J.R.

Lets humour you and pretend that is true (which it aint!) in what way do you believe that your mythical engine recoding would protect the gearbox?

Interesting. I might in the future sell my Yeti which was only bought as a project and buy one more fitting to my needs, I am hooked on the model but would prefer a higher spec and dont mind having an earlier pre F/L one, mine is blue and really shows the dirt compared to the silver Octavias I have had before, they are parked together and the difference is remakable. To find one with EU4 emissions would be the icing on the cake, I like the 2.0 CR compared to the PD engine. At what time was the changeover and on what engine codes please?

They are legal here in France and have been the standard repair for ever. I think they are actually legal now in the UK or perhaps always were. I dont think there was any ill intent from AG Falco in posting the British Standard and if you wanted to have 100% confidence in a repair that has to be the standard to uphold. I have played with the buttplug insertion tool (not like that you dirty minded people) but not yet used it on a tyre, it needs a larger hole than the plug and if it didn't work I would not be confident in using a plug in the same hole, the insertion tool is very long and the wheel would almost certainly have to come off the vehicle to use it. I dont like the idea that there is no glue involved, only the tyre pressure making the seal, I think if you have a beadleak or another slow puncture once the pressure gets low the buttplug would leak.

Does that front end look like its had such a hard frontal impact as to set off 3 airbags and write the vehicle off? The only thing that has been replaced is the grille inner as a couple of the plastic slats had broken off. The bumper has been polished, no paint repairs, the silver part is as was, just a scratch visible. Grille outer surround had a crack on the RH side which is still visible in the photo after the repair. The bonnet badge is cracked & the nose of the bonnet will benefit from a little more persuading forward after the badge is removed before the new one fitted. The inner bumper steel beam had in fact deformed & the longeron which is the initial sacrificial crumple zone had compressed, I got it 90% straight on my hydraulic press but it was better to fit a new one at £60 as all the panel gaps are set by it. The plastic bumper and the polystyrene moulding behind it transferred enough force to deform the bumper iron crumple zone and set off the airbags yet both were re-used without any paint repair, Skoda really picked good materials.

Photo as promised:

Not sure re the oil filter bypass but its not of great importance, the oil pump will have been destroyed long before enough shrapnel and abrasive particles pass to block the filter element. Generally when debris or foreign objects make their way to the sump they dont damage the bearings, pistons, bores etc, once in the sump they either pass through the guaze filter and gradually destroy the oil pump (but modern crankshaft driven pumps are very robust and overspecced) or worse still block the strainer starving the oil system. A magnetic plug or simply a big magnet in the sump (fixed) is a very very good idea.

Will upload a photo later, the primer used is more important than the finish paint, nothing will really adhere to the chrome even when its sanded, etch primer might have a chance, I dont think the plastic primer I used did anything but its all that I had. The satin black was chipping from just the gentle handling moving it around to spray all the recesses, it would not have lasted 5 minutes on the vehicle, it now has a tough 2K clear coat protecting it which is the best that I can do.

I have just done the same to the chrome grille surround on my facelift Yeti. The surround was damaged in the accident but too expensive to replace as all that was visible was a fairly clean break and a small amount of chrome lifted around it, after seeing your pictures I decided it would look better in black, the chrome does not go with anything else except the bonnet badge which was also damaged. By painting it black I was able to do a decent repair that is invisible to Stevie Wonder & Ray Charles, I sanded, used plastic primer (probably totally wrong) satin black followed by 2K clear coat because I needed a resistant finish knowing it was going to take a lot of hand pressure to fit the inner grill to it after the repairs and to refit the whole assembly into the slightly damaged bumper. The now gloss black around the matt black inner grill actually looks really good and fitted it is much much better looking than the chrome surround and really goes well with the silver "Outdoor" bumper lower insert. I have ordered a matt black bonnet badge to complement the job. The price for a new chrome grille surround was silly money but the price for the black Monté Carlo version is insane!

A good review and no spurious bla-bla-bla Icing on the cake, it did not start with "HI GUYS"

Been using them for years and swear by them now, its the recognised repair by most French garages and tyre fitting places except they will never offer it preferring to lie and insist that you buy a pair of new tyres, I have even walked (well rolled) a wheel & tyre in for repair & said that it was the spare for then to refuse to repair it 🙁 Small local garagiste repaired a puncture for me using a tyre plug (worm as you call them good description), he had the screw out, the hole reamed & the plug in place before barely any air had escaped from the tyre, I was very impressed, he used the reamer bit in a battery drill. Since then I carry a plug kit, a mushroom plug kit and insertion tool (they look like butt plugs!!!) and also a can of foam, footpump etc and now I also have a space saver spare for long journeys.

If you work out how much extra fuel will have been used during the journey, and its calorific value then you would realise that it would be enough to turn the rear wheels, hubs, suspension and subframe into molten metal, the car would look like something out of an Iron Man movie, it would not be warm tyres getting your attention Given that the discs & calipers were cool I think you are barking up the wrong tree and should start with a VCDS scan and then move on to measuring blocks etc, a minor boost leak will have a great impact on fuel economy without creating heat.

