Jim-octavia

Dragging up an old thread, but it is a good one! 2 years ago I had a pressure sensor fault, so got it replaced and the garage reported that it initially seemed to leak and then held its pressure so they were able to recharge it and I picked it up working. Only lasted a few days, and when I checked again the pressure was low, so I tried topping it up and using superseal, but ran out of gas before it was working properly and then didn't have time to touch it again for ages and it went to the bottom of my list, and covid meant I wasn't really using the car last summer. Obviously with the hot weather I wanted to get it working again so got a can of gas and to my surprise needed very little before the pressure came up good (both on the dial on the filling adapter, and in VCDS). But no cold air. I was flicking through the measuring values for ages trying to spot what was wrong. Thanks to this thread I am now pretty sure it is going to be the N280 valve, since pressure is OK, compressor is running etc. and the only thing wrong is that the current is around 80.5-82, which it seems corresponds to a stuck valve. Then the light bulb moment, I put bloody superseal in it 2 years ago, I wonder why the valve could be stuck? No warning about that on the can, says only suitable for belt driven not electric driven compressors, but fails to mention belt driven compressors controlled by a solenoid valve rather than a clutch... I mean, it could be something else, but seems highly unlikely after reading the 8 pages of this thread. Now to see if my normal garage (not the one who looked at it 2 years ago) can change the valve for me, or compressor if necessary. I bet they are flat out.

I haven't done it yet, I have a replacement panel which looks right - (local motor factor says they always come in wrong for him and to expect to find it to be wrong), but the rivets haven't turned up yet so I haven't taken the old one off yet. Rivets: https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/n91003401-pop-rivet-a6-4x10-0-skoda-5075.html (based in czech I think, they also have the trim clips, I'm sure you broke at least 1 getting it off?) They are 6.4mm multi-grip rivets as far as I can tell, but I couldn't find multigrip in 6.4mm, and there is no way plain will expand enough for a 10mm hole. Another option would be to use a washer on the back, but since you wont be able to get a hand in, you would need to use something like double sided tape to hold them in place. I have seen 2 sources that say to use an M5 bolt to remove the inner part of the window pin, and then M8 on the outer part, I should have both but haven't actually checked (M5 is an uncommon size but I have a lot of bolts). I got a bit distracted with the wiring for the light sensor which 'fell out' of the connector due to a pigeon flying into my windscreen and knocking the rear view mirror off which was dangling by those wires for a while until I could pull over and deal with it (impact not hard enough to for my dash cam to notice and protect the file, but I nearly soiled myself!). The connector and the terminals were broken so I have replaced them and I think got the wires in the right order (may be trusting Haynes too much?) but the headlights are still coming on with the ignition. May have had a short which has damaged the control module. Been too busy driving it to finish either job yet...

Looks like you can get kits of just the wires from about £12, but first you should probably open it up and check if you need the wires or the sliders or both. For the whole mechanism aftermarket ones seem to start around £30 without motor, although I understand they are £160 from a dealer (may include the motor?) As noted above, the mechanism (regulator) seems to be riveted to a panel which in turn is rivetted into the door, using odd sized rivets, even so, replacing the whole mechanism will be a huge amount easier than just replacing the wires, and is the route I intend to go down (now that I am back from my holiday) - you need to drill out and re-rivet the panel even to do the wires. No idea where to get the right size rivets from yet.

Old thread I know, but one of the cables snapped on my drivers window yesterday (perfect in a heat wave with non-functioning air-con). Haynes, and the link above both talk about removing the lock barrel before removing the panel, but the original write up doesn't mention that - anyone know if that is a typical Haynes unnecessary extra step or is there a danger of screwing up the door lock if you don't take the barrel out first (which looks like a finicky enough little procedure in its own right...)?

