xman

Car Stickers Many insurance companies consider stickers and decals to be a type of car modification. If you have either on your car or are thinking of applying them, check with your insurance provider first to ensure they accept these modifications as part of their policy…. What Modifications Need to be Declared? Most changes made to a car after manufacture are classified as modifications – from paintwork and stickers, to wheel changes and engine upgrades. For an in-depth guide to car modifications that need to be declared to your insurer, please see our What Modifications Affect Car Insurance page. Failing to Disclose Your Modifications If you don’t mention your car modifications to your insurance provider – or lie about the types of modifications that have been made – you risk your claim being rejected should you apply for one following an accident or theft. Failing to disclose modifications could also be counted as fraud, so it’s in your best interest to be completely honest with your provider about the types of modifications that have been made to your car. Read our Modified Car Insurance and Non-Disclosure page for more information on what could happen if you don’t declare your car modifications.

Think about it. A cold start and the engines runs a really rich mixture for a couple of minutes to heat up the catalytic convertor quickly. Weak sparks struggle to ignite rich mixtures cleanly.

Misfires, so 90% certain that it's one or more plug lead failure. Very common even at low mileage on pre 2012 engines particularly no. 3 lead which rests on or very near the turbo heat shield without the protection of plastic trunking found on later engines. They should measure about 9k ohms each end to end with a multimeter. Essential to replace these asap as a faulty lead frequently promotes coil pack failure due to over voltages in the pack. All your performance issues may disappear once the leads are changed as its just down to a very weak spark on two cylinders (the "waste spark ignition" design means plugs fire in pairs on this engine) Use a proper tool to remove the spark plug metal boots, dont pull by the leads as you will just break the fragile cores.

I don't understand why so many posters seem to think VAG use cambelts that run in oil. Ford ecoboost yes, Skoda no. Here I try to explain why VAG think their EA211 cambelts are, in their words, maintenance free This covers EA211 1.0tsi, 1.2tsi, 1.4tsi and 1.5tsi

Rather than rely on @J.R. 's interpretation, here is the section he refers to l_25420120920en00770135.pdf.en.pdfpdf

Not necessarily, a slight imbalance wont affect performance or boost at all, but will ultimately reduce turbo life as the bearing and/or impeller will be under greater stress. If its down to debris, that could lead to rapid failure depending on the nature of the debris, where it is, and whether it decides to relocate.

My superb is increasingly telling me the speed limit is 20mph when it isn't. Its fantastically good at looking down side roads to the left and spotting signs down them, but seemingly blind to those little speed limit signs attached to lamp posts on the road ahead. It also likes to occasionally throw the anchors on whenever a large 4x4 turns off left ahead of me. (ABS working overtime on the so-so P7's) Did it once on the motorway when a Mercedes ML class moved to the lane left of me. Luckily no car up my arse at the time. Try explaining that to an insurance company if someone rear ended me. Who would be to blame?

Please name the insurance company with this clause. It is pure nonsense and you should avoid this company. It is not incumbent on an owner to load safety critical software and/or safety related updates. Owners do not have the massively expensive equipment to do this, and are not trained or authorised to do it. Car manufacturers will never release such updates to the general public. If they have an issue with turning off a driver assist feature via normal methods provide with the car, say turning lane assist off, then they should address their gripes directly to the manufacturer. Do not accept such a ridiculous condition.

If the rear end feels out of control on corners, particularly when the camber of the road is adverse, or doing a rapid left-right-left or right-left-right manoeuvre, or when braking then most probably one or both of the rear shock absorbers is faulty. They should cost about £35 - £45 each plus maybe an hours labour to change at a competent garage. Make sure they also change the bump stops and telescopic dust covers which will add another £10 or so a side. Highly recommended to change both sides at once, though its not illegal to change just one side. The usual failure on the fabia at the rear are the top bump stops (made from foam rubber) crumble away over the years and no longer hold the telescopic dust covers which then fall down exposing the shock absorber sliding rods. These are lightly oiled and readily collect abrasive road dirt on them, which gets pushed down into the top seal of the shock absorber, the shock absorbers then start to leak oil and lose effectiveness. Americans call shock absorbers, shocks or dampers, struts are found on the front the car not the rear. http://www.monroe.com/en-US/shocks-101/shocks-vs-struts/

Correct, my mistake.

Whistling turbos are usually due to impeller imbalance, due to a manufacturing fault, damaged vanes or debris in the turbo. Even under no load, turbos spin up to high speed at low to mid engine speeds . The waste gate opens to limit/regulate boost pressure.

