brettikivi

My A2 shuts A/C off at 5C. The Octavia shows the LED, but there's no difference on or off at -15. I leave it on Auto, generally at 19 or 20C. But then I also have aux heating and go out of my way to clear large deliveries of snow the night before so I avoid condensation. If there's water on the inside of the screen it will take forever to dry. I do also try to remove the wads of ice from the driver mat occasionally and sometimes will take the car to a heated parking garage to get rid of it all or at least to melt it. Auto works really well in the Octavia and A2, and terribly in the S-Cross. There we leave it on 20C and screen / feet and adjust the fan as necessary. Last week my rental had manual fan - there it was on the screen / feet, full heat, and then turned from 2 - 4 - 3 - 2 on the fan as the car got up to temperature and then back down as it got warmer in the cabin. The A/C "turned on" automatically when I put the fan just to the screen, though I know that cannot work. I suspect it is to stop people asking questions about "Why doesn't my A/C work?" whether it's actually working or not. Awful, that was, too, at -25C with no preheating. - Bret

also: clean windows mist less than dirty ones. Up here you'll see below -15 or so that rear windows ice up on the inside... and thick snow on the outside can mean condensation on the inside if you're using a cabin heater. Bottom line? humidity is far more of an issue above zero. And moving air will also shift the condensation off, just slower.

right. But I've been asking around about mine... and I've had €4k difference in offers. All for replacing it with something of similar value, just 4x4. The market is a bit nuts right now, I'll agree, and I don't think it's just the UK, either. Lots of things are being affected negatively with supply chains being tight across the globe and now the results are going to start hitting... interesting times. I was told the other day that chips are in massively short supply - lead times of 9 months were being bandied around. - Bret

There needs to be a sensor for temperature; How else would it keep level 1, 2 or 3? I can't find a way to do the automation for the O III but can for Golf 8 / O IV. - Bret

you can break lots. Be careful. Very careful. Your tyre pressure is a good example: the system does not work the way it might - it uses the rotational speed difference from one wheel to another to detect pressure loss. Unlike, say, the system in the wife's SX4, which states clearly "210kPa". You are also working with a facelift Octy and they are not the same as pre-facelift ones in terms of electronics. Take a backup before you change anything.

I have a Sandisk 256 in mine without issues. Edit says: full size, Extreme, couple of years old now.

I could understand a 10km road test. 30 less so.

it does, it's hiding under the car menu and settings. It will only help if you're prepared to modulate the accelerator yourself. EDS will limit engine power; ASR will try to stop the wheels from spinning. ABS sensors are used to detect this vs the speed of the rear wheels. Can be useful to turn it off - *if* you have some grip and you are prepared to modulate the pedal. Remember winter tyres have the most grip between 10 and 90% slip (I have a source for this, too, and it's not just living up here), so some slip is good. I regularly turn the ASR off on the A2 in winter - without it, power is more predictable even if grip isn't. The Octy I really don't like without ASR. I've driven a couple of laps of icetracks with the old one and .. without ASR you're redlining way too easily, the grip isn't really there and there's no push to help you set up for a corner. AWD versions do rather better in this. Last night we were even down to 90km/h at -7 with driving snow, it was pretty poor conditions on the motorway on the way home. Today? oof, 15cm of fresh powder, pretty much untouched by plough and I wouldn't have been able to get the octy out of the drive thanks to the big pile the plough left yesterday during the day. I took the SX4 and was very happy I did. There is too little traffic here at the moment, though, so it means my old rules - 0 to -5C, side roads are sheet ice, -5 to -10C main roads are ice, -10 to -15 the motorway is bad - are no longer valid. When you've got consistent cold, each car polishes the ice on the asphalt - depending on traffic levels and speed, that might mean that the ice is removed (motorways at 100km/h), or just polished. Yesterday there was already an E-Class in the snow in the central reservation - someone wasn't paying attention and drifted a little too far, and that's it, you're sunk into two feet of snow. Engine braking shouldn't lock the wheels. There should be a twitch of the steering to do roundabouts, the rest is your right foot. If the indicator self-cancels, you're doing it wrong Most of the time, though, you guys get the wet stuff which is just meh to drive in. Compacted powder is more predictable. From here: - you shouldn't need brakes much in winter - engine braking is the way to go --> this also implies you're far enough from the car in front to do this. - turn the engine on before you start clearing the snow - clear all the windows, and the bonnet, and the roof; use a brush if you have to. Otherwise stuff moves, potentially onto your windscreen when you brake and then you're blind - you might have to stop to get the ice off the wipers sometimes. The Octy is way better at this than the SX4. - make sure you free the wipers before setting off - they might well be frozen in place to the screen. - a clean screen on the inside mists up a lot slower than a dirty one

the additional stalk is from the adaptive cruise control. This will not be trivial...

