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Excellent advice. My advice is to go to an ICE specialist (not Halfords), see what they advise you your options are and how much the various options will cost, then pick the option that suits you.

As brake fluid is pretty unpleasant stuff, if it's leaking, I'd want to know where the leak is and get it sorted fast. If nothing else, you will confirm that there isn't a leak. If there isn't a leak, such a low brake fluid level may suggest it's never been changed, so it's worth getting that sorted too, as it's supposed to be changed every 4 years.

This is what I do too. I position the car where I want it parked and hold the brakes, put the selector in neutral, release the brakes and put the handbrake on (unless I'm on a slope, and then I put the handbrake on first), then put the selector in park.

It depends. You can test whether you need to this, easily enough. If you set up the conditions with the car in "Drive" mode, which you imply but do not specifically state in your original post, then move the selector from D to N, see if the car relaxes back off the biting point. If it does, then the answer is yes. If it doesn't, it would seem the answer is no. Personally, I put my DSG into neutral whenever I come to a stop, or am coming to a stop. I don't even think about it now, as it's just natural for me to do this.

Hello and welcome, Tony! 😊 I look forward to hearing more from you, particularly from the perspective of someone who spent time on the other side of the service counter.

I know nothing about the Racechip, and you haven't provided a link to the product, so I'm floundering about in the dark here. That said, I suspect you believe the Racechip is a mistake, but you're looking about for some reassurance that the Racechip is actually okay, and there's no need to spend the extra money on a remap. My advice is as follows:- If you're short of money, don't modify your car. If you're not short of money, modify it properly.

Tough choice. I prefer the VRS engine, but the Sportline is the FL model and so has a lot of improvements over the older MK3. That digital dash is nice. (Not sure about the black headlining, though.) I found the 150PS 2.0TDI a bit gutless to drive, but you can perk it up with a remap. Of the two cars on offer, I think the Sportline is better value for money.

Perhaps there weren't that many. I recall some of the more active posters on here expressing their support for the SNP in this thread, but then sometimes a few people making noise can seem more than their actual number.

I remember there were quite a few SNP supporters on here at one time.

Yay! all the chargers are empty. Oh!

Connect it up again and be sure to really push the connectors home. That seems to be a recurring issue, the connectors not quite making the full connection. Don't plumb in all the wiring until you know it's working on your lap in the car, as it were. The plug & play functionality of the camera changes the settings to the camera display, rather than the default sensor background, so the display settings seem to have been changed, but there's no camera display to feed. If you're sure you've connected it right and there's still no feed from the camera, get in touch with the vendor.

Interesting how "We're literally boiling the planet!!!" is somehow less of an issue when there are jobs at risk in an election year. 😄 Apparently we are NOT in an existential crisis after all. Who knew, eh?

Biden is going old-school protectionist in America. It seems the regime has decided that saving America's car industry is more important than their "Climate Crisis" project. https://archive.ph/P91pA

That I did not expect. 😊 Looks like a real gem. Enjoy! 👍

Certainly sounds like it. I'm bemused at why they are playing silly buggers with you. "Opps! Our bad. Here you go, sorry for any inconvenience caused." would be a better approach IMO, assuming that is the problem.

I have been out of touch on EA888 development and nothing about the Gen 4 engine, so that would have caught me out too. It sounds like an interesting iteration. https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/10/20211019-evo4.html

Just noticed this cautionary tale from @SteffLimitless of the regret of chasing Skoda Scala power via stage 2 tuning instead of an engine transplant. Thought I'd yoink a link here as it seemed appropriate.

I see a lot of people who said one thing and tried to force others to either say the same thing, or have any contrary opinion deleted, now saying the opposite and quietly deleting what they said before. It's all good, this is just for banter and froth. Nobody looks to Brisky for an opinion on anything other than Skoda-related stuff, thank heavens! 👍 Means-tested overstay charges will sort that problem out. 😉

Not that I'm any kind of expert, but what exactly is the problem you have that you are trying to solve? So far your problem seems to be "Oo-er! I don't like the look of that!". Am I correct is summarising that as the issue that you are looking to "solve"?

You say her job is to analyse and combat misinformation. I say her job is to ensure compliance with a desired narrative and to try and discredit anyone who fails to adhere to what is the approved "consensus". Anyone who's been paying attention to world events over the last 3-4 years might reasonably get uncomfortable deja-vu from the use of the word "misinformation" used (along with "disinformation"). Or maybe it's just me? Previously it was commonly used to ensure compliance with the "safe and effective" narrative. Now the facts are slipping past the wall of narrative consensus, all but the most ardent true-believer is starting to wonder whether they have made a terrible mistake on that front. Hopefully the negative impact will remain small, but time will tell. Of course, the idea that electric vehicles are especially problematic for potholes is going to require some robust data to back it up, data that the Mail Online is never going to provide, but I don't think Pallavi is any more reliable a source.

