YS53

As I have said before Offski - you presumably do longer journeys on a regular basis than the great majority of people In the summer months my Average MPG readout is usually 62/63mpg,in the winter it is usually circa 59/60 which is roughly what I would expect for a normal mix of varied journeys.

LOL - I always just look at the average mpg readout,not the spot/instant mpg readout with a fully warmed up engine going downhill on the A9

Sounds like an instant mpg readout rather than an average MPG readout,I always have mine set to Average so it is fairly stable and does not usually vary by more than 2 or 3 mpg. If set to instant readout the mpg figures are up and down like a yoyo depending on throttle posn/load/air temp/oil temp etc. Winter is almost here up north and my ave mpg will go down by 3 - 5% as the temperatures plummet LOL

I used a 'piggy back' fuse on my 2009 Fabia - from the rear wiper fuse position - so that I have a switched live for my aftermarket radio.Easy to do and I do not remember any probs routing the wire up to the radio.

A quick check would be how clean the Air Filter is,I have seen cars with service history where it is clear that the air filter has never been changed. A good high speed longish run on a motorway might be beneficial. I would also check that none of the brakes are 'binding' and that tyre pressures are ok . Where is the 33mpg figure from ? Do you fill to fill the tank and cross check mileage against refuel amount ?

What year of car ?When was the car last serviced ? A stamped 'Service History' is not a guarantee that the work was actually carried out. Where do you live (area) and what is the cars usual driving pattern (usage). Short trips will have an adverse affect on MPG .

Dough !!!! Probably on 3 or 4 star fuel although that was soon 'superseeded' by gluten free fuel.

Some of em coulda been I s'pose LOL - 998cc of pulsating power,ran it for a couple of years of cheap motoring,I also rode a brand new Triumph (TR7V) 750 Tiger at the time for nice days

OK many thanks again Martin I will do that

Yes I always used to use it - but it was acid based in those days and worked really well. I am not keen on many of todays water based products LOL

LOL - plenty of BS around with engine oil choices . Unfortunately I am old enough to remember when 20w50 was the greatest thing since sliced bread,my old mini van used to run fine on that

Sorry late reply Martin - we were on holiday Many thanks for the tip - I will certainly look into that as I will have to try and complete the work before winter,trouble is - other stuff keeps piling up LOL rgds YS

As Ken posted - due an oil change ? We have a 1.4 16v 100hp in our Polo. I usually fit a Mann oil filter and the engine seems to sound reasonably quiet on ECP Triple QX 5w 40 oil. I did try some Quantum 5w 40 a couple of servicings ago but I thought the engine sounded mechanically noisier with it,so last service I reverted to Triple QX and the engine quietened down again.Our engine is quite 'Tappety' when cold/cool but once it gets to normal running temp it usually quietens down ok.

I used to find with our 1.4 16v that it was much more likely to 'pink' in warm weather - not usually so bad in cooler weather. The 'pinking' on our engine was a totally different type of noise from what I expected,on older engines (say back in the 60's/70's/80's) the 'pinking' noise was tinnier/rounder/more sort of echoey - the pinking on our Polo 16v was much more like a flat mechanical rattle and I was seriously worried about it until I realised it was at least partly ambient temperature related. I agree there are other possible causes of engine mechanical noises but nice to try to eliminate possible causes as easily as possible.

We have a 2002 Polo with the 1.4 16v engine,if we use 95 ron fuel we get 'pinking' (rattling) from the engine whilst under load. If we use 97/98 ron the engine is quiet,we normally use Tesco 99 'momentum'. On our fuel flap the placard states 98/95 ron which I would read as 98 ron being the preferred fuel and 95 being ok if 98 is not available. Worth a try if you do not already use 97/98/99 ron fuel ?

Sorry I do not know anything about modern aftermarket multi media - you would maybe get more information by posting the question in the Octavia Mk II forum ? I only have experience with older car stereos unfortunately. rgds YS

Which aftermarket multimedia did you buy Jenny ? Also what year is your car (octavia ?).

I use my satnav as 'advisory only' - I ignore it most of the time LOL It is great for entertainment with the comical mispronunciation of the majority of street names etc We also have a laugh about it when it wants us to use the satnav route and just will not give up with it and recalculate to the route we are actually using,watching the changing ETA's is really funny,it usually catches up fairly quickly but occasionally seems incapable of recalculating to the easiest/fastest route. It is however good for having an ETA and great for the last mile or two when trying to find an address in a strange town/city !

