nicknorman

You can get springs for around £80 IIRC. Obviously it will be more if you want someone to fit them for you. I wouldn’t bother to get pukka Skoda (VW) ones because they are fairly crap, just get reasonable after market ones - they will likely be better. There is quite a selection of spring rates according to exactly which model you have, but there should be some coloured marks on the spring (if they are still visible) which will be useful to determine the correct part. In theory you are right about replacing in pairs but the reality is I wouldn’t bother. Let’s face it, you didn’t notice a handling issue with the broken spring, just a noise (the anti-roll bar does a lot to even up these sorts of things). So you are not going to notice the difference between a new spring and one that is a bit tired. The only practical reason to replace both sides could be that the other side will likely break fairly soon. But then so too could a front one. I speak as someone who has now replaced 3 out of 4 springs!

yes I think the sensor from Skoda (TPS in the UK) is around that price, but here in the UK you can get them much cheaper on eBay. But maybe Oz ebay (if you have it) doesn’t do them.

You can get them on eBay for around £30. If you don’t replace it, it will probably fail the next MOT.

Removing the front bumper isn’t hugely difficult. Just quite a few screws to remove the wheel arch linings and under tray, then a couple of screws at the top and a couple where the bumper meets the wing each side. A bit time consuming, but not difficult. If the sensor has been pushed in then there is a possibility that some little plastic bit is broken, but bodgery might fix it!

Presuming you have the electric parking brake… You shouldn’t normally need to operate the switch (push down/pull up lever thingy behind the gear selector). When you stop the car with the foot brake, the auto-hold (assuming you have it on) keeps the foot brake pressure on. Then you select P (park) and then you stop the engine (or turn the ignition off if it’s already stopped). At that point, the electric parking brake is automatically applied. When you come back to the car, start the engine, engage D, press the throttle a bit - the parking brake comes off automatically. If this isn’t happening then it seems likely to me that the fault lies elsewhere, not at the little switch that you don’t normally need to operate. You need to use the switch for a few odd reasons, eg to take the parking brake off if you want to move off with the door open… (I do this sometimes when I want to move the car an inch to line up the tow bar, and being able to see the ground helps). Or to put the parking brake on as an alternative to holding on the foot brake system and concomitant illumination of the brake lights in D, or just to take it out of D and into neutral for a long wait. So in summary, it seems unlikely that the actual little switch is the source of your problem.

Check the N80 valve on top of the engine. It will just take 5 minutes!

Don’t see why not. The gearbox sump casing will be pretty close to the oil temperature.

That was my first thought, but on looking at the log data there are 2 different wheel speed sensors mentioned at the same time (front left and rear right) along with serveral databus messages and a few other weird things. With just the 1 wheel speed sensor going faulty, you get warning messages and the probabilty of 2 different sensors going faulty within 1 second of each other is remote.

Well I did have VCDS so I could monitor the oil temperature, but it was a struggle to get it up to 35C (it was fairly cold in the garage). I think in the end it just about hit 35, but it wasn't going to go any higher. So for you, I would suggest the times mentioned above are adequate to get close enough to the right temperature - assuming the ambient temperature is within reason. There is after all a 10C tolerance allowed, so it can't be that critical. And then as you say, remove the plug and let the oil drain out until it stops. Be aware that there is a process going on in the gearbox such that you will get oil spilling out every 30 secs or so, but this is to be disregarded. The manual says this: A small amount of oil comes out of the overflow pipe every 30 seconds, regardless of the oil level. This is caused by pulsation in the cooling oil for the coupling. Such escaping oil does not indicated whether the gear oil level is adequate, so it must not be taken into account when determining the oil level.

I would just run the engine for a while, say 5 minutes on a hot day, 10 mins on a cold day. When I did mine on a fairly cold day, i couldn't get the temperature much above 35C and certainly nowhere near 45C no matter how long I ran it for. I think this will be more accurate than just putting back in what you took out, because it might not have been correct "at birth" and there might have been very slight leakage over the years. The difference in level from being say 5C outside the range is going to be minimal.

Just to mention that there is no cam belt on the 280, it’s a chain.

No you would enter 14. I just mentioned the binary thing to explain why the maximum number quoted was 65535.

