scandalxk

Hi Everyone, thanks and update: First, thanks to everyone who replied. As always with Briskoda, I learned a lot more than I expected, and I was once again struck by the helpful, well-informed and friendly tone of the discussion. Second, update. I wanted to do the job myself but ran out of time, needing the car at short notice over Christmas. So instead of spending twenty-odd quid on a new regulator, I had to spend £290 😥 on getting a new alternator fitted. Bloody Norah. But now I know better for next time...assuming I ever own an IC-engined car again. Thanks once again for your input. Kind regards, scandalxk

Thanks. Understand now re. part numbers...probably. Yes, that "Made in GB" caught my eye too, but only because it is unexpected. I assume this means it is likely to be a replacement part? Surprising, because I have had the car since it had done 39,000 miles so it must have been replaced before then. And yes, that power cable is too thick to be cavalier with! Ah, just read @krisp1's post above...perhaps it could be an original part.

Sure, but they are also available as independent brush sets.

OK, so are you thinking I could replace just the regulator, and not have to faff about soldering new brushes into the existing regulator? That hadn't occurred to me. Google tells me the part would be around £22. Is it likely I'd be able to do that without removing the alternator from the car? And, further stupid question: what do you mean by "genuine part number" for the regulator? Surely that would be the same as the Bosch part number, given that it is to fit a Bosch alternator?

I'm in Carlisle, Cumbria. I'll try in a motor factors, or look on Ebay. Thanks.

OK, I decided as the battery is six years old I would change it anyway, and see what happened. Warning light is still on. So now I am thinking about the alternator, and J.R. said the worn brushes would be "a very easy cheap repair". I can't find an appropriate video on YouTube or instructions anywhere on Briskoda - can you help me with that? It's a Bosch alternator, see picture. I did find this video which is quite good but I think he says it applies only to alternators up to 2001: my car is 2007. Alternatively I could change the alternator, and I found this one (the second one down, 14V for climate control models) at £104. Perhaps this would be a reasonable alternative, if I can't do the brushes? It can't be that difficult to fit...can it? Cheers, scandalxk

Thanks for your detailed reply, J.R. One thing you haven't addressed is whether the alternator warning light (an illuminated picture of a battery) could also indicate a problem with the battery rather than the alternator? I just dug out all the receipts and the last time I seem to have bought a battery for the car was in January 2018, nearly six years ago. It had a three year warranty...😆 Perhaps I have identified the problem? 😊

Evening All, My 2007 Octavia Scout has been sluggish in starting for a week or so, in the cold weather, and yesterday the alternator warning light came on, and stayed on while I was driving. It took me about an hour to get home. Today, just now, it started fine. It's a little bit warmer today. The alternator warning light stayed on again, though. So if there was actually a problem with the alternator I would expect the battery to have gone flat during the drive home yesterday afternoon. Can the alternator warning light also indicate that the battery itself is getting a bit tired? Or could it indicate some other problem? And how can I tell which it is? Many thanks as always, scandalxk

OK, fingers crossed it is fixed now. I'm pretty sure the water wasn't coming from the washer tube, as it did on my earlier Octavia. The pipe junction is more substantial than the earlier one and there was no sign of leakage. However, the big rubber vent mentioned above was loose in its fitting, and when I looked more carefully today I saw that there are two clips on each side of the unit which were not engaged. You can see the nearer two in the photo above. I clipped them all in place and immediately noticed residual water squeezing out of the foam rubber seal on the back of the vent... There are several videos on YouTube about the Golf problem @pikpilot mentioned, and it seems as though on the Golf the water originates in the roof gutters and gets to the vent via the back lights. I don't think that can happen on the Octavia. However, I remember a few weeks ago hitting a puddle in the Lake District a bit faster than I intended, and it turned out to be a bit deeper than I thought. On the Octavia the boot vent opens into a void between the inner and outer bodywork just behind the wheelarch, and without taking the exhaust box off to have a look, it appears likely that water could get jetted into there in those circumstances. So, boot and spare wheel well dry, brake light working correctly, all the internal panelling back in place (finally). I'll report back if it turns out not to have worked. Thanks for your help, @pikpilot.

