thamestrader

@Evolution13 i bought my Karoq in April 24 (used 6 months old 1,000 miles) oil and filter service by selling dealer. Serviced again in April 25 and April 26, I asked for the Haldex oil change with the April 26 service. I’ll make a note for brake fluid to be done April 27. @Rory as you can see from the above - the services are 6 months out of phase with the first reg anniversary - the first service was 6 months early, free/included in purchase price.

My 2023 Karoq Sportline is 3 years old tomorrow, Sept 15th, so the Skoda Warranty expires at midnight today. Having done my due diligence comparing the Extended Warranty offer from Skoda and having it serviced at the independent garage who have serviced our cars for the last 20 years with the Skoda 2 yr All-In-One Service plan, I opted for the All-In-One plan, as the warranty covers the expensive items like Matrix LED headlights, Infotainment screen, Virtual Dashboard,, Mechatronic unit and Clutch Packs. Anyone who is thinking of going with the All-In-One plan you can now arrange it up to 30 days before the vehicle becomes 3 years old, this has only just changed as it was previously only available AFTER the car was 3 years old. Skoda Warranty Offer is a separate insurance policy with a 3rd party provider the cover is slightly less inclusive, the All-In-One plan continues the original Skoda Warranty same cover as when the car was new. Costs: 2 yr All-in-One plan £959.76 or 24 monthly direct debit payments of £39.99. Covers 2 services Oil and Filter, Oil Filter, Pollen Filter and Spark Plugs), 2 MOts, 2 Years Roadside Assistance - 2 yrs Skoda Warranty included. The Skoda Warranty with the 3rd party Insurance company is £624, 2 MOTS is £108, so thats £732, very difficult to see how any independent could do the two services for £227.

I've been getting this too, from posts elsewhere it would appear that a download is being rolled out in batches of VINs. Today I got the message and was driving the car long enough to actually get the download downloaded and then theres a message to install it which takes 20 mins,, after that theres a further message to install the Apps which can be done in the background.

I have the detachable towbar and the virtual pedal works with it stored of on use. But the coordinated kick/wave and step back I don’t always manage to achieve.

This might could be a model year difference, I ditched CarPlay because it wasn’t fully integrated with the steering wheel controls and the digital dash in my 2023 Sportline- but I understand in later cars 25/26, it is.

When following a route, even if by mistake, top left corner is a stop button, it becomes visible when your hand hovers over the screen. If you want to delete a destination: touch and drag left (I think) and a red delete button becomes visible. You can also “escape” from a route by pressing the Nav button.

The pan roof is an optional service item on the Menu at most dealers, £149 every two years: clear drains, lubricate moving parts, moisturise the nenoprene seals. You can buy the Krytox moisturiser off eBay it’s quite pricey but you use very little, also off eBay nylon cable to rid through the drains, fronts are easy, back ones inaccessible without risking damaging the nenoprene seals. I do mine every 6 months. Thd backs I do by parking the Karoq facing up hill on my drive, with the roof open I pour some water with a bit of screen em wash in it, as a marker, then go and look under the each corner of the rear bumper for liquid that smells like screen wash. So far no problems.

My 2023 Sportline has an opening pan roof, your post is the first I’ve read mentioning a fixed pan roof. I know 2024 year Sportline had opening pan roof as well. I think the early roof drain outlets had a tendency to block up as they had a restrictor on the opening to prevent ingress, the drain outlets on my car seem to have an unrestricted opening.

Judging by previous comments factors to consider are: avoid 19 inch rims - (17 & 18 apparently give a better ride), 45 profile All Season tyres improve the ride, 4x4 multi link rear suspension gives a better ride than the 2wd torsion beam rear suspension. Whether you need DCC I don’t know - everyone has different comfort thresholds, lots of test drives required.

@rum4mo oops thanks but I was too late - yes 19 inch rims.

4x4 Sportlines have 45 profile tyres on 29 inch rims and multilink rear suspension (similar if not identical to Passat, Golf and others) 2wd have torsion beam axle - this is a big factor in ride comfort. Try and get a late 73 plate which will still have warranty and then purchase All-in-one plan. I m just about to do that for my Karoq 2.0 TSI 4x4 Sportline. Cost is £959, cost of 2 yrs extended warranty is £624 - thus allinone 2 services and 2 mots is £335, so that’s £168 per service and mot- 2 years roadside is also included - no brainer. Can get extra 4 years warranty, I have checked DSG, infotainment screen, dash screen and matrix headlight units are all covered if they fail.

