Jason001

If you have 17" wheels chances are you also have the lowered sports suspension which came as an option togther. I have the same and whilst handling is great on smooth B roads it jars over cats eyes and pot holes. I changed my shocks to Koni FSD's with Eibach springs a few years ago which has helped but still shakes over rough ground.

You can find the instructions for cleaning the cruise control contacts at the following web adress; My link Follow the link at the bottom of the page, "repair of cruise control". The site is in Danish language so you need to use a browser that will translate such as google. I followed this procedure and it worked fine for me. Cheers, and good luck, I can't live without my cruise.

Has the car just developed this problem or was it behaving like this from new? The obvious culprit would be faulty shocks but as the vehicle is a 2009 it should not be normal wear and tear. Suggest you take up as a Warranty claim.

Speaking to my local friendly Skoda idependent, they replace 30% of all water pumps on a first cam belt change and then find around 70% need doing between the 1st and 2nd cambelt change. Choice is yours, either add £50 to your bill now or £250 at some stage in the future.

Monkster, I have my Oct II 2.0TDI booked in this Friday with a VW/Audi independent garage and am paying £400 for a timing belt change + new water pump. Most VW/Skoda independents will recommend replacing the water pump at the same time as it only costs around £30 and can be accessed easily once the timing belt is being removed. If the pump goes in the future it will cost £30 + 3 hours labour to fit. My car has covered 54k miles but I understand the material used in manufacturing the timing belt is weakened over time so should be replaced at 4 years irrespective of mileage. I would'nt risk it myself.

Picking up on Bahnstormer comments, a few months ago I fitted FSD's along with 30mm lowered Eibach Pro-Kit springs and whilst the handling is brilliant on smooth roads no question, the compromise is an unforgiving firm ride on A and B roads around my area. I drive around 500 miles a week and really need to do something to improve the ride. I am either considering moving to 16" wheels and/or change the springs possibly to a VRS OE set up. I have been meaning to get under the car to check the serial number on the spings just to make sure I was sent the correct ones, maybe they could be for a heavier car? On the upside the car does look 100% better lowered than before.

You can find some photos of my car before fitting the Eibachs at the following thread: http://briskoda.net/octavia-ii/octy-suspension-improvement/147276/?highlight=eibach I have no photos yet after fitting the new springs but if you use your imagination the gap in these photos to the underside of the wheelarch is 75mm (rear) and 70mm (front). After fitting the Eibachs the gap is 50mm (rear) 45mm front and the car looks way better.

Iv'e just fitted some Eibach Pro's to my Oct II 2.0Tdi and they are fine. The drop in ride height measured compared with the standard springs is around 25mm and I expect they will drop a further 5mm over time as the springs settle down. Don't know about the H&R's.

Your experience is the same as mine, I’ve had 2 main dealer quotes for my 2.0Tdi one at £450 and one at £415 both with the water pump included. My local VAG independent quoted me £405. One of the main dealers quoted me £650 to combine my third service with a cambelt/water pump change. Are you planning of changing the water pump as well? My local independent said when they do cambelts around 30% of the cars need a water pump change but I’m not sure what they check to determine this. As the water pump only costs around £35 + 30 min to fit I think I will get it done anyway. P.S re. your thread in March on 312mm brake upgrade, where did you manage to source the caliper carriers? I'v searched around and most breakers want to sell calipers with carriers for around £100 and the main dealer prices are a con.

