Morganash

Interesting discussion... So I'm not alone in thinking Don't give the Insurance people ANY even a trivial excuse to not pay out in the event. Which is why the first add on I got for my VRS was a good Dashcam. So I agree with it being nonsensical that 'they' could refuse a claim on this basis, for the sake of a phone call I'm not taking the chance! My paranoia about Wheel sizes comes from my very limited knowledge of the knock on effect of fitting non standard equipment... I've asked Skoda directly for a list of their recommended wheel sizes but they only sent me a part list of Winter wheels and then told me to call my local Skoda dealer. I've looked up all previous posts on here relating to this and they're all dead links now. So insurance issue aside can anyone tell me please if an 8" Rim with a 18" Alloy would make any noticeable difference to my car? as I don't want to lessen the nice handling of this car as it is now.

Hi, One last post ( promise ) about Wheel sizes... I'm still wanting to change my Gemini Alloys & Tyres. And I've found one Wheel I really want to buy now, but the smallest Rim they do is an 18" x 8 with an ET of 45. This appears to be doable in width as the wheels will only stick out 12.4mm more than the standard 7.5j's. And probably staying with a 225 x 40 x 18R Tyre - a better fit maybe would be a 235x 40 x 18R Tyre? but that would put my speedo out by a few percent. My question is - Would this new set up make any negative difference to the handling? or MPG? I don't want to wear out adjacent parts sooner but if this increase is only a negligible difference? then I'm okay with it to have some better looking wheels.. and lastly is this modification to the car likely to increase my insurance premium when I tell them? Thankyou

Great, useful info - Thanks again Carlston, I'll stick with 18's then and 225/40R Tyres 👍 lot of potholes in my area of Norfolk...

Thankyou all for answering my question! Very helpful. 👌 I now have the choice of maybe going for a 19" Alloy now, which would reduce the large gap under the wheel arch a bit. Though I've read somewhere that ride quality would be reduced too with 19's ?

Hi, A question I can't find answer to - What is the standard/Original size Alloy Wheel for a January 2019 TSi vrs Octavia Estate? I've been looking to change my 18" Gemini Alloys that the car came with, but on a Wheel site yesterday when I input my Reg it only showed me 19" Wheels..? So are my current wheels not the right wheels for the car? In which case my car insurance would need to know.

Thanks - I didn't know they were Anthracite - looks much better than silver imo. And I've made a note of that paint code too for the refurb guys

Yes I'd planned to tell my insurance of a colour or different wheel change - can't give them any reason at all to not pay out on a possible claim...

Yes I'd have been happy if car had the original Gemini Silver & diamond cut look. The car came from Carshop who are a big company and have a quick turnaround so I realised after I got car that they'd cut some corners on it.. Anyway yes car was/is a used 2019 model with 31k on it. Didn't realise Finance company don't know currant colour of wheels? I don't know either! as it's not on my paperwork and I can't even touch them up without knowing exact colour.. I'd really like black Alloys as car is Black - but that's very obviously not original when and if I hand car back. So maybe I can get a good refurb done then in close to the original Gemini colour with a diamond cut. Thanks 👍

Hi, Need some advice please regarding my Gemini Alloy wheels - Had car now 3 months and realised the Alloys were refurbed straight away, which wasn't really an issue until now, as the paint around a few of the wheel nuts is flaking off.. So obviously the garage I got car from did not do a good prep on the wheels. I can see that the colour is black under the paint chips which is probably why they resprayed them - as the silver/bronze? colour they are now is nearer the original silver colour of the Gemini. Anyway I'd like to have them professionally refurbed but I can't because I'm on a PCP agreement. I've rung the finance company regarding car modifications and they told me I can refurb them BUT at end of agreement I would need to return them to their currant colour!.. So that rules that out. They did say I can put new Alloys on, so long as again I keep and replace with the existing Alloys. So my dilemma is if I do nothing then more and more of the paint will chip off especially when wheels are removed, and it shows because of the black paint underneath. And pretty sure I'd get nowhere with the car company if I tell them now that their workshop did a rough job on the refurb, as they'd say I bought 'as seen'. Which I did, but the alloys looked okay then with no chips. Any ideas - what would you do?

