Gerrycan

Any idea how much that lot will set you back with the "doctor's" labour included? I notice that the parts for even non electric bikes seem to have gone through the roof since pre-covid days.

Both the better performing Type R and vRS had appropriate engineering of transmission, brakes, suspension and tyres (etc) to better control the application of the available power. I consider the Fabia as better than basic transport, and the fact that you can get near 50% improved performance for a relatively small price is remarkably appealing but I'm not sure it is a good starting point from a safety aspect?

You have got that 'posterior about face' . VRS 2.0tsi/2.0tdi uses more fuel than the 1.5tsi so gets the bigger tank, AWD models use even more fuel so need the even bigger tank. That is for full ICE and won't be any different in Ireland.

A few years since I had a diesel Octavia, which was a 1.9pd, but I think I remember it had a similar feature to my existing 1.4tsi Octavia When I unlock the car and open the driver's door I will hear the sound of what I think is the fuel pump priming itself for nearly 2 seconds. Does yours do this? IF not then the action of turning on the ignition twice might be replacing the 'missing' priming pump. If you do hear the pump sound opening the door then I've got nothing else to offer. When reporting a problem it is useful for others if you give as much detail as possible eg, year of car, mileage, when did the problem start occurring, was there any coincident event such as changing the fuel filter or a regular service, do you do your own servicing or use an independant specialist mechanic or dealer, have you raised the problem with a dealer if still in warranty and their response, what's your long drive distance, what's your short drive distance etc etc.

Next Time??

A good version of either 1.6d or 2.0d can give you excellent fuel consumption on a long run, but years of reading owner reports on Briskoda suggests that there can be quite large variations between individual vehicles consumption, even allowing for different driver habits and driving environments. A good test drive with a keen eye on consumption results should enable you to avoid a lemon of either variety.

The new smart watch is great for recording runs my now infrequent runs but I am getting a bit fed up with all the over-congratulatory and encouraging messages I'm getting for the paces I routinely do at work. Actually like most watch based systems it does not record paces when the wrist is stabilised such as when pushing a trolley or work flatbed. Not been able to turn them off yet despite disabling heaps of notification stuff in the setup app. Might just cancel my 6 months free Premium Fitbit membership and see if that makes a difference? I think the Premium (A$113 pa after free membership expires) membership is probably useful if you have to achieve weight goals for your health but I'm lucky not to have that problem so it is not really going to be a loss.

As @GordoGT said it is the NO2 emissions that is the big problem for diesels. NO2 is three hundred times worse than CO2 for global warming effects. However, diesels fitted with AdBlue injection systems, targeting NO2 emissions, can actually have lower NO2 outputs than some direct injection petrol engines. Politicians don't want to hear that though

The Octavia mk3s with the small turbo engines are relatively light for their size and my 1.4tsi wagon definitely feels a cross wind more than my old mk2, with the heavier 1.9pd engine up front, ever did. However, while I agree that the steering is very light about centre I find it is also very sensitive to any steering wheel movements and very accurate so I don't so much as steer as 'think' it (minimal wheel movements) in the direction I want, on straights or on long bends. We recently completed a long trip, principally on pretty average, undivided, single lane in each direction, roads at 100kph(ish) speeds and it was interesting to note that my wife made more and larger continual steering corrections than I do when driving. I think this is the reason she finds long distance driving more taxing than I do. I find that while the car readily feels the effects of cross winds and the slipstream of large trucks from the other direction if I resist the temptation to move the steering to 'counter' the wind effect it still steers accurately because I find the mk3 (and mk2 before it) has little or no slack in the steering. Out of curiosity what pressure do you run your tyres? I ran our previously fitted 17 inch Michelin Primacy tyres at 37psi which I found to be best (purely personal preference) but even then for the last 10k km of their 50k km life the ride had deteriorated noticeably whatever pressure I tried. The Primacy also felt like they were not in contact with the ground at all when new but did improve after a couple of hundred km when the tread lost its 'gloss'. I did not think my experiences with them were as good as some of the glowing test results I read. I was always told that RWD cars require toe-out settings and FWD toe-in settings to maximise tyre life. Might be different in a competition environment but I have no experience in that area.