Canoeing tends to be quite hard on the upholstery etc. which is one of the reasons for buying old cars, and I tend to keep cars until they really die because they generally aren't very appealling after a year of carting wet kit around. The only 'car' I sold privately was my '96 Sprinter, I advertised it for 'spares only' although running, and listed all the things that needed to be fixed to put it back on the road and advised it would need collecting on a transporter. Fellow almost took my arm off for the £1000 I was asking (although he haggled £30 off in the end because the fuel light was on), picked it up on trade plates without fixing anything before he left and a couple of weeks later sent me some photos of it in its new home in Zimbabwe where presumably they don't much care about vehicles being roadworthy. As far as I can tell he drove it to Hull and put it on a ship the same day without doing any of the repairs, he said it was really fast... Originally he said he was going to fix it and fill it with clothes to take to Zimbabwe, I didn't even dare ask in the end if he had driven it in an unroadworthy state with cargo, untaxed, no MOT, on trade plates... Can you see why I'm not keen on private sales, even if I had a car suitable to sell on rather than just scrapping?

I resent that, at £2200 my Octavia is the most expensive car I have bought, I usually spend less because I know I am in a price bracket where there will be other expenditure soon and the difference between an £800 car and £2000 one doesn't seem to alter the chances of that!

Everyone places different values on things. For some people it is all about the depreciation and re-sale cost of the vehicle, if so decisions actually become pretty easy. For many of us a car value apart from money. If it runs well and we like it, changing cars for monetary reasons doesn't necessarily make sense to us. I have about a 50/50 rate of picking good cars from pups, so it makes sense to hang onto the good ones and drive them until they really can't be mended any more! by the time I come to sell a car I like, it will be for scrap. But if you are the kind of person that regularly renews your car (there are many good arguments for this), and it all comes down to money, then you still have to factor in annual maintenance costs, how much does/should it really cost you per year to keep your car in roadworthy condition? One or 2 services per year, a set of tyres, the odd spring or shock, set of brake pads and percentage of the bigger items like a timing belt or clutch? I have no idea, I never keep track because I just fix stuff as it is needed, which means than when a bigger bill comes along occasionally, I already know that a good chunk of the rest of the car is in good condition and not likely to fail in the next couple of months, so I'm not just weighing up the value of the car vs repairs vs another 2nd hand one, but also against the possibility that the second hand one may be about due several routine items that I just did on this car (springs, shocks, bushes, brakes...). Is it worth spending £400 on a timing belt when you only aim to have the car another year - depends how much you expect to spend on maintenance in that year and whether you can expect to have other major(ish) maintenace expenditure. If you have spent nearly nothing on maintenace for a while then you may be due other problems, where are you going to draw the line? So many friends seem to end up spending and spending and spending, and then get fed up and sell the car wishing they had sold it before spending out...

How much do you like your car? I like mine enough to do it a bit early, will probably do it next summer about 10k before it is due. Costed it DIY recently for other reasons, about £100 for parts (aftermarket but decent brands) to do belt, rollers and pump, + £30 for a timing tool kit from ebay which appears to include what would normally require 3 tool kits each costiong £30+, I will probably find the locking pins are made of cheese or don't fit the holes in the sprockets or something, but I since it should be possible without those tools anyway I thought they were worth a punt. Have probably neglected some other items which I will find need to be replaced when i have it disassembled though...

The fact that it even needs it's own heat exchanger on the coolant circuit is a clue that there can be problems with overheating the controller card. Not sure if it is because it is mounted next to the exhaust, or if the controller card itself is making the heat (electronics really can generate some heat!), if it was just an exhaust issue you would have thought they would go back to moving the controller to a cooler part of the engine bay and using a wire or vacuum connection to open and close the valve like previous generations. Maybe the modern type cycle too fast to mount the controller remotely, cable friction or vacuum response time might not be able to keep up?

