TheHungriestBadger

I'll leave it to the professionals to give the exact details but I believe they are indeed just clipped into the bumper, feel free to do a quick Google search on whether or not you can spray them safely, and if so, what the best procedure is for doing so. I guess you could always try the sensor as is and just verify that it works as it should. If it does, feel free to paint it and then retest. If they're not too expensive, just grab another if it no longer works after painting.

Hi Lucie, should only need to replace the dead one, and shouldn't need any coding or anything either, the actual sensors themselves are relatively 'dumb' so to speak. If you're lucky and have a common colour, it should be a direct swap. I'd be hesitant to paint them since it could affect the sensitivity of the replacement one relative to the others. Having said that, I'm sure plenty of people have simply spray painted them and been fine.

Okay, another update: DMF & clutch replaced, plus an oil and filter change. Idle is now pretty smooth (smoothest it's been since I've owned the car) and certainly consistent, and no more death rattle. I've determined that it can't really be the tandem pump, it started nice and fast even after being sat (nose higher than tail) for well over a week. From the forum research I've done, that would imply that the fuel system isn't losing any prime, thus the tandem pump is likely absolutely fine. The smell is still there though. The smell seems a bit sweet for oil (unless synthetic does smell a bit sweet?) but smelling around the top of the dipstick when hot is different to the smell directly above the tandem pump. Do tandem pumps just smell slightly of fuel when hot? Like, is it just a PD thing? The oil level is now definitely between min and max on the dipstick so I will be keeping a close eye on that over the coming weeks as well. Also I've thrown in some of that fluorescent dye stuff so that should show up any oil leaks, no matter how minor. One thing to note though is that the oil was black after a 10 minute drive after picking up the car with fresh oil (and after the garage had tested all rattles were resolved). Again, is this a normal PD thing? My previous car (a common rail Megane) maintained nice treacle-coloured oil for ages. The only other things that seem relevant to my smell are: I saw it mentioned in one forum thread that poor (retarded) cam timing caused a fuel smell? I know that mine is -3.9 thanks to VCDS, although I'm probably going to wait until my belt is due next year before I tackle that, given that it's still within official specs... Unless it is likely to cause expensive problems if left until then. It's the injectors/seals, although again I don't get any smoke of any kind under any conditions except for a little bit of black smoke at high RPM under WOT, which I'm pretty sure is completely normal for pretty much any diesel. Would appreciate if someone could clarify whether I'm barking up the wrong tree, or what I'm saying sounds plausible.

Okeydokes, an update: This Easter is turning out to be bloody expensive 🙃😂 The DMF (Dual-Mass Flywheel) has decided to say its goodbyes (the usual horrific rattle that disappears completely the second the clutch is engaged). Additionally, I'm almost certain the tandem pump is goneski as well for two reasons: Strong smell of fuel (I believe) from that side of the engine (RHS as viewed from the front of the vehicle), between the main block and the air intake pipe (?). This is accompanied by generic wetness in the area as well from the limited amount I can see without ripping stuff apart. I'll be asking the garage to take some photos of that side of the engine, as well as the top of the bell housing, when they take the gearbox off to replace clutch + DMF + release bearing + CSC (Concentric Slave Cylinder). Diesel fuel in the oil (again, I believe). I did a spot test onto a standard bit of A4 (Tesco lined if anyone's interested 😉) and a while later got the results shown in the attached photo. If someone could confirm that this is indeed diesel in oil, then that would be great (oil was changed at Christmas by the way). I'm probably just going to ask them to replace the tandem pump completely and just get it over and done with. Hopefully, this will cure the oil contamination issue which has been going on for god knows how long (no reminders please of the damage this is likely to have caused). If the above doesn't cure that, then the answer will be leaking injectors/seals, I know that much. Don't they usually give issues with starting and smoking though? I have no smoke at all - when cold or otherwise - and no issues with starting at all, if anything it fires up worryingly quick (if that's even a thing). ^^ Spot test, oil sample taken from shaking the dipstick.

Likely the final installment in this thread then, the new speaker is in place and all is back working now. Thanks for the advice Golf-Fiend (and everyone else, of course), definitely came in useful for knowing what to expect. For anyone else in the future, I made a video talking through how I went about it, and showing what stuff actually looks like.

