bob corb

It's not a new idea either. Can anyone find an older example???

Mine started dibbling oil out of the undertray too. I dropped the undertray off myself as its only held on with a few screws. The undertray was indeed full of oil so I mopped it all up and got underneath to see where it was coming from in the hope that I could just nip something up. Alas it was coming out of the flange for the oil pipes on the turbo which is obscured by the DPF/cat/EGR cooler. I called Skoda and as it was friday night beer o'clock I scheduled an appointment for the following day. The chap turned up and had a look but couldn't get to it so I dropped in into Skoda in Northampton. They changed the pipes but it didn't fix it so they changed the turbo! My usual tamed spanner man says he see's loads of these going wrong on Seats and VWs too and the pipe is just too short and stiff to accommodate movement of the turbo and it could do with a Dowty seal or suchlike...

My 2.0 diesel does 43.6 mpg and the 1.6 TDI I had for a week did 53+mpg IIRC. I didn't hang around in either. The 1.6 is very easy to get decent mileage out of. The 2.0 takes a lot more will power

VAG = Volkswagen AG. AG is the German equivalent of a PLC. Meanwhile, the OP doesn't say he's buying the car. How about just leasing it instead, then you know all the costs are fixed and if the car needs to go back then (by the time they're worked out what to do) you'll be so far through the lease it wont matter if you loose a bit of deposit. Plus, if the car is a bag of poo post re-work it wont matter as you wont be keeping it.

The car has to do a measured coast down in order to determine the rolling resistance figures which are then dialled into the rolling road. Polished smooth cars on bald tyres, taped up, one windscreen wiper, probably no interior etc etc will coast much further

What happens when VW take the car back and find the ECU has been modified and the DPF removed??? Could they leave you high and dry? Also, if NOx emmisions are now under scrutininy are more stringent tests going to beome part of the MOT or random roadside testing is used to prove the CAT/DPF is still in place? The EGR system is there to reduce NOx after all. Are all modified cars in for a rough ride???

There is actually. Google VW California and you'll find a lot of the early models were registered and classed as M1 Diesel Car. VW realised the mistake, recalled all the V5 log book and got them all changed to Motorcaravans with lower VED.

It appears to be only diesels fitted with SCR systems but Skodas appear to be meeting present regs with EGR instead so not an issue for us yet...

Could you elaborate on how you compare the lubricants technically? I would've thought the fixed interval lubricant would be superior technically in terms of its ability to flow and maintain oil films as more of the product is oil and less detergent/acidity control etc? I'm working with a few oil suppliers at the moment so its good to gather a bit of info so I can load a few questions. I've got a visit to an oil blending facility coming up too (I doubt they tel me too much about their blends for 502/504/507). If you want to look after your engine I'd say 502 in the 5W30 spec for an everyday car in northern europe. If I'd chipped the car and was using it enthusiasticly then go for the 40. The 888 TSI engine was laid out as a 1.8T and grew later in its development but fuel economy is more important than high power optimised bearing design and they wont want to have too many different spec parts for varying power levels. Back in the days I was working on these things the only engine which I saw using 5W40 was the 4.2 V8 in the RS6 (possibly the R5 Turbo in the TTRS too?).

A friend of ours bought a Superb recently without sat nav and he says they got it retrofitted. I can ask him who did it but he did say it was about £800 IIRC...

Just to update - 6 weeks since they replaced my turbo and oil pipes and I've never smelt anything on regen since. If your car really pongs on regen then take off the undertray (easy 5 min job) and have a look up at the DPF. I bet it'll have oil dripping off it like mine did!

Over the summer various places have been doing personal lease on a Golf R Estate DSG for about £259 a month for 10k a year with £2500 down compared to the £210 / £1800 I'm on for the 2WD limey weasel. I cant see the point of a super Octavia when the Golf is so close in price.... I suppose the Octy is bigger and less chav.

Google Octavia and Rotiform and there are thousands of amazing looking combos and yet this thing looks rediculous. They tried really hard to make a mess of it.

I dont do it every time I drive the car and I do use the oil temp gauge so I wait for it to warm up. I was told by a colleague that at Neckarsulm they take customer Audi R8s off the end of the line, get them hot and take them up to full power for a shakedown. The engines we build at work are ran on dyno at mixed speed and load for 10 hours and finish with a power curve usually before being signed off. I've ran many engines through piston butch tests where you fire the engine for the first time ever, spend 30 seconds and no more checking for leaks and then pin it at max power for 30 mins (while its still cold). I never broke one.

