Avocet

Thanks all. Carlston, I measured the front discs this afternoon. Closest I could measure was 315mm, so I'm guessing they're the 314 discs, given that they're a bit crispy round the edges. Tier, that does indeed seem to be the case, thanks.

Thanks! And yes, I'd be inclined to agree (although of course, it's a 4-wheeled trailer so there's rolling resistance as well, to consider)! But... "Silikat teabag"...???! What's one of those?! The car has been fine today, by the way (not towing a trailer). Wife has an 80 mile round-trip in it tomorrow too, so we'll see how it does at higher speeds. My OBDeleven dongle arrived today, and I had a quick play with it. I wasn't able to do so for long, but just sat in the car with it plugged-in and the engine idling, it said the coolant was 69 degrees, and the gauge reckoned nearer 80 degrees.

Thanks, yes. I'm just trying to understand what those changes are. If it's just a case of opening out the slots in the radiator grille, then I have a file and a holesaw...😉 What I'm really struggling with, is why it was fine, laden and only overheated when it was unladen! Yes, the engineers will have worked out that a bit more cooling was necessary, but they'd have done this, based on a worst case, situation towing 2 tons, in the middle of Summer in the South of France, up a mountain, I imagine, rather than half a ton up Shap in Autumn! I think the most likely explanations so far are: 1. Water pump shroud starting to fail 2. A windy day with the wind behind us on the way back, so much less airflow through the radiator. The latter would explain why the problem went away when I turned West and although not directly into the wind, at least some of it was on the nose.

Thanks, as you say, cooling fans shouldn't have been part of the equation on the motorway. In fact, slowing down to a stop, and letting the engine idle, would bring the temperature down very quickly. As luck would have it, the car is due for a cam belt, so I'll probably ask them to throw another water pump at it anyway. I was of two minds whether to do so or not, but I think this has convinced me! Just really odd that on the way down, the ambient temperature was higher (18 degrees) and the trailer was laden, but on the way back it was unladen and the ambient temperature was lower, yet that's when it overheated, and it stopped immediately I turned West and headed into the wind.

Thanks JR. I've just ordered an OBDeleven module and I have a willing co-pilot, so I'll try to get some live temperature data when it arrives. So far, the car's temperature gauge, once warm, as stayed rock-solid on the 90 mark, in all weathers, long and short runs, with and without aircon. This is the first time I've towed anything moderately heavy, and the trailer has no frontal area to speak of, Ambient temperature was 18 degrees, at most, but it was only 13 degrees and raining at the top of Shap on the M6, and it was still overheating. Oil temperature got as high as 121 degrees, but was mostly around 110-115. It was just weird, they way it was fine laden, but overheated on the way back in cooler ambient air, and unladen!

2017 diesel 2.0 150 4x4 DSG. Set out today, towing my big trailer that weighs about half a ton empty. After about 50 miles, stopped to pick up a bout a ton of firewood. Towed the trailer with the wood in it, for another 100 miles - no problem at all, but there was a strong headwind and the car was working hard. At 60 on the motorway, the slightest incline would cause it to drop down into 6th. Averaged 30 to the gallon, heading South Southwest. Dropped the wood off, so the trailer was empty again, and headed for home. Within about 10 miles, the temperature gauge was creeping over 90. On the uphill bits it got to about 105 degrees so I slowed down to about 50 and the temperature dropped again. And so it was, most of the way home. Any uphill bit (even with the wind behind me and the trailer empty), the gauge would start reading over 90. Going up Shap, it briefly touched about 112 degrees. However, the engine wasn't working as hard. It stayed in 7th gear and the average fuel consumption went up to 37 to the gallon. However, for the last 40 miles, heading West, it was fine again. This is the first time I've towed any significant load with it. The car does NOT have "towbar prep", and it's an aftermarket towbar. The wind today, was quite strong, and South Westerly. What I THINK is happening, is that with the wind on the nose, even though the engine was working harder, there was enough getting through the radiator to cool it. On the way home, with the wind largely behind us (except the last 40 miles), there wasn't. Does that sound plausible? If so, does anyone know what the necessary cooling system mods for "towbar prep" are, please?

Sorry, just coming back to this, because a couple of things today, made me question it! 1. When starting from cold, the gauge creeps up, bit-by-bit as the engine warms up. I'd have thought that if it was a "managed" reading that just read 90 for any temperature between 70 and 110, it would jump from 70 to 90 as t warms up - but it doesn't! The gauge just carries on 75, 80, 85, 90 as it warms up. 2. I towed a significant weight for the first time today. About 1.5 tons, on the motorway. At one point (see separate thread, 'cause I'm puzzled about this!), it started overheating. The gauge went past 90, 92, 95, 97 (ish), 100, (ish) and so on. Max temperature was about 112, briefly. Reducing speed brought the temperature back down, but again, the gauge move gradually.

Thanks Carlston, that's really helpful stuff! I had no idea there were three sizes, just a few mm different! I'll pop a wheel off again at the weekend and check. I had a look at Autodoc, as they're my preferred supplier, but post-Brexit, the stuff takes longer to arrive and the prices aren't quite as good as they used to be. Apec front discs from Eurocarparts were just over £50 each, last time I looked, and I can get them next day.

