MoggyTech

Rear view mirror light sensor.

Blow by gas, it's normal as long as it's not excessive. The dipstick has an o-ring seal at the top. The vehicle uses positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) Those gases go through an oil separator and back into the engine to be burnt. Quick and easy check for excessive blow by, slacken the oil filler cap and lift it slightly by hand, you should feel a slight vacuum trying to pull the cap back down. If the cap gets blown upwards the engine is goosed, or the PCV is blocked.

Thermostat or water pump switch over sleeve stuck open.

OBD11 or VCDS

Just picked up the Nextbase 612Gw half price from Halfords. Serious piece of kit. So I put my older Mio dashcam on the rear. Thankfully the Hyundai Ioniq has switched 12 volt sockets so installation was a breeze.

I see your in the United Arab Emirates. Most of the 7 speed DSG failures where in warm or hot countries, they were particularly prone to failure in Australia. VW extended the warranty in Australia but left everyone else high and dry. After the diesel scandal, instead of looking after customers better, they got worse, no doubt trying to claw back the huge fines imposed on them. I had a 1.4Tsi 7 speed DSG Octavia and I loved it. A few weeks out of warranty I started getting the common shift level error "Only leave vehicle when in park." Even though I live in the UK, I decided a dry clutch DSG was just a huge bill waiting to happen, so I sold the car and went to Hyundai. I would never buy another VAG group car again. I know this doesn't help your financial loss, but I feel sorry for you. I don't know what consumer law the UAE has, but I would fight for a goodwill gesture at least. Good luck.

Looks like surface marks to me rather than the actual display. Use a very clean micro fibre cloth, with just a smidge of autoglym fast glass (spray it onto the cloth NOT the screen) Use only light pressure as you wipe the screen. You may have sneezed at some point.

Most likely you are hearing the 'puffing' note that the inactive cylinders introduce into the exhaust. It is normal, but annoying as hell.

The thing I loved about my now departed 1.4Tsi DSG Octavia was the economy and the performance, not two words you normally see in the same sentence. At 70 mph on the motorway, it would return between 54 to 60 MPG depending on traffic conditions. Yet if you planted your foot for overtaking, or just some B road fun in sports mode, it was in warm hatch territory and the DSG never seemed to get confused as to what gear you wanted next. Spirited driving still gave high 30's MPG. Handling was fair but road noise was pretty bad with that torsion beam rear suspension. What was a real pain was low speed crawling in tailback traffic. It was better to use it in manual shift mode, or even sports mode. The DSG had to be treated with sympathy due to it's rather poor reputation for being a bit fragile. Then came Euro 6 emissions and all the extra guff that came with it. The latest 1.5 ACT engine is lean burn at low speeds, and VAG hasn't mastered how to map the ECU to balance lean burn, and smooth power delivery without making the average driver look like a learner all over again. Hesitation from traffic lights is bad enough, but at busy junctions or joining roundabouts it's positively dangerous. This is why I sold the Octavia and bought the Ioniq hybrid. 79 MPG and similar but consistent power delivery was a no brainer.

Best to get it scanned for fault codes. Otherwise it's all guess work. See if anyone is close to you on the members list who have VCDS, (diagnostic software that runs on a laptop.)

Handbrake on?

1.4 if you can get a decent used car with that engine. Peach of an engine, but do your homework on the 7 speed DSG and how to avoid killing the clutch pack, it's a dry clutch so prone to heat damage if you abuse it. IIRC The 1.5 "I'm really a kangaroo " issue was with manual gearbox. It's 100cc more but the same power output, and I hate active cylinder technology coupled with VVT. The camshaft setup is just crazy complex, with oil pressure driven VVT sprockets, and solenoid operated cam lobe slides and locking. So more to go wrong, and of late VAG have been excellent at building stuff that goes wrong.

Oh man talk about frustrating! Seems like this is a poorly designed part. Between flaking chrome and sensor/switches faults. Perhaps that's why the revised part is not due until the end of this year. Probably needs a complete re-design.

The 1.4TSi doesn't have EGR but yes, the control modules do make some weird noises. When I had my Fabia 1.9PD VRS the vacuum control module played tunes when you switched the engine off.

