Dr_Mike_Oxgreen

Yep, I’m replacing mine because loads of the orange paint has flaked off. I’m surprised it passed the MOT because they’re not very orange any more. I tried a PY21W LED that claimed to be “canbus compatible”, but it raised a bulb failure warning. It was fine on hazards, but with ignition on and signalling, the error occurred immediately. Perhaps the bulb-checking only happens with the ignition on. It was also a little too bright for night-time use. So I tried another one off eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374844629873?var=643919891661 I received the second one today and it appears to work, and is a little less bright. I’ll have another look when it’s dark. The PY21W retrofit LEDs are generally slimmer and do fit through the hole. I don’t think I’ve ever come across any other car that uses RY10W indicators; they seem more common on bikes. I did find a thread elsewhere on Briskoda about the front indicators, and that did mention a Torx T20 screw securing the base of the bulb. The thread implied that the screw is just about accessible, and only needs loosening. Easier on the left side, apparently. The front indicators are my next target for retrofitting LEDs. I think it’s fine to have brighter ones on the front because at night they’re competing with the brightness of your headlights and therefore unlikely to cause dazzle. I believe the correct type is PH24WY, but I haven’t confirmed that yet. My experience is that “canbus compatible” is no guarantee that a bulb will work, but it’s worth persevering and you may well find one that does. By the way, before someone tells me that the bulb checking is nothing to do with the canbus per se, yes I know that. But rightly or wrongly the phrase “canbus compatible” has become lingua franca when discussing retrofit LEDs. Technically wrong, but it’s the phrase everyone uses.

Apologies for digging up an ancient thread, but I have just received a pair of PY21W bulbs to replace the rear indicators on my 2012 pre-facelift combi. And they do not fit. The base fitting is the correct size, and the 150° pins are correct, and the bulb does not raise a warning on the dashboard. But the glass body of the bulb is too big to fit through the hole in the light cluster. The bulb you need is RY10W. Identical fitting, but smaller glass and less wattage (10W versus 21W). The information above is incorrect. 581 is a PY21W, and that will physically not fit into the light cluster. Hopefully this information will help anyone searching for this in the future.

So I’ve finally got around to doing the job. It turns out that the OEM carbon canister has an invisible hole in that corner that I couldn’t see until the canister was removed. They’ve obviously decided that the hole would benefit from the protection of a tube, perhaps to reduce the risk of dirt or water ingress.

I’m replacing the N80 valve and carbon canister on my 2012 (pre-facelift) VR6, in the hope of curing an occasional P0441 Incorrect Purge Flow fault code. Swapping the filler cap hasn’t worked. The carbon canister I’ve just received (link below) has an extra downward-pointing vent pipe about an inch or so long in one corner, which is not present on the one currently fitted. Is this simply a modification introduced on newer revisions of the part, or have I got the wrong thing? Does anything attach to it, or does it just remain open? https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/1k0201801e-activated-charcoal-container-european-union-49154.html

Ah yes, it might work differently. Mine is DSG. I suppose it could be that my button is getting a bit worn or corroded internally, and sometimes loses contact.

On mine, a brief press and release of the button simply switches the ignition on. Once the ignition is on and your foot is on the brake, a brief press of the button will give a brief cough from the starter, but the engine doesn’t start. You have to hold the button until it starts. Likewise if you’re starting from ignition off, you have to press and hold with your foot on the brake. This is correct according to the manual, which says you have to press and hold.

2012 pre-facelift VR6. 84,000 miles. Just occasionally when pressing and holding the Start button it’ll turn over for about half a second or so, and then stop. The engine doesn’t fire. Then on an immediate retry it starts normally as if nothing happened. I’d say this happens perhaps once every 10 times I start it. I’m pretty sure it isn’t my finger lifting off the button prematurely. At the moment I’m not worried. But should I be? Is this an impending failure? There are no fault codes, apart from an intermittent one about evaporative emissions control - incorrect purge flow (P0441 if I remember correctly). Is this relevant? Does anyone recognise these symptoms and/or know what’s happening?

