pingpongpete1

Cheers Gaz. I was fearing the worst, too. I was bit shocked to find you couldn't just check the dipstick and top fluid up! I'm way behind the tech times. But I'm pleased to say it may be alright after all, at least enough to get me the 300 or so miles to the ferry and home. I left it overnight to cool down totally, and then started it and drove gently on as level roads as I could find in A Coruna. The transmission was a bit clunky at the very beginning, then started behaving normally, including getting into fifth smoothly. I think it was a combination of some ultra-steep underground car park slopes in hot weather, the after effects of a fair bit of mountain driving, and (classic me....) the fact that for the first time in 50k miles with me the transmission had somehow been knocked into sporty mode. So fingers crossed we should be able to get home and get any fault code/s analysed. After the water leak last month (which turned out to be a leak in the pump, not just the thermostat housing), I was convinced I'd held onto this car too long - but I'm hoping it will go for another good few thousand miles yet.

Smell of hot clutch fluid getting out of an underground car park, and then car not going above fourth gear....... anything I can do myself to check transmission fluid or anything else? In Spain, and seemingly in trouble. We've been over a month away, so any breakdown cover no longer valid? Does it have to go to a VAG dealer?

Just a naive question on this general issue....... why does the analogue temperature gauge on my Octavia always come up to 90 and stay there religiously, when the digital temperature readout is going anywhere from (roughly) 85 to 105?

Well, being pretty useless at DIY, I was grateful for the help I've had so far from the garage guy - The Garage, 2 Petit Confolens, between Droux and Bellac, if anyone is in the Haute Vienne region and needs help. He is pretty sure it's a leak from the thermostat housing - he showed me where there was evidence of that. He's ordered the part and we're booked in to have it fitted on Tuesday afternoon. Fingers crossed it works - it's such a good car. First issue I've had with it in 7 or 8 years.

Amazingly I've found a fairly local English-speaking garage who have agreed to look at it. I'll take it tomorrow morning and hope they can do a pressure test there and then. As I was on my way this morning to check the garage out I had a call from a recovery vehicle saying they were on their way to collect the car..... This after I had explained the situation to the AA yesterday and said what I would be doing. The guy at the garage said he definitely didn't recommend sealant except as a get-you-home last resort. He seems good. The oil seems clean, so hoping it's something fairly simple like a split pipe or a hose connector come loose. It's a great old car so I hope I can keep it going for many more miles. Much much nicer than the new (17km) Mazda MX30 hire car I had via the AA.

Me too. 2014 1.2 Octavia, 120K miles. Long drive through France in very hot weather. Red light came on. Added coolant. Red light came on again 100 miles later, added water. Same again 50 miles later. Just been checking and adding water. It does 50 miles with only maybe 200ml loss. AA say they couldn't find any one to fix it after a week of trying (!) and want to repatriate the car (!!). As we're planning on carrying on through France into Spain to meet with family, then taking the Santander ferry back, that's not an option. I'm going to try a fairly local garage. I also bought some Metal5 radiator sealant. Worth a try? Before or after going to the garage to see if they can do anything?

I have to take it in where they have the gear to do that.

Well, being a tech idiot, I got our lovely local garage to order a battery and come out the 150 metres & fit it. Good job they did, because I was just about to wreck the nearside front door handle trying to get to a non-existent real lock. Turns out that (against what I had been told) the real lock is where it ought to be - in the driver's side under the little clip-on cover. Then of course we still couldn't open the passenger door to undo the bonnet lever... but it's just about possible to open it with the door shut. Just. New battery installed, and everything sprang back to life. Phew.

Thanks for the experiences - useful.

I knew I shouldn't have been smug about my Octavia's battery. It had been completely reliable in all conditions, including stop/start at times. Drove it yesterday, fine. Then this morning, parked outside the house, the alarm goes off, can't be stopped, and the keys won't function. The flashers were a dim orange. (It was confusing because there was a road maintenance lorry parked in front of it with its orange flashers on... I thought I was seeing a reflection until it pulled away and the weak orange flashing carried on.) I'm presuming the battery just suddenly died. I think it might have been the original, which (11 years, 11000 miles) is pretty good going. I'm hoping I can get in with the key in the passenger door. Local garage have ordered a new battery. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

Hi. Yes, amazingly. So I paid Arnold Clark 23.4K for the car, delivered from the north of Scotland to Devon, then I sold it four months later to the Skoda main dealer in Exeter for 22.2K, with a couple of small cosmetic faults mentioned. Given how much you normally lose as soon as you buy from a dealer, and then again if you sell to a dealer....... I got very lucky indeed.

Good idea. I'm not sure how much of a contract a bid accepted on Motorway is...

Maybe they have a customer who has been asking for one like this.... I'm a bit worried they haven't got further in organising collection so far.