Wondering why my car does not have Folding mirrors? they are electric heated but not folding.. I'd rather have folding than heated!

Ah yes I was holding the key and may have pressed on it.. Thanks to you both, didn't realise I could have caused it. 👍

Strange thing just happened as I got out of the car - All the windows went down and stopped half way at once! Key was out of ignition as I was getting out of the car.. Now worried what if it does it again when I'm parked in a carpark, or worse when it's raining... There were no warning lights on dash and all windows went up again normally when I pressed the buttons. Anyone else had this happen? Can I ignore it as a 'glitch' ?

Hi, Finally got a working Sat Nav! after 6 weeks.. and at a cost of just over £500.. which fortunately the Car dealer paid, as it was faulty from when I got the car. The complete front to back wiring harness had to be replaced btw. So now Maps are working fine I see that they are outdated and are 2017/18 maps. So I have downloaded the latest 22/23 maps - ECE -1 for UK from the Skoda Portal but the size is too big for my Skoda SD card ( I think ) as this card reads 12.7GB and the new up to date Map needs min 16GB it says.. I know I have to Format my current card, but I'm pretty sure the new update won't fit?, so I haven't done that yet. What are my options please? I've read that it needs to be a Skoda SD card and not another make to be sure of working ok. So have I got to buy a New Skoda SD card with the 22/23 Maps installed? or is there a workaround? Thanks

Okay that makes sense, I was just worried about messing up my car electrics as I literally have no idea what I'm doing where electrics are concerned. I was confused by both fuses showing 12v on both sides but have now read I need to remove the fuse and test the socket with the multimeter. I will give it one more go tomorrow and remove original fuses as you said. Thankyou 👍

Can someone please help me make sense of this? - 'They're absolutely directional. If you don't orient the fuse tap properly, you'll be pulling both circuits off only one fuse. To find the proper orientation, remove the original fuse from the vehicle fuse holder, and place the fuse for the new accessory in the fuse holder in the position parallel with the wire off the tap, and then re-insert the tap into the vehicle fuse box. Test with a DMM for voltage from the wire off the tap, and if you have ~+12V, you have it oriented correctly. If you don't have +12V, rotate the fuse holder in the fuse box, and then retest'. I've found the fuses I want to use and have fuse taps fitted to the dash cam cables and fuses installed correctly in the tap - what I don't understand is how to work out which way up the fuse tap goes on the fuse box.. The above paragraph I found after a lot of searching and is as close as I've got to solving it. I'm assuming a DMM is a Multimeter, which I have. But I can't understand the next bit where it says 'Test with a DMM for voltage from the wire off the tap' .... Which wire?? there is only one wire coming off the tap and it's plastic! so I'm pretty sure you can't use a multimeter to check voltage on plastic? I have only tested fuses on the metal part. It's really frustrating to not be able to use my hardwire set up because of one missing bit of info regarding which way up to put the Fuse tap in the fuse box. Both fuses I've picked to tap into read 12v on both ends. I can literally finish the job in seconds when I know which way up to install them.

Well have installed the front Dash cam after many hours.. and have connected the ground okay, but not the Red Battery wire or the Yellow ACC. as It seems too much guesswork is involved.. but I think I'm close to making it work. I've decided I will connect the Parking mode wire now as the manual says it has 4 voltage cut off settings and can be configured on the dash cam to only work for short periods - which would suit me. So I've checked the 2 installed fuses I have in mind to use fuse taps on, with a multimeter and one is only reading 12+ volts with the ignition in accessory mode. The other is the interior lights fuse which is reading 12+ volts with ignition off, so continuous power from battery - so assume that's the one to connect the Red wire to. Only reason I didn't connect either fuse taps is back to the orientation issue again, and I've noticed that many others new to this are asking questions on Youtube etc are also stuck on this. Some videos try to explain it but I've watched them repeatedly and just can't grasp it - because I'm not an electrician probably. Even though it's a 50/50 guess at which way up to install the fuse tap, there's a good chance I will get both wrong. What's the worst that can happen to the car electrics if I insert the Taps the wrong way up?

