rum4mo

Actually maybe the short answer is that for small light cars, like Fabia, Polo, Ibiza, the rear disc brakes do not get enough passed their way and so normally end their service life due to corrosion on the discs and not by reaching their wear limit, it sounds like your wife's car was fitted with exceptional "good" discs at the factory, by chance, and then fitted with normal discs next time.

I thought that I read that VW Group were supplying and fitting cheaper service parts, in some cases, to cars over a certain age - like a "5+ years old" cheaper option as they had worked out that owners of older cars did not necessarily want genuine service parts used, well at least I'm meaning consumables like discs, pads and shoes. VX used to do that back in 1990s so I'd think many other marques were doing the same thing for the same reasons - mind you, in my case, I valued my beloved VX GSI 4X4 Cav and only bought bits from VX because I wanted genuine replacement parts, the steep fall in brake parts prices was what drove me to ask the question and I didn't like the answer I got, same for centre exhaust parts which only lasted a few years, naughty beggars not asking when I was ordering stuff from my dealer! Many VAG Indies will use "good as OEM" to save customers money, and this seems to apply to suspension parts and other consumables, where they have found that doing that just might not work, they will stick with genuine VAG parts to save their name and their customer base. I'm sure that I've spotted new products on shelves at my local VAG Indie and I trust them to have made a good choice, I've never ever, so far, bought and fitted VAG genuine brake discs and pads, and that covers VAG cars we as a family have owned from new and run for 10 > 13 years and 85K > 105K miles. I've tended to use Pagid discs where possible and one of the mainland Europe based TMD Friction for pads, ie Textar and Pagid, my wife's 2015 VW Polo I seem to remember has Jurid branded front pads, still the originals, so maybe I'll replace with same when the time comes. I've normally found that VW and SEAT front discs rust quite quickly as do VW rear discs, any of these cars that I've replaced the originals with Pagid tended to stay looking "good" for their entire (wear) life for the front, and most of their (wear) life on the rear. Now, if that equates to being better in braking performance when newish when compared with VW Group original fit, I can't say. My 2011 Audi S4, according to the original service records, as it was bought slightly used, got all its disc and pads replaced at around the 2 year mark due to slight vibration - and I've owned it from July 2013 and considerably under used it, and its front and rear discs are still in excellent condition - ie no surface irregularities, so it seems that at least the genuine VAG replacement parts were okay on that one. I can't say where I'll get new parts from for that car, but I'd think that Audi's pricing would scare me off!

Interesting, I'd just put that down to bushes in general hardening with age and coated with salt from the winter driving, I'd also considered that it seems all VW Group cars that use the same sort of front top rubber mounting, do, with time, seem to need that top mounting "lubricated"! I'll check the lower gearbox mounting at service time, seems like some people replace the 1.2TSI one for a TDI version to make it more durable, but maybe with increased noise/vibration, I've already got all the fixing bolts for that after ordering all possible bolts needed to re-align the carrier/subframe! AT the moment that noise is temperature and rain dependant so not a big issue, and will probably become less so as we move into Summer, I've got a couple of chipped and rusting areas on the ARB so they will get attended to this Summer, and maybe even check the ARB mounting bushes and drop links. Edit:- lower arm rear vertical mounting bushes still looking good though, only the centre joining sleeve of the exhaust to add to my list for this year, as it is getting badly corroded, or at least its clamps are - which is extremely normal for VW Group cars.

Yes, a good plan to fit new Oetiker bands - but only if you have the rack off the car! Trying to fit these new bands when the rack is on the car is a nasty way to waste an hour or so, as above, a suitable black cable tie is maybe the only solution, worked for me on the late 2009 Ibiza, I might just have succeeded refitting the old bands when I did that job on the 2002 Polo though, maybe I had more patience back then! I seem to remember that one side has a rubber sleeve over the end of the rack just to make life a bit harder.

Generally I agree, that engine fitted to the 6 speed man trans is very good fuel usage wise, my wife's August 2015 VW Polo is more used locally, but still achieves over 60MPG on 10>15 mile runs, in fact one "weakness" with a car that performs like that is, I find myself trying to improve its fuel usage, which annoys my wife, it also has destroyed my enjoyment of driving my own car - which is a bit annoying, I need to develop a different "driving brain" for driving my wife's car and my when I'm driving my car!

