Former

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. VIN decoder that will show factory options Audi VW Seat Skoda - Price: EUR 3.00 (Approximately£2.66) - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224631127243 PDF file returned very fast.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Someone on here will probably be able to tell you what all the codes mean or for (IIRC?) 3 euros someone on eBay can give you the factory 'car data' info for your car.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. I don't know what it was like in 2009 but for much earlier cars the information for something like How Many Left has to be taken with a pinch of salt as the salesman could make mistakes and errors (bad handwriting even) and I expect data input was very boring at the DVLA and mistakes made there too or misinterpretation of what was written (badly or not). Have a look on all your paperwork you might have a unique or rarer model listed than what is correct. 🙃 Only last week on checking the VIN on a mate's 2005 Jag the machine and VIN plate gave one character different, twice, to what the salesman had put in the original paperwork for the car's servicing handbook and other paper.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. (ETA: sorry Steve I forgot to use your name, how rude of me, despite the reminder in your (bit on the left with details in that I've no idea what it's called).) Even if not all or any of the issues are battery related having a battery in good state of charge will help and if it is just the battery then happy days quick easy fix but you will have to keep an eye on your battery's state of charge for a while to ensure you don't get a repeat of the issue. If it is the battery then most lights should go out after fully recharging but those that don't should go out with a bit of driving, those that remain on after this obviously will need investigating. I saw in another thread where warranty work on ABS (IIRC sensor and perhaps tyre pressure) was said to have ben caused by a wheel bearing possibly damaged by potholes. Some VWSkoda Fabia Mk3 suspension parts and wheel bearings do seem to be a lot less sturdy or at least short lived compared to what I'd expect and compared with other marques, hopefully not yours, my wife's car has already had replacement front dampers at 6 years old. Let us know how you get on.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Hopefully you are able to distinguish two different but related ideas in my previous, my personal troll deliberately does not. At 8/9 years it depends on the hinge wear how much adjusting the hinges helps or just moves the area of misalignment where you have to accept compromises. You might be able to adjust the door this way to your satisfaction so it is worth a try but if the hinges are badly worn then the movement in them remains and you can spend a long time trying to sort it if you want good shut lines only to return to near enough where you started, hopefully not so on your car at 8/9 years but it depends perhaps on the car's previous use and owner(s).

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. 17.5km is very barely enough or possibly not enough to warm the engine or car and not enough to be fully able to exercise the car. It would be better and expose and tell you more if you could you go on a longer and more interesting route to fully warm the car and get use of the steering, braking, suspension, clutch, gears and electrics. Personally I would record then clear the error codes each time as you are not using the car enough or done the work required perhaps to have cleared up some issues (depending on what they are). Have you tried the battery disconnect and 'reset'. The problem with a car that isn't used regularly is that you could get it fully sorted and loosened up but then by just not using it all the little issues of it not being used creep back in and the cycle starts all over again, I've seen this a lot with "historic" "vintage"/"classic" owners and many of those do not have alarms/immobilisers and computers and modules to add to the issues.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Vehicle prices were high, particularly s/hand (pre-owned / pre-loved) because of the pandemic, chip storage, lack of new cars and the aftermath effects of those. There's a war, energy prices, cost of living, interest rate rises (from record lows). A trade-in value is just one side of a deal in buying a replacement car, increase trade-in offer will mean decrease in money off replacement vehicle and vice-versa the dealer is only interested in the profit and perhaps changing or moving on stock to have less lower profit and more higher profit stock. An ordinary buyer is lucky to get over-valued trade-in and at the same time under-valued replacement vehicle (cake and eat it, twice). Who knows for 2024, perhaps the bubble bursting on EV will mean petrol cars have more value because of this. Unless you're in the trade or at very top-end vehicles swapping every few years is possibly an expensive or very expensive way of purchasing overall. ETA: you need to add monetary inflation, lost interest/investments, running costs of vehicles plus other stuff I can't think of now to AG Falco's figures. Best bet is not to have a car. 🙂

