Lindsayt

I took advantage of the very pleasant sunny weather we've had this week and got the torque wrench onto the glow plug as soon as I got home from a drive. With an initial setting of 20 NM the glow plug started turning before I hit the torque setting. The plug that came out was a Bosch. I don't know if it was the original one or not? The new one went in easy peasy. Fault codes cleared with my Launch diagnostics tablet. And the warning light on the dashboard has stayed off since. The actual replacement work took less than 30 minutes. It's only a matter of time before another glow plug goes. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I paid £14 for the Bosch glow plug, from a local GSF that had it in stock.

I was intending using my small torque wrench, building up to a maximum torque of 30 NM on a hot engine. And if that doesn't free it, spraying it and trying again a day or two later... Although that is a good point about the T-bar for a purer turning force. Especially given the extensions required to clear the top of the engine, plus pipework. The trouble is, I'm not at all calibrated when it comes to how much torque I'd be applying with my hand on a T-bar. Edit. Thinking about it, I have a screwdriver type handle as part of my socket set. I'm pretty sure there's a low limit to how much torque I could apply with that. It's raining today. So I'll be trying this on the next dry day...

So far I've given it 2 sprays with penetrating oil. And 1 blast with the Wolfbox air blower. It looks clean around the glow plug now. I will give it a go with my small torque wrench, going up to 30 NM maximum to loosen it, after my next daytime drive...

I bought a couple of Morfit cushions. These have made the seats more bearable on long journeys. I've been surprised at how - almost all of the time - the low power of the 1.4 TDi engine has not been a problem. In general driving it's fast enough for me and my wife's driving style. The only time I've noticed a lack of performance, was when joining the A1 from Stamford, when putting the foot down produced unimpressive acceleration - when compared to our 2010 BMW 330D auto.

I got an emissions system warning light on a trip to Prague recently on my 186,000 mileage 2016 Skoda Superb 1.6 TDi Greenline. The car drove fine, all the way back to London. My diagnostics tablet indicated a glow plug fault on Cylinder 1. When I clear the fault it returns within a day or two, usually after a cool morning start. I already have torque wrenches, a socket set, a set of large circlip pliers and penetrating oil. This morning I've ordered a Bosch glow plug (BOS0250403009) from GSF, as well as a Wolfbox MF100 battery electric air blower and and Liqui Moly glow plug grease from ebay. I'll be using the circlip pliers to help remove the electrical connection. And a combination of penetrating oil and a torque wrench and a hot engine and patience over a few days to remove the old glow plug. Fingers crossed that this will be a straight-forward DIY job...

What faults are shown when a diagnostic tablet / VCDS is plugged into your car?

Do you know roughly how many miles you got out of your Bridgestone Turanza's?

Today I bought a 2016 1.4TDi DSG Spaceback SE. With 67,000 miles, MOT till Jan 27. Private seller. Previous owner for the last 5 years was an elderly lady. We agreed on a price of £3700 for it. One downside is that has 4 x assorted cheapo 215/45 R16 tyres on it. With the bigger downside being that they all have plenty of tread left. 🙄 It has parking damage to the rear bumper and front bumper. It's the sort of thing where I'll probably leave it as it is, as it's not going to rust and it doesn't look too tragically bad. The driver's side sun visor holder, the grey plastic swivel mount thing, next to the A pillar in the roof is cracked, and the sun visor fell off when I moved it to the side window position. It looks like it's an easy enough item to replace with a trim tool and a small flat bladed screwdriver. I have a feeling I might have to buy a whole sun visor assembly, instead of just the small plastic bit that clips into the roof? The sun visor works OK if you just fold it down for windscreen shading. The car drives fine. Feels and sounds nice and tight and unworn. As it should be on 67k miles. The driver's seat is pants. You can tell by looking at it that it's not shaped like a human body is shaped. And it's uncomfortable for any journey lasting longer than 30 minutes. I'm on the look-out for a pair of used SE Sport front seats. Or maybe the upper spec seats from a Toledo. I'm mildly disappointed with the MPG from my first 60 miles of ownership. It seems to be about on a par with my 2016 Superb Greenline Estate. Which is probably more down to how amazing the Superb Greenline is, than any failings in the Spaceback 1.4 TDi. I intend getting my local VAG specialist to do a cambelt and water pump change, sooner rather than later. And from there will do my own oil changes every 8,000 miles.

