OccyVRS

I've got a sticker up in my window about CCTV. You can't really see it, but it's there. Recording in a public place is perfectly legal, and if you're on my property then you'll be recorded too. Nothing illegal about any of that, AFAIK. I do agree however, that it's not worth the time. They either won't know, won't care, or both. I don't think the police keep a record of who has CCTV and who doesn't. From personal experience, if footage was needed and we saw there was a CCTV camera, we'd get ROCU or local plod to go and knock on the door. You're perfectly entitled to say no and it won't be held against you. It's the same argument as having a dashcam. It's great, unless in the moment beforehand you were speeding and contravening traffic laws. @StevesTruck The information is still relevant! It wasn't us that revived it but hey, I'll offer comment. I personally wasn't arguing, per se - nothing wrong with having conflicting information. Life would be boring if everyone agreed with each other.

Sounds like bearings to me. It is a new(er) car, but it's not out of the question. I've just been told my control arm rear bushes are knackered and that's on a 2020 with 40k on it.

FYI it's still capitalised! FWIW, people tend to use bold or italics for emphasis. The options should be at the top of the comment box. A) This is virtually every car made in the last fifteen years and B) you'll still find that a locked car made in the last few years will due far quicker than an unlocked car made in 2005. That's without app connectivity, Tesla-style sentry systems, etc.

I've used Tapo cameras at houses with great success. I also use them to monitor a property in Spain and India, again, to great success. I've not heard great things about Swann - we went for Hikvision for the home system, fully hardwired. It is better to have a 'proper system', but they aren't cheap. ...such as? Aside from them not caring, there isn't really a reason not to. I wouldn't bother personally - as long as the majority of the FOV is on your property, you're fine. FYI @daroya this thread has been dormant since 2018. Nothing wrong with reviving it though!

That's what 50 years will do. Maybe take a look at the tyres you're running? My 150ps Leon FR had no issues and even my Octavia, with 350ps, had less drama than expecting - trick differential or not. In the wet is another story, but that's with WOT. FWD is indeed limiting, but I wouldn't really say that's the case below 200bhp. My vRS can be quite fun in the cold and wet, but that's half the fun.

Be interested to know how it goes, please! I've got the same EA888 Evo3b with a GPF, and wouldn't mind a bit more (well, some) sound.

Absolutely. From what I can see, you can expect a bump in power to 210-220bhp, and torque to 430-450nm. That's a very healthy increase! The only real reason you'd need a TCU tune is to increase the clamping force of the clutches to cope with the increased torque. Do you know what box you have? I think it'll be a DQ250 (6 speed) or 7 speed DQ381.

Okay. Firstly, nice job on the hubs and replacement calipers. No job is wasted - it's just one more thing to rule out. That being said, I think we have found your problem. In the first video, you get the issue with the caliper off. That sounds to me like it's the wheel bearing. Normally you get a grinding noise, but the squealing can be an early sign of it going. If it was on the front then that's a different story, but IMO I would take a look at the bearing. IIRC I was quoted £380 from Skoda. Picked it up from Skoda-parts.com for I think £270. Cheapest was Fish Brother Skoda Parts in Swindon, which I think were slightly cheaper. Do you have anything planned for the old calipers? Might be worth giving them a service and selling - manual handbrake 310mm calipers are quite hard to come by.

Is your car an 18 plate or 68? Only late model 2018s had GPFs fitted. The cylindrical pipe should be the resonator. The boxy thing is the backbox/muffler. You can have more than one.

The only MQB models to have a valved exhaust are the RS3, S3, Cupra and R. You can often tell on the S3/R as the inboard tips will be blackened, whilst the outboard tips (that are only 'used' in sports mode) are silver., Nothing else had a valved exhaust from the factory, from what I can see. Even the Superb lost the valves after GPFs were introduced.

Diamond cut are useless in the UK. All it takes is a bit of gravel to flick up, or some salt, and it's downhill from there. I have 18" Geminis. Towards the end of the year I will either get them refurbed in an anthracite colour or, whoops, pick up some new wheels in that colour. Diamond cut just doesn't last in the UK, and when it does go, it looks particularly horrendous.

Have a look on Kopacek.

Ah, yes. I must have been asleep when I posted that. The GPF should be further ahead of the cylindrical part (which is the res, I think). A GPF looks similar to a cat converter - it's more on the downpipe than the rest of the exhaust. There's no replacement for displacement, except when there is. I just watched a video where a Golf R (okay, it had the engine from an RS3 in it) absolutely annihilated a 1000bhp SF90. The average 2.0 now makes more power than a higher end 3.0 did a few years ago, and that's without anything hybrid.

Mmmmm. IIRC brands like Citroen are following suit. I'm keen to do 0W-30, but want to make sure first they haven't fiddled with the engine to suit.

