xman

Just like fusion reactors?

Thanks for confirming what I suspected all along. The 18 inch P7 on my mk3 make for the most road noisy and bumpy/crashy ride (even with DCC) of any car I've owned. Wish I'd downgraded to 17 inch when ordering. The road noise drives me insane, white noise dependent on road surface but there all the time. Half the time I'm thinking/stressing a wheel or diff bearing has gone!

Don't worry its perfectly normal. When you turn your A/C on, especially in the recent hot weather, the radiator fan goes into overdrive to keep the condensor cool. Externally it can sound like a jet engine starting. You may find it cycles on and off (it does on the fabia) So long as you're getting nice cool air in the cabin, there's absolutely no reason to "service" your a/c.

Have you checked the door to pillar wiring looms? Pull back the rubber concertina bellows and check the wiring. Often at this age the wires have broken, due to brittle insulation and constant flexing. Start with the drivers door and work your way round. Need to check all doors. The connectors can also give trouble to due oxidation and corrosion, disconnect, inspect, clean reconnect. Take time and care inspecting the wires as they can often be broken internally and the insulation intact, so they look ok, but the cores are broken.

I think to remove the mirror you'll have to remove the internal door trim in the area where the mirror is to expose the bolts that hold the mirror and unplug the loom.

What internal metal part? Do you mean the mirror glass or the metal tang on the back of the mirror glass? A picture might help This may be of use...

Dubious claim for a diesel which uses very little fuel at idle (as low as 0.3l/hr for a 1.6tdi). If it was a petrol engine I would be more inclined to believe it. The taxi driver probably has no real idea if what he claims is true if he hasn't scientifically compared long term results with and without s/s under controlled conditions (similar journeys, similar conditions, routes, weather, load etc etc). Confirmation bias at play.

There are usually 2 sets of diodes in an alternator. A big hefty set of six that rectify the output that charges the battery and supplies the vehicles electrical requirement. The second set of three or six are small diodes that supply the voltage regulator and power the field coils. When one of these go open circuit, the voltage regulator loses its ability to regulate at the correct voltage. The light on the dash is connected between the output of both sets, so a dimly shining light indicates an open circuit diode somewhere. If you measure the battery voltage with the engine revving, and the voltage is too high its one of the small set that's gone, if its too low then its one of the big set. If its one of the small set, then voltages can reached 18 or more volts which is extremely dangerous both for your cars electrics and the batterywill get super hot and boil over, (which I've seen happen) and boiling sulphuric acid will make a mess of your car, believe me. Under no circumstance touch it if you see any acid! The small set of diodes may be hand wired internally and be difficult to access. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/391672498829116541/ If I were you I'd just source a replacement alternator, unless you have the right tools and skills to strip and fully refurbish your alternator. And its probably cheaper.

The stop/start function defaults to active everytime you start the car (from ignition off/on) and so the button is initially not illuminated. You therefore have to switch it off (button illuminated) after you start the car and set off on your journey. If you turn the engine off, you go back to square one. Annoyance due to EU regs. BTW Autohold does remember its setting, so you can have it permanently on or off. Its important to appreciate what autohold does, so don't just turn it on and off randomly without realising the consequences. You may find your car rolling backwards unexpectedly!

Don't confuse the auto hold button with the stop start button. Both labelled with an A. On RHD cars the stop start button is on the right of the gear lever

7mm https://www.halfords.com/tools/hand-tools/automotive-tools/laser-brake-caliper-key-7mm-694398.html

IIRC, once the bulb warning light comes on, it remains on until the ignition is turned off. So even a short intermittent fault will trigger the warning and it stays on until the engine is restarted. As most bulbs are filament bulbs, its likely that once one blows, thats the end of the bulb. So that leaves the high level brake light which can IME be intermittent. It could also be a corroded or bad bulb connection or a loom issue, you'll need to go round and check every bulb and connector in turn. Maybe if you buy a cheap OBD reader (from £15} and read the error code when the warning light is on it might tell you which light is to blame, not sure.

OP has a 2009 FL estate according to his profile.

In my experience, on the mk 2 estate a common culprit is the rear high level light which is a string of LEDs. It can be intermittent, either going off completely, or flickering at low light, or partly out. Due to solder joints going dry (the unit connector is two pins soldered directly onto the pcb) or water ingress/corrosion. A light tap with your hand can sometimes restore it or knock it out for a while. They are about £40 for a replacement. Requires removal of the tailgate trim, (lower, then upper) which is a bit of a faff and prone to breaking the molded clip mounts on the plastic trim parts, particularly on the upper narrow piece, so take care. Some members have been able to open up their sealed units and repaired the PCB. I couldn't open mine (my2012 estate) and I'm pretty good at that kind of thing. The dash light coming on will coincide with application of brake. If you had maxidot you would get a text message "check 3rd brake light"

Jr is correct, I am indeed wrong in thinking high carbon means greater corrosion resistance, perhaps I should have mentioned chromium instead. https://patents.google.com/patent/EP1152164B1/en However, we can all agree Skoda brake discs and pads are pants, avoid.

