SO the front wheels must have got out of alignment although wear is even across the tyre and there is 3mm left all round. Being a card carrying skinflint and the noise is bearable at present we will run the tyres down to the legal minimum (probably 8k km to do that) and then replace and realign at the same time. The Nexen 16" spacesaver spare is incredibly noisy at all speeds when fitted and that appears virtually unused.

A really interesting question. The running in process is not just about the engine of course. Personally I would not like to push the handling envelope until the tyres newness has been scrubbed off over say the initial 200km, and that goes for when new tyres are fitted. The other thing is to bed in the brakes before any really heavy stuff, although even that process is going to be extended somewhat with regenerative braking. If most of your daily commute is within battery range then I'd use EV mode. Longer journeys should be the major part of the engine running in process since the engine would get a chance to actually warm up properly and do some extended and varied work. I would have thought the running in process will probably take a lot longer than 1500km but the only real inconvenience would be if you were planning to tow a trailer. Most people rarely take their 1.4/1.5tsi engines over three quarters of max revs because that is where the torque falls off and with a PHEV you usually have the boost from the EV motor in hybrid mode anyway in the lower revs. Your choice of course and the only thing likely to cause any sort of 'damage' (?) is placing an unnecessarily heavy and extended load on the engine. Like towing a heavy trailer up a steep hill at low revs in too high a gear ..... and is that even possible with a DSG?

I think you are being a little harsh on Octavia's efforts. Unless the van you are borrowing is a diesel I don't think you will get much better consumption than you got towing the brick. I have owned petrol cars that struggled to match your 9.0L/100 at 100kph without a trailer attached!