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Nice one, that's what I did last time. I noticed the pin went further than photo. I slowly cranked back forth to check it inserted correctly. O ring - yes, has one. No silicone check. Thanks

XL good for cornering, carrying heavier loads, trailers. I think most of weight in Fabia VRS diesel is up front though. You will still have a problem at rear if you put to back just less vibration. Alloy wheel reconditioning - not sure. Wouldn't heating and cooling weaken the alloy. Probably expensive. I think 16" alloys are a lot cheaper than 18" (half price). I bought a second set for winters and got 4 good ones for £250 with two ok tyres. Needed refurb that I did myself. If someone selling then agree to take to tyre balance shop and slip them some money to spin them. The tyre balance machine will often state whether they can be balanced or not. But you will see a wobble side to side if the alloy is bent and will cause problems on your car. Clutch flywheel kit cost £650 fitted when I got mine done

I would start looking for new alloys and if the seller offers to drop them off at your house I would walk away as there is no come back.

A bit of guess work but...XL would keep their shape to the alloy better. If the alloy is warped then they would follow and keep their warped shape better, perhaps? Plus heavier (making the wobble worse). Imagine a centrifuge unbalanced (or washer with too much weight one side), it will shake badly. The non XL tyre will have more plyability/deform better keeping s more circular shape? On a side note I have had XL and non XL wheels and the non XL accelerate better due to less weight in tyre. There is a noticeable difference in weight. If you get a flat tyre on non XL and continue to drive then your alloys will be wrecked (50p) as the circle becomes a poly sided shape.

This guide is very good and when I changed timing belt aux belt tensioner and water pump there was a few things I didn't ask, but all worked out in the end. It is now timing belt change time again so I just wanted to clear some things up. 1 The guide mentions setting the timing to Top Dead Centre (TDC) by turning the spline on front right side of engine behind wheel arch plastic that you remove. To be honest I could not detect much change in resistance when rotating. Also, would not all the 4 cylinders of the 1.9tdi be at different positions. I am uncertain of what TDC means I guess. I think this step was instructed in case timing lock tool dislodged. 2 Water pump - The water pump simply pushes horizontally into right side of engine. Is there any recommendations on sealant? I just went the rubber seal of water pump and smooth surface of car with coolant (has that glycol greasiness). I didn't fancy silicone sealant dislodging and gunking up coolant system or causing a leak. Thanks

Maybe the extra weight of the new tread made it worse? Or are the new wheels Extra Load XL? If vrs 16" spider alloys 205 45 16 I believe the load values are 83 (no side wall reinforcement) or 87 (with reinforcement, XL).

If the rear alloy()s were damaged, IE had a buckle you would be at pains to notice it on the rear, although the vibration would still be there and might cause rear wheel bearing failure. Moving the rear wheels to front of car has simply made the buckled alloy(s) noticeable. You seem to have ruled out the tyres. Flat spots from an emergency brake will produce same effect as a buckled alloy, so new tyres won't have this. I suspect it is not the wheel balancing. I have lost weights on newly sprayed alloys and it didn't make too much difference compared to buckled alloys. The bigger inch the alloy the worse the effect. You could take the wheels to spin them on wheel balance machine. Use flat screwdriver to get out stone chips out of tread. Even a slight buckle will show a wobble and to be honest I would send it to scrap yard and look for a new alloy(s) (pair). Hope this helps.

Looks like credit card coming out! Thanks.

Hmmm I'm tempted. There is 15% off also. The Jabba is now group buy of 6 or more only. It lacks the drop links so I think the bar has slightly more clearance, but has no adjustments, and is pricey, particularly now if you have to buy 6!

Thanks. What setting do you have it on, low middle or stiff? Parking - I guess issues might occur when the inside of wheels are near curb with other 2 wheels on pavement?

Is a white line RARB worth fitting to counter body roll at standard driving speeds (not track), daily commute etc. Background. Stock suspension all replaced with cupra bushes (too harsh, but won't fail) and rest of suspension poly bushed all round front. Rear axle bush is OEM rubber, replaced. The front is stiff/ heavy and the rear rolls, but not excessively. Would a RARB help? Although I'm comparing oranges and lemons, a full replacement of the suspension on an Astra petrol with polybush, new shocks, springs resulted in very little body roll. Interested in hearing about people who have fitted to their car (reliability of product, noise, handling, etc). Not tracking car. Is ground clearance due to drop links , bar an issue? Kerbs, potholes, speed bumps? Thanks

I read about this on fabia.VRS.com Topic is discussed elsewhere on this forum. I contacted Dark side motors 'up road from me' in sunny Yorkshire. They said adding a smaller diameter hole in gasket than present would result in it blocking sooner if EGR retained. That made sense and I lived with it. Cleaning EGR annually will help perhaps. I bought some stuff bristled brushes to clean out the gunk from my car's EGR. Just watch no metal gets pushed into manifold. 3 Allen key bolts to remove ASV and gain access to EGR. One hour's work once you done it before. The EGR speeds up warm up of car coolant and engine oil so I didn't want to blank off. Also, might be an MOT fail on emissions?