This looks like it is now sold via Motorway to the local main dealer - amazingly for a considerably higher price than I was asking here. If they don't beat me down by much when they see the car, it will be a surprisingly good deal.

If you have breakdown cover elsewhere I'd use that.

Make & Model: May 2024 Octavia SE L TSI DSG 1.5 petrol automatic mild hybrid estate Colour: Lava blue Mileage: 9200 Price: £21000 Description: Excellent mild hybrid estate, registration SB24TKO, less than 14 months old (registered May 30 2024), and about 9200 miles. Condition: I bought this in February 2025. I can’t normally afford cars anywhere near as new as this, but I was tempted. The idea was to use it as a part business car, and get some tax benefit from that. Unfortunately, our accountants had failed to tell me they had only kept our van in the accounts, and had removed our private vehicle completely. So this needs to be re-sold. I had kept my 2014 Octavia estate, because it’s a perfectly good old car with a towbar and very cheap road tax and insurance, so I’ll go back to that. To be honest, the other reason for selling this very lovely car is that I am old, and not very tech-savvy. There are clever bits of this car that I still haven’t really worked out. I love the way that my spotify carries on seamlessly when I get in the car, and the way google maps transfers to the infotainment screen – but some of the complicated stuff escapes me. OK, the steering and handling is superb, but the old 2014 Octavia (while no way as good) is perfectly OK. Lane assist is great on big roads, but is a bit of a nuisance in country lanes – I always switch it off. The same for the safety factors too – the collision avoidance system doesn’t seem to understand that narrow country lanes have foliage sticking way out into the road at this time of year. If you reverse towards foliage it will brake pretty instantaneously and the first time that happens, you’ll think you’ve hit something solid – which you haven’t. Economy is excellent, thanks to the mild hybrid 48V 58Ah battery and regeneration system which means that going downhill or braking improves consumption. On a 20-mile cross-country drive (remembering Devon is not exactly flat) I got 60mpg one time. The system seems brilliantly designed. Very smooth 7-speed auto transmission (Tiptronic, so you can over-ride it if you feel like it – I never felt the need). It’s a beautiful looking car, with a colour described as blue in the V5, which I think is Lava Blue – it generally looks a smart, quite sedate dark blue, but becomes almost iridescent blue/green in certain light conditions. I love it. The internal finish is excellent, too - the seats are super-comfortable, finished in alcantara, which is an excellent suede-like material, and the door etc finishes are very smart. It has the variable height boot floor, very useful. Alloy wheels, 17-inch, low rolling resistance tyres which give a very good ride. Long, variable service intervals. Hill start assist and auto handbrake when you come to a standstill –very useful. Multi-function steering wheel – tiptronic, audio controls, other system controls, and adaptive cruise control. Excellent virtual cockpit and large infotainment screen. Parking sensors in front as well as rear with good display on the infotainment screen, forward collision radar system - the car can also react to speed limits if you choose - daytime running lights, excellent LED headlights. Heated front seats (I know it’s useless right now, but think ahead to the winter – I’m a total convert to heated seats). Powered, auto-dimming heated wing mirrors. Keyless locking, unlocking and starting. Lots of USB sockets, including one near the rearview mirror for a dashcam. Mobile phone interface, Android Auto and Apple Play. The sound system is excellent. Built-in sat nav. Tinted rear windows all round, and heat-insulating side windows front and rear. Superb safety features including electronic stability control, driver alert system, pan-European emergency call service (I think - never used it!), front and knee airbags, side airbag in front with curtain airbag in front. Stupidly it comes with a tyre inflation kit instead of a spare wheel. All very well until you get a blowout - a rescue service will have a temporary spare but will only gt you to a tyre scentre and claim their wheel back. That's no good out of hours. I bought a get-you-home spare which would fit in the compartment under the boot with a bit of modification of the polystyrene there – which I haven’t done. The tyre looks small compared with the road tyre but I’m reliably assured it is the correct one. The inflation kit is what was supplied when I bought the car from Arnold Clark. There seem to be one or two vacant spaces in the polystyrene insert but I don’t know if anything is missing. Complete with the luggage cover, metal boot divider, owner’s manual, Skoda car data printout, two keys, security wheelnut and of course V5. No umbrella! I discovered how hard it is to take decent photos of a car - mine aren't very flattering to say the least. The car seats for instance are in perfect condition, but don't really look it in the photos. VIN (vehicle identification number): TMBKR8NX5RY194428. Emission standard EU6 AP. Any known faults? The driver’s side mirror makes a bit of a noise as it moves. Voice control quite often doesn’t understand a request. There are some marks on the boot sill. I didn’t mind that when I bought it because it stopped me worrying about being the first person to make it less than 100% perfect. The local valeting service recently shut down here, so it is not as immaculate as it should be – but it is still very good indeed. Apart from the marks on the boot sill mentioned, and a little mark on the right-hand boot inner upright, I have honestly seen no other mark that isn’t road dirt etc.. (In a country area it is difficult to keep anything spotless for more than five minutes.) Obviously it has nearly two years’ manufacturer warranty left, and won’t need an MOT for that time too. The Skoda printout for this car says ‘Q16 Service indicator 30 000km or 2 years (variable)’. Arnold Clark have a system where they notify the owner when a service is necessary, and I think the car infotainment system probably does as well. I paid £23362 for the car in February, which was easily the best price I could find for a similar model with all the features I wanted. I’ve done about 2500 miles at a guess. Never taken any kids in it, never smoked, never eaten food, only taken back seat passengers once – and I’m pretty certain the Arnold Clark exec, the previous owner from new, didn’t either. I’m looking for £21250 or near offer, payable by bank transfer. You’re more than welcome to ask for a test drive. It will be located in Crediton, EX17 1**, Devon - a bit easier to get to than my home address. Contact me for the exact location and to organise a test drive. If you want to drive it yourself you’ll need your driving licence and proof of temporary comprehensive insurance for when you drive it. Alternatively, I’ll drive you with pleasure. I can be around most times with notice. You could probably buy a similar example from a dealer for a couple of thousand pounds more. It would be better valeted, for sure, and the photos would be better - but I don't think it would be better value. Service History/Receipts/Recent Service work: Not reached the first service interval yet - the car will flag up when it is needed, and I think Arnold Clark do as well. Extras: As above Mods: none Shipping: n/a Collection: Crediton, Devon Pictures: <attach as many or as few as you want within the limits>

