Former

The thumbwheel might just have some crud on/in it and just need a clear out so just a physical/mechanical fault, I'd try cleaning it first to see if that works as it's quick, easy and very inexpensive to do. Much servicing, maintenance and some/many repairs on a car just boil down to clean and lubricate. Or you could try with the ignition off spinning the thumbwheel forwards and backwards a good number of times and see if it free things up. Such a low mileage and/or use over 6-7 years isn't such a good thing for some parts of the car.

Classic Silicone Hoses (a very small company unless it has changed) - they do not make a Favorit/Foreman set but I am sure they could. - http://classicsiliconehoses.uk/product-specification/ They do a set for "Octavia Felicia"(?) and they offer different finishes and colours. - http://classicsiliconehoses.uk/product-options/ I am nothing more than a satisfied customer, no connection or profit for me from promoting them.

That is new to me. For long lengths it might depend on the quality of the hose, I have had three and four ply silicone hoses but thinner walled hoses could be supported and secured with clips. When rubber hoses were of very poor to abysmal quality for my "classic" MG I fitted a full set of silicone cooling/heating hoses and unfortunately most of them were disconnected and reconnected a good number of times for various work on the car and that was over 14 years and they are still on the car now and look in good condition and internally they must be good or they would not have been kept with the last engine removal last year.

Not totally my experience with a couple of 1974 and 1980 Haynes manuals. As advised as you have VCDS lite you can put it to good use to help track this down, might also be a connector or wire. As in with a neighbour's 2005 Merc but for the work involved to check the connector it might have been worth taking a risk on fitting a new aftermarket (Chinese made?) £20 sensor (keeping the original factory fitted part just in case), I don't know how it was fixed as it was done in with a lot of other work repairing and refreshing the car which must have cost a pretty penny.

@Mathias03 do you actually mean a Webasto or do you mean the Skoda factory heater air conditioning? For Webasto operating manuals use this link. - https://dealers.webasto.com/sections/public/Documents.aspx?SectionId=6&CategoryId=9 For your Skoda 'Owner's Manual' use this link. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models

Thanks for reporting back, unfortunately it's a common story. I would expect the change of such old and used spark plugs and air filter to make a noticeable difference. Of course the engine is not the most important system or component on the car, I hope your mechanic also checked the brakes, steering and suspension (all three include tyres). Things like brake fluid and engine coolant are often overlooked and not even checked let alone changed. I also changed the manual gearbox oil on my wife's 2015 Fabia at about 6 years and 40k-miles and my wife said she noticed the difference - but many will argue against this but it's an easy job (otherwise I'd not be able to do it) I've done on my cars and always found the benefit. Much servicing, maintenance and even some repairs just boil down to clean and lubricate, boring easy stuff but a good base to build from even if you only want impressive sexy work on cars. Good luck.

You might find a seal with a better profile for your current installation, have a look at places that do seals, I'd have a quick look at "classic" car trim suppliers, car builders' suppliers sites, kit-car builders' sites, custom/modified suppliers sites, eBay seal suppliers, for whatever profile you think will suit your needs. Surely it can only be that the bonnet is now higher, or the heater box lower or the seal has squished but as I put earlier it is what it is so if nothing else is wrong then a seal that fits the current situation should resolve the issue.

I could well be wrong, often am, but I don't think Ford Sierra was about when the original version of Slick-50 was be one of the Sierra predecessor's mark of Cortina. toot are you sure it was Slick-50 they used then, I can't dispute it as I was a kid then and where I lived they were very few car owners. ETA: Looks like the original or a version of it is still available after a very quick Google search. - https://bishopsoriginalproducts.com/history/

Hi, welcome. You have posted in the wrong section, I will ask if your post/thread can be moved to the appropriate Octavia section.

Originally at least it wasn't so much an additive as a coating, IIRC testing on the/a later version found it manly coated the oil filter. The transmission version IIRC was more of an additive as it required renewing with oil changes.

I thought you had already checked this and knew there was a gap hence the suggestions of changing or further sealing.

It's not been the original stuff since god was a young girl and it was all fields around here and most here weren't even a glint in the eye.

