TechyDonkey

Had mine from new since July 2016 and still works fine (electronic). The thing does occasionally have a hissy fit and beeps to say it's not closed properly, but this tends to occur when it coincides with one of the main car doors also being closed, which obviously causes a pressure change just at the wrong moment.

In my experience the beam assist feature is far from perfect. It works pretty much flawlessly through the summer months, but in the winter I do seem to have issues with it. I suspect, but never proved, the cold weather is causing condensation on the inside of the windscreen, and although I have a heated screen, it takes a while for the minimal amount of condensation in the sensor area (behind the driver's mirror) to also clear. When the gremlins strike I frequently find the car stays on main beam despite something coming the other way, necessitating my manual intervention to dip the headlights. Conversely, driving on a totally dark Cheshire road, the lights will be very slow to put main beam on when required. The feature I find most annoying though is something in the auto beam function which has trouble identifying the rear of a car, specifically when I'm queued right up behind them. There seems to be something with the high vis and reflective patterns on the back of traffic police Volvos which the system just doesn't like. Lost count of the number of times I've suddenly gone to main beam right behind a very surprised traffic officer!

Was just going to recommend The Roofbox Co. as well. They've been very helpful over the years and still provide the personal touch if you call them up to check something. Car Roof Boxes | Bike Racks | Roof Bars - The Roof Box Company Currently have the Thule wing bars combined with a Kamei Corvara roof box, which is now discontinued but an excellent piece of kit: KAMEI Corvara S 475 carbon grey roof box no. KM538 (0 81538 21). I've found the duolift feature is very useful, being able to open the box from either side to access things. You may find it useful to check out the website as they have a number of combined packages for bars and roof boxes purchased together. Can also recommend one of these as a bike carrier mounted on the tow hook, Capable of carrying four bikes, rather than the more usual 3, and cleverly tips out of the way of the estate boot hatch to let the dogs in and out without the need to unload everything.

Have to admit I'm somewhat sceptical of the coolant leak issue. Although there are plenty of stories where I'm sure it is a genuine issue, I've personally had a dealership telling me I had a serious issue with a coolant leak and they wanted several hundred quid just to investigate it. Unbeknownst to them I check my coolant level pretty frequently and in the 12 months prior to them telling me there was an issue the coolant level had remained rock solid and needed no top ups what so ever - I checked the day before the car went in. So my reaction at the time was well wherever that coolant is coming from, it's not from my car. Not heard any more about it since.

It's Energiser CR2025s, or more specifically just the one Energiser, I've had the problem with. Bought some more batteries for 'in stock' but have gone with Duracell for now. We now have three Skoda's across the family with KESSY, as well as on one with a regular remote fob, so I'm sure we'll get around to needing more batteries soon. I have seen posts a while ago of people putting (squeezing) a CR2032 in, instead of the CR2025. We've got lots of the larger size kicking around as just about everything from the doorbell, to the Samsung SmartTags, to some bits of PC kit I have seem to take them. If I get the problem again I may well switch battery type just to sort things out. In general for me, the key failing of the KESSY system is the lack of notice when the fob/battery is about to pack up. Our oldest car with KESSY is now 8+ years old, but I've only ever once had a message warning of an imminent failure crop up on the car's display. The garage actually was pre-emptive and changed the battery once without my asking, but on all other occasions the first I know about it is when the car simply refuses to open. As I mentioned on my earlier post, thankfully this has (so far!) only ever happened when on the drive at home, but I've heard of others who've not been so lucky. Besides setting a yearly reminder in my phone, the one only other possible indication things are close to packing up is possibly when opening the tailgate. I've noticed on a couple of occasions now the tailgate refuses to open/unlock - I have an estate - so I have to first go to the driver's door, trigger the unlock, and the tailgate then opens fine. The only explanation I can think of is that for the tailgate the remote is the length of an estate away from the receiver inside the car, which is possibly just a fraction too far and out of range when the battery is weakening. The driver's door is closer and hence still works.

