Former

Depending on the age of your car it's more likely poor quality stock of sensors, possibly a change of supplier, or hangover from covid times or stock, or VW trying to save cents or fractions (decimal places) on individual and overall car building costs, or to help cover past "errors" and "mistakes" or to fund current distractions or "directions".

No disrespect meant to you but I wondered if you knew about tyres when you put comfort is king yet you have 19" wheels with 40 profile tyres. For decades now the fashion has been to have bigger wheels and wider width shorter height sidewalls tyres. This is the equivalent of wearing a party frock and high heels when you really need to be in sensible clothes (nearer suiting race tracks than our 3rd-world roads). The size of the wheels is primarily to get over the brakes and take fully loaded weight of the car, the tyre size is also about taking the weight of the fully loaded car. The tyres are a very undervalued very complex very important component on the car, they have great effect on the braking, steering, suspension, road holding, ride comfort and noise. The size of the tyres in themselves in road holding and grip are not that greatly influenced within a the range of sizes the manufacturer offers but more abut the design, build and composition of the actual tyre chosen or compared. So say a 215/55ZR15 tyre of one make and model could be superior to, and outperform, a 235/40/ZR19 of another make and model. Just for your info some of the sizes given for tyres are nominal, good enough for size comparisons but not strictly accurate, if you look in a tyre manufacturer's catalogue you will see the tyres can vary in size very slightly and things like new tread depth can vary, e.g. one tyre may start with 7-8 mm tread depth against another that starts with 6.5 mm. That doesn't mean you've been diddled out of 0.5-1.5 mm of tread depth, different tyres wear the tread depths at different rates (though much will be about the car, how and where it's driven). Have a look at the links below to help see the differences in different tyre sizes to your car. It may help you to know that 80% profile tyres were a standard decades back (and well before that 100%) and 70% was low-profile, and 13" and 14" wheels were standard, 15" for sportier and/or heavier cars (the cars then weren't as bloated and lardy as they are now though, they were much lighter). Have a look at the 'Tyres & Wheels' forum on this site (link below) for all those swapping from larger wheels and tyres to smaller wheels and tyres for comfort (you do not lose much, if any, handling but it depends on the tyres you choose), you can no doubt also find such threads on this forum. You can also sometimes see these changes in the 'Wheels & Tyres For Sale' and 'Swap Zone' in the 'Marketplace' section of this site. HTH. 'WhatTyre' - 'How to read your tyre size' - https://whattyre.com/how-to-read-your-tyre-size/ Tyre size calculator - https://tiresize.com/tyre-size-calculator/ 'Tyres & Wheels' - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/213-tyres-wheels/ 'Wheels & Tyres For Sale' - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/333-wheels-tyres-for-sale/ 'Swap Zone' - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/272-swap-zone/

That shouldn't be so as there are competing elements when you are driving but it may well charge faster. 12.4v is fine for an AGM battery but again it depends on when, how and where you took the reading. Also depends on how reliable and accurate your battery charger is in telling you the battery was sulphated. I think I would take a reading with a multimeter on the battery posts immediately before fitting media player and soon after fitting with the media player off and then take readings off relevant, or better still all, fuses. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

In reality it doesn't take long but seems to with those spring clips and the shape of it when you turn it over to get the hidden screws out (I suppose they'd learnt they couldn't trust the fantastic-plastic (ever seen a Lidl Aldi Bentley with the skin off) to even once hold after filter change. Not as bad as one of the spring clips on the cooling at bottom near grille, no matter which pliers I used including the proper cable remote type, the ratchet jaw was too large for fit in space, without dissembling the front of the car I struggled and then when I did get them both off in all my collection of jubilee clips I didn't have a good size fit so the stupid spring clips had to go back on. Again nothing difficult just PITA awkward and of I never start with a good attitude and it tends to get worse, but I am very cheap to employ, just loathe working on our cars, particularly this one.

Model and year perhaps. If it's three rubber grommets perhaps they have the VW part number on them? I've no idea but lots pf parts do if you can get them off the car to look. I'd not do it for you with my wife's Fabia as removing the airbox is a PITA, farting about with those silly hose clips and last time I took the airbox off I scratched the plastic top as it slipped off the worktop as I turned it over to get the silly screws out ******* German engineers and their clever ideas. Some posters on here have access to files which include parts, possibly erwin and other sources. I'd just ring up the Dealership parts as it's often as quick and about same cost or even quicker and less cost than elsewhere with P&P and the gamble of the correct part and not wrong or substitute.

