Warrior193

Hi Mat, unfortunately I assume that the mechanic is not going to put his / her hand up to breaking this - was the air filter changed as part of the service? While it takes a bit of force to remove the airbox, it seems very unlikely that this broke all by itself! - When I did my first air filter change recently I was really pulling on the top of the box (I didn't know about the two screws underneath) - and I didn't manage to break any of the mounts! To fix, from memory, the webbing on the manifold is fairly deep - it might be possible to drill and tap the mount to fix replacement airbox studs (if such a thing exists) - or use the ball-type mounts similar to those used on gas struts, these are available in various sizes. The ball engages with a rubber bung fitted into the bottom shell of the filter airbox. NB. if this works, make sure you smear a little silicon (or similar) lube grease on the rubber bungs before refitting.

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum - if your car is a 66 plate shouldn't that be a 150 in your profile - or is it just a missing decimal point? A tip for newbies driving an auto - remove your left shoe for the first couple of times to remind yourself not to stamp on the 'clutch pedal' with your left foot when going for a gear-change. I think you will really like the 1.4, pulls like a train, even from pretty low revs - although I wouldn't say no to a 245 either.

Hi Jehu, start by telling us what car you have (model and year) - and what the problem is. If it needs to be shifted somewhere else the moderators aren't going to bite you. Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Interesting test, something I've thought about doing, but never got around to it - only had a couple of apparently spurious activations myself where I couldn't see anything obvious to trigger it - however I do feel that mine is a little too sensitive if I'm clearing a vehicle turning left in front of me, but it's something I can make allowance for, usually only triggers the warning alarm.

Hi Andmag, I assume that you mean the plastic cover over the coil packs, on top of the engine? put your fingers under the left hand side of the cover (belt pulley side of engine) and gently pull up - a rubber bung in the cover fits onto a spigot bracket bolted to the engine, the right side of the cover has two spigots that fit into recesses in the intake trunking. Smear a little petroleum jelly or similar on the rubber bung before refitting.

Hi Tannerman, my 65 plate (MY16) Octavia has done the same thing on one occasion only, at less that 17,000 miles - as I was moving off from a traffic light, it cleared the next time I operated the clutch. It felt like something had caught the pedal but couldn't see anything that might have done so. I didn't feel any obvious clutch-slip when this happened, but the clutch bite-point at the time felt really odd. Clutch pedal not fully coming up will almost certainly prevent the switch that restarts the engine after a stop, from operating. I will monitor your post for possible cause of this.

Apologies if this is topic has been addressed previously - I couldn't find it in a search on the forums. Is there anyone else who thinks that VW/Skoda air filter change schedule is highly optimistic? VW appear to say change at 30,000 miles. My MY16 Octavia is now approaching 17,000 miles and I am going to change both the air and cabin filters soon. I did a little number crunching and have calculated that a 1.4 litre engine will consume something over 15.5 billion litres of air in 16,000 miles, even at moderate RPM! - that's more than 1,500,000 M3 if I haven't got my calc. wrong.

Hi Peter, have you checked that the data-lock switch is in the correct position on the SD card?

While checking how to change my air filter I decided that the top of my engine looks a little unfinished with the coil packs etc. exposed - it appears that Skoda, etc. decided to delete the engine cover cap some time before MY16, presumably in a cost-cutting exercise. Took a look on "The Bay" and found someone supplying a VW one, apparently sourced from VW Shanghai - £35 including free postage, bracket and bolt. Perfect and easy fit, looks genuine/original and finishes off the top of the engine nicely - I know, not a Skoda-marked part, but OK with that - my steel winter wheels have VW trims which I've never bothered to change.

Assuming it is a genuine Mahle filter, I suppose the brand owner will want to preserve their name and insist on a certain standard of quality control. Interestingly, the Mahle air filter I bought recently was made in Austria.

After all that work you put into it, were you not able to sell it as a runner - or at least as a rolling chassis?

Am I alone in thinking that someone should have taken another look at the design of the air filter box on the EA211 engine before signing off on it? I checked online on how to remove the air filter, which showed that you needed to remove the whole box from the engine, which I finally managed after having much fun with the hose clips! As I was removing the two cross-head screws on the underside of the box, I found myself thinking - why, oh why didn't they just change the design so that these screws were in the top of the cover? Then you wouldn't have to remove the complete box just to change the filter. When you look at the box in situ, all that is obvious are the four plastic clips in the corners, I wonder how many people have attempted to remove the top not knowing that there are two screws hidden underneath! The recommended air filter change schedule is another thing altogether, another case of VWs "Pixie dust"?