The short answer is yes. Somewhere in the car settings there's the option for how the car reacts when a change of lane is detected. I've had mine set to give just a very slight resistance when detecting lanes changes, but I'm sure there's some option, which when selected, will actively "twitch" the steering wheel in the correct direction to keep you in lane. Note this feature only triggers if a lane drift or change is detected and you are not indicating in the appropriate direction at the same time. If you indicate then the lane assist doesn't trigger as it assumes you are making an intended manoeuvre.

Hi Folks, thought I'd share a very recent experience for future reference as there doesn't appear to be any similar case of it mentioned elsewhere on this forum. I have full KESSY on my Octavia (ignition, door locks and mirrors) which has managed to bug me several times over the years. However, this evening it's managed to exasperate me beyond belief trying to work out what was wrong. I've previously had at least two occasions where the KESSY fob has suddenly, with zero notice, decided to not work. In each case I've thankfully been parked up on my drive, rather than several thousand feet up a mountain on a dark, rainy night, as one individual I was just reading about, had been. The fact the fob has failed so suddenly has been a bit of an annoyance each time, but I've replaced the battery and everything has been peachy, for another 12+ months anyway. Having been caught with the same problem more than once, I have a reminder in the diary on my phone to therefore make sure I replace the fob battery every 12 months. The reminder went off last month and I've been putting off doing the replacement until finally getting around to it last night. Having bought several packs of CR2025's last year, each with a stated shelf life until 07/2026, I fished one of these out, popped the cover, made the swap and swiftly put things back together again. I then went outside and confirmed that the car recognised the fob, opening and re-locking the doors several times. However, this evening when I came to leave, the doors unlocked with KESSY the once and the fob then totally failed to do anything else at all. From my previous experiences, I'm already familiar with the manual unlocking process with the key and syncing the fob if need be, but all to no avail. In fact the display in the centre binnacle was even kind enough to say that no key could be found and I should refer to my manual. After this things took a downward spiral, with the manual key in the lock successfully being able to engage and disengage the central locking, but as soon as any door was opened the alarm went off, long and loud. After 30+ minutes of messing around trying all the resets and syncs I could think of, and with various neighbours' curtains starting to twitch, I beat a retreat back inside. The new battery shows as having a full charge, one of the first things I checked when I noticed the red LED on the fob wasn't working, so I was starting to think there was either something wrong with the fob, or worse yet the car's KESSY had screwed up completely. After searching Google for another hour or so I came across one thread on a VW group saying how not all CR2025 batteries are created equal. Several people reported that they'd changed their batteries and had similar problems to myself. I then dug around in our battery waste pot, where all our batteries go before going to the local recycling point, and fished out the old CR2025. Looking at it alongside the new one there is literally no difference whatsoever. The old one came out of one of the packs I bought last year, and the new was from its sibling which has been in the cupboard the past year. Putting the old battery in, I noticed the red LED worked again straight away, so I went back out and low and behold everything worked as it should do. Not one to let this lie without understanding why the new (fully charged) battery wouldn't work, I've tried swapping over to the new one again. Bizarrely, the fob is good for either a single flash of the LED, if you press any of the buttons, or can unlock the driver's door just once. After that it's as dead as a dodo, whether you're near the car or not. I've also tried the same defective battery in the spare KESSY fob and it exhibits exactly the same traits, so the fault is clearly something to do with the battery rather than either of the fobs. I've then tried fishing out the second new battery from the same blister pack the rogue one came in, and it's working perfectly when in either KESSY fob. It seems the comments posted on the other forum's thread are correct - some batteries really aren't made equal. Looking at them, they're identical genuine Energizer CR2025's. Each has been removed and reinserted circa ten times, just to rule out if there is some subtle variance in the contacts when I'm inserting them, but in each case, in each fob, the results are 100% consistent. Both of the new batteries show as having a full charge when I put them in my tester, so my suspicion is that there may possibly be some slight voltage variance between them which influences the fobs. Either way, the fact they both work / will flash the LED at least once before conking out shows the fobs do at least work, albeit very briefly with the rogue battery. As I'm now completely out of CR2025's I'll be ordering some more very shortly, but for peace of mind think I'll be going with Duracell rather than Energizer in future. Just wondering, has anyone else encountered a similar issue?