And I can't believe how many pages there are in your living with your better than anyone else's car thread either, aka, a monotonous blog of your daily life in and around disneyland, obsession with mpg, exotic holiday plans and occasionally how wealthy you are. You seem to be contribute 90% of the posts there.

Not really that relevant @Wino 1.2tsi use an inverted tooth chain also known as a silent chain which present a much larger area to the guide opposed to the thin outer plates on a simplex chain and so any guide wear should be insignificant.

When I checked the chain guides removed from our 2011 73,000mile CZBC engine, with (sometimes massively, ready to climb over sprockets) rattly starts, the guide faces looked like Nylon 66 material, very lightly marked, far far less than 1mm wear just detectable by finger and the inverted tooth chain not obviously sloppy or twistable by much. Removed top sprocket looked fine but I wasnt shown the bottom sprocket as I didnt see it in the box of removed bits or missed it. Apparently its the bottom sprocket that wears when the chain is loose and hangs down a bit. The tensioner appeared to be fully extended and I couldnt push it back (using thumb and forefinger) The latest kit for 2012- engines and retrofittable to earlier engines has a revised chain design requiring new sprockets of a different profile and dimension to be fitted. For pre 2012 engines, to measure when chain has stretched is shown in TPI 2037419/9 Metallic knocking after start. I dont have access to this (perhaps try erwin). It involves removing the tensioner and measuring ''how deep the tensioner came out using a sliding gauge". 74mm is the limit that Skoda uses anything more and the chain is stretched and should be changed. In my experience the cold start rattles are present before this limit is reached. Some pictures here and maybe the TPI in another language... https://a1audiclub.forumfree.it/m/?t=63989251&st=240

Apparently France it seems according to the previous statement made by Monsieur je sais tout EU has tried to impose no mods at all legislation in the past https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9526693/Motorists-face-EU-ban-for-modifying-cars.html

You do not need to change the water pump on an EA211 engine, it is driven in an entirely different way to older VAG engines by a seperate belt. Read my post below and if you have time SSP511 which is in there as well to demystify the EA211 design.

Calm down ladies......let me explain Firstly the belt does not run in oil, someone is confusing this with Ford Ecoboost engine designs. There is no MUST about cambelt changes, they are recommendations only, in any case any car over 5 years will normally be out of warranty so no claim would be possible. But heres some detail...... The 5yr/60000 mile recommendation is a Skoda UK (official importer) thing. Lots, but not all dealers will follow that, except some try it on at 4yrs/40,000 miles. Skoda factory maintenance manuals on the other hand state that its recommended the cambelt is examined at 5yrs/120,000 (iirc) miles and give a detailed procedure of how to examine and what to check. Then take appropriate action, change the belt or leave it for another 2 years/20,000 miles and re examine. Until the mileage limit of 120,000* is hit then change it regardless of condition. A number of design innovations supposedly make this possible. Firstly the belt drive is quite simple, no driving the water pump directly, which is now driven by another much smaller belt at the opposite end of the camshaft. The sprockets are of a CTC oval design which reduces repetitive tension stress. The belt material and construction used are now much more long lived and its now quite a beefy wide belt . The valves are actuated by low friction roller rocker fingers again reducing load. SSP-511_The_New_EA211_Petrol_Engine_Family.pdfpdf Both Continental, who came up with this innovation over many years of development and VAG have stated at various times in promotional and technical papers that the belt is now a "lifetime" part, but its also obvious that when it dies its life is over. There is also the other vacuum cleaner size toothed belt at the other end of the camshaft that drives the water pump, but its not so instantly disastrous if that were to break. Hope this help you all understand EA211 cambelts and make informed decisions. *120,000 is my recollection, but it may be 110,000 or even 130,000 miles. In my experience its unlikely a UK skoda dealer would carry out such an inspection even if asked.

The warning sticker may just save someone's life in the same way a sign denoting a Fire Exit or Emergency Exit or High Voltage warning might.....I could go on....the information is placed where it is for a well thought out reason....but I dare say you will probably have a smart alec response to anything I might post. We will never know how many lives the sticker saves but those that don't read, or ignore, or simply don't think, can make a depressing headline. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1584213/baby-girl-died-when-her-mum-tried-to-give-her-a-dummy-while-driving-and-shunted-the-car-in-front/

If you toggle travel mode on the infotainment, AFS/AHL is disabled. Not sure if fully or partly. Presumably it defaults to flat beam too. MOT only tests beam pattern statically

I did say interfere with a "permanently attached safety information label" On my Superb MY18, it is embossed/printed directly on the visor, it is not a sticker. Having lost my sister in a car crash killing three, where an airbag might have saved her, and having endured a drawn out process while the investigation was carried out, an inquest held, and listening to expert testimony, I'm somewhat permanently inclined to get "dramatic" about car safety.

