scandalxk

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

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

Hi All. I am contemplating new tyres for my Scout. Currently I have Nexen summer and Continental winter tyres. In both cases they are dedicated road tyres. I think I need different winter and summer tyres because I live in Cumbria and work a lot in the Scottish Highlands, so I think the range of my driving conditions is wide enough to discount the use of "all season" tyres. In the last couple of years more of my work has been on extensive hydro-electric construction sites, which means a lot of mileage off road...but to get there, I first have to do four to six hours on motorways and A-roads. The Scout is simply brilliant for this: fast, comfortable and economical on the road, and with plenty of traction, and adequate clearance, off road. But I am worried that construction sites often have debris lying around - nails, bits of metal, felled timber, bits that have fallen off machines etc. - and one day, inevitably, I will damage a tyre and get a flat miles from anywhere, probably on my own, up a mountain, in the snow. So I am wondering about tyres which are a bit more robust than the road tyres I currently use. Can anyone recommend anything? Is there something out there which will give me more security off road, but retain most of the benefits of the tyres I currently use when on the road? Interested to hear what other people have used. Thanks in advance, scandalxk