I’m usually only topping up tyres by 1 or 2 psi, so only a minute or two of running. If I ever needed to re-inflate a flatter tyre, I would indeed do it with the engine running.

So I’ve now done this, and it works nicely. I decided to leave the boot cigarette socket permanent, so I can plug my tyre inflator into it without needing to switch the ignition on. I took power from the unused slot 41 using a fuse tap, and I’ve fed that into a three-way Wago. One branch goes to the bottom of fuse slot 35, and the other branch goes to a 12V-to-5V DC converter (grounded to the bolt in the top left), and then to a USB type A socket. My satnav now plugs into that instead of trailing through the cabin. Power to the cheap Chinese voltage converter also gets a smaller 5A fuse to reduce the damage it can do if it fails. I know Wago connectors aren’t meant for automotive use, but it won’t get any heat, dust, dirt or moisture so it should be okay. No more risk of draining the battery if I forget to remove my satnav! 🙂

I’m tempted to do this. On more than one occasion I’ve left my satnav connected for several days, and it’s only a matter of time before I drain my battery. But I’d want to understand the mod a bit better before I do it. So it looks like fuse 26 (boot power socket) is being powered from fuse 41 (not assigned), and fuse 35 (front and rear lighters) are being powered from fuse 31 (DVD pre installation). My question is: what are the top pins of fuse holders 41 and 31 connected to? Presumably they’re both ignition-switched (which is why this mod works), but can those circuits reliably provide the amps that might potentially be drawn by the cigarette lighters? Are they simply connected to one big ignition-switched bus bar capable of taking the total load for all the ignition-switched circuits? In other words, are circuits 41 and 31 beefy enough to supply the 25 amps of the lighter fuses? I just want to make sure that the car won’t catch fire if someone plugs a chunky load into one of the lighter sockets! 🙂

Ah yes, that’s a good call as well. I wonder if dental floss would be strong enough. I think there are two plastic lugs on the back of the emblem that locate into holes in the body. These are at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions IIRC, so starting at the top and bottom and using a horizontal sawing motion might work. Having more than one method to try should improve the chances of success!

Aha! Thanks for the suggestion. Good variety of leveraging tools there, so one of them should do the trick. And they look like they’ll have multiple uses for general DIY as well. Have now ordered something very similar on Amazon. My long-term aim is to get this car looking really nice. With refurbed wheels, some bits of respraying and a full detailing and paint correction it could look stunning, but little things like corroded emblems would let it down and need doing before any paint correction.

The tailgate emblem on my 2012 (pre-facelift) estate is corroded and I’m considering replacing it. I’ve watched a YouTube video, but that was for another Škoda (possibly a Fabia). Looked easy enough - heat it with a gun and insert a credit card behind the badge to prise it off. But on the video I watched, the badge was mounted on a flat body panel. Looking at my car, it’s in a circular recess. I can’t think of a suitable tool and/or technique to extract the badge without damaging the paintwork on the edge of the recess. Has anyone done this? How did you do it?

The xenon bulbs are different for facelift versus pre-facelift. Pre-facelift (around 2012-ish) they’re D1S. Post-facelift they’re D3S I believe.

I have a 2012 Superb Mk 2 Combi (Estate) with the panoramic sunroof. The roller blind (sun screen) has got jammed or tangled or somehow detached at the back where it’s meant to roll up. It can’t now close, and if opened the blind doesn’t roll up - it droops down instead. It makes a load of clicking noises as if there’s a spring that’s broken or displaced. You can also see the roll of fabric is not neatly rolled up. Is this fixable, or is it going to need a replacement blind? Please note: to avoid confusion, I’m talking about the rolling sun screen that’s part of the panoramic sunroof, not the blind over the luggage area. Thanks!

