[Loss of power steering]

Drove it all the way to the repairers - about 40 miles ! - without problem. Apparently the bit on the alternator that the pulley connects to had broken so it needed new alternator, new pulley and tensioner. Grand total of

[Loss of power steering]

Last thing I drove without power steering was my 1990 VW Golf GTI - and I think that weighed about half what the Octavia does !

[Loss of power steering]

Thanks for that.

AA man confirmed that the belt's come off - he thinks that the lower pully has broken. I'll drive it to a (reasonably) local VW specialist later and they'll fix it on Monday, hope my arms are up to it!

[Loss of power steering]

Car is a 52 plate 1.9TDi 110bhp Octavia. 85000 miles. Cambelt replaced @ 80,000 miles service.

Was driving to work this morning when, having braked reasonably sharply I discovered upon moving off again that I had lost power steering and the battery light on the dashboard was illuminated.

A quick check under the bonnet didn't reveal anything obvious and as I was only half a mile from work I thought that I'd drive the rest of the way, which I did without steering assistance. Upon looking under the bonnet again I discovered that the belt which is visible on the left hand side of the engine bay (I hadn't taken the engine cover off) was no longer on its rollers at each end. Is this connected to the power steering pump / alternator? Is it serious?

Thanks

[Winner Garage - Cinderford.]

My inlaws got their MK2 Octavia from Winners (via a broker I believe) and have recently bought another from the Skoda dealers in Bristol. The reason they gave for not buying from Winners again was that they weren't happy with how Winners dealt with their problematic door seals and a couple of other things. This thread would seem to confirm my opinion that my father in law could start an argument in an empty room!

[Wipers for Superb.]

Worth a try at under a fiver. Fit perfectly and have the built in spoiler (whatever that does). Not tried them in the rain as yet!

Worth a look.

Well, I bought a set for my Octavia because my passenger side wiper (an expensive Bosch one) has been largely a waste of space - leaves streaks and makes an annoying noise when lying flat and you're going over about 50mph. I fitted the passenger side one last night - first thing to notice is that in the set of 1 x 19" and 1 x 21" only the latter has a spoiler! Even so, the new one left fewer streaks after a few squirts of screenwash and doesn't make the annoying noise.

[Cambelt change what will I pay?]

Of course it is cheaper than if it goes. It shall get done at some point in the near future. I just think they are cashing in on peoples paranoia to get it done at exactly the 4 year service.

What made them change it from 80K ( is that right ? ) to 4 years?

I emailed Skoda UK the other week to get the 'official' line on when to replace the cam belt on my MK1 TDI Elegance. They said 150,000km (just over 93,000 miles) or 4 years, whichever comes first.

[cambelt and waterpump.?]

local vag specialist done mine for

[Another Fabia Vrs oil thread!]

I have no idea what the factory fill is.

Just because one spec is called 506.01 rather than 505.01 doesn't necessarily mean that it's a higher spec oil, rather it's a different spec oil and it's the next one in the series. The higher number doesn't necessarily indicate higher spec does it ? Given that 506.01 is used in only a very specific set of circumstances it makes sense that it won't necessarily be suitable for other sets of circumstances. You should consider whether SLX Longlife II matches 505.01, which is the spec for your car. It would appear not & so using it wouldn't be a great idea.

I'm hardly one to talk about using over specced oil as I top up my Octavia 110 bhp estate with Millers PD oil (use it in the SEAT) but it DOES say that it meets the spec for the Octavia so I know I'm OK.

[TDi PD 130 engine bedding in.]

"i use Castrol GTD Magnatec which also meets the requirements and comes in 1 gallon cans, which akso happens to be the oil capacity. (I can get it cheap if you ever need any Ivan)"

Does it really ? I thought that the only Castrol stuff which met VW 505.01 spec is the SLX longlife II

Good news if it does 'cos it's widely available and reasonably priced. Otherwise you're stuck with dealer stuff (don't forget Ford must sell an oil that it used in their PD engined Galaxy), Castrol as above and the stuff from Millers. Does it state on the packaging that it meets the standard ?

[Kiddie Seats]

The reason we got the Britax Duo is that it's so easy to fit you don't need to worry about whether you've done it correctly with the seat belt.

Also we knew that one set of grandparents would be getting an Octavia as well so it would go straight into their car and as it's a while since they had a child seat in the back of their car we wanted one that they'd find easy to fit.

What the seat and the boy will do to the beige leather interior is another matter !

[Kiddie Seats]

As my son is now nearly a year old and onto the second stage of car seats we have a Britax Duo which is Isofix compatible. It fits on the Isofix points in the Octavia and in the Seat Ibiza which is our other car. There's a list on the Britax website of the cars that they've tested it in and deemed it suitable for. Some cars have to use a restraining strap as well to affix it but not VAG cars in general according to the list.

It will also attach with the seat belt in cars without Isofix points or where they haven't tested it and you don't want your child to be the guinea pig. Neither Britax nor the individual car manufacturers were much use when I enquired about cars not on their list.

If you shop around on the web you can get it for about

[Variable Servicing Oddity]

Having thought things through I think there could be two reasons for it.

First I got the car on 3rd Jan 2003, however I know that it was delivered to the dealer in early December so perhaps someone was driving around in it for a couple of weeks before I got it. When it was delivered to me the dealer may have zeroed the odometer so the car knows that it's done a few hundred miles more than it actually says on the odometer. When I first started driving it, the MFA showed that more miles had been driven than the odomoeter showed.

Secondly I did top up the oil with some Millers XFE PD a few weeks back as it was all I had available at the time (it's for our other car, a PD engined SEAT Ibiza). This does meet VAG 500 00, 505 00 & 505.01 specs but not the 506 00.

Anyway I'm not overly bothered as it's a company car but it just seemed a bit odd.

[Variable Servicing Oddity]

My 110 bhp TDi Octavia delivered in Dec. 2002 has got QG1 on the spec sticker, indicating variable servicing. I