Cubbington

Well I finally got Hive installed on Friday - we’re getting fitted wardrobes installed and the fitters had asked for the programmer to be moved. I mentioned to the plumbers that I was thinking of getting smart heating fitted and they said that they could fit a Hive system (compatible with Apple HomeKit) for just the cost of the kit, as the labour cost was the same as moving our existing programmer. so far really pleased with it - after an initial call to Hive support as I couldn’t get the app to see the thermostat, even though it was working perfectly on as a normal non-app-controlled programmer, Hive dialled into it, ran through a few reset procedures with me and it was up and running with HomeKit! The programmer’s been installed where the old thermostat was, and as per @Lady Elanore’s setup, the hub and receiver are installed by the router. The cupboard’s a bit of a mess, as I still need to tidy up from where the power and data was run to the garage…I must have known more work was going to be done, hence not getting on to that sooner…at least that’s what I’m telling myself! I like it so far, and it’s nice to be able to set different temperatures throughout the day…it’s certainly a lot easier to program via the phone than the tiny screen on the old programmer! Thanks to all of you that gave advice on this topic 👍

Thanks @cheezemonkhai, that's really helpful, I'll price up with the HR91 (or whatever's equivalent now!). We're getting the plumbers to fit some new rads in a couple of weeks...the last of the cheap, under specced/undersized rads that were fitted when the house was built, so once we get a idea of how the house is balancing the heat I can look into the Evo system. Thanks again for your help. Cheers, Nick

Cool, thanks for the link - I've just scanned the thread and I"m surprised at how cheaply the system priced up for you. When I look into Evohome, I'm sure the quote was coming in at around £800 including the Stat/TRVs. Cheers, Nick

Yep...a very highly specced Land Rover Discovery Sport was only £40 more a month than the Superb...

Thanks @ahenners! I’ve had it for just under a month now, and absolutely love it. When I test drove it (albeit the 190bhp petrol), it just felt natural after coming from the Octavia. We all know the VAG hierarchy, so it does have a lot more squishier plastics all round the cabin, and it’s certainly a lot quieter even after all the work I did on the Octavia…To be fair, I do spec the ‘Acoustic Pack’, which gives double-glazed front windows and additional sound deadening. I also went for the nappa leather interior and 360 degree camera, so it is a lovely to place to be in. It’s a very different drive to the Octavia, taking a very relaxed approach, certainly not a driver’s car, but for munching miles it’s bang on. The thing I do miss is the Octavia’s gargantuan boot! The Arteon’s is longer, but the rear seats I think are more laid back, and the boot is 20cm shallower with it’s hybrid battery under the boot floor - I had the perfect Tetris setup with my dive gear in the Octavia, so need to work that out again 😅 Fuel economy is good for such a big car too; we came back from a week in Ardnamurchan yesterday (no phone signal and very intermittent internet there), it managed 43.5mpg over 488 miles with a week’s luggage and two kayaks on the roof. We charged it before we left and got a quick charge in a service station giving about 30 EV miles total. The hybrid system is excellent, as it works with the inbuilt Satnav (which I think get’s it’s traffic data from Google maps), and shuffles seamlessly between ICE and EV depending on whether you’re on the motorway or in an urban area. This is the first car I’ve driven where stop/start actually makes sense. And finally, I love the fact that they are rare - I’ve seen a maximum of 5 of the hatchback on the road since I’ve had it, and no shooting brakes, so I’ll be gutted when I see another for the first time 😂 We got caught in a few traffic jams on the way up and down from Scotland and the amount of people taking a second look was funny. Thanks @VRS_White_Hatch , regards to price, yes, it is expensive, but it’s a company lease, and believe it or not, when I specced up a Superb as closely as possible, the cash price of the Superb was slightly less, but the lease price was almost 10% more than the Arteon! Cheers, Nick

Excellent post, thanks! I’ll forward this to my buddy who bought my car 👍 Nick

Good taste in music, and most definitely a panel rattler of a test 😁 Great job on the panel, and I found the same in mine - you may also find that installing some Tesa tape around the clips for that control may help reduce vibrations even further…I know that I had a buzz from that too. Keep going, it’s going to be so much nicer once it’s all done 🙂 Nick

