BiggusDickus

Not sure if my experience will help or not, but it might. I used this thread to compile a shortlist for my mechanic to run through as we had the PAS/dimming lights issue. He reported back that all was good and no fault found through initial investigations (steering ECU shows no faults - steering angle sensor all good - voltages/fuses/earth points all good - PAS fluid clean and good level - battery/alternator good etc...). Fault didn't show whilst he had it and worked on it. The following day the PAS failed after a 26 mile drive (light on and no assistance). Switched off and back on - all good as usually happens. This was about 6 weeks ago and it has not done it since even in the extremely cold/wet weather recently. Before the PAS would fail every few days, and exterior lights dimming most of the time, even whilst driving in a straight line (lights). The day prior to the car going in for the list of checks I had completed the rear door carrier repair on both rear doors because I had wet floor wells in back (definitely carrier problem). Is it possible the water retention in the car could have caused the problem? It would have taken a few days for the car to start to dry out (whilst in workshop and the day it failed after) and now has dried completely with no damp smell anymore. Might be two birds with one stone (and cheap fix) for others if it is related. Check rear footwells for damp/water - if they are wet then do the carrier repair anyway. Could the water be causing earth/short type problem somewhere and causing the PAS and light dimming issue? Hope this helps.

I have a vRS but not sure if the sound system is a Columbus or not. I have had the same thing happen a couple of times - a very loud pop or crack sound, then the unit powers off/on and carries on as if nothing has happened and its about this time you look back up to see you have travelled into the oncoming traffic lane. I mentioned it to my dealer and he said that there is a software update which they did at the time under warranty. Don't think it has done it again since. I do have a sticker in my boot that says 91C5, this might be the field campaign number relating to the update possibly.

I'm in a similar boat with my vRS. I will admit that I got a cheap car when I purchased it, but it has hardly dropped in value at all. I paid £8995 for a 22month old 2007(07) Octavia vRS petrol estate with 22K Miles, parking sensors and sunroof back in March 2009. I have since put another 28K on the clock and after looking around I see I could probably get a similar amount for it now - seems crazy as hell!! I've been looking at the prices of new ones on carquake and keep thinking that it could be a similar situation. Cars cars cars..............

Not too sure if you need to worry as much on the newer cars, but I always let mine idle for about 5 seconds before switching off, unless I have driven tyres smoking onto the driveway - then it'll sit a bit longer. It doesn't hurt to wait a few seconds before switching off, but I think it is probably more important to let the engine fully warm up before gaffa taping your throttlle to the carpet, I never take mine above 3K RPM or make the engine do too much work until it has fully warmed up so that the metals and the oil get up to operating temp.

FaceLift - Got it. i don't feel as silly as I thought I might have done now - cheers :-)

Thanks for the info guys, very useful. Gives me something to get my teeth into. Age isn't such a problem (34), but I do about 16K miles per year and need business class insurance as I get a car allowance through work. I just need to be careful not to put myself in a corner where I can only pick from one or two insurance companies as this will reduce the competition and limit my savings ont he premium. I'm off to try and find out what FL stands for. Seems to be in almost every thread on here. I'll probably kick myself when I find out, but its starting to bug me as I can't work it out!!! No laughing at me please!

Hi Folks, I'm sure this has been covered before on this forum, but I'm new and can't find the info. I have been contemplating having an ecu remap on my Oct II VRS petrol as what is offered seems to be staggering considering the relatively small cost of the upgrade. My question is not directly related to which remap, who with and to what stage, but more about the implications after it has been done. Obviously this should be something that you inform the insurance companies when getting quotes and taking out policies etc... my question is what is the difference in premium costs between standard and remapped models? Is anyone able to let us on the forum know if they have any examples or experience on the issue. Cheers, Richard.

My VRS has Bridgestone Potenza RE050A's on it and I can't say that they are too bad at all really mate. I even got them really cheap at a local fitters, £170'ish for two inc. fitting, not bad for 225/45/R17's with good speed rating.