I've got a 2014 1.4tsi estate, owned from new, on a fairly low 95k km with original suspension parts and 17 inch wheels. OEM tyres were Dunlop Sportsmaxx, pretty good and consistent through their 40k km life. Replaced with Michelin Premacy which lasted near 50k km and for the last 10k km the ride felt as though it was deteriorating, so much so I thought a suspension component might be at issue. A few weeks ago I fitted Continental tyres and the car's formerly excellent ride (imo) was restored. Long story short, is that the tyres can make a substantial difference. I run my tyres at 37psi, which is a bit higher than recommended, for various reasons: safer emergency braking as the higher pressure allows the front tyres to resist load deformation. don't have to worry about raising the pressures if you offer some larger friends a lift. a little better fuel economy I like the car's ride and handling characteristics at that pressure. A very remote possibility for your experiencing such a poor ride is that the transport blocks were not removed on the, when new, pre-delivery inspection. Most incidents of transport blocks in place that have been posted on Briskoda have obviously been with brand new cars, since the ride is reportedly near intolerable, but there has been at least one post concerning a second hand car. To check, you jack up the front as if to change the front tyre so that the suspension droops, if that reveals some brightly coloured blocks on the suspension, then they need to be removed. Check both sides at the front, they would not have been fitted to the rear suspension. As I say, it is extremely unlikely to have been undiscovered for so long, but it costs nothing to check other than a bit of time and effort.

Makes sense to me. What has changed is that the price of new and decent second hand vehicles has risen faster than for many years so when you already have a car you enjoy driving it is difficult to justify the cost of changing to a car that is, at best, only marginally better.

The Samsung Smart Watch given to me a couple of years back has died from mysteriously incurred injuries. The glass covered heart rate monitor on the back has broken and I have no idea how it happened especially considering it was the high end model with the better constructed case and it was only taken off for charging. My only real complaint was the unit was a bit too big for my small wrist so the heart rate function was intermittent unless done up uncomfortably tight. A brief but intensive internet search brought me up to date with current tech and prices and I settled on a Fitbit Versa 3 as a very cheap replacement. Pros: cheap price (A$196), GPS, heartrate, clear AMOLED display, lots of other Smart Watch functions, lightweight and a good fit on wrist, good battery life, made in Taiwan. Cons: My fourth brand so my exercise stats are spread across four different internet sites. Inconvenient but not a big issue really as I rarely look back at them. Only one run with it so far but getting heart rate stats for a full run is really interesting and vastly different from the Smart Watch. Previously my Smart Watch average would report somewhere between 135-155 but the Versa 3 reported 162 bpm average which I thought I had left behind some 20 years back. It might be due to running after a hard day at work, which I don't normally do, but yeah, had to try the watch out. Not sure how I can verify the accuracy really unless I borrow someone else's (more expensive) unit and wear both at the same time. Winter is here now in Aus and this particular 'adapted-to-the-heat' Pom needs the extra 'technical' incentive the new toy offers to get out there and just run.

If the Toyota hybrid estate that you are buying was available in Australia then I would have bought it by now...but it is not 😞 . Toyota hybrids are in high demand and the wait times for the SUVs they insist on foisting on us are out to two years for many models. A couple of years a go my wife and I rented a Corolla hybrid sedan on a holiday in the Northern Territory, it only had the 1.8L engine but easily cruised at the 130kph speed limits that exist on some roads there. Amazed at the economy at those speeds on flat roads where the hybrid system was not supposed to contribute much. Only criticisms I had were that the road noise from the tyres on their coarse tarmac roads ( worse than our Octavia) and I thought the active cruise control placed the vehicle too close to the vehicle in front, even on maximum distance setting. The CVT was a brilliant thing and offered an enormous range of gears. On a slight decline at 130kph the revs dropped to about 1500 to minimise consumption while maintaining thrust for the set speed. The aircondtioning system was extremely good in the tropical climate as well and being powered by the battery would run for a reasonable time even with the engine off. I'd be interested in reading your opinions of the car when you have had some experience with it and time to post a review in the review section

I find it difficult to believe it is possible in the UK driving environment. An active regen generates very high temperatures (400+ degrees) to burn off the collected carbon. Might be possible at Autobahn speeds or towing a heavy trailer/caravan up a long steep hill but otherwise modern vehicles use a fraction of their available power to maintain motorway speed limits so exhaust temperatures would never get hot enough. My personal opinion is that long runs enable low soot generation so what is thought of as a passive regen is just enabling extended periods between real regens. I will be quite happy to be proved wrong