Oh, that's interesting...the vent is slightly loose in its fitting, and doesn't appear to be sealed at all, but there are stains on the panelling which suggests water could be leaking down from it. Or possibly not. I'll have a closer look tomorrow. Thanks.

Following @pikpilot's advice I removed the panelling on the left side of the boot and found the bottom of the compartment behind the panel had two or three mm of water in it. Some had spilled over the welded seam into the spare wheel well. The wiring loom, clipped to the bottom of the compartment, was soaking wet, and so was the carpet in the boot. This happened on my previous Octavia but has not happened previously on this car. I dried everything up as well as I could, then tried to work out where the water was coming from. On the previous car it was because the rear window washer pipe had popped off a connector, so it was simply pumping the washer water into the compartment behind the panels. The clue was that no water was coming out of the washer nozzle, but instead could be seen collecting under the spare wheel. This time the washer has been working fine, so I had no reason to believe water was getting out somewhere else. The rear window washer pipe junction (the grey connector visible at the bottom left of the photo) doesn't seem to leak when I operate the pump. I suppose it might if the nozzle was blocked, but I haven't tested that. Perhaps the nozzle froze up when we had a frost a few weeks ago? This connector looks a lot more substantial than the one I remember from the old car: that was simply push-on; this one appears to have a bayonet or click fitting. The pipe coming down from the nozzle was dry, with no sign of water dribbling down. Same at the other end of the compartment, where the pipe arrives from the front of the car. There also appeared to be no smell of windscreen washer fluid, but maybe that had all evaporated leaving only the water. Is there anywhere else the water could be coming from? What is the purpose of that big rubber vent on the outside wall of the compartment? Could water get in there? (The brake light is now working fine, not staying on dimly when it shouldn't, presumably because I have dealt with the short by removing the water bath...) scandalxk

Thanks for taking the time to reply, pikpilot. I'll chase the cables back to the boot. Yesterday I had a look at the ones inside the tailgate trim, going down to the lock, and I couldn't see or feel any damp or anything else amiss. I'll have a look behind the left boot panel next. On my last Octavia the rear window washer supply pipe had popped off a junction there, and had filled the spare wheel well with washer fluid, so there is definitely potential for a damp problem there! This particular car hasn't had this problem in my ownership, though. I have a multimeter. Whether I have any common sense remains to be seen. I certainly don't know much about how to use the meter, other than for basic continuity testing. Last question: where's the controller, and what does it look like? Cheers, scandalxk

Hi Alessio. I've got a 2007 Mk 2 Scout 2.0 with a manual gearbox. The service label says the engine is 103kW, which Google tells me is 138 bhp. I've never driven an auto Octavia so I can't comment on that. I believe autos tend to be a bit thirstier than manuals. Please don't put winter (or all season) tyres on only one axle, with standard tyres on the other axle. I did that with my previous FWD Octavia. I put the winter tyres on the front axle on the grounds that the front wheels do all the driving, all the steering, and most of the braking. I changed my mind and fitted winter tyres to the rear as well, after the car spun sideways down the road with a carful of my daughter and her friends, at about 5mph, and with a tiny skim of snow on the tarmac. Winter tyres are fabulous, but they need to be on all four wheels. Running costs: My 2006 Mk 2 FWD Octavia averaged 48 mpg. My 2007 Mk 2 Scout averages 43 mpg. Haldex servicing is less than the cost of a tank of fuel, every couple of years, so don't worry about that. The 4x4 system has not caused any trouble at all in the five years and 61,000 miles I have had the car. I work as an environmental consultant and I have spent a lot of time driving on rough construction tracks in the Highlands; the 4x4 system is brilliant, far better than you would expect. However, I have replaced some suspension components more than once, and currently there is a bit of noise from one of the CV joints. I have also had to replace the rear propshaft doughnut, as Skomaz said. It was not expensive. I like the car very much. It is fast enough, economical enough, and has the huge practicality of all Octavia estates. I think it is nicer to drive then my previous FWD car (which had the less powerful 1.9 PD engine). Hope this helps.