I think your diagnosis is spot on. Dirty/oxidised switches tend to be intermittent and moving the selector moves the switch contacts again.

Picked the Ioniq up at noon on Monday. Had quite a few trips to make, so it got a good mixture of town, urban and motorway driving. Covered 170 miles, and it returned 70.2 MPG. You just have to get your head round how a hybrid works. The battery pack is small and lives under the rear seats, so you get a spare wheel, and multi link rear suspension. There is no way to charge the battery other than going downhill, and brake regeneration. When you lift off the throttle you get a small amount of regen from the electric motor. Just touching the brakes gives you max regen, as the clutch disengages the engine (which then shuts off) and the electric motor just acts like a huge alternator. Took me a while to figure out how they managed this. the drive-train is gearbox (Six speed DCT) > Electric motor mounted to the gearbox, > twin clutch pack > engine. All of that is inline. Very clever. Sports mode using the flappy paddles is great fun on twisty B roads. The active cruise control is excellent, as you can set 4 different follow ranges, and you get an icon that tells you when to pull out to overtake on the motorway, the radar seems to be adaptive, and very accurate. The following a car icon goes out, so you don't the cruise control slowing you down if the outside lane is clear. Freebies thrown in, £250 insurance excess voucher no matter who you are insured with. 3 years servicing, £1,000 off for taking the test drive.

As with most mods which alter the cars design parameters, there will always be varying degrees of good and bad results. A mod that increases stiffness will likely resolve issues like engine rock under load, and introduce more vibration. All bushing mods will soften up a little over time, and I doubt the extra vibration would cause any damage to the vehicle, so it's down to personal preference to decide if the benefits outweigh the negatives. It gets' riskier with things like dual mass to solid flywheel mods. The DMF reduces torque spikes, while the SMF just sends them all into the gearbox. Lastly, Insurance companies love to wriggle out of paying out, if a car has any undeclared modifications.

I will be hanging around on here mate, some great people and a fun place. Nail on the head, inconsistency being the key word. For some people, the dealer will bend over backwards to help, while some just stone wall customers until the customer gives in and walks away. The classic case on here, was the obvious clutch defect a member had. The clutch plate was so out of true from the machining at manufacture, any tech with a straight edge and dial gauge could see it was a faulty clutch from new. Poor guy had to fight tooth and nail, and it took months to resolve. Skoda need to take a long hard look in the mirror and smell what they are shovelling.

Some pics. The last one was a major purchase a month back, John Petrucci music man majesty polar noir. Just threw it in for no good reason.

Looking back at my VAG/Skoda history of cars, I now realise that the VW reliability was more myth than substance. First VW was a 1986 golf 1.6 slush box auto. The front diff bearing broke up, and wrecked the auto box. Replaced it with a Polo MK3 and it suffered from chocolate camshaft and wrecked lifters. Another Polo MK3 that needed two carburettors due to spindle shaft bearing wear. Long company car ownership for several years. Then like a fool back to VW when I started my own business. Polo Mk5 two failed timing belts under warranty, then ignition barrel. Polo Mk6 noisy timing belt replaced twice under warranty. Fabia VRS 1.9 PD two throttle control modules under warranty, one broken rear spring.. Octavia 2.0 CR VRS, gearbox and clutch issues. Then finally the Octavia 1.4TSi throwing up the parking selector error, and spurious driver door warnings,

As the gear lever assembly has multiple positions, it stands to reason that it must contain multiple switches and or hall sensors. if you think of a decent gaming joystick, the main axis are detected by hall sensors and magnets. Things like trigger switches are simple TAC switches, and it's these that fail. My theory (and it's just educated guess work) is that the park position switch is some cheap micro switch. If all the gear stick positions were run through some rotary type mechanical switch, and it went noisy, the DSG display info on the maxidot would throw a hissy fit. The car wouldn't know if it was in drive, park, neutral etc etc.

Sadly this is how the overly complex Skoda warranty or goodwill gestures work. Dealer needs approval from Skoda to do anything with claims, and Skoda demand the dealer provides fault information. So the dealer advises the customer there is a 120e charge for diagnostics before they can act. Some faults are never logged, or they are cleared after a certain number of stop start cycles if the fault hasn't occurred again. So the dealer will often just say, "Can't find anything wrong, go away and leave 120e at the service desk." That's the kind of attitude that has made me walk away from VAG cars for good.

