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Oh! Right, I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

Now I'm curious. How will the new setting be different to the old? I had my DSG tweaked with my remap, and TBH, I haven't noticed any difference in it's operation. That said, it works beautifully, so I'm not complaining.

Hello! Well I'm really not any kind of expert, but starting from basics, I assume your fluid levels are correct? (Oil & coolant.) AFAIK, there's a system that closes off the coolant from circulating through the radiator while the engine warms up, to help the engine warm up. (Used to be a simple thermostat, now they're fancier, AFAIK.) This means that on start-up, there's not much coolant circulating around the engine. On the other hand, the oil has no such circulation inhibition, and so the full 4-5L of oil has to warm up to get up to temperature. The coolant cools, and the oil lubricates. The oil needs to be within a specific temperature range to lubricate properly. (Something like 80degC through 120degC, with nominal a little under 100degC.) The coolant helps the engine stay within the temperature range it needs to operate within. From the symptoms you describe, from cold, the coolant is shut off from the radiator as it should be. The coolant warms up pretty quickly, and the larger volume of oil warms up more slowly. What I suspect is happening, is the system that allows the coolant to flow through the radiator to cool it down, is not working correctly. So as the engine warms up and the oil warms with it, the coolant isn't getting the benefit of the radiator to cool it down when it should do, and the coolant gets unusually hot and the oil temp continues to rise also. The fact that it subsequently sorts itself out makes me think the (or one of the) temperature sensors that enables the full coolant system is out of calibration, and requires a higher temperature than it should to kick into action. As a stop-gap test, the next time you drive your car, as the temp gets too high, put the heater on max heat and max fans and see if that drops the temperature. I'm guessing it will, and I'm also guessing that will prevent the faulty sensor from enabling the full cooling system, as it won't hit its out of range temp. Which would back up my theory of the out of range temperature sensor. Good luck! Let us know how you get on. 🤞

It looks in good condition, but it does look aged. But as it is, I see no damage and no sign of it looking like it's on its last legs and about to fall apart.

Just came across this tuner too. https://puretuning.net/en/chiptuning-files/skoda/skoda-octavia/2-0-tsi-190hp Unusually, their remap claims no additional power, but claims additional low-end torque. I don't think I've ever seen a remap that claimed no additional peak power, so I suspect this is an error. There's no "Stage 2" available at the moment when I just looked, so maybe this product isn't quite ready yet. I dunno.

Hello and welcome. Good luck with your tuning!

Ah! Now I see. I missed your 02:40 post where you said the whole unit was replaced. My bad for not reading all the posts. So it looks like the dealer DID replace the DSG, as it sounded like they had, and indeed had the authority to do so. Hmmm.

I checked my commute yesterday, and on my current route to work it's actually about a 10 mile journey, with a slightly different route coming home. (Work for the very wonderful HS2 causes delays & detours at the moment.) Yesterday was a fairly typical journey, though I wasn't particularly careful about economy on the way home, which has a bit less traffic. The journey has 2.8 miles of motorway, but the rest is urban commuting traffic, albeit avoiding peak times.

A good engine, IMO. They have individual coil packs for each spark plug if I haven't got my wires crossed and if it's as same Zetec unit I had in our M-plate Mondeo. A bit expensive if they go wrong, as mine did.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I have code "GM1" and the description I have is "Electronic engine sound measures: Standard electronic engine sound". That suggests my car produces fake engine noise, though a "standard" fake noise, not a sports sound. I'd be slightly confused, but not entirely surprised if my car has a fake noise generator, as it does make a slightly odd rorty sound on the rare occasions I give it some welly, which sounds slightly unusual. I assumed it was just how the car sounds when you boot it, not an electronic noise. It's not intrusive, in fact it's oddly pleasing. But I could live without it. I've never heard the sound outside the car, so I've no idea how it sounds to the rest of the world, assuming they can hear it. A little research and it turns out there's a few of these codes: https://vag-codes.info/

Would the sound actuator show up in VIN decode details? If so, any idea what the code is?

It's easy to hate the pedantic, but in instances like this, it really helps to be a bit pedantic when finding out what work is going to be done on your car. They said they had replaced the DSG, but they clearly haven't, despite having authorisation from Skoda to do so. (Assuming they had, and weren't lying/ambiguous about that.) I'd be asking them why they short-changed you on the work they had told you they'd be doing.

Sorry to be pedantic, but E98 would be 98% ethanol, that's what the E means. So we have 95RON E10 (95 octane and 10% ethanol) and 97RON E5 and so on. But to address the spirit of your question, I don't know. But I don't see why not. Your question is one of those questions that prompts a few other questions. 1) If adding ethanol to petrol for cars really is a good thing, as decreed by the great and the good, why doesn't what we call "Super Unleaded" (97-101 RON octane in the UK) have 10% ethanol? Why limit it to 5%? 2) What percentage of ethanol in petrol can Skoda Octavias handle without issue? (I assume the more recent the Octavia, the more ethanol it can handle.) 3) Are there plans to increase the percentage of ethanol in our fuels in Europe. The US and some parts of Europe (and the rest of the world) already have high-ethanol fuels available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_ethanol_fuel_mixtures (Incidentally, there seems to be a price advantage to high-ethanol fuels for the consumer. Does this reflect the cost of the product, or is this pricing a political nudge in the "right" direction? I'm old enough to remember when diesel was cheaper than petrol, before it was determined that diesel is a "dirty" fuel.)

