ian_feel_keepin_it_reel

If you know you'll be able to maintain your target speed; accelerating hard is actually more efficient than accelerating gradually, as long as you don't go too high in the rev range. I can't find a BSFC chart for a 1.5TSI so I can't tell you exactly how high you should go...

All terra clean does is burn really hot, so it will break down carbon in your cylinders and exhaust system, but it won't really work on your intake. If you have a direct injection; then non of it will touch your intake. If you have manifold injection; as its a solvent it might break down some of the carbon in your intake, but regular fuel is a solvent too so will do the same thing.

All that proves is its combustible. Its most likely just be little bottles of high octane fuel. One of those mixed in a tank of regular fuel isn't going to do anything for performance. You're just paying between £5-10 for half a litre of fuel.

Snake oil.

I thought single wire CAN was a physical layer specific to a few manufacturers. The tester might think its on a single wire car but that doesn't guarantee the cars ecus will reply. To be safe though; wire in a switch for each line.

Direct injection. Fuel regulator and injectors are very noisy; especially when cold. Nothing to worry about.

You didn't hear someone prying your front door open, it sounds absurd but you probably wouldn't hear someone going at a disklok with a portable angle grinder either. There is a youtube video of one lasting about 3 minutes, a practiced thief could probably get that time under a minute.

If you're a dab with a soldering iron and splicing wires; you could wire in a switch for one of the CAN lines on the OBD port. Most security attacks on cars these days are through the OBD port. They break into the car, plug a tool in, turn off any alarm and then they just program a new key. CAN is made up of a twisted pair of wires, pins 6 and 14 on the OBD port, a single switch on one of the lines will stop a tool from being able to talk to the car.

That long, light blue item looks like a foot pedal. So the item in dark blue is going to be right up underneath dashboard. Very hard to get a look at without some kind of inspection tool. I highly doubt anyone has removed a buzzer and if it just fell out, it would be sat in the drivers footwell. More likely it wasn't plugged in properly from the factory and vibrations have just worked the plug loose.

Wouldn't worry about the rust. Cast iron, it's unavoidable.

Not a difficult spray can DIY job. Just jack up the corner, wheel off. Remove the brake disk, hang the caliper from a bungie, mask the wheel well and suspension with newspaper. Make sure the caliper is clean and prepped. Then spray away. A few coats and it will look reasonably good. Not show quality but compared to some crappy "ebay special" covers.

Just get them painted. Will look a million times better than some clip on covers.

These kits look really cool, but there doesn't appear to be much of a market for them in the UK.

Ah okay. You've put my mind at ease with regards to safety. I agree with you, wind deflectors would probably do the trick. That's probably your best bet without going down the route of having a bispoke socket fitted to the outside of your car somewhere. A lead through the firewall with a water proof socket in the wheel well?

If you open the window slightly you'll definitely get rain water leaking in. It shouldn't sound the alarm if you remember to turn the interior monitor off, but it will quickly become a hassle remembering to do that every day. This is a nice idea but it sounds like a fire risk to me. How long are you running the heater for? If you do have water leaking in you want to make sure the cable to the heater drops down lower than the heater, so any water that runs down the cable collects at the low point, and doesn't flow directly onto your heater. Otherwise you're just asking for an electrical fire.

I made a gear display for my old Ford Fiesta. Reverse engineered the engine speed and vehicle speed signals from the CAN bus and with the known ratios of the gears you can work out what gear you're in. Then it's just displaying the number on a seven segment display. I haven't put a CAN logging tool on an Octavia yet, but if it doesn't have a gateway control module that blocks raw CAN traffic to the diagnostic port the same thing would be possible.

If you can get a scan tool on it, log the coolant temperature while you drive. It should reach around 90 degrees C and stay there. If it never reaches opperating temperature then the car wont go closed loop fueling and your emissions will be way off. I highly doubt there is anything wrong with a 4yo cat or Lambda sensor, but if I'm not mistaken thermostats jamming are a known issue on these engines.

Yikes. At least you know what bent the glow plugs now.

Is reposting this video a running joke?

It will just be a small metal box, with a wiring socket on the side. Similar size and shape as an engine Ecu. They're normally held in place with torq screws and have a levered wiring socket. Why do you want to remove it?

If you want to change the cam position sensor they're normally a pretty easy job. Just unplug them and usually unscrew one bolt. Usually around £50 for the sensor. Wouldn't waste your time and money if it's not causing any problems though. Hesitation, RPM dipping and sometimes even cutting out are the symptoms of the sensor going bad.

I would start looking where the washer hose joins with the rear hatch. That's normally where they split because they're constantly being moved when you open the boot. I've not taken delivery of my Octy yet so I don't know what they're made of but a few years ago i had a Polo 9N3 with the same problem. The rear wiper hose was made out of plastic; not rubber and it split clean in two at the boot door. Every time you ran the rear washer the fluid would dribble down the inside and soak the rear light cluster.

What's an ODBC Connection?

Porsche was a big fan of that. His design for the Tiger used an electric transmission. Germany didn't go for it because they couldn't get enough copper to take it into production and the prototypes were unreliable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VK_4501_(P) I don't know why they don't do it on cars but it's going to either be reliability, efficiency or cost.

The BMW 330e is a popular company car where I work, my workmates who have them typically find they get about 20 - 25 miles on the batteries. I'd rather they announced an affordable full electric variant but realistically that's a generation off.