Have you used front washers since changing pump? If not, you got plumbing wrong.

Winter grille (upper) very effective at reducing warm up time. Got an extra 2mpg (trip computer reading), like for like driving. Don't block lower grill as well, unless you want car to overheat. Biggest gripe with car is not having heating elements / demister in front window glass. Lethal combination is the condensation on glass (both sides!) with low sun on cold mornings.

Out of interest Quick question - does the tensioner not select the correct tension itself, like the Fabia mk1? I have changed Fabia timing belt myself. Does the Octavia 3 150 bhp TDI not have self tensioners? Anyone changed the Octavia 3 150bhp 2l timing belt themselves (of course use the locking key!)

Hi, it's the Octavia 2l diesel 150bhp. I also got a Fabia 1.9vrs. Car is on 36k miles but overdue on time, as it is every 4yrs. The offset spanner tool would save a lot of taking apart. I plan to do every 20 k miles as like most oil related maintenance the service intervals are way overstated in my opinion by manufacturers. I did a parallel engine oil change on both cars yesterday. It cannot be overstated the difference an engine oil change can make. Much quieter. After 5k miles I could smell a hint of the diesel in the engine oil, from the regenerations and interrupted ones. The Fabia, without DPF, nothing. Tip I picked up on here is to dip the oil filter in the fresh oil before inserting. There is a moment of no lubrication on starting when using a dry oil filter. Unfortunately, on the 2l Octy there are cables foiling access and it is a messy affair. I will do some more measuring and take a punt on whether to get a long or short offset spanner and report back if I found the correct one. Thanks

Whilst doing an engine oil change today I took a few pics of the gearbox dsg filter housing. It has 4cm of access above it before the battery above it. Taking the air hose and air filter box out would not help. Large Hex/allen female sump plug (above 10mm). Q is this the DSG filter? The bottom image is as viewed directly from above. There is plenty of room to get that offset spanner and long extension bar in there, saving taking out battery and its holder etc. Looks like the short tool would suffice

Great guide, thanks. Quick question. If you remove the battery, how can you connect VCDS / OBD2 port if vehicle has no power. I know a few people have opted for reading gear box temperature using a surface IR thermometers like used to read a child's temperature. Is it possible to remove the gear filter using the offset 24mm tool and easily reinsert a new paper filter element? Did you use long or short tool? From what I have read it looks like the long one on common rail engines. Short on petrol? There is a 4cm length difference so important not to waste £17 or so on wrong tool. I'm always happy to avoid dismantling the least number of parts, etc. Thoughts? Cheers

Does the filter or cap foil on the underside of the airbox? I can see it and get my hands on it etc. I have the pressurised fill tool through bottom of the DSG gear oil sump so I would not need to fill from above via filter. I read the nice guide on superb forum.

Hi all Anyone know whether a long or short offset spanner is needed to loosen the 24mm hex filter housing on a Octavia 2016 2l TDI 150bhp? From my research there is about 4cm between the two offset spanners which avoid the need to remove the airbox etc above the DSG oil filter. Thanks

Apologies Pab and thanks John

Thanks. Not too fussed about radio logos, most stations have one displayed already. Useful info. I will update with Pab's firmware/software first using my own 32gb SD card. To transfer to infotainment do I need to select the update option within the menu of Amundsen once the updated SD card is inserted? Thanks

He already provided a link a few weeks ago that I have yet to try. Will Pab's link cover all software eg phone compatibility, maps , radio logos etc. I got put off when Windows warned me of insecure site etc Here is the update SW update to:- (Removed) Yes, on Columbus update guide video, a generic 32gb SD card is shown but on Amundsen the video guide on Skoda update portal it suggests using the original Navigation SD card. Q What should I do tonight? Use Pab's weblink. Download to HDD then unzip to spare or formatted Skoda Nav SD card (which has first been copied as a backup)? In the car --> settings there is a 'update software' selectable option to further confuse. In the sticky for this forum about Amundsen mib 2 Sasha states that the software update should not be needed as not available to general public. I am updating as my infotainment is regularly crashing. Probably due to the new mobile phones connecting with the infotainment. Can't say for sure though, might be hardware. This is where Pan kindly stepped in to help. I just want to update without messing things up. Help appreciated.

Here it is, thanks.

Hi all, I am doing the first update on an Octavia 3 L&K due to excessive lag and random shutdowns of the infotainment. The map currently installed is ECE 2016. On the update portal http://updateportal.skoda-auto.com/ I have found about 7 maps with various combinations of the countries of Europe. All are number ECE 1, ECE 2 with a month/year and so on. The software is a large zip file (6GB or more in some cases, 13GB). Q1 Which do I need (I'm in UK). I assume I need ECE 1 2020 Q2 I am not sure whether I have Amundsen or Columbus. I think it is Amudsen based on info on this site. I have a small display screen, no CD slot (just 2 SD slots). Q3 One further Q. Can I use any 32GB SD or do I need the one supplied by Skoda (security chipped?). If so, the Skoda website states to Format the card. Would it be wise to copy the SD card first? Q4 Are the updates for mobile devices and radio station logos separate? Thanks!