J.R.

Is there not a Fan Controller module Pete? The mention of a "command wire" makes me think that at the very least there will be a relay of some sorts.

More than prepared, it's their business model, all the publicised BS regarding Approved used vehicle and peace of mind etc that is swallowed by the customers only exists on paper.

Their purpose is to run interference for Skoda UK, to wind people up and grind them down until they give up. Yours is a perfect example: The taking of all the details and copies of correspondence is so they can use them if appropriate to defend themselves against any possible action from the consumer, it's not a new thing, Ford did it to me in 1998 and the above is quoting their reluctant admission verbatim.

That will happen to a disconcerting degree on these engines without any head gasket problems so the OP should be wary of drawing a false conclusion. On other engines that are not so windy there has to be a major head gasket failure before you would witness the air puffing that you speak of, so major that the engine would be dumping all of its coolant as soon as it was started up and be undriveable. The best way of testing for head gasket failure is one of the chemical sniff testers.

Normal, the open pipe is to measure atmospheric pressure.

Did you have flat battery problems causing you to buy the new one or is it simply that the measurements you have taken after fitting the battery do not seem correct? If it is the latter then perhaps you are doing something wrong with your measuring. An alternator not charging will not create any fault codes, on a later vehicle with a battery control module it might, if the voltage gets too low you will get fault codes where modules cannot communicate or the higher current ones like electric power steering crash, none of these are likely to show up on a basic OBDII reader.

There is no VED here, you pay a one off tax for the Carte Grise (registration document) on a new or second hand imported vehicle (the tax is imposed at first registration in France) which is amortized over how long you keep the vehicle, if you buy a new polluting vehicle it can be as much as €30K but the muppets that do so wear it as a badge of pride and never tire of telling people how much they had to pay, how few miles per litre of fuel it does etc. The other end of the scale you pay very little and it halves when the vehicle is 4 years old, I paid IIRC €115 for the Octavia2 and maybe double that for the newer and higher rated in France Yeti. CT test is every 5 years after 30 years of age, no CT required for pre 1960 vehicles.

It sounds more like a piston seized than the pads grabbing on the slides, whilst I would try to free it off on my own vehicle I would never do so with a customers car for the reasons eloquently described by Aperture S. And its not just a roadside thing either, most garages would not take the risk of freeing off a stuck (usually corroded) piston when they can have an easier life, make more money and not expose themselves to charges of culpable negligence were the worst to happen by fitting a new or reconditioned caliper. I once spun across the road between 2 oncoming vehicles in my Westfield due to a partially seized caliper that I was aware of and was not causing me any problems, the force reactions were very different that day in a full on emergency stop than they were on controlled braking even during my then normal spirited driving.

I enjoyed the videos, cars have got too complicated, when this one dies of natural causes or through complications that I or no-one else can diagnose I am going to go backwards several decades and buy a Toyota BJ40 diesel jeep. Just look how a tiny bit of data corruption on a Can line cost that guy over €3K in parts and lord only knows how much labour and he still has a few €K more to spend now he has the diagnosis! I have a Chinese head unit talking to the Can network, that will be deep sixed at the first sign of any trouble.

Cant help with the dye but WD40 or similar is my go-to weapon of choice for removing tar & bitumen, try to get it to be absorbed into a cloth wetted with the WD rather than frotting it (wiping?) around as on a textile it will spread like on blotting paper.

Agreed. Automass. To disable modules you need to first be sure that what you are doing is not going to have unintended consequences, then if you want to go ahead you delete the module from the "Installation list" or it could be "Installed modules" list, I believe that it is found within the programming of the Canbus Gateway. You might then get fault codes where these now alien modules are trying to contact the mother ship, if this happens (like it did with my Bluetoooth module) then you need to disconnect them.

How many these days are within their sphere of competence with modern vehicle electronics? That is not running them down as even a poor Motor Mechanic of today has probably had more education and training than his counterpart of previous generations most of whom would not really have understood the Kettering ignition system but the level of complexity of the vehicle electronics and emissions systems is way out of whack with the educational entry requirements for the trade.

Sounds like the series resistor block has melted, I believe it is a common failure although I thought it was not in the circuit on the highest fan speed.

