Julian15

Thank you for the hint about the brake light switch, it went intermittent 18 months ago and I thought I fixed it. Guess it will need a new one now.

TDi 110, year 2001; just had 140,000 service 2 weeks ago. Recently have been doing only short town trips but yesterday on first long run the yellow pre-heater light started flashing on the dash. Took the car to a friend with OBDII reader but no error codes were showing. Does anyone have any ideas, could it be due to build up of oil deposits somewhere caused by short trips in cold weather ?

According to Mr Haynes : Manually lock, unlock then finally lock again holding the key in "lock" position for 1 second. Note that windows need to be in closed position before doing this. But I have not tried this yet myself !

Thanks for that. Have now replaced battery with second battery connected with croc clips to the terminals. Everything seems OK, even the clock kept its time (but have not checked windows yet ?)

If you want a finer control of the cabin temp (which only has 1 degree steps) you can change to Fahrenheit mode by pressing both AUTO and ECON buttons together. Then you can control the air temp in 1 deg F steps, about twice the control you have with Centigrade. BTW they fixed this on the Mk2 Octavia giving you half degree centigrade steps.

Before I disconnect the old battery, what problems am I likely to meet when I have connected the new one ? I can cope with re-setting the clock but what about ECU, alarm etc. The Haynes manual tells me how to reset the electric windows I think. I have a small (4AHr) 12v rechargeble battery, is it worth connecting this with some cables to the battery leads to avoid loosing voltage during the swap ?

Beware that some of the TDi 140's are very thirsty. I had a MKII estate with the DSG box and always struggled to get better than 42-43 mpg where as my MKI TDi 110 easily gives me 10mpg more under the same conditions of town + motorways. The 140 was even worse in gentle driving, around the country lanes on holiday in Jersey (max speed 30 mph !) I could not even get 40 mpg where as the 110 gave me 60mpg on a similar holiday around the lanes of Cornwall. However the torque of the 140 was more fun and all the cars behind disappeared in the smoke when I put my foot down . I assume that this shows the poor factory setup of some of the PD engines.

eddies: My TDi also suffers from the starter dis-engage squeal and warm start problem. I mentioned it to JKM at a recent service but they were not interested in looking at it. Is it an easy diy job, how much work is involved under the car ? I used to work on my cars years ago but no longer have any ramps, axle stands etc. Thanks, Julian.

I also have this hot start problem but have found that leaving the ignition switched on for about 5-6 seconds or longer (wait for seat belt light to go out) before attempting to start means it is more likely to start first time.

What is the function of the One way Pulley on the alternator ?

My TDi 110 estate is now on 119,000 miles so is shortly in need of a very major (i.e expensive) service. Can anyone recommend a garage (probably independent) in the Hampshire area, preferably near Southampton.

I had this on my last car, a MkII Octavia L&K estate and personally speaking I would have prefered to turn it off . I usually parked backwards in my driveway for ease of exit and with the Xenon HID lamps all I did was light up my neigbours house across the road whenever I arrived home or needed to get something out of the the back of the car after dark. When I actually needed them I would park facing my garage so I could see to unload, however the lights turned off automatically after 30 seconds even though the back of the car was still open. Another good idea ruined by Skoda not thinking it through properly !

Here are photos of the seats in my TDi Elegance estate; very tasteful in bright mustard !

Redundancy has forced the return of my company leased L&K 2.0TD DSG estate. I was obviously so impressed by Octavias that I have bought myself a 2001 Elegance 1.9TDi (110) estate with 113,000 miles on it. First impressions (apart from the appalling smell of polish that second hand car dealers insist on putting on everything including the steering wheel) is the economy. I can easily get over 50mpg, driving home carefully on the day of purchase it indicated over 60mpg on the M3 at 70mph. The L&K averaged 42mpg over the 26,000 miles I dove it from new. Like many others,mine suffered from terrible economy, at best on a long motorway run it would reach 45mpg and never any more. The Elegance with only 110BHP is supprisingly faster than the 140BHP of the L&K because I was always feathering the throttle on that to try to get the mpg up. I can now drive faster and still get good mpg. To those of you you said It was my driving that caused poor mpg I think the easy 50+ mpg on the older car shows that it is indeed a fault with (many of) the new 140BHP engines, you only have to read the posts on this forum to see this. I'll miss the nice heated electric seats and DGS gearbox of the L&K but not the useless auto wipers and illogical auto headlights. I'll now be found on the Octavia I forum, bye !

