JayLibove

So, in furtherance of the project plan to replace my Scout's front centre console lights, cargo area lights (both, Kopacek products), and rear passenger seat over-door lights (my car has a panoramic moonroof, so instead of another centre light set, each rear passenger door has a light just above it), this morning I dismounted one cargo area light -- pulling it out of the side wall was easy; disconnecting the light assembly from the plastic connector took some careful work, but I got it. However, I was unable to remove the over-rear-passenger-door light. I found an Octavia II video and also a reference in another thread here to an instruction manual which show it being "easy" (insert a plastic shim or a thin flat-head screwdriver on the "0"/forward side of the lens, between the lens and the metal frame that is embedded in the roof of the car, and press in on the spring metal clip that holds it in place, and pull the lens down) ... but although I could see the metal frame, and I could slightly separate the lens from the metal frame (and, then, if I push the lens back up, it "clicks" back into place), I reached an amount of force with which I was uncomfortable, trying to pull the lens down, and I stopped. Hard to see much in them, but below are photos. The question is, how on an Octavia III Facelift do you remove the rear passenger seat over-door lights? (without breaking things...) thanks, -Jay

@skomaz See, now, that's "Clever"! :-) How did you connect the wire from the adhesive LED strip to the existing boot light? Looking at an aftermarket replacement whole-assembly for the rear cargo area lights: .. it looks like it might be possible to get a little harness extension, to plug in between the standard harness and the rear cargo area light, to provide another (female) harness plug into which to connect the wires extending from the LED strip. Are these harnesses standard, and is it easy enough to buy a harness splitter? But then another thing occurs to me - I frequently remove the cargo area cover, because I often carry a bicycle inside the cargo area (I also have a bicycle rack, but there are times when I'd rather have the bicycle locked inside the car's cargo area, instead of locked onto an exposed rack); so, maybe with harnesses (and a big black and yellow zebra warning sticker so I don't just yank wires out of things 🤦) the LED-strip-on-bottom-of-cargo-area-cover would be practical for my particular use case. Else, other ideas ? I suppose I could put up two LED strips, one on each side of the cargo area, along the long horizontal plastic pieces (into which the baby seat release latch is fitted in this photo): Lastly, you indicated that the extra power draw doesn't cause any problems. Do you have a sense of whether that's because the car doesn't particularly monitor that circuit, or because the extra draw is within some (what?) limit? What is the V*A of the LED strip that you added? thanks again!

Thank you, @Warrior193 . Sadly, where I live in Spain, the search doesn't match anything; on ebay.COM (USA), the vehicle selection doesn't even offer the manufacturer Skoda 🤦. I'll probably go with PetrolDave's suggestion, so that's okay. Um, "SWMBO"? When you say that you "fitted" a single one into a Fabia, did you add a whole new light where the car didn't with a light/wiring, or you swapped in one of these for a standard light that did come in the Fabia originally?

Thank you, @PetrolDave . I notice that no W5W replacement bulb that I find lists the lumens that it produces, and while several of them state that they're brighter than the originals, none give any details. I found this older thread: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/483053-interior-leds/ .. which suggests that replacing a bulb with one of higher wattage causes problems with the car's electronics, which makes me guess that there's a constraint on increasing the brightness of any bulb, which is that it can't meaningfully increase current draw (or even light-on/heat-up timing), so the only way greater brightness can be achieved is with more efficient bulb/gas technology. Do I have that right? Now that this thread (thank you, both, again) and others have helped me figure out what to look for, I see that there are plenty of options .. but I find no way to compare them to determine which would produce the brightest results...

Thank you. If you'd be willing to provide a reference to a specific product, please?

