Sangrail

It's dark! I finished the job with a head-torch on. Pictures tomorrow, if you're good.

My car is a Scout, so I suspect that a good deal of the structure underneath that is visible on other Octavias is hidden from my view. I bought a trolley-jack today, and I wish I had done so years ago: so much easier and more stable that then emergency jack in the boot. I can hardly wait until November for the fitting of the winter wheels! For jacking points I'm just using the standard ones, and have cut an appropriately-wide slot in a 3.5"-square piece of wood to go between the jack and the car. It worked well today for the fitting of the mudflaps.

Thanks to the valuable info on this thread, I've managed to fit fore and aft OEM pre-facelift mudflaps to my Scout. Additionally, I found that on the rear flaps, the top clip need not be cut off, but could have its bite deepened (junior-hacksaw blade and penknife) so that it still fulfills its role notwithstanding the Scout's body-kit. I removed a plastic clip-like arrangement from the middle of the upper side of the horizontal part (penknife) which allowed a closer fit of the thing to the plastic underbody. For both front and rear, a bit of in-situ moulding after careful heating with an electric hot-air paint-stripper, followed by quenching with cold water, seemed to improve the fit to the contours of the car. Or it might be my imagination - but it seemed a clever idea at the time. Anyhow, I'm pleased with the results - so thanks again

I'm thinking about getting a trolley-jack. I change the wheels over twice a year (winter tyres), and increasingly I feel that it would be pleasant to have something with a more stabke feel to it than the jack supplied with the car. I have no idea where the lifting part of such a jack would be positioned, though. The emergency jack goes over a downward-projecting seam - but I'm not sure that the ordinary steel pad on a trolley-jack would do that any good. Has anyone any experience of the best place to locate the jack? Thanks!

Is this perhaps referring not to the lowerability the back seats, but rather the facility to lower them using a lever in the boot, as well as the catch on the seat-back itself?

I was advised that I couldn't get mudflaps for my recently-acquire 2015 Scout - but the Mk1 L&K that it replaced had them, and I agree that they were effective. Rubber mats and boot-liner are also useful. I have the Skoda fitted mats for the passenger area, and a big generic rubber thing in the boot. My folding receptacle is a Skoda-branded thing which I got from the dealer. It lies under the variable boot-floor and comes out to stop shopping rolling about in the boot. Again, definitely worth having.

I used to have 205/55r16 Michelin Alpin on my Octavia 1, but have just had Dunlop Winter Sport 5 205/60r16 put on a spare set of alloys for my current Mk3 Scout. AFAIK both kinds are H (131mph) rated. The Dunlops seemed to do well in the latest German ADAC test - hence the change of brand.

Absolutly! Caution is always a good idea under such circumstances. My feeling is that the behaviour of a generic 205/60r16 tyre as a spare with either setup will be a bit less peculiar than a generic 205/55r16, just becuase of the better match of diameter.

The new-to-me 2015 Octavia 3 Scout came with a 205/55r16 on a steel wheel in the well.

So, today I had my 205/60r16 winter tyres fitted to the set of used 16" alloys that I bought for winter use. A quick test shows that this wheel/tyre combination fits reasonable comfortably in the spare-wheel well - so I will be replacing the 205/55r16 on the steel 16" spare with a 205/60r16 - which will be a decent match for both the summer 225/50r17 and the winter 205/60r16 setups. Better than the 205/55r16, at any rate!

So: I went to see the VCDS-man today. It all seems to be as the advice on this thread has suggested: the absurd auto-unlock has been disabled - hurrah! The one-touch window-closing on locking seems to be unavailable - boo! Health and safety gone mad, I guess. I never in 10 years cut anyone's limbs or head off using this excellent function. Thanks for all the (pertinent) input. I should point out, though, that it is not by luck that I don't own an Audi RS7 - it is the result of an entirely deliberate choice on my part.

I nearly always have a sunroof open - mainly, of course, in the tilted-up position, because I like the quiet yet fresh-airy ventilation of gives. I've just replaced a Mk 1 Octavia with a s/h Mk 3, and the only way to get a sunroof in that is to go panoramic - which, after waiting for a suitably-spec'd Scout at the right price, I did. My experience is so far very positive - no leaks so far, despite some fairly torrential rain lately. Plenty of wide-open use in the hot weather - much wider, of course, than the old Mk 1 - and the tlit-up position gives effective but unobtrusive ventilation.

Thanks, Wino - I've located a local VCDS person, and I'll see what he's able to come up with.

No worries! I look forward to hearing further from you should I accidentally start a thread inviting debate about how well the functionality of my own vehicle meets my specific requirements with respect to security etc.

I I've already stated in post 8 paragraph 3, when I unlock from the outside with the fob only the driver's door unlocks. That bit is just fine. It's the automatic unlock when I pull the ignition keys out that needs to go. Yup - as I put in post 8 para three I've got the first sentence covered when approaching the car: one press of the fob unlocks the driver's door only. Sentence two - yes, I can do that also, but not apparently in conjunction with the auto-lock feature which, you'll not be surprised to learn, I rather like. Currently, if I have auto-lock on, then auto-unlock of everything on removing the keys from the door also seems to be on. Are you aware of a way of setting auto-lock without the auto-unlock? That is really what I'm after, rather than your insights onto my personal security - though your concern is most touching!

