jonathan.tong

on the face of it, looks like the DSGs are more thirsty than the manuals, supporting the emissions / efficiency figures in the brochure....

is yours manual or DSG please?

We're currently in an 05 Mk1 Superb Elegance Saloon 1.9 PD130 manual and on our usual 35 mile run of A-class single carriageway roads (50-55 mph) and some villages (30ish) the trip computer often says 55mpg. We've been looking at a late 13 or new Superb Elegance or L&K twindoor 2.0 CR as a replacement, but wanted to find out what I might expect from the 140/170 and/or manual/DSG? On paper, the 170 is very slightly thirstier than the 140, and the DSG is worse than the manual. VED will be higher of course, but what's the real world mileage like for the four combinations? TIA!

and cold and dark so more ancillaries (lights and heaters) on. I presume the economy is even more rubbish on cold starts....

The boot lid on our 2005 Superb was fixed under warranty. It was rusting around the numberplate lights, and the body shop said they were seeing an increase in these failures.

anyone know the part number and/or an inexpensive place to get a replacement centre brake light? This is for a '05 Superb Elegance if it makes a difference...

Hmm, this is exactly what we have, a 1.9 PD 130 Elegance which is feeling like it's getting old (just snapped a coilover spring) so many little things are breaking. The 2.0 engines look more efficient, but I understand that it's something like the oil pump is the main weakness?

Well maybe somewhat overstated, but we've had a spate of bits breaking in quick succession (and I do understand that some of these are consumables) including alternator pulley, alternator itself, battery, leaking door card, along with a passenger wing mirror with a life of its own and "brake light warning" both when damp outside.

Looks like this will be the death nell for our '05 Superb Elegance with a mere 65k on the clock. Just been outside to find that the front driver side suspension spring has sheared about half way down. The two halves are resting on each other and by all accounts has been like this for the last 20-30 miles or so. I can't tell in the dark, but I'm guessing that that side is now sat a few inches lower than normal. It feels like the car is falling apart due to old age and I'm really doubting if it's worth perservering with this one - shame, we quite like it. I'm assuming that we should replace both fronts as a pair? What kind of cost should I expect?

sorry yes, should have been specific - this car has bi-xenons. Update - the self levelling mechanism has now fixed itself with me doing nothing. The headlights now do the usual dance on ignition.

So the self levelling on our Superb Elegance 05 doesn't work anymore, with the driver side beam at about the right height and the passenger pointing low. There is no attempt to move the beams on turning on the car and the no..8 fuse is intact. There are no warnings given on the maxidot display. One thing is that I can hear a clicking sound from (I think) the area of the passenger headlight so I'm hoping that something is seized or similar? Any ideas? Can I remove the headlight cluster and free something up to help - how do I do this? Help!

Whilst ours was in for a repair on some self-inflicted damage to a wheel arch, I mentioned the number plate lights to our usual dealer (not local). He fixed them under warranty as part of the other repair work, all turned around in under a week.

ok thanks, that's really useful to know. I'm asking them to replace with a refurbished part as I'm not sure we'll still have this car in another 75K miles from now!

So yesterday our 05 1.9PD Superb said "alternator workshop" and the battery light came on. We took it to the local Skoda dealer who diagnosed a dead alternator. In the six weeks, we've had the alternator pulley replaced and a dead (wasn't holding charge) battery replaced. The car's only 8 years old, now on its third battery and done about 75,000 miles. Should I be suspicious of any of this? alternators last longer than that don't they???? could I have had a dodgy alternator which is killing batteries prematurely? or could our usage of quite a lot of relatively short journeys have contributed to an early grave?

This is also how I understood the solar sunroof to work. It doesn't charge anything. It's an interesting idea, though we find that remote opening the windows for a few minutes before getting in is quite effective too.

our 05 Elegance was effectively the top-of-the-range spec Superb at the time. The *only* options that were available for our model was different alloys (to the solid 17"), sunroof, and solar powered sunroof. That was pretty much it. Ours had leather front heated and leather rear heated split seats, colour sat nav, electric front seats with driver memory, bi-xenon headlights, reverse parking, blah blah blah.

cool, I'll try that next time. is there any way to squirt in some lubricant without dismantling the door card?

Due to the cold weather, we have found that the door locks (only the fronts I think) jam open - that is, it's now not possible to close the door. Is there something simple I can do or where should I squirt some WD-40 to help stop this happening? Thinking about it, the mechanism feels like it could do with a lube anyways (at least from the outside).

I'll check the brake light switch and plug connections to the light clusters. Both bulbs were replaced with new filament bulbs (not LEDs).

Our mk1 '05 Superb is telling me "check brake lights", but on inspection (even immediately when it happens) all three lights are on and appear fine. I've replaced both light bulbs (not the strip) and the garage can't find anything obvious. I've noticed that it tends to do it when it's been raining or generally damp, but I don't suffer from water ingress at the front (that's been checked already). Any ideas on where to look next?

We have a 2005 Superb Elegance Mk1 where you have the option of the passenger side wing mirror automagically changing position when reverse is engaged - it does this as part of the seat memory function. We typically don't use this feature, however..... Recently, this mirror has taken to initialising itself to pointing at the floor when the car is first unlocked (ignition off and reverse not engaged). I've also now discovered that I can't get it to consistently readjust when reverse is engaged or disengaged. Has anyone seen anything similar?

I think I'm going to go down the route of getting the warning coded out so it doesn't show. AFAIK the pads as fitted did have the relevant sensor wire, but the original diagnosis was that it had prematurely broken/failed hence the original "check brake pad" warning. Apparently the technician has seen "lots" of these, which is not good news.

I've had the "check brake pads" warning come up on the maxidot display for the last few weeks now. The wiring has been previously shorted out by the garage so I'd not expect to see this warning at all? It's back in for some other stuff, but the garage is telling me that the warning is caused by corrosion in the wiring and to fix needs TWO "ABS sensor looms" at £££ each + labour. I guess I have some choices: - replace both looms = £££ - just ignore the warning - get them to turn it off entirely? If there's corrosion in this wiring, and I don't replace am I storing up other problems for later? What other questions could I ask them? TIA! (edited to add - this is on a 2005 Superb)

we almost certainly have the water ingress problem - it's being looked at next week - and get a stink of rotten cabbages in the cabin. It's there when the car's been stood for a while and BEFORE anything is turned on. It goes away after the venting by opening windows and/or running the fans.

We've got the auto-door lock feature turned on in our 2005 Superb. However recently, stopping the car for a short while (say at a junction or traffic) and then pulling away again, the rear passenger door randomly makes a "re-locking sound" despite none of the doors unlocking first. It's going in for a service soon, but I'm interested if anyone has any ideas.