Mr_Fube

The company I used appears to only use 3 materials. PA11 Nylon, PA12 Nylon and Mimaki Full Colour Plastic. Their website suggests they use PA11 Nylon for small production runs, not SLA (Stereolithography). But hey, each to their own. I'm not earning a commission here, or anything. $10 is a great deal. More power to your elbow. 3D Printworx materials

I got my 3D printed part back from that company in Combermere, near Whitchurch, UK. It's an excellent facsimile - and feels every bit as robust as the original corresponding Skoda part. Here are some photos of both parts side by side. The 3D Printed one is the one in each case with the slightly grainy texture to it, but obviously this doesn't affect it's function. Actually, putting them both back into my tonneau cover, the new 3D printed one seems to be a better/ more secure fit. The original is a bit loose. They said they would put the item up on their Sketchfab page so that people can place the specific order directly for this part. But until they send me the link for that, here's the link to their homepage. They charged me £39 all in (including VAT and P+P) which seems very reasonable, considering I was looking at entire replacement tonneau covers starting at £80 from eBay for beaten-up breaker's yard offerings.

Just an update for anyone that's interested: Neither Erwin nor TPS responded to my email. Skoda-parts.com DID respond to my email but did say that the part I'm looking for isn't available for purchase by itself - only as a component of a complete tonneau cover assembly (€180). Good to know. 😣 Not to be defeated and before I resort to whittling a piece of balsa wood to do the job, I approached a couple of 3D scan and print shops. Mostly they were prohibitively expensive and would only make sense if I wanted to produce these parts in numbers. However one place offered to do it on the cheap on the proviso that once they've scanned my part, I would share a link on this forum for anyone who might want to order a replacement part themselves. Fair enough! It'll cost me just over £40 at cost, but that's still £40 saved on the cheapest whole tonneau cover assembly that I found on eBay (which looked pretty tatty, TBH). Win. I'll share the link in this thread when it's done.

I'm a month or so late, but just wanted to confirm that I got that replacement touchscreen from eBay, using the information pab567 gave me. It works perfectly. One of the twisty knobs was a bit broken, but I was able to cannibalise a good one from the outgoing non-functional touchscreen that came with the car. £70 fix plus about £7 for the little tools to remove the screen easily from the dashboard. Very happy. Thanks pab567! You're a gent.

I wouldn't necessarily advocate this approach, but you could of course keep some halogen bulbs in the glovebox for when the MOT comes around and use LEDs for the rest of the year. But if you were to have an accident and put in an insurance claim, your insurance company might (if they even discover this) try and leverage the use of non-road-legal headlight bulbs as a reason not to uphold your claim. I know that some of the motorcycling fraternity do something similar with aftermarket exhausts - put the Decibel killers in for the MOT and then take them out again for the rest of the year. Most aftermarket exhaust manufacturers include removable decibel-killers for that purpose.. so it seems to be a widely used get-around. (Not me, I hasten to add - I just have the stock OEM exhaust on my motorbike! I like to be able to get on with my neighbours).

Unfortunately, I don't think so. It seems that it's quite a gnarly and complicated issue. I found this article online about it, which seems very informative and includes further links on the subject: Are LED headlights legal in the UK?

Yes, you're correct. I noticed the (UK) government guidelines have been updated in April 2024 and now allow LED bulbs in rear lights, brake lights and indicators... but still not for Headlights (High or Low beam) - unless the whole headlight cluster was designed and built for LEDS straight from the factory. However prior to April 2024, the government guidelines excluded the use of LED bulbs in all external lights unless they were designed that way and were OEM fitted. That's a step in the right direction.

Actually, while it certainly was the case that the majority of LED bulbs claiming to be replacements for H7, H4 etc. used to have different form factors such that the light-emitting part of the bulb was positioned differently compared to the position of the filament in an incandescent bulb, therefore giving off a sometimes wildly different throw of light from the same headlight reflector - it is now possible to find LED bulbs which are true plug-and-play replacements, which have neither the bulky voltage adaptors at the back which would make it impossible to screw the dust cover cap over the back of the headlight unit, nor have the light-emitting part of the LED bulb in a different position so they DO actually have the same throw pattern of light as the OEM halogen equivalent. I found some on Amazon which lived up to this claim, and they were brilliant... but still an MOT failure because they are not E-marked. If anyone is interested, these are what I bought for my last car. Tested myself in the dark with one LED bulb in one side and the original halogen in the other headlight shining on my garage door. The throw pattern was the same, but a slightly sharper edge to the throw pattern on the LED rather than the more gradual fade off of the halogen. The LED was of course much brighter and whiter. For my last car I bought the H4 LED bulbs, but obviously for the Octavia, it's H7's and H15's which I can't vouch for personally, although the manufacturer makes the same claims for all their bulbs - I can only personally vouch for the H4's. SinoParcel direct LED replacement bulbs

Nope. I'm new to Skoda ownership, so wasn't aware of these resources. I've found the Erwin Skoda site, which looks very useful indeed. Sorry for being dense, but what's a 'tps'?

Ah brilliant. Thank you.

I have DM'd you, Pab567.

Hello. I'm trying to address the various small niggles regarding the 2015 Octavia Estate I've just bought, as cheaply as possible since I'm broke. So the tonneau cover is missing a small plastic part on one side which prevents it from clipping in place. I have been unable to find the part on any of the online resources I've discovered so far - it seems that you can buy the entire tonneau cover in its entirety, but none of the smaller components for it. Even on ebay, there are only entire assemblies in varying states of condition, and none for less than £150, despite there being listings for entire new ones online for as little as €180. So I was wondering if anyone in this group has a torn/broken tonneau cover for a MK3 Octavia estate that they've got lying around in the garage, that would be prepared to sell me just this one little plastic part? OR does anyone know where I can source just this part? Otherwise my tonneau cover is in good condition, but rendered unusable. I've just grabbed the plastic part from the other side of the cover to show you what it looks like. There is a part number (I think) on it, plus the "R" presumably denoting that this one is the Right hand side clip. I'd be looking for the Left hand one, since it appears asymmetric. Thanks in advance for any suggestions/help.

Only slightly related to this thread but WHY, OH WHY don't the DVLA get their arses in gear and type approve LED upgrade bulbs so they can be E marked and consequently pass a UK MOT. They're such a sensible and cost effective upgrade compared to incandescent bulbs.

Thanks, I'd appreciate that. The link you have there looks like a more modern version, where the buttons are entirely contained within the glass touchscreen area. Mine is a bit older than that. Here's one I was looking at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355736435779

Thanks. I have seen a few screens which appear identical on ebay - salvaged parts, obviously. Some as cheap as £50! One that I'm currently looking at contains the disclaimer "this comes with no unlock code", which as an electronics ignoramus, concerns me. So you're saying just the screen unit itself (as opposed to the box with the SD card slots that sits in the glovebox) should just be a drop-in/plug and play component with no need to unlock? If that's the case, then I will definitely look at taking a punt on one of these.