Hi Everyone, I have a 2007 Octavia Scout. The auxiliary brake light (at the top of the back window) stopped working: it did not light up when I braked, and I got an MoT advisory for it. But I noticed that two or three LEDs in the unit were permanently on, very dimly, and were still on with engine off, ignition off, car empty and locked. They were very dim, so you could only see the LEDs were lit when it was dark. So I got a new light unit and fitted it today. It seems to work fine. But half an hour ago a neighbour knocked on the door and said "you know your high brake light is on?" Sure enough the entire row of LEDs was dimly lit (it is dark now, so they were clearly visible). When I put my foot on the brake pedal they all came on brightly, as they should. Fiddling about, I noticed that the light goes off completely when the tailgate is unlatched and opened. It comes on again (dimly) when the tailgate is closed. So presumably there is something up with a switch or sensor at the lock. For the time being I have left the tailgate ajar to save draining the battery. Can anyone suggest what I could try to sort this out? Thanks in advance.

My car is a 2007 Octavia Scout. It is running beautifully, but few weeks ago I noticed dirty engine oil in the coolant header tank. "Ooh, blown head gasket, very expensive", said several people, but a bit of research on Briskoda, and a conversation with a local independent VAG specialist, suggested a 75% chance that it was the oil cooler: a lot less expensive. I got my trusted garage (not the VAG one) to change the oil cooler (£235 including labour and VAT) and I am cautiously - very cautiously - optimistic that it has worked. There is still oil in the header tank but it is a very thin skim which I assume arises from residual oil in the engine coolant galleries. I don't think my garage flushed the system before they refilled it, which would have been useful. I plan to get that done soon. However, my question is about something they said. They had previously told me that if the oil cooler change didn't work they would walk away from it, because they have tried changing head gaskets on these cars before, and it has never worked. The independent VAG person said this is because the gaskets on these engines don't blow unless there is something else more fundamentally wrong: typically a warped head, which would require skimming. "Nonsense", said my garage, "it would mean that the original problem with oil leaking into the coolant was caused by porosity in the head". Can it really be true that a 14-year-old engine, with less than 90,000 miles, could suffer from porosity? I've got a 1928 vintage car which has suffered from engine porosity in alloy parts, but the problem arose in an original part which was over 80 years old at the time! What do the experts here think? (By the way, I will update in a few weeks when I have driven the car some more and had the coolant system cleaned out.) Thanks!

Update: I had the ABS block changed. It has solved the long brake pedal travel and now the car is lovely to drive again. Apparently the cost of a new replacement is £1,100 or thereabouts, but I got a used one from Ebay for £65. A risk, but it seems to be OK. And I could have taken that risk 16 times before I would have been out of pocket 🙂. I haven't had a chance to drive the car a significant distance, so it remains to be seen whether the other problems persist. Thanks for your help. scandalxk

Keep it. I traded mine three years ago for an Octavia Scout because I needed the 4x4 for work. The 1.9 had done 245,000 miles when I traded it in, and it is still going now. Cost of repairs is a huge red herring. You MIGHT have to spend some money on repairs; if you replace the car you WILL have to spend some money and you MIGHT still have to spend some money on repairs. It will almost always be more expensive to replace than to keep it going, even if you replace with a petrol one. Don't fall for the common mistake of saying "I'm not going to repair it because the repair would cost more than the value of the car". It is the total cost of getting a roadworthy vehicle that matters, and with a low-mileage car like yours the balance is most definitely in favour of repairs. Keep it.

