Ray Luxury-Yacht

Just as an aside - if the fake engine noise is undesirable, the unit that makes the noise is easy to disconnect. It is located under the plastic scuttle panel beneath the windscreen wipers. Do a search on here for a 'how to', It's easy to do, takes about 10 minutes. It's the first thing I did to mine when I got it. Cheers!

Mine looks exactly the same as yours. It's not a fault, that's normal.

No worries! Yes, my vrs is 2014 with a black pack. Cheers!

Looks to me like a standard car with the factory 'black pack' option. Wheels have been painted / powder coated, and the lower door trims are available from Kopacek / SUperskoda. HTH!

Are there maybe resistors contained within those plugs?

I did get the message, yes haha! Ok so spent a nice afternoon fitting my new Brembos. Apart from the swines of hidden M14 bolts holding on the carriers, it was all pretty easy to do on the driveway. The sliding pins were all fine, but I cleaned them out and re-greased them anyway. Calipers in nice condition, no signs of seizure, pistons wound back nice and easy. The Brembo parts are visibly better quality than the OE stuff in my opinion. One thing which is nice is that there is like a hammered metal finish grey paint on the parts of the disc which aren't contact surfaces. So they shouldn't corrode. Pedal came up nicely after an hour or so's driving. Looking at the contact surfaces now, it appears the pads have bedded in nicely both sides. Cost for the Brembo discs and pads from Euros was £138 all in. Pretty good I thought. Best news of all was she flew through the MOT today at the main stealers. They didn't make any comments at all. So I'm well happy. Hope this info helps others. Cheers! ETA: You get replacement slider pin bolts and even the little screws which hold the discs on with the Brembos too...

Sure. Here: https://www.kopacek.com/skoda/octavia-iii/emblems//2?f=o:price-

Heya. I know the OE rear brakes are known for being a bit rubbish, but... Two years ago my 2014 VRS was in for an MOT at the main stealer. Brakes looked ok to me before presenting the car, but a phone call came to say it will fail on excess corrosion to the rear discs. Asked for £220 to replace, managed to haggle that down to £200. This was the second set the car was on, so they fitted a third set. It's done 60k. Anyway this week, with the MOT looming, the rear discs looked a bit flaky, so I cracked the wheels off to give them a good looking over. Christ, what a horror show! The outsides looked a wee bit ropey, but the inner faces? Resembled well-used boat anchors. Worse still, the pads were only contacting about 15mm in the very centre of the swept area. The rest of the discs were crusty, with pitting and actual holes. After just 24 months and 10,000 miles. Shocking. Apart from the poor quality, any ideas why the inner faces of the discs start to lose contact with the pads top and bottom? The calipers are in great condition. After giving them a clean, they are spot on. Was easy to wind the pistons back in. No sign of split rubber boots. And the floating pins on the carrier were equally good. Boots fine, lots of grease inside. nice shiny pins, no stiction. So I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why this is happening? Anyway fitted some nice Brembos now. They look to be better quality than the stock TRWs, but time will tell I guess.

Hahaha fair comment!!!

You're right of course, and I do get that. But the aggravating factor is that they know full well that the first iteration of the pump is a bad design prone to failure, which is obviated by the new design. And so, come consumer rights might suggest that it was 'not fit for purpose' from day one?

Hello everyone, I hope you're all well. I bought my 2014 VRS petrol from Skoda Coventry in 2016, with just 13,000 miles. Since then, she's been serviced at Skoda main dealers in the South where I live. I find main dealer prices to be reasonable, plus I like having a decent courtesy car etc. Also, I thought it would be useful to have FSSH in case of any problems. Having now covered 60,000 miles, she was in for a service last week. The tech noted that the water pump / thermostat housing was weeping. I authorised a replacement, because I had to have the car back, and I wouldn't want to risk a catastrophic failure, obviously. The bill was circa £900. I asked that as the car had only 60k on the clock, and had a full Skoda service history, if there might be some goodwill. They refused, saying that basically nothing over five years old is eligible. They gave me a printout of the 'computer says no' application they did. Having done some research, I feel a little disappointed, because as we can see, the original part is prone to failure, and the new part is revised to avoid the issue. Hence, it's a fault known by Skoda. So, I wonder if anyone might help me, as I am thinking about writing to Skoda UK to ask? Has anyone done that, and been successful? I'd be really grateful for your assistance. Thanks all!