I've been told that these front bolts being wet is "normal" and sometimes, I suppose due to location, water sometimes runs out when these 2 front bolts are removed, and this has been like this over several generations of VAG cars, which sounds like someone missed a trick when designing that area. Though if very few of these bolts actually fail, then maybe I'm just unlucky - but annoyed! I'll aim to get some anti rust fluid down into that area, just how successful I end up being, remains to be seen! One way could be to buy another 4 new bolts, pump in plenty Waxoyl from below, fit the new bolt and torque + angle, then give the bolt head a long slow heat up to flow the Waxoyl back down around the bolt, repeat on the other side. Edit:- part of that plan would be to attempt to keep Waxoyl off the top end of the bolt thread as if that ended up on the section of the bolt that passes into the "nut" then that would mess up the end load on the bolt head.

Car has now been sorted out, ie all bolts replaced and returned to me and 4 wheel geometry checked and adjusted, the camber on the RHS was at its limit of -58' and the toe'ng was well out LHS +21' and RHS -23' - which would be what has caused a bit of uneven wear across the front directional winter tyres and making them a bit noisy, hopefully that and not a wheel bearing(s) issue, swopping over to summer times soon will prove/disprove that theory! The front bolt from the other side has quite a bit of surface rust but not rusted deeply into the bolt shank as the sheared had, this bolt was still wet when I collected the car 3 hours after it had been worked on and the rusting is quite far up that bolt, that car has not been out on wet roads since 14th April, so 2 weeks later there is still water in the cavity that is formed by that bolt's head and the subframe metalwork - that is not good! I'll need to see if I can get Waxoyl or some more creeping rust proofing into that area to try to preserve these new bolts. The 2 rear bolts look very clean so that area must be okay.

So your car is a 2013 car, ie 9 years old and it has "used" 2 batteries in that time, first one would have been an EFB and the last one was an AGM, I'd expect a lot longer than 9 years to have "used" 2 batteries - though maybe that AGM battery from Kwikfit was not "good" quality, I wonder if Kwikfit recoded that car for having an AGM battery, just curious about that last bit.

No, no, either I've written it wrongly/badly or you have read it wrongly, the 70Nm is correct for the 4 main subframe fixings, it is the additional angle that I was commenting on, I only mentioned the"40Nm" setting as its additional angle is the same as the Polo one, ie "+45 deg" - that was all. It would be good for everyone if both of us had found the same figure for the subframe bolts. I've found this in the past when comparing an Ibiza torques with a same age Polo, and questioned Haynes about it but they said that they were quoting the official VW workshop manual - at that time they had not published a repair manual for the same age Ibiza - and that question was for the torque for the nuts on the control arm swivels, which at that time, a few years ago, were a lot higher than the torque listed in your diagram above - but now the official VW workshop manual gives the same torque as your diagram above, which is 40Nm +45 deg. Maybe, just maybe, at that time a single figure was given instead of the now an initial torque figure and an additional 45 deg tightening. My interest in the torque for these 4 subframe fixings comes from "just happening" to find the head of one of these bolts on my garage floor - and no one other than the assembly line in South Africa will have touched these bolts from July 2015 build until now, but that is another story, bolts and re-alignment will take place later this week!

It could be one of the flap motors hunting due to contamination on the positional feedback potentiometer. Known in some cars as the grandfather clock effect!

I'm sure that any VW Group cars that I've owned or looked after, that had a hex on the end of the genuine VW Group filter, and also same on the manufacturer's own branded, ie without VW Group branding filter spin on can filters, had a torque value printed onto them, so I always applied a spot of clean oil on the seal, and torqued them up when fitting them. Only spin on filter cans that I've found tricky to remove were the ones fitted at original engine plant, without exception they were tricky to get off probably due to being fitted without any oil on their ring seal.

Just one observation, I have the official VW workshop manual for the equivalent Polo and when checking both 2010>2014 and 2015>2018, the torque for the subframe securing bolts are 70Nm +90deg which is a less than the above torque of 70Nm + 180deg - I wonder if that is an error, all the other torques with have "+90deg" are the same for the Polo of the same age, as are the "40Nm + 45deg" - strange. Edit:- both cars use the same 4 bolts for securing the subframe to the body, by the way.

Even a lot more so for cars that have traction batteries built into them, I'd think, which is not good at all!

My local VW Group Indie has now re-opened for business after Easter break, so car is booked in for 28th April.

