J.R.

Thanks, that is great info. I confess I would have almost certainly made the overtightening mistake on the one and only set that I fitted. As mine are still (I hope) the factory fitted ones then I will not be changing them proactively unless equipped with the tools you recommend, and it does sound like a removal and refitting after a month might be a good precaution although if one is leaking unless the plug tapered face is damaged (unlikely) there is not a lot could be done other than the 'oh just a bit more' I suppose if you have one leaker then you could remove and clean it and the bore annually.

Its a shame they do not have a weep hole drilling so that any combustion escape would be visible and it could also be used for getting penetrating oil into where it was needed. I expect the water jacket is in the way. Not that the manufacturers would have any incentive in spending money to decrease their service revenue.

Aha, so its not the threads that are seizing but the highly compressed and carbonized soot occupying the clearance around the glowplug shaft behind the seal and the cylinder head bore up to the threads! Now I can see why you are going to be very lucky to extract a seized one. Is there anything that can be done to minimise the risk of a newly fitted glowplug not sealing other than only replacing them when they have failed? Is any carbon leakage visible in the first week or month or does it stop at the threads? If none would removing and refitting after a month to see if there were any leakers do more harm than good, would the good plugs not reseal the second time?

The latter, the former is physically impossible hence the existence of pipe thread sealing compounds.

You may have earned yourself a blocking for arrogance 😆

Really? Are you sure about that? How do they seal against combustion pressure and temperature, horsehair and Plumbers Mate or PTFE tape? 🥴

Not forgetting the heat generated, the OP's vehicle has had a week of combustion heat soak cycles combined with Plusgas and the glowplug is still firmly fixed, its laughable to think that cranking the engine over would free it.

Yes I apologise for that, I reflected and should have changed the wording to "some are being drawn.............." But I will repeat the message that the black marks (if the photo is actually of the OP's car) and their origin is neither here nor there as any garage would replace a dual mass flywheel with a clutch regardless of its condition and would replace both even at 30K miles if the box had to come out to replace the slave cylinder, they would not need to justify it. That they are doing so, and in doing so ignoring the actual fault makes me doubly suspicious of their competence and/or integrity.

Sounds normal to me.

Most of you are being drawn into the irrelevant distraction of how or why a clutch may or may not have overheated or how worn it is or isn't, whether its normal or not for 30K miles. It has zero relevance to the breakdown the OP suffered, his clutch was not slipping, I doubt the car has even been on a ramp, the service receptionist is simply trotting out the usual money making story being blissfully ignorant that a worn or "worn out" clutch as they will have put it can have no bearing on the problem with the clutch not disengaging. Any professional effecting the repair would fit a new clutch and DMF as a matter of routine in any case so the OP should concentrate on the real issue, are they a bunch of liars, incompetents or both. He should get down there pronto and insist on seing the car and the alleged worn parts and ask why they consider that they would prevent the clutch from disengaging, also what they mean by their comment that they cannot test the clutch hydraulics until the job is completed. I would have no issue with a garage insisting on replacing the clutch and DMF while replacing the internal concentric slave cylinder, with an independant garage and such a low mileage car maybe I would consider leaving the existing mechanical clutch components if I trusted their judgement, my Octavia did 188K miles before the DMF went and shook the clutch to bits, My Yeti the DMF failed at 79K miles revealed when I had a remap done, in truth it was probably failed many miles before that but the engine never revved enough to realise, on dismantling (for the clutch hydraulic problem) I found the clutch pressure plate bowed, the flywheel scorched and the driven plate worn tapered and down yo the rivets at the outside, I had bought replacements anyway. The OP should not be livid, putting a vehicle into a main dealers for a clutch problem will result in that sort of bill, whether black marks are normal or not is irrelevant, they like any other garage will be replacing the clutch and DMF, his concern should be their competence and integrity.

Who are you livid at? You are making the mistake of not assuming that everything they tell you is a lie. Call their bluff and go and inspect the clutch parts which they wont even have removed (another lie) as if they had they would know for sure if the clutch hydraulics had failed, if they had even a modicum of competence they would know by listening to your description and through attempting to drive the vehicle that there is a hydraulic problem. What you have relayed is that they want you to pay £2K for a new clutch and when the problem remains to pay them to remove the gearbox again to fit a slave cylinder which they should replace as a matter of course while doing the clutch and which is the most likely suspect. You do not have a slipping clutch so any wear and overheating that they have dreamed up to justify an expensive repair is totally irrelevant. If they were competent and/or honest they would say we are reasonably sure it will be air being drawn into the concentric slave cylinder, it could be a faulty Sachs pressure plate but that affected earlier vehicles, in both cases we have to remove the transmission to replace the parts and it would be false economy to do so without replacing the clutch (regardless of its wear) dual mass flywheel and slave cylinder, I'm sorry sir but you are looking at a £2K bill. We could however try replacing the master cylinder first which will be a £250 job, it's your choice to gamble on that, if you do and we do subsequently have to replace the clutch then you will have the peace of mind of knowing that every single part has been replaced. I had to bite the bullet and replace the clutch, flywheel and slave cylinder, the OEM parts (Luk) cost €300 On inspecting the old clutch I found that it had been abused by the previous owner (it was a fleet car) there were heat marks and the pressure plate had dished meaning it was only pressing on the outside of the friction material, the clutch lining had worn to a tapered shape to match the distortion, as it was all replaced it was neither here nor there but I should point out that it had no bearing on my problem which was the exact same one as yours caused by air being drawn into the O ring joint between the 2 plastic mouldings of the slave cylinder, I was having to bleed the clutch every 5 miles at the end.

