J.R.

Those bulbs would have been a good solution to the rubbish halogen projector lamps on my MK2 Octavia, they were rubbish even with brand new Hella OEM LHD units, I did an HID conversion but they would have been better. I had not realised that the voltage to the bulbs was reduced, in hindsight the yellow glow should have alerted me, nor that it could have been increased using VCDS which I think would have made a big difference. I have no problem at all with the standard non projector halogen headlights on my Yeti, they are superb by comparison.

I had been checking it during every oil change, I have neglected to do the same on the Yeti which is now at 6 years and 92K miles, maybe I will remember tomorrow.

My 1.9 PD TDi had its first cambelt at 225000 miles, the original had by then started showing signs of degrading, £8 spent on a belt only, no pulleys, tensioners or waterpump, same belt and original ancillaries were on the car when scrapped at 325000 miles and 17 years old.

It will have been corrosion on the main battery feed connection, assuming that you removed the oxide before refitting then you wont need the spare one for another 15 years. Its the only time that my MK1 ever let me down & required me to roll down the hill to bump start it.

A plumber to fix suspected electronic issues on a washing machine?

I am still hankering for one, I saw a few that were damage repairable auctions on a link from this forum last night, kinetiq or something. I had 2 Octavia Estates & they were very practical lacking only in height, I have a Yeti now, its a great drive but very impractical, lacking in depth and height, the vario-seats are good but would be much better in the Roomster. I would like to drive one to see what it feels like, I fear it would be like getting into a MK1 Polo after the Yeti. A friend in the UK has one of the PSA/Renault van derived fugly wagons, so soul-less that I cant even tell you what it is, he like me would change his cars more often than his pants and has stuck with it for a decade like I did with the Octavia, I knew it had to have something going for it and it does, very practical space, he can carry a full sized motorbike inside it, the Yeti is pathetic by comparison, I think the Roomster would be a compromise between the two. Dissapointed to learn that the Scout model is just spivved up with some plastic and no 4x4 or ride height increase.

Are they still damping? In my country during the CT test each wheel is tested on a vibratory plate with an oscilloscope type read out of the damping, whilst they have to be quite bad to fail you can see if they are still working as they should be or degraded/imbalanced, once any degradation shows I would change them even if I could not see a leak, they dont get better and they get worse quickly. On the other hand I do not get concerned about misting, a tiny amount of oil goes a long way.

Thanks a lot, I changed the brake assist recently and it did not seem to make any difference to the braking effort, I assumed that it would be like having more servo assistance, perhaps like many things in VCDS the terminology is incorrect and it relates to the braking intervention on stability control and the XDS. I will have a go at it tomorrow.

Do you or anyone else have any details of how I can check if this is enabled and/or can be enabled on my Yeti please? I dont want to drive it like I have stolen it, there is no lack of traction under any normal situation but on the rare off road excursions without one of the systems enabled it could easily become immobile if cross axled. My MK2 Octavia was a real dissapointment compared to the MK1 when pulling across a junction in slippery conditions or joining a road with oncoming traffic , it simply could not nip across like the MK1 did, that would make a horrible graunching noise from the braked wheel & put as much power through the other wheel as it could take without spinning, the MK2 just cut the power leaving you stranded.

Thats hilarious I was dating a rather strange girl, would be called friends with benefits these days, the benefits outweighed her oddities. She wanted to drive one night and was a nightmare to be with, she spent all her time looking in the rear mirror moaning about the cars behind being too close etc & not watching the oncoming traffic, I showed her how to dip the mirror & eventually had to misalign it so she could not look behind. The worse thing was that she did not know where the dip/beam control was or what it was supposed to do, it was a MK1 Polo which I was familiar with and refused to accept my explanation of how to use it correctly, that was one of her oddities, she knew everything and could not accept any suggestion from others thinking it was criticism. The unused beam/dip lever control was permenantly on the high beam setting, as soon as she used the headlights she was on main beam dazzling oncoming traffic, if they flashed when she wasn't looking backwards and swearing about the driver behind she would switch the lights from main beam to sidelights that she thought was the dipped beam and of course complained about! And there was no way that I could convince her otherwise

You are getting phenomenal fuel consumption, between 78 and 87 mpg, I would be very loathe to fit another unknown engine and would tackle the oil consumption issue which given your fuel economy I think must be valve guides & seals and not piston/bore wear.

Or milk you playing parts bingo!

Others will confirm if its correct or otherwise, I dont have much confidence on the systems that use the registration number but there can only be one or two possibilitys for reversing lights.

I am fairly sure that it will work, all the more so now having viewed your photos enlarged, all I had to go on was peering through the back of the bulbholder. Mine did not look like they would come apart as normally I would have tried, do you have to slice through the sealant on the clear front cover?

