J.R.

Its quite good economy for a tankfull used at an average speed of 14mph!

It's as I thought, you will never get an apology for anything in France and you will never get anyone to back up their assertions to you with facts or in writing, they will always become defensive because 99% of the time they dont have the facts, they have been told something which they 100% believe and will tell others who 100% believe them, its how the education system works, you must never ask why, it undermines the authority of the person be they a teacher, insurance agent or whatever. It's us pesky Anglais who cause them so much grief by wanting to understand the "why", the reasoning behind something, a French person will never say "I dont know, I will find out for you" that is losing face, when pushed they will make something up. The worst examples are the Gendarmes, best just do as they ask without asking why and check the law yourself, this is what you will have to do if you want to find whether a future claim could be refused. Even insurers dont know what is written in the policy T&C's, I regularly have to correct their assertions, I bet you my house against 10cts that you do not have a copy of the policy conditions as you should have, they treat it like some state secret and never ever want customers to have it, force the issue and you will find the 100% definitive answer to your question within and it will be different to what all the people who bloomin well should know will tell you.

They will call it misting and a normal chracteristic (it isn't) until they fail an MOT and usually by then the warranty has passed, were you to offer it as a trade in the misting shocks would suddenly become dangerous and the cost of replacement deducted from the part X offer.

Dont wonder, they are complete crap, even buying the cheapest Chinese made (probably) ones on Ebay for something silly like £30 the pair I found they are massively better than the OE ones.

It could also be the compressor modulating valve sticking, ignore the compressor current and compressor load, they are simply calculated values assuming the modulating valve is doing as its told, look instead at the refrigerant pressure when the cooling stops.

The first thing to look at is the compressor shut down code, it says the last one was outside temperature too low, unless it was below 2°C when the aircon last started going warm (which at 2°C it could not have done anyway) then you have found your problem. Has the car had a parking knock at the front? Has the front bumper been removed? I'm betting that the sensor is not clipped into its proper mounting position, other wise check the connector then replace the sensor if the foregoing did not resolve the problem. You could also check the readings using VCDS, it may be correct at standstill but getting chilled by the airflow when in motion.

I like the genuine stuff from a tin on old school rusty suspension nuts & bolts, whenever you watch an Autodoc video they spray the aerosol stuff on everything, I reckon its just to show that they have actually removed & refitted the fastener. Anyway my resolve eventually broke and I bought some of the aerosol stuff, I dont think there is anything but a microscopic trace of copper in it so no worries about galvanic corrosion, its just coloured grease not that you can really call anything that comes out of an aerosol grease, white grease is just as useless. I've used it on my wheelnuts on the Skodas and all the trailers etc for the last few years, if I remove the wheelnuts after 6 months they are as stiff and resistant as if I had put them back on dry and there is no trace of grease or lubricant on the threads. I think the stuff is a chocolate teapot, a mechanic would be better spraying on marker paint, even silly string would be as good as the copper grease sprays. I cant think of anywhere where they would be of benefit and do a better job that oil or grease applied in the traditional manner.

It could also be that the mécano sprayed some copper anti-sieze compound on the bub spigot to protect it from the galvanic corrosion and now it is migrating outwards by centrifugal force. On reflection that is the most likely cause.

Rusted driveshaft retaining bolt, corrosion between alloy wheel and the steel locating spigot of the hub. Most likely the former, they can rust impressively.

Sometime we push the right, well wrong really! buttons of someone who is observing who we were not even discussing with. I guess we all have our triggers! That made me laugh 😆

Yes my experience of multiplate oil bath clutches are that they can dissipate a tremendous amount of heat and cope with loads of abuse. My Blackbird engined Caterhams had the standard Honda motorcycle clutch and were fine in the much heavier vehicle, until you put fully synthetic engine oil in then they slip like bu33ery, the friction modifiers played havoc, I stuck with Castrol Superbike oil.

Never driven a Mechatronic but would the clutch pack be subject to much more wear from urban taxi use? Does it wear when stopped at lights, hill-hold etc? I guess what I am asking is is 35K miles of taxi use the equivalent of 140K of motorway use in terms of Mechatronic clutch wear? Just throwing it out there, I have no knowledge but you have the 2 best people on the case, Aperture S and The Client.

