Lindsayt

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...

MOT passed with no advisories. I'm delighted. The Greenline's 9 years old with 167,000 miles. Also took delivery of 2 Mahle oil filters plus some cable ties today. Ready for an oil change this week-end, if it's not too wet. This will be the 3rd oil change I've done on this car since buying it in March. I've been working my way through a 20 litre cannister of Mannol VW 507 00 oil.

I replaced the front brake disks and pads, after replacing the rears a couple of weeks ago. On my 2016 163,000 miles Greenline. I fitted Zimmermann disks and TRW pads all round. Main reason for changing was because I was getting juddering, especially when braking at motorway speeds, due to a warped front disk. And the pads looked a bit low at the back, so I thought "might was well do the whole lot". The fronts were the quickest and easiest disk and pad change I've ever done. No retaining / anti-squeak spring. All bolts easily accessible with the steering on full lock. I've got a long strong breaker bar that undid the 2 carrier bolts on each side with ease.

The main thing is to get decent tyres. There's various trade-offs. Price, longevity, dry grip, wet grip, aquaplaning resistance, rolling resistance. Getting the best compromise on those is more important than the load rating. Tyre Reviews has loads of info on tyres. Another thing is where and how you get them fitted. The vast majority of tyre place, just paint a bit of stuff on the rims and fit the tyres. I've found that about 1 in 4 tyres will have an irritating leak as a result, losing 1 or 2 or 3 psi per week. Finding somewhere that cleans the rim with a wire brush / file when they fit tyres is worth it, even if you pay a few pounds more.

I buy my oil in £68 20 litre Mannol 7715 cannisters from ebay. And aim to do oil changes every 8,000 miles. With air, fuel and cabin filters less often. DIY servicing is a satisfying job to do. You'll probably find that brake pad and disk replacements are easy jobs. As are rear shock absorbers. I bought a £300 Launch diagnostic tablet that's had a fair amount of use on all our 4 cars in the family. Including resetting service intervals.

I bought a 152,000 miler 2016 Skoda Superb Executive Greenline from a (really nice) private seller for £3800 earlier this year. It had service history, including timing belt change in 2022 and oil changes at Skoda's recommended intervals. The test drive revealed that the aircon wasn't working and that it would benefit from a new set of tyres. The aircon cost £1000 at a local garage with the right aircon tools, for a new condenser plus regassing (I won't be using that garage again, as they're too expensive). Plus £120 to get the adaptive cruise control recalibrated. I replaced all 4 filters plus the oil myself. And will be sticking to an oil change interval of every 8,000 miles from now on. I removed the silica teabag from the coolant header tank (with the help of some large circlip pliers), as these can split and block up cabin heater elements with silica beads. I'll get the coolant changed at the next cambelt service. And got 4 new Goodyear energy saving tyres (from a local place that aren't the cheapest but they spend about 20 minutes per tyre cleaning alloy rims to minimise the chances of leaks). And got the wheels re-aligned at my local alignment specialist for £80. And I bought a pre-owned spare wheel for £25 (Greenlines don't come with a spare wheel as standard. And no sunroofs on Greenlines). I put Wynns anti-crystal additive into my AdBlue tank. Other 2016 to 2017 diesel Superbs don't have AdBlue (Hooray!!). Easy way to tell if a Skoda has the AdBlue system is to open the fuel flap. My Greenline is a "Grandad" car to drive, as my wife puts it. She drives our 2010 BMW 330D. I've done 6,000 miles in mine. Averaging over 50 mpg for local trips. And over 60 mpg for motorway trips, driving at the speed limit (an indicated 73 to 74 mph on the car) when safe to do so. The 2.0 TDi's have more performance at the expense of worse fuel economy. I test drove a few other Greenlines plus a 1.6 TDi S. The S models don't have cruise control as standard. I wouldn't buy a car without cruise control. I liked alcantara seats as much as I liked leather. They're both a good option. My particular car comes with vented and heated front seats. I restricted my search to late 2015 to March 2017 examples. For the cheaper road tax. A saving of £175 per year will add up over the course of 5 years. The way my car drives, there's nothing to indicate it has 158,000 miles on it. That's the nature of modern cars. They feel and sound pretty much like new till something breaks or completely wears out on it. When I tested dealer sold cars, they were all embarrassing. They all showed faults when I plugged my (£300 Launch 919) tablet into them. They all gave me the impression that the dealers were just flipping cars whilst doing a barest minimum. Like just cleaning them. Instead of giving them the sort of mini renovation that High Peaks Autos gives his cars. The warranties from the dealers I visited were 3rd party ones. The sort that cover nothing that is likely to go wrong with a car. With get outs like "that's a wear and tear item". Or "that's specifically not covered". This is in stark contrast to the local specialist that I've bought a number of Volvo's from where he'd fix anything that went wrong during the warranty period. For me, the calculated risk of buying privately was well worth it. It seems that the genuinely good used car dealers are few and far between. There are a lot fewer Skoda Superbs on the used market than there are BMW 3 series. So it might take some persistence, patience and discipline before you get the right car in the right condition and the right price. It will probably be a crash or rust that sends my Skoda to the scrapheap. I was pleasantly surprised at how fresh and generally non corroded the underside of my car was, for a 9 year old car. For me it made sense to buy a cheaper higher mileage example. I'll be disappointed if my engine or gearbox fail before 250,000 miles. I think I'll probably need a new clutch in the next 90,000 miles as mine is a bit juddery when moving off when the car's hot. This brochure has useful info on equipment levels and engine options for 2016 Superbs: https://autocatalogarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Skoda-Superb-Range-2015-UK-.pdf

