amii21

Which generation Golf platform is MK 1 Octavia based on, anyone know?

Thanks for replies - shame the wheels won't fit. I am definitely getting a second car as I also want to keep the miles off the AMG I'll read up on some buyers guides for Mk 1 Octavia, and hopefully rejoin the forum as a Skoda owner

Hi, I used to have a MkII Octavia vRS (2010) with a set of 16 inch steel wheels + winter tyres. I sold my vRS and bought a C63 AMG which is a great car but very thirsty on fuel. So I am thinking of buying a MkI Skoda (maybe around £1200 max) as a run-around. I have 2 questions: 1) The Octavia I will get will probably be over 10 years old. I am going with petrol as essentially it is a simpler engine than diesel (no turbo to go wrong, etc). Do Skoda's of this generation have an achilles heel that I need to look out for? 2) Will the 16 inch steel wheels + winter tyres (left over from my 2010 vRS) fit a MK 1 skoda without any adjustments/modifictaions? Many thanks!

It's good that you're getting it replaced but maybe wedding ring scratched the chrome (if you wear one)?

I had the engine management light too, in the way described above. It was a "manifold" fault replaced under warranty (couldnt get any more details than that from the receptionist).

My experience of mains dealers over the years is that they are simply not willing to stray outside the "protocol" and have too much faith in their diagnostic system (suits them of course). I remember I had my ABS light on my Merc ML and after several months of visiting the dealers and several expensive repairs, I finally sorted out the problem myself by buying a £10 relay and replacing the faulty one. The second my Skoda warranty runs out I will find a good independent garage - the less I have to do with the main dealer the better as far as I am concerned.

Yes - radio stations but more importantly does it show you the satnav directions (with the Columbus the maxidot shows you an exit arrow and the next road name, so you only need to look at the maxidot for directions)

Does the Pioneer integrate with Maxidot? I'd be very interested to hear of your experiences once you've had the Pioneer up and running...

I have a service+ maintenance contract and the only thing they did for my second service at 20K was to change the oil (same as what they did on my first service at 10K). But I will be getting new brake pads in a couple of months they said. I'm paying about £17 a month for my service contract, and am a bit disappointed that in almost 18 months x £17pm all I have to show for it are 2 oil changes...

I have leather seats too and TBH they're the most disappointing aspect of the car - they look really cheap. The leather seats with white stitching in the LE vRS are miles better.

Hi Andy, mine did exactly the same thing when it was about 700 miles old - It is a high pitched whistling noise. It kept coming and going for a few days and I even recorded a video on my phone and took it to the dealer. The dealer did a diagnosis and could not find anything wrong. The whistling stopped after a couple of hundred miles and then it just stopped completely and never been back since (the car is almost on 22K miles now). My experience is that there is nothing at all to worry about, I just put it down to the engine "bedding in" and as I said it went away after a few days. Here is a youtube vid of a TSI enging in a Golf doing the same thing

Thanks - can I also ask, is it easy to see what gear you're in, from the display/maxidot? Or do you change up/down on the padles by revs or listening to the engine note? One of the things that put me off the DSG in vRS is the gear "number" was only shown in a small font in the maxidot to right hand corner rather than a large display, and I like to see what gear I'm in.

Hi Nicky boy, I take it the flat bottom steering wheel was an extra option? Also, do you use the paddle shifters much or just leave in auto?

The area of the windscreen just above my rear view mirror has a patten of "black dots" (maybe there to block out sunlight?) I was going to mount my Hero HD camera in that part of the windscreen, using the self-adhesive pad, which is meant to have very strong adhesive on the back. The problem is, I have to mount the self-adhesive pad on the black dot area, rather than on the clear glass section of the windscreen. My question is, are these "black dots" etched onto the glass on the wondscreen, or can there be a "bald" gap where those black dots are, if I later remove the self-adhesive pad? (i.e., might the glue pull off some of those black dots)? Thanks, and hope my question makes sense! PS I dont have the auto-dimming mirror, and the car is a 60 plate Octavia vRS petril manual.

