dsab

I love me Superb, but have had an Issue with the Aircon/Heating pretty much for the last 3 years. Initially I believed that the Issue with the Aircon itself, as sometimes the car wouldn't cool down properly in the summer. At times I even felt like hot air coming from some vents, even when using the Aircon on full blast. I got it regassed and got a new switch/valve fitted, but only with limited success. Anyway, at the time it was a sporadic enough Issue that wasn't worth spending too much time or money on, especially as it is hardly ever hot here in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be a sporadic Issue anymore, and now even happens in the current climate without the Aircon in use. Last night for example I had set the heating to 20C on both sides, but the car was really heating up. Upon further investigation I found the following: - Of the 4 vents on the Dash 3 were blowing regular "coolish" air while the driver side one was blowing our really hot air - The vents in the pillars all seemed to be of normal temperature - The vents in front of the windows seem to be split in 3 parts, the left and the right ones were as far as I could make out of normal temp, but the middle one was blowing out really hot air - Under the seats the passenger side was blowing out hot air, while the one under the driver seat didn't. So all fairly random in terms of sides. Any idea what to look at or what might be responsible for this strange behaviour? Nothing worse then driving in a car that's too hot. Thanks, dsab

If you are in Belfast or anywhere reasonably close to it I would recommend to take it to Walsh Motors. They are specializing in VAG related cars and have all the tools that a VAG main dealer would have. I am 40 miles away, but it's the only place I bring my car, even for a simple service. They are also very reasonable priced, in my experience. Would highly recommend them to anyone. Walsh Motors

Had a similar Issue shortly after I got my Superb, and it was a faulty Instrument Cluster. In my case the symptoms were displaying a Green Warning light, usually relating to Kessy or the DSG Gearbox, when the lights were switched on (my car doesn't have either). I also had the the left indicator Icon illuminated, not as brightly as when the indicator was actually on, but clearly visible. Thirdly, when setting the Cruise Control it also illuminated the right Indicator light on the dash, again not as brightly as when the indicator was actually on, but clearly visible. Switching on the Fog light in my case also brought up another brown light. Skoda wanted £650 (already including 40% goodwill) to replace it. In the end I got a used one from from the scrap yard, and got it fitted by my trusted independent (£120 altogether).

The Amundsen has the BT built into the Unit, so it doesn't come with a separate Bluetooth module. If you replace the Amundsen with the Swing you will have no BT, unless you also move the BT Unit. In addition you will also have to add a new Aerial and run some now wiring from the BT Unit to the Radio etc.

I had some Issues with my Superbs Aircon during the summer while driving in Italy, in that it didn't seem to properly coll the car down, and at times it even seemed to warm the car up instead of cooling it down. Passenger side seemed to be more affected then drivers side, but didn't think anything of it at the time. Anyway, somehow didn't manage to get this investigated further, as the temperature back in NI were not high enough to re investigate the Issue. Today I experienced a similar issue, and think it is related to the Issue I had in the summer. It was about 2 degrees outside and the Aircon was set to 20 on both sides of the car. The drivers side vents blew out normal air, but from the 2 vents covering the passenger side it blew out incredibly hot air at the same time, obviously making the car very hot. Reducing temp didn't seem to make a difference either. When I switched the Aircon off, and put the manual temp control to 16 degrees it blew again very cold air out from the drivers side vent, but still very hot one from the passenger vents. Any idea what could cause this? Some blocked pipe or some vent not "opening/closing" properly etc.?

Got a letter from Skoda today about the 1.6 Greenline. ..."Our intention is to release technical measures for all remaining Vehicles with an outstanding EA189 service action by the end of 2016. Implementation of these technical measures will however continue into 2017".

Depends on the car. As far as I understand the Shark fins come in multiple varieties, each covering a different combination of DAB, FM, GPS, GSM, webasto etc.

I replaced a Bolero with a Columbus myself a few months ago, and it took all but 20 minutes to fit it, and then another short trip to an acquaintance with a VCDS to actually code it to the car. In my case everything worked out of the box, except for the display of the SatNav Instructions on the MFD. That's the part that VCDS coding resolved. GPS Aerial went behind the HU, and works very well.

When we had a warm spell in May I realized that the AC might not be too great. So I got a friend who has access to the KwikFit Aircon tool to recharge the Gas. So he checked it, and the gas Level was actually fine (390g left out of 500 or so, IIRC). Anyway, it was re-gassed, and then checked performance. The coldest he could come get out of the vent after the recharge was around 15.7 degrees. He mentioned that most other cars would be closer to 10 degrees, and that some older (non climate control cars) could even get as low as 2-3 degrees. He checked compression, and it was perfectly fine (10 bar, IIRC). He There were also no leaks or any other problems the machine could detect. Anyway, good weather was gone, and I left it at that at the time. Now I am in Italy, and realize that I must have a major Issue with the Aircon. When the car is cold, and when the weather is not too warm yet I can feel cold Air coming out. But as soon as the temperature gets up there is hardly any cold Air coming out of the Vents anymore, and it is very unpleasant (especially with 2 kids in the back). Anyway, when I open the Windows it feels as if the Temp coming from the Vents seems to go down again. Really strange. One thing i found is that the Dash gets really really hot. It seems to give off a lot of temperature on it's own. Could it possibly also affect the Aircon pipes (i.e. warm up the Aircon pipes before it even gets to the Vent). Is that normal, or could it be part of the problem? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

I fitted a Columbus last week, and the one annoying thing I have found is the inability to deactivate the Navigation Announcement permanently. I set it in the "Tone" section before, but it seems that setting is not permanent, as the Announcements return after a reboot of the car / restart of the system (not yet sure which of those 2 triggers it). Anyone have the system behave the same? Any recommendations on how to permanently disable it? Regards, dsab

I have only spent a few minutes in the car since I made the changes, but my initial feeling was that the sound from the Bolero was considerably better then the Columbus. I don't have a Shark Fin, but I believe there are several Versions of it (with and without GPS). I just stuck a magnetic Aerial in the area behind the Radio.

Just thought I would update this, as I just finished replacing the Bolero with a Columbus. - Getting the Bolero out and the Columbus in is really simple, and a matter of 5-10 minutes. - Upon fitting it I found that pretty much everything worked straight away, SAT NAV, Radio, Parking Display, Climate Control Display etc. - The only thing which didn't work out of the box was the Display of Information on the MFD. But I was aware of that before - This was fixed by hooking up VCDS , and not MFD displays again Music Information, Sat Nav etc. - I then went straight onto updating the Firmware to 5238, which took about an hour - I then updated the Maps to V13 (via the SD Maps Tool), which took another 30 minutes. So all in all it took about two hours to replace the Bolero with the Columbus, to code it via VCDS to the Car and to then update it to a more up to date Software/Map version. And as someone asked, the Bolero will go up in the for Sale section later.

The Code can be gotten for around £12 from Ebay. Swap itself is easy enough, but you will also need a new Plastic Surround (approx. £30 from Skoda). Then you will have to get the car hooked up to VCDS to activate the Columbus in the System, so that it's Information are displayed on the MFD etc.

The Amundsen has BT built into the Headunit, and not a separate BT Module like the Columbus.

There is no chance of the same or even a similar offer being made in Europe, as it would bankrupt VAG. The amount of cars affected in the US is rather small compared to Europe. They have openly stated that this offer will be US only, due to the legal implications/fines in the US. As those fines are unlikely to be anywhere as high in Europe they do not envisage any monetary offers to European customers.