seriesdriver

If you have a multimeter and know how to use it start the car and see what voltage you have at the battery you should be able to work out if the alternator is charging or not.

You may have found it easier and less hassle to have someone turn the seatbelt warning off via the software its what I did when ours did this.

Have you checked the 3rd brake light ? if enough leds fail it will throw the bulb out warning. As above a bulb about to blow can be enough to trigger the warning.

What about just running it and topping up the coolant as necessary ? if it has worked for 40k so far for you why not just carry on doing what you are doing.

My car was bought new in june 09 and nearly all the leds had gone, enough to put the bulb warning light on. I replaced the lamp about a year ago.

I did mine and it is straightforward to do, I bought a set of trim removal tools on ebay and some spare trim clips as I had read it is difficult to do without breaking some of them this did turn out to be the case.

The thing to also consider is what percent of cambelt failures were actually a failure of the tensioner.

I have found vinegar can clean up an old set of wiper blades enough to extend their life

As above I have changed a number of bulbs never had to have any realignment all ways passed mot no issues.

The timing belt itself is only part of the issue, many "cambelt" failures are actually tensioner failures. My car is now 12 years old if I still have it in a few years I may well take the calculated risk not to get the belt done again as the car will have little value if the belt did break. I also believe that the pd engines are harder on belts due to their design.

The fact the cam belt has been changed regularly in the past isnt a deal breaker as long as you have it done, the risk is catastrophic failure rather than future wear and tear or issues.

Interesting reading I am looking to replace our mk 2 Octavia as it isn't ulez compliant and a 1.4 estate on a 16 plate is on the radar.

our 09 plate has done 118k and is original dmf, we have had broken rear springs and one wheel bearing changed but in the 100k+ miles thats all the big repairs we have done. we get occasional turbo over boost limp mode but a good motorway run and a bottle of fuel additive keeps it away for 6 months or more. With any car in the £1500 range there is a risk but not a massive one.

re 3 we had our seatbelt warning deleted as it started to come on randomly while driving, haven't forgotten to put the seat belt on without it.

No more so than any other engine at that mileage, assuming it has been serviced regularly with the correct spec oil etc. Our pd skoda has done 118k miles I see no reason it wouldnt do the same mileage again or more, it has always been serviced on time.