Hi all (again), I had a mate who knows a little more about engines than I do have a poke around with the plastic cover off. In the pictures below, you can see there are some damp looking bits (circled) over on the right side of the engine (looking at it from the front, aka: the passenger side of the car, aka: the opposite side to the fuel filter). It looks like it might be a very slight leak from the fuel lines? Or potentially from the tandem pump (that's the metal thing under the braided hose, right?). There is definitely a strong smell of 'hot engine' once the car is up to temp which can be smelt from inside the cabin, outside the car and under the bonnet. Would like to hear anyone's opinion on what it could be, I'm happy to try and get any more photos/run any simple tests if that can shed any extra light? I've also got VCDS if there are any scans I can do that would help the diagnosis process as well? As you can see from my signature (if it shows up) it's a 2.0PD BKD 140, I'm getting pretty decent MPGs still, and the car has had this 'issue' since I bought it second-hand back in November '21. I've done some reading over various forums already and I'm guessing it will either be perished rubber hoses due to age, a gasket going into the tandem pump, or possibly the pump itself (ouch)? I could be way off though with all of those guesses, though. Cheers in advance, Adam

So, having recently purchased an official HEX-V2 cable (only the 3-VIN version, though), It did indeed come up saying that the speaker/sounder/beeper/whatever is at fault. Just thought I'd clear that up because I hate when threads just get left without a proper conclusion. Also, just to clarify, here are the symptoms I was experiencing (for those without access to VCDS): When selecting reverse gear, no display appears on the stereo display, nor is there any sound at all (no beeping, nor a continuous tone). When coming out of reverse, a 'picture' of the vehicle flashed up on the stereo display briefly (probably for less than half a second), and still no audible alert. All 4 parking sensors on the rear bumper were working - confirmed by switching the ignition (but not the engine) on and putting my ear against each sensor in turn. You should be able to hear a faint clicking sound a few times per second from all 4 of the sensors. Hopefully this is of use to someone down the line, and cheers for the pointers along the way, I'm realising this forum is a bit of a gold mine. Finally, if and when I get around to fitting a replacement speaker, I will try and remember to take photos/keep a log of what I had to do to replace it.

Appreciate the advice there MicMac, as you've probably gathered, I'm not great with cars, but I'm always keen to learn and things like filters seem like a good place to start from what I've seen online so far. It's not much, but it's something at least.

So just a change of the fuel filter and remove whatever's in the actual filter housing itself? In which case: 1) is the fuel filter as easy to access and replace on the 2.0PD as in the 1.9PD (which has several YouTube videos on how to replace)? I assume so. 2) If I was to drain the fuel filter housing as is being implied, is it just a case of cycling the ignition a few times to run the fuel pump and fill the housing back up?

Only went through the car wash when I was back down to Essex, but I have done some driving since (home from car wash, to and from garage). I've fitted a new fuel cap, brimmed the tank and chucked in a bottle of Wynn's Dry Fuel (linked in a previous post), car still runs indentically to how it did previously, so I will probably just keep the tank topped up for the foreseeable future. I'll get a good 300 mile run when I head back up to uni in North Wales after New Year's. Cheers for all the input guys.

To clarify: the fuel door was closed when I went in but was found ajar when I came out (as if you'd clicked it in to unlatch it). Also, yes, it was a roller brush carwash, not one of the touchless ones... If they even exist in the UK, I don't think I've seen one.

By pure coincidence It's going for a service tomorrow, so I'll ask the guys there what they think, and may get them to take a sample of the fuel then. Definitely will be getting a new fuel cap tomorrow as well, literally only just noticed it was missing this afternoon. Cheers for the link as well, I wasn't having much luck finding ones compatible with diesel. Again, I'm getting it serviced tomorrow so filter should be getting replaced then anyway Am I right in saying that diesel floats on water? And if so, does that mean that either: Any water will get siphoned before diesel (i.e. don't have to drain the whole tank)? If no water comes out immediately, I can assume a negligible amount is in the tank anyway?

Not my finest moment, I forgot to put the fuel cap on after filling up a couple of days back (fuel cap is in North Wales, I'm now in Essex... Not much chance of seeing that again). I went through one of those machine car washes at BP and noticed the fuel filler door was ajar... Thought nothing of it at the time. Have since driven a few miles home and all seem to be fine (so far?), no particularly rough idling, no lack of acceleration, no clouds of smoke behind me when accelerating. Does the Octavia have any 'second line of defence' after the fuel cap? Have I put myself in for a very expensive Christmas present to myself 🙃 due to a ton of water going straight into the fuel tank? And is there any obvious way of telling if water got in (i.e. fuel gauge reading higher, etc.)? Any easy remedial actions, or is this a "just get the tank drained" situation? Just to top it off, this is a diesel as well...

In hindsight, I probably should have checked this before, but according to this thread a broken beeper (as suggested by softscoop) would indeed seem to fit my symptoms - including no dash display. Given that the speaker causes the system to disable, and since the beeper is only £10 on eBay, and it's mounted behind the passenger-side B-pillar trim (allegedly), I may just have a crack at replacing that myself? Better to possibly waste £10 guessing wrong than possibly waste £40 on a scan just to confirm my suspicion, right? Also, I would've thought if it was wiring to/from the sensors, or the control module itself, then one or more of the sensors wouldn't be clicking (i.e. the signal either wouldn't be getting sent out to them in the first place, or wouldn't be getting through to the sensor to be audible)? I could be very wrong on these last points of course 😅

I just checked this afternoon and all 4 sensors on the rear bumper are clicking as they should be (ingnition 'ON', engine off, reverse engaged). Again though, no tone at all - not even the faulty device one - and again, no display of the vehicle and sensor bars on the head unit.