Fair enough. I can follow keeping the car but making it feel different. Chap in another thread had a remap to get more mpg which a remap should achieve but most of us wouldn't notice as we'd drive the extra performance and usually get less mpg. Being biased against VW but only experiencing the 4-cylinder I can't think I'd want to push a VW 3-cylinder too much more than VW. Having fun in the car has little to do with hp figures and numbers and needle positions on the dials that's all ego stuff and no matter how much you have in the right circumstances you'll want a lot more than possible and always others already have a lot more. Better might be to carry more what is already available with things like better tyres, perhaps suspension upgrades (though many upgrades can be the opposite). Perhaps strip things down a bit, if that's possible on a 2019 car. But different people have different ideas and want to experience things for themselves. I've spent many tens of thousands of pounds to find more often less is more but admit it has been nice sometimes to have more than required. Good luck to you both.

Sorry you've totally lost me, are you replying to another post on another thread. A mate has just had to get rid of a 2005 Picasso and replaced it with another Picasso of a similar vintage but this is in the UK. I'm not sure why you'd think I'd find it repulsive wherever you live but putting your location as Hebden Bridge I think it's natural that my post to you would be as a UK perspective so any worries about removing the seats as regards UK insure are void. You want to consider yourself lucky, from a UK perspective, to be given 5,000 Euro to scrap your previous car. Sorry I wasn't able to help you more.

I've no idea about your wife but a lot of drivers (often but not always in BMWs and diesel Audis) don't use the performance already available in the car by the use of gears and being in the power range It might even be against the law for some BMWs and diesel Audis to travel below 5th gear so dribbling by the vehicle they're overtaking shutting the door for any other vehicles behind them. One of the best tuning aids you can get is driving training (I say that not as a particularly good driver myself) and it's all transferable to other cars. I'm not saying any of this picking on your wife as in my personal experience generally women are better drivers than men and many men have performance vehicles beyond their driving skills (including me), just my personal experience others may have found differently.

I'm glad to hear your happy with your car. I've never been a VW fan, although I've been told the 17+ year old ones are better built and more reliable, I've been disappointed with my wife's 2015's parts longevity, or more accurately lack of, and annoyed at the over complexity the German marques insist on. So I'm unusual here in not being a fan and a bit biased in the opposite direction to most here. The seats will have the stuff for seatbelt wearing so fiddley plastic wire connects will need disconnecting, what the car's computer programs make of this I don't know. I also wonder what insurance companies would make of removing non-removable seats but again don't know. If you can't see any fixings then you must need to remove something to expose them but I don't know what as I've never investigated this. Good luck, let us know how you get on. Some advice I always give, especially if you're going to do lots of short journeys and very few longer journeys, when appropriate check the state of charge of the car battery even if the car starts fine and the lights are bright enough as the car's computer programs can throw up all sorts of issues even before any warning lights or messages. For the first time in 40+ years of car ownership I've used a car battery charger preventative maintenance on one of our cars (helped out with neighbours and friends batteries for decades) and bought an appropriate charger and maintainer for the start/stop battery. I also advise actually reading and referring to the 'Owner's Manual', sadly no longer a paper printed copy or anywhere near as comprehensive as decades back but even more necessary for even the very simple jobs you've done for decades as often there's a little twist of complexity not expected sometimes to something like changing a remote fob battery and where any particular collection of possibly fuses might be for one item. Here endth the sermon. 😄

Yes I wonder that too - but, it is what it is so you have to work with what it is. Surely you can make a seal that goes around the metallic lip and is wide enough (thick-walled) to also cover the whole of your filter and heaterbox intake, perhaps removing the existing door type rubber seal. A (watertight) foam type has been suggested as this can be compressed, or also be cut to allow for any angle of the bonnet slope if required.

How long have you had the car, what was the few last lots of servicing (VWSkoda "full" servicing isn't really not even for the engine let alone the rest of the car). The driving around town will do the car very few favours but if the 75 mile trips are frequent and regular they will help. Does your wife (and/or you) turn the ignition on, before starting the car, and the heater blower is still on and the air-con still from when she last turned the engine off? Halfords or places like that will IIRC do free battery checks for you (but don't buy a new battery just on their say so). Here is a list of site members who may be able to help you buy using an appropriate scan tool for your car, it's a diagnostic tool so not always a repair tool but is often needed on modern complex cars and the German marques love complex.. - Briskoda VCDS Owners Map (click me) Careful use of a (improvised) stethoscope device might confirm better the location of the noise (beauty cover off engine).