Thanks. So anything with a DSG box has a water-to-oil transmission cooler with a thermostat?

Ah, OK, so it's an oil thermostat? Or is the DSG box water cooled?

Fantastic, thanks! Doesn't look like Mtec do brakes for the Kodiaq though. I'll get a set of those bits, that's perfect, ta. I was wondering about VCDS. That's the one that used to be VAGCOM isn't it? I've had OBDeleven recommended but I'll have a look at VCDS too. The OBDeleven website isn't terribly clear, so I was going to message them tomorrow. I think the freebie (once you've bought the actual reader) version will read fault codes and do the rear caliper actuators, but I'll ask. Credits seem to only be a couple of Euros each.

Hi All, I put our "winter" wheels on this weekend (just another set of wheels with winter tyres on them). While I was at it, I had a quick look at the pads. They're getting fairly thin now. About 4mm on the fronts and a bit less on the rears. There's also a very slight judder through the brakes (which everyone will say is a "warped disc" but I suspect is the disc thickness varying). So, what with one thing and another, I guess I'm going to need new discs and pads all round. Before I start, I have a few questions, please? 1. Does anyone have any recommendations as to brands and suppliers? 2. I was going to purchase an OBD eleven device anyway for other diagnostic work, so I think I can use this to retract the handbrake actuators. Does anyone have experience with this device and can it do that? 3. I've seen various threads / heard rumours about the caliper bolts being some weird head that isn't hex, Torx, Ribe, spline or anything previously known to man. Is this actually true?! If so, can someone tell me what socket / bit type I actually need, please?! 4. Is there anything else weird about the job? Are the fronts pretty conventional? Thanks!

That's interesting! Two thermostats in the DSG?! How does that work, please? (I'm interested because ours is a DSG).

Went out in it this evening. Ambient temperature 11.5 degrees C. Rural area, single track roads with hills, relatively light throttle openings. From startup, it took 6.5 minutes for the gauge to first reach normal, and 3.4 miles (average speed 31 MPH). There was a lot of standing water on the road though.

Same here, just to add to the weight of numbers. Any old screenwash, but NOT washing-up liquid. (Did that many years ago and it doesn't work well - forms little balls after a while and blocks jets). An occasional wipe of the wiper blades with a bit of kitchen roll soaked in vinegar can help if the screen gets a bit streaky or greasy.

Sounds like the shield in your water pump has jammed in the open position. If they jam in the closed position, the engine overheats quite quickly. I wouldn't have thought there would be a fault code associated with it, because the problem is mechanical. Electrically, the actuator that moves the shield will have received a signal from the computer that tells it to do so, and would be a short or open circuit, so the onboard diagnostics would have no reason to suspect anything was wrong.

Is the 2 year warranty on the new water pump just for the part, or for parts and labour? (A lot of the cost to replace a water pump will be labour)! Might just be worth clarifying that with them. Also, although your car isn't due for a cam belt change, the belt has to come off to do the water pump. The belt itself is very cheap. Are they going to put a new one on when they do the pump? That will buy you another 5 years before the belt needs doing again.

Yes, that would work. It's a bit tedious though. As long as the last thing you do is put it into 'P', you should be fine. You just want to get to the point where the handbrake is preventing the car from moving, rather than the gearbox.

Mrs. Avocet's 2017 Kodiaq does the "phantom braking" thing on occasions. (As indeed, does my Peugeot 5008). I don't think the technology on any of these collision avoidance systems is quite ready yet, to be honest. Presumably, you have tried setting the front-assist to its shortest possible setting? That's what we did and it hasn't braked by itself since, although we do get the occasional beep from the dashboard and the sign to "BRAKE"! That, in itself, is quite alarming, but not as bad as actually applying the brakes. Obviously, they do it when they think the car is going to have a collision. In our case, there's one particular bend, which is also in a dip, so its little radar thinks we're going to crash, if we go in there at a reasonable speed. Also, sometimes, when coming up behind a parked car, intending to pull out past it, but if the system thinks we've left it too late, it will beep at us.

It was PF Jones in Manchester. All went pretty well. I arrived at the appointed hour and the guy came out with one of those "hire car" forms, to note any existing damage on the car and we both agreed on it and signed it. He also started it up and checked that there were no existing warning lights. I then hopped on the tram and went to kill few hours in the city centre. Just over 4 hours later, they called back to say it was ready. There was no new damage to the car (that I could spot). The nearside rear interior trim panel has a slight bulge in it, so the flap that covers the left hand end of the "roller blind" luggage area cover touches it when I lift it up. I imagine that's because they've added wiring and maybe a control box in there, but it's very slight and I'm picky like that! The offside end of the rear bumper looks like it might be VERY slightly further out from the quarter panel than it was, but again, it's so slight that I can't be sure. The cut in the bottom of the bumper is indeed invisible (unless you lie down). So far, I'm pleased with it.

