J.R.

Why do you think the screen should communicate with the car? What is not functioning? "Communicate with" infers a 2 way dialogue, sending and recieving information, my experience of 2 non Android head units is that they take information like vehicle speed, door open signals, reverse gear selection, heater control settings etc etc and use them for the display but the unit does not send information to the vehicle. I have never had to make coding changes for the unit other than deleting the old unit from the Can Gateway installation list to avoid the fault codes showing the vehicle cannot find the old unit.

I had to help a neighbour out whose car broke down with what sounded like a flat battery plus the spare car doing the same thing, my lord I'm beginning to sound like Battery Man 😂 Both French PSA group vehicles, both had inaccessible battery negative terminals and battery covers that can not be removed because of having fuseboxes integrated and wiring looms with no give, I have no idea how you could ever get the battery out, neither of them had a connection point for the negative jump lead other than flimsy bits of tin that were not even grounded. Anyway the first started after a charge and I drove to where the the first one was abandones returning from town and got it started with jump leads attached to the exposed +ve terminal and the top engine mounting bolt, I then returned to pick her up and drive her to recover the vehicle. It wouldn't start again so out with the jump leads again and of course it started raining, got it started and she complained that the power steering was heavy, normal I guess with a flat battery and perhaps the alternator was gone, then the electric handbrake refused to release so having got the car running there was no way it could be driven. I was already determined not to ever own a newer car than the current one, this made me even more so, ditto for never owning a French car 😂

Sounds like you got the audio accompaniment you were seeking.

I'm afraid you will have to cut out all the superfluous stuff for me to be able to follow it. You didnt say how much you put down initially or if you PX'd a vehicle worth ?, you say you add another £500 to £700 at each change of vehicle, I understand that, that your monthly payment has gone from £150 to £300, I understand that, then you say that the baloon payment that I thought was for you to pay is the depreciation on all the vehicles, that I cannot get my head around. If you said that you have put in X as down payments (and initial PX) over the 11 years (the initial plus all the others) that you have made Y in monthly repayments over the same time, if you walked away now without a vehicle would you have to pay a baloon payment? If so then call it Z. Then in my simple it has cost you X+Y+Z for 11 years of motoring plus servicing costs, that is the figure I was hoping to know, I dont see that depreciation comes into it if you walk away with nothing. I wont be doing it because I live in France and if such a system exists it will be very disadvantageous plus I have no intention of driving a later vehicle than the one I have.

Its a shame a compresion test was not done before removal, that would have removed any speculation. The advice re "the valves removing and lapping in." is good and certainly prudent in the absence of compression test readings, in the past before deteregent fuels it would have to be done even if there was no leakage to remove clag which excessive EGR aside is not an issue these days, my MK1 Octavia did 325000 miles without the head ever coming off, no decarbonising and/or valve lapping and it was still running like a sewing machine, no oil consumption, perfect compressions better than when new and no loss of fuel economy, had I needed to replace the head gasket on that the valves would have been left well alone if I could not see carbon build up through the port. The OP needs to explain what "damage" he believes to have found.

What damage? Number 3 bore? 3 paragraphs describing the symptoms but not a word regarding what you found aside from "damage"

No 0v connection to the motor when tested on the vehicle, maybe the Climatronic switches that to turn the fan on and off separate to the shunting of the resistor.

Well I can tell you that the fault will not be the glowplugs from what you describe, probably wont stop the garage from replacing them on your dime though. First thing to do is to have the fault codes read by VCDS or equivalent, not a cheap generic OBDII reader although that may well reveal the engine fault codes.

Wow! The level of knowledge of some contributors never ceases to amaze me.

Looking at the photos the glue spots remain visible, perhaps the glue or the solvent used to remove them has etched the plastic, I think that is what is causing the diffraction and think you should have the lenses polished without jumping any of the steps through the various grades of production paper and compounds.

It would be cheaper to invest in a compression tester than pay a specialist, you could always sell it on afterwards if you see no further use.

If you are giving it away can I have first refusal please? You can keep the £20K, I will take it away for free.

I thought that it was a reasoned and detailed response which gave a lot of information, I had read all the previous comments about loss of life, that profit is valued higher than life etc and thought aside from the understandable frustrations of owners whose vehicles had broken down nobody had reported any fires, it would seem that there have not been any and unlikely to be.

Now you have circled it it is reasonably clear that the sensor is withdrawn to the side of the engine block, the 2 bolts within the circle are for the crankshaft rear seal carrier. You can see the hole in the engine block casting to withdraw it. The only 2 places the sensor can be is radially around either the front or rear of the crankshaft, the rear is unhindered by cam belts, timing chains, water pumps etc and the risk of coolant or oil contamination as the oil seal is not exposed to road dust and spray. It is where the sensor is found on most vehicles, I think torsional vibration of the crankshaft and the influence of the front pulley mounted harmonic damper is also a deciding factor.

They will only care if you stop making the payments or there is visible damage which will affect the resale value at the end of the lease anything else is a waste of their time, their resources are directed towards closing the next deal.

Before you think about repairs to a gasket which you do not know has blown have a compression test done, if that does not reveal anything then a coolant sniff test for combustion gases, before either of these have someone experienced look at the sludge.

Not stupid, its the only place it could go, the problem is all the clutter obstructing access to it, it looks from the photo that it is removed in a radial direction and that the fixings are external and not within the bellhousing or is it the entire dark grey casing that looks like the rear main bearing seal carrier?

It probably wont be replaced, you will go to all the trouble of getting the quote and then Skoda will say "we don't know who told you that but they were wrong" You are wise regarding the more a dealer has their hands on a vehicle the more is likely to go wrong with it.

Thread title and first posting both clearly state coolant temperature. I agree with your comments about oil temperature.

A not abnormal reading if someone does not appreciate the load that is still being put on the battery when they think they have switched everything off to measure the voltage.

The potential of the panel rusting if you dont apply touch up paint promptly.

The axial loading from the clutch release bearing compressing the clutch diaphragm will stop the outer mass from flapping around.

MAF doubling means the EGR is closed during that condition although running on 50% EGR gases does sound high to me, others may know if its correct. I am surmising that there is an air leak in the intake trunking upstream of where the EGR gases enter, perhaps the joint between the intake pipe and air filter housing.

Thats very interesting, if you don't mind me asking what has it been costing you per month in recent years and are you having to add an additional down payment on each vehicle? If so approx how much. I hadn't realised that people could change at a short interval, I thought they were fixed duration contracts.

Translates as "we buy our stuff from whoever is the cheapest and tell them what markings to put on, how they do it is up to them."