I have virtual pedal on my Karoq - if can take a while to discover the exact movements needed. Firstly you must have the key on you, stand close to the bumper wave your foot underneath and step quickly back. You must step far enough back and if has to a smooth continuous movement with the foot wave under the bumper. It’s a knack, I did succeed a few times. It’s most useful when carrying things with both hands - which is precisely the time it’s hardest to do - standing on one leg stepping back quickly without over balancing dur to the extra weight of what’s being carried.

@Cqrmine thats the best way to familiarise for you both to understand the behaviour of the engine and gearbox. 11 years ago my partner had never driven an automatic of any sort. She very soon adapted to the Fabia and its DSG gearbox.

I think I may have cracked it. After observing carefully what I was doing, I have discovered that, on my 2.0 TSI 4x4 with DQ381 wet clutch DSG, Auto Home can be controlled by brake pedal pressure. In a queue of vehicles waiting to get out of a T junction, my Karoq will creep on tickover revs 950 ish, if I very lightly touch the brake pedal it will slow and the green (P) is not illuminated even when the car comes to a halt when I release the brake pedal the car starts creeping again and accelerates when the throttle is pressed. If I press the brake pedal slightly harder the green (P) is illuminated and a tsp on the throttle is needed to release auto hold. This light brake pedal pressure makes switching from R to D when shunting into position much easier too as the car creeps instantly without throttle. I’m unable to verify what our dry clutch DQ200 Fabia would do as it only has hill hold which may not be the same. Hope this helps.

So if, in the short delay before the brakes come off, the throttle is pushed further, then a larger throttle input is applied when the ECU actually sees the brakes off and causes the perceived possible jerkiness!. More details, all very useful thanks @NottsIan. Your last sentence is, I think, the reason for many reported DSG jerkiness issues. Applying too much throttle before the clutches have had a chance to engage, in the extreme severe wheelspin.

I’ve started monitoring usage and practicality. @NottsIan your explanation makes sense, I need to work through all the various options, maybe I released parking brake manually - maybe the delay is less with one method.

@Rory when stopped in traffic queues or traffic lights a light tap on the throttle released the auto hold. Then I read a post, either in this forum or the Facebook Karoq Owners group, where the poster would manually apply the parking brake having come to a halt at traffic lights with autohold. They did this so rear brake lights were then off. The action to pull away is the same simply press the throttle but I think the parking brake releases slightly quicker and smoother than the auto hold release. Returning to your question about releasing autohold I find the lightest of taps is sufficient to set the car rolling. Maybe it differs slightly between 1.5 and 2.0 TSI engines.

As I've mentioned previously Ive had 3 DSG cars and I think the key to driving it is acclimatising to the slight delay from when the foot brake is release to when the car just starts to move, only pressing the throttle when it has started to move. All 3 were fractional different. I was very fortunate in 2013 in that my first drive in a DSG VW was with a Sales Guy who was a DSG Geek - he explained the best way to drive it.

@Stonekeeper Absolutely agree. I drive many different manual gearbox vehicles (cars, vans, minibuses) - petrol and diesel) all of them (except one) will pull away from rest on a level surface without any throttle and allow the clutch to fully engage with out slipping or stalling. As you have described the DSG does exactly the same. The one exception is very much off topic. My 1983 Metro 1.3 HLE has a very high final drive ratio so does need a little throttle @Evolution13 is right to seek clarification as there are subtle differences or nuances with the various engine/dsg combinations, I mentioned a few I had experienced in an earlier post. @Cqrmine I personally don't think you have anything to worry about enjoy your new Karoq.

Agree - I’ve not detected any clutch slip when creeping, if trying to creep up a steep hill maybe there would be slip. My 2.0 TSI defaults to pulling away, if it can, in 2nd gear and that does require a small amount of clutch slip- its quite obvious to the driver as engine revs and speed are mismatched- quite different to creep.

@Stonekeeper yes it’s the delay and also the sensitivity of the throttle pedal sensor. I ve read on posts previously that this sensitivity can be adjusted via VAGCOM. We’ve owned 3 different versions of the DSG gearbox: 6 speed DQ250 wet clutch with 2.0 TDI, 7 speed DQ200 dry clutch 1.2 TSI 110 bhp (Fabia) and 7 speed DQ381 2.0 TSI (Karoq). Combination of 6 speed and 2.0 TDI had no perceptible creep delay probably due to diesel low down torque, most noticeable delay is with the Fabia - it’s a smaller engine and it’s a 2015 so DSG and engine software have no doubt been improved since. The 2.0 TSI Karoq, once I mastered the technique, is as good as the 6 speed.

