OctaviaVRS2

I’d like to hear from owners who have solved the drive shaft too long length problem when lowering the Octy 2 having added coilovers because I ran unexpectedly headlong into this problem having been in the workshop for over half a day doing camber and toe. Although the VRS is already lower from factory, I needed it a bit more. Not so I have it in the floor, or get stuck on speed bumps, but a sensible amount. initially using the full length of my BC Racing coilovers, appeared just right, but a road test quickly revealed a bad problem of rumble that many seasoned members who have done similar mods will be familiar with. Back in the workshop we raised the car back up about 20mm, but unfortunately that’s not enough to get rid of the rumble and it’s not how I’d like the car. A discussion in the workshop ensued, where it was mentioned that this problem is common on VAG vehicles; the way to solve it is various, some more problematical than others, involving engineering, or buying some very expensive after market solution. After speaking with a friend who owns a machine shop, he mentioned that he could (1) cut down the standard part, taking 10mm out of the length, welding back up and sending somewhere to get it balanced as he could not do that part himself. However, he had another suggestion which sounded interesting and told me that he had done this with his Audi TT when he lowered it and it involved finding another Vehicle in the VAG group which had the same engine type and gearbox but ran a slightly shorter driveshaft; so he was able to get his part from a MK IV golf. Despite his TT being from the MK 5 type platform the MK IV parts worked. I’d like to avoid the engineering part, and see whether I can identify another vehicle in the VAG group, running a DSG gearbox and diesel engine of 2 L capacity. so the question is: have any of the esteemed members here encountered the sad issue, and solved it with driveshafts from another VAG group Vehicle?

Best place to get your parts is from the SKODA outlet in Plzen, CZ. Sensible prices, avoid dealers, great service, help identifying stuff, and they supply you a schematic any time to help you. They are happy to dig and do the leg work. Can't rate them highly enough. I wouldn't have been able to bring my car fully up to scratch without them. Dealers are often like dumb creatures; not geared to after sales parts at all and certainly not to helping one do it oneself. Go to SKODA-parts.com and ask for Miro. Tell him Richard from Torquay, England, UK sent you and you may get some discount. Not much but worthwhile. Of course they're just down the road from SKODA so they can get all the stuff.

I just recently had a Monitor and Repair advisory on Oil leak from oil level sensor [8.4.1(a) (i)]. Does anyone know where the oil level sensor is located on the CEGA engine. I feel it would be a good move to just replace it rather than try to tighten it up because I have for a long time had yellow oil can warning when I first turn on ignition with message Oil Level Sensor Workshop, or similar words. My oil temperature is sending fine, but I suspect some other functionality of device is defective. I noticed that in my sump appears to be an oil level sensor, but most people refer to it being near or around the oil filter housing. Have any members encountered the error with yellow oil can symbol, but otherwise not apparent problem? How did you solve it and what part did you need? It would be useful to know for sure where it is located on the CEGA engine. I have replaced the part in the sump several times with different brands so I am not convinced it is the whole issue. It may indeed be a temperature sensor, but some people say the temperature sensor and level sensor are combined. Now with so many different variants of the 2.0 TDI engine it is hard to know without being a specialist or expert of which I am certain there are those of you out there who know exactly the answer. Many thanks for your time and Happy New Year to all readers and contributors of this great forum.

