J.R.

Those newish looking Hankook Ventus Prime 3 tyres that were on my Yeti when you inspected it for me in the salvage yard 3 or more years ago are still on it having racked up another 45000 miles, they have just got down to the 3mm tread wear indicators evenly on all 4 tyres with judicious swapping and tweaking of the pressures (I measure and record the tread depth and gradient each rotation and adjust pressure to correct any uneven wear). I reckon they will give another 15000 miles as they are now giving their best grip and least wear, they will be replaced when the first goes under 1.6mm. I have never had tyres last so long but it's mainly due to how I drive these days and the superb road and traffic (lack of!) conditions, when I first started driving tyre life was measured in weeks but I traded up so frequently that I rarely had to fit new ones. I am beginning to wonder of the transmission noise I have now is actually tyre noise, it has not got any worse since my stupidity with draining the diff and not the Haldex and I no longer have the rear seats or parcel shelf in place, the whine/drone sounds like a Land Rover running on Firestone SAT's but considerably quieter

It's suggesting coupling up jump leads to another vehicle, starting yours then removing the battery whilst the leads are still connected and then fitting the new one, too much risk of an accidental disconnection and possible voltage spike for me. I've removed batteries from running engines on alternator equipped cars in the past many times without problem but would not risk it on a modern ECU and Canbus equipped car, using jump leads just isn't secure enough especially when having to wriggle out one battery and squeeze in another if it has the plastic battery casing that mine had. The factory fitted 027 does not have a lot of reserve capacity and wont fair well towards the end of its life, I always step up to the 096 (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) which fits snugly on the standard battery tray and within the plastic casing, a decent increase in capacity for little or no money more.

If I were at that event I would be all over your car! You did absolutely the right thing leaving the wheels as they were, it makes people stop and think "hang on, maybe this is not a restoration and respray, heck look at the paint, its bloomin original!!!!"

Aftermarket manufacturers will use their own and not the manufacturers part number, your believed to be OEM number does not sound like a VAG one either.

Do you mean that the time you wait before turning the key has reduced or that the engine catches quicker when cranking? For the former, were it a diesel I would say the glowplugs need less preheat time or none at all but for a TSi it will be something else but probably temperature related. Do you need to wait on a petrol engine, I thought you just git in and cranked, it was only diesels that you had to wait for the glowplug light to go out and I only do that in very cold weather say 2 months of the year. For the latter then did it really take more than one second of cranking beforehand? I havn't driven a car for over 20 years that did not start in a quarter of a turn was we say in France (more like one revolution or two)

Ooops! Once again me and my Fabia incorrect assumptions 😒 Sorry to the OP.

To remove the heads after some of the studs had sheared off flush while trying to replace the head gaskets, 100% common problem back in the day before the modified moly coated bolts. Only other solution back then was send engine away and have the heads machined off the studs scrapping them, I had managed to move them a tickle using gearbox oil down the bores and cranking but only enough for it to shoot out the head/block joint, I needed something solid to lift the heads just enough for me to get in with a cut off hacksaw blade. I think that I must have removed the cams and buckets so that all valves were closed, I would do that today but this was 44 years ago, I chose Polyfilla because it would harden, or so I thought, it had different ideas and I was too short of time needing the car for work. It lifted the heads enough for me to cut through the studs but shot out everywhere like a cartoon in a cake factory and also filled every internal gallery it could find its way into. 25 years later my pal who had always lusted after a Stag after me having one at such a young age bought one and had the same problem, by then a company in Cranleigh had made a hydraulic jig to jack the heads up but they did not cut the studs through, they left that to him, someone that should not be let loose with a hacksaw near aluminium cylinder heads!

You could also try removing the brake light bulbs & see if you get a bulb warning error, the system probably pulses thel as well on start up to check them. The trailer module error code might be significant, does not the all singing and dancing system suppress the rear brake lights when trailer is connected or is it only the rear fog light?

I've not driven any of the modern vehicles but my Yeti feels so different to the pretty much identical Octavia 2 it replaced but different in a way that I really did not expect, firmer and sportier, I would say its down to differences in the anti-roll bars and suspension angles but according to my logic the former would be the same 🤣

I do find that the Yeti handles very well indeed for such a tall vehicle, it feels more planted than its sister vehicle the MK2 Octavia which I had before it, many things about it feel and are so so similar but the ride and handling are very different yet use many identical components. I did not have a 4x4 Octavia but would the rear crossmember with diff, driveshafts, suspension etc slot straight into a Yeti? Does the rear suspension differ? The suspension looks like it has more travel but I think thats an illusion from the open wheel arches, the front struts I replaced seemed identical to the ones I removed on the Octavia to fit uprated Kilen springs, the identical part number to those I fitted to the Yeti.