You won't be so flippant if your sold on "modded" car was involved in an accident that involved loss of life and/or serious injuries and investigators highlight your mod as a possible contributory factor to injuries suffered.....

Correct, its a requirement for type approval https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ed1e0b9a-024e-11e2-8e28-01aa75ed71a1 and its a requirement for NCAP rating to remain valid. https://cdn.euroncap.com/media/32281/euro-ncap-assessment-protocol-cop-v721.pdf NCAP rating infuences insurance grouping and your premium Its a useful reminder for front seat passengers to check whether the airbag is switched on or off. If you were in an accident or worse still, another driver/owner that involved a passenger injury, particularly a child injury, insurance companies may be rather unpleasant towards you if you've interfered in anyway with the safety systems. Be it a permanently attached safety information label, switching off the airbag inappropriately, or covering a warning light, just because you didn't like it. An insurance company would probably regard covering or removal of the label as potentially endangering passenger safety so it is important to declare such a mod.

Was it not drivable at all? EPC/limp mode in my experience, you often can still drive albeit very slowly, with minimal power to get it to a garage. Because it was towed in, they may feel they have you over a barrel perhaps? Follow @mrgf good advice, and if they refuse to give you a detailed quote, involve another dealer or a good independent. You could complain to Skoda Norway about the refusal to give you full information. Not sure how a throttle valve, oil seperator and PCV could be involved together in an EPC/limp mode fault. These are possibly the parts referred to https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/03f133062-throttle-1-2tsi-cn-32879.html (Chinese aftermarket part, OE parts are shown on same page) https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/03f103464a-oil-separator-skoda-32076.html https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/03f103175a-check-valve-non-return-valve-jp-26892.html Or https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/030103175b-valve-vent-eu-35424.html If you've paid for diagnostics, surely you are entitled at least to know all the fault codes found. OBD error codes often point more or less directly to the problem (By the way, a simple OBD code reader costs at little as £15) In my experience and what I've seen on Briskoda with 1.2tsi CBZA/CBZB engines the most common EPC/limp mode failures are (in order of occurrence) plug lead/coilpak failure (misfiring, engine running rough, low power) Turbo actuator fault (very low power) Don't think I've seen any posts yet involving a throttle body change or an oil seperator, but I may be wrong.

With PD diesel engines, Skoda UK recommendation is 4yr/40,000miles. Later CR diesels that followed PD are 5yr/60,000 miles, some recent diesel engines can go 5yr/100,000+ miles. Skoda UK do not do the service inspection regime thats used in some other countries that would allow even longer time intervals though the mileage limit is still the same. Some UK dealers stick with a blanket 4yr/40,000 mile recommendation for all engines, for reasons best known to themselves. PD engines are particularly tough on cambelts because the undersized cambelt drives the PD unit injectors which impose high impulse loads in addition to the valve gear and a plastic impeller water pump which is prone to failure. On the PD engines its highly recommended to replace the water pump at the same time as the belt and tensioners as they are known to fail, sometimes seizing and destroying the engine.

Dont rush to change them. Are you sure they are leaking or are just "misted"? Have you checked them yourself? Misting is quite normal and due to an overpressure brought on by a slight overfill during manufacture which then blows by the seals during hot and hard work conditions. Settles down when the correct level is acheived. It affects quite a few cars in initial years not just Skoda and is known to mechanics and MOT testers who will not fail if it is just misting rather than leaking but will but issue an advisory to monitor. Clean/wipe down the shocks and recheck them after a few hundred miles. All skoda parts in the UK are sourced through TPS, which will also supply the trade. AFAIK there are no such things as Skoda only parts. Ask your independent to contact TPS, most already do. "a standard vehicle check on my L&K Superb" translated into english = "Lets see what we can upsell (fleece the customer with) - start with the brakes, suspension etc" Genuine parts available here too https://www.skoda-parts.com/catalog/superb-3/spare-parts/chassis/front-axle/shock-absorbers-stop-buffers-bearing-110.html If you get the part no, there are alternative aftermarket parts example .... https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/bilstein/7949490