?Škoda parts? - https://www.skoda-parts.com/online-store.html

There you go @hetty1 a Fuchs Silkolene a German UK oil for a German engine in the UK. FUCHS OIL CHOOSER - https://fuchs-eu.lubricantadvisor.com/default.aspx?lang=eng&country=gb With engine oils the world is your lobster. I meant to put you might be as well to set your display to show oil temperature and see how often and for how long your engine oil is at or above about 90c to see possible frequency of changes as just one very rough indicator, if every journey all year round gets you to 90c then annual changes may easily be enough or even perhaps longer with better oil. Your car and engine so your choices. ETA: some used to say they never changed their engine oil but I suspect they never intended to keep the cars too long or it was something like a very old Ford (or Japanese) and they were happy to see just how long the engine and car would last like that and save them the cost and effort - be interesting to see how long a more recent VW engine would last, probably still a reasonable time but I'd not gamble on it, imagine the headaches the computers would get and give you. 😁

I'm mixing up Fuchs/Silkolene with Motul - Siilkolene (fork oil) for the LA dampers and Motul for IIRC a mate's gearbox, it was the Motul stand I went to. I should have remembered that Fuchs sounds German but was thinking of more of Silkolene. A lot of these company names go back to UK starts but of course sooner or later UK no more. This often happens when I go by my memory alone, I balls it up but I never worry as I soon forget I balls'd it up and probably repeat the same mistake again - but I won't remember that, again. 😆

Still shows a big difference. which presumably goes somewhere else.

Who knows who is really in bed with who, as long as us servants and nature doesn't stop their profits all is fine. It's like "Spoons" are one of the biggest food buyers and suppliers in retail, I remember a mate saying he went in and they'd took steak off the menu at very short notice - very soon after that on the telly was something about horsemeat as if that'd affect the general "Spoons" clientele, as long as it was cheap and you got a drink included. A number of years back we went in a "Spoons" to kill 10 minutes waiting for our driver to arrive, we had two halves of one of their regular ales and having a brass neck I asked if I could use the 50p-off-a pint token, lady behind the bar said "yes", for a laugh I said what about two tokens for the two ales and she said "yes", when I asked how much she now wanted she said 29p, I felt a bit embarrassed but also like a true "Spoons" customer and a lot, lot nearer retirement age.

Scan for error codes and get the battery 'code' correctly if not already done so. Check the battery isn't low in charge or just fully charge it with an appropriate battery charger maintainer following the instructions in the car's Owner's Manual and the charger maintainer instructions, charge low (amps) long and slow not higher amps, short, quick charger, this may take many hours if the battery is low. Any problems like you have and you want to be diagnosing them with a battery in good state of charge, health and connections. As you have cleaned the negative connector I take it you have also checked the positive side and that all connections at all ends are clean, secure and protected. As you didn't have the battery installed you don't know how ell the job was done, I have batteries replaced by Dealerships that were not done well and you shouldn't have needed to clean a connector really. Are you sure it has the correct battery fitted, was the battery actually new when installed? An appropriate (to your VW model) scan tool if updated too should give you correct error codes, an inappropriate scan tool and/or not updated may not give full or correct information.

Fuch (and the other name they used to use) offered to sponsor our car club last time I was at the NEC and enquiring about their oils (for Armstrong lever-arm dampers IIRC or oil for a mate) and the chap told me the company was owned by a French lady. I do know a little about marketing, sales, advertising and costings and pricing and certainly old enough to know what's suggested or most popular isn't always the best. Comma covers a lot of brands and brand names, Brazil IIRC. Morris oils is an old name IIRC, favoured a lot by some of those with old over-valued, over-priced cars called "classics". There are so many oil beliefs and some people have favourite brands or brand names which is fine as a good oil is a good oil (and a better oil is better) and unless it's counterfeit or a garage or mechanic has ben up to some shenanigans there no bad oils as long as suitable for purpose, some might be more suitable. The oils can only help with the engine they can't overcome the ancient legacy, design and build compromises and mistakes. We all all lucky with have German engineering. 😁 As for the German and VW numbered coolants, well . . . ya gotta laff.

