DSL

You just have to be nice to her, with lots of whispering sweet nothings in her ear. 🤣 Saying that, expect my mpg to tank as I haven’t sat in Skippy, or whispered anything to her, since the last refuel at the end of July as now on a 3 month trip in Canada. She’s not going to be happy! 😁

Re 2.0 TDi 4x4 DSG mpg, this is just over 2 years of real world (fuel in vs distance done) figs. 👍

Saw one one in the flesh today, deffo more like an Ateca than Karoq, mostly from the rearmost side window. Didn’t get a good look, was in the back if a minibus as it passed going the other way. Will keep eyes peeled when back in drivers seat from tomorrow onwards. Getting bored with mentally ticking off Canadian province and US state plates. 👍

Seen a good few VWs over here, mix of Tiguans, bigger VW SUVs and “normal” cars, but only few Audis. Really rare, but out there, would be modern Volvos. Lots and lots and lots of Far Eastern, incl our Corolla hire car, and almost as many Yank Tank pickups & SUVs. Deffo no Skodas. Strangely enough also seen one UK car, an old defender, a Dutch campervan and a Swiss pickup/camper pod combo. Hmmmmmm, wonder if Skippy would like a long ferry ride.

Seen a few adds here in Canada for the VW Taos. Wasn’t really paying attention but first thoughts were “hang on, Skoda doesn’t sell here” as if looks so like a Karoq apart from the front end styling. Karoq in a VW frock or something different?

Look on the bright side, with senior moments comes senior discounts. 👍

One of the reasons I went for the specific Conti winter tyres I have is that they not directional so the spare can happily go on either side. It significantly narrowed down the tyre types available but more than happy with the choice and they have performed brilliantly in 2 Highland winters, one of which was proper wintery. 👍

I regularly(ish) do journeys that start at ~4am and are ~550 miles in total. If I have a puncture at the start of that journey (think A9 in winter) and I can’t sort it out quickly (DIY, not waiting hours for a breakdown chap) it means adding an overnight stop to that trip. If I have an identical spare I can just press on regardless, plus no 50km/50mph limits of a skinny wheel. I know the chances of needing the spare are low but it’s the old risk vs consequences, low risk but PITA consequences. Most of the tyre swaps I’ve had to do have been on my drive when I find I’ve got a near flat tyre so it can go in the boot to get sorted next time I’m passing a tyre place. Plus the tyre that has been put on stays on and the repaired tyre becomes the spare. Also if I have to use the spare when on the road I’m not at all worried re driving around on the spare with the dead tyre in the boot to sort out at my leisure, chances of needing another spare that week should be about zero. I wouldn’t bother with full sized spare if I just pootled around locally but driving from one end(ish) of the country to t’other my perceived needs are somewhat different from most peeps. To the point of having an identical spare for both summer and proper winter tyres. You can never be too paranoid! LOL.

There is another option to the standard space saver kit, full sized alloy in cover mounted to the side of the boot. Bit left field but works a treat. Makes a deeper but narrower boot and lots of stuff can be stashed behind the wheel (jack, tools, etc). No piddling around with space savers or different tyre sizes. Not for everybody but works for me.

This has prob been asked may times, maybe even by myself, but is there any easy way to tell which gearbox a particular Karoq has? Mine’s a 2.0 TDi 4x4 and I think it’s a DQ381 from previous discussions but is there any way to actually check? My car will be 3 years old in Dec so will get the Haldex oil changed then, even though it will have only done ~16k miles by then.

I was just pointing out the obvious in jest, but I do find occasionally I’m on the wrong side in a kind of “oops, something’s wrong here” moment. It’s never on the road but usually a supermarket car park. For me the risk point is when I feel comfortable driving on t’other side and make the mistake of thinking I don’t need to keep saying “stick to the ditch side”. Saying that, in 2 weeks time I’ll be in a hire car on t’other side in Canada but it’ll be the first time on the right with a steering wheel on the wrong side!

And re title, you normally drive on the right in France. Though it does seem optional some of the time.👍

Absolutely. 👍

Thanks for everybody’s help. 👍 Both cars now tucked up in the garage with Mrs DSL’s car’s battery fully charged then disconnected, Karoq is on the CTEK. I used the ring connecters that came with the CTEK to put a socket in the engine bay, positive directly on to the +ve term and the -ve connected to the earth “tongue”, not to the -ve terminal. Removing & reattaching the nut on the -ve thingie was OK but removing the nut from the +ve terminal’s bolt was a bit of a b****r and resulted in a bit of stripped thread. Luckily I managed to get it all back together and all is secure again. I should have just put the ring on and slapped another nut on the top but didn’t think of that until tried to get the original nut back on. 😡 Only a couple of sleeps until two months Interrailing round parts of Europe starts. Back to travelling, just hoping Covid doesn’t bung a monkey wrench in our plans.

A mere 6ft here, no problems on long trips with the longest drive being 610 miles in one day. 👍 The seat swab is a bit shorter than I was used to in previous cars but not an issue as I tend to be on CC as much as possible.

Will do, thanks for the heads up. I’m used to just connecting the charger up and flipping the power on switch, will make sure it’s in the right mode. 👍

I got the charge bit right, that’s not too bad considering how long ago we bought it and haven’t thought of the proper name. Will use that on SWMBO’s Jazz as it doesn’t seem to worry a bit about what’s connected to it. 👍

MXS is now on its way here via Amazon, should be here tomorrow so enough time to get it set up before we head off. Thanks all, should save me a lot of hassle when we get back. Now got to explain to Skippy that we’re doing a trip by train and he’s staying in the garage. 🤨

Was looking at CTEKs on Amazon this morning, might well pull the trigger on one. 👍 Strange.y enough my trickle charger is an old Porsche Chargomatic that I bought for a Boxter I owned a long, long time ago. It seemed to get a flat battery after a long weekend.

Would disconnecting the battery cause a problem? Again, leaving the bonnet cracked so when we get back I’d fully charge it and then power the car back up. I’m thinking along the lines of if the car is disconnected for 5 minutes or 5 months it’s not going to know the difference. Unfortunately the trickle charger I have is almost 35 years old so deffo doesn’t qualify as modern!

Just been reading below thread as planning to leave my Karoq locked up in our garage for a few months while we go off and see various parts of the world. Not wishing to have the same issues when we get back, I was thinking of leaving the car locked, alarm off (once I can figure that out) and with the bonnet unlatched. Then I can get a battery charger onto the battery as soon as we get back without having to open the doors. Also the passenger-side door will be against a wall so wouldn’t be able to get the door open to pop the bonnet anyway. Would leaving the bonnet unlatched for a prolonged time cause any issues? Was wondering if it would keep the car awake and kill the battery in no time. I was thinking of leaving it on a trickle charger but I just got “that” look from SWMBO and that idea got binned. Thoughts?

Another day, another snowy Skippy pic. 👍

How can I find out which gearbox I have? 2019 2.0TDi 4x4 if anyone has that information available off the top of their head. 👍

OK you don’t need a car but their car sitting outside your house can have an amazing affect on the dealer’s ability to focus on getting your car fixed and their car back to them. The fact that you won’t be using it is neither here nor there. Plus might be worth putting them on notice that if they don’t fix it this time then you’ll be pressing the honking great “reject” button.

Slightly left field idea, well for this time in the morning, but you could just neutralise the rattle by squirting some glue in these, give it a gentle shake to get the coin to slide around and meet the glue, and then it should stick to the “floor” somewhere. Look on the positive side, it will up the value of the car! 👍