I love my 2020 (MkIII facelift) Scout (combi/ station wagon), but the lighting in the cargo area has always been insufficient. The only built-in lights in the cargo area are two small, dim white lights, near the rear, about halfway up each sidewall: I'd appreciate ideas for adding more/better lighting to the cargo area. Ideally, integrated into the car's electric system, but battery-powered/ rechargeable standalone lights could be okay, too, as long as either way they can be installed quite well-fixed, so that they don't come loose/ fall off, or get in the way of cargo. The first thought is, are there replacements for the two small built-in lights (as in the photo above) with MUCH brighter lights? Then, my own brainstorming, just about where more lights might go: In/on the cabin roof just before the upper seam of the tailgate? Embedded into the rear seatback just below the top? (embedded, so that when the rear seats are down to increase cargo space, stuff placed on top of the seat backs doesn't damage the lights and vice-versa?) In the plastic sides panels into which the cargo cover fits, just below the cargo cover's seating slots? (there actually seems to be space just inside those slots - they're deeper than the cover which came with my car needs). Your thoughts, and especially specific existing products or services to do this, much appreciated! thanks, -Jay Barcelona / west-Girona region, Spain

Thank you, @PetrolDave .

Ah. Yes. That actually makes sense 😅. Although, I did stop the car, but I left it running, in park, while I walked around to eyeball the tires. Well, anyway, nothing critical, just a could-be-explained-better error message, which is nothing new! Thanks, -Jay

April 2020-manufactured Octavia Scout 2.0TDI (MkIII facelift). Is there an indicator in the infotainment system, or which can be read with an OBDEleven, to check the AC cooland level/ system function? I was driving in the crazy southern European heat a few days ago and there were times when it felt like the system wasn't cooling quite as well as it usually would/ used to. The engine temperature was always fixed at 90° (after the initial very few minutes heating up); engine RPMs were in the usual 1800-2200 range (gear S7, driving at between 100km/hr - 120km/hr), no extraordinary hill-climbing. The moments when it felt that the system wasn't cooling as well as I'd like, I tried lowering the cabin set temperature, which didn't seem to improve the air coming from the vents. The amount of airflow seemed consistent with the fan speed dial setting. And it didn't seem to relate to the current heat load (e.g. it sometimes happened when I happened to be in shadow or going through a long tunnel, not always in an open part of the road in full sun). thanks,

April 2020-manufactured Octavia Scout 2.0TDI (MkIII facelift). I was driving back from France to Spain the other day, after the car had been parked for a week, and shortly into the drive, I got a TPMS warning. Eyeballing it, the tire wasn't obviously very low, and I was in a hurry, so I went to reset the TPMS, with the intention that if it signaled Again then I would recognize that there really was a problem. Each time I tried to reset the TPMS (Cat, Settings, Tyres, Set) it would give the error that it could not "store". It still did this after rebooting the head unit (long-press the power button on the display). I don't recall whether I fully turned off the car and tried again. Once I got home, I manually checked the tire pressures, and indeed that wheel was a few PSI low; I pumped it up, turned on the car (without even starting the engine), and lo and behold I COULD now Set the TPMS. Without ever having rolled the car. Nothing critical, but I thought that the TPMS worked only by RPMs, so actually changing the pressure in a tire shouldn't be detectable until the car rolls again, and both this time (in the end) and previous times when I've adjusted tire pressure at reset the TPMS / Set "all tires are at the correct pressure" (or whatever the precise text is), it accepted the TPMS reset withOUT having moved the car. So, any idea why TPMS Set would fail to "store"? Nothing critical, but it would be interesting to understand. thanks!

Thanks @Evolution13 , indeed, I had found that exact document. (And I agree, I don't "trust" AI; but I do somewhat more often these days use it to find sources, then I go read the sources to see if what the AI thought it understood from the sources was accurate. Sometimes yes, sometimes not so much ...)

