J.R.

With all due respect Root, if you think a moment about what you say you would realise that it cannot be so. The load on a stub axle through raising a vehicle by lifting under it (which could only be achieved with the wheel removed and very difficult with the disc and caliper in place) is no higher than the wheel riding over a bump like a sleeping Policemen. Reading it again I think you mean the torsion beam axle bending and not the stub axle, nonetheless the exact same comments apply. Ok reading it again (I am woozy with Covid) you probably mean bent by lifting the rear of the car by jacking on the centre of the torsion beam, yes it could well be that it does not have the resistance in bending to cope with that, its deliberately weak to twist in torsion.

Great minds think alike! Or maybe suspicious minds!

Looking at the photos on the Ebay listing that Pete kindly linked to the shaft diameter inside the rear bearing (or is it a single double row bearing?) is about 1", I reckon that would give before the trailing arm of the torsion beam, the fixings are spread over a wide area and the rear face machined, I think it is designed to be a very strong joint to the very strong trailing arm of the torsion beam and the removable hub assembly being the sacrificial part in the event of a significant impact. Garages will always diagnose and propose the repair that makes them the most money on parts and labour and in fairness to them the one that has the least doubt of success, I would swap the hub first. Its the shame that the hub looks both handed and the fixings polarised, otherwise they could be swapped side to side to prove that the axle is not bent or it could be rotated 90° so that the camber and not the toe in would be affected again proving the axle to be straight.

No I dont think so, bearings can transfer an immense transient load. Its a shame the OP neglected to mention this minor (to him) pothole event that destroyed 2 tyres and an alloy wheel even when I asked if there was any evidence of damaged or replaced alloy wheels, it would have saved a lot of speculation. I had a similar shunt when recovering from my first detached retina, a width restriction kerb that was on the trajectory for a left turn & which had been hit many times & continues to do so, it was also dark, enough of my excuses, both front and rear wheels went over it throwing the car up like a bucking bronco twice, front tyre wrecked rear tyre ok, neither alloy broken, just scuffed. The impact bent the steering arm like a banana and also bent the track rod end and skewed the ball of the inner joint, all were replaced in time but straightened initially. The wheel bearings were unaffected and were still silent when the car was scrapped a decade later at 32500 miles. I have never seen a torsion beam axle, do they have seperate bolt in hub shafts like a trailer suspension unit? If so then it makes sense that these will be designed to be the weak link in an impact, if the part is available then just replacing that will be a lot cheaper and reckon bring it back into spec, someone earlier explained how the consequent crabbing would wear both rear tyres even though the static toe in on the other side is correct. Assuming the OP is paying to have the work done I would recommend having the stub axle alone replaced initially if the part is available, if not but the old one can be removed then it can be clocked in a lathe which will show any bend. If its bent then it will have been removed to check, if a new part does not exist then I would buy the cheapest second hand axle and just use the stub axle from it to repair the vehicle. AndyM20, did you really not consider that the pothole that wrecked one wheel and 2 tyres only 3 or 4 months ago would have been the cause of your subsequent tyre wear? Did none of the garages ask you the question?

Dont kid yourself, I too have been there, you have not even found the actual problem yet, you have like me been wisely replacing the easy and obvious bits, I dont doubt that your master cylinder benefitted from replacement, mine was full of metallic schmoo, but as you have seen the problem has recurred and will soon become an all too frequent occurrence. At the end I was having to stop and bleed the clutch (very quick, easy & no tools needed) twice in a 5km urban journey, it was really a gamble doing a long journey, once on an autoroute the clutch was not used but you never knew when coming off at an exit or péage whether it would disengage, every time I would have to look for an escape route, a verge or whatever I could steer to to bleed the system again. I hope you dont have any long journeys coming up soon. My use of "self bleed" does not mean that any air will rise up through the system and exit through the fluid reservoir although air in the upper pipe may well do so, it meant that you dont need pressure bleeders or anything, when you release the bleed thumbturn on the slave cylinder or clutch bleed block gravity alone will purge out the air gathered there in the chamber designed for it to gather, its a high point and the air cannot travel down to then travel back up through the rest of the system, it remains there.

