CS363

Yeah, that's pretty much what the service manager at my dealer said regarding driving it to get the SOC back up, unless you're doing a multi-hour trip on the open road at decent (or indecent...) speeds. Far better to occasionally charge put it on a tender, a lot less hassle and expense. This is a good explanation of the differences between EFB and AGM batteries: Do you need EFB or AGM Battery?| VARTA Automotive BatteriesEFB or AGM? Find out which battery suits your vehicle best ► Compare VARTA® battery technology for start-stop and high-energy vehicles.I think Skoda/VAG just tried to save costs fitting EFB batteries with the smart charging system, given the amount of electronics on these cars, particularly the higher spec models an AGM is a much smarter choice IMO.

One thing I learnt recently is to not let the battery get too low as it can cause issues, primarily with the airbag module. I had a period of use that involved lots of short trips which let the SOC drop, next thing there was an airbag warning. Turns out that the low battery caused a fault with the module and it needed to be replaced as it was essentially bricked, I know in some countries there are places that can restore the modules but I'm not sure if we have any in new Zealand. My car was only a few months out of warranty and the dealer wanted to charge circa $2000 for the new module, when I made them aware that this was a known issue on MQB platform cars and that I thought they should go to Skoda for a goodwill warranty they coughed and spluttered a bit but agreed to talk to Skoda who thankfully came to the party. It seems in this market at least, Skoda ship the vehicles with the cheaper and less efficient EFB style of battery when they really should have AGM batteries. I'm still on the original battery but will definitely upgrade to an AGM when this one starts to go downhill, it still tests OK but at over 5 years I'm guessing it doesn't have too much life left in it. Like @Warrior193 I now put the car on a battery tender occasionally or if it's not being used for some time. So far, so good and FWIW I don't use ASS, it gets turned off as a matter of course before every drive.

If I'm understanding correctly, you may have the setting turned on in the infotainment screen where the mirror tilts down when in reverse to better see kerbs and other obstructions. It will return to normal when a forward gear is selected.

Often initial connection issues via Bluetooth (which is what I'm assuming you are referring to) can be solved by connecting the phone via USB cable. When I got my '21 vRS my Samsung S22 refused to connect via Bluetooth no matter what I did. Connected via cable and ever since then (5 years later) it has always worked faultlessly via Bluetooth - worth a try!

OK, just got home after about a 5 minute drive, steering wheel temp was just over 40C. It might get a little hotter if on for longer but I doubt it would be much more than 2 or 3 degrees, certainly warm enough for my liking.

Well that is within industry standards (32-46C) so it sounds like it's operating normally. I'll dig my thermometer out and measure mine and update this, though I'd be surprised if it's hotter than that.

Do you have an infrared thermometer at all? It would be interesting to see how warm the steering wheel is actually getting... If you have one, or some way to measure the temp I'd be happy to measure mine for comparison.

Doesn't sound right to me, I have a '21 vRS with the heated steering wheel and that is noticeably warm within 500m of driving off and at what I would call full temp within 1km at town speeds, so 50km/h.

That was what happened to me initially when using other brand USB drives and adapters, I'm sure that the system is quite picky on this. Previously either nothing at all would happen or it would work one time and then not the next, with the Kingston drive it works every time. Might just be coincidence, all I know is what worked for me. 🙄😊

FWIW I have never had an issue updating mine, in fact I just updated to version 26.2 the other day - I plugged the USB in at work and it was done by the time I got home, less than a 10 minute drive. I just use a USB-C Kingston 64Gb Data Traveller drive that i bought for this specific use, I previously had limited success using other brand drives and USB-A to C adapters etc. My software version is 1803 and hardware H56....

I had mine fitted by the dealer (in NZ), it was an Australian manufactured bar (via Skoda NZ, came with a Skoda bag for the removable tongue and a Skoda branded cap for when the tongue is removed) as the OE Skoda ones aren't approved here. They had to order the extra wiring from Skoda and do some coding to make everything work but it's all good. Though as @whippersnapper said above, not cheap!

Good to see you got it sorted, and thanks for posting the result and fix - so many people don't!

This may be of help: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/517427-dsg-slight-delay/

But your car is not a vRS, correct?

I think cabin noise can also depend on what wheel/tyre combination you have. Obviously bigger wheels with lower profile tyres will tend to be somewhat noisier, but the brand/model of tyre seems to have a big effect - I found the Bridgestone Potenza's to be very noisy, Good Year Eagle F1 less so and now I am using Toyo Proxes Sport and they have been the quietest so far, with great performance.