No sorry you've misread and misunderstood, I mean the 'Owner's Manual' (what used to be the Driver's Handbook) that used to come with the car as a paper printed copy (and pdf versions) now virtual(?) versions. I've only recently given away 1974 and 1980 versions of Haynes for the same model of car at least one error and omission was repeated from earlier to later, for new owners particularly and many even long term owners the Driver's Handbook gives much more useful information. It would tell you if the seats were designed to be removable and lots more info, you need to consult it for even simple things that you've been doing for decades as often there are little twists you have forgotten or don't know about or the extra complexities the German marques like to throw in to show how clever they are. My last car was a 1973 MG Midget got shot last year and I thought I saw coming the opposite way on a road today but was too slow to read the reg but it sounded like my old car. 2004 is the newest car I've ever owned, when it was 11 months old. I was thinking just to fold the rear seats down or looking at the rear seat base(s) for fixings but my wife's car isn't here to check for you, they will come out for repair/replacement. I have a feeling with my wife's car you just yank the rear seat base upwards to get it out but I'd need to consult a Skoda WSM to be sure and to know about back rest fittings, then there might be eclectics to some higher level trim models. I'd imagine removing rear seats could be done fairly easily and quickly but then would any 2023 electronics and computer programs get arsey, I don't know, unless someone else was paying every penny for and to run a 2023 car I doubt I'd ever have one as the 2015 car already has a few bits that annoy me.

"185/60R15 fitted to a 6Jx15 ET38 5/100 57.1 rim is a good compromise between comfort and handling on the Fabia MK2. This may explain why this tyre and rim specification became a standard fit on the later Fabia MK3." (ETA: the man himself is now here) Yes I remember now - 185/60r15 are the tyres on my wife's Mk3 (I'd prefer 14") also 195/55r15 is mentioned as a standard Mk2 fit, so going with 195/55r15 as an example - Or 185/60r15 -

@toot what's the 17" tyre size on a 2013 Mk2 Monte Carlo then (to work out acceptable 15" tyre sizes)?

Yes that is why you want a scoop, I followed that, you want to give it an open hood. Yes I understand that, you have two problems this one I thought would be solved by my answer 8 hours ago. You should not have engine bay fumes coming into the cabin that is why seals and grommets are fitted to items passing through the firewall/scuttle. Then surely something is not working or fitted as it should be, the idea of recirculate is to prevent external air, in modern well sealed cars you should not leave recirculate on too long. Yes I understand this too but a scoop might (or might not depending on how it is done) bring in more air, a limiting factor might be the filter you use. and the size and type of mesh you use on the scoop, if you use any. First thing is to seal the metallic lip to the filter housing as this will bring in more fresh air and seal out engine bay air and fumes.

Hi, welcome. ETA: my computer is on a go slow I didn't have toot's post until I posted mine. 2013 I take as a MK2 Fabia so I'd not know but later I'm sure someone who does will be along with all the info. It depends on what size brakes your model has as to whether a 15" wheel will fit over them, if not 16" would still give a noticeable difference. Just changing old tyres that have gone hard from age and use and/or to a better make and model of tyre, even if at 17", may also give some improvement but probably not as much as going to smaller wheels with tyres that have more sidewall height (profile). If you enter your tyre size into this calculator it will give options of 15" and 16" tyres to match your 17" but some tyre sizes are more commonly available than others so are available in a wider range and often better prices. - https://tiresize.com/tyre-size-calculator/

Hi, welcome. Are the back seats designed to come out, they're not on the Mk3, what does it have in the Owner's Manual? If you mean to 'spanner' them out then it's a matter of looking at the fixings and having the right tools for the job, if VW don't mind you doing so it might be Torx or if they want to be more awkward it might be those XZN/triple-square/12 point thingies.

With a scoop perhaps you can use something less restrictive than the present foam. My total guess would be that the scoop would give you a greater volume of air coming in so you could keep the foam filter but that's just a guess you would have to do mock up tests at various speeds and in various circumstances with a some kind of measuring instrument to know for sure. Getting hot air out of the engine bay is the more difficult process rather than getting air in. I do not understand your worry of the blower motor as you presumably have a recirculation setting that cuts off the air from outside anyway and the blower motor works with that.