slow_nick

I tried the output test and it didn't work, just said "control unit refused command" or something like that. Tomorrow I'll log the values on the drive to work

Yes OK i'll try that, thanks. How can I test the MAF or throttle valve? I'm fairly certain it hasn't had an EGR delete, and I don't think it has had the emissions fix yet either. I have zero intention of getting the emissions fix too.

I've got an intermittent fault which is throwing the car into limp mode, a VCDS scan shows P0401 EGR flow insufficient. I assume the valve is blocked up with ****e and the solenoid is failing to actuate sometimes. Most times I get the limp mode it disappears when I re-start the engine and I won't see it again for weeks. However this past weekend it wouldn't go away no matter what, even after a decent 50 mile high RPM blast. However this morning there is no sign of the fault or limp mode, so I did some measuring in VCDS this morning idling the engine from cold and it was showing: EGR specified value 40.8% EGR solenoid valve actual value 58.81% Exhaust mass flow of EGR 16.6 kg/h So I assume I was right in that the solenoid is not actuating fully and sometimes may get stuck completely. Is there anything I can do to reliably fix this other than replacing the EGR entirely? I have been told that cleaning it doesn't really work and it's just a temporary fix. I've been looking around and there are plenty of companies offering an EGR delete at a much lower cost than replacement, and I am very tempted.

I do mainly short journeys in my car, I know it's bad for a DPF. Once a month I go for a high speed blast in 4th gear so it does a regen. Every now and then I can tell it's doing a passive regen (idle speed is raised, engine sounds rougher, and cooling fans stay on after the ignition is turned off). When that happens I go for a blast as soon as possible and it clears it. In 3 years of owning the car I've only ever had the DPF warning light come on once and I immediately did a high speed run. The light went off after about 5 miles. Haven't seen it since. Oh I also put a bottle of redex diesel in once a year too. No idea if it helps but it's only 5 quid and gives me peace of mind. I have a Carista and I know I can force a regen with it, but I've never had to. If you drive in a certain way, it will regenerate automatically. Make sure you have at least 1/4 tank of diesel, engine temp at 90, then drive in 4th gear between 2000 and 2500 rpm. You can also do it in 5th gear but this will put you over 70mph (in a 6 speed at least). You only need to do this for about 10 miles to completely clear a heavily loaded DPF.

Also worth remembering that on the facelift at least, the BCM runs the dipped beam bulbs at a slightly lower voltage (they call it "Life Time Extension") but this can be changed in VCDS

Yes...

https://caristaapp.com/adapter

Carista

I have CFHC engine on a 60 plate and mine has the newer style with the thermostat in the housing. The thermostat is pretty cheap but it's a fair old job getting to it, I was quoted 2 hours labour.

There's a microswitch in the lock assembly I think. Also worth checking the loom between the car and the bootlid to make sure no wires are broken.

You can get the digital MPH reading on the dash by changing the region of the car from UK to Australia, then in the MFD turn off "alt. speed" display (this is the km/h reading) and turn on "digital speed" or something like that. I have it on mine and I love it. It might only work with maxidot but I'm not sure. You can do it with VCDS or Cariata, if you're in the south west I could do it for you

I think these are the ones I have: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Trunk-Boot-Lights-Lamp-For-Skoda-Octavia-Fabia-Superb-Roomster-Kodiaq-2pcs-/353759011114?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 They are an absolutely amazing upgrade from the standard bulbs and a direct replacement

Yes, generally when the binding starts to happen it will only do so when the calliper is hot. And it's like a positive feedback loop because once it starts binding it gets hotter, and then binds harder, causing it to get hotter, causing it to bind harder etc. Once it has cooled down it will generally release. I had to replace both of my front callipers about a year apart, at around 130k-135k, due to binding. I started to notice the first one would start to stick when it was hot and it was obvious especially when doing a standing start on a slight uphill gradient as the car would not roll back as expected. I put it off for a few weeks as I was not driving much last year and then one night I was on an A road doing 70mph and I could smell smoke, pulled over in a layby and the calliper was literally red hot and smoking. I threw some water over it and gave it half an hour to cool down. Then drove home carefully and had it replaced the following day. Same story with the nearside calliper about 10 months later, although this one escalated a lot more quickly, I had barely noticed it binding at all and then one evening after work not even on a long or high speed drive I came out of a 40mph section of road and once again could smell the brake pad burning. Pulled over again and jacked the car up, the calliper was binding so hard I couldn't even spin the wheel by hand. Even the tyre was hot from the heat! Got the AA out, fair play absolutely excellent service from the bloke he took the calliper apart made sure there was no debris etc in it, greased the sliders or something, brushed down the pad with a wire brush, put everything back together again and followed me as I drove home. Checked the temperature of both front brakes with an IR thermometer once I was home and they were both the same at around 40 degrees nice and cool. He said it would probably be fine now but I decided to get it replaced later that week just for peace of mind. Haven't had any problems since.