I got to 400 miles and then started banging it on the limiter and realised what I'd been missing...grrrr.

The Octavia is the first diesel I've owned with an anti miss fuelling device so I think you've in luck.... I think it's a miss fuelling device anyway...

My car has stopped smelling now after a: getting 1500 miles on the clock and b: getting an oil leak on the turbo fixed.

I was without my 2.0TDI manual for nearly 2 weeks recently due to an oil leak. For the first 2 days I had a Sharan 140PS DSG but it kept trying to kill me when I wanted to pull out at a busy roundabout. I'd floor it, it would sit there for 2 seconds and lurch out with the front wheels ablaze with a sodding great truck bearing down on me. In a manual it usually just takes a split second of gas to punt you into the traffic stream and up to speed. The DSG just wouldn't do it (folks on the T5 forum have exactly the same complaint). It also didn't have a clue what gear to be in for corners and just constantly chopped up and down the ratios. When Skoda said it was going to take another week to fix my car I said I couldn't keep the Sharan. It was only a few weeks old and looked like others had struggled. Skoda Assistance went away and found me another Octavia diesel with a manual box. I drove that for 10 days and it was gem. The gearbox was sweet (5 speed), the engine revved nicely and quietly and on the motorway it would go as fast as I wanted to go (cough)...and when I handed it back I'd been averaging over 60mpg. It was only on the last day that I could just about make out the faded writing on the key fob said 1.6! In summary, I'd only buy a DSG if I lived somewhere with quiet roads!

Best bet is to drive down in the middle of the night!

I wrote the cheque out to VWFS, posted it to the VW dealer who added their cheque for the difference. The dealer this morning tells me this is common and knows its happened about 40 times now. Fortunately he has access to the VWFS system and can see on my account that Ms #### ###### has received 2 cheques but they haven't associated them with my account. The dealer has just called to say that they've sorted it all out now. Meanwhile, looking at the Skoda Finance login you can request a quote to sell the car "to someone else" at the end of the lease. Has anyone else done this? You only need to type in your reg to get a quote but our car is too new to do this just yet? A lot of the T5 guys do just this and its great value apparently.

The system has a couple of fail safe systems which disconnect the compressor if the pressure and temperature go out of range. The pressure switch could be faulty or the system could be over/underfilled. Can you get the refrigerant level checked? It'll need to be drained and measured professionally and then refilled - this is all done as part of an AC service anyway so any garage or mobile AC outfit can check it. If the system has the wrong amount of refrigerant in then this could trip the pressure switch. The correct mass of refrigerant is shown on a sticker on the slam panel. 550g rings a bell? My old Lotus AC wouldn't work if you left the car in the sun. You had to drive away let the air flow over the AC condenser cool the system, drop the pressure and then you can hear the compressor click into action. If your AC system demands the fan to be started (the main front fans can be demanded by the powertrain for engine cooling or exhaust cooling durng regen as well as by the AC system) and it doesn't detect that the refrigerant is being cooled and temp is still rising then it will cut the compressor to prevent it blowing open the emergency refrigerant dump valve with a whoosh and puff of vapour from under the bonnet.

I paid another firm £199 to order the car through a broker and was then told by them to pay £1963 to VWFS but to send the cheque and contract to a VW dealer. I've got the car now but VWFS are chasing me for £2251 (the monthly * 9 as stated on the contract) even though I can see the cheque for £1963 was cashed??? I presume the dealer should've topped up my payment by £286?

Just been told my 3 week old car's oil leak wasn't cured with a new pipe so they're replacing the whole turbo... except they aren't because they're on back order. I've told them they need to get me out of this god awful Sharan DSG which tries to get me killed every time I pull out into busy traffic (it crawls forwards putting me in the path of a speeding truck usually, takes a couple of seconds to find the right gear and then opens up the taps and screams its knackers off). Picking up a temporary Octavia manual TDI at lunch time...

Speed fasteners. You can get them in halfrauds in little mixed boxes or most car spares shops or even ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/221264310086?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&rlsatarget=&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108