The dash mounted storage box on the Octavia II is very shallow, so the lid won't close if you try to leave a satnav in there. I already have a live lead running into the dash mount storage box. I have seen some threads where people have velcro'd their satnav units to the lids, etc. But is there a way of modding the bottom of the storage box to make it deeper, so one can leave a satnav mounted to the inside of the lid of the storage box, so all you'd need to do to get satnav on, is to flick open the storage box lid? Instead of ruining the car, I suppose one could buy a new storage box to modify/cut the bottom of it off to make the compartment deeper. I think they cost about £60 from Skoda. I am seriously considering doing this, but is the compartment of the storage box shallow for a reason? Are there other car parts/components immediately underneath the bottom of the storage box, or can my plan work? Hope the question/idea makes sense!!

I have the headlamp washers that come out of the bumper for my xenon lights and every time they activate they send a fine mist of windscreen fluid down the wings of the car, and I end up with small water droplets on my front windows (and sometimes even on the rear windows). Are all headlamp washers this powerful or do mine need adjusting when I take it in for a service?

So my oil filter should have been changed as part of this service? Should I get onto the service department tomorrow?

So you think they should have changed my oil filter and fuel filter? Although I am obviously concerned about being ripped off, I am more concerned that there may be long term engine damage as a consequence of poor servicing. I plan to keep this car for at least 6-7 years, so I want to make sure servicing is done correctly.

My car has just come back from it's first service at 9,900 miles. It is a petrol vRS, registered at end Oct 2010. I have a service contract with Skoda, and have been paying something like £17 a month as part of a 3 year plan. When I collected the car yesterday, the only items that I remember appearing on the service list was engine oil, sump plug, and one more small item that I don't recall. The total cost was something like £80 which they said they would charge to Skoda UK (as per my service contract). They wouldn't let me have a copy of the job sheet as they said it had to be sent to Skoda. I have just looked at the service book and the boxes are ticked as follows: engine oil change______YES Use engine for variable service intervals QG1____NO Inspection service________NO Check body for paint damage __________NO Brake Fluid Change________NO Fuel Filter Changed_______NO Spark Plugs Changed ________NO Air filter element changed________NO Toothed belt replaced _________NO Toothed belt-tensioning pulley replaced_______NO SO effectively, it appears all they have done for my 10K service is to drain the oil and replaced it with new oil (or so I would hope anyway!) I am now very concerned at the whole thing, and wondered if someone could guide me on the following questions: 1) has the 10K service on my car been done properly or have they skipped on some things that they should have replaced? for example I thought replacing fuel/air/oil filter was done routinely during a service? Or is it the case that I can trust them to change whatever needed changing, and if they haven't changed the filters, they didn't need doing? 2) I feel the service contract is a rip off. They have charged me £17x 8 months so far (and will do so for the next 2.5 years as it is a 3 year contract) and yet the bill for my first service came to £80. My service contract is supposed to cover everything apart from tyres (i.e., even brake pads/discs when needing replacing). But on the basis of what little they've done for my first service, I am not confident that they'll do these when needed.. I'd really appreciate the thoughts of a fellow Petrol vRS owner in terms of what they had done for their first service; or a dealer/service manager. Thanks,

I am tempted by the Zenec 2010 - anyone know any dealer info? what are the prices like?

It's interesting that they've removed the boot spoiler, confirming that it is just there "for show" and doesn't actually help with aerodynamics - having said that, I still like my spoiler

I am guessing it would affect insurance though, if the mod is undeclared...

I have a 2010 FL vRS hatch, and when I had the bonnet up recently, I looked underneath the bonnett. Despite some cutouts, etc on the underneath of the bonnet, there is no black felt sound deadening materials - it is just bare metal. Are all vRS's like this or has the factory left mine off??

So will I - it'll look really good on white and on anthracite grey, I reckon (I have the latter)

I got my new vRS from Palmers in Watford too - they were very responsive to the couple of niggles which were sorted under warranty. The only real criticism I have of them is that their courtesy cars almost never have enough fuel in them! Other than that they've been good as gold (so far!). The main service guy is Paul, so make sure you deal with him direct. Can you say a little more about why you found them inadequate?