Just an update in case anyone is out there. Ben at Shark Performance was more than helpful and I was gonna do the 360 mile round trip for him to sort out my problems, but in the mean time I told my dealer that I wasn't happy with the price (trying to weigh up my options at that stage before making a decision) and that I would like them to consider a good will gesture. They logged my request with Skoda UK and I then had a phone call back from my dealer saying that Skoda will contrbiute 70% towards the part, if I paid the remaining 30% and the 2 hours labour which in total equates to £664, just over a grand off. This means I will have some kind of come back etc... and can get the work done at the local dealer hassle free. This is the option I have gone for and it is booked in Tue for the replacement ecu to be fitted. Thanks to Skoda for offering me a better option to help me out of the hole I was in. Bigger thanks to Ben as he knows far more about this than the dealer does for sure and was a close call on the my choices, it was 50/50 in the end. Still unhappy but less stressed Richard.

I have a MK2 Black magic VRS estate, if I were doing the wheel colour I would think black is the only logical choice, although bare in mind that when they chip, they will show badly, so you may have to think about getting them done again in the future. Have not done mine, so no pic's to post, sorry.

Hi Folks, I am new to the forum and really not techie when it comes to cars, but I was wondering if someone would be able to help me out at all. Car : 2007 Skoda Octavia 2.0T VRS (Petrol) Issue : EPC & CEL lights on, warning P0601 (Internal Contr.Module MemoryCheck Sum Error), no loss in performance/economy. After reading various forum threads it became apparent that this could be an issue under Skoda's 'Field Campaign 24K5'. Rang Skoda and they said that my car was an affected model but it had already had the update done on 20th Nov 2008 and claimed for along with the usual sticker being booked out for the work. No sticker in boot under carpet though, and my car shows all the symptoms of this fault . Had my local dealer have a look to try and confirm that the update has physically been done and they said 'we have plugged our device in and it doesn't state that the car needs updating - meaning the update is current' i.e. field campaign 24K5 has been resolved previously on my car by the update in 2008. They cleared the error from the logs and the light went out, but came straight back on when engine restarted (second time this has been done). They have said that it needs a replacment ECU and have quoted me £1,687.68p, which is obviously a lot of money for what seems to be just a light on the dashboard. Oh and the usual warranty time bomb, car is out by 3 months!! Bloody typical!! Assuming I have a genuine fault, my options are 1) ECU replacement by Skoda which will entail a remortgage and a divorce. 2) ECU repair (which will involve getting someone to remove/re-install the ECU and being without a car and running the risk of a no-fix situation). 3) Leaving it the hell alone and never being able to sell the car or pick up on any other faults as the light will always be on and also having to explain to everyone who gets in the car why the dashboard is lit up like Blackpool pleasure beach. or 4) Hoping that a Boeing 747 lands on it. (If there are any Boeing pilots out there, then please PM me for my address). Really I have a couple of questions : 1) Is the ECU really faulty? Should I get the dealer to do an update regardless of what their box is telling them? They don't seem to have the real in-depth knowledge like people of this forum and tuning professionals and the processes they use are basic flowchart procedures given to them by Skoda. 2 ) Has anyone used the remove and send off for repair service for ECU's? Have they managed to fix the units? I don't want to spend hundreds to be told that it can't be fixed or hasn't been fixed or no-fault-found situation and then have to go back to the dealer after selling the cat on ebay and half my garden to the neighbours. 3) H E L P!!! 4) I could phone Skoda UK and ask if they will help towards it as a good will gesture considering its just outside warranty. Additional info for techies : Engine code : BWA 2.0l FSI / 147kW Motronic Engine Managemnt System : 1Z0907114A Any advice would be greatly appreciated, just as long as the text doesn't contain "Ha Ha" "LOL" "ROFL" or "£1,687.68p" Many Thanks, Unhappy Richard.