pikpilot

The steering wheel icon and perhaps ESP icon will still be lit until you have driven a few hundred yards.. You will also need the reset the limit position for the one-touch part of the electric windows (see your drivers handbook) and the time on the clock. You will have lost all data relating to long term mpg, trip data etc as they will have been reset to zero.

If it cuts after about 10 seconds or so it could be that it is not recognising the anti theft code. In which case there will be a warning light on the dash.

The usual problem is that it seems impossible to take the mirror out! You have gouges in the plastic and other damage that suggest someone had previously tried to remove the mirror, with difficulty, using a lever. Yours appears to be a facelift mirror. The mirror should go back in with a click when pushing centrally on the plastic "glass". You may have it in place now and it will not fall again, but if it does the post pictures of the back of the mirror and the inside of the mirror housing so we can compare it with others. If yours has two long tangs that engage with sockets at the back of the housing, the also press on the glass front in line with the tangs.

You can also do it with the Carista app on facelift model but you have to check first if yours is an earlier model.

When we replaced my wife's car with a Skoda Fabia last February, I asked the same question of the Skoda garage and he gave me a small explanatory booklet which answers everything. It is the same one you get when you pick up a Skoda approved vehicle. Ask them for the warranty booklet.

And don't forget Trading Standards too. If they get too many complaints about the company they will take action.

If you go to facebook page I quoted earlier, there is normally an advert on the right hand side for another group where you can find garages who will return the ecu to original software and other options.

Yes, the extra wear and high failure rate of other components such as injectors. In some cases the engine had to replaced by Skoda under "trust building measures". Probably not so much worry using it as second car or has been bought at a price were unreliability has been factored in.

Yes. If it has had the fix then be wary of other likely failures, particularly EGR. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/emissionsscandal. You will need to join (for free) to see posts.

If I was doing this I would first check whether the car has had the emissions fix. If it has, revert it to original pre-fix software. You can find out if it has had the fix by entering its VIN in a check page on the Skoda site. A quick check on the 1.6L is to see if it has a "flow straightener" in the air duct after the air filter. Remove it if you revert to standard ecu software.

There is a similar thread running at the moment in this forum which has some similarities. Both cases mention problems with glow plugs. Take a look at:- Might be worth you looking for corrosion/water damage under or around this fuse board...

Glad you got it sorted. The previous owner should have put in a new fuse panel rather than trying a fix at one point which ignored potential problems elsewhere on the board. Just make sure the fuse board is for the same model and year as they vary with fuel and options.

Failing factory fitted battery on my similar car caused multiple warning lights on the dash plus relay chatter on trying to start. The battery read around 11V off load, but clearly went lower on load. New battery fitted after 7 years. The battery on my Mk1 Octavia (no fancy electronics) lasted 13 years and would turn the engine over from a much lower battery voltage.

Could be the temperature sensor(s) may be reporting the wrong temperature. Is there a sensor immediately after the mixer flap? If you select screen only or feet only, does the air come out at those position at max temp?

On later models which have different fuse box layout, one reason for a car not starting is corrosion of the fuse and fuseholder of a10A fuse at he bottom left (?) of the fusebox. Usually means putting in a new fuse box. Once you have removed the battery, it looks like your fuse box can be taken out after releasing a few screws and a power connector.

Oh its tight all right. The garage released the panel for me from underneath on a second occasion. It needed considerable force and blows to get the panel back in when I did it the next day.

And I initially tried unsuccessfully to get a selection of credit cards in the gap. Eventually one went in a bit and I could feel resistance which suggested I had found the clip but then the card got stuck. I got it out in pieces. This suggests there is some variability in the gap size between 2010 models and later models. Hence my documented approach through the wheel arch. My handbook says to just pull on the trim panel and shows two drawings of how to do it! No way.

Perhaps been done to bypass water damage/corrosion on the board underneath.

I assume it does not come on unless the engine is running?

High possibility that coolant is getting into the engine through a failing head gasket. When the engine is hot, cylinder gases will pressurise the coolant bottle and expel coolant through its pressure relief valve in the cap. When the engine is off but before the coolant cools down, the coolant bottle will be still pressurised and will force coolant into one cylinder via the failed head gasket. On starting, your white smoke is the coolant being exhausted from the cylinder which has the gasket problem. You could try getting a test made on the coolant for absorbed combustion gasses but make sure you use coolant from the bottle before you top it up again. It is a minor gasket leak at present (no apparent loss of power) but may get worse quite quickly.

I use the Carista app to tell me which bulb has failed. This is very small part of this app, which can do much more. Only the driver's side fog light is lit on VAG cars to avoid confusion with brake lights.

My car was in with Skoda recently and the paperwork said that next August I would need a new timing belt at a cost of £549 - same as your quote. But when going through the paperwork with me verbally he said that the £549 is today's price and in the new year it will rise to over £600 !!

If you have climate control, make sure you have it on AUTO or have the air con switched on (without reducing the temperature setting). In auto it will reduce the humidly very quickly. On wet days I can clear the screen and side windows in just a few minutes. The way it works is this: The incoming air is cooled and the water vapour is condensed to liquid water and piped away. The chilled dry air is then mixed with heated air to achieve your set temperature, There are two downsides 1) until the engine warms up the heater pushes out cold but dry air and 2) the air conditioning will not work if there is a risk of freezing such as below 5C. Keep the system on auto all the time and you will soon dry out any pockets of damp such as in seats and trim. With the modulating, rather than on/off, type of climate control used on our cars, I cannot see any difference in mpg by having it on AUTO all the time outside the summer.

Your right Wino in that all doors have microswitches and these are used for the same functions as those on the driver's door. On face lift models, from what I have been able to fathom out, the drivers door module contains "intelligence" and sends instructions to others doors to lock and unlock. I may be wrong but that is how it looks to me. On the point about intelligence, When my driver's door lock was changed last year, it had to be programmed to make the light work on the bottom of the door card. Earlier this month it had to be re-programmed again as the Entry Light on the underside of the driver's mirror had become de-activated; perhaps as a result of the battery being disconnected for a while. Just to put the progress(!) made in this area into perspective, my first Passat (new) had a pneumatic door locking system!

The drivers door lock is a master for control of other door locks. Common problem on Mk2 is a broken wire in the elephant truck that connects the door to the body. Open the driver's door, pull back the trunking at both end and look for broken wires. Also check the door open indication on the dashboard for each door in turn. If the driver's door indication is not there, it is likely you will need a new door lock (failed microswitch). Another symptom of this is the one you found - door relocks by itself after about 30 seconds because there is no indication that the door has been opened.