There are several variants of springs with minor (in the scheme of things) differences in load rating and free length but the same ones identified by paint dot codes are used in models of the Touran, Yeti, Golf and Superb, you missed out the most critical component of any spring mass system, the mass! The positioning of the suspension pick up points creates very different geometry in different vehicles, the size of anti-roll bars fitted and the chassis pick up points also makes a big difference. Do you have anything to back up your assertion that Skoda specified dampers uniquely for the Yeti?

I'm chuckling at the thought of the consequences of some inexperienced DIY'er taking that literally! I speak as someone who patiently filled up the compression volume of 4 cylinders on his Triumph Stag with Polyfilla extruded in using a bakers piping bag. It achieved my aims in spectacular fashion but with a couple of unconsidered consequences, can you guess why I did it? Thread drift aside if the volume of oil being lost is as the OP says then the whole central area of the camcover would be overflowing with oil not just one spark plug well, sadly I think Sepulchrave is correct again.

My Scalextric collection had zero electronics, a Hornby model train transformer, hand controls that would go up in smoke if anything shorted the rails, cars with not even a noise suppression capacitor across the carbon brushes, solder braid pick up contacts, the lap counters were mechanical......................................... What has changed, do they now have particulate filters and urine injection systems?

You are probably correct but using your "old fashioned" analogy with another name, traditional diesels were massively simpler than traditional petrol engines and as time went on the gap became even wider until the 2000's when diesels caught up, they are probably equal now, both far too complicated and potentially unreliable for me to consider anything newer and if my current EU5 engine becomes temperamental then I am going to go real old school and buy a diesel Toyota BJ40 jeep. Modern ignition systems in practical and maintenance terms are light years simpler than a Kettering ignition system although now they have moved to individual cylinder coil packs the pendulum has swung back. My first ever engine was simplicity itself, crankshaft, connecting rod, piston and glowplug, a single cylinder 2 stroke diesel.

Because in the example of the spring rates they have taken the economies of scale of a common platform too far, I think the same is true of the dampers, I was rather hoping that you would have proved me wrong given that you stated confidently that Skoda specced the shock absorbers for the Yeti. I think with a common platform the individual manufacturers get to choose their body design, trim, what options the vehicle will have but beyond that what else is really unique to models at opposite ends of the spectrum like the Audi TT, the Yeti and the Touran in regards to engine, drivetrain, structure and suspension?

Didnt VAG just chuck on the same ones as they fit to the Golf right through to the Touran as they did with the springs and most other suspension parts? Common platform designs are great but putting the same springs on a Golf, Octavia, Yeti and a 7 seater Touran is just plain crazy to my way of thinking. Do you really think the Yeti got specially valved front dampers? I'm sure the ones I bought had several pages of different vehicle fitments.

No adjustment and conversely a hydraulic clutch is self adjusting so wear of the clutch plate does not result in a high pedal and lack of free play as it would have 30+ years ago on a simple cable clutch before they too gained self adjusting mechanisms in the late 80's.

Disc backplate self composted.

Total labour costs to date still at zero after 47 years 👍 The clue is in the wording "I took a punt and fitted some struts..........." "One of the top bearings I fitted..........." I don't gamble on the lottery or any other form of gambling and never have, the lottery of life gives me enough of a buzz!

I took a punt and fitted some struts that were so cheap that it seemed to good to be true, they came from an Irish seller on Ebay, £30 something the pair, so far they have proved to be excellent. One of the top bearings I fitted after a few months started snatching making a knocking noise while turning like its predecessor which had lost its balls! I fitted another cheapy and its been fine and on the bench I could find nothing wrong with the one I removed. Its a lottery with these parts.

You see that little lug on the top mount? Bear that in mind before refitting the strut and struggling to get the bolts in!

It does appear that there have been no reports of fires yet, in stark contrast to fuel leaks in previous decades with Kettering ignition systems with fat juicy sparks from the contact breaker points and rotor arm. The best had to be the Essex V6 engine with the fuel pipe stub that ejected from the carburettor through heat expansion and then sprayed petrol over the distributor right beside it!

You might find just replacing the anti-roll bar drop links takes away all of the crashing but not the bouncing, you should definitely replace them at the same time.

YES YES Maybe YES/NO YES

Thats what I used to do on race engines for scavenging but it worked in the direct opposite fashion of what you describe, the overlap period allowed the inertia of the outgoing cooling exhaust gases to create a pressure drop in the cylinder expelling the exhaust gases drawing in fresh mixture improving the volumetric efficiency. Are you sure that you dont mean the inlet valve opens later and/or exhaust valve closes earlier with no valve overlap and scavenging to retain residual combustion gases? I cant see how exhaust gases can be blown anywhere but out of the cylinder, when you say blown into the inlet do you mean the inlet manifold?