MarkyTDI

I'm considering going from 19" to 18" wheels once my current tyres are worn, cheaper tyres, quieter and better ride hopefully. Does anyone have any pictures of the Antares wheels on a silver estate? I'm tempted by those are the Pegasus. both can be had for about £180-190 a rim. Cheers, Mark.

There is no doubt that towing a heavy van will increase the wear on the car. Many of the components suffering more wear, brakes, suspension etc are all consumables so I guess you would just have to replace them sooner than if not towing which isn't a big deal really. Engine wise I would look to change the oil much more frequently to ensure it is always as good as it can be, say every 6k miles if towing regularly....the engine will run under much higher load and oil temperature when towing than running solo. The turbo in particular will be glad of this. I know in performance car circles many folks swap the 5-30 oil for 5-40 as this gives better protection under the temperatures encountered during hard driving or towing heavy loads than 5-30. I have done this on my Superb 280 which is used for towing and also gets given some stick from time to time too. The ever thinner oils specified in modern cars are more aimed at fuel efficiency than engine longevity. Obviously the clutch and gearbox are going to take more wear.....clutch and DMF are consumable....my Octavia managed 80k on the DMF/clutch with a remap and a lot of towing and hill starts on the slipway, the, clutch plate was half worn and the DMF was ok still. I only changed them as the slave cylinder leaked and it was all coming apart. If on the motorway, especially on slight uphill gradients I tended to keep the revs a little higher often towing in 5th rather than 6th despite the car being able to maintain speed at lower rpm in 6th as this will be beneficial to the DMF.

I worry about this too....50k miles on mine. If it goes oneday I'll be going for a Littco I think. https://www.littco.co.uk/l380-turbo-74-p.asp

Cheers for all the info folks. Just seems like it goes through washer fluid twice as fast as my old Octavia did and I'm wondering if the headlight washers explain the amount of fluid. I know there isn't a leak as I've left it parked for a couple of months with a full bottle and it stayed full. My Z4 has had them deactivated since 2009 and it's never been mentioned in a MOT thus far. I know they are a legal requirement but I'm not sure how effective they actually are at cleaning the light. Snow build up can be a problem with xenon's as there isn't enough heat to melt it from the lens but that's not too much of a problem in Cornwall. Remember when Volvo's, saabs and BMW's etc had the little wipers?! I think the plan will be to turn down the frequency. OBD11 arrives soon so I'll give that a go.

Hi folks, The screen wash consumption on my superb is driving me mad. Is it possible to code the headlight washers off? I just disconnected the motor on my Z4 but I can't get to it on the Superb. Mark.

I bought a 17 Plate 280 on just short of 50k miles a year ago. No problems yet, doesn't seem to burn any oil and still goes like the clappers. Main dealer history is no guarantee things should have been done as they should. Mine had 2 DSG oil changes and no record of Haldex but the filter was cleanish when I had it done so who knows if it had been done or not. I only do 6k a year so will be low mileage in a couple of years. It was much cheaper than any others about at the time due to the slightly higher miles.

They are 7Jx17 ET40 which is the official winter rim size for fitting chains etc. Wearing cross climates at the moment. More than up to the job with 4x4 as well.

I have a set of ski trip and winter wheels for mine. 17in Tiguan wheels are the exact size for the Superb. 90 percent of the time I prefer how it drives on these until I put the DCC into sport and press on and then the 19s work so much better. 3 of my 19in wheels are a bit wonky too which is another downside of the 19s, much more prone to pothole damage etc but all happened before I bought the car so not much I can do. I'll go to one set of 18s with all seasons or a new set of 19s with 245/40/19 next. I do like the extra sleeper effect with 17s on the 280.

I'd have one of these in a heart beat if Skoda UK didn't insist on denying us some of the best models Skoda make. Looks really spot on and the pretty much all the car I could ever need.

Not long after I bought my 280 I went to get new tyres fitted and was told that three of the 4 wheels were wonky and slightly twisted and or buckled. 1st car I've ever had that has had any problem of this kind but it is also the 1st car I've had with large rims. Obviously the dealer suggested I had damaged all three of them in the 400 miles I had had the car. I'll probably go back to 18's when these tyres are dead despite the 19's looking so nice. Has anyone else had issues with distorted wheels on 19'? The increase in road noise over the 17' winter wheels I run is also very noticeable.

Got it now. Just had to a bit firmer. Thanks Luei.

Thanks Luei, I did try that but it was a bit reluctant to budge. I noticed that the previous owner changed the rear bulbs but not the front and I can see why now as that took two mins.

In the middle of replacing all the superb bulbs with LEDs but can't quite release the panel. I've taken the panel over the alarm sensors out and the two screws and it's hanging down now but just won't come out. Anyone know what's at the front?

Did you ever get to the bottom of this Tim? My estate does exactly the same thing. Water appears into the boot through the welding seam offside rear in the wheel well. I also have an aftermarket towbar like yourself.

