Former

My way of explaining things isn't for all but can as always be read or ignored. That's part of your problem the decades old fashion for oversized wheels with wide rubber band tyres, party frocks for often only going to work in. Whatever tyres you get is restricted by this. The 87V is as you may know weight loading and speed rating of the tyre, 545kg and 149 mph. So you have a tyre capable of 149 mph (for a while) on a car that shouldn't generally be doing more than 70mph here but is required as the car's top speed is 120+(?) mph. Whatever tyres a set of four matching tyres makes more sense and as put correct tyre pressure is important, though some models get two pressures quoted the second being "Eco" which is at a higher pressure and generally gives more bumps but XL tyres run at higher pressure anyway. If you're in your 60s you may remember 70 profile tyres were considered low profile tyres, yours are 40, and even on a sports saloon back then wheel size would be on 13"/14", possibly models that heavy and fast (as your model) 15". Merely an example, 215/40R17 nominal sidewall size 3.4" (97mm) - 215/45R16 nominal sidewall size 3.8" (86mm) - 185/60R15 nominal sidewall size 4.4" (112mm) more 'rubber' and air gives more cushioning. Not that 15" may fit over the macho brakes and I don't know if the 16" would still need to be XL (XL used to be for work vans). With fashions you often have to suffer some discomfort and impracticability but you can look good, well at least until the next fashion. 😁

Hi, welcome. You might be better asking this on the Skoda Kodiaq MKI (2017-2023) forum. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/339-skoda-kodiaq-mki-2017-2023/ It wasn't the sound I was expecting so sorry I don't know and would only be guessing. It may not be so relevant for this mainly audio specific video but generally if you hold the phone camera the other way, landscape rather than portrait, you will get more into the frame and perhaps more information can be picked up or other relevant and/or related things noted. Good luck.

Low mileage in a car may not be as good for the car as you think, so do make sure you have an annual engine oil & filter change and also other items on the car checked and changed as required on a time or mileage basis, whichever is the sooner. If the car is driven more often now and for longer journeys that will help the car battery with charging but don't wait for any messages or lights to tell you the battery is low in charge and certainly not hesitation or delay in the engine starting because the battery is low. Many batteries from this sort of car year may be prematurely changed when all they needed was previous timely preventative charging with an appropriate charger maintainer. Good luck.

Now you are what they call "gaslighting" and once again turning a thread into an argument stream. You do not interact with me you troll. Of course things are repetitive as the same issues often have the same answers, you must be slipping if you think I don't put about long slow low recharges and others when appropriate. I'm totally lost why using a 35mm cube of old clean sponge (medium density are your words not the type I use) offends you so much but as I put before I'm not responsible for your life and your issues and cannot help you nor no longer want to. I have no idea if you regret posting some of your personal details to me (and others to see obviously) in a past obscure thread but I have never repeated them so forget that. Or is it that as you have seen in many threads that batteries do actually sometimes need the use of a battery charger and that it's not as you insisted and ridiculed me that the modern alternator can always recharge the battery sufficiently, and that lots of short journeys has no effect. It is OK if occasionally I get something right and occasionally you get something wrong, you've no need to apologises to me even if you do to others when it happens. You could have private/direct messaged me at anytime previously to sort things or get my explanations or sources of info to agree with or disagree but that boat sailed long ago and instead you keep pestering with targeted posts, it's boring for many as will be my very occasional response posts such as this. If you disagree with something I put or think its nonsense then just put that and others can agree or make up there own minds. And to your credit this time was at least humorous, if they were all humorous and instead of vindictive that would be great. s you put you skim read the posts and as I've put before I will no longer justify my remarks to you go do the research but I doubt you'll find much on 35mm cubes of used clean sponge - I've never recommended of Gummi Pflege, which is merely German for rubber care. Sorry all, I know you're not supposed to feed the Troll but sometimes you hope reminds might get some respite.