That's an early mileage for replacement of engine. I presume it has suffered bad treatment as these engines are very robust and looked after should go on easily for twice that mileage before you even need to look into anything like rings or bearings. Regarding your question, I had an overheating issue that was accompanied by unexplained loss of coolant, none ever reaching the ground or leaking in the engine bay. Eventually the fault became clear when I went to start one morning and suffered a hydraulic lock. It turned out that the EGR cooler whilst being in a nice stainless case, is inside made of mild steel that rots out over time with the presence of nasty exhaust gases. It may start small with subtle symptoms. In my case I noticed that my Octavia turned over in the morning much slower than our other Octavia and that did not change despite a new battery. With a tiny split, any vacuum left after the engine is stopped was pulling coolant all the way back to the cylinders. This was not enough to cause hydraulic lock or damage my engine until the day it was too much. I should have looked deeper into the coolant loss but it seemed that everyone I asked had no idea where it was going. As a new EGR cooler made entirely of stainless is not a great deal of money, I would recommend to consider it. There's no inspection you can do that will reveal any internal failure; only signs and symptoms. How many miles has the replacement engine covered? Of course this may not be your case and I hope it isn't but I thought it worthwhile to point out the vague connections one can find between symptoms and issues. Not having a working heater was exactly one of my issues and driving on inclines could see my temp rise rapidly. I even purchased a new all alloy cross flow double thick radiator from Gravity and when that did not help me much, I began getting concerned. I just did not catch on fast enough as to what was really happening. A silent engine killer working away in the background; deteriorating more every day, until your bank account is walloped with a massive bill and decision to strip engine and fix or replace it. Hope this might help someone chasing down a weird cooling and heating problem. Keep in mind these six pointers: (1) Car turns over slower in the morning that it should or normally does (2) unexplained coolant loss - starts gradual but increases to the point of needing to carry emergency coolant. (3) Heater won't get warm (4) Radiator and engine get very hot. (5) Inclines quickly put temperature gauge well above normal. (6) Temperature can rise to unsafe level - don't continue - stop engine and wait at least an hour. Curiously you'd think the dealer network would be aware of such issues, but seemingly not. I don't trust the answer I got that they have never seen a failure of the EGR cooler. I also run very fast when the dealer says the engine needs to be dismantled to find the fault. This sounds like a monkey without a brain. Monkeys do much better than this.

Some garage idiot guy removed my turbo bracket and my turbo wires fell onto my turbo and burned. The garage guy does not know where the turbo bracket is and swears it was never there. Funny my turbo wires didn't burn until my car came back from him. Now I have the wires sorted out and have bought a new turbo bracket (part # 03G 971 858 AA), I'm trying to source the parts that fit into slots onto the turbo bracket. I think this is one of those challenges for the deep knowledge folks on here, as neither the dealer nor I can figure out what the parts are even looking at the ETKA drawing which he sent me a screen shot. Just for clarity, on top of my Borg Warner BV43A turbo which is in the VRS TDI model, there is a heat shield with a crinkly edge (part #03L 129 969 A). Atop of this is the 'turbo bracket' I have referred to above, and it is on this part that are cut two slots. All knowledge immensely appreciated as always. Hopefully images will help!

Marvellous! Look, no scratches or scrapes from careless technician. Now wait for the careless technician and make them buy the next new one.

Hi Everyone. I've read about upgrading the Octavia 2.0 TDI intercooler with an Audi S3 intercooler and it would appear the fitting points are the same. This seems very interesting because the S3 part is apparently a no brainer fit, given the bigger capacity of the S3 intercooler. Now its been a long time since anyone made any comment on this as an upgrade. My question is has anyone done this recently for a mk2 Octavia 2.0 TDI FL and what S3 intercooler did you use? Presumably that was an S3 at a certain point in time was it not? Guidance and real life info welcome here. Let me know your story, and whether, in the end, got satisfaction from your efforts.

Would they fit a FL version of the MK2? Would you accept £80 delivered?

Do you have a picture or two, perhaps anything with the part number. What year is the car they are for?

Do you still have them?

I think people at ross-tech.com know the answer to this. From what i can tell its a bit counterintutive because one has to code the slave before the power output stage will come alive. Something like that in layman's terms. May i prompt anyone here for an answer on this common issue that disables our levelling headlights.

I recently decided to replace the arched airbox intake pipe on my Octavia mk2 VRS so I found one online and bought it. It seems to be the right and perfect fitting part but I noticed a strange difference, It is a 2013 part and my car is 2011. What I saw is a 2cm diameter hole in the intake just where it is dished in, where there is an arrow pointing to the centre of the dished area and I see there the hole whereas on my existing intake pipe there is no hole, just circular markings where the hole would be with the raised arrow pointing to it. Very strange difference I have not seen documented. I'm sure experts here will know what it is. Is it perhaps a place where another pipe can be adjoined via a grommet push fitting to put refrigerated air into the intake? Is it simply to increase the intake capacity. As the air rushes through that area, does the dished in section speed up the air or turbulate it? Any ideas? Please share your theories or knowledge! Rich VRS mk2 2.0 TDI

