chrisgreen

Well if you are sure the battery is functional and capable of holding a charge, it can only be 1) your alternator isn’t charging it (if that’s the case, it’s time for a new alternator - possible for a 13 year old car, especially if it’s done moon miles), or there’s a rogue power draw in the car, but would need to be a big one to wipe out a fully charged battery in 4-5 hours. Have you been across the fuse box with a multimeter with the car off to see if there’s any current drawing there. That will give you a better reading than looking for a draw at the battery end, and it will show you exactly the device/circuit that’s drawing power while the car isn’t running, if there is one.

How old is the battery (when did you last replace it). It’s probably just knackered.

That’s not how a piggy back fuse works! It needs to be plugged in the right way up so the hot voltage is on the right pin to allow the circuit to work (with the tapped feed being on its own smaller fuse so it blows before taking out the original fuse in the socket). Inset it the wrong way round and everything runs off the original fuse - no isolation and if the fuse goes, you lose both power feeds at once. Inset this case, would be the dash cam and the rear wiper.

Not worth buying another one just for this. If anyone else has done a dash cam install and can confirm the correct orientation of the piggy back fuse, that would be really helpful.

No multimeter to hand alas. If I did, wouldn’t need to be asking.

Hi Fitting a hidden 12v socket for a dashcam to my Fabia II Combi at the weekend. It's been a long time since I last did one of these on a Fabia II, and I can't for the life of me remember which way round is the correct orientation for the Piggy Back fuse to connect to the "hot" side of the fuse socket I'm piggybacking. I'm using Fuse 26 (rear wiper). UK layout fuse box (so small fuses on the right, big fuses on the left). Should I go with piggy back fuse cable pointing up (fuses out to the right) or pointing down (fuses out to the left)? If anyone knows, please let me know. Thanks Chris

If you are just using a USB 4G or 5G stick inside the car, the stick has its own internal aerials, no need for anything else. It's also pointless, you may as well just hotspot off your phone, which also doesn't need an external aerial.

GPS antenna - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182758637033?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=g_UaOp-ZS5a&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=POQie7l3QtC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY As for the LTE aerial. Yes, more recent Octys and Superbs (like mine) have a built in data modem, WiFi hotspot, and either an eSIM or sim card socket. You don’t have any of this on the Rapid and there’s no factory retrofit, so an LTE aerial is pointless.

For the GPS antenna, use one of the magnetic ones and place it on the metal crossmember that runs across the top of the dashboard (you can access it via the dashboard side panels). You get excellent reception there as there’s only a thin layer of dashboard plastic above the aerial. It’s what the vast majority of us did when we retrofitted the Amundsen to our Rapids. The same GPS aerial fitting approach also works for the Mk2 Fabia, as I did the same Amundsen retrofit on one of those as well.

I would advise caution. A post-production replacement of the aerial always increases the risk of water ingress if the new aerial isn’t perfectly sealed against the bodywork. Also, there’s the risk of damaging the headlining when trying to route the cables around. For those reasons, I would go with a discreet windscreen mounted DAB aerial rather than retrofitting a shark fin. Something like this: https://amzn.to/4jkMEdO Or this: https://amzn.to/3FTPKap Also makes for easier cable routing as the wiring immediately goes behind the passenger side A pillar, and then down over the top of the glove box into the infotainment space in the dash.

for £16,500 I’m sure you can find a lower-mileage example with a full service history. Keep looking.

Today I've mostly been putting oil in my Superb's engine. Had a "Check Oil Level" warning yesterday afternoon (yes, been a bit lax in checking the fluids of late). Really not used to car engines that use a lot of oil between services (my Fabia doesn't, the Rapid I had didn't, and neither did the MG ZS SUV). No oil leak eitehr. Anyway, a litre of VW Spec 0w-20 later and its back up to level and seems to be happy. Lesson - check fluids regularly - especially on the 1.5 TSI :)

So the last dipstick check I did (warm) was somewhere between two and three months ago - can’t be exact. Oil was comfortably in the B range. Couldn’t tell you for certain the last time it was still in A - somewhere between the last time it was serviced and the last time I checked the stick. Yes, the Superb is on 0w-20 VW 508/509 spec. My Rapid 1.2 TSI used 5w-30 VW 504/507 Spec, as does my current Fabia Combi 1.2 HTP. Just been back out - car is still operating temp warm having only got home a few mins ago, so it’s had a chance to settle on level ground. Dipstick check is good - back into the low end of A/top end of B: Will do another cold check later this evening as well for comparison, and will top up some more if needed. But good to know the car consumes oil at a fair rate. As I said, coming from my last three cars - two of which were/are Skodas - that didn’t/don’t go through oil at anywhere near this level, this caught me off guard. At the very least it’s a wake-up call to get back into my fortnightly routine of checking fluids on the car again.