Looks like AMS tyres are the only place within 50 miles of Exeter with a road force machine. They aren't that common due to the price compared to a standard machine. http://www.balancemycar.co.uk/location-2/?postal_code=Exeter&ml___postal_code=Exeter&ml___bbox=-11.403809,49.169734,1.735840,59.435766&radius=50&x=0&y=0 They should be able to tell you if a wheel is imparting a vibration, measure the runouts and if the distortion is only very small the machine rotates the tyre on the wheel to minimise the road force. It obviously can't do much about a flat on the rim or larger distortion. If you are ever further SW then there is A1 tyres in Bodmin: https://www.a1tyres.org.uk/services/tyre-changing-and-wheel-balancing/

Ooooh, what is this DCC recalibration you speak of? Your individual settings are exactly the same as mine.

Seems to be mixed feelings on this so always a good debate. Looking at the comments I wonder if the sports mode on the 7 speed 272 is better than that on the 6 speed 280. Its my 1st DSG car and prior to this I had only driven a Superb 190 DSG and a few 8 speed BMWs with the ZF box. I certainly think it could do with an extra setting, especially with the flat torque curve of the 2.0 TSI meaning good progress can be made changing up right in between the typical shift points of Normal and Sport. My other car is an old 3.0 six pot bmw and that gives its best revving right out to the redline but I just don't feel the same way about the 2.0 TSI at the top end, it seems to happily give 85% without wringing its neck. Like others mine spends a lot of time in individual...sports everything except the gearbox left in Normal which says a lot. Maybe I'm just not ready to surrender control to the car.

I've had my 280 for about 7 months now. I can't help feeling that it needs a mode between Normal and Sport. On the BMWs you have Normal, Sport and Sport+ I believe. Normal in the Superb just seems to change up way to soon and I cant see a huge difference between Eco and Normal much of the time other than the coasting mode. Sport seems to be a full attack mode chasing the limiter which is a bit much when you have 300hp and you just want to drive a bit more briskly than normal. I will happily use the paddles if I want to chase the limiter. Just seems like there is a mode missing compared to most modern autos. I'd almost be tempted to have sport mode dialled back with a DSG tune if I remapped it knowing if I'm really trying I'll be in manual anyways.

Take it to a garage that has a road force balancer. This spins the wheel/tyre against a roller with about 600kg of pressure and measures the forces the wheel imparts onto the roller as a result of inperfections in the rim or tyre. You can then rotate the tyre about the rim to cancel many of the forces much of the time. The machine will tell you if this is possible in your case. Wheels on new cars a balanced in this manner. Spinning the wheel in air like a standard balancing machine doesn't tell the whole story if there is a problem. A perfect square wheel would balance no problem but you wouldn't want to drive on it. This will at least give you conifdence in the wheels/tyres being ok incase there is another issue. https://www.balancemycar.co.uk/

I think in this situation the 1st thing I would swap front to back as suggested. If it goes away then I would then get the wheels on a roadforce balancing machine. If one of your wheels has been distorted slightly by a pothole hit then with all likely hood it will still balance normally on a standard balancing machine. I bought a superb on 19" wheels and three of the rims were slightly out of true, the main dealer new nothing of the procedure in their own workshop manual to measure the max allowed runouts and I don't think they had the kit either.... This doesnt mean that the "wobble" in the wheel wont introduce a vibration when it is spun against the road. The road force machine spins the wheel against a roller under pressure to see what forces the wheel imparts rather than just spinning it in air. It can also scan the wheel with a laser and measure the runout...I believe off the top of my head the skoda specs only allow 0.5/0.8mm of runout Axial/radial. It may be a case that a small distortion can be sorted by rotating the tyre which will also be slightly imperfect to balance out the generated roadforce. This is actually how the tyres are balanced on brand new cars to contribute to that new car feel. https://danthetireman.com/blog/article/what-is-road-force-balance https://www.balancemycar.co.uk/wheel-balancing-all-you-need-to-know/

I have a 280 SEL on 19s with DCC. Put it in comfort and its like a magic carpet. Normal is still very confortable. One thing to watch with 19s in my opinion is pothole hits. The larger the rim/lower the profile the more likely you will suffer wheel distortion. I'm waiting for mine to go back to the dealer after my tyre fitter told me three of the alloys were bent a few weeks after I collected it.

I've just been looking online for a Jack pad for the new superbs sills. Everything listed inly references the Mk II, octavia golf etc. I know the SIII has a different jack so arn't the jack pads advertised (powerflex for example) suitable?

Let us know how you get on. I've been looking at that exact supplier too and the reviews are execellent.

I bought a 280 estate before xmas. What sort of MPG are you seeing towing? My old Octavia II 4x4 TDI used to do more towing than the 280 does solo! I've not towed with mine yet due to lockdown but it will be towing my RIB below as soon as I'm allowed out. Only about 60KG on the drawbar and just under 1300kg. I'll add a photo with the car as soon as I have one!

I'm still waiting to hear back from the wheel repair place about this. Apparently if the rim has just been pushed in like a flat spot then it can be repaired but if it has twisted the wheel around the hub then nothing can be done. Hope fully I hear from them tomorrow. I was expecting to hear back today. As soon as I know the score I will contact the dealer.