Rather than tyre tread depth left that may be what they meant, there's a lot more to tyres than tread depth, age and lack of use might contribute to their deterioration. Having put that, the Avon ZT7s on my wife's Mk3 Fabia cracked badly on the inside where you don't see in just over 3 years and 22k-miles. The Nexen N blue HD tyres the car came with (from new I'd guess) and the two Nexen N blue HD Plus I had to get as "distress purchase" certainly where the best but they weren't that bad either and the two that didn't need "distress purchase" didn't get noteworthy cracking in nearly 5 years and 34k- miles of use.

A good point has been made, I often find when I think I've got the seat of my wife's Fabia Mk3, and on other cars, fully down as it feels like the handle has come to a stop I can actually get another four pumps down (nothing preventing it under the seat). The handle is plastic so car has to be taken. I find, whether it's correct or necessary or not I've not investigated, that if I slightly lift the handle before pumping down on the first stroke that it seems* less resistance on first stroke. (sorry to others) - * Troll - please note I put these type of words and sometimes empathises in on purpose, please don't think you've clever in 'discovering' them.

I can see the humour of the post and if it was just that I'd find it funny, but unfortunately it's not just about making a (rather good) joke (that I set the punchline up for). Never mind context. 😉 And off we go again . . . I know stuff I put about VW, the car trade and farting about with cars that might well upset some VW fans, the car pros and those that enjoy fiddling with cars but there are plenty on the other side of the coin so both sides can be appropriate. Most of us can put our side and let others do the same even though we may disagree or strongly disagree but there's only J.R. who constantly trolls (me at least) possibly because of his anonymity and more distant location. As always the OP (regphenna) and others can chose for themselves what they want to read, follow and take advice or information from. Once again J.R. has posted on a thread only to try to belittle me yet offer nothing more to the thread - so once again I asked J.R. to stop doing it, disagree as much as you want but don't just try to shut me down as you should have learnt by now I won't be bullied by you.

Hi welcome. You really want the 'Skoda Roomster (2006-2015)' forum (you're in the Fabia Mk3 forum). - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/101-skoda-roomster-2006-2015/ Mapping is a general subject and you will get the pros and cons from supporters and those that don't see it's necessary. Performance and additional car/engine performance to be fully appropriate and successful requires first that the whole car is fully and properly serviced, and maintained in a timely manner and repairs as required. Performance increases are often found just by the whole car being fully and properly serviced, and maintained in a timely manner and repairs as required, this may include a few bits more than VWSkoda put in their servicing and maintenance schedules and almost certainly than most Dealerships/garages/mechanics would bother with. Have you tried using your gears and revs more. Stick with what follows it is relevant. Only yesterday I was proving to my neighbour whilst driving his car that mpg (within reason) was more about throttle control more than higher gears and lower revs. As he's from Yorkshire (but not "real Yorkshire" as our friend from Lincolnshire who lives in North ("real") Yorkshire tells us) he is stereotypical "careful" with (some) expenditures so as the car has a moving bar display to show (claimed computer) mpg as you go I took great delight in demonstrating this to him getting the bar below 10mpg at times, pity it went to its maximum display of 60mpg every time I had to lift my foot off the accelerator. Lower revs and higher gears (within reason) is more about reducing engine wear. Mapping should be about performance, that performance could be about balls-out, ego power figures or overall performance that will include better mpg. Performance is also controlled by the driver, driver training will get better performance and can be mostly transferred to other cars at no additional cost. Yourself and others may of course have different ideas. 😊

Rooted has already put most of what I was thinking. I've no idea but I guess changing seats in modern cars can be more involved than you might expect. Also might sound odd but if you've not already done so adjusting the seat you have to a different position might help (depends of course) perhaps even raising from lowest position and the Fabia seat in my wife's 2015 Mk3 goes a long way back on it's base (provided you don't have someone sitting behind it). Perhaps an inflatable cushion, my wife uses one in some cars, barely inflated to put behind her back, but in your vase I'm thinking of perhaps on the seat base to compensate perhaps for the seat back bolster cushion on getting in. I'm short at 5' 5" but by habit I move the driver's seat fully back to get out and back in so I don't hit my head on the windscreen pillar and so that others can easily get in to the driver's seat as with short legs I have the driver's set close to pedals. I have the driver's seat fully down in the Fabia but raised a bit in other modern cars. Being five doors and not three means the front doors aren't as long so you do get closed to the windscreen pillar and perhaps sloping roof at front.