OK guys and girls the 2 hour test drive went like this. interior, absolutely mind blowing, the all digital (TFT) instrument cluster is really well thought out. Stick it in sport mode, and the speedo changes to a rev counter, with digital MPH in the middle. Two smaller areas either side can have tailored information you desire. Oh before i go any further, they had a top of the range ex salesman car, 19 Plate registered mid May 2019 800 miles 4K off list price. I also got more than 1.5K above Parkers top book price for the Octavia. Thing is the new car is not Polar White, it's black, yes I know it will be a booger to keep clean, but the colour really suits the styling, way more than the white does. Interior is really top quality with full heated leather and ventilated seats. The only cheap plastic is reserved for lower trim like seat bases. The drive. The reviewers who stated the engine is very noisy if you rag it, are talking nonsense. It's very refined but with a very satisfying exhaust note. The reviewers who said the 6 speed DCT was slow to respond and clunky (Evo magazine) are also talking nonsense. Urban traffic, the car just glides along, with no hint of the ICE cutting in and out. No starter motor either, so stop start is quick, smooth, spooky. 50 MPH dual carriageway, way quieter than the Octavia, also the multi-link rear suspensions soaks up bad road surfaces, and were talking Edinburgh here, and the roads are a disgrace. Motorway, this is when I thought I was going to walk away from the deal, 50 to 70 MPH acceleration was dire, thing is, the kickdown switch takes a fair stomp to activate it, the thing took off like a rocket and that was in normal mode. In sport it's even better. Is it as quick as the 1.4TSi DSG, nope not quite, but it ain't far off. Test drive MPG came in at 68.2 MPG but only a proper brim to brim set of fuel ups will tell what it really is. Another thing I liked is how smoothly you can stop the car, as the ICE cuts out well before you stop. I hated dragging the 1.4TSi clutch due the various clutch pack problems that can create, or at least accelerate wear. Same goes for crawling in traffic ques, the ICE didn't cut in until we got some serious speed going. Other extras that were thrown into the deal. Full detail with ceramic coating, and interior protection, plus a £250 voucher for something I haven't figured out yet. Would I recommend this car to someone looking for warm hatch performance? Never, this car is not for boy racers, or even old duffers like me who enjoys the odd burst of speed on a quiet road. would I recommend it to someone who wants refinement with excellent MPG definitely. The level of kit is amazing, adaptive CC, lane departure, auto emergency braking, blind spot mirror icons, reversing camera, Sat Nav with lifetime free map updates and tom tom speed camera database free for life. Score Styling 9/10 modern enough without looking bizarre. Interior 9/10 rear seat shape looks a bit weird but you can't see them when your driving. Handling 10/10 it really feels planted and the steering weight is spot on. Economy 10/10 just above a turbo diesel but with cheaper petrol Driving 8/10 Torque off the line is insane if you plant your foot. Negatives Rear spoiler restricts rear view a bit No rear wash wipe Foot operated parking brake (Obviously aimed at the American market.) I pick it up tomorrow at noon, and will be happy to answer any questions, well once I figure out how all the toys work.

I've seen images of various VAG DSG shifters over the years, and they are moulded plastic modules with plastic seam welds. To get to the switch, it's a safe bet you would have to destroy the damned unit.

I'm doing mostly short local trips these days. I did consider the plug in version, but that's an extra £4,000 and you can buy a lot of petrol for that kind of money. I will miss that 1.4TSi petrol engine in the Octavia, it's a peach, but the VAG company has destroyed any faith i had in them. All the plus point you made about the Auris, are the main reasons I'm switching. The slight loss in performance I can live with. I never have passengers so rear leg room is not a problem, although in the ioniq it's good, it's rear headroom for six footers that's the problem due to the steep roof slope to the rear. The quoted 0--62 for the Ioniq is 10.8 seconds, but 0-60 is 8.6 in sports mode, and I bet 0-40 is probably quicker than the Octavia 1.4Tsi. I'm getting on in years (state pension started this year, so a five year warranty will see me to 70 (if I get there.)