Sounds like it is constantly trying to regen and as a consequence has diluted the engine oil with diesel, as it is a new purchase you should get it to someone with VCDS or similar ASAP to verify the soot and oil ash loading of the DPF, that may reveal why the vehicle was PX'd. Act while you still have the right to reject the vehicle.

Dont be so b****y condescending, 30 years ago I was designing and manufacturing vehicle electronics and then moved on to access control systems, even my little knowledge in dangerous hands does not need a lecture on ohms law which I learned as a 16 year old apprentice. The "short circuit" that you describe would blow the fuse except in the overactive imagination scenario where someone has removed the OE wiring and powered the accessory circuit directly from the battery. A wire glowing is overloaded conductors carrying too high a current not a short circuit, the groundsheet of my tent has a gaffer tape repair where I used a 12V tyre compressor to inflate an airbed instead of a blower with a similar result, heat not fire. Retired Electrical Engineer, - I thought you said you were a bus mechanic? I note that according to your graphs for fuses 10 times the rating of the one in question that "a long time" or even "infinity" is anything over 1 second. You can have the last word if you wish but please keep it non condescending and hopefully of help to the OP, I repeat my advice to him to his request to "sort this problem immediately" is to disconnect the shunt resistor in the battery negative (or is it the positive?) lead to revert to a standard charging profile without any of the other nonsense.

I'm sorry, I think I will need an interpreter, I was answering the question you asked: I have given you my suggestion to fix it once and for all, you are free to carry on breaking down if you dont like it for whatever reason.

He probably did on the qiuet after all the parts the OP had to stump up for made no difference.

That is hyperbole, the accessory socket is fused and as long as the dashcam does not use knats hair wire for the conductors there will be no risk, the fuses job is to protect the wiring not the appliance.

Unplug the shunt resistor and revert to a standard alternator charging profile which will also disable start/stop and all the regenerative charging Bravo Sugar.

Face away from the vehicle, its shy! 😄

With as much freedom to do as they choose as a MacDonalds franchisee!

I cant think of any engine/gearbox/ancillary fasteners that are not Torx drive! The air filter screws are a double helix self tapping type thread so you can disregard that. The fastener looks suspiciously like the one that I have to remove that secures a bracket holding a wiring connector that has to be removed to allow me to extract the oil filter element and casing, a garage may easily have dropped that if you have the same engine set up, my fastener is zinc passivated finish though and that looks like a black Japanned finish and also quite an exposed fastener. Chuck it in the spares box!

Spot the contradiction: "Battery capacity 400 Amp Hours" "It's easily rechargeable from any powered USB port in 3-hours at 2.1-amps" 🙄 I have some Bosch compatible 18 volt batteries, some from Ali-Express some from Amazon, all Chinese, the Ali-Express ones claim to be 18 ampere hour, an impossibility, and the Amazon ones to be 5 ampere hour, I also have some genuine Bosch 5 ampere hour ones, all of them I have stripped out to check. All have two sets of five 18650 cells in parallel so the rated capacity of the pack at 18 volts is twice the rated capacity of the cells, the genuine Bosch uses 2500mah cells so is a genuine 5 ampere hour battery pack, the other two use 1500mah cells so are 3 ampere hour packs on a good day, for the price I paid and their run time on high power tools they are acceptable but the claimed capacity of them are fantasy and that goes for the jump start packs as well. 400 amp hours mon cul!!!!!

Of course it is, the its common practice across the whole VAG group, its quite likely that they all use the same accounting system and have the same standard coded items that are added to inflate the bill like washer fluid, brake cleaner, environmental disposal of old parts, covid dsinfection, brakes/clutch 75% worn etc etc, its someones job to dream up these things. Any written complaint will just be added to the hundreds of others and maybe judged in a competition at Christmas! The only thing that surprises me is that there are still people who have not heard of it and fall for it. My chauffeur pal who sold me my first Octavia used to have the main dealer services up to a certain point, I think back then it was to keep the 3 year warranty, it probably wasn't true but he had swallowed it, he did any other work himself, he had changed the front brake pads the night before putting it in for service and had driven 1/2 mile on them to drop it off, do I need to explain further? I'm sure you can guess!