@rum4mo Pagid (Performance Braking at least) used to be at IIRC Leeming, N. Yorks until the at the time German overlords rationalised, or wotever they called it, their operations and their would have been some sort of expertise about (unless they'd already got rid of anyone that really knew, as of course brakes are not just on modern cars. TDM Friction I know nothing about other than they own brand names like Pagid. I sometimes had problems explaining to some posters on other forums, from Tasmania and USA that despite living in a county formally of much engineering and still with much motorsport involvement that we don't have "shops" where you can borrow hand tools or take stuff in and get it machined unless you know the business owners and finding the right people to do good quality work isn't that easy and if you can they've already git more work than they want or need. But as I put before I've never used our local familt business of EBC Brakes despite a mate knowing the family from the 1960s. It seems in the 1960s everyone in motors port or that type of car trade knew everyone else and it wasn't all top executive corporate type because their business weren't huge. Unfortunately these types are so old they either dead or long retired, though some still have sheds and unit they might still do a bit of work for themselves or their mates or those that can find them and can wait. Motorsport isn't Fabia brakes but refurbing the brakes on a 1960s motorsport vehicle is the same and they may have the machinery and certainly the skills to do the job properly. Packaging is just marketing and sales, the guy that can do the job properly probably wouldn't involve any packaging other than for posting and it'd probably smell of oil. 😊 I'd not worry about a receipt with the Halfords Advanced, I took a rachet back and I had the receipt but it wasn't asked for and the item swapped without question and as they didn't have the same one in stock I was given an upgrade (and the item wasn't faulty I later discovered just me not knowing how to use it). I had some imperial rachet ring spanners, they were so good and at such good price over the next year or so I bought two mates the same set and later decided I ought to treat myself to a second set as they were so useful even though they'd be full price (I didn't have trade discount) but by then they'd stopped doing them all together. Seeing the Britool on the bleed valve was a bit ironic, but of course Britool isn't Britool any more. From decades back I had some Gedore spanners that I gave away and some other I was going to clear out and a mate said the older ones would be Germany made and good and later ones made in India and not so good and I remember one set definitely had Germany on them and sure enough when I looked at the two set I still had both were India. 😄 I've got a couple of late 1970s screwdriver that were "bottom draw('er)" purchases hardly used and when I thought I'd like some more of those in sizes I use because I prefer the grip on the handles and the better quality than the ones I can afford, I had a look on eBay and they're collectors items at silly prices, not to be used but just collected! 😄

Sorry but I don't see why and I qualified the approach and limitation, I wasn't suggesting flooding the area and spraying willy-nilly. It's similar to a pushbike with a cable moving something remotely only difference is that it'll probably involve some type of VAG/Bentley fantastic plastic instead of usually metal on pushbikes. It was just to start with the simplest approach first to reduce possibly involving hazards and PITA farting about with removing other bits of plastic on a 7-year old (or even newer) car and where heater items are fitted tend to be cramped and awkward places. But I admit I haven't a clue with a Citigo and just cleaning and lubricating and gently working this in might not work at all but if it did I would work the flap/knob/cable every time I got in the car for a while and then at regular intervals to keep it moving and check it's not starting to play up again. Its like testing or using items at intervals that may not get much use normally to make sure they work for when you need them, when you put the ignition on you get a test of various warning lights but they don't cover everything. I almost never sound the horn, unless I accidently lean on the centre of the steering wheel of my wife's 2015 Fabia as I turn to look out the back window, so every once in a while I'll sound the horn to make sure it's working and give it some exercise. We know what the problem is and it's best to know the cause but often if the problem can be resolved by very simple actions then that can be enough for something as minor as this but if regphenna wants or needs to do more the learning process may encourage tackling other jobs with confidence, I'm at the other end of that rainbow. 🙂

True but it could also be used on the bleeder valve and different spanners can give different opportunities of fit and getting at and on to the fixings. In the photo the area looks very open but often there's other stuff that gets in the way and can be difficult or a right PITA to get out of the way.