Easy to get a CoC from VAG Europe and free of charge, just tell them that you intend reregistering it in another country, dont be specific because within the EU you would not need to. Otherwise go to the Drire with your Carte Grise or the Type Mines numéro and ask for a copy of the barré rouge, there might be a slight admin charge for it, Barré Rouge actually means the EU CoC for your vehicle which has a red band across it preventing someone else using it to support a registration application for another vehicle that they cant get one for, maybe a Yeti variant not homolgated in Europe like the Chinese built ones or a modified fire service or military version. That will tell you if your wheel and tyre combination was homologated for your vehicle but Skoda France have already told you in very specific terms that it wasn't. If you want the CoC to back up a claim for losses you really are pi55ing in the wind, you have not suffered any, Roots post above is bang on. The incorrect tyres have long gone, you got the full service life out of them, had you just bought a set of new ones in the same size I could understand your frustration at having to replace them but its 6 years since the selling dealer fitted the wrong tyres (if the CoC says they are) and when you renewed them it was both yours and the tyre depots responsability to ensure that they were correct ones homologated for the vehicle not the dealer who sold you the car 6 years ago. You have suffered no losses, I hope you get a COC and find by a remote chance that VAG France were talking rubbish, that the tyres you wish to drive on are in fact homologated for your vehicle, I fully understand the difference in ride, I feel it myself on some of the winter wheels. It would be a shame to have to change the vehicle to get the ride quality the chassis deserves but Greenline models were compromised in many ways to achieve the lower CO2 rating and also to fit into the lower Puissance Fiscale (old school horsepower rating) in France, my vehicle has a 6 speed box but those supplied to France had a 5 speed box, it was registered in France by me (RHD UK import) as something it never was the French version. I take a different view to the god fearing French and know that the use of the word "illegal" is BS, its simply a non conformity, they would all have you believe that your insurance will be invalid, that they wont pay out on a claim, its all BS swallowed by 99% of the French because the education system programs them to never question what they have been told. Sure if you fitted solid rubber tyres on wooden spoked wheels from a veteran car and you lost control on a bend and hit another vehicle the non conforming modification will have caused the accident and they could say it was direct and known negligence but another tyre size homologated for another Yeti with the right speed and load ratings, no way will that ever be a problem except at CT time. I will need to replace my tyres soon and will try to find one with the highest most compliant sidewall, as long as the speed and load rating are OK I dont give a Four X whether they are homologated and will simply put the compliant winter wheels on for CT. My sincere advice to you is find a solution for tyres which will give a good ride without having to sell the car and forget suing the selling dealer, you are setting yourself up for no end of angst for zero return. When VAG homologate a range of tyres for a vehicle variant it is so they can offer option packages for each country, the UK seems to love skinny rubber bands on massive wheels despite the crap roads, other countries may require compliant tyres and more ground clearance, they homologate all the ones that might be fitted in the factory and also in case the factory of one supplier of wheels for instance burns to the ground, they can (and sometimes do) switch to an alternative. In the case of the Greenline models very few tyres met the low rolling resistance criteria for the CO2 rating, ther may even be only one size homologated, when you buy a vehicle like that you accept that in the future you will have less choice of tyres etc, when things like run flat or Denovo tyres cease production then people just fit whatever else is available, they probably did so from the first replacement, this is not so easy in France with its rigid beaurocracy.

Normal.

Sorry to be blunt and unsympathetic but you have suffered no losses if the tyres are long since worn out. What might have happened within the last 6 years did not happen so you suffered no loss. You may feel angry and frustrated by what might have happened but it didn't and you have suffered no loss. You are viewing your percieved loss and prejudice from a UK standpoint, even then I doubt you would have any demonstratable losses to claim, you certainly do not have in France. You said earlier something like the car came with new tyres because you needed new winter tyres, did they do this FOC to seal the deal or charge you extra? Did you perhaps specify your preferred tyre size? Whether or not you did or would admit so in their shoes I sure as hell would say that you insisted that 215/60 tyres be fitted before you would buy the vehicle The best you can hope for is a goodwill payment, une geste commerciale, there will be no chance of that after you have threatened them with legal action.

I have just reread all Phils previous posts, please tell me if I have misunderstood in my summary below. You bought a vehicle 6 years ago from a Skoda dealer and asked them to fit new tyres for you, possibly winter tyres. They fitted a size non homologated for your vehicle, you were unaware. You have since driven 100000 kms on these tyres and/or their replacements and/or summer tyres. You now want them to exchange your vehicle for a 2 litre version as compensation for the wrog tyres that you have used all the life of. You intend to use your legal protection insurance extension to either sue the garage or achieve the above as compensation. If the above is correct then you are deluding yourself, you have suffered no loss and are likely to see legal "experts" on both sides filling their boots before finally agreeing that you have suffered no loss, your car will likely be held (sealed) as evidence during all this time while they game the system.