Steaming kettle or wet dog. Or Dogging 🤣

Yes my brain is frazzled, toe in measurements are indeed positive. I retract what I said about the report although the specified toe angle does seem large. I also got whether toe out would scrub the inside or outside edge backwards in my head. Time for bed, if only it were cool enough yet.

But isn't that negative toe? Toe in equals a negative value? Or am I getting my knickers in a twist, normally I would be very positive in my knowledge but I am very under the weather with what could turn out to be my 2nd dose of Covid. Driven axles often have a small amount of toe out, usually zero to very little, the torque reaction from putting power through the driven wheels will counter the natural toe out forces. Rear driven axles have toe values approaching zero but not toe out on a road vehicle to my knowledge or maybe my frazzled brain is playing tricks with me. I will read your article to seek clarification regarding the +ve or -ve nomenclature.

Then do your own measurements with stringline and a laser level, make sure that you get the correct manufacturers figures first. If as it seems you have a torsion beam rear axle then the camber will not change with load or suspension travel. Does the axle look like it has been replaced? What about any of the road wheels, have they been replaced or are they damaged? - Check the spare if its an alloy wheel. Check the bodywork on the rear wheel arches and above for signs of repair or overspray. Have you checked the V5 for a salvage category marker like Category S?

I did a similar thing to align my front & rear subframes, I used a laser spirit level held to the centre line of the wheel rim with bungy cords and a cardboard target clamped by the closed front door at the B post. 1.89° if it is to be believed would be visible with a string line, hell anything that could wear a rear tyre like that would be visible by a seasoned eye and definitely with a string line or straight edge. I am unhappy with the supposed manufacturers rear toe out figure. rear toe out on a vehicle makes it very very keen to swap ends.

Something shouts out at me from the above. Manufacturers specifications for rear toe are positive, ie toe out, no way is that correct. I am very wary of companies that dont know how to set up their equipment properly or realise that the figures in their print out are unplausible. Looking at the thrust angle I would say that the rear axle is misaligned on its mountings (does the live axle have a crossmember with clearance on the fixings like the IRS version?) and if it were centralised the toe angles would be (more) equal at a zero thrust angle. It could have had a shunt at the top of the NSR wheel, sliding into a kerb would decrease the camber though. Its usually the front subframe that gets misaligned but the operators of the 4 wheel alignment rigs never seem to check that against the bodywork before taking the settings from the rear axle.

Have you been travelling long distances laden? Does your vehicle look lower at the rear than similar vehicles? These vehicles rip through the inside of rear tyres when laden even if the rears are run at the higher pressure recommended, far too much camber change with suspension movement./ I would not contemplate changing the axle until I had seen both the rear toe and camber values, also thrust angle. If camber has been measured then you will have the others, you might be quoting the rear toe in value though. Does anyone know what the factory values are? Please do not drive that vehicle even one inch on those tyres, one is about to let go, for the future check the tyre waer across the whole width of the tyre, I know its not easy but you are very lucky to have not had a potentially fatal blowout.

Did you actually see the job done? Hyperbole like that from a mechanic is often employed to cover the fact that they have not actually changed anything. When I suspect I am being told Porkies, the longer and more detailed the story the more likely it has been made up.

There is zero relationship between an overheated DSG clutch pack and the DMF flywheel, a DMF fails through harmonic resonance and not heat. Or have you missed that the OP has a DSG gearbox like it sounds the specialist has?

Does the specialist actually knoww that you have a DSG gearbox? Has he inspected the vehicle? A specialist speaking about changing the clutch (singular) and DMF is quite concerning.

My message related to the posting immediately previous to it (Personality Ken, AKA Ken Block) and not at all to you. I have no loyalty to the company, even ordering from within the EU they have nothing of interest to me and most of their stuff is overpriced compared to what I used to pay from TPS, I think for many its the ease of ordering (until they get shafted like you) and that they cannot easily find the VAG or TPS price.

Nice to hear of one being well used, mine does its off roading in the shell craters of what will eventually be my garden, pulling down old buildings and pulling out big trailers loaded with the debris. I am very very impressed with the traction of the 4wd system, it has pulled out concrete fence posts on wet ground with worn summer tyres where my 4WD Kobota mini tractor has spun the wheels even when stamping on the rear diff lock, the extra weight makes a lot of difference.

