thamestrader

My independent garage, who has maintained all my cars for the last 20 years, looks at it this way based on his years of experience. An engine that is used every day for a regular 40 mile trip to work and back puts the cambelt through 10 heat cycles a week 5 per hundred miles. An engine that does 10 short 3-4 mile trips a week puts the cambelt through 15 heat cycles per 100 miles. That it is heat cycles which cause stretching and cracking of the cambelt rather than overall mileage. Both our Skodas do mostly short journeys so I replace the cambelt at 5 year intervals, as we keep our cars for 10-15 years. That’s only 2 cambelts per car which is considerably less than a new engine. I know this doesn’t specifically answer your question, how long you intend to keep your Karoq may be the deciding factor.

Firstly car locking with the keys inside is a software fault and there has been a free update available for nearly a year now. If your car has not had that applied I ask for that to be done. With regard to the engine cutting out when braking is this a 1.5 TSI manual? Some DSG cars the engine will cut out when braking gently at about 3mph but the engine restarts instantly the brake odds Liz released.

If the water pump is the same end of the engine as the cambelt - and if they’ve had to go that far - maybe it’s worth asking about replacing any belts etc in that area while it’s stripped down.

I note a couple of replies above mention the engine cutting out approaching a junction as the gearbox goes through neutral. Now I know my 2,0 TSI DSG is not the same at all, but it can do something very similar and I wonder if this is what is also happening on the 1.5 TSI. If I am slowing down, typically when turning right from a central right turn lane with very light brake pressure, i.e not enough to bring the car to a complete standstill though, at about 3 mph the revs drop to zero but the moment I release the brake pedal the engine restarts. I think this is the Stop/Start system cutting the engine as it (wrongly) assumes the car is coming to a complete stop. Has anyone had this cutting out happen when stop start is disabled?

Bit of an update. The nearside reversing light wasn't working again and the 'Check Reversing Light' message was displayed along with the Triangle - what I now refer to as the 'Bermuda Triangle'. A quick tap on the light unit and the reversing light comes back on. So light of replies received I decided to remove the light unit and examine the bulbs and contacts. First though a few hints and tips regarding the cluster removal. The light unit is held by two Torx head screws on one side, on the other, outer, side where the unit meets the rear wing its a push fit over two studs, a plastic trim removal blade is required to prise the unit off the studs. The cable that plugs into the socket on the backplate backplate does not have enough slack to allow the plug to be removed so the backplate has to be unclipped. There are 4 or 5 clips that all have to be released. Being plastic care has to be taken not to snap them off. I found pressing the backplate onto the unit body by each clip would reduce the pressure on the clip which made it easier to release, work round each clip in turn and its released. There are two small bulbs that are outside the backplate, they both twist 90 degrees to release and pull out. The plug on the cable can be released by pressing the side by the red plastic which will release the clip. The contacts were not corroded, the only thing I did notice was that the reversing bulb was not as securely held as all the other bulbs. After removing and refitting the bulb a number of times I come to the conclusion that it needed to be inserted firmly and twisted into position until it located in an indent to hold the little pins on the body of the bulb. Doing this the bulb seemed secure. Put it all back together and everything is now working as it should - it remains to be seen for how long though......I smeared some Silicone grease over each of the clips on the backplate and their mating points on the light body - it makes it easier to slide on and off.

Still on the original set of Bridgestone Duellers, which are summer tyres. Car has done 12,000 miles on these tyres, swapped fronts to back at10,000 miles at the end of August, as the outside shoulders were wearing. Wanted to even out the wear so I could replace the whole set and get the lower prices. Top tyre is left front, lower tyre is left rear. Apart front the obvious shoulder wear on the front, there is not much difference in overall wear. LF 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 5.5. LR 5.0, 5.5, 5.5, 6.0. Measuring outside to inside. Outside is on the left of the photo. Hopefully these will now be OK until around 20,000 when I'll replace them. Replacement will probably be one of Pirelli SF3, Michelin CC3 SUV, Continental All Season (just fitted these to our Fabia) or Bridgestone Turbanza 6 All Season. If one of them has a rim protector moulding that could be the deciding factor over price or grip, as the 19 inch alloys and 45 profile tyres don't give any protection. I had 2 sets of Cross Climates after the original Michelin Primacys on the previous VW Touran, but the Continentals and Bridgestones come out better in the Tyre Tests. This is a really informative site - you can compare each tyre against the other and see how it performs. AllSeasonContact 2 VS CrossClimate 2 Tyre Comparison - Tyre Reviews And Ratings

