Janski

well all I will say about the cam belt is that the reason we just bought this skoda is that the aux belt went on the volvo xc70 and it dislodged the timing belt, which sent the pistons crashing into the exhaust valves. car was a financial write-off. We had replaced the belt within the time/mileage, but it appears the alternator clutch pulley failed and vibrated the belt off. The moral of the story is that it is worthwhile ensuring the pulleys as well as the belt isn't overdue. I am hoping that a low mileage SKODA isn't going to have that issue for a while - Though I do want to make sure my inlet valves don't gunk up prematurely as its a TSI. Starting to realize all cars have some sort of achilles heel. Thanks for all your useful comments. I will make sure the plugs are done on the next service.

looks like the coil pack tool is the best way of removing them safely. as I have also established I have only used about 50% of the life of the plugs, I will leave it for now and probably let the dealer do it. Jan

Hi all, Not bought a haynes manual yet (is there one?) and I am thinking of changing the sparkplugs out for new ones. Anyone got the details like plug number, socket size, gap size? Jan

Hi, I am new to Skoda. I am assuming your leak was gradual rather than losing coolant rapidly? Did you get much notice? I just wondered if they can fail catastrophically, or whether they tend to leak slowly, giving you some time to book it in to the garage, rather than getting the AA out to tow you there. Don't even know what side of my engine the pump is situated yet. Jan 2017 TSI 1.4 petrol Octavia (only got 12k miles on the clock)

Hi all, Just to let you know I am new to Skoda, so thought I would benefit from joining a well respected and well used forum like Briskoda. I like doing a bit of car DIY, so no doubt I will be hunting around for technical tips to avoid those pitfalls that seem to affect modern cars more than old ones, and those good old favorite gotchas that affect all cars. Janski