A car in the hand is worth two in the bush. Buy right. Buy once. You bought a great car in your 272 Superb. Carry on using it and enjoying it for what it is. Whilst keeping on top of the servicing and replacing parts as they wear out. You know the history of your Superb. You know it should be good to give you plenty more years of faithful service.

Can you get a scanning tool on your car to see what fault codes are showing up? For my car when the cruise control wasn't working it was showing a code that very clearly indicated that it needed recalibration.

When I changed my fuel filter I used some spare adult incontinence nappies to get all the fuel out of the filter housing and to wipe it clean. It looked clean when I started. No harm in doing what I could to clean out any minute particles. I have a Launch 919 tablet (£300ish from ebay) that I used to turn on the fuel pump for a couple of minutes before restarting the car. For my 2010 BMW 330d the tablet has a specific option for purging the fuel lines, which takes 2 or 3 minutes to complete. Replacing the fuel filter is a pleasantly easy job on the Mk3 Superb diesels.

I've been averaging 60 mpg in my 2016 Greenline Estate since I bought it earlier this year. On motorways with the cruise control set at 73 MPH (actual 69 MPH) it will nudge up to 65 mpg. For shorter journeys in the hilly part of England I live in it will drop towards 50 mpg. For 80 mpg, maybe I could get that on a flat motorway at 60 mph with a tail wind? It might have to be a gale force tail wind...

I got my ACC (ADAS) recalibrated at AES on Thornton Road in Bradford earlier this year for £120. Mine needed recalibration after the aircon condenser was replaced. I was quoted £450 elsewhere for this calibration. AES said that it's common for the bracket that holds it to get broken. It's a £50ish part that's held in stock by dealers. My bracket was OK. It took them about 15 minutes to recalibrate mine. With the right calibration equipment it's an easy job.

I personally wouldn't buy it. I'm not a fan of car supermarkets. I prefer to buy at auction, or privately or from a specialist. I personally would be willing to go for a higher mileage car that was a lot cheaper. In March this year I bought a 152,000 mile 2016 Superb Greenline Executive Estate for £3800 from a private seller via Facebook Marketplace. I'd find it really difficult to justify spending £12,000 on a 10 year old car.