After a few months being too busy to do much about this.... the cheap spare wheel I bought on eBay seems way too small to be safe on the MkIV even as a get-you-home at 50mph max. It's the same type as the one I bought for my MkIII. This MkIV SE L e-tec estate seems to have very different wheels and tyres. So I'm thinking of buying a full-size spare if I can find one at a reasonable price. The wheel well looks, er, well big enough to fit it in. I'd then worry about fitting a tool set later.

No. After the PHEV Octavia from Motorpoint proved not what I wanted, I looked on their site to find a non-PHEV alternative but there wasn't one that had exactly what I wanted. So I looked elsewhere, and that turned out to be Arnold Clark.

I bought a plug-in Octavia estate via Motorpoint, and was a bit rude about them at the time. As it happens, because there were delays with the payment (probably because of a new person working in their office) the delivery was rushed, and the car had a few niggles. I'm sure they would have sorted them. But, mainly because the Octavia boot space is the biggest selling point for me, I was shocked by the difference the battery made, and asked for the car to be returned. I fully expected to lose the £299 door-to-door delivery charge. I've just had the repayment, and it included everything I paid. So they covered not only the cost of getting it back, but also the cost of getting it to me, without being asked to. That's pretty impressive, I think.

My house is right on the road, and I park very close to our front door. We keep all our keys just inside the front door. The car (24 reg pre-FL) has keyless entry. Three or four times now (in the couple of days since I got the car) I've noticed the red LED on the key fobs flashing, while they are sitting supposedly inert, a long time after use. Is this a problem, and if so is there a solution? Plus... the fobs are on key-rings with front door keys etc. . If we go out of the front door and don't use the car, we'll still be walking very close to it. Will it unlock the car and leave the contents at risk?

Thanks, very useful. When the spare arrives I'll a.) check it fits OK in use (other threads have got me worried) b.) order a toolkit and c.) think of some good sound-deadening and heat-insulating material that it can sit in.

That's a shame! They must use them at the factory but I guess they would take up a lot of space to store as a spare part.

Does anyone have the part number for the large expanded polystyrene piece that the spare wheel and tool kit would sit in? I could improvise something but as the car is far newer than any other I ever owned it seems a shame to do that if the proper part isn't too expensive. It's presumably important for sound-proofing too. Quite surprised there isn't much other sound-proofing under the boot. I like your idea for extra sound-proofing.

Having had a couple of blowouts in the last 12 years, I definitely rate a spare wheel as a must - especially with the state of the roads currently. After the second blowout I bought a cheap wheel & rim off eBay for my old 2014 Octavia estate, which just sat happily in the well in the boot and (of course) never got used. I thought it would be dead simple to do the same for my newly-acquired 24 pre-FL Octavia estate. So I bought a very cheap spare off eBay... but when it arrives, where do I fit it? My old estate had a sensible (brilliant) boot with a level surface through with the rear seats down (well, as level as possible). This one has the variable boot floor which everyone raves about..... (why?? 🐵 ) Under the second layer, there's a massive polystyrene lump in the wheel well partly filled by the inflation kit and nothing else. See the pic. (It seems to be missing lots of other bits like a jack etc., which I will ask Arnold Clark about.) But do Skoda (or anyone else) do a polystyrene insert for a spare wheel?

Thanks - same issue for me with my lovely '24 reg Octavia. I'll contact the dealership and see what they say.