Thought I would report back and let you know how I got on fitting the Koni's and Eibach springs. As a DIY job for a first time on an Octavia it took longer than I was expecting (i,e, a whole weekend!) but was reasonably straight forward. There are plenty of good write ups on the internet on how to change the shock absorbers and springs on Golf's and Seats and it is useful reading them fIrst before embarking on the work yourself. In addition, I bought a Haynes manual for a Golf Mk V which gives all the torques for the various fasteners. I replaced the top mounts and bearings for the front struts (sourced from GSF) and replaced most of the nuts and bolts and one anti-roll bar link. There were 5 areas that caused me a lot of grief and probably doubled the time to the time to finish the job. For anyone wanting to save the £250 and fit the parts yourself I would suggest reading the notes below: 1) You absolutely will need a 6mm spine socket bit (sourced from Halfords in a set for £21) as the top anti roll bar link bolt fixed to the front struts will not come off easily without one. If you make the mistake, as I did, of casually using the nearest sized allen key you will almost certainly round off the socket in the end of the bolt. If this happens your stuffed and will need to destroy the anti roll bar link it getting if off in any way you can. 2) When lifting the old front struts out don't insert the strut speader tool (source from sealey at around £8) too far as it will impead the tab welded onto the strut. It took me a long time to work this one out:( 3) When installing the new front struts I found they would not drop down to the bottom of the hub even with the spreader tool wedged in and plenty of brut forced applied. In the end I discovered the width of the spreader tool was not wide enough so inserted some feeler gauges (maybe 0.5-1mm thickness) and then used the hub spreader to widen the gap in the hub. This worked:) 4) I found after several aborted attempts, the easist way to re-assmble the front supension was to fit the hub back onto the lower control arm, then fit the strut into the hub, then jack the whole assemly up into the wheel arch, then bolt though from the engine bay into the top mounts. It is easy to turn the top mounts and line them up with the three holes in the wheel arch from under the car. 5) Jack up and support the front of the vehicle on axle stands on both sides. If you only do one side at a time, you will find the anti roll bar clashes with the drive shaft on the drivers side. No problem if you jack both sides up level. Essential tools to complete the job are as follows: 1) Torque wench good for up to 200nm 2) Spline set with 14mm and 6mm spines 3) Cranked 21mm ring spanner from top strut nut or even better a proper strut nut socket. 4) Socket set (will need 16,17,18,21,27mm sockets) 5) Piece of scaffold tube to use as a lever from taking off the hub bolts 6) Hub spreader tool (Sealey, Tools-n-all) 7) Spring compressors 8) 5, 6 and 7mm allen key socket bits 9) Jacks and axle stands 10) WD40 The rears are dead easy. All the work was well worth it, the Koni's and Eibachs are brilliant. Hope this helps.

The sports shocks are a standard upgrade to the standard shocks. As your car is a 2.0tdi Elegance fitted with 55mm dia. struts the sports shocks should be 55mm dia.

Thanks , I’m glad the pictures came through as have not posted them before. So the mystery continues, however I am pleased to know now that I don't have sports suspension. I would have been less than impressed if after buying and personally fitting the Eibach springs the ride height was unchanged. I still wonder if I have higher ride height uprated springs maybe from an estate/4x4 as the ride is fairly bone shaking with every imperfection in the road picked up through the chassis. I am sure the FSD's will fix this though going from your experience and others. The 2UC code is my Skoda optional extra code printed in the first page of the service book along with all the other codes, I believe this relates to the factory fitted suspension set up. You can decode your car at http://igorweb.org/equidec/Default.aspx 2UA = Standard design (OEM for Elegance) 2UB = Rough road design 2UC = Sports Version 2UE = Comfort Design I will let you know how it goes once I’ve fitted the FSD's. Now just need to decide on whether to fit the Eibachs..... Probably will purely on aesthetics.

I think I have attached some photos and measured the wheelarch gap from tyre perimeter to top of wheelarch as 75mm rear (new tyres) and 70mm front (50% worn tyres)....What do you think, do you think I have sports springs?

The original owner could have changed the springs, unfortunateIy I didn't get a opportunity to discuss it as bought from a non Skoda dealer. The ride is pretty hard though, feels like sports suspension and I would find it hard to believe standard springs are 30mm higher than my car, so you could well be right. Thanks for comments.