Phil I have lived here long enough ans speak very good French to have confronted this "totally illegal" BS numerous times, no point me explaining further but to say that your car was almost certainly sold legally and your tyre and rim size also legal, the sticker on the fuel cap is not the definitive document and being universal will almost certainly list sizes that were not homologated for your vehicle and which should actually fail a CT, ignore all the "illegal" hyperbole or simply do as I do and ask them to direct me to the Text de Loi Article number of the mythical law whichwhich never exists, they always respond defensively with "on m'a dit!" = Bloke said! 😆 If your car was purchased second hand it could have a non homologated tyre size fitted, if bought new then zero chance. As was spoken of earlier, find the EU certificate of conformity for your vehicle, it will be listed in the carte grise maybe as "Type Mines" it will list all the hologated wheel and tyre sizes, you are free to use any combination. I have loads listed for my vehicle, the CT centre may not have all listed, a compromise if your wheel tyre combo is wrong and you want to continue with them is to buy a cheap set of winter wheels & tyres & use those for the CT test, I even have a set you can have for free, buying a new vehicle and suing the manufacturer would be over-reacting to a situation that probably does not even exist except in the imagination of the CT testers and tyre fitters. Go get that CoC and you will see you have been wound up by uninformed CT testers & mechanics, the French love to exaggerate and warn you of the millions of euros in fines and decades of imprisonment for towing a trailer with the wrong number plate, the next week I have seen the same person doing exactly that, when I mention it I get a shoulder shrug and a "Bof! que voulez-vous que je fasse!" = so what, what else could i do!

For anyone who does the testing and finds that their speedo over-reads by 10% then be aware that if you have an indicated 130 km/h and mentally deduct 10% (as easy as it is) to get the figure of 117 kp/h it will not be the true figure which would be 118.2 km/h so you are giving yourself a little extra bit of leeway which might just save you a fine. For those who are not mathematicians or who do not have 5% or 10% accuracy then we just have to guess. When I found a setting in my maxidot for winter tyres I naively thought it was for resetting the speedo accuracy, it isn't and I cant work out what its purpose is, it seems to be pointless, does anyone know?

Freud has exposed your true colours Lol-Lol 😄

Indeed we do live in very different climates. I try not to use the car for short journeys but it still happens a lot more than it should, today was less than half a mile to the Pharmacie for meds because of the bank holiday weekend, I physically could not have walked yet I ran 5.5k the porning before when the problems started. In my old village and in the new if I drove slowly sticking to the 50kph limit and paying lip service to the 30kph one I would be at an average of over 50 MPG within the first mile, every time no matter the weather unless I was held up by traffic, but I would never have a cold start like you do. I should add that I rarely encounter traffic so can roll across every junction where I have visibilty and never have to wait with the engine idling, different story if I take to the main road where I live now, within 300 yards I am at a stop junction trying to cross 2 lanes of a very busy main road. If I continued at a leisurely pace to my mates village 2.5 miles further on (no point rushing for such a short distance) it could reach something silly like 65mpg but if I took to the main road at 80km/h or more the 50mp would drop before eventually climbing back and exceeding it. Very interesting to hear that modern petrol engine warm up so quickly and give almost equal economy on short runs, a lot of work has been done over the years to achieve that, it could never have happened with carburettors, mechanical water pumps and wax thermostats with the heater bypass circuit.

Yes you dont want to use your diesel powered ship for the school run!!! 😆 When the penny finally drops that it will be impossible to stop all ICE production they will force scrubbers and bunker fuel on us!

Completely untrue in regards to a comparison with a petrol engine for economy on short journeys. A petrol engine runs an enriched mixture for many miles after start up and only reverts to the stochiometric ration when it is nearing normal operating temperature with the thermostat opening. The starting enrichment of a diesel engine is removed within a few seconds of firing up a cold engine, as soon as the compression ignition is maintained. The great advantage of diesel vehicles before they became hindered by DPF's was their outstanding economy on short runs compared to petrol engines, that advantage remains but there are now other considerations like the DPF service life.

I make it 60/73 (there may be a lower common denominator) or 82%, not what I would call a small fraction. My winter tyres were on for 3 or 4 months this year, I reckon they were of value and an advantage on 2 days only during that period AKA WTF did I bother!

You will indeed, when the weather turns warm will be a key milestone.

Yes indeed, I had editted my post when I thought of that, the postings overlapped. My apologies for misinterpreting what you meant, I am quite woozy and the wording was ambiguous, I see you have since editted out the "to" which further confused me.