PetrolDave

No, for many years now the infotainment units have remembered the VIN and if when the battery is reconnected the VIN (reported on the Infotainment CAN bus) is the same they don't ask for a code.

If the MOT was at a dealer then get a second opinion, sadly it's not unusual for pad wear to be advised as a problem but when checked by another place they confirm there is no need to replace the pads. My most extreme personal experience was a dealer who told me I needed new pads and discs but a second opinion said the pads were only 25% worn and the discs even less (I am very gentle on the brakes) - it was 3 years later when I actually needed to replace the pads (but not the discs).

My Octavia with halogen lights needed deflectors, my previous Audi RS4 with Bi-Xenon lights could be put into "Tourist Mode". It all depends on the headlights, it seems that if they have a single bulb plus mirror or matrix lights then they don't need deflectors (as the hardware and software exist to be able to horizontally adjust the beam) but any with a two filament halogen will definitely need deflectors.

Marshall Skoda in Barnstaple charged me just shy of £600 for a cambelt change and intermediate service on a 1.4TSI in 2020. On the Octavia 3 the 1.4TSI is basically the same engine as the 1.5TSI but the 1.5 has the addition of ACT.

Are you sure you mean 28th Aug? That would mean you collected it 6 weeks before it was built, so maybe you mean April or May?

How many miles has the car done? I ask because that almost suggests that the clutch is slightly dragging at times.

It could be just as simple as incorrect alignment?

There has been thousands of vehicle stored in the open at Southampton port for at least 15 years to my personal knowledge, so probably much longer. Also from the M5 driving past Avonmouth you can see thousands of vehicles stored in the open portside.

Don't now if this applies but, there's no synchromesh on reverse so if you select reverse while still rolling forward, or even a couple of seconds after coming to a stop, then the non-synchromesh gears will make a noise as they try to mesh whilst one is still rotating.

The owner of the sub-post office where I used to live in Southampton owned a De Lorean which he was gradually turning into a Back To The Future replica, it would often be parked outisde his sub-post office which always made it a good day!

Race management in F1 this year is becoming even more farcical than it was in 2021 IMHO.

The majority of the media only show celebs getting in & out of the EVs, they're too taken in by the hype to look behind the scenes and see the diesel generators. I suspect only programmes like Panorama could be interested in stories like this as yet another example of greenwashing.

It almost feels like the FIA is trying to punish the drivers by over zealously implementing rules that have been in place for years but implemented sensibly up to now - maybe for pointing out so publicly the appalling state of race management in 2021?

That's what I had to do to reset the one-touch windows on my 2015 Octavia.

@pab567

I can't see any sawtoothing there, which IMHO rules that out.

Can you post a picture of the tread please? That's where any sawtoothing will be visible.

That code has caused confusion over many years, it isn't actually a measure of oil quality but the flag that the instruments use to indicate whether the car is on fixed or variable servicing. 1 = Bad = Fixed Servicing 2 = Good = Variable Servicing

As per the suggestion from @MarkyG82also take a look at all the tyres for sawtoothing - that's been reported to be the cause of strange noises several times on here.

Stick a piece of sellotape over the lock window, this fools the switch in the drive to think the card is unlocked.

I saw all the contact photos from an iPhone 11 Pro on a MIB1 Amundsen in a 2015 Octavia.

The thing is that in the event of hitting a pedestrian they will likely impact the bonnet area, not the roof area so what you have on the roof rack is likely to be of less concern from a legal point of view.

Can you do that on an Octavia IV? I didn't think there was a 12V socket, and it certainly won't work on a USB-C socket.

... or should be. There would be no harm checking that the seal is complete while the light is out.

Given the weakness of the GPS satellite signals and the high levels of electric field that the EMP simulator can produce it doesn't surprise me that GPS signals are unpredictable at times. When I worked at an automotive consultancy we did EMC testing and some of the behaviours we saw on prototype vehicles at field strengths seen on public roads were quite exciting - e.g. folding headlights going up and down in anti-phase!