GT85 used to be a British company, I used it on my pushbikes in the 1980s, now it's owned by one of the big invasive American organisations called . . . WD-40 Company. There's obviously a reason why they continue to market it to bikes, possibly because they have a WD-40 labelled version, I've no idea if it's the same stuff or as good or if it has the same lavender(?) smell. Same for PlusGas, once British but no more, not sure if PlusGas isn't as good as it used to be or just rose tinted memories. Instead of Kurust we used to have Trustan 23 (tannic acid) I used that for decades and it worked, put some on a very small chip rust spot once then missed putting paint over it a year later the metal was still fine. We are great in this country at undervaluing local stuff and particularly now going for the brasher presentation, marketing and sales (and higher prices and consumption) that they do so well over the pond.

Remanufactured/refurbished/reconditioned - all depends on the state the original unit was in when sent in for work, who does the work, how well and how many times it might have been through the cycle. I had a car that used lever arm dampers (unfortunately they weren't the same ones as used on contemporary London Taxis at the time) and recon ones were very cheap to buy, which was enough of a warning really but lots of people and garages bought them and fitted them, and I think for recon they probably got little more than a wipe over and respray and perhaps fresh (cheap as possible) oil in but I'd not be surprised if even that was missed out, then re-con price, retail supplier's uplift and VAT. I'm sure some were worse condition that the worn dampers they replaced. 20 years later I saw the same dampers were being sold, bit higher prices but not by that much and people were still buying them.

For stuck flap if you can see or get at any hinge/slide/wotever point and cable ends then you could try a quick shake 'n' spray of a good long lasting lubricant (not WD-40 Multi-Use) my preference is for GT85 and leave to soak in for a few minutes then try working it in with gentle operation. Only as a general example as your VW Citgo system may well be different. - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3m_mZ8_8EC0 https://gt85.co.uk/ HTH.

Well done. As I used to try to explain to my wife some things on a car just won't fit unless you swear at them. She tells everyone that when I do this I only use four swear words but I use them in rapid repeats, which is true. All my neighbours know not to approach me if I'm working on one of our cars but I will happily stop and talk if I'm doing (small, easy) jobs on my neighbour's car - and I've never like VWs (except Golf GTi Mk1). You posses some fabulous delicate precision instruments known as your hands and fingers, use those where you can before using other tools, and use manual tools in preference to power tools where you can. For work and diagnosis also use your touch, eyes, ears, nose (even taste sometimes but beware) often these can tell you stuff the computers can't - but also use your own computer, your brain, especially to confirm anything a computer tells you. Brakes are a very dirty business but you want to keep things clean whilst working on them. Once you've opened a bottle of brake fluid don't keep any remaining too long, once you know for sure you don't need any for top up from this job dispose of the unused fluid along with the drained/spilt fluid. I only put tonight that this is the 21st century yet we have to put up with this nasty stuff for brake fluid mainly because it's so cheap for the car manufacturers and car trade to use, ancient technology in the same way as the internal combustion engine.

I've been happy with the Halfords Advanced stuff I've had. 6mm and 7mm Halfords Advanced Combination Spanner with Surface Drive Plus ("An average of 28% more torque before rounding on the open end") - £3.29 - https://www.halfords.com/tools/hand-tools/spanners-and-wrenches/halfords-advanced-combination-spanner-with-surface-drive-plus-712414.html They don't do 6 or 7mm but do 11mm - Halfords Advanced Flare Spanner - 9mm/11mm - £5.29 - https://www.halfords.com/tools/hand-tools/spanners-and-wrenches/halfords-professional-flare-spanner-228251.html Good luck.