Ah good, that I understand - I originally wanted to use the Parking mode on my Dash cam but since read that can kill your battery - even with the low voltage protection, so only safe way is to have a separate power supply apparently - but that's another £400! So I think I'll just tape off the Red power wire then and connect Yellow and black only. I'll get some 5 amp fuses also then 👍 You have answered all my questions - many thanks! 👌

Hi, well this is getting more and more complicated! as it seems I need 2 separate fuses to connect to in my car fuse box. I've located the 15amp Blue Wiper fuse and been told that the Yellow wire goes to this, via the piggy back Fuse Tap which also needs a 3amp fuse above it. So that just leaves the RED power wire which needs a permanently live fuse to connect to, and presumably another add on fuse like the 3amp? next to it. None of this is mentioned on Facebook forums or any Youtube video I've watched - they only talk about finding one suitable fuse to connect to... Maybe my New Viofo dash cam is only one to have 3 wires to connect? (though seems unlikely) - a Red a Yellow and the black earth wire. I really thought I could do this myself easily... 😕

Hi, Thankyou so much for all that very clear and useful info! I shall keep referring back to this so it sinks in 👍☺️ I actually quite like the Gemini Skoda Alloy - it's just that mine had been refurbed when I got the car, in a different colour and since seeing the original Gemini, which I would have been more than happy to keep. I've been looking at a change. I didn't realise about car insurance side of a wheel change.. good point! Also the Primacy 4 + tyre sounds good to me especially in the 235 size with added rim protection. That's top of my list now for next replacement tyres - I currently only have the PS 5's on the front drive wheels. They made a noticable difference to road noise. 👍 Michelins seem to be a popular choice for the vrs.

Hi, At risk of being laughed at ( again ) ... Can anyone tell me how easy or not it is to change Alloys? I previously owned a very common VW Passat estate and it was impossible to find a wheel I liked that would fit - I think there were just a handful out there that would fit without affecting the speedo etc. Anyway I have found 2 Alloys I like the look of but the rim size and offset are different. So to be sure of correct fitment what do I need to check apart from the obvious 112 x 5 size and 18" diameter. ? Sorry I'm a bit ignorant about this.. but I don't want to waste my money buying Alloys that won't fit. These are the 2 Alloys I'm interested in - would either of them actually 100% be a fit for my car that currently has Gemini 18's . These are on eBay btw so I can't ask the seller as from previous experience they don't care if I buy the correct wheels. Thanks!

Keep coming back to your post to see if anyone actually answered your question, but still not unfortunately - I'm also considering spacers and would like to know what issues they can or have caused..

Yes I read about that, but then also saw that it can cause problems and is not a recommended source of power.. I will look for the rear wiper fuse, thanks 👍

Hello, Question about where is recommended best place to hardwire a Dash Cam into the Octavia? Also is there an internal fuse box? I've taken both dashboard end panels off where the fuse box normally is - and nothing.. Thanks

Hi Again, Regarding my problems with Sat Nav - After having car for 1 month now, I'm still no nearer getting the unit working.. The Skoda dealer is waiting on a complete front to back wiring harness to replace the current one, which they think will fix it.. but involves removing all the headliner and the infotainment unit, an all day job they said. What is still bothering me is how? does a factory fitted length of cable and 2 connectors? that is hidden away in the roof fail in such a short time? The first/previous owner seemingly tried to fix it and bent the antenna connector which just fell out at the Skoda garage when they removed the back of the headliner. I've paid for a full report on the car which has shown no accidents etc, so does this appear to be simply a case of a faulty part from when car was new?

Yes I realise it was up to me to see any cosmetic issues on the day test/purchase. But of course I was more concentrated on the car deal itself and didn't have time to check everything. The Sat Nav problem is ongoing and I hope they will agree to the Skoda place to fix it. I managed to solve the rattle myself today by checking every moving part under rear end of car and found one screw missing on a strut of the exhaust tip which was banging metal on metal without it. So a quick fix for once! 🙂