This sounds to me like the drainage pipe isn't actually connected properly to the drainage hole that comes out of the roof space where the air deflector is stored. Have you checked behind to top of the a-pillar cover/headlining to make sure the drainage pipe is actually connected fully and properly? If not then would explain why water is able to run done the inside cover of the a-pillar and eventually end up in the footwell. Just a thought. 🤔

I purchased this for my vRS 230 Estate in late 2016 and it's still in good nick. I appreciate it's not quite what you're looking for, if you want your dog to go on the back seat, but as you have an estate I'd seriously consider it. Travall Guard Compatible With Skoda Octavia Estate 2012-2020 and Scout 2014-2020 TDG1471 - Vehicle-Specific Dog Guard Luggage Barrier Load Separator : Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies Unfortunately Amazon is showing it as unavailable now, but that may be because that particular supplier has stopped stocking it. I remember being very impressed with it at the time as it was a very precise/accurate fit and even years later it's still a rigid fixture in the car - no squeaks or rattles. I have two Dalmatians, so it's had its work cut out keeping them in check. Just be careful if you do order one of these as I believe there are several different versions, dependent upon whether you have a hatch or estate, and also whether you have a sun/moon roof or not. Estate with moon roof version has worked faultlessly for me.

I've found that all my album art has to be 500x500. Anything larger and it tends not to display. Very occasionally I still find an art cover will not display, but that seems to be more a glitch issue in the Skoda software - switch back a track and then forward again and the cover appears correctly. I've also found there's an upper limit to the number of tracks/files you can have on an SD card which the head unit is capable of reading (mine's a Columbus unit). Can't recall the exact number now, but it is several thousands. You'll know the message when you get it, something along the lines of "too many files" will appear on your centre display but it can take a little while for it to first appear whilst the head unit is scanning in all the files from your SD card.

Just a thought, but did your car have a factory fit tow hook, or has someone tried to fit an after market one? I have a factory fit tow hook and I get the same message if the car detects that something is attached to the rear wiring loom. I don't actually tow anything, but I do have a 4-bike carrier, so obviously connect that up for all my rear lights when we take the bikes out. Possibly there's something shorting out the connections (you say it happens in the wet), which is making the car think something is attached. I have a black plastic cover which pushes up into the hole where the tow hook and wiring connection would otherwise be, when not in use. Keeps the dirt and water out.

Driving modes and button on the centre console are certainly standard on the petrol VRs models. Anyone know if it's the same for diesel? (Lets hope someone's not done a sneaky and stuck some VRs badges on a regular Octy!)

Stupid as it may sound it could also just simply be a case of something being detected as too close/blocking the sensor. I've had everything from snow and leaves triggering the error at times, to on one occasion where the reporting was more 'random', I eventually tracked the cause down to a fecking spider which had taken up residence in the front bumper and kept periodically trying to make a web right across the front of the sensor. You may want to check for something like this before going to the dealer for a costly bill.

Funnily enough I've just messaged @pab567 on another thread re any possible firmware update, so we'll see.

Hi Pab, any chance of any updates for my Columbus MIB2 2016 too please? Thanks in advance.

Ok, further to my investigations of the problem. I've taken the attached snap-shot of my Columbus firmware details. I work in IT, so I'm familiar with files and catalogues not necessarily updating correctly. As an experiment, I've reformatted the SD card and then resync'd the music files again overnight. Note that I did a full low level format rather than the quick version, just to make sure nothing hidden/broken/duplicate was lying around. I've followed your suggestions of making sure I reset the Columbus system, and also cleanly unmounting and re-inserting the card, but I'm still getting the same error message. The card is actually formatted as exFAT, which seems to be the default, and has worked fine for over 5 years without any problem, so I'm confident the unit can read this format. Don't get me wrong, the system still seems to play the music correctly, it's just annoying having the message spring up every time I start the car, even if media is set to the radio at the time. If I'd been successful in simply reducing the number of files again and the message going away, I'd've been happy, but the fact I've now got less files and the message persists is really bugging me!