Hi Chris - rather you than me working on gearboxes,most of us dread gearbox faults LOL

Hi Wino Good point - Our Fabia has 288mm vented Front discs Our Polo has 256mm vented Front discs According to Parkers the 2 vehicle weights are - Fabia 1.9 tdi PD = 1170 kg Polo 1.4s 16v = 1199 kg So the Fabia may be slightly lighter - but not by much. The Fabia brake performance I would personally classify as barely adequate,the Polo brake performance I would classify as excellent. The appearance thing for me is that (1) The Drums look pathetically small compared to the car size and wheel size (2) they always go rusty and look cr@@p. On the polo if I want to polish up the discs I can just drive with the handbrake lightly 'on' for half a mile,if driving a reasonable distance of course they will polish up anyway

Yes the Apache was quite a cute little car,I got my Triumphs mixed up on my previous post - I should have said that the bonnet and boot were similar to a Triumph Toledo. The old BMC transverse engine was a little unsuited to hot climates at that time though - it still had the original side mounted radiator + belt driven cooling fan and on really hot days I found that I had to drive at approx 45mph to keep the coolant temp to a reasonable figure,any slower or faster than 45 would see the temp gauge climbing. Later cars might well have had a front mounted rad + electric fan but my car was quite an early one.If I could have got hold of an electric fan I would have done the conversion myself LOL. However I normally only used the car for fairly short journeys so was not usually a problem. The longest journey I did in it was up to Harare for a job interview with 2 other guys - Harare was approx 280 Klicks Nth of Gwelo,it was a very hot day so cruising at 45 was reqd,on the way back - the SU elec fuel pump went on strike,luckily I had 'previous' with SU's so the guy on the back seat had the 'pleasure' of facing backwards and clouting the boot mounted SU pump for the last 100 Klicks back to base . I could not get a correct new/spare pump so eventually replaced it with a huge elec pump from a small truck LOL The Apache you saw in Edinburg was possibly a Spanish built one.

Hi Rum Yeah the Apache still had the 1275cc 'A' series engine,mine had the 'strip' speedo and the interior looked identical to the old 1100's sold in Britain. I had my Apache in Zimbabwe in 1984,I worked out there for a year and (mostly) used the car to travel from Thornhill Air Force Base,Gwelo (where I was living and working) across to the other side of town to an old WW2 airfield (Moffat Field) where the gliding club was based.Great gliding conditions - in the summer I only had to work from 0600 until 1300 and then could escape and go do some lovely glider flights. The Holbay Hunter GLS I ran from 1980 to 83 whilst I was still in the RAF,it was a great wolf in sheeps clothing LOL - 4 speed box with electric overdrive and just getting into its powerband at 85 in 4th overdrive,of course compared with modern cars it is not very powerful but at that time it was quite a quick car.I never had to do any major work to the engine btw,the GLS was super reliable and was used for long trips almost every weekend.When they stopped selling 5 star fuel the engine started 'pinking' like a bar steward on 4 star - but luckily I was working on piston engined aircraft at that time so a solution was at hand LOL. Forgot to say - yes it was an RSA built car - externally it was an 1100 centre section with a Triumph 1500/Dolomite type Bonnet and Boot bolted on - quite a pretty little car

Our 2002 Polo 9n has rear discs,our 2009 Fabia has rear drums - which car has better brakes ? The Polo The rear drums on the Fabia also look cr@@p,the Polo rear discs look fine. The Polo Handbrake is very easy/light to operate and powerful,the Fabia handbrake struggles to hold the car on steep hill starts. The Fabia brakes feel fine for normal driving but can start to feel a little 'strained' when having to brake down from Mway speeds or descending a long steep hill,The Polo brakes always feel powerful and fairly effortless. The only downside I can think of about the Polo rear discs is that it is the only car I ever owned where the rear wheels get dirtier than the fronts purely because of brake dust/disc rust spinning out to discolour the alloys.

I fitted an older aftermarket stereo to my 09 Fabia and just used a very basic adaptor,I then used a piggy back fuse from the fuse box so that it is only powered up when IGN is 'on'. It is not an ideal solution,on our polo 9n the radio works if the key is in the IGN (but turned off) which is much better but at least on the Fabia it means the stereo is not permanently live. I used the Autoleads PC2-75-4 Harness adaptor with a piggy back fuse from the rear wiper fuse .