nicka62

indeed. good tip ( tho too late for me). id like to know how they do it and wonder if they could also properly enable the towing functions which my tow bar installers botched ( indicator feed back works and eco mode disabled but reversing sensors not disabled or alarm activated if the light board plug is detached)

It's a real con that you have to pay for smartlink, but worth it to use Google Maps. They claim it's some licensing issue and would be unfair to charge everyone when not everyone wants it - but I paid £170 odd to get it tunred on on my Octi III (charged to my business and hence VAT refunded .. so not too bad) which is a fraction of the cost of a car! Anyway, pleased to say that the map updates for the built in SatNav are now free (I hadn't realised) and though it took forever (6 hours) to move the files to the SD card, I now have maps that actually show things like the Huntingdon Southern Bypass (which has been open for many years but not on my SatNav). Having used Google Maps for the last umpteen years in lieu of up to date Skoda maps, I hadn't realised that TMC got turned off in 2024 ... so the "Traffic" button on my dashboard is now totally redundant. Back to Google Maps I gbuess :-) . Anyway, if you DO want to use the SKODA SatNav it's free and easy to do if just a little slow. The bloke charging £20 to send you the maps on a USB stick or £14 to update your SD card is doing nothing you can't do yourself.

Don't do it! They are not terribly good. Mine (Octabvia mk3) was OK when I first got the car, though it didn't always dim when I wanted it to... .. and when some **** in a range rover charges up behind you you still got dazzled. 5 years later it doesn't dim very much at all. I just tested it (blocking the ambient light sesnor and shing a torch at the mirror) and it does dim, but when driving at night it's barely noticeable . However, if you really must ... then the electronics for the dimming function are built into the mirror housing, so it doesn't seem to need any external sensors; but it does need a power supply which I'm guessing your car doesn't have (though as in many cases for optional extras, the wiring harness may be installed but not connected.) To be honest I prefer the old fashioned basic mechanical one on my CitiGo to the fancy electronic one in the Octavia. Sure someone else can confirm the physical elements of making the swap (eg are the mountings the same).

My octi cost me £680 today to get through MOT. Two new tyres at the front (the Falken ones the Skoda dealer fitted proved short lived) and two new front shocks. Oil was leaking from one shock. Replaced with Sachs gas shocks ... apparently. I trust my local garage, so hopefully. The octi has done 51k miles,. We had four saabs prior to the octavia (one did 179k before being sold on) never had a shock fail ... though they did eat front tyres (and guzzle petrol).

Got it fixed .... though the garage could only do the fix with the aid of this forum!! They were convinced the fan controller was built into the fan/ motor assembly and were saying they'd need to replace the whole fan. Untrue, as soon as they took the battery out they found the controller beneath it and that was a lot easier to replace. Could maybe have done it myself for a lot less .. but I couldn't find the controler either! The fan running on had finished off the battery, so had to have a new one of those too. Car now works fine and with the new battery the engine stop/start system works again too. Thanks to Briskoda!

.. that will get it to the garage! Thanks for the help 🙂

yes it does .... That location looks like a PITA to access and change. I forced enough charge into the batterty to operate the central locking and lock the doors, the fan still running full beltas soon as I reconnected the battery. Tried starting the engine; there wasn't enough battery to turn the engine, but the fan stopped!! Now on charge withe the battery connected.

Our CitiGo (75hp 62 plate) had it's cooling fan running after turning off the ignition, after a short drive in cool weather. Stopped eventually. When we got home it carried on running and evidently didn't stop as this morning the battery was dead flat. Tried jumpstarting off the other car, fan started running as soon as the jump leads were connected. Battery totally dead (0V) and is only charging now I disconnected the battery. Fan is evidently still in circuit. I understand there's a cooling fan control unit ( not a simple relay) but I can't find it. Garage job? If I can get it there! Or something I can fix myself?