Hi @ahenners, You’re welcome buddy! Mine was a diesel and did have the factory deadening mat fitted as standard. Remember that while your petrol will be quieter than a diesel, the bonnet is a large panel sitting right above the most vibraty(!) part of the car. It wasn’t just a reduction in engine noise I experienced, just generally quieter. With regards to yours and @srh007 ‘s comments, definitely do it warmer weather, and cutting big sheets down to smaller sections, especially when trying to wriggle around in the doors makes life a hell of a lot easier. It is a bit of a job, but if you’re methodical, it’s worth doing the side panels in the boot if you’ve done the floor. I must admit, I’m a bit OCD, and started chasing rattles and squeaks down all over the place - I ended up using hot glue on all the termination blocks in the doors to stop the pins rattling, anti-rattle tape on the climate control panel and ‘egg carton’ foam in the sunglasses holder to stop my sunnies from rattling…admittedly, the system could be played to rather uncomfortable levels without the car rattling itself to pieces 😅 Couple of tips if you take the doors apart and want to fit aftermarket speakers… Skoda use 6” speakers. The basket they’re built in has a drainage section to allow water to escape easily. I was suffering from loads of water ingress and couldn’t figure it out until I removed the 6.5” Focal Custom Fit speakers only to find pools of ice in the bottom of them! The baskets have a lip that doesn’t allow drainage like the standard speakers, hence the water pooling, and coming into the car. I cured it by cutting a small ‘V’ into both the baskets and doors (I painted the door cutout with Hammerite anti-rust paint, then put a thin bead of silicone sealant around the inner edge of the speaker hole and basket to prevent water from seeping into the car - it was gone dry after doing that. Secondly, don’t waste your time and money fitting updated speakers in the rear doors. The tweeter on the rear driver’s side door is closer to you than the front, and you just get weird imaging happening. I disabled the rear speakers completely and both time-aligned & EQ’d the front speakers for the driver’s position; the result was a focussed image in front of me, with a wide soundstage that sounded like it was not enclosed in the interior of the car - very much like a well dialled in hi-fi system 😊 Hope that helps, Nick

Hi @ahenners Glad you got the grommets sorted. Totally agree that all that work makes the front sound noisier (even though it isn’t!). I sound deadened the bonnet, which was very easy to do and also made a big improvement. I did all the flat sections and parts of the box frame that are hidden by the factory-fit sound deadening panel. If you do this, make sure you buy heat resistant deadening - I used Dynamat Extreme. I never got round to it, but also bought some sheets to do the front wheel arches, as I did the rears when doing the rear of the car. If you’ve not seen it, check out my thread on the stereo upgrade I did last year - it might give you some ideas of other areas you can attack to reduce noise…and it’ll remind you to disconnect the battery when doing any electrical work 😉 🙂 Cheers, Nick

Great job finally doing under the seat bench! I found the same as you regarding the hollow sound from the vertical section and applied sound deadening material to that area too - it made a very worthwhile reduction in road noise, and very easy to do. Sorry I can't help regarding the hook/grommets, but have you tried really whacking the seat bench back directly over the hooks? You might find it just needs some persuasion, as I can't remember having any problems with the seat bench locking back in to place when I refitted mine. Cheers, Nick

And from experience, Google maps is much better than the built-in satnav as it’s easy to set a specific POI (a specific destination by name) and it’s live traffic data is very precise.

To be fair, I think the Passat is more practical overall, but the Arteon tugs more at the heart than the head, and it's still got a massive boot

Hi All, After 3 years of owning my Octavia, it's time to bid farewell to it with the arrival of my first company car in over 15 years...the new VW Arteon Shooting Brake eHybrid R Line I'll still lurk around, as there are many very helpful and friendly people on here. The car's not disappearing, as a mate of mine has bought it and I believe he's already set up a user account on here. Thanks to all those who have offered advice when I've needed help, and I hope I've been able to help others too Cheers, Nick

I went to an Octavia from an XC70, affectionately called ‘The Money Pit’. I’ve always loved Volvos, and really liked the XC70 apart from it’s ability to go wrong spectacularly, drain my wallet, and annoy Mrs Cubbington. I chopped it in for a diesel Octavia Vrs 4x4 which was significantly more practical than the XC70 (the Octavia boot is mahoosive and a good shape), and it was one of the best cars I’ve owned, both from a reliability and running cost point of view. Had circumstances been different, I was going to chop the Octavia in and ‘upgrade’ to a Superb Sportline 4x4 diesel this year, but a company car option changed that…you’ll see from my signature I went for another VAG group wagon after testing that, a Cupra Formentor (fell in love with it, but the boot was way too small!), and a V60, which I was really underwhelmed with… Try both, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Nick

I've got an Amundsen system and mine sometimes doesn't momentarily display the volume on the dashboard, although the volume control works perfectly, so not been bothered about it. Would be nice to know if anybody has an answer as to why though! Cheers, Nick

Dammit, apologies admins, I think I may have posted this in the wrong section, so please move if appropriate!

