SwallownAmazon

Hi John, Yes it's me - sent you a PM. BW Chris.

Not if you use it properly........ It has lots of different fittings because there are lots of different calipers.

Yes, Tornado red (fading to pink in places!) B3 2.3 litre 20v. My company car back in the day and I bought it for the memsahib when it was written down to zero in the books. 180,000 miles and still on the original clutch and exhaust..... Took it to Spain on a tour 3 years ago - never missed a beat.

That's what I used on my old 2008 Skoda, my 1990 Audi 09 and 2000 BMW 740 Sport. Excellent piece of kit. Just beware of the excess brake fluid possibly overflowing from the reservoir when you use it.

That's what I intend to do when my fronts are due a change - wheels need a bit of TLC at the same time.....

My personal view would be to go for a manual gearbox - lots of potentail problems with poorly mainatined DSG boxes..... If diesel check for proper maintenance of the DPF and associated components. Try and get a good quality scan done for stored faults before you commit. I speak from personal experience....

Alan, You've clearly had a bit of "bad do" but if you like the car it doesn't really matter if repairs cost more than it's worth. It's the replacement cost you should be comparing the repair costs to. I spent many hundreds on my old 2008 Octavia until it became untenable because of the need to go into the London ULEZ quite frequently. In many ways I still regret selling it because its replacement ULEZ compliant vRS has been an absolute sod.....

My previous 2008 Octavia 2 got through two rear wiper motors in 160,000 miles. Something to do with the seals for the concentric water pipe that passes though the motor assembly not being terribly good causing corrosion which ultimately makes the whole thing seize up. Not repairable! Make sure yu get the correct replacement - there are two different types...

It's actually OBD ll (Roman numerals for 2) and I have one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08ZXRP9HR?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 Seems to work well so far....

On my old 2008 Octavia TDi, my bonnet cable came apart. It's in two parts joined by a plastic Widget" and it was this that had failed. Took the Green Flag breakdown man nearly two hours to break in..... Dr Mike Oxgreen is partially right about WD40 the standard stuff is only really suitable for freeing off stuck or rusty components and is a slicone containing spray. What I suspect he means in the second part of his post is their PTFE spray lubricant which dries to a slippery surface. Best to not allow your bonnet catch to get that rusty in the first place.

None taken..... BUT as I said in the OP, I turned the headlights off in a traffic queue because I could see they were dazzling the driver of the 2-seater in front of me. I have often been semi-blinded by some jerk in an enormous Tonka toy behind me in traffic and don't get me started about those who sit in a queue with their foot on the brake! What's the handbrake for?

This question has been asked before but I can't seem to find any definitive answer; has anyone tried fitting a slightly wider tyre to the standard vRS Gemini wheel rims? The 225/40 ones fitted as standard look terribly skinny with the rims protruding outside the sidewall by a considerable amount which has contributed to the kerb rash while in the hands of the previous owner/s. I have in mind 245/40 x 18 size for which there seem to be many options, both budget and premium. I have used Kumho and Nankang brands with great success on previous Skoda and Audi cars and have Sumitomo rubber with a large rubber rim protector built into the sidewall on my BMW 740 Sport.

They were on, that's the point. The instrument lights went out when I turned the sidelights only on. OK when light switch on AUTO or headlights.

2016 Octavia hatchback diesel vRS. Noticed something a bit odd with the instrument cluster last evening: we were stuck in traffic and to relieve the eyes for the driver in front I switched the lights from AUTO to the sidelight position to turn the dipped beam headlights out. The instrument cluster lighting then went off leaving only the "needles" for the rev counter and speedo visible. Turning the switch back to AUTO or to the headlight position brought the instrument cluster lighting back on. On the return journey I tried it again and the same thing happened. Never noticed this before, is it normal? No codes shown on OBD 11 when I had a look this morning....

Fuse?

All my modern cars (from 1979 onwards) speedos have read fast by up to 10%; strangely my 1937 Morris 8 is spot on at 40mph!

One might almost say blackmail; isn't that a criminal offence?

I've used Same here - KYB shocks are excellent on my BMW 740 Sport

From my experience with DPF problems, I would think that an ash content that high means the DPF has "had it". A regen won't get rid of the ash, it can only burn off the soot to form the ash. I bought my 2016 car and after lots of investigations, ended up spending loadsa money replacing the DPF and all associated sensors because the ash content was very high and kept throwing codes and going into limp mode. It seems a previous owner changed the turbo and did a few things that caused problems down the line. I stand to be corrected.....

Admittedly, my vRS is a 2016 model but I can turn off Lane Assist and Speed Warning in the infotainment system. Have you looked there?

How on earth do you test it? Glycol based brake fluid is hygrosopic (absorbs moisture from the air) thus reducing its boiling point. In extreme circumstances, this can lead to brake failure when the fluid boils as a result of heat transfer. The other effect of moisture uptake is corrosion inside the steel components of which there are several.

If my garage left the strainer full of that cr*p, I'd be looking for a new garage PDQ!

Does the rear washer actually squirt water onto the screen? Mine on my first Octavia stopped squirting and I found that the pipe from the motor had become detached inside the boot lid and the water ended up exactly where yours has.

Quite normal, no problem. Any rust on the faces will burn off at the next application. My 1990 Audi 90 20v used to eat vented front brake discs as a light snack when I ran it as my company car, changed at every other service at around 20,000 miles while the pads lasted around 2 1/2 discs..... I did use Greenstuff pads though for less black dust and better intitial bite.

Any VW spec 507 engine oil should be OK - it's specified in the Owners Handbook for the diesel engine with DPF. I've used both Shell HX-8 and the Castrol Edge equivalent.