It's not even Skoda specific, there's a lot of VAG models which use the same aerial. Part number 6R0035501D

Depends if you're going to do serious towing or not, e.g. regularly towing a caravan long distances. If so I would say go for one with the vehicle-specific wiring as the car can detect when a trailer is connected and does lots of clever things such as disabling the rear fog light on the car, disabling the rear parking sensors, activating trailer stability control, it even protects the trailer against theft (the car alarm will go off if the trailer is disconnected). If you're just casual towing small stuff infrequently you can probably get away with a cheap universal bypass electric kit, I have the Witter SK26U towbar on mine with quantum vertical detachable neck and folding electric socket, the whole thing is invisible when you don't need it. I wired in the 13 pin electric socket myself, I ran a 30A supply from the engine bay for the battery charging pins and a 10A supply from the fuse box for the lights, the bypass relay and audible relay are tucked neatly in behind the nearside panel in the boot, and the feeds for the lights are all spliced into the wiring to the clusters. The bypass relay does not interfere with the bulb failure warning system. As for fitting the actual towbar it's not too difficult, you need to remove the rear bumper. The towbar frame slides into the chassis rails and two big bolts go in each side from the outside. The nearside was a little tricky as the exhaust and heat shield is in the way but I managed to do it with a very long extension bar on an impact gun and I didn't have to completely drop the exhaust down although you do need to move the heat shield out of the way. From memory there are a couple of rubber grommets to run the electrics through. In total it cost me about £120 and 4 hours work - I bought a 13 pin electrics kit on eBay for £30 and also got the full SK26U towbar kit with detachable neck for £90 on a clearance sale from Witter directly - normally the detachable neck is £180 on its own! If you take it to a professional fitter you will probably expect to pay around £500 for something with universal electrics or £800 for vehicle-specific electrics.

The on-glass DAB aerials are utter ****e, save your money and buy something decent. I fitted the genuine VW shark fin aerial, DAB works flawlessly with it and it has GPS too.

+1 for Milta. I have used them before, they are absolute experts with VAG gearboxes.

Had this exact fault in my car this week, VCDS said it was rear right wheel. I drove for a bit with VCDS logging the output of all four wheel speed sensors and analysed it when I got home, sure enough the rear right was intermittently showing a much lower speed than the other three even when driving in a straight line. ABS, TCS, and TPMS lights all illuminated and "ABS/TCS unavailable" message on dash. Ended up having to replace both the wheel bearing (as the ABS ring is built into it) and the speed sensor. The ring had partially perished and a bit was loose and had worn a groove into the magnetic pickup. Total cost £178 at local garage. Doesn't even need DTC clearing, once you drive a few metres with everything working it will clear itself and all the warning lights go out.

You can get it through a VCDS scan I don't know how anyone other than Skoda can say £1300 for a pump swap. I don't know how much the pump is to buy new but the actual swap isn't a difficult job even for a non-mechanic. I got a second hand MK60EC1 (with ESP and HHC) on eBay for £90

Cool Blue Boost are not E-marked and as such Osram market them for off-road use only. Not road legal. I use the Osram Nightbreaker Laser Xenarc in mine, they are supposed to be the best drop-in replacement D1S bulbs. I am pretty happy with them. £110 for a pair though...

I have a spare one

No problem, I can't imagine the retrofit on a mk3 is too much different, although control units may be located in different places. It's a fairly involved conversion, it took me a whole day to do it and I was pretty well prepared.

Since ABS, TCS, ESP and TPMS all depend on the wheel speed sensors, if one of these has failed then most likely all of these systems are no longer operational. Whether it is a serious issue or not I suppose depends on whether you like to have proven safety systems working...

I retrofitted the indirect system on my FL. I used this kit from ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263004775932 It took me about 2 hours to do the whole job and most of that was spent removing and reinstalling the glovebox which in the end I realise wasn't necessary. The wiring in the kit piggybacks off the ESP button for its 12V power for the button illumination and also the TPMS reset signal (and ground). You will need to remove 3 wires from the ESP button connector and insert them into the new connector that comes with the kit. Then insert the wires from the kit loom into the ESP button connector. I seem to remember the wiring loom as I received it had the connector for the TPMS button wired wrong, but I studied the wiring diagrams for the car and corrected it. Next you need to feed the long red wire through into the engine bay. There is a grommet through the bulkhead in the passenger footwell up high and to the left. I removed the glovebox to get to it but it is possible to do it without. Reinstalling the glovebox is a PITA and I wouldn't want to do that again. In the engine bay remove the battery so you can access the ABS pump. Disconnect the large plug on the side and disassemble it so you can get to the connector block inside. If your ABS pump is an MK60EC1, you need to connect the red wire to pin 35. You'll have to push out a tiny rubber bung that's in the connector. Put the connector back together and reconnect it to the ABS pump making sure you lock the connector on. In VCDS under ABS controller you need to enable I think Byte 3 Bit 0. There are at least two other checkboxes on other pages about TPMS, those are for the direct system, so ignore them. Once coded you should see the TPMS warning light briefly illuminate when you turn the ignition on. Press and hold the reset button and the light will illuminate and then extinguish and you will hear a chime. That means the system is going to learn your current pressures. I apologise for the photos being terrible

If you have a mk2, the AFS master control unit is behind the climate control panel. Each headlamp unit has an AFS slave control unit attached to the back of it. The slaves are connected to the master by CAN bus and the master is connected to the CAN gateway by CAN bus. The CAN gateway is buried down behind the steering wheel, if you have small hands and long arms you can get to it from the bottom. I think the official route to it is from the engine bay, but it is a fair bit of work. You probably could get Skoda to retrofit the xenon headlights if you paid them enough money. But I expect it will cost almost as much as a decent second hand mk2 which already has xenons...the headlamp units are about £600 each new without any bulbs, then there's a fair bit of labour too. A few people on this board (myself included) have done the retrofit. If you're fairly mechanically and technically minded, you can probably do it.