If you have replaced the reversing light bulbs with incandescent ones then double check that they are the correct specified wattage, maybe even swap them out for another pair?

I checked yesterday & found that my "mood lights" were on during daylight when I started the car, HA-HA! I thought, I knew I had seen them before like that, then I realised that I had left the light switch in the on position when I had switched off a week ago on my return journey before quarantining The Yeti unlike my previous Octavias is simply clever and wont flatten the battery if I make a mistake like that, the downside being that I amy end up driving in daylight with the headlights on but they are less intrusive to others than the DRL's which are extinguished when they are on. I think if I left the switch on in the sidelight position it would still flatten the battery, no doubt I will find out the hard way.

Where VCDS reports a short circuit to ground or an open circuit you can be reasonably sure thats what was measured although so many of the terms they use are completely incorrect and misleading, possibly through bad translations. When it reports open/short circuit it really is meaningless other than to say that the voltage drop across the circuit is outside of normal operating parameters, it could be an open circuit (blown bulb, broken wire etc), it could be a short to ground but that would normally blow the fuse, more likely a higher rated bulb drawing more current (= more volt drop) or an LED bulb drawing less (less volt drop). I would not go chasing bad earths on the basis of a poorly worded term and badly concieved diagnostic software that is entirely capable of discriminating between an open circuit and a short circuit or even partial ones, higher or lower resistance than design parameters.

The dwarf whose workmates tied him up in the builders bag says he is mighty pleased that your car had a plastic sump

Whether someone alleges it was your fault or not it was as you say an accident, plenty of motorists get paid out for claims for new engines after driving through flood waters which to me is in most instances no accident but a voluntary act of stupidity. You make a very good point about the hire car etc, if you are going to pay for fully comp (I am still act only insured) and protected NCB and have benefits like a hire car then you might just as well use them or not have them at all, its simply the numbers in your case that make one reflect on the decision, I'm sure even if there is no engine damage the bill will still be jacked up by a new undertray, oil level sensor, oil & filter change etc. If it were me in my circumstances (and I recognise yours are very different), someone who works on his own vehicles and has a paranoic mistrust of the motor trade & accident repair outfits, I would try to plug the hole enough to refill the sump to run the engine to test it, if all was well I would spend £100 on a steel sump and tell myself I have saved around £200, got a free oil change and an uprated sump as recompense for my lapse

Liberal application of small person type gratuitous sarcasm!

I experienced both your problems with my Yeti and found a way around them both. For the interior lights, do you not have the tiny led lights in the roof console that shine down onto the centre console area? I lift my hand up until its lit up by either one of these and the relevant (left or right) map reading light is directly above which I can feel or actually see via the reflection from my skin, the main interior light button is between the two, a little harder to feel/find but you are in the close vicinity. For my boot variofloor which opens differently to the standard Yeti one as I modified one from an Octavia MK1, my shopping bag hooks are always open because once closed mine need a screwdriver to deploy them, under the boot floor I have a bungy cord which I stretch underneath tha raised boot floor between the two hooks to hold it open, - only just but hold it does!

Big mistake, you just dont know it yet, biggest insurance scam ever, your premium will rise whilst you retain the ephemeral NCD, going elsewhere for a quote you will find that you no longer have an NCB and a claim against you. A £100 sump is costing you £350 to save a notional £445 which you will pay for in increased premiums. OTOH if it needs a new engine and if the insurers pay.........................

Accident damage requiring you to fit these new parts? Have you replaced the crash beam? Everything on the front end of the car is aligned from the fixings to the crash beam even down to the panel gaps between the bonnet headlights & wings, the longerons contain the primary crumple zone, its very easy for it to be pushed back by that amount on one side without any visual indication. Alternatively the replacement pattern part crash beams are not made to the same tolerances, I had to do some fettling to get the panel gaps as they should be.

And it wont be Skodas policy but that of VAG, unless the main dealer is also a trade parts distributor like the Ford one I dealt with then all their parts will have come to them via TPS, the dealers hold very little stock, just the filters etc that they need for services etc in their workshops, TPS holds all the stock & any orders for the workshop will be with the dealer within the hour.

Know or believe? My knowledge of manufacturer parts only distributors is that they are always sold for retail price less the clients discount structure, the stock is revalued each year during the stocktake to the new retail price, when demand falls they will not re-order for stock, it becomes a VOR order. Periodically whole lots of parts are sold at auction but they manufacturers never reduce the retail price. On some older stuff there will be an exchange program, an example being the instrument binnacle that I bought for a fire damaged 3 year old Galaxy, it was a new part I recieved but I had to surrender the old one which would have gone into the exchange programme (trouble was it was melted!!!) I think that was less than MRP.