Has any one had problems with the bulbs in the rear light clusters causing a "Check Bulb " message, which is correct but simply tapping the light cluster or undoing the screws to remove causes the bulb to illuminate and the error to clear? My partners Fabia has twice displayed this message for a reversing light bulb. The car is an Auto which unlike a manual, it's not possible to switch on the ignition and engage reverse and check the lights oneself, So she started the engine selected reverse and I looked checked the rear lights, offside reverse light is not working tapped the cover and the light comes on, tapped it a few more times and it remains on. So dodgy contact but its stayed working for some months. This week the "Check Reversing Light" message comes up again for the other side, so decide to replace the bulb, remove the cluster easily but outside at night its difficult to release the clips, so replace the cluster, and reverse the Fabia into the garage, and now the reversing lights are both working again. So decide to leave working lights alone, on the if it ain't broke don't mess with it, but the theres a part of me that says its broke some of the time and it shouldn't be broke any of the time! Has anyone else had this intermittent contact issue on the rear light clusters and actually found corrosion on the bulb holders or contacts?

@Barneyboy48 you should be able to connect you phone using just Bluetooth. It all becomes so much easier that way. If then uses the built in Phone functionality of the Amundsen unit which means all the steering wheel buttons work and the phone contacts etc display in the centre of the dash …

I think the lower (40 & 45) profile tyres with smaller sidewalls don’t flex as much as 50 and 60 profiles so they wear more when cornering. My previous VW did 50,000 miles on its first set of tyres, next set did 35,000. But I don’t expect to get that sort of mileage from the Karoq.

How many miles have the tyres done? The outside edges of the front tyres of my 4x4 2.0 TSI were wearing after 10k miles so switched fronts to back reckon I’ll get 20k front the set. I live in Milton Keynes famous for its roundabouts not good for tyre wear especially if one utilises the grip and handling

Look at the navigation settings, you can have the speed limit for the current road displayed on the map (I have the map displayed most if the time), and the. You will get a bong if you exceed that speed and it displays an ! by the speed. The bong can be silenced by turning off audio route instructions.

Firstly delete all users, then with BOTH keys in the car start the registration process. From memory it should then display a QR code to use with your phone, scan the QR code to download the Skoda App. That should then sync with the car. I think it’s at this point you can make yourself primary user. This is the system display from my Karoq as of July 2025. Navigation database updated you will only get by paying the annual subscription in the App, I think you may have to buy the remote access subscription to get software updates. I’ve paid for both.

Yep it’s a real pain - I wanted to replace the standard bulbs with some Phillips Nightbreakers (or similar) I couldn’t get my hand into a position to do anything useful. Dealer did it FOC at the service. A 57 plate Octavia I drove had a little catch that released the headlamp and bulb changing was Simple, no need to open the bonnet!

I agree its not the usual type of comparison. It’s a simple comparison of mpg of the 2.0 L TDI that I previously owned against the 2.0 L TSI that replaced it, for my specific usage pattern. It’s interesting that others have similar experience. Higher mileage with longer journeys though favour the diesel. I did a number of return trips to Bristol in the Touran and Karoq, the Touran did around 60 mpg the Karoq about 48 mpg, so very much horses for courses. Those journeys were 2 or 3 a year exceptions rather every week.

Was the new battery coded to the car? I've had rear wheel ABS sensors fail on a VW and that threw up a lot of errors all related to safety systems. The left wheel ABS sensor failed after driving through deep at the side of the road.

I can't recall where I saw it now, someone had posted details of the actual Ethanol content of the various petrol brands. That was quite interesting as some of the premium brands E5 and E10 contained less Ethanol than other brands., as the requirement is up to 55 or up to 10% .

I've now analysed the fuel consumption when using Shell V Power (E5) and Shell Fuelsave ULD (E10) fuel. Fuelsave E10 from 1144 to 2659 and 6706 to 10903 total 5682 miles 6.36 miles per litre or 28.90 mpg. May 24 to July 24 and March 25 to end October 25. V Power E5 from 2659 to 6706 total 4047 miles 6.60 mile per litre or 29.95 mpg. Mid July 24 to mid March 25. The V Power mpg is 4% better than Fuelsave unleaded and the price per litre is 25% higher. The V Power was used over winter so that may have reduced mpg slightly, also engine and transmission are now 'run in' so that may also improve mpg marginally.