Not sure the author of that article is any less biased than the Mail Online, but just waaaaay over on a different side of the argument. https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/profile/pallavi-sethi/

It's difficult to say, @robs12, as it depends. There's no reason a competent DIYer can't service their car to a high standard themselves. The problem arises when you have confident cretins who have a crack at doing their own servicing. There are a surprising number of people who have the mechanical sympathy of a chimp with a rock, and seem to perform maintenance on their vehicle in the manner of a rock-equipped simian. Even fairly bright people can, in innocent ignorance, do some surprisingly stupid and damaging things to their car, in their attempt to service or maintain it. (Example: I managed to obstruct my curtain airbags when I "cleverly" fitted my reversing camera. Fortunately, I'm bright enough to know that I had to put that right, and not take the "It'll be alright!" attitude, that is unfortunately prevalent with a lot of people.) Beyond that, there are "clever" people, who know better than everyone else, and ignore OEM specifications and use a different grade of oil, grease, whatever, as it's "better", as they see it. There are the "Nah! You don't need to bother with that!" people too. Have a look on here, and you'll see people who swear blind you don't need to change your brake fluid every 4 years. "You must", "you should", "you could", "you don't need to" are all approaches that people can take in regard to an aspect of car servicing, particularly when it's annoyingly expensive and seemingly trivial things like replacing the coolant. "It's still pink, innit? So it's alright!". As a car buyer, when people hear that someone did their own servicing, they don't know if they are dealing with a clever and capable person who has meticulously serviced their car, or a rock-wielding chimp who's just topped the oil up when it ran low on the dipstick. I think it's particularly risky when someone gets a "mate" to service their car. They get all the benefits of bargain-basement servicing, and none of the accountability for poor servicing, as they can blame their "mate" for anything that is not as it should be. Any questions about servicing can be shrugged off onto their "mate" who has no liability for the quality of the servicing and is invariably going to assure you everything was done to the same or higher standard as a main dealer. Personally, I would never by a car from someone who's had it serviced by a "mate". People take their car to a garage to be serviced, because they lack the time, skill or inclination to do it properly themselves. (Incidentally, it's also perfectly possible to have your car serviced badly at a garage, because you instructed the garage to only conduct very basic servicing, only fixing things when broken.) The number of people who have the time, skill and inclination to service their own car correctly is relatively tiny, so when I hear of a DIY-serviced car, I am seeing a load of additional risk associated with my purchase. I doubt you've devalued your car, but you might have made it less appealing to some cautious buyers. You could mitigate your risk by a full service at a garage just prior to sale, which I think would put a lot of people's minds at ease. They could reasonably assume "Yes, he might or might not have serviced it poorly, but it runs alright and it's just been serviced at a proper garage." Perhaps the best thing to do is ask one of the professional mechanics on here what their instinctive reaction is when they hear a car has been DIY serviced, and how often they are called on to remedy issues instigated by DIY servicing.

There are various sites which offer a VIN DECODE service, some of which used to be free, many now expect you to pay a fee now. (Nothing massive, but it's a bit cheeky, IMO.) You only need to do this once, and once you have the information, you have it forever. (I used this website https://carinfo.kiev.ua/, and when I just checked, they still have my VIN decode details on there, but I don't remember the site being in Russian!!) The VIN decode is about 7 pages of 3-digit codes, and the explanation of each code. It tells you all the part options and configurations for your vehicle. So in my instance, for brakes, I see: 1KS Brake type in rear: Disc brakes in rear (Geomet D) 1ZA Brake type, front: Disc brakes in front I can then go the the thread that @HappySam helpfully linked to "Skoda Octavia MK3 5E brake pad sizes", and see the following choices for my VIN decode codes, as provided by @Carlston in that thread: Octavia MK3 Brake Pads and Brake Discs TRW Front Brake Pads 1ZF 276x24mm TRW GDB2080 1ZE 288x25mm TRW GDB1956 1ZA 312x25mm TRW GDB1956 1ZB 312x25mm TRW GDB1956 1LG 340x30mm TRW GDB2114 TRW Rear Brake Pads 1KD 253x10mm TRW GDB1330 1KS 272x10mm TRW GDB2042 1KT 272x10mm TRW GDB2042 1KW 310x22mm TRW GDB1622 ATE Front Brake Discs 1ZF 276x24mm ATE 24012402581 1ZE 288x25mm ATE 24012501451 1ZA 312x25mm ATE 24012501581 1ZB 312x25mm ATE 24012501581 1LG 340x30mm ATE 24013002251 ATE Rear Brake Discs 1KD 253x10mm ATE 24011002771 (pre-facelift model) 1KD 253x10mm ATE 24011004201 (facelift model) 1KS 272x10mm ATE 24011003561 1KT 272x10mm ATE 24011003561 1KW 310x22mm ATE 24012202191 For front disks for my car, I could choose brand TRW, 1KS 272x10mm TRW GDB2042 or brand ATE 1KS 272x10mm ATE 24011003561. For rear disks for my, I could choose brand TRW, 1ZA 312x25mm TRW GDB1956, or brand 1ZA 312x25mm ATE 24012501581. I can then go to a parts supplier like AUTODOC, https://www.autodoc.co.uk/ enter the part number, example 24011003561, and get details of the part and the cost of parts associated with that parts number. https://www.autodoc.co.uk/spares-search?keyword=24011003561 Hope that makes it all fairly clear and straightforward.

Maybe get one of these? https://www.amazon.co.uk/ECO-WORTHY-Maintainer-Conversion-Automobile-Motorcycle/dp/B08K3BQTNK?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Hello and welcome, Chris. 🙂