Alfashark

In my previous job, my "office" was a 5-pot BT-50 flatdeck with an enormously heavy, flatdeck trailer - Frequently loaded to a 3500kg drawbar pull. When we first got the BT-50, I had a quick flick through the manual and it mentioned the trailer sway intervention. I did some cautious experiments with lighter loads in marginal fore or aft positions and found the system worked seamlessly to the point where unless you deliberately swung a directional change big enough that a trailer sway was the least of your problems, you'd never even know it was happening. Not that I tow much with the VRS, it's comforting to know it's got the official programming to deal with those situations should they occur.

The grille is part of the bumper. Just to make life difficult...

Clearly your car has a 170CR engine, but my PD140 powered 2009 Superb suffered from an issue much like you describe - A noise rather like a small exhaust leak, the slight smell of exhaust fumes from the rear of the engine and also a hissing much like a boost leak when any form of load was applied. After much prodding and probing of all the boost hoses and their connections I was ready to concede defeat until a mate with a hoist got me to pop it up and have a good look from below... Took him a few minutes to spot, but a small flange gasket on the EGR pipe had disintegrated. If memory serves me correctly, it was at the EGR valve end so there was the faint blowing exhaust noise at idle, and when the valve shut under load, the exhaust gasses with nowhere to go were all buggering off through this tiny gap and making the hissing sound. 2x gaskets and maybe an hour of labour to get it sorted. Fingers crossed yours will be the same or very similar.

That's progress! Quite plausible that winding the driver wattage up knocks a bit of life out of them too. Now you've got the lux meter, just keep on checking them over a fixed time frame - Maybe once a month and get a feel for any deterioration rates.

I'll second this question, and also check that the lens itself hasn't suffered any weirdness as far as UV goes - We tend to fare the worst globally down here. The reason I say this, is I do a 50km drive through the middle of nowhere at 330am to get to work and I'd rate the O3 lights as some of the best I've driven behind and that's with stock bulbs... My '06 Fabia however - Regular halogens - gets about 8 months between having the lenses attacked with a restoring kit. There's no yellowing or visible clouding, but the beam pattern and spread drop right off to the point that it's plain scary to drive at night. A couple of hours spent - I'll be doing them tomorrow - And they're as good as new again, with clearly defined cutoff and spread. Just some food for thought before you end up nuts-deep converting the enclosures

Having had a peek at the pads and running my fingers across the face of the discs on our O3 vRS, the pads are about half worn and with plenty of meat left in them - a faint lip right on the edge of the disc too... Just ticked over 150,000km. Gave the local dealer a buzz and they confirmed it had never had pads or discs since new, but every other service and work done was on their records. Our little Mk1 Fabia RS is still on all original pads and discs at the same mileage as the O3, although the rear pads will probably need to be sent off to greener pastures shortly.

A question for those more knowledgeable than I... I'm down here in New Zealand, and there isn't/hasn't been a map update for us since at least 2014. Skoda NZ don't want to know about it and point you in the direction of a 3rd party that can allegedly supply updated maps for $1200. Is there anything anywhere, hidden away in the update portal's archives that would help me?

It's from the guts of the stereo head-unit. If you don't believe me, pull the fuse for the unit and you won't hear that noise - In other words, perfectly normal.

If you have a scroll through the driving data screens on the MFD, there should be one called Consumer Convenience - Leave it on there and it'll tell you what's using juice and how much. Once the initial cool-down has taken place, for me it sits on about 200ml/hour during the day. When I get up for work at 2am, the outside air temp is in single digits at this time of year and that display is showing 0 or as close to it as you can get for my 50km open road drive to work - I just leave it on auto and have the temp set to 24 degrees for the initial 5km or so and then dial it back to 22 degrees.