Mine is on about 95,000 miles now. I have had a few problems, nothing disasterous - touch wood! Haldex pump failed at 20k miles, replaced under warranty. I do my own Haldex oil changes now, including cleaning the gauze filter on the pump which is full of black fibres each time. The Skoda dealer will just change the oil, not clean the gauze, which IMO is no good. Had an issue with a wheel bearing at about 35k miles, again replaced under warranty and so far all the others have been fine. The usual brakes and tyres of course. I also had hassle with fuel leaking from the filler cap in hot weather, a problem with the evap canister and the valve on the engine, but both were fairly cheap and easy to replace. I had a leaking front DCC shock which seems to be a common issue, replaced at great expense a couple of years ago. Fortunately the other side seems fine for now. And I have now had 3 out of 4 suspension springs break. Which is pretty poor but fairly cheap if fiddly to replace. In terms of the core components, engine, dsg and all the many electronic gizmos you get with an L&K, it has been reliable.

I’ve no experience with ODB11 but can’t you just type 14 into the box where it says 0-65535? The latter number of course being the maximum value a 16 bit binary number can take. Alternatively you could try to reset the infotainment by the long 10 second press on the on/off button

Yes it is a DIY job but you do need the right tools, including the 24mm splined socket for the central wheel bolt. That bolt is the type that is designed to stretch on first tightening so really you should procure a replacement bolt. I would recommend you spend the 8 euros or whatever it is these days, for an hour on ERWIN so that you can download the relevant maintenance manual section. As well as detailed instruction and giving the torque settings (very high for the central bolt!) it also carries warnings about not putting any load on the wheel until the central bolt is fully tight, otherwise you will damage the bearing before you have even driven it! It's a 2 person job as someone needs to press firmly on the brake pedal whilst this bolt is loosened and tightened. You absolutely cannot put the wheel on the ground to stop it turning whilst tightening the bolt. Oh and you might need an extractor to push the shaft out of the bearing, although when I did this on a rear wheel (4wd) it came off fairly easily without a special tool.

Fixed my missing TMC (traffic information) with a tweak. Hooray! And now it works in Scotland too.

See Rizmod’s post earlier in this thread. Change the adaptation in module 5F for the TMC from 15 to 14, which changes the traffic data provider. Using VCDS or whatever.

My TMC has never worked in Scotland, it kicks into life when I drive south of the border. Or did until it conked out earlier this year. But now I have changed 15 to 14, it not only works again but does so in Scotland! Thanks to all who spread this information. You would think that Skoda UK would also have this fairly simple piece of information to get the TMC working again! But then again, maybe not!

See the posts around this one for details.

I had this problem. It was a valve in the engine bay that had stuck open. Quite cheap and easy to replace. However I suspect your charcoal canister will be “poisoned” by too much petrol. That will need replacing too. Not expensive, just a bit of a pain removing the rear rh wheel arch to get to it.

The 190 gets its extra power from more boost. The torque off idle (no boost) would surely be much the same? I have a Mk III 2016 280tsi with Xenons, it’s not that noticeable but when I stop to reverse into the garage I see the lights returning from urban wide spread mode.

I was sure mine wasn't a bearing since the noise didn't change with cornering forces. It just came on over a fairly narrow speed range around 50mph. I went out with the technician to demonstrate the noise, he said pretty sure it was a wheel bearing and when they jacked it up he said they could feel roughness. Wheel bearing changed and problem went away.

I had a noisy wheel bearing on mine at around 30k miles. Replaced under warranty. The remaining wheel bearings are still fine at 92k miles

It’s a good car in general. The diesels seem to suffer from water pump issues, there is a slightly weird water pump that has a shroud that stops it working when it’s cold, in order to heat up the engine quicker. But over time the shroud gets stuck and you get wildly varying coolant temperature/overheating, new pump required. But all brands have some weak spots, this is one of Skoda (VW group)’s ones.

are you sure? I thought it was 2 for normal and 3 for DCC. I have DCC but when my front left sensor went kaput, I got the headlight problem so clearly the headlights were using the front sensor. It makes sense - position of the rear suspension doesn’t tell you (or the headlight system) the tilt angle of the car. It also depends on the position of the front suspension.