Jevpls

How do you detect whether there is a DPF or not? If you remove it in your garage in some amateur way than it might fail. If some skilled technician removes the pipe, removes the DPF, welds it back and does the programming - how do you detect that? If the car is in a good shape then the smoke level should be less then 1,5 or whatever is the limit. Don't know about UK MOTs but in Latvia should be more or less the same. At least it's said to be done in some universal EU style. Plenty of people pass the MOT every year IF everything has been done properly. Cars from 2012 have to been added to computer to see if EGR, DPF, Ad-blu and other systems work. Smart people know how to do programming to satisfy the MOT testers (they think that all these systems work) and the car (thinks that there are no such systems at all). Yesterday I passed MOT. I have existing DPF but my EGR is disabled virtually. Visual inspection showed that it IS THERE Sure, it is but it doesn't work.

1) removed DPF doesn't always mean MOT fail. If the car is in a good condition (good injectors etc.) then the smoke level might be good enough to pass the test. If something is wrong then in the beginning DPF might help but it might die rather soon. 2) DPF issues - depends on your habits. If the daily trip is 3 km (or 2 miles) then CR engine won't help you much. Especially in wintertime. People say that CR engines are way more friendlier with DPFs than PD engines, though.

Sounds normal to me too.

Maybe as simple as a faulty sensor? DPF light shouldn't disappear that quickly. As it appears, you have to drive for some time not 30 seconds. Forced regeneration is needed when it has got DPF light + other lights (engine management + glowplugs) and it's in the limp mode. I think that it might not be useful in your case.

I've heard that there is a difference in sound. At least guys removing DPFs say that they add some device to make it sound like with that DPF thing.

There is one issue you should be aware of - if the glove box isn't closed properly then the light is on. It might drain the battery in a few days. My father had that problem and he couldn't find the cause. Finally he managed to see the light in the dark garage

I had dead speedometer needle when I bought my car. After some while coolant temperature needle and fuel level needle also started dieing (flickering). I started thinking about doing something but as it was said to be rather tricky job then I decided to do nothing. You won't believe but you will soon get used to it Seriously.

Just a wild guess - what about fuel filter? Has it been changed recently or there have been years since that?

For my diesel temperature ~98 degrees is a common thing in summertime. Dash always shows 90 when warmed up. As it's a diesel then it warms up not as fast as a petrol car. My father's 1.6 MPI dash shows 90 when probably my 2.0 TDI only started to show some signs of warming up

My experience might not be helpful but this weekend I had some weird experience. I was working with my car and it started to rain. I drove in the garage and wanted to clear the windscreen. The wipers didn't work at all. Tried it several times - no luck at all. Right before that I was testing the battery so I thought that maybe it could have caused some damage. All the other electronics worked well, even the rear wiper. Checked the fuses too. Indeed, there are not all of them but probably it depends on the car. If you have no headlight wipers or some other stuff then probably some fuses might not be present. In the very end it was the open bonnet that caused all this stuff

Maybe that AC was faulty regardless of DPF.

Could be the case. The increase of the idle might be seen or might not - in case the regeneration has been done shortly before parking. Fans should be on though.

I usually use CC for longer journeys but haven't seen a significant difference in fuel consumption. I understand that fast acceleration is a concern. Well, overtaking also means something similar but I don't consider it a great impact on fuel consumption (unless you overtake all the time or the distance is rather short).

As you post in Mk II section I assume that you bought a used car. Maybe it was remapped by the previous user? It's said that it produces ~205 hp after a stage 1 remap. I really don't know how Skoda's remap goes together with one before (if there was one) but maybe it's possible.

I don't remember why did I use that specific oil but I found the answer somewhere here on Briskoda forum. As far as I remember, it was the only possible oil for that gearbox. Manufactured by Fuchs and sold as Fuchs or as "Genuine VAG oil" for higher price Didn't feel any changes after the change but I find that quite normal thing. I don't get any better feelings after engine oil change too but I know that's good for the engine.

Used that Fuchs Syntofluid for my 6 speed gearbox. 2 years have gone or so, everything seems to be fine so far.

How do you imagine testing the injectors? Either you attach running car to a computer (I understand it's not possible now. Anyway, it's not a 100% trustable testing because if they seem to work faulty, something else might cause that) or remove them and test it on a test bench somewhere (this one is the best way).