On a Mk3 the AC compressor is permanently engaged - Even when you've hit the off button. There's no clutched system, just permanent drive to the compressor. When you hit the off button, it simply turns the light off and reduces the compressor loading to about 2%, hence you won't have any effect on fuel economy unless you're in 30 degree heat and you're trying to get the cabin temp down to 18 degrees. Just leave it on Auto and avoid all the issues that come with switching it "off".

Given the state of the roads here, ours isn't too shabby for the same mileage as yours - The Fabia on the other hand, looks like it's been nailed with a shotgun if you get up close and that's done a fraction more mileage. I suspect there's been some touch-ups and a respray + blend done on the Octavia too, because when clean it certainly shines and the colour really pops like yours does.

Swoon! I'd better start organising some cleaning products so I can give mine that million dollar shine.

Yes! Like you, I've got a Mk1 Fabia vRS that's going to be a keeper - That was decided on the day it was purchased in 2007, as it's got a little bit of history behind it. Of course, the fact it still does absolutely everything you ask of it, just as well as when it was new helps. As does the fact it's been regularly serviced and looked after, to the point where it's only failed one WoF (our version of an MOT) and needed less than $1000 spent on it other than regular servicing and consumables in 11 years.

Correct.

How many gears has it got? If it has 7, you're good. If you have 6, it'll need an oil change.

Probably because it's a dry 7-speed box... As per all the 1.6D Octavias I've driven.

There is no clutch on the AC compressors on these cars, they run constantly - Same with the Superb II and quite likely the Octavia II. I think the minimum "load" is about 2%, which occurs when you switch it off.

I bunged a 2032 into mine the other day - They're thicker than the 2025, so it's a squeeze to get the cover back on. There has to be an awful lot of old-stock 2025 batteries around for them to be failing so fast... One of the keys on my Fabia RS is still on it's original battery after 12 years of daily driving.

Traded my Superb 2 in for an RS TDI wagon... Excuse the potato-spec pics and the fact that just about every dust particle and dead insect in the district appears to have stuck to the car.

PM sent

Great effort getting stuck in and making the car "yours" with the coding tweaks and tackling the VBF conversion! I've just traded my Superb in for your car's twin - Quartz Grey with the Black Pack, although mine's got the Pictoris wheels.

Hi all, 2009 PD140 Superb II (BMP engine). Pulled over to roll a smoke on the drive home from a weekend away and upon accelerating away from rest, a decent hiss started. Pulled back over and had a quick look under the bonnet for any obvious issues like intake hoses blown off their couplings but everything seemed tight and intact. Continued on home with no warning lights on the dash, no smoke out the exhaust and didn't seem to be noticeably down on power - Just a hissing that increased in volume in proportion to the amount of throttle/boost at any given moment. I've since undone the clips to the couplings on the hose just forward of the fuel filter and where it joins the silver alloy housing at the rear of the head (ASV/EGR?) and all appears to be well seated and sealed there. On the left-hand side, after much swearing I managed to get my hand down between the air filter->turbo hose and have a feel around on the outlet hose from the turbo to the hard pipe and it feels somewhat softer than the hoses I previously mentioned - also, it's a red/orange colour... There may be a roughish patch on the underside of said hose, but even when I squeezed my camera down there it couldn't focus sharply enough to see. What I can see when looking from the top, is what maybe a rubber sealing ring just visible below the joint of the hose and the turbo outlet. From what I can feel, the metal clip is firmly in it's groove and I can't push the hose any further in to the joint. Opinions and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I'll grab his details when I have a chance and pass them on - He's quite active in the customising and coding side of things, as well as remaps and everyday mechanical work on VAG stuff.

If it were mine, I'd take it to a wonderfully skilled South African chap in Auckland who's very well equipped to deal with VAG diesels and have him get rid of the DPF and have him map it out properly...

It says "up to" - Have a look at the PCD options and you'll see the largest is 5x120 which is Holden/Ford fitment in this part of the world (Think Vauxhall VXR8 or whatever you lot call them) and they have a large CB. Email them to be sure, but that's what my money would be on.