classic

I know it is actually the cable on mine as the handbrake lever won’t stay fully down when it did it.

I’ve been keeping an eye on used Skoda Superbs as I’d like one for my next car. I’m actually not too bothered which fuel to get. Ideally I started off wanting a 1.5 tsi as I like the tsi engines but then I found theres a lot of tdi engines out there so began taking another interest in diesels, in fact I looked at a very nice 2021 SE L estate 200 ps dsg model but decided to keep looking as it was £25k and just seemed a bit expensive for its year. Ive kept overlooking the phev version but they seem to be going for quite a few thousand less than the normal petrol or diesel’s. A 2021 iv estate can be had for around £19k. Are they that bad ? What am I missing ?

On the tsi it always was lifetime with visual inspections after about 210,000km (130000 miles) but Skoda uk put a 5 year time interval on so there was still some maintenance money to be had from the cars in aftersales. As the tsi engine has developed, changing the belt has become more and more of a technical job and even more complicated and expensive special tools have been needed. I wouldn’t mind betting a good few engines have been made worse by incorrect timing belt installation, and the hybrid cars need ev qualified technicians which are in short supply or even non existent at many dealers. No doubt the engineers at VAG said why are you messing with these belts which have been designed to last and the drive system for them designed to reduce belt stress ? Personally I wouldn’t worry about a timing belt on a ea211 tsi engine before it was 10 years old unless it had starship mileage. Within our family I have also maintained a Vauxhall (10 year/100,000mile interval) belt changed at 10 years on 110,000 miles and a Ford (8 year/80,000 mile interval) belt changed at 9 years on 60,000 mile. Both those manufacturers engines have water pumps driven off the timing belt which is a weak point. The ea211 tsi’s have the water pump driven by a separate belt at the other end of the engine so the main timing belt is unaffected by pump failure.

The other morning when it was -5c my handbrake didn’t release properly. The warning came on and the handbrake lever wouldn’t stay all the way down. It had new discs, pads and rear callipers about 3 months ago so I suspect it is the handbrake cable. Probably got water in it which then froze.

Hi Golf2, I understand yours is different. I was just answering JR about the video. Hopefully you can get yours done ok and the rest of the job isn’t too much more of a pain.

Presumably they can be pushed in to whatever slot they fit into when installing. I don’t think he conveniently avoided anything, I doubt there’s any great point in him creating a conspiracy theory on the fitment of octavia tsi radiators, where people cut off tangs only to find they still can’t fit their new radiator. He’s just done a quick video to help others avoid removing the whole front unnecessarily. It is probably obvious if you were actually doing the job. It looked to me that the new rad would fit into its location at the bottom with top of the rad angled back towards the engine and then the top pushed forward to locate the tangs into wherever they go. I took it that the whole front had to come off to access the “tangs” to properly release them and the dude making the video realised that, as he was renewing the radiator, he could just cut them off. If you were actually dismantling it for some reason and not scrapping the radiator you would have to do it properly.

Can you melt the plastic tabs off the old one like the guy in the video ? He took the front off and still couldn’t release them so melted them off and realised he could have just done that in the first place.

Ouch ! Have you checked if there already is a recall ? I’ve definitely read other similar reports on briskoda in the past, and I’m sure some models did need an update of some kind, but didn’t take much notice as I’ve only got standard seats. https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall

It sure is 👍

The thing is with the diesels that the water pump is a weak point and driven by the timing belt. Do you know if it is definitely the original belt and not had a water pump replaced at some point ?

Spark plugs will be due at 40000 miles (37282 to be precise as it’s 60,000km) which looks like the mileage which is coming up now.

I’m guessing the dealer is part of a large national chain of dealers who have the franchise for various makes ?

Yes it should, when sold by a Skoda dealer, have everything up to date. Of course, they know the 3 year, then 2 year brake fluid change requirement is bull crap unless you happen bring it to them for a service…. If they are arguing the toss about a £60 brake fluid change I’d walk away, it doesn’t bode well for their attitude if there’s a problem after you’ve bought it. There’s no shortage of used Octavias out there.

Not mad if the price is right. I have seen a 1.2 tsi taxi with 230,000 miles on it. The one you’re looking at is the second highest mileage I have seen. There aren’t really any major issues with the ea211 tsi petrol engines which is why I chose one. I would have to say 170 k miles is getting up there for a turbo petrol engine and you would probably be pioneering how long they can last. At that mileage your more likely to run into issues with air conditioning not working, alternator wearing out, drivers seat worn etc if you get it at a good price and are prepared for some inevitable maintenance work there’s no reason to avoid it. I’d be more wary if it’s a dsg at that mileage. I’m sure you could get a reasonably low mileage second hand engine if it ever came to that as there are plenty of Octavias on the road that will end up in breakers yards over the coming years. If it drives ok and the price is right, why not ?

Sounds like the dual mass flywheel might be on its way out.

Yes, I got a set of identical original alloys from a breakers and got winter tyres fitted. Mine were 16” and the wheels were around £270 for the set including delivery. I guess VRs wheels will be more money… I also sold them with the winters on and pretty much got the wheel money back. There are often sets advertised on here. https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/333-wheels-tyres-for-sale/

Not a vrs but I’ve previously had a separate set of alloys with winter tyres which I swapped on and off appropriately each winter. But currently I’m running Michelin cross climates all year round. They’ve been really good in extreme wet and were also perfectly good in snow. I’m sure you can run smaller wheels with winter tyres on the vrs, but I’d think you’d need to at least inform your insurance that you are varying it from normal whereas using the correct wheels keeps it standard in that respect. Cross climates have been good but knocked the fuel consumption by about 3mpg. On the other hand I’ve found they are lasting really well compared to normal tyres. I don’t know whether all season tyres would be a compromise for the good weather handling of a vrs but for ordinary driving they seem pretty good.

I don’t know off the top of my head what turbo is on your engine but there’s going be more to it than whether it hasn’t got play or it spins ok. And the actual turbo itself could be fine but not be getting controlled properly due to incorrect signals from sensors elsewhere. There will be an actuator to vary boost pressure correctly either operating a wastegate or more likely variable vanes in the turbo. and this will be operated by vacuum or electrical. There will also be sensors determining how it operates. Have you had it scanned for fault codes, or tested if it is providing the correct boost pressure ? If it’s blowing black smoke then at a basic level there isn’t enough air getting in or there’s too much fuel.

I suspect the turbo is not providing sufficient boost.

Slave cylinder looks to be external and reasonably easy to remove on mine, a 2015 1.4 6 speed manual. (Picture taken with battery tray and air intake pipes removed).

Watched a couple of videos on these. The rectangular screen behind the steering wheel looks terrible. Is it a joke or a temporary preproduction thing ?

If it worked then great, but I am very wary of such additives. Maybe it had been trying to do a regen which kept being interrupted by you stopping the car hence the fan running on more than normal. After adding the cleaner you took it on over 50 miles of motorway after which it was ok. Possibly the 50 miles of motorway was all it needed to complete a dpf regen and the cleaner being present was coincidental ? Proper dpf cleaning is done by connecting into the exhaust before the dpf by removing a pipe, or sensor, then dpf cleaner added under pressure from an air line whilst the engine is running. I agree with Paws4Thot and would add that if a cleaning substance is resilient enough to make it through the combustion chamber then do you really want it inside the rest of the fuel system ?

Sure is.

Well done ! Last clutch I did on the drive was on a Toyota Aygo, probably half the weight of your gearbox and I said never again after that.

Closing in on 100k miles.