Mark, I know from your question that the above solutions are not what you really want. Why not contact Adel or Miro at Skoda-parts.com. Parts are still coming to me without any duty being applied. Looking nice, and keeping it nice is what many of us want to do. Yes, it means we keep spending money as the car gets older and perhaps the aesthetics for many people take a back seat after a certain age. I think if you keep on top of it, you won't need to face some stupendous cost to restore things to how you wanted them. A little bit at a time I say. Just like pipe clips. Why paint them when they start showing corrosion, if for a few pence each you can just replace them. Often you can replace with stainless steel, especially all the little spring bands for the cooling system pipes. Hope it helps. Put your old engine cover on eBay. You will do the change then for very good value by putting your parts back into the reuse cycle. Rich VRS tdi mk2

Thanks very much for this useful tip. Hopefully I could put an end to the squeaks for good 🤣 Rich

No. They don’t know and don’t have a meter to test it. I wouldn’t want to try this job myself.

Does anyone here happen to know the actual VLT % of the Octavia mk2 VRS glass. Mine is slightly green tinted. I'd like to add a tint but without a tint meter, I cannot judge how much I can add, to keep above the 75% minimum for the screen.

My 2011 Octavia mk2 dash is driving me mad with squeeks and creaks. Has anyone else suffered this and what solutions did you use to stop it? On the side with the glovebox, I have to drive with the glovebox open. On my side something near where the dash touches the windscreen or whatever structure or surround is there is squeeking and creaking and I can't imagine how I will get to it to find it or stop it. If I press on my dash really hard I can stop the creaks. Does that mean my dash has come loose? Thanks guys for any feedback Rich

Here's a head scratcher for all you amazing members here.... From the top. 2012 Octavia Mk2 FL TDI Start up, select D and start to drive. Notice it doesn't change to 2nd (or is it 3rd if it pulls off in 2nd)? Shift selector to manual mode to change but still no change. Turn off the ignition and re-start. Fault usually clears completely but may occur again at next start, or may not. Once cleared, can drive many miles with no problem. Shifts appear nice and crisp, rev needle drops quickly in the next gear, so no slippage. On instrument, antislip and ABS warning show. I can clear but they return quickly. Also have a brake fluid warning (see page 33 owners handbook lower left side of page). Checked brake fluid of course - seems full. Fiddled with the float a bit pushing it up and down. Brake fluid fault disappeared for a little while. The brake fluid symbol illuminates and goes out at various times whilst driving. Of course this is a nightmare because one must still stop and check, not just assume that because it was / is spurious fault that the brake fluid is still OK because it was OK before. I think that's the proper approach to warnings. On VCDS no gearbox fault shown, but there is implausible signal coming from one or more wheel speed sensors. Should I replace all the wheel speed sensors as a sensible starting point? Should I take the VCDS into adaptation mode and reset the gearbox properly? Thanks to everyone who has a moment to scratch your heads and apply some grey matter or experience to it. Rich

That has occurred to me JR. I will have to look out an old VCDS scan and find the gearbox serial number. I think moody is the right word. For now I am just putting it to the guy and asking why does the sear not lock down, why is it smaller and different shape at the front with different material where the zips are.

For those giving me the generosity of their time to consider the facts in this case, I would just add that the leather material around the zips area is on my left rear seat, a soft leather, and on the right seat, appears to be a kind of man-made material. I am pretty certain they were both the same as in Img_3473. It would be great if those with Octavia VRS mk2 with the half leather and alcantara would check what they have and let me know.

I don't suppose that would alter the width of the seat base though. In Img_3470 and 3474 you will see how on one side the seat does not meet the edge of the bolster. Perhaps the seat shrank ;). No, but I take your point. However, I wouldn't very much like to try to undress the seats to clean them. Would think it would be far easier for a professional with the right chemistry to do them out side of the car but as a whole.