Yes my phone is old (relatively speaking).. I keep them as long as possible so as not to trash the world with discarded electronics (three years old, android 7.1.2); gets hot when running too many apps and android auto starts up a whole batch of apps in the background. It does the job - doubtless a new Android 10 octacore processor mega handset would do better but I have no other need for one. It would be good to be able to use the multi-function steering wheel buttons to scroll around in Android Auto (eg to select destinations from the drop down list of recent places, choose internet radio stations etc), but I can see why that would be hard to implement. I shall have to try the "long press" on the voice control button - so far it just turned on the Skoda voice control functions (which rarely work for me). Will also try Waze to see if I like the display better. TBH the google one is fine - clear and informative - just less good than it looks on my phone and less info than the garmin one (also less distracting as a result); partly this is the aspect ratio, it was designed for portrait and with no output to the multi-dot display it needs to reserve a biggish panel for directions. Saved destinations: Ah yes. If you save something in one of the "saved" folders, then select that first, THEN ask for directions to that place, it does the job. Good one. One thing I DO like, is the ability to set up google maps outside the car, start navigation and then connect to the car to show it on the main screen - like on my old TomTom (now abandoned in the back of a cupboard ... it was really good as a nav device, but can't do traffic and has to stick to the windscreen ... from which it falls off from time to time).

I have now done three long business trips (racking up around 1800 miles) since getting smartlink enabled. It isn't great: Android auto is clunky, it takes a while to fire up every time the phone is connected, often fails to connect, and there isn't that much you can do when you're in. It can't be controlled from the multifunction steering wheel, you have to keep leaning over and prodding the screen and shouting at it. Lots of things you might want to do are locked out (maybe a good thing safety wise as removes temptation to eg check your email). The google maps display is not as good as the built in satnav (garmin) or the google maps display you get on a phone and it doesn't repeat on the multi-dot display either. you can't switch between built in and google satnav as if you turn on the built in sat nav it cancels the google map navigation and vice versa. So difficult to run using the built in one then swap to google for a traffic check. google maps has no way to store favourite destinations .. it just lists up the last few places you have searched for (you can voice search though - but that doesn't work for "Tom's house" or "Park") as for the other functions : generally less good than you get on your phone handset (eg finding a channel on TunedIn is limited - scrolling lists of genres with no search function). The phone connectivity is better than you get from the steering wheel but not any better than you get using the Amundsen's phone menu. Music quality ... maybe a bit better than streaming via Bluetooth. It makes my mobile so hot, I'm worried it will melt. On the other hand: You can see google maps or waze on the main display, the traffic info and re-routing are good and the maps are always up to date. You can tell it to find a supermarket (or petrol, or pizza) and it just does it. It doesn't do the Garmin thing of taking you off the motorway, round a roundabout and back on the motorway to avoid "slow motorway traffic" (it once took me through a huge snarl up in the middle of Bristol to avoid a slow moving M5) It does keep your hands off your phone when driving The voice recognition actually works. It will read out your texts and whatsapps messages (but not let you read them!) - why you'd want that beats me though. Worth the money? Hmm, I think, kind of useful, sometimes, but not worth £179. on the other hand the car cost me £13000 and its had a new clutch (£1000) and three new tyres (£225) since bought, so £179 is immaterial really - and Android Auto is likely to develop, so maybe will improve some.

Well my Octi is just back from the garage with its new key programmed and smartlink enabled ... £350 all told... plus the inevitable main dealer "safety check" decided I needed new tyres. So £620 later ... Works fine with my weird dutch smart phone (an FP2 running android 7) but the nav screen is a bit clunky with directions taking up half the low resolution map space (the built Skoda Nav has a better screen - it's the routing software, poor traffic info and out of date maps that are poor). Other than that, plays internet radio and google play over the car audio system (erm, actually, it did that via bluetooth to an extent) also operates the phone properly. Not sure I need it to read out Whatsapp messages though (especially the ones that are in Dutch with google's attempt at pronunciation - quite funny that) . It would be better with more integration ... the multi-function steering wheel doesn't navigate around the android auto screen so you're reaching out to touch buttons the same way as touching a phone in a holster and of course the multi-dot display doesn't repeat the google.maps directions. Seems a bit thin for £179; still, it's a fraction of what I paid for the car and less than I just paid for the new tyres! See how it goes.

Getting it turned on on Friday : £179 😮! Hope I like it as much as those that replied :¬)

My Mk 3 Octavia doesn't have Smartlink enabled ... but what would it do for me? Is it worth the £150 enabling fee? It would be good to have google maps on the main screen (the built-in satnav being so poor) rather than keep the phone in a mount on the windscreen ... but other than that? £150 is a lot for a slightly improved satnav.