IIRC Fuchs/wotsit is French, Castrol are part of I forget but not really British, Castrol Classic is through the MG Owners Club at Swavesey. As it's a German engine I'd have thought VW would want a German brand but perhaps the German brands don't want to be associated with VW. 🤣 Perhaps Castrol has some German connection. As for synthetic, well there's synthetic and synthetic, BMC/BL/Rover Minis and Rolls Royces were both cars but I think we can agree they weren't too much like each other whilst still sharing the basics. I prefer to buy a better oil in advance, often at a discounted price for various reasons so not that much more than the standard inexpensive stuff, I even do it for my wife's 2015 Fabia and that certainly doesn't deserve me going out of my way for it. Dealership engine oil changes has always (claimed at least) been with Castrol, two different weights probably for different Dealership owners or whatever was cheapest in bulk buying at the time, though I've never checked it so it could be anything. As an unexpected distress purchase I'm topping up with Castrol EDGE LL (old label) "with patented TITANIUM Technology" I'm not even sure VW approve it, please don't tell them. Oh, "Castrol - a BP group brand *1" - they put asterisk and note number then no notes to tell you what it means. "Castrol.com BP Europa SE Uberseeallee 1D-200457 Hamburg" arhhh.

You would probably have to pay a lot more to get an appropriate level TopDon (or others similar) and then possibly have to pay extra for extra service stuff (battery checking, keys). TopDon (or other similar) are just the brands their models in their ranges can vary a lot as to how good they are depending on what level you want to work to with them (don't believe every bit of advertising for them check on the manufacturers website, models used to change quickly. To me the VCDS look awful, legacy, nerdy, something from the 1990s but many like them and they are based on what VW used to use and of course for VW will be very specific. If you buy one and then go on to Mercs (frying pan to fire to me) I'm sure you'd have an easy s/h sale of the VCDS if you wanted. Have a look and/or ask on the 'Diagnostics & VCDS' forum for info on VCDS and possibly TopDon (and other similar). - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/23-diagnostics-amp-vcds/ Whichever scanner you get it's important to make you you keep it up to date with updates before you use it otherwise you might get incorrect results, many (particularly mechanic or electricians) are too lazy (or don't know) to do this, don't be one of them. HTH.

No such thing as best brand, each brand has various oils. The 0w-20 is to get an nth degree more mpg out of a car that gets heavier and more complex each year almost). Personally I take VW numbers with a pinch of salt, they change them anyway and will have different commercial contract at various points of time, the oil needs to be suitable for the time of engine. If you look at say a folder that came with the car when new it'll probably show the brand and model of oil that was in favour at the time and you can stick with that (probably Castrol?). Whether it's the best oil is a different matter. Some (mechanics and engineers particularly) will tell you all the oils are the same (they're not) and use the cheapest you can with the correct specification which you could do and it would give the minimum protection specified by VW (who want the engine to make it out of the warranty period, 7 year in Aus? 3?, 5? years in UK or can you buy more now. At such low annual mileage especially if this is made up of very short journeys an annual change of oil and filter would be a minimum - but if you're not keeping the car for too many years then just do the annual oil and filter change with the cheapest oil in spec if you don't care about the next owners, and why should you necessarily, VW and the UK motor trade generally don't and many might not care about you. ETA: VW spec is 508 00. If you want to support a UK oil blender (for your German car) just one example is Millers Oils, their WhichOil? Oil Checker Tool''. - https://www.millersoils.co.uk/which-oil/ ETA: I've used Millers Oils for a good few years now by choice. I'll put a small bet the Miller's oil you were given was the cheapest "Pro" oil suitable unless it was left by a previous owner, VWŠkoda Dealerships normally use Castrol AFAIK but I might be wrong, perhaps a Yorkshire one might be loyal to the local oil blender but I doubt it. Or I have a list somewhere of VW Approved engine oils but I don't know that it's still up to date, oil companies and blenders often change their product names and packaging and sometimes tweak their oils. 0w-20 is now like syrup or treacle to later and better made engine manufacturers but might be a bit thin for old German designs when the engine ages and gets used more but we'll have to wait and see how well these VW engines last on the 0w20, perhaps someone with 30k-40k miles might know or in the future when they get to 60-70k miles. My wife's 65k-miles 2015 Fabia uses a bit of (VW Approved) oil between services.

20c that's a big difference, presumably what's under the wraps are at least 20c warmer.

Some owners are obsessed with getting as many miles/km per tank of fuel and do such things, others want a round amount of fuel or payment so keep clicking, you know why these are not such good ideas.