In my experience its because recent Skoda's are fitted with the cheapest low quality nil carbon content rear solid disks that they can find along with a high iron content pad that is slightly porous and loves to share its soggy contents with the soft cast iron disc when parked up . Great for dealers, lots of regular £299 disk/pad changes, almost an annual service item. Solution is simple. Ditch the dealer and go somewhere that will fit a good quality disc and pad. Ideally, supply your own, if you can find a high carbon content disk and ceramic pads. But just about any aftermaket make is better than the rubbish Skoda/TPS "fourplus" disks/pads.

Not familiar with the citigo, but most models its in the passenger footwell just under the glovebox, towards the centre console end. If you have the pollen filter out, you can spray in there directly with the fan running.

Why not get the system filled properly and professionally? They will use an automated machine to vacuum it down and hold test for leaks. They weigh the recovered gas and oil. They will fill it with the correct amount of new gas and pag oil. Tyresonthedrive.com (halfords) charge £50 on your drive, my experience is they are professional and knowledgeable, they check and report differential pressure is as it should be. A reduced charge applies if theres a leak detected and so no refill. Kwikfit charge £60, if they find a leak or your system still doesn't work after refilling they won't charge you anything. I think they also put a shot of uv dye in at the same time that can be used to spot leaks F1 autocentres similar (but check) All use automated machines which connect to hi and lo ports.

Neutradol spray into the a/c on recirc is what I would do.

I wouldn't hold your breath of I were you. They never issued a fix that fixed everybodies kangaroo/hestitation/power loss issues that afflicted earlier 1.5tsi engines across the VAG group. Initially denied there was even an issue .They were glacially slow at even trying, unsuccessfully for many, eventually giving up and abandoning those that still had problems. Five years without a fix or for ever for some unlucky owners.

From what I have observed. The holes for the lights are stamped out, rectangular, with sharp corners. The inside of the tailgate is not painted or has minimal or patchy coverage, definitely no top coat. Gasket is foam, like a sponge. Those sharp edges are never going to be properly protected and paint will easily crack over time. Even worse on facelift where lights are clip in and rub on the edges of the hole. You may be shocked if you took off the tailgate trim and look inside. I remember my 94 golf had similar issues and when I looked at the inside, almost the entire inside was a wall of deeply pitted rust.

Maybe grey stone chip protection paint https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hammerite-5092833-Stone-Shield-Aerosol/dp/B002HMXTEI

We have had two 1.2tsi engined cars of that vintage (different Skoda models) and have gone to 150,000 miles/240,000 km (and still counting) without any major oil burning issue. Maximum of about 0.5 litres in 10,000 miles, often less. Both however have had broken PCV valves, a small black plastic valve plugged into the rear of the cam cover toward the gearbox end. They then hang down on the rubber pipe that connects them to the filter airbox. The small unoccupied hole in the cam cover then blows oil out, which leads to smells and oil covered sump. However the quantity involved is small and unlikely to be 2.5l per 10,000 km unless you drove hard. Its a very common fault, but be careful when you replace the valve as the broken bit of the valve is still lodged in the grommet in the cam cover. Try to recover that bit before pushing in a new one to avoid a big piece of hard plastic tube finding its way into the camshaft/valve mechanism which has the potential for major damage. Some pictures here to show you where to look. You don't need to remove anything to see it .....

I've not read through all the posts on this thread, but just to add my immediate thoughts. Its far more likely to be plugs and/or ignition coil packs that are giving the rough idle. Highly unlikely to be a throttle body issue. The mixture is determined/trimmed by the lambda (oxygen) sensors, throttle body just regulates airflow. As it has thrown up misfire on cylinders 3 and 4, thats where to start. OE plugs are double platinum fine tip and are usually good for 40,000 miles. OE coil packs have a dodgy reputation for reliability, fortunately easy to obtain quality replacements from various places at around £30. When an engine is started from cold it runs rich until the CAT reaches operating temperatures , I believe these engines are known to be a bit lumpy during that time which should only be a few minutes at most. When you remove the spark plugs you should be able to see if there is a mixture or oil burning issue. Presumably you have checked your air filter is not completely bunged up. Finally, I did see you were charged for spark plugs at 28k and assume they were changed. Don't assume anything, it is known that some garages charge for work not done. If it was an independent they may have fitted some cheap and cheerful plugs, not OE quailty double platinum fine tip. Or maybe damaged or not refitted the ignition coils correctly. They require a special tool to remove the coils otherwise they can break easily, leaving the long bit down the hole and very difficult to remove, easy to picture a mechanic "oops... sht.....just screw the top bit back down and they won't notice......" Good luck.

I may be wrong but afaik, AA and Apple Carplay merely use the Infotainment screen and sound system as external monitors, keyboard and speaker. I don't think they use any other onboard system such as the cars gps system or antenna or car's steering angle/compass/speed etc. The (theoretical) advantage the car's native navigation has, is access to a proper external antenna, and the car's speedo compass/direction, steering angle etc which should help the gps software snap to more or less the correct position on a road. Since Selective Availability was abandoned back in the last decade, GPS accuracy is usually pretty good at an average of 5m in good conditions. https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/ Newer navigation systems and phones don't only rely on GPS, they can also use GLONASS, BEIDOU, and GALILEO which is supposed to give 1m accuracy