brettikivi

There's a couple of stickied threads at the top of the forum involving coding. As far as Carista vs. OBD 11 is concerned - Carista is rarely mentioned here, OBD11 is used quite a lot. In regards to the Haldex question: you're essentially asking the car to lock up the Haldex more frequently, therefore wearing its clutch more. I don't see how this can be purely beneficial for longevity. - Bret

Used to have a heated screen in the old car. I used it probably two-three times in nearly four years of ownership - aux heating is far more effective. And the wires were annoying even at the end, especially at night. I don't miss that this car doesn't have it. Heated wheel is nice but it takes too long to get up to heat. I've disconnected it from the seat heating as I want that on for about 2 minutes on the lowest setting and then the wheel on the highest for many minutes more, especially if i've only run the Webasto for 10 minutes as it will be a short drive and it's -15 outside. Heated washers is something I've never seen the value in. If it's that cold that it's useful, it's going to freeze anyway if you didn't do a good job on the alcohol content. - Bret

There's absolutely zero reason at these low powers to be replacing the speaker cable. You're already having to pull a set of cable(s) from the amp at the back of the car to the glovebox to connect back to the speakers. Replacing these gives you the "advantage" of going directly to the doors but there's no reason to do it in terms of sound quality or the ability of the cable to carry the current you are pushing down it. You also lose the advantage of that 9-core cable. You're sure the 2020 Superb is the same as the Octavia if that's the car you're installing in? Personally, I've been looking at some options and realizing most amps have auto-on if they have a High-level input, and that DSP is getting pretty darned good for low pricing. Match seems overpriced when you realise what a 4.9 bit can do and they're currently under €300 here. Personally, I already have a C-DSP 6x8 in the garage that was going to go into another car and now can be used for the Octy, so... having said that, I would not go to these lengths and then not go active. Requires more cables and more channels, but I'm personally thinking about using two four channel amps. Four channels for the front, a pair for the rear and then the other bridged for a sub. Just have to work out if I want to use the SDX10 or something else. And find some funds... - Bret

A little research tells me the amp is a Rockford-Fosgate R400-4D. Manual is here: https://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/library/2011/3_amplifiers/1230-56751-01_primefrd4champs-man.pdf It only does 100W / channel into 2 ohms. There's a couple of things on the wiring: - you *must* fuse the main supply with 40A within 30cm of the battery. - you'll need to be using around 10mm2 main supply cables, depending on the distance from the battery to the amplifier. Some sources for this: https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-1-home/c-48-cables/c-198-single-core-pvc-thin-wall-cable and this, though it's in German: http://noiasca.rothschopf.net/deutsch/dkabelquerschnitt.htm - your standard speaker cables are 1.5mm2, I believe (and this seems plausible). The max carrying capability of these is around 16A. volts = square root of power * impedance; therefore: sqrt of 100*4 sqrt of 400 = 20 therefore: current = 5A, power = 100W, Voltage = 20V. Your *speaker* cables are therefore well within their limits if they are 1.5mm2. I don't understand AWG sizes. If you are to change them, I would use 2.5mm2 but I don't see the point in the effort. How are you getting the signal from the head unit to the amp? - Bret

Those are the reverse lights only. Indicators are 18 and 19 if Motor-Talk is to be believed. But that may also have changed for FL. - Bret

the wife's suzuki had a change at 1500km. It's not complete bunkum, there is a point, but just how much sense it makes is another question. 5 years isn't long. The wife's car, though - that also mainly does short stuff, which means it essentially never gets warmed through. This is not good for longevity. My Octy, though, that patrols motorways at 120km/h twice a day, multiple times a week, and the wear will be significantly lower as a result. If the wear is going to be higher, by all means do the extra service. - Bret

... so we've been talking for a while about the new kilometers I get to do through work and the current car is on a lease. With me pretty much guaranteed to go over the agreed kms, I went to talk to the dealer. He had a white Ambition BusinessLine, spec'd with LEDs. 1.0, manual, Combi. So on the 24th the grey hatch will be swapped for a white Combi. This is on a 100k km lease over four years. A couple of thoughts on consumption: the current car has a long-term average of 5,2l/100, with average speed of 63km/h. That's just since the winter tyres were put on, but it reflects pretty well where the numbers were going. 54mpg ain't too shabby for a petrol Octavia. Yes, mostly 100km commutes / airport runs with 100km/h limits, but the temps are awful, lots of wet roads (which makes a significant difference) and no particular attention paid to consumption. Very interested to see how the Combi stands up to this, as it will have a GPF. It's also getting a towbar. Tyres will be Nokian Hakka 9s for winter. Now to clear all the junk from the car and work out what I want to customize on the new one... - Bret