hazy

I had to replace a wobbly headlight after hitting a deer. The headlight looked perfect and worked fine but the plastic moulding at the edge, where it was attached, had broken.

I have a 2WD Yeti 110 and replaced the original tyres with Vredestein Quattrac 3 all-season tyres 18 months ago. With the original tyres the traction control light flickered a lot in snowy conditions but the all-season tyres have been much better over the last 2 winters. They are slightly noisier in the summer but still seem to grip well. As has been said, you need to fit all four. There are videos on YouTube showing cars spinning off backwards on corners when only fitted with winter tryes on the front.

Many years ago I had a Minivan fitted with fog/spot lights. They each had two bulbs in them. While driving through a town at night in falling snow, I was surprised when a policeman vaulted over a low fence and waved me down. I had the spotlights switched on. He came to the window and told me it was illegal to use spotlights in a built-up area. I said they were actually fog lights and were legal in falling snow. As he walked round to the front of the van to check, I flicked the switch to foglights which put on the yellow bulbs. He looked somewhat puzzled and then let me off with a warning.

I have driven both the Duster and the new Captur. The Captur was less roomy inside than the Yeti, had poorer rear visibility and had bizarre diagonal bungee chords on the back of the front seats for the kids to twang. The 90hp diesel version was slower than my 110hp Yeti. The Duster struck me as an honest cheap car with a lot of room for the money. The one I drove had all the extras including hideous chrome tubes along the sills. The interior and dash looked really cheap with hard plastic bits added on for the extra spec. The ride was softer than the Yeti and it rolled a little more but in general it drove quite well. The performance was about the same as my Yeti. My wife said we didn't need to save money that badly. Will probably wait for the facelifted Yeti.

I have paint blisters appearing under the paint on the lower front door panels around tiny stone chips. The door seal between the front and rear doors has also rubbed off some paint due to body flex and there is a little rust starting. (There is a service advisory about this). The service manager photographed these areas during a recent service and sent the photos to SUK. They rejected a respray under warranty. He knew I was a photographer so asked me to photograph the areas myself. He sent in my photos to SUK and the car goes in on Monday for a respray and replacement (softer) door seals.

I have paint blisters on the front doors now. Each has a tiny pin-***** in the centre and spreading corrosion under the paint. Just like the back doors before they were resprayed. Dealer says they are stone chips, which are not covered by the warranty. However, there is a technical bulletin about paint being rubbed off the trailing edge of the front doors due to body flex wearing the paint away where it is in contact with the rubber seal between the doors. The lower rear corner of the drivers door is through to bare metal where it is in contact with the seal and is now rusting. Photos have been taken and sent to Skoda to see if they will respray it under warranty.

Thank you all for your help. It was indeed the red plastic spacer from the German DIN type plug of our electric coolbox, which was the last thing plugged in there.

I tried to plug my own compressor into the boot socket to inflate the tyres. (I have a spare wheel so this is not the Skoda compressor). The 12V boot socket has a red plastic circular spacer inside it which prevents the plug going in all the way. Does any body else have this on their Yeti? Have they managed to remove the red plastic spacer without damaging the socket? I used the front 12V socket to inflate the tyres OK. That socket doesn't have the red plastic insert.

In the days before laminated windscreens, if a stone hit a toughened glass screen it would shatter, obscuring the view out. Drivers were taught to punch a hole in it with their fist to see enough to stop safely. I heard of one driver who broke his wrist trying to punch a hole in the screen when snow slid down off the roof!

I have a 110 Tdi with 16 inch wheels and had a Picasso before. Going over speed bumps, the Citroen was better. Much softer suspension. The Yeti can be noisy unless you slow down.

My umbrella (a Renault freeby) lives in the slot between the back seats and the raised boot floor.

I got the dealer to fit them when the car was supplied new as I thought they reduced the visual impact of the 'Bruce Forsyth' chin and widened the lower front appearance. This was the first Yeti the garage had done and they had to buy in solvent cleaner and fixative to do the job. When I hit a deer at 70 mph the bond was so strong that they remained on the crushed bumper despite one of the trims being broken in half. When I got the car back from the accident repair firm they posted new trims for me to fit saying that they were self adhesive. I took them to the dealer to fit.

http://flic.kr/p/9Ek7Zn The deer ran directly out in front of the car in the dark on a dual carriageway. No time to even touch the brakes. Most of the impact was on the lower offside but the head went through the radiator grille. I found one horn in there later, it had dented the radiator matrix. The car was impressively stable during and after the impact. One advantage of high front on a vehicle is that it tends to propel animals forward and prevents them come over the bonnet. A friend with a Mazda MX-5 had a deer come up the bonnet into the windscreen. Modern cars have plastic fronts to protect pedestrians. I noticed that there is even black foam padding behind the front bumper. The numberplate was not so flexible and it was left in many bits down the road. The damage appears to be limited to replaceable plastic parts, apart from the radiator, which has damaged fins. I still managed to drive it to Dundee to the bodyshop. Now driving a Kia Rio !

I forgot to mention that there were white stains down the sills at the junction of the doors that were impossible to remove using normal cleaning materials. They resisited detergents and exterior grade cleaning wipes. The solution was a tip from this forum. Peanut butter! Worked a treat.