If that has had been overtightened, it could only have happened at initial assembly in South Africa, and like the "popping off" high pressure fuel rail screws on the 1.2TSI and 1.4TSI engines, it should have happened to quite a few cars over a period in time. If I'm correct on how/why it corroded so much, I'm guessing that the threaded section and its captive nut will also be rusted up to bug--y and will not be willing just to unscrew, so yes, nut welding on as a minimum, lowering subframe maybe - and that might bring with it some other bolts not being exactly willing to come out with their heads still on, and that is my concern.

You would like to think so, but "out of warranty = out of our hands" seems to be plan.

As normal for me, bad timing, younger daughter and her hubby have come up from London for Easter so my car will need to get used, plus my local VW Group Indie is not answering his phone, so I'm guessing not open for a few days. At least local VW dealer parts department is open so I've taken the worst case situation and ordered in items, 3, 4, 6, 12 and 13. I'd think that it will be only the one on the other side, if it is similarly "boxed in" will also be rusting badly, but just in case the subframe needs lowering, I've prepared for that - I think! I've forgotten how similar the subframe on the 9N and the late 2009 Ibiza is to this 2015 Polo, in case it is a possibility on these models, to be frank, if that bolt had not turned up on the garage floor, I'd be still driving that car around, maybe, just maybe that bolt shank having been expanded due to heavy rusting, is what is stopping the subframe from moving or flexing, everything seems fine when driving that car.

Here is a pic!

As per the title, but not on a MK3 Fabia but a 2015 6C VW Polo 1.2TSI - which will be identical to a MK3 Fabia in the area of the support frame bolts. The bolt nearest the ARB mounting clamp on the near side failed, with I think is due to road spray including road salt getting in behind/above the collared bolt head and causing the bolt shank to corrode/waist until the bolt head popped off - and ended up on my garage floor! I can't say when this happened as the sheared face of the bolt remains and the bolt head are heavily rusted across - but the "upper" surface of the collared bolt, ie the face that was in contact with the support frame metalwork is about 80% shiny metal, well maybe less than 80% as the rust is obviously covering what was the over sized bolt hole in the support frame and slight rusting is evident from the outer edge of the collar on the bolt head, but then there is a clean area all the way round the collar - I'm including that point as it seems that this bolt head has ended up closing off any chance of accumulated water getting thrown up onto this bolt, draining back out again. (I had a similar type of thing happen with my old 1991 VX Cav GSI 4X4, but on it, it was the ARM link that failed or its fixing nut and part of the threaded end parted company with the rest of the ARB link - in that case, road spray was able to get in from under the rubbers and stay trapped in the oversized hole in maybe the track control arm instead of draining back out.) I'll be letting my trusted VW Group Indie take care of that as they might manage to weld a bolt/nut to the end of that bolt and get it out, if not the support frame will need to get dropped and the car given a 4 wheel realignment, very annoying. I've not known that to happen to the late 2009 SEAT Ibiza of my wife's old 2002 VW Polo over the time that we had them, 10 and 13 years respectively - but having said that, I would not have been any the wiser until I had looked under this 2015 VW Polo - the rusty bolt head on the garage floor was the clue today! Maybe "check your bolts"!

True, but, the current theory is that the steel mesh etc which is all there is in most modern cars, is only there to capture crap from "rogue" fuel, and that would start to cause a drop in fuel delivery due to a problem with the fuel delivered into the fuel tank. So, in the past, it was assumed that all fuel supplies were slightly dirty particle wise and so a replaceable fuel filter was provided, now in developed countries, it is assumed that fuels are clean.

