Oldfellah

Thanks for all the helpful words and pictures here. Just done my Fabia resistor pack. Only tips to add would be: 1. I stuffed some rag into the apertures below the three Torx screws holding the airbag unit in place to prevent dropping them. Not having a magnetic bit I made a wire loop to pull each screw against the bit when removing and replacing, again to avoid dropping them. 2. Having removed the three Torx screws , use a nylon trim removal tool to prise up the cover from the top of the dashboard. (Like the screwdriver is shown being used in the above video - thanks foundsound - but a trim tool won't do any damage.) It's the cover lugs which are preventing the airbag unit from being pushed out from below, so that becomes very easy. 3. I wore gloves when delving into the resistor area as the adjacent metal frame is very sharp. 4. Skoda manual says to switch ignition on before reconnecting battery earth lead. This avoids having anyone in the car when the ignition is made live again in case the airbag goes off at that point. 5. Test all the fan speeds now work before reassembling anything. (If the airbag is still disconnected you'll get an airbag error code which has to be erased. Check that does erase permanently before reinstalling the airbag.)

Car is now sold. A very merry Christmas to the new owner who will be delighted with it I'm sure.

Saying goodbye to my lovely 2013 Mk3 Octavia wagon at 27k miles (which is NOT the snow covered Mk1 in the avatar!) for the sum of £13,850 13,450. Have a look at the Pistonheads advert and give me a call if you want to know more. I'd certainly prefer to sell to a Skoda fan who appreciates the value and virtues of this car. http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=used-cars&M=743&MaxPrice=14000&MinPrice=13000&TradePrivateFilter=Private&Transmission=MAN (Price reduced 18th November to £13,450)

There's no consistency is there? My very early TSi vRS estate has a fair bit of road noise but the ride is very good for a car at the performance end of the range. Not as good as my Mk1 Octy 4x4 estate was but better than many other cars I've driven. It's not at all tiresome on longer trips in this respect (but the need to keep making steering inputs is a pain as said elsewhere).Sounds as if there is a lot of variablity in the ride quality among all our cars and even given that we all have different opinions about what might be hard or soft, jittery or smooth, the differences can't seem to be pinned down to any particular feature(s) such as torsion beam, shocks, wheel size, tyres. Feel really sorry for those who have this sort of trouble because my particular car seems excellent.

Can't help on that one, but have you tried the less orthodox methods e.g. www.247spares.co.uk/skoda

This was my post on the Gemini fitting in the well:

Wholly agree with you on both counts Brooksuk. Someone saw my car on the drive and told me he thought the new Vauxhall looked very smart. I was NOT amused That dash of green in the old badge was very well calculated and separated Skoda from the other common VW marques as well as looking rather distinguished (IMO). Times change and we have to get used to the new one I guess, but I'm not convinced.

I think Skoda gave up issuing service books soon after July 13, which is when my demonstrator was registered. Dealer said all the service info is stored on the Skoda UK system now. What do members get when they take their cars for service if this is the case e.g. apart from a list of things done, is there a list of things to be done at next service (I suspect not!)?

My TSi vRS is the same. I have lane assist but it's turned off. Got the tracking reset to exactly what it should be - no change. Makes no difference whether I have summer tyres (D. Sport Maxx on 18" rims) or winters (Contis on 18"). Thoroughly dislike the sensation and the need to correct continually by just a smidge to stop it wandering. Can't make out whether camber changes affect it, but don't believe so. Strongly suspect it's a feature of the EPS but really can't be bothered with trying to get a dealer to [a] agree it's an issue, and do something about it which doesn't have the car off the road for days or weeks. So I'll live with it, but if anyone finds a fix I'll be delighted. Sorry OP has the problem, but he's not alone and he's not wrong!

It's the thicker sections of the rail which are the jacking points. This is more obvious when you use the car jack supplied (or not!). The load absolutely must be taken on the bottom of this part of the rail and not on the bodywork or it could get distorted. Many threads on this forum about all this. Some sort of hard rubber pad/puck is a good way of using a normal jack pad on this car I find.

Mk3 vRS needs a minimum 17" wheel to clear the front calipers. Standard wheel on the vRS is (as you will know) 18"; 19" an option.

Had the same problem with my demonstrator from a franchised Skoda dealer. Advert claimed it had cruise but it didn't. I hadn't spotted this before driving away. Settled on paying half each for it to be retrofitted. Took ages to sort out, but work was done by Accutek just outside Winchester for about £330. Proper OEM parts and the necessary recoding done. No hesitation in recommending them. See http://www.accutek.co.uk/

Saw a friend of mine reversing his Mk7 Golf into a parking bay the other night: he got out, went round the back, peered, seemed puzzled, got back in - and then out again. On enquiry, seems parking sensors were in continuous screech even though he had plenty of room between his bumper and a lampost - probably misled into "seeing" the kerb. Point is, when he tried to reverse further THE BRAKES CAME ON! So he couldn't even park his car without the permission of some half-witted computerised system pretending it was cleverer than him. I'm waiting for the horn which links to satnav, speed of car and yaw sensors and tells us we can't sound a horn in a built-up area between the hours of ... unless it's to prevent a collision. So just maybe the horn is not yet worked through a computer. (Oh, please don't tell me I'm wrong!)

That's all good to know for future reference. Thanks KevinP. Glad you are enjoying the car. Had mine a year now and still like it a lot. Guess I've been lucky to avoid any of the issues some guys on the forum have had, so no plans to change just yet.

Good for you KevinP. Glad you managed to sort it. And does it just need a straight upward pull at the front and side edges as is usual, or was there something else to do once you cleared the upholstery from the side fixings?