Sir_Ron_Norris

Got a "Headlight Range Fault" warning on the dashboard today. Headlights on dipped beam all the while the engine is running and the three light switches don't do anything now. Went into Lighting settings and operated the slider 0, 2, 4, 6 (see below). Headlight beam responded accordingly, but the fault remains. Booked into the dealer next week (£60 charge to inspect; £20 charge for a courtesy car - all this used to be free!) but , in the meantime, does anyone have "re-set headlight range" remedy? Headlamp levelling, LED headlights › In the Infotainment system, select the menu Outside . › By moving your finger sideways, choose the screen with the menu item Headlights . › Select Headlights . › Select the menu item for headlight range control. › Adjust the headlight range using the slider. The headlight range must correspond to the vehicle's load. 0 Front seats occupied, boot empty 2 All seats occupied, boot empty 4 All seats occupied, boot loaded 6 Driver's seat occupied, boot loaded

1974 miles. No oil level drop. Dipped cold/hot - No. Cold only. We used the car initially for short trips in the default Electric mode only but (and you may recall correspondence in these pages about the 12v battery going flat) we now use it always in Hybrid mode and in S-drive. IC engine always kicking in and out, impressive energy regeneration and long-term mpg of 88.2. Engine oil consumption is not problem, or even a concern. Simply the stupid manual tells me that, should I need oil, I must have a specialist grade - but is imprecise as to what that grade should be.

Thanks for that prompt response. I am aware of the fixed oil & service intervals but I find it hard to break the previous Caterham/Morgan mentality of touring with loads of spares, tools & fluids. All of which should be un-necessary with a new car. Anyway, VW / Skoda VW 508 00 / 509 00 noted, thank you.

Just about to go on a tour up the east coast of Scotland and I want to take a litre of oil with me (on the basis of if I take it I won't need it...). The manual, helpful as ever, says this about engine oil - Ask a specialist garage for the correct engine oil specification for your vehicle. If no oil of the correct specification is available, max. 0.5 l of oil with the following specifications may be used until the next oil change: ▶ VW 504 00, VW 508 00, ACEA C3, ACEA C5 Can anyone tell me the correct specification?

Foureyze - Columbus v. MIB3. Yes, different systems. But it does make me wonder why. You have a Kamiq SEL 1.5 June 2021, I have an Octavia SEL 1.4 March 2021. You'd think (well, I would think...) there'd be some standardisation of Infotainment among models so close together. Anyway, you have been very helpful. I have always navigated on GPS coordinates but struggled to get Columbus to accept them. You have shown me; simple when you know how .

Foureyze - OK, tried that, but with only partial success. Think we have different systems (mine is Columbus). Google Maps gave me the destination coordinates which I then input into the SEARCH screen and, indeed, the address popped up. But then as you see from the attached pic, it appears to be asking me to SAVE. But how? There is an OK button, but it is not active. True, at the point of departure I can enter the coordinates and press START - but the problem persists that I can't save the address in advance as a Favourite.

Excellent; thank you. I will try that shortly...

Please explain how you save them to favourites. As I said earlier, I can see no way to Save.

Glad it works for you, Jim, and - to be fair - I did a 60m trip yesterday during which I needed to be taken to two addresses, and the Satnav worked perfectly. Certainly let us know if you get news about saving favourites.

Yes, of course - that goes without saying. But, as many have said on these pages, this is something we have paid for and it would be nice if it worked. I am convinced that we are beta-testing these PHEV cars for Skoda and eventually comments/complaints may find their way back to source for fixing.

What's hard with it? Where to begin...? I have found that keying in some addresses results in CANNOT BE FOUND - yet my Garmin and Google Maps on my phone both know the address. Using Laura, I ask to be taken to a town 20 miles way (Beds to Herts). She responds by giving me a map along the M4 and wishing me a pleasant trip to Bristol (that was a previous trip some weeks ago). Several attempts gave the same result. I'd like to be able to set a destination in advance of a journey and save it. Is there a SAVE button? If so, I can't find it. For years I have used my Garmin to navigate by GPS coordinates by first locating the precise location on my iMac using Google Maps, and then inputting the coordinates into Garmin. Never fails. The nearest the Octavia satnav offers me is Lat & Long. This is cumbersome. None of this can be done in advance, so we have to get in the car 10 minutes ahead of time to allow for all this faffing about. Perhaps someone can (politely, please) educate me.

Going back to my original post at the top of this thread, I charged the HV battery today in the garage. Went back into the garage an hour or so later and the brake lights were on. I suspect now that this is what happened when the 12v battery went dead in July and caused me to be 3 weeks without the car. I have a larger-than-average single garage but, nevertheless, it is a tight fit amongst the bikes and shelving. So when the garage door is closed it almost touches the rear of the car. I suspect now that rear sensors (auto braking or parking, or both) were triggered by the very close proximity of the garage door, even though engine was off and the car locked. What do you think..?

Got a tyre pressure warning light the other day so used my electric tyre pump on this car for the first time. All well and good until I tried to reach the NSF tyre. What a daft design! Why not put a 12v socket in the front, too - just like my previous Octavia. My mountain bike tyre pump had to be employed. I may need to carry this in the boot - unless one of you blokes can tell me which tyre pump with an extra long lead you bought, and from where? BTW, the tyre pressure warning light was a false alarm

