ian110

I have the Skoda/VW/Westfalia electrics on my Octavia and nothing appears on the dashboard when the trailer electrics are attached, until a bulb blows and then the bulb warning light appears. As mentioned above what should happen is when a trailer is attached it should disable the reversing sensors as well as the rear fog light if the vehicle was coded to tell it has a trailer ECU. Another handy feature to note is that if the trailer is unpluged when the car is locked it sets off the car alarm.

Thanks all for all the advice, I didn't want to go pulling too hard at anything for fear of breaking something. Due to the good quality bulbs Skoda put in the car when new I've never had to take a bulb out of the headlamp unit before, it must be their 10 year life span... I've attached a photo of the mechanism that holds the drivers side headlight in and attached it to this post (I hope) so that if somebody else gets stuck they'll find the answer.

The dipped beam bulb in my pre facelift Octavia II blew on my car today. I went to take the headlight out, I removed the white plastic nut and then went to pull the black lever that is normally behind the grille, but it appears to be stuck. I did try to vigorously wriggle the headlight to see if something would come loose but it didn't. I eventually changed the bulb by reaching behind the light and getting the bulb out and in that way, but if the indicator or sidelight bulb went I'd have been stuck. Has anybody else had this problem and been able to get the headlight out in one piece? Many thanks

Coming home lights does work on a car without auto lights, it does on my 2006 Octavia II ambiente. I coded it through VCDS and you can set the coming home lights for as many seconds as you like in VCDS

The amber bulb out warning light came up on my parents' 59 plate Octavia when 1 of their tail light bulbs went out, and I have had a 62 plate Caddy on hire with a number plate light blowing on a journey activating the yellow warning light bulb, so if any bulb goes it activates the warning light.

You need to find out which sort of steering wheel control module you have, the part number will be printed on it or you can interrogate it using VCDS and then check the compatability of it here: http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Steering_Wheel_Control_Module_Versions To fit the cruise control you have to remove the air bag, removing the steering wheel, removing the upper and lower cowls, unscrewing a little T5 screw that holds the steering wheel control module (I got stuck at that point), removing the old indicator stalk and slotting the new one in. Then you need to recode the steering wheel control module and the engine control module I think to tell the car it has cruise control, this can be done with VCDS. It took me about an hour once I had wrestled the little T5 screw out!

Go for a Dension unit. I got a Gateway 100 and it works fine with my iPod Touch. Costs less than the genuine Skoda bits. It is plug and play (well depends on where you put the iPod connector, I had to dismantle the glovebox to drill a hole in it and to screw the iPod holder on to the inside of the lid). You can control the iPod through the head unit. But the Stream does not give you album/artist/track names so there is a bit of guess work when you are using it.

It might be granite metallic, my old Octavia was the same colour

I have a Dension Gateway 100 connected to my Stream and it doesn't work with my 3rd generation iPod Touch It will work with my housemate's normal iPod but he has an obscure taste in music but it does control the ipod so you can feed the connector to the glovebox and leave the ipod in there. It will charge it when you are on the move.

I have Thule aero bars on my TDi hatchback and put my Stumpjumper FSR on a Thule 561 Outride cycle carrier. It means taking the front wheel off to lock the bike to the rack but it looks a bit more stable than having both wheels still on. If you are carrying more than 2 bikes you have to put the 3rd/4th rack(s) on backwards. If I don't quite get the roof rack mounted perfectly then it whistles when I wash the windscreen or at 70mph (not 65mph though). It doesn't seem to hit fuel economy too much but I notice a difference in performance between when the bike is in the boot or on the roof rack. If you are only taking one bike put it in the boot on top of a tarpaulin!

Does anybody know if it is easy to install front fog lights to a mk 2 Octavia that doesn't have them? I am getting a 55 plate Ambiente TDi next weekend and it doesn't have them

Hobin Skoda in Manchester have told us that they are getting a 1.6CR TDi in as a demonstrator - the last we heard last week was "it was on it's way and is in the North Sea at the moment" so it could be there now.

Simple answer - no. The Octavia I towbar will fit any A4-floor pan based car (Golf IV hatch and estate, Seat Leon, VW Bora, Seat Toledo etc) but won't fit the Octavia II as the floor pan is different. I've managed to sell my towbar off my Octavia I to somebody from work for his Golf IV hatchback. I suggest taking yours off as well and shoving it on ebay!

We're thinking about taking advantage of the scrappage scheme and getting rid of my 1999 Octavia TDi and getting a new 1.6 TDi Octavia because the tax is £35 a year. Has anybody driven one of these yet? What are they like compared to the 1.9 TDi PD Octavia II?

If you take the front bumper off it is really easy to reach those fan washers to push them back up the prongs they attach to.