Not in the car, whether there is using a higher level VW program scan tool I don't know but I'd have thought if it was available it'd be available on a SE L model. If you have a VCDS, and it is possible to do you could ask where to find the bits on it to do this on the 'Diagnostics & VCDS' forum. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/23-diagnostics-amp-vcds/ Or if someone is near you with a VCDS and it can be done they may be able to do it for a beer token, here is a map of Briskoda members with such scanners. - Briskoda VCDS Owners Map (click me)

"I'd be replacing the battery before anything else, you can't diagnose modern car properly - without - a good voltage!" (I often put the opposite word by mistake too) The battery needs to be in a good state of charge for diagnostics, particularly for electrical and engine starting problems, but also for the computer stuff that's all over the car. If the car battery at too lower charge to keep the computer bits happy then you can get all sorts of unexpected warning lights and messages (and unseen error codes) even if the engine starts and the driving lights seem bright enough. You should not need to replace a 2 year old AGM, you might need to if it has been abused by you, the charging system (or computer control of that hence the question about coding) or there a constant drain and you repeatedly let the battery get to, and remain too long at, a state of charge that is too low. Normally I would say recharge the battery (I have recharged batteries at less than 4v a few times) but in this case I think a replacement battery would be a better idea, you need to start with a battery in good state of charge and good state of health before you can probably successfully proceed with the diagnosis of your issue. If you get a new battery do make sure it is 'coded' in, and all correctly, for this occasion.

Possibly Chinese Government sponsored crap from a Chinese company like the ones one of neighbours keeps buying all sorts of rubbish from, appears very cheap but they're not because they're such crap, a waste of all resources of all sorts - but it helps China.

Others would know better than me but I very much doubt any (legitimate) diesel, at say supermarket or known (or other) petrol stations would be of poor quality in UK. When my wife had a diesel car (our one and only) the few times I drove it, if needed I would fill with the cleaner diesel (an oxymoron if ever there was) V-Power and then I would see a cloud of silver-grey out of the exhaust from accelerating hard off a roundabout 1.5m from home instead of the very black cloud if my wife had filled with usual diesel. I'd suggest a couple of tankfuls of the likes of V-Power every now and again, all the time if very low mileage, short distance use, and before, during and after an MoT/service.

Well first would be I live in England where many members of the motor trade are literally villains, some convicted many not, also lots lazy mechanics, con-men, those with bad attitude towards customers and their vehicles, they think customers are something they trod in on the way to work (shi1T) - but not all are like this there are some good uns but they always have waiting lists to get them or leave the industry. And until a couple of years ago I ran various "classics" (over-priced) and over-valued old cars) for 30+ years as dailies, for commuting and work, holidays in the UK and parts of Europe, club events and runs. All but one of them were British (English) made, so loads of maintenance and this was during the parts coming from China and being often of poor / ****-poor / abysmal quality as "classic" car owners over here are generally very tight fisted and demand the cheapest of cheap (not me) I also had expensive specialist English made parts let me down. I also had a few brand new and second hand English sports cars where product development is done by the customers. The few new and second hand Japanese cars I had never let me down and needed no more than servicing but still the English Dealerships treated their customers like idiots (I let them dig their own holes before I let them know I wasn't a total idiot. By personal choice I would give a set of tyres up to 1,000 miles to see if they suited me and the car and if not change the set, particularly important on a sports car but also any car particularly if you want to drive it in a spirited way. We have lived in the same very small rabbit hutch semi-detached bungalow, without garage, for 42 years if I'd have not had the cars we'd have a big detached house now (well that and being a hi-fi nut for a good few decades). Now I don't own any cars or hi-fi. 😁

Did the car have an AGM battery from the factory, if not and it was changed to an AGM was that 'coded' in to the computer? Even allowing for variables 11.9v is low, that is only 30-40% of charge, AGM regularly run at 80% (around 12.v), fully charged is about 12.7v or 12.8-12.9v for a new battery. For 12.2v if taken a good few hours after the car was run isn't too bad if also allowing the car's computers and bits and bobs using around 0.2v-0.3v. Also depends on when, how and what was used to take the readings.

Wow, on what report(s) and other diagnostics or basis have they formed this solution - why? You want the mechanics and techies and those that know about the issues with 1.4 TDI (CUSB) engine on around 75k miles for this sort of thing. If the engine was also in the Mk2 Fabia (I've no idea) you could look on that forum for history and possible injector issues with that engine. Hope you find out.

@Ootohere just out of curiosity any idea of the current DQ 200 7 speed gear ratios? When I drove the 1.0 110 TSI I was in 5th (out of 6) manual by 30 mph IIRC, it defaulted to Eco at turning ignition back on and I normally left it there and just pushed the revs up when I wanted, it was reasonable enough higher up the range (very subdued at low revs, no traffic lights grand pricks stuff) setting to sports mode there was a noticeable pick up in acceleration, or at least that's the way it seemed to me, felt the extra 20 PS to my wife's 90 1.2 (4-pot) where the driving modes are left to the driver operating the three pedal and gears, within what the computers think suitable at any given moment of course, and I get this information anyway when car's owner is in any of the passenger seats.