Thirdly, I am still running the original, albeit slightly disintegrating, Bridgestone Turanza 001 tyres which have a pretty low rolling resistance, and I have inflated them to the economy pressures as specified under the fuel filler flap. Fourthly, I run my car on Super unleaded (97RON), which helps fuel economy. Fifthly, when I had my car remapped, I told the tuner I wanted the same or better economy on low throttle demand and about 230PS peak power, which is a fairly modest boost to peak power. All these factors together give me decent economy, though I'm pretty sure driving economically has the biggest impact. The auto box helps me drive economically IMO, as I can concentrate on light throttle control and don't have to think about the gears at all. However it does call for some restraint and thought, and I'm sure it's not a driving style that would suit most people. I do enjoy a blast around now and then, but it's not something I do often.

There are probably several factors, @Pessimal Firstly, it's a different engine. The Gen3 vRS engine (and I think the 220 is the same) has VVT on the exhaust valves. The Gen3B engine in my car has VVT on the inlet valves. They close early before the piston is at BDC. I'd like to give you a full explanation of why this is a good thing, but to be completely honest, I don't fully understand why it improves fuel economy, but apparently it does. The early valve closing is on low throttle/low load demand. When there is driver demand for more fuel/power, the inlet valve timing changes to the power mode. The images below are from the VAG eSelf Study Program 920163 Secondly, I consciously drive economically most of the time. Despite this, when the engine is cold and on short runs in stop/start traffic, the economy isn't great, TBH. It was in the high 20's on a short trip to the shops yesterday, despite driving carefully, the traffic was too stop/start to get decent economy. But on the 7 mile drive to work in freely moving traffic, I get high 40's if I'm careful, or low 40's if I'm not being as careful. On a long run, I get low 50's without much bother or mid 50's if I'm careful and keep the speed under. I also don't drive the car hard until the oil is up to 80°C, and on the drive to work, that doesn't happen at this time of year.

I intend to get my oil and filter done at 40,000miles, but that will be some time away. I'm only in the mid 14,000s now, and it's heading towards its 4th birthday. I might have to bring that oil change forward to getting it done at 8 years.

Why not give DTUK a shout, see what they say? From their FAQs page, it seems that their tuning boxes might be more specific than you'd expect. https://www.diesel-performance.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/

Yes, but it was only 31% of the reported problems. 54% of the cars going wrong must be quite worrying for Skoda, who used to be right towards the top of the customer satisfaction survey.

DQ381, 7-speed wet clutch and it's a peach! 👌

Just a thought, but are the rear brake calipers working correctly? Brake calipers can get stuck (though it would be unusual on such a recent vehicle) and if they're not working as they should, you might not notice in normal driving, but the brakes wouldn't clean the disks. A pic of the disks would help. @cheezemonkhai's idea of careful emergency stops sounds sensible, as the effort of hard braking should shift the caliper piston if they're a bit reluctant to move.

I think the silica bag is the least of your worries on this issue for now. That said, if the bag splits and leaks silica into the coolant system, the bag would still remain in the coolant header tank. (Note, the silica containers come in a variety of shapes and types.) I've no idea what's going on here, but it doesn't sound good. I'm alarmed that the car was returned to you with over-filled black coolant, unless there's some sort of catastrophic failure. Does the new dark coolant smell different to "normal" coolant? My instinct would be to ask the garage that did the work to explain the issue, but I'd be very cautious about letting them work on the car unsupervised. I think you need to get this looked at quickly by a competent mechanic.

I'm amazed infotainment system issues aren't a higher percentage of problems with the Mk4. I tend to buy cars right at the end of their production life-cycle. This gives a double bonus of having most of the known issues solved, or at least a known solution established, and also a drop in the purchase price to encourage people who might be tempted to wait for the new model to buy existing stock of the old. Has worked out pretty well so far.

Never used PCP to buy a car. When I was young and foolish I took out loans or used HP, then I wised up and saved up for them. (Probably why I only change cars every 10 years or so. 😄) But to answer your question, this web page has a lot of useful info on PCP purchases. Good luck! https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/personal-contract-purchase/ I would hedge your bets and take a couple of recent payslips in, proof of ID, and proof of residency at your stated address, such as a utility bill. I would also look more into your PCP T&Cs to make sure you fully understand what you're getting into. There's a lot of opportunity for smoke and mirrors financial malarkey with those things, IMO.

Cue Sid James laugh. 😄

I have a different engine/gearbox, but mine moves off in 1st gear and quickly changes itself to 2nd.