Further to my previous reply, which was written from how I thought I was doing things, this morning I made a note of exactly what I was doing when maneuvering using creep. I have Auto Hold on all the time, I don't switch off to creep. The key to smooth creeping seems to be a delicate presses of throttle OR brake pedals. To shunt back and forth, a light touch on the brake and the gear selector can be moved from D to R OR R to D just before coming to a complete halt - possibly its learning the 'timing' - the auto hold only engages when the car is stationary and you still have pressure on the brake pedal. To creep up carefully and very close to a fixed object like a wall or parked car I was controlling the speed with a very light pressure on the brake pedal. Note that the Emergency braking is feature which uses the parking sensors and front radar is disabled if the brake pedal is being pressed. I experimented with empty cardboard boxes some time ago- my car would always stop before the boxes when creeping without brake pedal pressure, but would hit the boxes if I was lightly pressing the brake pedal. As an aside brake pedal pressure can also be used to prevent Stop/Start from switching the engine off, just reduce the brake pedal pressure slightly just as the car stops, I have stop/start switched on but it hardly ever stops the engine, my right foot has somehow' learnt' to reduce the pedal pressure.

I have the 2023 2.0 TSI Sportline, so I imagine the headlights operate the same. I have the light switch always set to Auto, when I start the car when headlights are needed they come, the beans go up and then come down I assume this is checking the auto levelling mechanism is working correctly. I then move the stalk to Msjn beam position and the dashboard main beam lamp either illuminates blue for main beam or white if dipped beam is in use. I think there is a setting in the Infotainment screen for light settings to activate/deactivate auto main beam/dipped beam. At light I tend to drive on auto main beam all the time, leaving the Karoq to adjust the headlamp beam as required to suit traffic conditions- so far if has worked flawlessly. Has you Karoq had an MOT recently as that will have checked the headlamp beams are aligned correctly- maybe they have switch off the auto dip to check the beam patterns?

Firstly which version if the DSG gearbox do you have? DQ200 dry clutch used with 1.0 TSI engine, 1.5 TSI 2wd and possibly the 2wd diesel Karoqs. DQ381 wet clutch used in all 4x4 Karoqs. Auto hold will have an affect as has been mentioned already. I have a wet clutch DSG 4x4 Karoq and a Fabia with the dry clutch DSG. So taking the wet clutch DSG first with auto hold on, gears ca. only be selected with the foot brake pressed, selecting D or R taking the right foot off the brake pedal and without touching the throttle the car should creep either forwards or back, if you are in a slope it might take fractionally longer before it moves. The wet clutch DSG can slip the clutch without overheating because the clutch plates are cooled by the gearbox oil. Sometimes a light tap on throttle is needed to release Auto hold. With auto hold on there is no need to either apply or release the parking brake manually it is released by tapping the throttle and applied automatically when the engine is switched off. The dry clutch DSG operates in the same way but I find it’s a little slower to start creeping. There are a few situations when auto hold has to be turned off and sometimes left foot braking is needed to make progress- I don’t recommend left foot braking. In the 13 years I’ve been driving DSG cars there most awkward situations were trying to creep out into traffic with severe limited view to the right, a car appears to press the brake pedal and then that car stops to let you out and either hill hold if auto hold has to be released before you can move. Reversing up hill is another that can be awkward if you need throttle to overcome the slope. I find with both the Fabia dry clutch and Karoq wet clutch I can use creep without throttle 99% of the time and use the foot brake to control speed. The trick is to use very light foot brake pressure. If you are still finding it difficult then if could be the DSG clutch biting points need to be “relearnt”. I had this done on the Fabia by an independent DSG specialist. Before it was done the Fabia wouldn’t creep without throttle but thd clutches kept engaging and disengaging unpredictably - took 15 minutes cost £160 and absolutely transformed the car. Hope this helps.

Brake pad wear and therefore lifespan is very much a function of driving style and journey types. I personally find that garages always under estimate how long they will last; partially because they have to err on the side of safety - although this is open to looking like generating extra revenue. I usually change front pads at 72,000 miles, never had rear pads changed even after 162,000 miles in a previous car.