It might depend on what the Ctek means or interprets as full, then it depends on how long the battery holds this charge or if something about the car is messing with or messing up the battery. If the battery is too low in charge and charged too quickly it won't accept the charge or will show a full too early due to surface charge, I prefer to use my 1.8 amp charger but it does take a long time, could be up to about 60 (six, nought) hours if seriously flat, say below 5v at start but I've done from less than 3v but I'd not necessarily trust the battery for car use for long at that low and not a more modern Germany marque. Something I missed before is that you put the battery as Exide 70amp EFB I thought VW went over to Banner Batteries but perhaps they changed supplier contract again. Which diagnostics equipment, Dealer scan tool or VW battery load tester (with print out?)? Same for Dealership, If the battery is too low in charge and they charge it too quickly it won't accept the charge or will show a full too early due to surface charge they should know this and be using the correct appropriate equipment - but . . .

Yes it's what the car manufacturers, tuners and first purchasers also do. 😄 But being serious we know what you mean. Unfortunately that doesn't work for the vast majority of purchasers it just puts them off what could be a perfectly good car honestly presented. Any decent photo of a reasonably presented car will make it look good, I've taken photos of cars I've owned for insurance and thought how good they look in the photo and I've only cleaned them and taken the photo with a very modest (digital) camera (not phone). I once sold a car of mine and a chap came to have a look at it for his girlfriend/partner/wotever, he liked it and I said he'd have to bring her with him next time so that she could look at and drive it if it was for her and not him. I admit I took an instant dislike to him to say time, he seemed very smarmy and a bit , can't remember now but I didn't like it, I remained very polite and easy going as perhaps I'd got him wrong . He'd arrived early with her for the appointment, probably trying to be clever to catch me out and I was just finishing off polishing the bonnet on a sunny day before having my mug of tea and sandwich before their arrival. He started on about he'd not seen the stone chips on the bonnet on his first visit and I could see where he was heading and I admit it did annoy me as I didn't really take to the guy. So I explained that if I'd want to hide them I'd not have cleaned and polished the car that highlighted them in the bright sunny day and instead left a cover of dust over the car that would have helped to hide and disguise the small stone chips and if he thought differently he should go and have a look for another example for sale, there are two sides to a sale/deal/contract neither are forced to deal with the other, he changed tack. This was a Japanese car, they tend to be generally short people, like me, she wasn't over tall but very leggy and to me didn't look over comfortable fit in the driver's side but she said she was very happy with the drive and the car. Though I'd not put a high price he of course wanted to haggle so I immediately dropped to my lowest acceptable price which took the wind out of his sails. My wife didn't understand this until I explained that he'd obviously done his research well so knew values and that it was a good price, that he knew I'd not mess about with him given our earlier exchange and that I thought he'd definitely settle for that and buy it there and then and a sale is better than having to hold on to the car for a potential sale later at only possibly higher price. I didn't have the room, time or inclination to hold on to a car I didn't use. Many s/h car buyers can be a real PITA, wanting to buy a used car and expecting it to be as if it was brand new unused, some go power mad or too personal or emotional about themselves, the seller or worse still the lump of metal and plastic (or plastic and metal for modern cars). Obviously you expect more from a Dealership, garage or professional sale but you can see why many prefer to sell to professionals or "trade-in" rather than potentially get more money from a private sale.

I will ask a Moderator to move this to the Skoda Octavia Mk III (2013 - 2020) forum as you have posted it in the 'Driving and Touring Routes' forum.