So, if the problem returned after you had reversed the seal, then presumably that was not the cause? 🤔

Thanks, all, for your interesting and useful comments. My feeling is that there are at least two problems on the go here, probably because the original garage failed to fix problem one, and introduced problem two at the same time. To reiterate, most of the braking system has been replaced with new, including all the calipers, all the pads, the master cylinder and the handbrake cable. Also, all the discs (sorry, I forgot to mention that before). The system has been bled several times, including the forced purge bleed. The ABS "block" (?) and the flexible hoses have not been replaced. I suspect that the intermittent ringing, followed (after an interval of silence) by the intermittent rattling, are probably the same thing, perhaps due to the pads rubbing on the discs, and causing the ringing like a finger running around the rim of a glass until they wore down a bit, then, after an interval, rattling in the housings when a bit of play has developed. The reason I think so is that the way to stop it happening was identical in both cases: a very slight dab on the brake pedal. But what do I know. The rattling was still happening before lockdown and I suppose it probably will resume when I start using the car again. I think that dirt or rust in the calipers are very unlikely, given that the problems continued after they were all replaced with new. My cynical suspicion is that any criticism of Skoda (or aftermarket parts) by an Audi specialist is probably just snobbery! 😉😆 But thanks anyway. 🙂 J.R.'s post is very interesting. What do you mean by the "ABS block"? Is this a component containing control valves (presumably four) for the ABS? Perhaps like this one on Ebay? "SKODA OCTAVIA ABS PUMP CONTROLLER MODULE HYDRAULIC BLOCK UNIT" (That title seems to cover all options!) As I understand it the valves control fluid pressure to each wheel individually, so I can see why this might cause some of my problems. The other very interesting item in J.R.'s reply is the bit about the handbrake compensator. I have just looked, and I see that the compensator is not straight - it is further forward on the left. Unfortunately I can't remember the sequence of events in the car's many trips to the garages, but it could be that the soft (long travel) pedal arose after replacement of the rear calipers...perhaps...and perhaps they have fitted the rear caliper piston seals wrongly. Thanks again, all. I'll have a chat with the "VAG specialist" and see what he thinks. scandalxk

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Hi All, I have a 2007 Scout. For a year or so it ran superbly. Then, a year or so ago, I stopped at a motorway service, got out, smelled hot friction material, found the front nearside wheel (only) was very hot: too hot to touch. Took it to garage my (trusted local independent) who replaced the caliper on that corner, and pads on both fronts. However, various problems since then: An intermittent ringing noise, sometimes quite loud, apparently coming from the front of the car. Noise would fade in gradually, then sometimes fade out on its own. Could be stopped (temporarily) by just the very lightest dab on the brake pedal. Over the course of a few months the intermittent ringing noise faded and eventually disappeared. After some months of silent running, gradual appearance of an intermittent rattling noise. Could be stopped (temporarily) by just the very lightest dab on the brake pedal. Over the course of a few months the intermittent rattling noise faded and eventually disappeared. Occasional noticeable warming of the front wheels, sometimes one side, sometimes the other. Never so hot as the original problem. Intermittent sticking of the handbrake, causing problems such as stalling when hill-starting. Intermittent release of the handbrake without warning, causing problems such as damage, fortunately only to my car, in pub car parks. And finally, persistent soft brake pedal with disconcertingly long travel. The pedal was fine before all of these problems, but now it is soft, lacks feel, and is rather alarming when you come up behind another car at a junction. To be clear, the brakes always work...but you often wonder whether this time, maybe they won't. If you pump the pedal, it hardens up. So, in the past year or so almost the whole of the braking system has been replaced: calipers, pads, master cylinder, handbrake cable. None of it seems to have made any difference. As well as my trusted independent I have taken it to the local main dealer, and to another independent specialist in VAG cars. The system has been bled repeatedly by all of them, and they all acknowledge the pedal is too soft. The independent VAG specialist says he has "seen it before" but can't suggest any solution. Any thoughts? Cheers, scandalxk

Yes. Some comments said they are good in snow, and I think I saw one which said they are rated "m&s" which I assume means "mud and snow", but Michelin's own website is clear that they are summer tyres. They also state that they are made of some rubber compound which is highly resistant to gravel abrasion (as @SurreyJohn said), which doesn't sound promising for winter use where the compound is typically softer.

@SurreyJohn Interesting. Good reviews on the whole. Thanks. scandalxk

@Jeeves Thanks. Clearance is possibly more important with me, because there are quite big stones flying around sometimes on the tracks I am typically driving on. Doubt I will ever use chains, though. Cheers, scandalxk

Thanks. What is Kouki?