I had a glitch with my satnav today where the main screen map froze but directions still appeared on screen and in the dash. By fluke it was fixed by using the menu to show map in dash, which was updating correctly and switching back to the main screen which then worked correctly again. I have had the main screen map display switch to dark mode quite big recently due to the dull overcast weather I think.

@Sanqhar I did not have the diesel fix applied to my Touran. Even so it eventually succumbed to EGR valve failures. Up to 2020 it had done around 94,000 miles, reduced use during Covid resulted in the EGR failing in Oct 2020 after 96,000 miles. It failed again at 104,000 miles 3 years later.

@Evolution13 in the 2.0TSI Karoq I initially used Shell E5, then switched to Shell E10, now back on E5. I haven’t yet analysed the mpg data. The round trip to Aberdeen was all Shell E10, the Touran always used V Power diesel. We have a 2015 1.2 TSI Fabia which is always filled with Shell V Power E5, I’m sure it makes a difference - I think I’ve commented on this in the Fabia subforum.

Your maths is correct - I was doing 2 or 3 journeys a day of about 2 to 3 miles each - why didn't I walk - I probably should have done! It never warmed up really. It was all round Milton Keynes 70 mph dual carriageways with roundabouts every 1 kilometer. On long runs the Touran would average 60 mpg easily and over the first 90,000 miles averaged 50 mpg. I think the diesel was thirsty whilst getting to a speed, and economical once there. This summer I did a 1000 mile trip to MK to Aberdeen and back towing my classic car on a two axle trailer. The KAroq averaged 30mpg the Touran did the same trip in 2019 averaged 35 mpg - both times I was travelling at 60 mph on the motorways using cruise on the Touran but Speed limiter on the Karoq which allowed it to coast quite a bit.

I get this occasionally usually a quick flick wipe clears it or a squirt from the screen washers. Must admit I'd assumed it was on the outside as it clears with the wipers,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Petrol vs Diesel - the dilemma if annual mileage changes from high (> 18,000) to low (< 5000). This may be of some interest for anyone considering between petrol and diesel. In April 2024 I replaced my 2013 2.0 TDI DSG VW Touran after 108,000 miles with a 2023 2.0 TSI DSG 4x4 Karoq. Low annual mileage, in retirement, didn't suit the diesel. Now after 18 months I can compare fuel costs, my gut feel back in 2024 was that whilst the mpg of the petrol was worse this would be offset by the lower price per litre. Analysis of the fuel purchased over 12 months compared with the diesel Touran over 12 months is as follows: Petrol Karoq 6.53 miles per litre, over approx 6,500 miles Diesel Touran 7.10 miles per litre, over approx 5,200 miles Using Shell V Power fuel in both - the diesel would cost 50p more per 1,000 miles. negligible difference. I used only V Power diesel in the Touran and use Shell E10 Unleaded in the Karoq saving £22 over 1,000 miles. I think this confirms my original thinking was valid the fuel costs of the petrol Karoq running E10 costs less than the Touran running V-Power Diesel on the type of journeys I now do. Its not a perfect comparison - the Karoq is heavier, not such a smooth shape and has the extra drag of the 4x4 transmission, comparing petrol and diesel 4x4 Karoqs would I think show a greater saving with the petrol engined one. I've not included the extra cost of Ad Blue as the 140 bhp TDI in the Touran did not use Ad Blue, this is a further cost which would need to be include and increases the overall cost per 1000 miles for the diesel. Pre retirement the Touran was doing 17,500 miles per year and averaging 11 miles per litre - its a no brainer - even using V Power the diesel is still cheaper on fuel than the best mpg the petrol could possible achieve.

Try one of the OEM retro fit companies as they seem to advertise upgrades and replacement of built in units.

If you remove one of existing alloy wheels it will have a part code identifier cast into the back of the wheel. Our Fabia has 15 inch wheels. I bought one off eBay which was sold by a car breakers, the tool kit was a separate purchase and the wheel retaining bolt was the final purchase from a Seat Ibiza.