J.R.

I dont have X ray vision that can see through the car I have overtaken any more than the impatient driver of the Audi undertaking it has to see me. I am also blind in the left eye but that is of no relevance. I only ever pull across when it is clear to do so but when Mr Audi swoops up in an undertaking manouvre it will not remain clear. You are incorrect in your opinionated assumptions regarding advanced driver training, I make no assumptions about whether you have had any but if so then they must have been lacking when it came to the use of indicators, but hey! What do I know, I'm a bad driver, I read it on a forum.

You should question your beliefs and not accept everything as gospel. No basis for their claims, EGR is suspended while DPF regeneration takes place. If you think about it logically this statement is laughable: If the EGR is not working effectively or blocked the amount of exhaust gases passing through the DPF will be increased potentially speeding up the DPF blocking. The volume of gases passed through the exhaust is a constant, some might take a few milliseconds longer by having done a second circuit of the cylinder but what goes in goes out! I have done 40k miles with no EGR, these vehicles ran very well with limited EGR and regenerations before the "emissions fix", that is when all the problems started with much increased EGR and regen frequency. My throttle valve will be as clean as the day I declagged it 40K miles ago, only filtered air has passed over it since then. My DPF is in good health as well although it's time for another check, a real world backpressure test and not some fantasy calculated ash loading. I paid to have the emissions fix rolled back, I cant think of the last time I was aware of a regen in progress or heard the engine fans running after switch off indicating a failed regen, it used to happen all the time & I would have to go on a longer journey just to allow the regen that was not needed (measured soot below 10g) but commanded all the same, then 125kms later the same deal all over again, it was even regenning at the end of an 800km autoroute journey towing a huge overloaded trailer with wide open throttle a lot of the time.

The only thing that can be clogging the throttle body is excessive EGR gases, a rich mixture is injected downstream in the cylinders. Definitely something to check though but once again it should bring up a fault code, I'm not convinced the garage has something equivalent to VCDS but any emissions related codes like an O2 sensor should be displayed on a basic generic OBDII reader. My money is on an EGR valve problem, perhaps not seating but the position sensor giving the correct reading, or there is a fault code that the garage has not seen or divulged. The definitive solution that does not involve hours of labour and expensive EGR replacement is a £99 EGR emulator and a blanking plate if gases are getting through when it is supposed to be in the closed position.

I signal when pulling back into the middle lane of an autoroute after an overtake even if I cannot see anyone else who would benefit, you may argue that the driver behind does not benefit, its a valid point but it does them no harm and is to my mind a courtesy, who would benefit is the Audi or BMW driver unseen to me who is undertaking the car I have overtaken especially if they are joining from a slip road and in their usual hurry to claim their personal outside lane, my indicating will hopefully avoid them sideswiping me but to date its been me that has seen them (I always look back as I change lane) and had to take evasive action.

No need to extend the battery lead(s), the 096 will just drop in and the existing clamp will work. My battery cover looked like Alexis Sale's jacket after the swop so I used a decent looking battery box & cover from a MK2 Octavia (amongst others) which make the underbonnet look much more finished but I have since learned from Varoom that it may not have been a good idea thermal wise, my car is not start stop, I must look and see what battery type I fitted.

Cease obsessing about what your vehicle looks like from behind, or if it is for safety reasons use your sidelights as has been suggested. Until the day you leave the switch in the sidelight position, which for me took years off the life of my then new battery.

Nothing to do with the injector, the throttle valve is upstream, all it passes is filtered air and EGR, far too much of the latter by the look of things. The EGR port needs it's direction reversed away from the throttle valve, the butterfly may be sticking or the potentiometer gears broken, the EGR could be open all the time but that should generate its own fault code. I think the solution will be cleaning and replacing if necessary the throttle valve and the fitting of an EGR emulator and blocking of the port, the latter cannot be carried out without the former.

Noise is either the alternator pulley sprag clutch, hard to be sure from the video but it does look like the belt is oscillating which is the keynote sign. If not then its the large bearing supporting the aircon shear plate pulley, mine makes a similar noise with the aircon on at low revs but not when switched off, check to see if sound alters with AC on or off.

Is there a doubt about the Bosch batteries sold by Amazon?

When is the right time for applying a low current charge and what is the incorrect way of applying it?

So, the statements of anyone that cannot start a sentence without "So," should be treated with suspicion. So, thats my opinion anyway! 😆

You do not know what the fault is without reading the fault codes, that is the first step, any competant garagiste should have a multi-marque fault code reader, even a basic generic OBDII reader will give all emissions relate codes.

You said earlier your vehicle was diesel powered which would correspond with the emissions fix, did you mean to say the exhaust smells of carburant rather than petrol? I have VCDS and live in France, I am in Bergerac but travel frequently to Picardie.

I take back what I said, it is condensation, I read elsewhere that you have misting problems. Feel under all the carpets, you may have a leak further down and when the moisture evaporates it condenses on the highest coldest part, elsewhere the roof is insulated but those droplets may well have run down elsewhere. If you find damp lower down others can advise you on door seals, door drains, door plastic membranes, scuttle drains etc.

Having seen the photo and now learning that you have misting problems I retract what I said on another thread about the vehicle having a roof or screen leak. You are seeing the condensation there because the car is damp (misting, may even be a leak further down) and the water vapour is condensing at the highest coldest point, the roof lining insulation is cut away to make space for the sunglasses holder with bare cold metal above it.

You had both FWD and 4x4 MK2 Octavias, was the rear floorpan any different in terms of the transmission tunnel? I recall my FWD MK1 had a transmission tunnel far larger than was needed for the exhaust pipe.

Do you know for sure that the bodyshell differs in those areas or is it an assumption?

A leak, not condensation, you should prioritise finding and sealing it. The water may well have damaged the mechanism, new ones are very cheap to buy on Ali-Express.

The oil pumps are pretty bullet proof and would normally last for millions of miles, the gauze strainer on the pick up pipe being partially blocked is the likely culprit, probably because someone has used gasket sealer or worse silicone sealer somewhere on the engine.

As you have already said, they are bolted on. The Combis not fitted at the factory with roof rails will have the rivnuts within the internal stiffening structure, to make use of them requires accurate drilling, not for the faint hearted.

There would be nothing of value remaining.

What makes you believe that the damage was caused deliberately? That could have happened through misalignment or through someone trying to deoxidise the contacts. I would have just bought a connector and pins for next to nothing, and replaced the one that is there or cut one off of a scrap vehicle and joined it to the loom using solder and heat shrink.

DSG transmission?

Very good point, the radio was removed for a Chinese head unit but it did have a very narrow ribbon LCD screen probably for the Bluetooth pairing etc, I can recall it showing some guff about trying to connect to the presumably previous owners phones before I ditched it. I'm just surprised that it is not on the Maxidot like the MK2 Octavia or thought maybe I had disabled it. Surprised there was not a warning bong buy maybe they had complaints about that.

I had a weird yellow warning light appear on the speedo last night, it went out when I cycled the ignition, on searching google it turns out to be the indicator for the bulb monitoring system. On my MK2 Octavia it set off a bong and the maxidot display showed whicg bulb had (not) failed, after stopping to find the bulb working normally I found that cycling the ignition made the false alarm go away hence my reaction last night. I know that VCDS will have logged the fault code but its a big work up using it and its very cold here, should the Maxidot not tell me what bulb is supposed to have failed? And yes I know a visual check which I frequently do anyway would reveal it but its more likely to be corrosion at the contact points as I had checked the lights a couple of days before.