Just had a Witter detachable one fitted to ours today. £677 all-in, with vehicle specific, coded electrics. All seems to work. It's smart enough to disable the tailgate release switch on the driver's door if the trailer socket is plugged-in. We didn't have the virtual pedal in any case. All seems to work as it should. The vehicle didn't have towbar prep but it's a 2017 car and has towing weights on its VIN plate, its logbook and its Certificate of Conformity.

I think the insurance companies are more likely to become the limiting factor than the legislators. Already, some are refusing payouts on things like flooding where DIY plumbing has been carried out.

But discussing anything with anyone who doesn't have a position (or whose position appears to change with every post) is a bit like nailing jelly to a wall! First paragraph: - given that the Kodiaq has only been out since 2017, that's hardly surprising, is it?! On a modern car, you wouldn't expect to touch a wheel bearing for 100,000 miles / 10 years! On the rest, I can broadly agree. Second paragraph: The competence (or otherwise) of dealers wasn't part of this discussion, but I've only experienced two dealers - the one we bought the car from (who were pretty clueless), and another one who did a routine service (as far as I can tell, correctly). Third paragraph: We were talking about whether headlights were set correctly at end-of-line. Now you seem to be talking about other design / manufacturing faults - of which I'm sure there are plenty, but such problems are not unique to Skoda (or indeed any manufacturer). Yes of course they're more interested in getting your money off you! But then, so is just about any other large company. I'd suggest that the pros and cons of free market capitalism are best left to another thread? Last paragraph: All very interesting, I'm sure, but not really what we were talking about!

Yes, it's a lot of cars, but of those, you need to weed out the ones that have failed on wear-and-tear issues (like tyres or brake linings) that are nothing to do with how the vehicle left the factory and are nothing to do with deliberate modifications from factory spec (which will be virtually all of them)! OK, so you don't have any actual hard evidence that they leave the factory with the headlights misaligned? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it's pretty unlikely. It's a legal requirement and I know our type approval authority is all over us, wanting to check audit trails for lights being re-aligned on vehicles where our work affects the alignment. Just because someone is "interested" in their car, doesn't necessarily mean they're aware of all the potential pitfalls of any modifications they might have made to it. Looking back at my misspent youth and the things I did to cars back in the day, I shudder, at my blissful ignorance of the potential dangers of some of the mods I made! People who modify cars don't always know as much about them as the engineers who designed them. (In fact, in my experience, they very rarely do)! People who don't modify their cars but neglect them, pose a different set of problems. OK, you seemed to be using the fact that lots of car mods get sold, to justify them as not being a potential danger. If that's not what you meant, what DID you mean? (Oh, and I think there's a fair mount of tax and duty raised by the tobacco industry too, by the way...). In your last couple of lines, you seem to be making the case for banning all these aftermarket mods? If so, does it include wheel spacers?

OK, if you think it makes a difference "strict" / "strictest" / whatever...🙄 I took the worst case from "strict" (i.e. "strictest" for my argument because by definition, if I talk about the strictest, then all the others must be less strict than that). Re. Daily Mail and EU: funny enough, I've sat in plenty of EU meetings, where "the EU" (i.e the Commission in this case) has taken the absolute OPPOSITE stance to what you describe! The Commission is very much on the side of the consumer in situations like this. When ACEA (the major car manufacturers' EU trade association and the likes of FIGIEFA or the Independent Garage Association are knocking lumps out of each other at these meetings, it's not ACEA whose side the COmmission comes donw on! Back in the '90s it was the EU Commission that introduced the block exemption laws and brought down the cost of cars sold by EU manufacturers in this country. It was the EU Commission that forced the "Access to the Repair and Maintenance Information" requirements on the major manufacturers. If it wasn't for the Commission, those guys would have stitched-up independent garages and DIYers like the proverbial kipper! Yes, the countries with strict rules (and indeed, the countries without strict rules) have vehicles from other countries crossing their borders. I can, indeed, understand that. And your point is WHAT, precisely? Are you trying to argue that countries that have strict requirements should not do so, in case it in some way offends motorists from countries that have less strict requirements? Or are you, perhaps, trying to make the argument that it is pointless having strict requirements because all that good work will be undone by vehicles meeting lesser requirements when they cross the border? I wonder if you understand the actual numbers involved? We can agree on the UK MOT being too lax. SVA is long-dead and IVA is indeed relatively lax, but it is intended to be the "bottom rung" of the approval scheme ladder. Personally, when I look back at the weeping and grinding of teeth that went on in the kit car industry when SVA was first introduced, I think it did a pretty good job of getting (say) the worst 20% of kit cars and specials off the road. I'm afraid I don't understand your "safety is great" argument at all. About 13% of 3 year old cars fail their first MOT - which isn't that many, considering some can do up to 50,000 miles a year. I'd be interested in any evidence you can supply about headlights being misaligned at first build though. I could pass that on to the Vehicle Certification Agency. Do you have any? And yes, I'd be against extending the MOT interval to 2 years, although I'd be willing to look at the idea of a tougher one every other year. Howevr, I still don't understand what point you're trying to make, in the context of what we're discussing? I think you missed the point on the smoking analogy. The point I was trying to make, was that just because (like wheel spacers) a lot of them are sold, doesn't mean they're necessarily a good thing!