Hi All, Hoping that someone will be able to help here! We're in need of a kayak rack compatible with Thule Wingbar EVO or Wingbar Edge. We're awaiting the imminent arrival of my new car, and Thule are the only company that make roofbars to fit it, other than VW's own bars, which are over £100 more than the Thule options. The Thule kayak racks keep going out of stock, so I was wondering if anybody else had used a decent rack with Thule bars. We're looking at the Hull-A-Port XT, which is robust enough to have two kayaks strapped to it, and we'd rather have something that cradles the kayaks than using the simple bars. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks, Nick

I fitted a Mann Frecious Plus in both Octavia and Mrs Cubbington’s Smart Fortwo as I was getting fed up with the fumes from other cars (especially in the Smart). They fit perfectly, and have pretty much eliminated the smell of fumes from other stinky vehicles! This is the one you’re looking for: https://catalog.mann-filter.com/EU/eng/catalog/MANN-FILTER Katalog Europa/Vehicles/CARS %2B TRANSPORTERS/SKODA/Octavia III/2.0 TDI ~ RS CUPA, CUNA, DJGA (T00000000332232)/Cabin Air Filter/FP 26 009 Hope that helps, Nick

Hi PeterGAH, What was the outcome from the dealer visit? Cheers, Nick

A couple of us have bought the custom box below which fits in the space behind the near side rear wheel arch, it’s for a 10” sub though: From my experience that 10” sub is more than enough! Hope that helps, Nick

Even if your car's out of warranty it's worth contacting your dealer. Mine developed the same fault over the Christmas period...of course, just a few months out of warranty. I sent the screen off to a VAG specialist who informed me that it's a common fault across the VAG group, it's around £800 for a new screen, but in their opinion not worth spending the money on, as it is just an aesthetic problem. After reading about a TPI (TPI 2051234/5) to these screens on another thread on Briskoda (TPI 2051234/5), I thought I'd drop my dealer a line to see if they had any suggestions, as they've been consistently excellent during my time of ownership. As the car has a full Skoda service history, they were going to inspect it and contact Skoda UK to see if they could get them to make a goodwill contribution towards the cost of a replacement. I got a call this morning me to let me know that Skoda are offering a substantial goodwill contribution and has brought the cost down from "I'll put up with it." to "Please replace it!" so is on order now. Hopefully that helps others on here. Cheers, Nick

Glad that it's made such an improvement for you, and agree with your sentiments! Sorry, those measurements don't make much sense without knowing the full process of the amp's setup. The amplifier (Audiotec-Fischer M5 DSP MK2), is fully programmable via a PC. As it's an inline speaker-level amp that allows upgrading without modification, it has the ability to be tuned to the car, both input and output. The measurements you're referring to show the output frequency response of the Skoda's standard stereo - the green stepped line in the top photo is front, second photo is rear, where you see the increase in the mid frequencies. The red line with the white dots is the amplifier's eq, which you then drag up and down to make a flat frequency response/output from the Audiotec-Fischer amp. Doing the above process made it sound much better, but it still doesn't sound as good as just running the front speakers, and I'm certain it's due to the position of that rear tweeter. Hope that helps explain it a little more clearly, and that it proves that Skoda have designed a fair amount of eq into those rear outputs causing the imbalance in sound. Cheers, Nick

Sure, go to this post: I measured the output signal from both front and rear amplifier outputs and you can see there’s a mid bass hump in the rear output exactly as you describe. I also agree that the tweeter in the rear door plays havoc with imaging and soundstage as it’s closer to your right ear (RHD cars) than the front tweeter, and my seat position at least gives that rear tweeter a direct unblocked output to my head! Had I thought about all this, I could have saved myself the part of £200 messing about with upgrading the rear speakers that are now permanently muted anyway... If you read the entire thread, you’ll see that I’m running a discrete version of the big ICE style you mention, with front components and a custom fit sub in the boot. Hope that helps explain it. Cheers, Nick

How long’s that bottle been in the door pocket? You might be surprised that it’s the bottle rattling around! The volume I sometimes play music at, anything stored in the door pockets rattle and buzz annoyingly 🤣 The only other thing I can think of is that the speaker’s blown. The other speaker being dead could be an indication that they’ve been way overdriven. One of the symptoms of a blown speaker is distortion due to the voicecoil scraping on the magnet, another is a total breakup/burnout resulting in no output. Cheers, Nick

You don’t need to be an audio expert - if it sounds better to you, it is better ...and those rear speakers are EQ’d really oddly, check out the measurements I took! Cheers, Nick