Hi, I also have this problem with my recently purchased 2001 Octy Estate 1.9 TDi (110). has anyoneone found the definite cause yet ? I think the fuel temp may be a clue as it happened to me after driving for 30 miles on a motoroway so the engine would have been hot, but the air temp was just above freezing. After stopping and filling up with a tank of diesel the car took several seconds to start. I assume that the fuel temp in the injector pump must have risen quickly due to heat soak from near freezing to around 80-90 degC. (diesel engines continually circulate fuel excess fuel from the pump to the tank I believe). perhaps the computer cannot handle a sudden change like this and gets confused ? Any thoughts on this ? Julian.

Mine could do with an update, yesterday I nearly got crushed by a truck which did not indicate correctly at a roundabout, the kickdown took nearly 2 seconds to change gear and rev up the engine so I could get out of his way; I was not impressed with this at all !

SOLVED ! - I have found that the fuse box schematic is a mirror image of the fuse layout !

To VRStu, perhaps you can help me with a more complicated fuse problem. ? Like Blue Boy, my cigar lighter socket stopped working, it seemd that my Bluetooth handsfree charger caused a fuse to blow, BUT the one shown in the manual (#24) on the side of the dashboard is not blown. Further, I plugged the charger into the boot socket (Octavia L&K estate) and it worked for about 2 secs, followed by a "pop" from the front of the car. On checking the relevant fuse for the rear power socket #26 was also intact. I have telephoned the dealer, they have no idea what is wrong and no-one can look at the car in the next 2 weeks and I need the power for a holiday trip in 2 weeks. BTW, the charger is perfectly OK, I am an electronic engineer and it works fine on a bench supply taKing only 1/10th amp. Also the fuses in the fuse box are not as specified in the manual. I have had the car from new (about 3 months) and have not changed them myself so the factory must have put the wrong ones in (10/15 amps not 25 as specified). However to repeat the fuses are OK.

Hello, I have just about covered 3000m from new in my L & K estate and am wondering what mpg others are getting. On previous cars I have always managed to better the specified mpg figures but on my L&K I am only getting 43.5, consistently on 5 full tanks (measured brim-brim, not from the maxidat). I only do long trips (40 mile commutes on motorway at 65-75). I was expecting at least 50mpg from this car. How do you accelerate briskly into traffic ? With the DSG getting into gaps at roundabouts is v. difficult and I have to wait for bigger gaps than my previous car (RAV4 diesel with manual gearbox) However I push the accelerator the car hesitates for at least half a second, then pulls away leasurely for another half second. After that it decides to take notice of the accelerator position and rapidly accelerates with the risk of ramming the back of the car in front unless I lift off / brake quickly. With a manual gearbox you give the engine extra revs and slip the clutch up to your required speed. I have tried using the S position but it makes v. little difference to the first second of acceleration, just holds the gears longer.

After hearing nothing from the dealer since the car went back (no appology about the fault) they rang today to say they could not deliver the car as agreed tomorrow "due to lack of drivers". This is the same excuse that they used to delay the initial car delivery. I really belive that Fish Brothers (Swindon) do not know the meaning of customer service. I had to explain to the dealer that they really should not delay any more after all the delays I have suffered. Finally they said that they would get a driver to deliver my car after they took another to an auction. In other words they were happy to make the purchaser of a brand new

The Skoda web site for the Octavia (see "details" > "comfort") says the following :- Drinks holders - The new Octavia interior has clever storage ideas almost everywhere - such as two hide-away drinks holders between the front and rear seats and a storage space that fits a 1.5 litre bottle in the door compartment. Perhaps the "hide-away" holders are too well hidden !

But it was delivered to my office with paint scratches on the front wheel arch so it had to go back to the dealer. I was so looking forward to driving it (L&K PDi140 DSG estate), now I will have to wait a week while their body shop sorts the paint. Why are dealers so careless ? It looked really nice in storm blue with light grey leather seats - SIGH !

Hello everyone; I am about to take delivery of a new L&K Estate TDi DSG to replace my previous company car, a RAV4. That car has a plain metal/plastic service key which allows me to lock the car and go windsurfing, scuba diving etc. I assume the Skoda electronic key is not waterproof to 30 metres so are there any watersports enthusiasts out there who have a solution ? (Hiding a key under the wheel arch is not an option on a busy beach)