Tried Osram Nightbreakers. Didn't seem to be better than some no-name cheap ones from a local store but the last ones were much (like 5 times) cheaper. These Osram ones didn't last very long too. So, right now I buy a few of these cheap ones, put them in the glove box and change them when there is a need for that.

As Passat is more similar to Superb than Octavia then maybe it's different for that but for common rail Octavia accessing that bloody device is rather hard. People complain about that. If your friend isn't very concerned about annoying laws and he's not an environment freak then maybe he should think about mapping that thing out? Bring the car to a professional, attach to a computer, do things and that's it - no problems with EGR anymore. No need for taking it out.

How wrong one can be... As far as I remember, for me it has been like 0,01; 0,04; 0,20; 0,01 (existing DPF in all cases). Sure, it depends on the rpm at the testing moment. The highest value 0,20 was on high revs but now they have changed the testing method and it's tested at ~2500 rpm (that's in Latvia). But anyway - there always can be something more than 0,00. That filter ain't 100% particle proof. Sure, if it's 1,45 (with 1,50 as the max allowed value) then it looks suspicious but then there's a question - why then there is such a value (1,50)? And what should the inspector do? Crack the pipe and look inside to detect the existence of the DPF? And what there's one inside?

As my annual technical inspection says, my 2.0 TDI (common rail, CFHC) has got 780 rpm for idle. But it shows some values for the minimum (400) and maximum (1100). So I guess it's possible that you have got more/less but should be in that range. You got a different engine but the principle should be the same. So if there are no faults and if anything else seems to be OK, I wouldn't worry much about that.

In any other case I would doubt what the guy said but this garage has got a very good reputation and I have no reason not to believe. He said something like that - some of my clients are very satisfied with these cambelts and drive for a long time but some suffer from snapped belts. I simply don't want to be one of these that aren't that lucky.

Well, you can certainly avoid that but in case it snaps then the result DEFINETELY will be expensive. The cambelt change is like an insurance. You spend some amount of money to be sure nothing bad happens... I changed mine some time ago. Got the Contitech belt. Only after the change the garage guy said that it will last only 60k km. For me it's ~3 years. Talked to another garage guy and he said that for the second (third, ....) belt it's not the 180k km like for the first belt but less - depends on the cambelt. He wasn't very satisfied with Contitech belts and recommened to change it after 50k km (offered to change for a better one that might last 100k km). Asked the Contitech distributor about the kilometers. He said something like that - as dealer says it is. Nothing very clear and definite. So, right now I'm ~55k km after the cambelt change. I might risk and try to drive one more year or so but it makes me worried so I will better do it for the piece of mind.

Sounds like mine story :( Some time ago car on the highway started juddering like starting driving with the 3rd gear. Stopped, turned ignition off, then one - fine. After some kilometers again. Then again. Went to garage and there was some faults in the report (no flashing errors) about crankshaft sensor. The guy suggested to check not the sensor itself but the wiring that usually used to be the case. They said there was one poor wire and they changed it to another one. After some time another thing started. Sometimes it felt like there is no fuel given to the car (no matter if accelerate or drive calmly). Checked the faults again - some diesel fuel pressure regulator was found to be faulty. Changed it. Unfortunately it appeared after some time again. Then the nastiest thing appeared - problems with throttle actuator. It felt like car is accelerating itself (especially well seen on idle). At this time I had observations that it happens usually when it's wet. Definetely in a rain. After a bit of nightmare trip when my car stalled like 4 times (had problems with starting it too) then I changed that throttle thing. As you may imagine - no positive result :( So - basically should be wiring or the ECU. Visited one garage to check wiring but the guy said that everything was found to be OK (can't say that the weather was very humid that time - maybe that's why he didn't found the faulty thing). Visited another one to check the ECU - it was dry and OK... The car had been left in a warm room while the ECU was out so it dried. Then the cold weather came and it was rather dry too. Right now I haven't had a rain for some time and the car works perfectly. Too bad that I don't have the feeling that I can trust it :( Right now I'm driving as it is and making observations. If the problems appear then I have to visit another garage THE TIME THERE IS A PROBLEM. Otherwise they might not be able to find the problem. Yeah, this timing might be difficult but I don't see any other solution. The garage guy said that nowadays such wiring problems are quite common. Especially with VAG cars.

Yeah, I would also check the alternator. It might not charge the battery (that's why it's flat) and if it's not working properly then all these electric units are affected. Do you have a red battery warning (like the upper left one)?