Ah that puts a completely different complexion on it, I think your analysis is probably spot on. I wont lose sleep over maligning the motor trade in error this one time 😀

If you can confirm that the water pump is indeed leaking then take it back to them with their bill for replacing it and tell them that the new pump they fitted is now leaking. You did after all accept their recommendation and quote to replace the cam belt and water pump at the same time and they have given you a reciept stating they did the work. And when they say that it wasn't fitted you are in the driving seat, they recommended it and the subsequent failure of what you now know to be the original pump confirms their recommendation, you contracted with them to do the work and now you find out that they didn't and issued a false invoice. They should both legally and morally replace the water pump at their cost, you might for your own conscience agree to contribute £80 which shows good faith but you should hold that back till its needed. good luck!

About £240 and 14 day turnaround, they have to order the key once they have verified you are the legal owner then program it to the vehicles immobiliser when they recieve it. I had the cheaper option of a cloned key, cant recall what it cost, somewhere between £50 and £100, probably the latter. Others will advise but I think there may be some issues with using the remote control buttons on a key and a clone, something to do with remembering settings, I'm the only driver and use the one key so it wasn't an issue. I have just tried the cloned key which has not been used for 6 months, it opened the doors and started the car as normal.

I would look at the handbrake compensator where the cable adjusts just behind the handbrake, an Elegance will have a big box so the ashtray and rear bezel will need removing to access it. Pull up the handbrake and if the compensator is not perpendicular to the cable, if its at an angle then you have a self adjust problem on one of the rear calipers, has anyone ever adjusted it because the handbrake was not holding? But again, as we all have said the caliper & disc would be far hotter than the wheel rim.

They dont stretch to any measurable amount, certainly not enough to require the nut adjusting. Its nearly always a rear caliper self adjusting problem and the glaring indicator that most overlook is that when the handbrake is applied the compensator bar is at an angle. You adjust it and next thing you know one of the rear brakes is smoking. Check the compensator immediately if you had not already done so followed by the caliper attached to what appears to be the longer cable. Both handbrake levers on the calipers should return against their stop and only move say 5 or 10° before locking up the wheel.

Translated from Service Receptionist make it up as you go along into truth = they found that the waterpump they had in stock or had ordered was not the right one for your vehicle so just replaced the cam belt knowing that they would probably get to do the water pump soon anyway.

Did you compare them to the front wheels? It was a very hot day and "quite warm" would be expected. What part of the wheel was quite warm, the tyre or the rim? But for your previous problems would you even be thinking about the rear wheel temperature? Forget wheel bearings and wheel alignment, they are not suddenly going to change on both sides at the same time to increase the fuel consumption on one journey. I agree that a binding brake or brakes could explain it but the wheel(s) would be smoking hot, keep an eye on the fuel consumption on your next long journey and the temperature of all the wheels on every journey. Have a VCDS scan to reveal if its an unrelated sensor or EGR issue.

Its something to only mention at the last knockings when they think that they have closed the deal and you need to appear be prepared to walk away if they wont do anything.

I bought VCDS because a VAG specialist wanted £125 + Vat just to run a scan and could not look at it for 2 weeks anyway. They also said that dependant on what they found it could be an additional couple of hours at £80 + VAT or something stupid for further physical faultfinding. = go away, not interested!

Insist that a second key is supplied by Skoda and that the missing keys RF chip data is erased from the vehicles immobiliser, this can only be done by a VAG dealer. Otherwise 2 things could happen, you lose the remaining key and then you are in for a world of trouble and expense, or you could find your new vehicle going walkies. The garage will probably just pay a mobile locksmith to clone the existing key, you dont want that for security reasons.

Mac. I think you should concentrate on completing the 5k without stopping rather than trying to go faster, if you have to stop then you are probably going too fast, better still just concentrate on endurance, how far you can jog without stopping, go as slow as you need to, the speed over the 5K will come all on its own. Last night I had to run alone, it was too hot for the 2 others who turned up, I deliberately kept to a slow pace and the only measure I had was my heart rate, for once I kept it out of the red zone and under 145bpm the whole time, my 100% is 159bpm which I exceed every time without feeling anything, I often pass 200bpm. It was 29°c and no shade, I was only a little slower at 8km/h and did 9.5km of a fairly flat run, I kept the heart rate at 135bpm until the last half when I was feeling very good and went faster upping it to 145bpm. The key to a good time is to set off slowly, my warm up is usually 4km before I am feeling OK, if I have gone too fast (and its very easy at the start) then the rest of the run is finished, there really is no point in trying to run a 5K against the clock until you can easily do 10-15k 3 times a week, listen to your body instead of looking at your watch.

Instrument binnacle is the speedo/revcounter/MFD unit. A scan with a basic OBDII code reader (not sure what the RAC use) is not going to be of any help to you, you need either dealer level diagnostics with someone competent using it (forget it!) or an independant specialist using VCDS or similar. Often they will use a Snap On or other hand held one first to avoid breaking out a laptop & dongle but if it doesn't take them deep enough they will use VCDS or similar.

It has to be removed on the pre F/L because the foglamps are all part of the same unit as the headlights. Removal is possible on the F/L but a real struggle because of poor design, its easier with the bumper off.

Why would they?