By the way, it is normally not a huge problem if the trolley jack drops back down slowly while the wheel is off, just an inconvenience, you will restore things by pumping it back up when it is time to refit the wheel. I've made adaptors/spreaders for using a trolley jack with both our cars, from a suitable hard wood and shape it to suit and lined it with thickish hard rubber on the bearing surfaces and thinner rubber to line the slot for the folded seam, make sure that if you end up doing this that you find out what heights for the bearing surfaces work for your car as not all cars have the flat areas at the same height - ie the inner and outer ones, although some do! Also the same for the slot width at all 4 points and obviously aim to have the car resting on the flat surfaces with free space all around the folded metalwork. I made all my adaptors for above the trolley jack cup about 6>9 inches long to spread the load - so far that has worked for 9 years with my S4 which is quite heavy and 7 years with my wife's 2015 VW Polo, I've used the set I made for the 2011 S4 on my daughter's 2019 Leon Cupra which should be the same as your Octavia, or near enough. As I tend to get under all the cars that I seem to need to, I have gone a lot further and instead of what I claimed I had done, I bought a set of 4 Jackpoint jack stands in from USA on a group buy I found on the Porsche UK owners website - directed to there by Google! So I modified the top sections of the Jackpoint jack stands by fitting suitable hard wood adaptors to the top surfaces, by doing that I can just use these top sections and 2 trolley jacks if only swopping winter<>summer wheels, or with the jack stand bases/tables if getting both sides up and working under it - it does not sound like you could justify buying all that stuff as you are not planning on doing much work on your car, I was just shocked when I first looked under that car after buying it and thinking that getting it up in the air and safely supporting it looked a bit challenging s that was the first car that I had owned that seemed to be completely covered in plastic panels underneath. I am just outlining what I did to get that S4 up in the air, with the VW Polo which has more ground clearance, I made up a set of 4 suitable spacers to fix to the top of the adaptors I made for the S4, they need to be used with a lot more care due to the overall height being greater - but still very stable once the car is up in the air on both sides. I honestly don't know why no one in the DIYer UK market has not come up with a cheaper simple system for getting modern cars up in the air safely so that you can work safely under it! I also built a set of 4 very wide and long ramps out of large bits of wood, for the times that I don't need to remove the wheels, only using 2 of them when changing engine oil.

I've edited my posting above, a couple of BOAs is even better, one BIG and one small! I'm very surprised that VW Group has ended up leaving virtually no room to fit a cup wrench though - have you tried from below as well as above, as I'd reckon that all cars will be designed for periodic servicing when on a lift/hoist.

I like Boa Constrictor strap wrenches, I've had a couple for many many years, a BIG one and a smallish one - big one is probably still out on loan!! Edit:- just one comment on your thoughts on getting a replacement spin on/off filter that had a hex on the end - is that not just aftermarket copying, correctly, what VW Group etc defined as being the correct style of filter canister, in other words, if, as it seems, newer cars come with the "multi flats" at the end of the filter, then they are designed for use with a cup wrench and earlier cars come with the hex on the end, so you would normally only ever be able to buy even from aftermarket "like for like" and so no choice in changing "style/type", unless I'm wrong of course!

Sometimes the next "size" up is cheaper due to present usage/demand, that was the way it was when I bought a new battery for my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI - but remember if you choose to do that, check that the battery tray can handle the next size up, VW Polo at least, use a different battery tray for each of the battery sizes - though I think that you could possibly just cut the raised lip off at one end and let the battery slightly overhang or maybe just sit on top of where that raised lip was. Edit:- that 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI (16V) 110PS came from factory with a 027 size battery which is 59Ah and 242mm long, I am replacing that with a slightly cheaper 096 size battery which is 70Ah and is 278mm long and is an AGM - that was my choice at the time of organising getting hold of a replacement battery, probably overkill - as usual!

Casting my mind back many years, I sort took an interest in this type of switch as I was looking after a late 2009 SEAT Ibiza that had that type of "brake switch", and so preparing for if/when I needed to sort it out. I thought that at one point VW Group were selling a kit with both a new switch and a new sensor part - due it was suggested at the time that there might have been a slight misalignment issue, ie a slight design dimensional problem on some master cylinders - but remember that is just a "I think I remember reading" and not a fact based on experience. Other possible issues with this switch's switching seem to have based on chaffing of wires - but in every case that I've read, which were all on SEAT Ibizas, the people that posted either never came back with a full description of what wires were chaffed/damaged and where, which is annoying, when their garage solved their problem, or in other's case, just a opening post - then gone for ever! There used to be a "too long" bolt fitting into a body rail/stiffener that was said to cause some of these wiring issues, as yet I have never removed that bolt and cut it down to size to avoid that ever happening on my wife's 2015 VW Polo, or that late 2009 SEAT Ibiza or a 2002 VW Polo - okay only 2 of them had/have that hall effect switch on the MC, but I really should sort out that bolt as cables press against the tapered smooth end of that bolt, and that kind of annoys me! Sorry not an absolute "do this" solution, but maybe food for thought. You do indeed seem to be getting some horrible weather in that part of Oz.