Phil-E

Saw a YouTube video on it. It seems that with its additional cooling it will happily run at 2.2ghz overclock and still run cooler than a Pi4.

It is better to use N rather than P. The danger of using P is that should someone hit you from behind while stopped it could go from just a small ding in the rear and being able to carry on driving to gearbox damage and needing to be recovered.

Tyres produced after January 2018 have to have the alpine symbol on them to be winter compliant. The general rule is "O bis O - Oktober bis Ostern" or October to Easter. Obviously it's all weather dependent. There's also a scheme backed by the government where most garages take part and they offer a free light test from October. They check all the lights work on the car and check the light alignment. Small works (replacing a bulb or adjusting the lights is also included free of charge). Just extra charges for the actual bulbs or diagnostic to change xenon lights if needed.

I've just had a set of the Hankook Kinergy 4S fitted. For the price they did pretty well in the tests.

Is it the case that your particular model is not officially allowed to tow? I know the Fabia vRS was never homologated to tow. If this is the case then there will be no towing weights listed on the log book.

Yes I believe so. On the log book it states the minimum allowed size and speed rating. Sometimes this is lower than the top speed the car is capable of and so you have a little sticker on the dash with the top speed for the tyres. But I believe the winter tyres warning in the dash fulfils this requirement.

Always best to top it up when you get the warning. Since once it gets down to the certain level it completely prevents starting of the engine with no way to bypass it. You then have to top up with a minimum of 2.5 gallons to start the engine again. Do they not sell it at petrol stations there? I see it all the time over here. It even shows up in the fuel price app I have. Currently costs 55 cents per litre. And no faffing with buying bottles etc to tip in. Just pull up and fill as you would with fuel.

Little bit vague... I guess it's normal for a car to make some noise when accelerating... It's not an electric car... 🤣🤪😁

Oops. I should have read that before posting. I certainly don't condone permanently removing the filter. That would be a terrible idea! 🤣 I meant to remove it while doing the treatment. I think that is even stated on the cans.

I hate that term "sealed for life". All that means is that the manufacturer doesn't have a service interval "for the life of the vehicle". In their eye the vehicle has a life of 3 or 4 years (most lease periods). It's just the same as manual gearboxes (it is in effect a manual gearbox). I've changed the gear oil in all my cars whether they are manual or automatic. And the manuals have always had black horrible oil in. I will be changing mine at some point. In my mind they're not designed to work with dirty oil!

I used one on 3 of my cars now and they work well. You're best to remove the pollen filter too.

Of course you can change the oil yourself. It's not harder than a normal gear oil change (it even uses manual gearbox oil since it a manual box). The mechatronics just uses standard hydraulic oil too.

Sounds normal. I've only had my MK2 1.4 TSI a couple of months and only just started driving it in colder weather. I do 7km to work and by the time I'm there the temp guage is on 90 and oil temp at early to middle 60s. In the summer I never saw the temp go over 97c and that was even driving on mountain roads with 3 adults, a dog, boot full and 3 bikes on the tow bar rack. Also to note is my car has the factory fit tow bar which on the 1.4 TSI includes an upgraded radiator. I also have under bonnet insulation which wasn't standard on the 1.4 TSI.

Hmmm. Strange. What's it like if you press hard on the throttle and let off quickly in M mode? Just thinking if it's likes an engine mount or something.

Keep an eye out on eBay for a Maxidot dash. Makes a huge difference to the look at feel of the car. And provides much better feedback on such issues (since it would actually say in text what's wrong). Also pinpoints individual bulbs if they're out rather than just a general bulb out warning etc. I managed to get one for my previous Octavia for £50.

When you say "jumpy", what do you mean exactly?

Assuming it's either a 1.6 or 2.0 FSI. They are a totally different engine to a turbo diesel. For a start they produce their peak torque at 4000 and 3500rpm respectively. Whereas your previous TDIs likely at more like 1700rpm. Peak power will also likely be all the way up at 6000rpm so they need to be revved to get them going. I'd say it sounds like you're just used to a turbo charged engine where they produce good torque without having to use full throttle all the time. The beeping sounds strange though. Not sure what that is. Possibly something aftermarket? A fault code scan might be a good idea just to rule out any problems. I think they are chain driven engines. So listen for a rattle at startup (a small rattle is normal that should stop after a couple of seconds).

Speaking of which. A friend of mine bought a BMW 120i last year. It came with summer and winter tyres. We had some snow and she said she'd really struggled getting home and was thinking how rubbish the car was in the snow with the rear wheels slipping all the way up the hill to her house. Wasn't till she got home and realised she had the summer wheels on and not the winters! Doh! 🤣😂

Mine are getting fitted on the 17th. The only Saturday the appointment they had for weeks! (Since it's so popular here this time of year).

Agreed. It's really is silly to compare the engines so closely. They are different engines. Point. Yes thy happen to have the same peak power but that's about it. I personally am fully converted to petrol now. And would take a 1.5 TSI over a 2.0 TDI any day. The petrol just feels better to drive and yeah it doesn't have the same punch but when you're just wanting to pootle around then it doesn't matter.

There is more than just fashion taken into account. The weight of the vehicle, load bearing of each tyre, grip (both in acceleration / deceleration and lateral) etc are all taken in account. That's why here in Germany you have the minimum allowed wheel and tyre size listed on the log book. So you're not allowed to exceed the standard size (without having it registered on the log book) but you can go down a size down to the minimum allowed.

I'll never forget driving my previous Octavia with winter tyres. Had a range rover up my rear for miles. Had been snowing but was dry but still a bit icy. Then as the road began to climb (up a steep road called Sutton bank from York to the coast) he started to slip and couldn't get up the hill and I just carried on without a problem 😂🤣

It's not the first time I've heard of this issue and experienced the same with my previous Octavia with the Stream MP3 stereo. I read somewhere a service bulletin for it. A software update was made available for the stereo but only available through a dealer. It's not worth the cost though. Either buy a used known working stereo or invest in an upgrade.

Why not have a time limit on it. Here in Germany many 30kmh zones are only between certain times as they're usually in place for schools etc. But we also have a lot of pedestrians zones too. Most housing estates that aren't on main or through roads are pedestrian zones and the max speed is walking pace (7kmh).