Don’t forget to tell your insurance. Even though you’re planning to use OEM wheels that could have been fitted to a car of this type, it’s still a change from the spec of your particular car. Don’t give them an excuse to deny a claim, or worse still cancel your insurance.

Just to add: The above is true for a pre-facelift model, which your 2012 car will be. The facelift cars may be different - perhaps even LEDs?

If you can read the fault code it’ll tell you slightly more. The fault code will tell you whether it thinks the bulb is open circuit, or alternatively whether there’s a short to ground. Also, does the bulb work when the tail lights are on? On these cars the stop/tail bulb is not a dual filament bulb like it is on many cars, but it’s a single filament bulb that gets driven at two different voltages (or does it change the resistance - not sure). So if the bulb is good, it should work as a tail light; if the bulb is bad then it’ll do neither tail nor brake.

DRLs can be switched on/off in the “Maxi-Dot” system. This is Skoda’s weird name for the informational display right in the middle of the instrument cluster in front of the driver. Turn the ignition on, then press the “backward arrow” button on the right hand side of the steering wheel until you see the Main Menu. Scroll down to Settings, and press the rotary control to enter that menu. Scroll down to “Lights & Vision” and go into that menu. Look for “Daylight. Dri. Light”. There’s a tick box next to it that shows whether your DRLs are active. You can change it by scrolling down and pressing the rotary control to toggle. On a pre-facelift car (2013 or earlier), the DRLs are the outermost lights in the light clusters in the lower part of the bumper, next to the fogs. They’re only on with the ignition, and only when the headlights are OFF (either switched off manually or on auto when it’s daylight).

I believe the xenon bulbs are just one thing, and bi-xenons use shutters to control the light and flip between dipped and full beam. We’re reaching the edge of my knowledge now though! 🙂

Bi-xenon headlights also have halogen full beam bulbs, housed in a reflector alongside the xenons. So the presence of the halogens doesn’t mean you don’t have bi-xenons. The xenons do both full and dipped beam, with the halogens duplicating the full beam. The reason for the duplication is so that the halogens can provide the quick response needed for flashing your lights when the headlights are switched off: the xenons would take too long to light up. The xenon bulbs are D1S on pre-facelift cars (up to about 2013) and D3S on later cars. If lullable’s car is a 2013 then it could be either facelift or pre-facelift. If the DRLs are a strip of LEDs integrated with the headlight clusters that is a facelift; pre-facelift cars have the DRLs alongside the fogs at the bottom of the bumper.

… which might be pre-facelift or facelift. It could have been manufactured in early 13 and then registered months later. Can you post a picture?

Pre-facelift cars have DRLs down low, in the same light clusters as the fog lights. Neither are LEDs as standard, although I have successfully replaced the DRL bulbs with canbus-compatible LEDs, which look much better than the yellow halogens. I’ve also tried replacing the fogs (which also operate singly when the steering wheel turns or when indicating), but without success: either the ones I bought weren’t truly canbus-compatible, or I suspect they fade on and dim off by varying the voltage and the LED bulbs don’t work properly when dimmed - they raise a bulb fault. On facelift cars, the DRLs are LEDs that are integrated with the headlight units. The facelift was around late 2012 or early 2013 I believe. It sounds like the OP is confusing the DRLs on a pre-facelift car. They come on when the headlights are off, and extinguish when the headlights are on, either manually or in auto.

I may be mis-remembering, but I think it depends whether it’s a facelift or not. Facelift already has LED DRLs I think? Mine is a pre-facelift, and I agree it looks much better now I’ve upgraded the DRLs to canbus-compatible LEDs. The xenon bulbs are D1S on pre-facelift and a doddle to change (accessed from the back of the headlight units), but they’re D3S on a facelift and I believe it’s a bumper-off job.

The pano roof is often vilified and can indeed be the source of problems, but I suspect that’s because people don’t maintain it. Check the roof works, and get it serviced by a specialist once you’ve got it - lubricated with the correct grease, and get them to check the drain holes and tubes for blockages.