You could start a fight in an empty house.

https://youtu.be/J6jAdv14W-M

He makes a good point about the parts being interchangeable with the other VAG vehicles, I doubt that any of them aside from the very expensive and desirable are stolen to be resold, broken up for parts is where the demand is. Personally I would just steal the canbus connected headlights and sell them seeing how much they cost 😄 You have no doubt seen loads of photos of vehicles where the front bumper, headlights and crash beam with radiators/intercooler attached have been removed while the vehicle was parked, that can be done far quicker than stealing a vehicle by Canbus injection which would require the immobiliser (unlikely) and steering lock to be defeated plus they dont have to drive away in a partially dismantled car shouting "Nick me! - Nick me!"

What fuel, petrol or diesel? I have been driving Skoda diesels for the last 18 years and the radiator fans have never once cut in on any of them under any conditions to reduce the coolant temperature, that would not be true of a petrol version. Are there any contacts in that vacant fuseholder, hard to tell from the camera angle but it does not look like there are. What do you mean by" it looks like no wiring for a fan", an absence of fuse contacts or nothing connected to the fan? The former usually means you are not looking in the correct place for the fuse, the manuals are frequently incorrect especially for RHD vehicles where they show mirror images.

You have chosen a very bad example. OBDII is a recognised unsecured data sharing protocole, probably the wrong wording, it is intended that any mechanic or DIY'er with an OBDII device can access and erase (within limitations) generic OBDII fault codes from any vehicle because they are standardised across all vehicles. I can do this with my sub £10 code reader, I cannot access the canbus modules without my £300 VCDS, I know clones are available, I cannot read fault codes from within those modules, reprogram them or perform output tests, with VCDS I cannot overcome my own vehicles immobiliser let alone somebody elses. I doubt that the signals are encypted, that would make the replacement of modules very difficult and expensive, I do think however there is far more security within the immobiliser system than the article or yourself claim. It can be overcome, I bought a remapped "plug & play ECU" for my Octavia where the immobiliser function was disabled, that vehicle could then be started without an immobiliser key because the ECU was from another vehicle and still believed it was, without the mod it could never have started my engine, the mod could not be done via the canbus, it needed the ECU reflashed or whatever they do.

Main dealer Bravo Sugar dish of the day, there is nothing to seize on a Guibo coupling, that is their raison d'être. You are 100% correct to propose the coupling as the source of the vibration though.

Once thieves find the correct wires to tap into, the theft device does the work for them. A simple “play” button on the fake JBL speaker injection tool is programmed to instruct the door ECU to unlock the doors, as though you have the actual key to the car in your hand. You turn the vehicle on in a similar fashion, and a thief can simply drive away with your car without ever coming into contact with the vehicle’s actual key fob. I think the above is innacurate for the reasons of not wanting to publicise exactly what is done and for journalistic hyperbole. A simple play button? Very unlikely. You turn the vehicle on in a similar fashion, and a thief can simply drive away with your car without ever coming into contact with the vehicle’s actual key fob. I think that is the hyperbole, with an operating can system I understand that you can access a module and using the output tests function unlock doors etc and that the central locking module would always be awake for encoded remote control signals so that is feasible but the engine ECU is inoperative until the immobiliser module recognises a valid key or remote. I suppose they could "inject" the wake up command. Given that 2 decades ago Rover vehicles were being stolen by thieves accessing a connector behind the wheel arch I think the immobiliser modules are much better protected but it sounds like they are faking the output signals. I have tried to keep up with how thieves are actually overcoming systems in recent years but the reporting has always been deliberately vague (which I understand) until the knowledge is quite widespread and always panic inducing headlines, during the evolution of this and the lazy no key systems I said to myself they are making a big big mistake by removing the steering lock, the only mechanical anti-theft system, from vehicles.

A 2001 Octavia in good condition is a very rare and sought after beast, low mileage even more so, one owner main dealer serviced even rarer, that it is an L&K as well makes it a Holy Grail in my book. Whoever ends up with it will surely repair it and hopefully cherish it, I hope you find someone to repair it economically for you to retain.