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Lubricate the hinges and latch and it will at least close easier and quicker which might be enough for you to notice it less as you get used to car and discover loads of other things you might need or want to look at or attend to. You could also lubricate the door and hatch seals which will help with opening and closing especially in winter, using (GT85 if you get it there, use it on door hinges and loads more too, or) a silicone spray applied by cloth or silicone oil applied with a 35mm cube of clean old sponge.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. From that the first thing I would do is check the battery's state of charge. Even if the car starts and the lights seem bright enough the battery can still be too low for the computers and their programs and they will throw up all sorts of unexpected warning lights and messages. First thing noticed is often the start/stop becomes in operative, then perhaps power steering light but other miscellaneous lights and warnings can show up. Check out any number of threads on here. Check the battery state of charge at the posts a couple of hours after the car has been parked up. To allow for variations if the reading is say at or below 12.3V then fully recharge the battery with an appropriate battery charger but don't be in a rush with it, avoid fast charging, it could take overnight and more ,see the details in your Owner's Manual. If you haven't got the time or patience first time to fully recharge the battery then repeat the recharges until the battery is fully recharged. At the worst doing this will cost very little mains electricity, take a small amount of effort and a bit of time and having the battery in a good state of charge will help with problem solving and diagnosis whereas in a low state of charge it could hinder or cause issues. Just driving the car often is not good enough to recharge the battery fully or enough. Link for pdf copy of Owner's Manual in case you don't have your paper printed copy. -https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models Let us know how you get on.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. IIRC (and I don't always) someone else just removed the fuse for the alarm and then removed the unit but this might have been on a Mk1 car, unit was engine side of scuttle and the chap only had third party insurance.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Your main problem seems to be the people you bought the car from, very rare to get a faulty battery, yes it can be made bad by poor storage and garage/driver's use, abuse and neglect - or a faulty charging system. If it's an intermittent fault they're more difficult to track down but you've already done some spade work for them and battery charging systems and their faults are not new to cars and generally not marque and model specific. You've had two good suggestions already, I'd add test perhaps doing volts tests as well as or instead of resistance but 200 is clearly enough to show up at the start. You want all electrical connections to be clean, secure and protected (I use Contralube 770 for inside the connections, others are available). I would recommend even though the battery is quite new that you check its resting state of charge at the terminals a couple of hours after the car has been parked up and consider fully recharging it with an appropriate battery charger and maintainer as a low battery on a 2014 VW, even if the car starts and the lights seem bright enough, can cause all sorts of unexpected problems which you won't want adding to or mixing in with your current (no pun intended) issues.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. At least you found the clunk (we have not) and seem to have a lot more room than when I done my neighbours droplinks. After the next drive I would suggest you check the torque tightness of the new nuts, you look like you have the room(?) to do so with the car sitting on its four wheels and tyres. Do a search on air-con flap depending on your type of air-con and model their might be several ways for a simple reset and if you change the cabin filter you can check there's not lots of debris in that area (and inlet?) of of the system at least. Using the car only occasionally will introduce possibly more problems than if it has more regular use, certainly if the regular use was over reasonable distances. Me personally I would disconnect the battery, switch the ignition on and press hard and hold the brake pedal down so that the brake lights would be on if the battery was not disconnected, if you want also turn the headlights, or blower on full, whatever takes your fancy for however long you like as long as it's for a good few seconds at least. Remember to turn everything off again immediately so you do not forget for when you reconnect the battery. This is easy, no cost, relatively clean hands and comfort to do, the only sort of car work I dislike the least. The idea is to get whatever will to reset, even if I had a scan tool I would do this as the computer "repair" "reset". If it does nothing (or seems to do nothing) it has took next to nothing or lost nothing to do. Check your Owner's Manual for things that might need resetting/synchronising after a battery disconnect. I like a clear base to start from, like clearing error codes from previous owners. Good luck.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. That motor industry thinking that it must be more complex and expensive. If changes had been considered a long time back then the solution might have been more high, or perhaps more low tech, and it might have been way more developed by now or it might not have needed to be developed. You've hit the nail on the head - consumables - the whole point of the motor trade, perhaps you could use something less consumable and yes have consumables means the opportunity of more labour charges, win, win, win for (the motor) trade. For the record I go with changes every two years, this might be too late or according to some way, way, to soon. I've used two different testers that two different people own in one reservoir just to see and they gave different results of lights/percentages, both had the fluid as OK to use but one less so than the other, which to believe, if either (no I didn't test the testers). 🙂

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. For many the cost of the small bottle of fluid could be multiple(s) the cost of the tester so depending on how often you use the tester you could replace it - but then you still have to test it for accuracy before first use. 😁 Depends where you buy from how expense or cheap the stuff is and as I put before - Amsoil have - "In ideal conditions, an unopened bottle of brake fluid lasts about two years. It’s best to use a new bottle of brake fluid every time." All ways about this are imperfect, you just pick the one you prefer.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Yes I think it needs ideas from outside of the motor industry with more original thoughts and without looking for whatever is dirt cheap to use and already tied in with commercially mutually beneficial existing arrangements. Sorry but you'll never convince me that the motor trade has made much effort to make changes but has put a lot of money and effort into making sure they don't have to. So we deal with what we have, joyfully - or otherwise. 🤣