Can't really speculate over motive, other than money. Many parts totally unconnected with a gearbox service, were missing from my car and I'm still working through getting replacements, some of which are difficult to get. Fortunately, a very good team at SKODA-PARTS.COM are helping me. The problem with the back base seat is that it doesn't fit. if you look at photo 3469, you will see the back of the seat base is exposed when that is supposed to be underneath as in 3473 As for why the zips are open and broken, that's another mystery. Compare photo 3470 and 3474 you will see the seat width doesn't correspond. In photo 3472 you will see the centre seat has been badly scrunched. It was totally flat and untouched. The rear of my car had never had any passengers since new. Everything was new looking in every way. Its hard to judge from these photos when one is not familiar with the car or the wider context of all the missing parts too many to mention but from old air hoses exchanged for my good ones, to a broken air box exchanged for my good one, right down to the windscreen wiper nut caps, the windscreen washer filter or non-vag bolts where there should be specific VAG hi tensile bolts, leaving me with a broken engine mount on the motorway diagnosed as missing, broken or wrong bolts. Three bolts missing from gearbox housing, yet the gearbox service only involved doing a DSG service, not taking the gearbox off. You will understand I am not looking for motive only that there have already been so many things missing or broken it doesn't see so extraordinarily unlikely as you suggest that my seat base is not original to THIS car. VAG just are not sloppy about seats being different widths as in 3470 and 3474. Does that seem to colour the situation a bit more. These other facts however, are nothing to do with the seat and cannot be judged as part of it. We are just looking at the strangeness that is those two photos that show how far the seat base comes out to meet the bolster edge. I hope my laborious reply helps

Certainly an interesting possibility, but with the leather I wonder if it could have worked without some other evidence. I'm not sure what those zips are actually for unless its throwing the covering in a washing machine!

The title might sound a bit weird, but something strange has happened to my car after being in an independent workshop for several weeks. When I got it back the seats were covered in oily finger marks. They are leather and alcantara, so I was particularly annoyed. The garage offered to clean them which I thought they should have done before offering me the car back. When I was cleaning the car the rear right seat base attracted my attention because it appears the seat is not locked into position and also that someone has opened the small zips, which I cannot understand at all why a gearbox service would require anything to be done with seats. Upon further inspection it does not look like the correct seat base. I'm seeking members' views judged on looking at these photos I have posted. The pictures are, in order (L-R lowest file numbers first), the first 5 are the rear right seat - the one in question. The following three are the left side rear seat. Comparisons I am making are: why the seat extends further and why the seat doesn't come to the edge of the upper bolster. The rest of it is self explanatory; zips that have been opened, one broken. A centre section that's all creased. and the cloth webbing itself dirty with a stain I cannot seem to get out. The main thing I am trying to establish is whether this is a genuine seat for this model. You might ask 'don't you know already?'. In a way I am very suspicious that this is not the base of my original rear seat, but you know how things are...unless your attention is drawn to something it is very difficult to say with certainty. For example, in Img_3470, why the seat doesn't seem to meet the base of the left side bolster. Img_3474 is a mirror of Img_3470 only on the right side, so you can see how the seat base meets the bolster precisely. I have included the part number I saw in the foam on the base when I opened up the underneath. I guess I am looking for validation; whether members think there is something wrong and what you guys think the problem is. Anyone who could look up a part number to ascertain what that number in the foam under the seat is, might shed some light on what seat it actually is. My thoughts are is it from a pre-facelift VRS or it is perhaps from another model that used the same upholstery design. It is a sad suspicion to have, but I wonder if my seat base was sold. I have to be very careful before I make that accusation, hence my posting here to see what the consensus is. Is there a way I can find the manufacturer date or code in order to catch the suspect?

I understand this issue. I always make an effort not to cause this sort of strain. The way I do it is I modified my way of leaving the car. It feels a bit unnatural at first, but I turn my body quite a fair way first before getting up and put one leg on the ground outside the car to stabilise me and enable me to kind of pivot as I leave. That way I'm not stress the seat. Likewise when I get in I try to do it without dragging my body onto the seat. As I say, feels a bit strange at first, but after you do it a few times your will soon refine your technique. I hope this helps.