Afternoon all Had a bit of a surprise yesterday afternoon when I got a check oil level warning on the car. Pulled the stick a few times and, although not an entirely clear measure as the engine had already started, it seemed really low (at the minimum level). Drove to Halfords to get oil and ended up sticking a litre into it - half a litre yesterday afternoon and the rest this morning after a cold dipstick read (which got it properly back into the safe zone). Admittedly I haven’t checked the oil level for a few months (unusual for me but my usually fortnightly checks on the car have fallen victim to a lack of time lately), but in 10 months and 7,000 miles of driving, this seems like a lot of oil consumption. This this normal for this engine? My 1.2TSI Rapid didn’t seem to consume any oil at all in the 8+ years I had it. The Superb is a 2023 model, I bought it in late May 2024 with just over 5,000 on the clock. It was fully serviced by the main dealer I bought it from and had an oil change. I’ve done 7,000 in it since then. Thanks Chris

Finally got hold of a set of genuine Superb III hatchback roof bars! Found a chap via Facebook that had sold his Superb, still had the genuine bars, only very lightly used (carried a roof box a few times). In perfect condition and complete with both keys. T-channel rubbers not cut and in good condition too (just a few indents from where the roof box was pressing down on the rubbers). Might replace the rubbers at some point, but not urgent. Overall, a significant saving over buying a brand new set, even with the cost of driving round to the other side of London and back to get them (was actually a nice late evening drive, no traffic). That was the last accessory I was after really so the car is now equipped exactly as I want it. Now I can get back to messing about with virtual cockpit options in Carista.

Most recent ones from my two. Milestone moment on the Fabia. This is a 62-plate. My mum bought it with 15,000 on the clock. This was taken a few days ago: Meanwhile, hit this a few weeks ago on the Superb III - a July 2023 car, I bought it in May last year with 5,000 on the clock:

Hmmm - major work done and the car is being sold 5,000 miles later. That’s a huge red flag for me. Avoid. Find a different one.

Your call. But if I were in your shoes, especially without knowing the history of the car (oh and the tyres don’t actually fit on those rims. Look at the sidewalls), I would walk away. Plenty more out there in better condition.

What did the report say - is the car history clean or has it been ragged by a taxi driver or had a hard life as a motorbility car etc?

I normally use motorscan.co.uk. They provide a lot of info for free, but a full report on the car’s history is £9.99. Money well spent IMHO. Chris

Also, glass scratches are very hard to fix without damaging the actual glass itself. Very very fine scratches can be dulled down with an aggressive glass polish and some tedious hand polishing, but anything deeper is very hard to do anything with. Machine polishing glass risks distorting the surface.

The new pics of the wheels is showing up the paint job to be even worse than I initially thought. Done badly by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Those wheels are supposed be silver, not black. The roof scratches concern me, suggests a hard life at a minimum and worse case scenario that it’s carried things on the roof (not using a proper roof rack). Have you looked into the full previous history of the car. Was it previously a taxi or on Motorbility?

There’s a few things there that are throwing up red flags. If the car is mechanically sound, personally I would be looking to knock about a grand off if I were buying it for the bodywork issues and the cost of having all four rims refurbished properly (and put back for the correct colour).

You are roughly the same as me (I'm 5'11"). You really need to physically get into the car (or any Rapid) and try it to make sure 1) it fits you and 2) that you can get in and out comfortably.

I had a Rapid Spaceback, albeit with the 1.2 TSI engine that was replaced with the 1.0 engine that's in the car you are looking at. No issues with oomph. Very nippy, no issues getting up to or holding motorway speeds, even with a car full of people or other stuff. My only issues with the car, which is why after over 8 years of happy ownership I eventually traded it in, was that the seats were extremely uncomfortable (which was addressed with new seats with more padded upholstery in the facelift model that you are looking at) and was a bit low down, so it's a bit of a drop getting into it depending on how tall you are.