Certainly less technically demanding to fit than chains, but I'm not sure poking each one through the wheel and then reaching behind to grab it and pull it round to the front to fasten 10 times per wheel is actually easy or fast to do. Especially if you have steel wheels with little holes rather than spoked alloys with big holes... Chains are a faff and really need practice, but the modern types you lay over and only have to pull a single wire around the bottom of the wheel to connect up (much less groping around in the wheel arch), then you have to pull the tensioning wire in the right direction and lock it off properly (the bit which makes you refer back to the instructions every time). Finally drive forward a few yards and check the tension is still good. Socks are even easier, you hardly need to put your whole hand in the wheel arch at all, hook the sock over the top of the wheel, pull round as best you can then drive forward a foot and make sure the last bit is hooked on, then you are good to go. It is great that people are still coming up with solutions for the problem of driving in ice and snow, and I'm sure for people who drive on alloys all winter and like to carry minimal equipment in the car they will have their place, the kind of people who don't have a tow rope or jump leads or even a full size spare. A packet of socks takes up about the same space as my jump leads (when dry, they expand a bit when full of cold water and with bits of snow and ice still sticking to them after use) in fact my chain bag isn't much bigger.

It looks like T10096 is a special tool to lock the arm at the correct ride height corresponding to the unladen weight of the car without actually putting the weight of the car on it (makes access awkward to do with the wheel on, and can be risky to jack up the hub carrier whilst on axle stands). If the dealer used it there should be no problem.

I think all diesel in the UK is supposed to have some biodiesel in these days, looks as though under 7% there is no legal requirement to tell you. Sometimes you will see pumps with B-5 or B-10 on them, pretty sure that is the % of biodiesel. Probably supermarket diesel has higher % than main brands. Main brands also blend other additives differently to make their fuels superior to supermarket fuels, and differently between the regular and premium in the same brand. I stopped using supermarket diesel years ago, I noticed a difference almost immediately. Pretty sure even the low biodiesel content is why rubber leak off hoses don't seem to last long these days, although finding decent quality hose is another issue! Probably just low battery in your case - diesel engine wouldn't need a battery once started but then you would have no shut off control (you could choke it, but not very practical for everyday use), so you have a fuel solenoid which needs to be powered to let fuel through and means that turning the ignition off will stop the engine...

Hey there you go, I just asked someone in another thread if he remembered to put the weight on the suspension when he torqued it all up. Seems a likely candidate. See if you can get the dealer to put it on the ramp, slacken all the bolts on the arms/bushes etc. that have been changed (not right out, just enough to let the bushes rotate on them), maybe lower it back to the ground and bounce it up and down a few times, then back up and torque them all up again with the weight of the car on the suspension. Of course being a dealer they might decide they need to replace all the bolts because some do stretch when torqued, so make sure they do this all under the warranty for the original repair if possible!

Maybe a bit extreme, but my solution was to scrap the hateful thing. Admittedly that was after a lot of messing around with injector blow by and oil seals and loss of confidence that it wasn't going to give me CO poisoning... So glad I replaced it with an Octavia!

Have you checked/changed the rear springs? If it has been towing a lot they might be quite soft by now, OR if your mother had them upgraded for towing they might be too stiff for standard shocks? Also how certain are you that it is the rear squirming? I changed my rear shocks a couple of months ago (one was doing nothing!) but not the springs, although I did do the drop links because I had an MOT advisory on them that I wanted to get out of the way at the same time. Afterwards for a while I felt maybe the front end was feeling a bit bouncy now that the rear was behaving, I haven't changed anything there yet, I just got used to the different feel! I could be wrong of course, maybe it is still my rear end feeling a bit bouncy because I didn't bother with the springs? I did once replace the rear subframe bushes on my vectra as part of a full rear end overhaul (was cheaper to buy a full bush kit and I was dropping the subframe anyway), I never noticed a difference in handling but it was more a case of 'whilst I am there' than because they actually needed doing. That was probably at 230000 miles (350000km) so I don't think they normally wear out, but if it has been towing a lot who knows? Just a thought, most suspension components when using original rubber bushes are supposed to be torqued up with the normal weight of the car on the suspension. If you don't do this; because the bushes don't rotate once torqued up you can end up setting them in the wrong position so they get over stressed in normal use. It doesn't matter if you use polyurethane bushes because they will rotate and not get twisted up, but they also completely change the feel of the rear end. Make sure you find a safe way to get the weight of the car onto the suspension to torque the bolts, it is not always easy at home without access to a ramp or pit.