A very quick Google look , I could be wrong but I'm guessing that's not going to tell you more than general OBD generic stuff especially if it's not to the complexities of VW and L&K I'm guessing is loaded with more complex VW extras. Perhaps better than a slap in the face with a wet fish and might alert you to something (as long as it's accurate) but you might already see, feel, hear or smell most given of it on a long and varied enough test drive and use/running of the car from standing overnight cold to hot, heavy and not overcareful use of as much as you can and together on the car. If you can't leave the salesman back at the garage see if you can at least get him in the back seat. Good luck.

That's a good start but it doesn't allow for stuff not reported and again could include errors, cheap checks sometimes mean very little (look at the get out clauses) and I'd not rely on a seller to know much or all about the car (or with some care or even downright lies). Check all plates and labels on the car to match each other and match all paperwork. With paperwork sort into reverse chronological order to check and cross reference it with all available information. If the seller upsets you you can always leave the paperwork in the order you found it. Computer records are also useful but again not totally reliable. Really take your time on getting accurate research before you get too carried away with the car. You might even find it's better than advertised or you expected but if it's not you certainly want to know. Good luck, all the best. ETA: make sure it has two fully functioning keys/remote and they are for that particular car and anything else that should be or comes with the car (garages/Dealers lose stuff and like to play shuffle with bits). Take lots of high-definition photos that you can zoom in on a large(r) screen monitor to inspect and check.

A 20+ year old car could have a lot of non-originals bits on it and possibly convenience or force fit parts. Once cleaned up a socket and hand/t-bar over the fitting can be the way to go as you can then feel better what is happening, you may need a deep socket to get over the nipple head on a size that small. Always remember when doing a job for yourself there are no prizes (other than ego boasting that many seem to like) for how quick you can do a job so always allow at least treble the time you may think it might take you to do the job and that way if you complete it sooner then that's good but if you take a lot longer, so wot. Always try do a good job, many professionals only do a quick job. If possible allow for having to walk away from the job, or be held up by something, for a while, anyway there are many better things to be doing than farting-about with cars.

Original rear bleed valves show as requiring a 7 mm spanner - as quoted earlier.

Looking at your photo again the nipple against the feed pipe the nipple is very small, but I'd have thought 7mm would be the smallest size but perhaps that bleed nipple isn't original to the car and brake drum. You don't want to round the nipples off like the idiot did to the front, To get the nipple open you need to clean around the base of the nipple and threads and the spanner/socket flats on the nipple to get the large bits of muck off perhaps with a pick or small flat-bladed (slotted) screwdriver then finer cleaning with white spirit/petrol/brake-cleaner and perhaps an old toothbrush or similar and rag allow to dry or dry off perhaps use a small wire brush to get any remaining stuff/rust off then apply (soak) a *penetrating/releasing agent* to the base of threads and leave to soak in overnight, or more (the secret is time and patience) this gives you plenty of time to find a spanner or tool to fit next day with correct tool you can see if the nipple loosens off, if not redo 4, 5, and 7. It may be than any spanner or tool that small may not have enough give you enough length for sufficient leverage but be very careful about extending the leverage length too much and loosing the feel and breaking the nipple. *penetrating/releasing agent* - this could be GT85, PlusGas or if you have it my least favourite WD-40 (not such a long lasting lubricant) https://www.plusgas.co.uk/en-gb https://gt85.co.uk/ Be very careful not to break the nipple off, you must look, see and feel if the nipple and it's thread are actually moving, if so you can apply a little more penetrating/releasing fluid (GT85 is good as it's also a lubricant fluid. Once you know you can loosen and tighten back up again the nipple you can then think about bleeding (better still changing the brake fluid, flush and and bleed. If the front nipple has been rounded then perhaps its best to replace the nipple with a new nipple. As put sometimes different spanners of the same size (or different size) can be a better fit. I bought a 7mm spanner especially for a bleed nipple and it wasn't as good a fit as I hoped but it done the job, if yours is less than 7mm you could try another 6mm (or 1'4" if you know anyone that has very old British cars) I can't see it being 5mm/3/16". Try the clean, soak & leave and let us know how you get on.