Koni - If you are looking for an Koni FSD Damper Kit Skoda Octavia Saloon, excluding 4WD 2005-2007 Front: for original struts Ø 55 mm only FSD Damper Kit (2100-4001) click here Koni Eibach - If you are looking for an Eibach Pro Kit Spring Kit Skoda Octavia (1Z) Saloon 2.0 FSI, 1.9 TDI, 2.0 TDI 05/2004- Lowers front by 30mm and rear by 30mm (E10-79-004-02-22) click here Eibach I didn't look very far, they were the first hits on Google but I can't find a better price........

Makes sense, the static weight of the car should be carried by the springs not the dampers, but I had seen on a few previous threads that indicated the ride height is slightly raised by fitting Koni FSD's. :confused: Didn't make sense to me either...Thanks.. I've been looking on the interweb for any Koni FSD+Eibach combined deal, but haven't found one yet. Best price i've found separately for the FSD's is £416 + 10 P&P and £140 + £10p&p for Eibach springs.

thanks, I did look at Bahnstormers thread but this was based on FSD's on a VRS whereas I'm interested in FSD on a standard 2.0Tdi with sports suspension.. will do another search and see if I can dig up anything.

Anyone else out there able to shed some light on whether fitting FSD's increases the ride height retaining OEM sports suspension? Also does anyone know where I could buy new VRS 2.0Tdi OEM springs as the wheel arch gap on VRS's looks just about perfect to me. I don't want to increase ride height more than it is at present, ideally would like to drop it 20-30mm or so.

Thanks for your helpful feedback. Would you say the ride quality was generally more comfortable on motorways than your original set up? Problem with my suspension is its quite fidgety even on fairy good surfaces, the handling very goof though on B roads. Just need to get the balance right. Sounds Like Eibachs and FSD's should be the answer.

I have a 2.0tdi Elegance with 17" Pegasus wheels and the 2UC option sports suspension. I bought the car used and am planning on upgrading the shocks to the Koni FSD's to improve the ride but don't want to increase the ride height as currently the car appears jacked up anyway. I am not convinced the sports pack suspension gives a lower ride compared with conventional suspension. AFAIK factory options available were for both sports suspension or lowered suspension and I seem to have the former. Does fitting FSD's increases the ride height? If so I would want to fit lowered springs. Does anyone know where I could buy new VRS 2.0Tdi OEM springs as the wheel arch gap on VRS's looks just about perfect to me. I would be keen to know of other members experience of fitting 30mm lowered Eibach springs as have been told this hardens the ride even more, which what I am trying to engineer out.

Thanks the links look pretty comprehive. Time for a coffee and a read I think. I was also wondering whether the latest Mk V Golf/jetta aches and pains manual would cover shock absorber replacement.. I will look at your links first as they are free.

Read a lot of good stuff about the Koni FSD's so am considering upgrading my dampers on my Elegance 2.0tdi as although very happy with general handling performance on good roads I find the ride too harsh and crashing on rough surfaces. My car is fitted with the 17" alloy/sports suspension set up and I am not particularly interested in lowering the ride height so was planning to keep the current springs. Has anyone fitted the FSD dampers themselves? Any feedback on how relatively easy/difficult it is to DIY install would be gratefully received. I am guessing I will save around £150-200 by fitting myself.

See the reply from Wega3k on my thread titled "another dashboard rattle" posted yesterday. This will explain how to remove the top vent panel and get to the back of the emergency warning switch. Hope this helps.

Thanks v.much for the excellent photos. I won't be a cynical in future, should have more faith in Skoda build quality. Cheers.

It seems I may have a dashboard rattle that hasn't been reported yet in the various threads as is not coming from the glove box of rear view mirror. I have an intermittent annoying plastic rattle that occurs when I am driving around 20-40 mph and comes from the top center consol under the tray and emergency warning button. I can stop the rattle easily by either pressing down hard on the main dashboard section to the right of the bits tray consol or on the section of dashboard directly above the dials. I cannot influence the noise by operating the air con controls or vents. Does anyone know how to remove the center vent consol without destroying it :confused:, I looked inside the bits tray hoping I might find some nice user friendly screw heads but couldn't find anything. Like all modern cars I guess it's secured with hidden fragile clips.