Interesting perspective 😅. (Apologies for my delay in replying. After resolving the B10 problem, I finished my drive to a horse farm in the French Ariège Pyrenees where I volunteered for a week, and did a 2-day excursion in the mountains on the inestimable Mérens horses (which, like Ford's Model T, come in any color you want, as long as it's black!). I called roadside service, which came within an hour. (Spanish plate, Spanish auto club membership; while they were efficient at getting a French service truck to me, they didn't seem to bother using good translation to properly express the concern, and the very nice French guy who showed up thought that I'd put petrol into my diesel car, until I showed him the more nuanced concern). He said that, despite Skoda's officially not having put their B7 diesel cars on the "certified okay with B10 diesel" list, that the one-time 2/3 of a tank fill-up with B10 wouldn't hurt my car - just to maybe run a tank of "premium" diesel, or add a container of diesel fuel injection/ system cleaner the next time I fill up. Putting my "engineer" (I'm obviously not an automotive engineer, but I'm an engineer by training) hat on, from what little I could find about why B10 might not be good for some B7 diesel cars, I'm guessing too that during these 30°C+ days and with most of my driving being NOT local tooling around, there's also less chance of the B10 fouling anything at the moment, whereas during cold weather with short drives I guess it might be more of an issue. (What I read suggested that B10 diesel, if the fuel system isn't specifically designed to expect it, could build up waxy deposits that a B7-only system wouldn't handle by default). Anyway, in the 350km I've driven since then, no obvious problems. I'll top up with a premium diesel this afternoon after another 120km on my way BACK to France where I WON'T touch anything labeled "B10" again.....

****. I'm driving my early 2020 Octavia (mkIII) Scout (2.0L diesel DSG-7) through France, and only after I filled up (31L of the 55L tank) from the "diesel" pump I noticed the marking "B10" which apparently really exists about only in France, I'd never heard of nor seen before, and is officially (per Skoda) not compatible with this engine. I don't find "B10" mentioned at all in the forums, and I find only few, vague mentions online in general about how B10 diesel (90% mineral diesel +10% bio diesel) can gum up diesel filters, degrade some engine parts, etc. Anyone have experience with whether just (slightly less than) one single tank of B10 would be so noxious that I Shouldn't Drive It At All until I can get service to pump out the bad tank of fuel, or whether it'll be okay? thank you, Jay

Yeah, there is the possibility that higher-end variants of the same manufacturer group provide also-poor customer service, but in general a key difference between made-on-(almost-)the-same-assembly line, but badged higher-or-lower is the service quality. Whenever I eventually go to buy my next vehicle, I will check to see who offers what. When I bought my current vehicle (an April 2020 Octavia combi Scout), it was a fairly unique offer (as, sadly, demonstrated by the fact that, as I understand it, Skoda have abandoned the Scout variant entirely :-( ). It's a supremely practical vehicle, a bit higher off the road, with more cargo space that much larger, more expensive vehicles; the all-wheel drive, a bit of armoring against bottoming out on not-too-rough but definitely-unpaved roads, the 2.0L diesel, etc. I didn't find anything else (except the VW Passat Alltrack and the Audi A6 Allroad, both of which are much more expensive) from any brand that was really a comparable vehicle. And the Scout is perfect for the way I use the car.

So, Skoda Spain called me back, and confirmed that my car has no recalls. They also said that the Skoda brand websites are not only not under their control, they don't even have a way to talk to that part of Skoda to provide feedback about the websites. I sent email to the contact address on the malfunctioning webpages, and got an initial non-answer which just also told me to call a Skoda service partner. Pushing back on them about the websites, they replied that the sites cannot be relied on! I sent back to them "Then take down the worse-than-useless sites".... And I commented that, although Skoda makes some good cars, my customer service journey with the brand, from the very beginning, has been disappointing. sigh I hope when it's time to replace my Scout in a bunch more years, I can afford an Audi or at least a VW...

Thanks @Evolution13 . I tried the UK gov't's site, but it doesn't like my Spanish VIN (which is 17 characters long).

I had sent a question about both my own car's VIN and about the two failing web portals, to Skoda Spain. I got a phone call the same day, confirming that there are no recalls that affect my car, and agreeing to forward the comments about the two web portals to the "digital" department. No idea how fiable (Spanish: reliable) either of the claims are.........