Jim - I recently raised this question of charging the 12v battery with the Octavia specialist in CZ. He bounced it back to Skoda in Sheffield (?main customer services centre) who replied to me word-for-word the same as the response you received, so a bit of cut & paste going on there, I think. They added in the reply to me that I ought to buy a home charger. In 50+ years of motoring I have never needed, or used, a battery charger; is this progress? Lady Norris is heavily narked about this and says if that's the case they should supply 12v chargers with the cars. I replied like this (my remarks in Bold) : You say "For the most efficient charging I would advise a home charger". If the 3-phase current drive performs the task of the alternator, why do I need a home charger? And "charging from the mains socket or domestic or public AC charger is to the HV battery but the vehicle is equipped with Power and control electronics for the charging of the 12-volt battery and the supply to the vehicle electrical system". So, again, why do I need a home charger? Their subsequent reply addressed only the HV battery (which I charge several times a week using the supplied lead plugged into a domestic outlet), so that reply was no use. So for when the car is not used for several days it looks like I have no alternative but to buy a battery charger. I said above that I have not used one before, but what I have used over a period of 12 years is a CTEK battery conditioner for a Caterham and then a Morgan. Worked like a dream. I'd be grateful therefore is anyone can offer any advice on which charger I should buy (indeed, what type of battery is fitted in these hybrids - lead/acid, gel, AGM, SLI ?). Having used CTEK conditioners previously I am leaning towards something like this.

Mine periodically does the same, but I leave it a few minutes and then it wakes and tells me the distance to my car is 0mi - which is encouraging, given that is in a the garage integral to the house!

That is reassuring, thank you. Like you, I charge the HV battery several times a week, and that is why I was surprised and highly disappointed when the 12v battery died. What I didn't know was that the car, when started, defaults on Emode - and that was how I was driving it. Apparently the battery doesn't last long like this. But in Hybrid mode the IC engine and alternator have a chance to re-charge the battery. I guess that makes sense - it's a hybrid so drive it in Hybrid mode. The supplying dealer had my car for 3 weeks and there was no conclusive answer as to why the battery went flat. But a 15-minute conversation with an alternative dealer explained (what now seems obvious) about Emode and Hybrid mode.

This is a useful page to bookmark = https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/problems-with-a-new-or-used-car-your-consumer-rights/# . In fact, I find the whole Honest John site to be worthwhile, and when you ask a question in my experience they always reply.

Hmmm ... I was afraid of that. But thanks for the rapid response.

On March 2 this year I took delivery of a new Octavia iV Estate, my fourth Octavia since 2002. One month ago the 12v battery failed and the car had to be transported to the dealer. They had it for three weeks but were unable to find the reason for the fault. My driving style is mainly local trips, <30mls, with occasional journeys of c.200mls. Making many small journeys I considered a mild hybrid a good choice. The high voltage battery is charged regularly to full (at least twice a week). The manual states explicitly "The 12-volt vehicle battery is automatically charged when the high-voltage battery is charged". Worryingly, this seemed to be a surprise to the dealer. My question is this - can anyone confirm that statement in the manual is correct? If so, why did the 12v battery should go flat? I raised this question with Honest John https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/ and one of their correspondents replied that they had always understood that the two batteries were entirely independent of each other - which contradicts the information in the manual.

Well, the flat 12v battery finally got me. Recently, with fully charged high-voltage battery I did a 21-mile round trip. There were 11 miles of electric charge remaining when I got home. The car was put on charge until high-voltage battery, via the app, indicated fully charged. Then the car was garaged all of the following day. The day after there was no response to either key. Skoda Assistance arrived and concluded the 12v battery was dead. This was a surprise as the high voltage battery was fully charged 36 hours earlier and I understood that charging this battery also charges the 12v battery. The car then spent the next 3 weeks with the dealer as they tried to identify and remedy the fault. The car has now been returned to me in good working order but with no conclusive reason as to why the 12v battery of this new car went dead. There was a suggestion that my driving pattern (retired, making short trips with occasional 100+ miles journeys) caused the fault. I can't accept this because after each use I charge the high voltage battery and, to repeat once more, the manual says this - "The 12-volt vehicle battery is automatically charged when the high-voltage battery is charged". I can only conclude that the manual statement is wrong. I can't believe that with a new car I need to use a battery charger. If someone can post a photo showing the +ve and -ve terminals of the 12v battery, I'd be grateful. There are no markings that I can see and the pix in the manual are rubbish. Finally, I have used a CTEK battery conditioner on two cars since 2010. Impressive performance but, as I asked earlier, can someone tell why it is not suitable on these Octavia iVs?

Forgot to say - the manual states : "The 12-volt vehicle battery is automatically charged when the high-voltage battery is charged". So I'm at a loss as to why - after a full high-voltage re-charge - not using the car for 36 hours should flatten the 12v battery?

Can you clarify, please? "So the car could be run on electric power only for some time without the 12-volt battery going flat." Do you mean the car can only be run on electric power for a limited time before the battery goes flat? And "It should be like this". Really? Being retired the majority of my trips are short local journeys on electric power; by this I mean utilising the electric range in hybrid drive, not the E-Mode electric drive. In spite of my glowing remarks at the start of this thread, my car has been at the dealer for 3 working days. Went out last Monday with a fully charged high-voltage battery. Did a return trip of 22 miles and, on return, 11 miles electric range remaining. Charged up again and put the car in the garage for the next 36 hours. On next entering the garage the car was completely dead with a flat battery. It was transported to the dealer where it remains. They tell me the 12v battery is now fully charged and all 26 (!) indicated faults have been remedied. They are road-testing tomorrow. Perhaps it will be all OK, but I need them to tell me why the 12v battery went flat. Your post seems to indicate that the car cannot be driven regularly on electric power without flattening the battery; correct? Surely that can't be right. The whole point of these mild hybrids is, for example, commute to work and back on electric power, plug in to charge over night, and do it all again, day after day.

OK, thanks for that. Seems he's done it again. I must admit I didn't expect to find a troll on this site. So far everyone seems to be polite and respectful.

Here I am trying to be helpful in responding to Simon Cobb's request for advice - and someone posts a "Groan" emoji. Would that person care to explain why...?