Just wondered if anyone has had the attached error message before? Finally got around to updating my Columbus with the latest satnav updates from Skoda at the weekend (ECE 2021-2022), and whilst I was at it I whipped out the SD card I have in one of the glovebox slots to update all the music I have on it. The SD card is a 256GB one and has been working fine to-date with over 9,000 files on it. Since I've ripped a number of new CDs recently, when I resync'd the card it added over 600 more files to my collection. (Note that the SD card used to update the satnav is different from the one with all the music files). The satnav update completed after roughly an hour and I then also re-inserted my music SD card back into its usual slot in the glovebox. As soon as the system had scanned the card I started getting the attached error message on the main display: "The maximum number of synchronisable files has been reached. Some tracks from the source may not be available." Has anyone else had this problem, as I can't find mention of it anywhere on these forums? Likewise, does anyone know what the "maximum number" is, as I've not been able to find any mention of it on here or with Skoda? Even more curiously, my first reaction was simply to think 'I just need to remove a few files again', so I then instructed my PC to resync and removed over 1,600 files - some audiobooks and files I rarely listen to. Total number of audio files on the card is now back down to circa 8,400, a good deal less than when I started, but I'm continuing to get the error message every time the car starts. Start-up of audio playback is also taking noticeably longer to resume when the car first starts, and in some cases doesn't resume at all without my switching sources about - radio or Bluetooth and back again. I'm now wondering whether the satnav update has also applied some firmware update which has either introduced the error message or reduced the 'number of files' limit in some way. Either way, I'm beginning to wish I hadn't bothered with the satnav update. Has anyone else experienced similar or got any suggestions on removing the message/what the file limit is? Is it possible that the satnav update has introduced a load more files and is taking up more memory, so the message is actually referring to the total system files being accessed?

Hi, I've got Columbus MIB2 in my car. Updates have worked repeatedly without a hitched. I've installed the map and camera updates several times, without reinstalling/enabling the POIs specifically. You do need to tick the option for the audible tone to be heard, but once enabled you should get warnings of nearby cameras regardless of what the centre console is displaying. ie. doesn't need to be on map mode. Note you will hear the tone as soon as you're within range of a camera, but doesn't necessarily mean one is on the same road as you. I have several local ones near me which I don't drive directly past - they're just up off on side roads people try to use for cut through - I get the warning tone even though I stick on the main road. Presumably they're all close enough for the tone to still trigger as I pass by. Just note the volume of the tone can by turned up and down by accident. I've had a number of occasions where one's triggered just as I've been adjusting the volume on the radio. The next tone has then either been noticeably louder or quieter. I've found the trick is to drive close to one and turn the volume the opposite way just as the warning triggers. Probably not easy to do on regular main roads, but on a stretch of (not so) Smart motorway near me it's a doddle as there are several in swift succession.

My KESSY is coming up to 5 years old shortly and so far I've only replaced the batteries twice in the main key fob. It may or may not be a factor that my fobs are kept apart, and they also spend any time when they're not in a pocket in one of those shielded pocket things which protects the fob from being scanned by some toerag outside your front door in the middle of the night.

Worked a treat on my 2016 Columbus, thanks. 👍

I have the P button too. Have rear camera but no rear assist. Presumably it's something they've discontinued in more recent models.

The other feature of having a heated windscreen which no one so far seems to have mentioned is that it's also linked to the car's climate control and doesn't just trigger on cold, frosty mornings. The system cleverly detects if there's any condensation/mist on the inside of the windscreen and auto demists the screen. Takes circa 30 seconds but is a godsend if you've parked up briefly to get a paper or a coffee with two damp Dalmatians in the boot. Frequently come back to a very misted up car and the screen is clear to drive away in moments.