Just had the 10,000 mile service. No fault codes, just two firmware updates. Faults in nine months, only two. A rattle in the tailgate, turned out to be a large piece of weld which rolled up and down when opening and closing the tailgate. Also a creak from the drivers door when going over bumps. The garage lubricated it and ordered a new modified striker plate. Had that fitted during the service. Have changed it to variable service intervals from now on. Impressions after 10,000 miles. Engine quicker than when new and still as quiet and economical as ever. Ride is becoming more supple, with a bit more roll in corners. A good trade-off in my view as handling is still great. A tough winter up here. Lots of snow. Traction in snow just adequate with 2WD and normal tyres. Will be getting Allweather tyres next winter. First signs of paint damage on back doors and white worm on the tailgate badge. Overall impressions. A practical, well-built machine from a good dealership (Thomson + Potter). Excellent economy, never less than 50 mpg. A pleasure to drive. When I was at the garage I saw a second-hand Yeti on the forecourt, the same spec as mine, with 4,400 miles at £1,200 more than I paid new. I heard that the waiting time for higher spec diesels is now 28-30 weeks. Makes my 3 week wait for a pre-built one seem very short.

I overfilled my Picasso 1.6HDI engine when the plastic end broke off the dipstick (a common problem). The garage tried to suck the excess oil out via the dipstick tube without success then drained about a litre from the sump drain plug.

It will idle at 1000rpm until engine is fully up to temperature, which in the weather we have had recently, can be quite a long time. I have seen the engine temperature actually drop while idling if it hasn't reached normal.

My contribution in a previous post. http://www.flickr.com/photos/51529540@N08/4842905331/in/set-72157624449938620/

A salesman told me that some of his customers were disappointed with the 1.2TSI in snow last winter due to the lightweight engine. Customers with 2WD diesels were generally happier as the heavier engine gave the front wheels better traction.

I have a 2WD Yeti and have been driving it in snow here in Scotland for the last couple of days. The ASR works well going up hills, you see the light flashing as the wheels start to lose grip and it limits the power to match the traction available. It does what a good driver does. Gentle throttle to avoid wheelspin and maintain momentum. Changing up early helps. It has better traction than my last front wheel drive diesel car because of the ASR. It was so slippery that when I stopped on the hill outside our house and the car slid backwards down the road with the handbrake applied! The tyres are probably too wide, and the tread pattern unsuitable for the best performance in snow. I am sure winter tyres would be better. Turning off the ASR is not recommended. The only occasion I was told it might help is when you want to spin the wheels in deep snow to dig down to a hard surface underneath. You have to be very confident there is traction down there or you might just end up bellying the car.

I used the previous version of this product. Driving up the Devils Elbow in a blizzard in my Mini I eventually came to halt after snaking across the whole width of the road a few times. I got out in the teeth a developing blizzard and sprayed the front tyres with Liquid Tyre Chain. The instructions said to spin the wheels (very easy) then wait for two minutes before driving off. When I tried to pull away gently up the hill I stalled the engine as there was so much grip! The car powered up the hill with ease and got me home to Braemar. The manufacturer said that the resin becomes very sticky in contact with water and would last for several miles on snowy roads. It will wear off when driving on a normal road surface. The following morning all that was left were white, powdery marks on the sidewalls. Since then I have carried one of these in the car in winter in case of emergencies but never needed to use it. Nowadays they just close the snow gates at night on the Devils Elbow at the first sign of snow.

We test drove the 140 but bought a 110. Performance is fine, quiet, smooth, quick enough and very economical, never less than 54 mpg on a tank.

The S-trim had everything I wanted except lumbar support (which I miss). I was keen to avoid the 17 inch wheels and didn't want darker glass as it is dark enough up here in the North without additional tinting. Actually the E-trim would have done me, I have no need for electric back windows, but the fog lights are a boon now that misty autumn weather is upon us.

I believe it is there to reduce splash-forward. All high ground clearance cars tend to fire water forwards at an upwards angle when driving through deep puddles. You then run into this water, soaking the windscreen. Land Rovers were very bad for it. If that is what it is there for it only works to a limited extent as the Yeti is still prone to 'wetting its face' when driving at speed through puddles. There are however other hidden spoilers on the car I believe. Moulded into the tail lights there is a vertical line at the outer edge which I think is there to separate the airflow along the sides of the vehicle and prevent dirt from the rear quarters being swept round onto the tail light lenses. All vehicles accumulate dirt on their sides in dirty conditions and this travels along the sides of the vehicle over time, until the airflow is disrupted. You can see this effect where dirt builds up on the trailing edges of doors. What it can't stop is dirt sucked up from under the vehicle being deposited on the tail gate and lights

The roof bars have a negligible frontal area and are smoothly tapered so will make almost no difference to the drag factor, which is already quite poor. On previous vehicles I have driven, the addition of cross bars made the biggest difference to wind noise and drag. One problem that the roof bars can cause is that after the car has been parked in the rain, rows of water drops on the underside of the bars fall off onto the roof when you open the doors and the car tips slightly. A stream of water can then fall onto the back door sills just where you want to step into the car. Also beware of opening the windows when driving off if the roof bars are wet as the water runs off the edge of the roof and lands on the internal armrests.