Mark_A

Mine is standard and I've once got 503 miles out of a brimmed tank, and that was running another 20ish miles after the miles left display went to 0!! Often see over 450 though. I do drive it pretty steady, and my commute includes quite a lot of flowing A and B roads with just enough traffic to discourage hooning, so a contant 50mph or so and go with the flow, not much stop start.

One of the independent car dealers near here (just outside Preston) has one for sale at the moment - £3,995 on the screen I think... Can get the garage contact details if you are interested? ETA - found it - Arena Car Sales then "Stock list" and search Skoda...

I just replaced my 'stat with one from ebay - turned out to be sold by Jorrily and it is a decent Febi Bilstein one. Cost £6.40 including postage and a new o-ring and it seems spot on. Dealer price is an absolute rip-off. Car now running bang on 90 degrees and fuel consumption has increased by at least 4-5 mpg (it was running at ~72 degrees before replacement).

I did exactly this yesterday as mine had popped off in the same place. Didn't need to remove the washer bottle though, once the carbon canister was moved up and away from the inner wing there was access to push the pipe back together. One of the bolts holding the carbon canister on was a PITA though as the fixing wanted to rotate in its rubber bushing rather than undo. It came apart in the end but I could do with a new bush now really as it "fell apart" in the end!! ("fell apart" could also mean "was ripped to shreds in a hissy fit" after fighting with it for 20 mins - I'll let you decide!! )

No definitely not normal, but very common. Mine did this when I first got it - a combination of a throttle body clean and replacing the split "Y" shaped breather hose under the plastic engine cover cured it completely. I think in my case the hesitation was down to unmetered air being drawn in where the hose was split, making it run lean on tiny throttle openings. The throttle body clean certainly does no harm in achieving smooth running though. Nice colour BTW

Ah, well that pretty much rules out the spare tyre being the culprit then!Have a good look at the wheel that you've taken off, are there any signs of rubbing or contact on the inside of the rim? If you jack up that corner and rotate the wheel can you feel any roughness (or play if you try to wobble it)? As you say, hard to diagnose without seeing it but the wheel bearing must be a strong possibility..

Did you kerb the wheel straight on or at an angle? If you ran straight over the kerb you may have got away with damage to the wheel rim only, at an angle there is more chance of other damage... Don't rule out simple possibilities though, have you used the spare tyre before? Could it just be a duff tyre on the spare (or one that has been repaired / flat spotted etc previously) making the noise? Try rotating it with another wheel (perhaps rear) and see if the noise moves? Other possibility is a wheel bearing but I'd start with the cheapest / easiest things and go from there..

That is definitely not right - get the strut off and strip the top mount down - I'm guessing it's fubar'd!! I wouldn't drive that until you get it checked out - if it fails completely I reckon the strut shaft could go through the bonnet, and if it dislocates under de-compression (i.e. over a hump back bridge or similar) it could end up anywhere - either way not good!!

To answer my second question, Skoda say there is no sump gasket, just use silicon sealant (SD176404A2) and the strainer has a sealing ring (SN0282222). Can anyone answer the first question please?

I've done about 9k miles since the last service which would appear to be approx half-way to the service light coming on based on the previous intervals between stamps in the service book. Since I don't want to run on the same oil for 18k miles, I'm going to do an intermediate change myself and I'm thinking of cleaning the oil strainer at the same time as a preventative measure as the car is well on its way to 80k miles now.. Is the job as simple as: drain oil, unbolt sump, unbolt strainer, clean, reassemble, or does anything get in the way and also need dismantling? Do I just need a sump gasket, or is there one where the strainer bolts to the block too? Thanks very much

My gut feeling is that the lack of braces in the estate is a marketing decision - too many buyers might have been put off by the reduction in usable loadspace that they would have caused in what was meant to be the "practical" version of the car. I think the above compromise may well be part of the reason why the estate got 16's in the first place - my estate definitely has an occasional wobble through the shell over big bumps. I've not driven a hatch to compare it to though...

Agreed 17's would look better, but decent tyres for 16's start at under £50 a corner (Camskill - plus fitting) and the ride quality is probably a little better on the standard 16's too, which as I'm getting older is definitely becoming more of a priority!!!

The other thing to look for on any vRS (not just the estate) would be to drive it from cold and look for a chug / misfire between 1500 and 2000rpm, especially on light throttle openings. This can be due to a dirty throttle body and / or intake air leaks after the airflow sensor caused by split breather hoses. Ask when the throttle body was last cleaned. It's an easy diy job for the cost of a £2 gasket and some carb cleaner, but if it's not been done recently it could be a bargaining point. An oily smell in the cabin when stationary may indicate a split breather hose - again an easy diy repair but budget about £30 for the hose..

As above, and just check for obvious signs of a hard life e.g. Check the load area for excessive abuse (a load liner is probably a sign of a conscientious owner) Make sure the rear springs not sagging (especially if fitted with a towbar) Check the condition / cleanliness of the seats - if it's been used as a van the white cloth inserts may be even grubbier than they tend to get through normal use...

My money is on the top mount(s) or bearings too - I had something very similar on the Lancia I used to own - in that case the rock hard aftermarket suspension combined with crappy british roads and typically "italian" quality metal resulting in a pair of deformed top mounts, effectively removing the clearance between the upper and lower parts of them so they couldn't rotate. I had "boinging" noises going from lock to lock and the car would pull whichever way I'd last applied lock as the springs were still partially twisted and applying some steering load...