That is the noise that mine makes since I replaced the aircon shear plate and had to use an old high mileage pulley which had the correct threaded fixings. I only hear it when driving at low revs and it always goes away if I switch on the aircon. I believe it to be (in my case) the bearing that the pulley rides on, you could try switching your AC on and off to see if the noise goes away or changes.

And if a Skoda vehicle were fitted with a Skoda GPS tracking device, if such a thing even exists, then would it have a sticker advertising the fact let alone that exact one? If they do then the seller is breaching copyright, if they don't then you are paying to advertise that your vehicle is not protected. Security information is etched onto the glass, the outline of the sticker is even visible on a forum photograph. Who do you think knows more about vehicle security, an anxious gullible purchaser or a criminal?

So the motor efficiency reduces with age as well then or is it simply kidology to use one of your phrases in that 45kw showing after a few years is not the real 45kw that it was when new? Battery self discharge while driving? And then there is taking more than 45kw from the electric meter to put less than 45kw into the battery. So eventually you buy a new vehicle which on paper does more miles per kw like the chap with the Mini and get screwed over again.

So have I understood this right, 50kw battery capacity but a protection system that will not allow any discharge once the battery has discharged to 5kw? Akin to a 50l fuel tank but the ECU cutting the fuelling and stopping the engine when the sender is showing 5 litres remaining to avoid fuel pump damage and subsequent damge to the injection system? When it shows 90% charge is that when the battery is at 45kw, 40.5 kw or 45.5kw (90% of the maximum charge it could put in from the 5kw baseline plus the 5kw? Or is it like every other battery capacity indicator I have ever seen totally unreliable and at best a guess?

Actually if you wanted to go full on fugly then you could keep the same wheelbase and have an extended overhang.

Really? I'm not au fait with the Fabia and cannot visualise it but as an one time Body in White designer it seems extremely unlikely to me unless one or both variants look completely fugly and a cut n shut abortion. Hatchback rear doors are usually, no I would say always much more raked than an estate version, if the same rear door fitted both then it would not be an estate but a LWB hatchback.

I am even more confused now, you said: And then: Was the 50kw a mistaake and you actually have a 45kwh battery? Can you understand my confusion? Perhaps you meant that your battery is old so no longer has the full usable capacity. It might be me, I am day 3 with Covid and my thinking is very muzzy, on my best day I struggle to follow some of your postings.

You wont need much a flywheel with that abortion!

If the pictures are correct then it isn't actually a 5 bearing crank but a stiffened 3 bearing one. I have no idea about the bore spacing, the crank throw, rod interference etc and could not deduce that from a photo.

Can you explain the underlined bit to me please? 10°c does not sound that cold to me in the scheme of things, does it really half the expected range? Its clearly not following a straight line graph using the Kelvin scale, does it mean that you would have zero range at 0°C?

I bought a Honda GX50 (I think) engine for a cement mixer I bought cheap without motive power. Its the tiny light high revving one that they use on backpack mounted strimmers. Made in the Honda factory in Thailand, inititally I thought it was an empty box as it was so light. I fitted it and was pleased to find that it was indeed the one intended for the machine, the pinion for the toothed drive belt fitted the shaft and the motor mounting holes lined up. I put some old stale fuel in it (all that I had) and very slowly pulled the starter for less than one revolution just to ensure that it had compression and to draw some fuel through, I did not expect it to fire up let alone settle to a smooth idle and sound like a sewing machine.

If your "roads are bumpy everywhere" then you should not be looking to lower the ride height, quite the opposite in fact.

Thanks for the info to you all. Apologies to the OP, I now understand. Yet another reason for me not to buy a newer car.

Thankyou so much Langers, I will investigate. Next problem removing the old one which might be a non problem as hopefully I wont see it behind the mirror. Then how to secure the new mount on top of the screen printed shaded area, I'm sure the screen manufacturers have access to far better glues than I do, the base comes attached to a new screen and thats why I didn't go looking for a part number. 'kin-ell how much?!!!! 😲 it would seem the enterprising Lithuanians have cornered the market!