so I hit a year old next week. Time to take a little stock of what's happened: - Fuel consumption in the really cold stuff is poorer than otherwise. I saw 6.3 or so the other day going to the office with -24C outside. - I got two "BING!"s in quick succession last week; one for tyre pressure and then another for oil. Tyre pressure was fine, oil I dumped the remainder of the last 1l canister in. This exact thing happened at almost exactly the same mileage with the old one... 25k, oil needed. Fair enough, 0.5l over 25k is acceptable. Just over 25k on the clock now, I'm expecting the service to be required in early March if I continue to commute like this three days a week. Pretty happy so far. Upgrades I'm really trying to work out how to make happen: - more light on high beam - better stereo (though I have a lot of parts for this, it's not going to be trivial to find the time or funds, so I need to work on that .. and that's about it. It works, it's pretty quiet and it does the job. Does need a vacuum out, though. Hopefully might warm up to around -5 this week and I'll do multiple cars then.

mine is similar. Long term average according to the computer over the last ca. 6000kms is 5.3l/100, I believe, and spritmonitor (Fuelly for the UK) tells me 5.87 over that distance. That gives me a 10% difference. I'm sure the aux heater isn't included in the numbers, though, so in the summer it will have been way closer. I'm not going to go and check it, it's -20C out there.

-24C outside. Car wasn't warm after 30 min Webasto this morning... happy I was doing some other stuff so I left the heater running while picking up my packages... then I stopped on the way home for a coffee and saw the temperatures drop from 90 to less than 50 in a five minute stop. Might need to get one of those grill covers if this continues. 6.3l/100 homeward bound, too :/

been powersliding with the pictured sx4 today...

Front yard. I cleared most of the pile to the left of the fence yesterday. It's about 2 x 2 x 1m at the moment... and it's still snowing.

-20C for tomorrow and -22 for the day after is the current forecast... at least it looks like we'll actually have an icetrack this year again

we got closer to 20cm yesterday and the wind blew it everywhere. Not as bad as Helsinki, though, which seems to have had over 30cm and one friend is reporting 50.... that's about half the snow due over the winter, dumped in one day.

meh, i just read the forecast. Probably 15cm tomorrow, maybe more. -2 tomorrow morning, -12 by Wednesday evening... interesting...

car got washed on the way into work by the melting snow. Still can't read the front plate (the brown frozen mess is still there); the rear is a little better because of all the water. Supposed to come down in a big way tomorrow - had to clear the paths and drive again tonight, there was a good few cm from today. Also had the tyre pressure thing go "BING" on the way home - no issues - and then the orange oil light came on. 25k kms, so this is Ok. Will add another half liter, get myself filthy at the same time and then see what happens. Service is probably due in 2 months now...

-13 this morning and the fluff is coming down. At least some of the ice from Thursday has melted back off the lights and grille of the Octy, but not all and it's now filthy. Can't wash it at home, either, and I don't have access to the office's underground car park with built-in car wash area (yes, really). Hmmm....

looks pretty good here for the next 10 days or so: Tuesday might be a little hairy - that's probably 10cm fresh snow after another 5-7 Monday. It's nice to actually see the sun again today

super slippery outside tonight - -6C and a few cm of snow cover, hardpacked on all side roads. Great with the SX4, not so much with the Octy. Oh, and ice rain on the way home Thursday evening - so -3C and rain

there's a cable from Audison for this. Can only find the finnish one right now but it's on the Audison site. Their documentation on the website really is excellent. Cable: https://www.hifitalo.fi/products/audison-prima-ap-t-johtosarja-audi-vw-52-pin-iso-t-haara other stuff: turn off the DSP in the head unit. Turn off the speed-related volume. - Bret

I siliconed the doors earlier -16 due this week, it's starting properly. Might also be able to do a decent Icetrack session or four this winter, too... - Bret

it arrived over the weekend here. I left the Octy still for a couple of days and see this...

this is not trivial because CANBus means there's no trigger when Xenons are installed and I'm not too sure how it works for Halogens. The "easiest" way is probably to reprogram the BCM to push one of its outputs to high when you trigger high beam and then allow the relay to switch. LEDs I would assume are in the same category and require the BCM change. For lights you might find this useful; https://valovertailu.com/lisavalovertailu-2018-2019/#prettyPhoto. Scroll down for the photos. 190m is poor, to be honest. I was looking at a pair of Seeker 20s for the Octy; the 1 lux border is at around 400m. I would also stick to a max reference of 100 so you don't get in trouble if you do decide to drive across to the continent. - Bret