Errrrrr... depends if you have the central res (I would assume the 2.0 280 is a very different exhaust to your 1.4). It won't do much for performance, however it will change the sound - just maybe not in a significant way. Here is a video of a GPF car with a res delete, compared to the same GPF car, unmodified (starts at 9:20). Not much of a difference, really, and bear in mind these are tuned 2.0 cars with probably the most lairy MQB exhaust systems (tied with a Golf R). From my understanding, generally - Pre-GPF Resonator delete - nice Backbox delete - horrible Full catback exhaust - perfect Post-GPF Resonator delete - doesn't do much Backbox delete - ruins everything Full GPF-back exhaust - does more, but again, not as much as you think My vRS would sound a fair bit better with a £1600 Milltek system. The issue is, without doing the GPF (which is illegal, I may add, and will void your insurance), it just won't sound good enough to warrant the price tag. It's a tricky thing. When a £130,000, 540bhp twin turbo M4 CS with a GPF sounds like this, the rest of us don't have much hope.

That seems a large difference, even if my understanding of centipoise is basic. Do you know what 5W-40 (Think VW 502) is at the hot end?

I still want to know what the kangaroo issue with my MQ250 was. Ultimately, people will service a car as much, or as little, as they desire. In the latter instance, premature breakdowns are often blamed on the car, rather than anything else. That being said, it is a bit depressing that main dealers, let alone the manufacturer, can't be trusted to give defacto maintenance advice.

It certainly does seem to be the best of both worlds - which makes me wonder why they don't retrospectively reccommend it (but do in the EA888.4). The car is going in on Monday for the DSG/VAQ service, plus the annual and some other bits, so I'll have a good chat with the guy then. An oil change is hardly an expensive job and is one that I can do myself in a few months once I've thought about it proplerly. I plan to get the car retuned towards the end of the year, so will likely change the oil then. I read somewhere (I think it was GTI) that the dealers were told to use either 0W-20 or 5W-30, depending on what they felt like.

Ahhh... service advisors. Walking proof that 'a little knowledge can be dangerous'. I rang up seven different dealers (across the country, I should add) when I was trying to find out some info on something and got four different answers. Absolutely no disrespect to them - they are simply working with the (lack of) training they were given. That said, I wouldn't trust a main dealer as far as I could throw the rock jammed in my subframe a master tech called 'age related NVH'. Perhaps I'm not the best person to ask. FWIW, I'll be doing my Mum's Ibiza DQ200 on about 70k, if she still has it then. That'll be a lot of London miles.

@Ootohere Honestly, I think so. 5W-30 is out as I'm not keen on the startups in winter. 0W-30 is a consideration, but I think I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. There's too many opinions, so for now I will just take VW on their word and keep it simple. At least until I've looked properly into the mechanical differences between the PFL EA888.3 and FL/GPF (beyond the oil pump). It's done the last 40k miles on 0W-20 (I presume) so I only need it to do another 40-50k and that'll be that. I highly doubt using xW-20 over xW-30 will grenade the engine in the meantime and despite what I was orignially told, I've seen no real evidence otherwise. If it ain't broke, don't fix it... at least for now.

A backbox delete would more sound horrendous than antisocial. I would assume too that most people, seeing a Skoda Superb making a noise like that, would just assume it was broken!

As @Ootohere says, the insurance won't change in the slighest because someone has whacked a £2.99 badge on the bootlid. We used to have a VW Fox with an ABT badge on the back of it. That being said, the exhaust and wheels are not good... wheels are irrelevant but the exhaust might increase the insurance price. Of course, you could just change the tips and claim not to notice. As @StevesTruck says though, it's likley been mapped and/or ragged. Personally would look elsewhere, especially if the previous owner felt the need to put quad tips on a diesel Scout. MOT history also says a lot about how the car was (not) cared for.

As far as I know, the only real issue with these are the drains filling up and causing leaks. Most of the service work is cleaning, so you'll maybe do a better job than Skoda anyway!

@Aldfort It's not an odd question. He was asking as for the DQ200 gearbox, there is no specified interval - it is a 'sealed for life' box, so having a service plan is largely irrelevant as Skoda won't touch it. You can change the gearbox oil and the MCU (mechatronics) oil, so technically it's not sealed for life. Realistically, if your're bothering to shift into neutral to prolong the life, logical says you would also bother to service it. Skoda say my gearbox should be serviced at 80k, but I don't know anyone that leaves it that long. This is the same company that tells us a certain DSG filter will last 160,000 miles, so sometimes you have to take the reccommended intervals with a pinch of salt.

Here we are with another sweeping statement... Of course, every car should be a silent electric Mini and those that want any sound should be banned. @Carst-2018SKODASuperb is yours a 270/280? @travs was looking at exhaust options for his. As yours is a pre-GPF model a resonator delete is likely all you need to achieve the desired effect. Doing a backbox delete (I think what you're on about) is perhaps going more down the ASBO/noise route!