When I bought a brand but basic spec new mk2 Octavia in 2007 I assumed the four speaker system meant front and rear fittings, especially since there was a grill in the rear but my then music-mad teenage son soon pointed out the error of my ways from the rear seats. An I-pod and headphones for him fixed the issue for him and solved the never ending argument over music selection and volume I was more annoyed with myself for not realising the four speakers were the mid-range and tweeters were front mounted rather than any real disappointment over loss of quality or volume. 90% of the time there was only a driver in the car and while a good sound system is not important for either my wife or I it was just adequate for our purposes. We now have a mk3 and it does have front and rear speakers but the very basic entertainment 'Swing' units fitted in both old and new cars do not produce quality sound from the cheap speakers fitted. I don't think that adding rear speakers is going to be worth the effort for the minimal improvement in sound quality you are likely to get. While I don't expect much from the mk3 Swing unit the quality of bluetooth phone calls is far superior to what I have experienced in far more expensive vehicles, go figure. As you only have front speakers fitted I'm assuming that you have the latest basic entertainment unit installed so maybe others can advise whether upgrading the front speakers is worth the relatively small expense for any noticeable improvement. Noise cancelling earbuds work a treat as well but you have to remain particularly visually alert like a deaf driver would have to.

The highway consumption seems quite high to me. 13km per litre is 7.69L/100 or only about 36mpg (for the UK readers) however without some driving environment context the bare figures offer little information whether it is really as bad as you and I seem to think. What sort of distance has the car done, has it been serviced as recommended? Remaps may get you a little better consumption if you don't use the performance on offer but you will probably never get the cost of the remap back in reduced fuel costs. @TheClient has summed up your best approach to checking the serviceable items and refining your economic driving technique but I'd add it may be worthwhile getting the cylinders compression checked as a low cost indication as to whether there are incipient engine issues.

Congratulations on your new car. My manual 1.4tsi dates back to 2014 and it is still a delight to drive so I can relate to your favourable early impressions of your new car What brand of tyres are fitted to your car? The mk3 was sensitive to some brands and that trait may have continued. The mk4 has much better aerodynamics than the mk3 so that should contribute to even better consumption on longer high speed journeys. I think you will find the eight speakers are accounted for by a primary speaker and tweeter in each door.

For the simple nails and screes I have had the plugs have been fine. I am not doing any Euro highway speeds after all. Strikes me that having your own plug kit is an excellent idea saving money and more importantly time. Since new BEVs rarely have spare tyres a plug kit is a much better idea than the cans of goo they install.

During my non-DPF 1.9pd ownership I was very impressed by how good the consumption was even on very short journeys. I only lived about 6 km from work and got over 50 mpg on the run to and from....however on cold days (less than 10C) I just started to get hot air from the heater when the journey ended. Compare that to the less than 1km for warm air from the 1.4tsi and only slightly worse consumption.

Did the misfire go away after the fuel filter change? As @toot says there are items that should be changed at various appropriate service intervals to ensure proper fuel combustion. The 1.2tsi is not a particularly high performance engine and is designed to run on UK/Euro standard 95 Octane fuel so the dealer's comments that it requires E5 are basically BS. Having said that if E10 fuel storage has been compromised, to the extent that the (hygroscopic) Ethanol has been allowed to absorb water vapour, either by the suppliers or if your vehicle has not been driven for a long time/filler cap seal is compromised, then the engine could be a bit lumpy until the fuel in the tank is refreshed. I've heard of rare fuel (petrol and diesel) compromises in Australia (well those resulting in catastrophic consequences) but cannot recall any similar reports on Briskoda. By all means compare the two fuel grades but I have never been able to notice any noticeable difference in performance or economy in my 1.4tsi when I have experimented. What sort of mileage has the car done and what servicing schedule has been adopted? VAG cars in Australia are a mandatory 15k km or yearly

Is the car garaged overnight or outside? As per @J.R. did the smell become apparent after refueling? Have you lifted the bonnet to 'see' if the petrol smell comes from that area? Do you have a jerrycan in the car that might not be properly sealed? ( I had to ask) Any old rags in the car used to clean up oil (on dipstick for instance). Older oil can be quite smelly. You are very unlikely to find any sort of petrol puddle under the car unless it is a really major leak it evaporates quickly even in cold weather. And do you have a fire extinguisher to hand in the car?

There are probably good reasons why there are so many 1.6d for sale. I believe they are popular with UK uber drivers so mileage would be relatively high and probable dpf issues starting to appear. Personally I would be looking at the 1.0tsi depending on price and availability of course. If you have to get the diesel it might not be a bad idea to get an odbc dongle and phone software to see the state of the dpf before purchase and maybe also see what error codes might be there?

The knees I understand, but from my pearls of aerodynamic wisdom all you got was Octavii! 🤣🤣

Jeez, you could have done that before you posted. 🤣

Excellent result from a simple procedure! If only other problems were so easy to solve. Not sure why you feel the need to find the source though. Are you now missing it after having to live with it for so long? Is this a variation of 'Stockholm syndrome'? 🤣