Skoda's website has a general recalls campaigns page (https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/recall-campaigns), a specific page to the Takata airbags fiascos, a specific page about diesel engines, and then a page for (apparently) any other type of recall campaign (https://recall.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com, or, seemingly specific to the Spanish market where I live, https://recall.skoda-auto.com/572/es-es). Entering my Spanish market vehicle's ID, the 004/en page says "Sorry, this service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." (this has been consistent for days), the the Spanish page (which I only found just now) says "Please contact your authorized service partner." So, what's the point of having these pages? Is there another recalls campaigns search page that actually does something? Or, as the Spanish page suggests (and I have not found super helpful here in Spain), I have to try to get a Skoda dealership to actually care about a car sold five years ago and really do a lookup? (My experience with Skoda workshops has been .. not great). thanks,

Thanks everyone. No, I don't have any light measuring equipment, and I don't want to ignorantly set my headlights to "cause a problem for others". (I still haven't reached that point in my life where others' constantly doing things that cause a problem for us has pushed me into "don't give a ****, start causing problems for them, too" mode. Yet). I'll raise the issue - pun intended - at my next scheduled service interval.

Thanks Cairus, so, I'm guessing that an OBD Eleven (the only diagnostic tool that I own) doesn't have the features I'd need, which leads me to "take it to a shop"? -Jay

Per my early 2020 Octavia (III facelift) wagon "Scout" (4x4, DSG-7, full-LED lights package) manual, the LED headlights version does not have any height/range adjustment for the low-beam headlights - it's automatic based on (I guess) some kind of weight sensors that detect front-heavy/ rear-heavy loading. However, I find that my low-beam headlights routinely don't illuminate quite as much of the road ahead of me as 1. I think they should, and 2. I think they used to. I don't see a reduction in brightness, and the high-beam lights are still miracles of me-seeing/you-blind ... Do I have an option for adjusting the low-beam headlights distance other than taking the car to a shop? thanks, -Jay

Ouch! I hope that the strength and flexibility of the glass is stronger than the amount of force that the closing motors will put on the glass trying to close onto a most inopportunely positioned obstruction before the force/current-overload sensors on the motors detect the obstruction!! Was it a slow-motion oooohhhh-**** moment, or a sudden surprise?

Thanks, everyone!

My early 2020 (last of the Octavia III) Scout's headlights switch, in addition to the two pull-out settings (front fog lamps, front and rear fog lamps), and the neutral/fog-lamps-off position, seems to have a sprung push-in position. That is, from fog-lamps-off it is possible to push the switch farther in, against spring tension that returns it to the fog-lamps-off position. Does this actually do anything? I don't find it in the manual nor searching here nor generally searching on the Internet. thanks,

There are plenty of threads in the forums about electronic liftgate problems (and one fascinating story about an electronic liftgate, a wild animal park, and a family with small animals - er, kids - loose inside the car, and an unexpected "Beep! Beep! Beep!" in the midst of the savannah... 😅) .. but what I'm curious about, as I failed to find it here in the forums or in a more general search online, is: Which, of electronic or manual liftgates, tends to be the more reliable over time? Every "we sell liftgate components" webpage, and every "review" page, that I found, had the same generic comments about electronic liftgates being more complex, and having more expensive-to-repair components. Sure, that's clear. But. Anything manual has to deal with the irregularity of humans, inconsistent force, etc. Whereas the electronic liftgates (assuming proper maintenance and nobody ever trying to use it while anything would be blocking it) should not suffer the same irregular stresses that a manual liftgate will experience every. single. time it is used by one of us mere, imperfect, irregular humans. So. Over a long period of time, which type of liftgate - mechanical, or electronic - tends to be more reliable, all other things about (good) use being equal? Thanks for your thoughts. (Love the electronic liftgift on my last-of-the-2019s/ mfr in April 2020 Octavia III facelift Scout! And the button on the console, and on the Kessy remote...)