Grubtraw

Hi Silver Bullet, three months and three mechanics later the car finally passed its MoT test on 11 August. After replacing most of the hydraulic system the culprit turned out to be the rear discs, which were brand new in April 2021! The first mechanic had given them a good clean so initially we ruled them out as the cause. The second guy (Skoda specialist) was on holiday for a month and had a big backlog when he came back so the car ended up going to a friend who has a brake tester. He tried cleaning the discs again and the efficiency improved, so he repeated the process until it was good enough to pass the test. So now I have a spare ABS pump which might come in handy some day. Hat off to good old Warty which gave me three months of trouble-free daily use 🙂

Many thanks for the replies. I didn't watch the tests (embarrassingly it failed a re-test!) and the paperwork is still at the MoT station, so I won't know any more until Monday at the earliest. I've been put in touch with a chap who services and repairs many of the local Skoda taxis and I'm hoping that he can sort it out next week. A mechanic friend told me this morning that the pressure limiter is built into the master cylinder. The guy who bled the brakes knows about the bleed screws in the cylinder.

Many thanks Ken for your reply. Handbrake adjustment was checked and seems good. There doesn't appear to be a limiter in the rear brake circuit and each rear brake has its own pipe coming from the ABS unit. I'm using a local mechanic in Greenock who isn't a VAG specialist but he's usually very good. Haven't tried A for Audi, thank you for the suggestion. Cheers, John.

My 1998 Octavia SLX TDI 1.9 failed its MoT test recently on what I thought were fairly minor problems, so I authorised my tame mechanic to go ahead with repairs. Although the car is getting on a bit I like it a lot, it has given me very little trouble in 14 years of ownership and I don't know what I would buy to replace it as my daily driver. However one failure item has us beaten and I would like to ask whether anyone has had a similar problem. The rear brake efficiency was only about 40% of what it should be on both sides but the front brakes were fine, in fact better than they need to be. The rear calipers are fairly new (about 5 years old) and the discs and pads were replaced more recently. The calipers have been removed, cleaned and checked and the pistons are moving freely. The system was pressure-bled and fluid seemed to run through normally, however the problem did not go away. The car has now had a replacement ABS hydraulic unit (part number 1J0 614 217C) from a breaker, followed by a new brake master cylinder but neither has cured the problem. As it's starting to get expensive my mechanic has asked me to take it away until we can get some expert advice. Current thoughts are that the "new" ABS pump could have the same fault as the old one (if it was faulty), the ABS pump isn't bleeding properly inside or both rear brake hoses have failed internally at the same time, which seems unlikely but it's just possible. Any advice would be very welcome. At least I'm getting to drive my 1971 Wartburg daily just now 🙂

Hello, success at last! I shone a small torch through the grille and managed to find and release the hook which was stopping the bonnet opening fully. It was quite tricky as the with the bonnet raised enough to get my arm through the gap below the grille the hook was fully through the U-bolt under the bonnet and didn't want to move, however with some judicious twisting of the bonnet (and a slightly sore arm!) I managed to persuade the hook out of the U-bolt. I then discovered that the top end of the release lever (24 in StickMicky's diagram) had managed to get itself on the wrong side of the protrusion at the front of the hook, so it was just flopping about in mid-air when I moved the lower end. I moved it back to the correct side and bent the front of the cross-member (where the lever pivots) upwards slightly to prevent the same thing happening again. It works now so fingers crossed. Now to fix the starter motor ... Thanks again for the assistance.

Many thanks gents, that’s very useful. I’m not at home just now but I’ll have another go at it tomorrow. Cheers!

Hello, I would greatly appreciate any help with this problem on my 1998 Octavia SLX TDI. When I pull the bonnet release from inside the car the bonnet lifts slightly as usual, so the cable seems to be OK, however when I move the lever behind the grille it does nothing and I can't open the bonnet any further. I can get my hands in under the bottom of the grille but I'm not quite sure what I need to do to release the bonnet fully. Does anyone have a photo of the linkage between the lever behind the grille and the catch I need to release to get the bonnet to open? Many thanks in advance ...

That's great Dougie, thank you very much. Always good to have a recommendation and yours was glowing!

Very interesting Dougie, thank you for posting. I'm guessing that they also do steel wheels. I have a set of five to be refurbished for my Wartburg restoration project and I'm looking for somewhere reasonably local to do the honours. The wheels were grit-blasted and primed a while ago but will probably need to be done again. My Octavia alloys could do with being smartened up too ...

Have you loosened the trailing corners of the front wheelarch liners and checked for build-up of mud? My car suffered from chronic wet carpets until I removed a large amount of mud from between the wheelarches and liners (as suggested by a member of this forum) and unblocked the sunroof drains which exit part way up the A-pillars.

Citroen XM 2.0SEi automatic. I should have known better but it was a very nice car to drive when it was working properly, which wasn't a lot of the time. It seemed to choose something expensive to break every month while bits of trim fell off regulary and it rusted away underneath. I scrapped it after the replacement automatic gearbox packed up after five months and was glad to see it go. Absolute rubbish and put me off Citroens for life.

My 1998 Octavia 1.9 SLX TDI usually manages between 50 and 55mpg, with a mixture of town and motorway driving. Best ever was 66mpg on a long motorway run. These are calculated from mileages between fill-ups to the brim. I don't believe the figures on the trip computer although they can be quite impressive, for example average mpg 82.1 on a recent 60-mile journey.

Make sure the stretch bolts in the RH engine mounting are replaced with new ones (they have to be removed when changing the belt). I had the cambelt in my Octavia changed by a Skoda dealer who didn't do this. A few months later the engine fell against the RH inner wing when I went over a speed bump in the work car park. Judging by the wear patterns on what was left of the two bolts, one had snapped a while earlier and the second one couldn't take the load any more.

This sounds very similar to the long-running problem I had with my 1998 Octavia, now solved thanks to this forum. It was caused by a combination of a blocked front LH sunroof drain (black plastic outlet on the front LH door pillar between the upper and lower hinges) and a build-up of silt behind the front LH wing liner allowing rainwater to find its way into the car instead of on to the road. The water tended to collect in the rear LH footwell, sometimes producing a spectacular swimming pool effect. Check that the sunroof drains work by opening the roof and (carefully) pouring water into the corners of the surround. It should come out via the nozzles on the door pillars. If it doesn't the nozzle is blocked and should be cleared with a suitable object (I used a small piece of aquarium hose). Now pour some water on to the lower LH corner of the windscreen. It should drain out behind the trailing edge of the wing liner but if it doesn't you need to loosen the rear part of the liner (three Torx-headed screws) and dig out the build-up of silt, leaves etc which is probably lurking in there. If the LH side is bad the driver's side will probably not be much better and should be done too (I'm assuming RHD). The only problem I've got now is that the underlay is taking weeks to dry, even with the carpet lifted.

My 1998 (S-prefix) Octavia hatchback doesn't have a rear wiper. The local Skoda dealer was a bit puzzled by this but it seems that early ones don't have them.