As I said - it sounds as though I might have persecutory delusions (not paranoia, please note) - but in fact it is simply good common sense to be aware of what's going on around where you've parked and not to unlock doors and boot unnecessarily. Scot5 - The owner's manual simply tells me that I can't make the car do what I want: hence this thread

The selection for automatic locking on the 'car set-up' thing unfortunately also makes all the locks fly open when you take the ignition key out. Why do I not want this to happen? Well, I suppose for the same reason I don't want all the lock to open when I press 'open' on the fob as I approach the car to get in: because I want to limit access to the vehicle by unauthorised and probably malevolent person/s unknown. When I go to get in the car and press 'open' on the fob, I want the driver's door unlocked so that I can get in secure in the knowlege than no-one else can run up and hop in another door, or pinch anyhting from the boot - and this is what it does. When I park, I like to get ready to leave by taking the keys from the ignition, and then I like to unlock and open the driver's door only by pulling the inside handle once I've had a look around, I don't at that point want the the boot and the other doors accessible by anyone else. This, unfortunatley, the 'automatic locking' option prevents. This might smack of persecutory delusions - but there are bad folk about, and I live and work among such folk (amongst others, I hasten to add - the good with the bad).

I quite enjoy that too, if I've got time - but think how much more fun it would be if you didn't have to keep your finger on the fob-button until it was finished!

I've just swapped cars from a Mk1 L&K estate to a Mk3 Scout 150hp. I had the Mk 1 tweaked so that the car automatically locked when it reached 10mph or so - but (and this is important) so that it did not unlock when, having stopped, I pull the key from the ignition. As things stand at the moment, the Mk3 will either automatically lock, and then unlock everything when I take the key from the ignition: or not automatically lock, and not unlock when I pull the key. Has anyone managed to get this altered by getting the comfort unit (or whathaveyou) adjusted electronically? And a similar point with respect to the closing of windows when locking using the key-fob remote. The old car used to close windows and sunroof when I locked the car - i.e. one quick press and they all closed. The new one requires me to stand by the car keeping my finger on the button until they all close. This seems rather a backward step - so i wonder again whether anyone has managed to get one-press window/sunroof closing on locking enabled? I'd be very pleased to hear of any relevant experiences! Thanks

That's interesting to know! Perhaps I'm worrying about nothing. I suppose the best thing might be to try to put a 205/60r16-fitted wheel in the well once I've actually had my winter tyres fitted to the 16" rims.

Interestingly, the Scout on 17" rims has 225/50 tyres - compared to 225/45 on the rest of the Octavia 3 range. My understanding is that 205/55r16 has about the same circumference as 225/45r17 - so on the Scout, 205/55r16 is undersized (although it is as you say the official spare) - and therefore I guess more likely to cause wind-up. The winter option for the scout on 16" rims is 205/60, which gives a circumference only marginally less than the standard 225/50r17 set-up. That's why I'm wondering about a larger tyre on the spare, since it would be a better match in circumference for both the 225/50r17 standard and the 205/60r16 winter set-up.

Thanks Sasha 205/60r16 is the right tyre size for 16" wheels on a Scout. Mainly, I'm hoping to hear from folk with experience of whether that size tyre fits in the spare-wheel well without fouling anything else in that area.

Dear Briskodians I've just bought a 2015 Octavia Scout. It has a spare wheel, which I consider an essential item - and this was advertised as 'space-saving'. However, I find that it is in fact a 6.5Jx16 ET46 steel rim with a 205/55r16 tyre on it - labelled 'Do not exceed 80kmh'. As far as I can tell, that wheel is exactly the same spec as the Ilias alloys I bought from a scrap yard to fit winter tyres - but I understand also that the correct Scout tyre-size for 16" wheels is 205/60, rather than 205/55. That is perhaps what's meant by 'space-saving'? So - if I'm right, I wonder whether any Scout-owners can confirm whether my spare would still fit in the space provided if it had a 205/60, rather than 205/55, tyre on it? If - if so, I think I'd fit the larger 205/60 tyre so as better to match the diameter of the other wheels on the vehicle, whether they were the summer 255/50r17 or the winter 205/60r16. Any thoughts welcome, thanks! Sangrail

This seems to be a complicated subject. I'm currently thinking of getting shut of my old L&K Ocatvia and Shogun Pinin and replacing both with a Yeti Elegance on the basis that the off-road use the Hairdressermobile gets is quite tame, and the lower cost of running just one vehicle would probably offset the slightly higher fuel consuption of the Yeti cf. the Octy. The Pinin, of course, barely gives 29mpg (petrol). I was thinking of using the 17" standard wheels in the summer, and switching to a 16" steel set with knobblier tyres for the slippery months. However, the General Grabber AT2s which I find so very effective on the Pinin are available only in 215/65 16, not 215/60. Am I right in thinking that 215/65 16 will not do on the Yeti? All thoughts gratefully receieved! Sangrail