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Below +5c generally is when the winter setting is used on a battery charger if it has that setting. 16km (10m) may be barely enough as a journey to get the engine warmed, the coolant temperature gauges are often biased to show 90c even when a bit above or below this and it is more important to have the oil temperature at 90c or above for a while which might depend on the type of journey the 16km was. You probably need to do longer journeys to help find and clear things. Clean new spark plugs can often make a good improvement even when the existing plugs look fine same for HT leads. Sorry I cannot think what an "ignition cassette" might be (at the moment perhaps at 3am tomorrow). Anything not right with the ignition system could affect the starting, idle and running. Once you have checked/changed the air filter, cleaned the MAF and throttle perhaps, fitted the new plugs and leads and if the car is up to it you might want to take the car on a couple of sensibly done blowout (Italian tune-up) runs with perhaps a tankful or two of something like Shell V-Power for its additives cleaning package.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. As above where do you get the clean fluid from where you're certain it's clean and without (too much) moisture other than a unopened new bottle, then Amsoil have - "In ideal conditions, an unopened bottle of brake fluid lasts about two years. It’s best to use a new bottle of brake fluid every time." I've had personal experience of testing equipment being faulty and the tester not doing the test correctly (me) and relying on someone else saying they checked properly when they haven't so I judge the value of a test or testing perhaps with more scepticism than I should but it's each to their own.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. That's the thing the testing isn't really practical for your average user with one or two vehicles. If you open a fresh bottle of fluid you really want to use it up or you then need to store it appropriately and I'm not sure of the suitability of the opened sales bottle, just putting a bit of cling film over and screwing the top back on might be reasonable but there's more air space and how good is the container. I've just looked it up and the manufacturers give it 12 months from opening. Depending on the vehicle perhaps that's my thinking too, when I was doing a fluid change I like to include a very thorough flush through too, luckily the systems were very low capacity so one litre was very generous for flushing and filling. How ridiculous really that in the 21st century we're still farting about with such a nasty fluid but of course it's cheap for the motor trade and plenty of profit.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. 12.8v is good but after the car has been parked up for a few hours take another battery reading now to see what you get to at least tell you the state of charge and what's been held (allowing for short run usage). This does not tell you the battery's state of health but in cold weather you do want a good state of charge too.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Yeah, well, they had to give the VW badge owners something for their "prestige marque" badge. From 80s onwards I've always though of VWs as overweight, I never understood what the kids saw in Mk2 Golfs by the time they could afford them.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. You probably already know for keeping hatch and door seals you can use AutoGlym Bumper & Trim Gel or silicone oil, applied with a 35mm cube of sponge, or use a silicone spray or GT-85. The GT85 can also be used for the jobs WD-40 is supposed to but the GT85 does them better has PTFE and smells nice, use the WD-40 on garden tools left in the shed over winter. Or if you want to be all VW stuff like one from Krytox range or as they used to recommend a product called Gummi Pflege, which I discovered was just German for Rubber Care.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. If the issues does seem to have come from power washing then you might return a favour by letting Danderhall Cars know this can happen for future reference. I remembered it was something to do with flaps but couldn't their location, and now the next time someone asks I'll remember it's flaps - but not the location. 🥴

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. But how do you test the tester, my concern would be that some electronic stuff can be poor quality or the quality control from manufacturer is poor so you might be in a lottery of getting one that is faulty/inaccurate, unreliable, or soon becomes so or worst a lottery of getting one that isn't. Years back I was bought a cheap multimeter that I rarely used, Sod's Law just out of warranty it went haywire, it's replacement as another present sometime later was the same (perhaps a different label but IIRC both were Draper) and it went the same way. Whether the lack of regular use contributed to the lack of longevity I don't know. I was bought a third as a present, this time up in price by a multiple but not into expensive. This one is longer lasting at least. I was asked to take it over to a mate's (he actually bought it as the present) to compare it against the two existing cheaper meters he had plus the newer one he'd just bought. All four showed different readings, mine which I think reads optimistically read slightly higher than his first two but all three were close in readings and his new one read under the other three by a bigger margin.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. 🤣 🤣 I was using the Search here, top of page, and getting my panties really scrunched. Having put that I often have problems with our Master Google (that helps to rewrite history by ignorance and helps others to get away with it too, but that's the internet and social media generally). 'How many fingers, Winston?' 'Four! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Four! Four!' 'How many fingers, Winston?' 'Five! Five! Five!'

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Yes the damage was done before you got the car, once the battery has gone too far down it's life and performance is limited, the Dealer should have tested the battery's state of charge and state of health before handing the car over to - but the motor trade doesn't always have the most honest and moral people owning and running Dealerships and garages even if most of the staff want to be. Again the start/stop not being active is a sign that the battery possibly isn't at it's best but by the time it's got to that stage it also is a bit later than is best to recharge the battery so the recharging should be done ASAP then, For an old fella like me it's hard to fully understand how some car owners put that the car's not been starting as it should for a couple of weeks and then they have other problems and at no point has the battery been checked. Modern cars are still basically very ancient technologies so the basic checks are the same as they've been since almost their origin and before you had to fight with their computer systems - difference is now with the computers and their programs the 12v car battery is even more important and it was always very important (much more so than most owners/drivers realize hence being the number one cause of breakdown callouts).