I've been using the wheel alignment specialist on Leeds Road in Huddersfield, for years. I took my Superb Greenline Estate to him just after I'd bought it and had 4x new Goodyear eco tyres fitted. He had to loosen the front subframe to get a best-in-the-circumstances alignment, due to the previous owner crashing it. He wasn't able to get the front alignment spot-on, was able to get it fairly well aligned. 34,000 miles later and the Goodyear tyres still had about 4mm left on them. With them wearing more on the inside edge, but nothing as drastic as the photos in this thread. A nail in the tyre at a funny angle this week resulted in me getting 2x new Hankook Ventus Prime 4's for the front. Otherwise, there's a chance the front Goodyears would have lasted 40,000 miles.

It was the combination of my battery being on the way out when I did my rear brakes as well as my Launch tablet taking quite a few seconds to wind the parking brake back to service mode. And it taking quite a few seconds to wind the parking brake back to ready to drive mode. With the Launch tablet not completing either action if the battery voltage fell below 12v. So that I only needed the battery boost (in my case via jump leads to another car) for the few seconds when I was doing each operation on the tablet. And, as you quite rightly say, for the 30 to 60 minutes that it takes to unbolt the caliper, remove the old pads, push the foot brake caliper back in (via a caliper retraction tool as I'm too weedy to push them in by hand), fit the new pads, bolt back over the disk, that can all be done with no boost to the car battery.

I used coated-Zimmermann disks and TRW pads, front and rear on my 2016 Superb when I replaced them last month. I don't know what disks the previous owner had fitted? I started getting brake shudder from a warped disk from them. Time will tell if the Zimmermann disks hold up better. Living in the Penines seems to be hard on brake disks due to the hills and the rain and puddles seeming to be a recipe for brake disk warpage.

I replaced the rear pads and disks on my 2016 Greenline a few weeks ago. Replacing the disks as well as the pads is almost as quick and easy as replacing the pads. I have a Launch 919 tablet (cost just over £300 new from ebay), as we have cars from multiple makes in our family. When you wind the parking brake in (and then back out again after you've replaced the pads), with a diagnostic tool you'll need to keep the battery above 12 volts. You can do this with a trickle charger or with jump leads from another car. I didn't fancy using a G clamp to wind the (foot brake) caliper back in due to the plastic housing on the rear of the caliper. So I bought a basic Hilka Brake Caliper Rewind tool from a local store (for £14).

The Greenline was white with frost this morning. Got the slightest glimmer of the engine turning over slowly before getting just clicks. Tried jump starting it from the BMW, with no luck. The battery had been showing signs it was getting old, with the stop-start cutting in less and less. So I bought an AGM 096 battery that my local GSF had in stock for £138.37. Swapping batteries was pleasantly easy. 10mm nuts on the terminals, plus a 13mm bolt on the clamping bracket next to the air filter housing, reachable with the longer extension bar from my socket set. And the battery heat insulation blanket to pull out by hand. I used my Launch 919 tablet to tell the car it had a new battery. At first I couldn't figure out which category of battery to put as there were no "AGM" nor "Fleece" options. After a bit of googling I realised that "Fibreglass" was probably the appropriate battery type (part of the joy of using an unofficial diagnostics tablet, with iffy translations). I ended up hitting the road two and half hours later than expected.

Castrol Edge is quite pricey compared to Mannol 7715, which costs about £67 for a 20 litre cannister from ebay

1400NM is about right for some of the gorilla tightened wheel bolts I've come across. 😄 I bought the longest breaker bar I could find on ebay, as I'm of rather slim build and need all the leverage I can get. I think that the one I got was 1 meter / 39 inches long with a 3/4" drive. I use it with a 3/4" to 1/2" adapter to fit my flank drive sockets. Sometimes brains - in getting the right tools - beats brawn...