Heya. Well, that's exactly where I ususally put my axle stands, and I've not ever had a problem. The subframe is (obviously) pretty strong, designed to take a high loading, so I can't really see anywhere better?

Haha fair enough! Well, it would be a boring world if we all thought the same. Having personally experienced many wheels galvanically rusted to the hub and a b*tch to remove, in my opinion a thin skim of copaslip on the mating face works wonders. But as I said, each to their own!

Yes, i'll second this. In which case, it shows a decent mechanic doing things properly too.

Hiya, good purchase, and welcome! These early screens did suffer from various issues, the fix is to take the car to a main dealer for a firmware update. The latest version seems to have cured most of the problems. The update takes quite a while though, and obviously will cost you a few quid at main dealer prices! Hope this helps, and post up some pics of your new car when you get time!

My 2014 petrol vrs doesn't have satnav...but it does have heated seats, mirrors and screen...I believe this was an option called 'winter pack.' So go figure on spec, who knows?! I love it as it is though. I don't need nav, I'm pretty au fait with where I'm going, and if I DO need nav then I just fire up jolly old Google maps on the phone and bash it in a cradle. HTH

Heya Diljit! Thanks for your post, and I'm sorry to hear what happened 😞 especially the injury. However, you're still here to tell the tale, which is the main thing. Testament I guess to the modern car's safety systems. I would suggest (however, I am biased!) that you stick to Skoda. I've had nothing but Skodas for the last 12 years now, and they never fail to impress me. My current VRS Octavia is fabulous, reliable, cheap to maintain, fast, looks nice, massive practicality - what's not to like? I hope you stay around, and good luck my friend!

Well my window doesn't drop a 'couple of millimetres' when I close it, and it doesn't rattle either, so I'd respectfully suggest that the dealer is wrong and that there's a fault. Either dismantle the door card and have a look for yourself (there are plenty of guides on YouTube) or if you're not brave enough, find another garage willing to investigate for you.

Just my opinion, no better or worse than anyone elses, but...I would not be driving my car with tyres looking like that on it. I'd be changing those immediately. Funny how some people treat tyre expenditure - for the sake of 400 quid, you're putting yours, your families and other road users' lives at risk. You're also risking writing off 10 or 15 grand's worth of car, for the sake of a few hundred quid. But as I said, that's just my opinion.

Yes, just to confirm - I enquired about this at my last 50,000 mile serivce and was informed by my main dealer that there is no fuel filter service item as such, so not to worry.

Probably obvious, but check where the headlight switch is. If it is in 'AUTO' then the lights will swivel as normal. However if you go a click past 'AUTO' to 'ON, the headlamps will work, but the swivel function is disabled...

Just for fun really. My car came with the pointless 'sound generator' fitted, and I disconnected the thing immediately. Which lead to me thinking, I know that manufacturers build new cars down to a budget for each and every component, costing it all to the penny. I've often wondered who thought it would be a good idea at VAG to sign-off on the cost of this item, rather than spending the money elsewhere in the car. Especially one built down to a budget, like our Skodas. So, if it had been you signing off the budget for this car, and you thought, like me, that the generator was pointless, what would you have spent the money on instead? I have no idea what the unit cost of these would be - ten, fifteen pounds maybe? Someone will probably know. What would that have bought instead that would have benefitted the car more? Full-size spare wheel? More sound-deadening? Under-bonnet insulation? Gas bonnet struts? What? I'd be interested to hear what other people think! Cheers and stay safe people

You're welcome my friend! As I said, it's just my thoughts, and people are welcome to make their own minds up. But it sounds like you already know what you are doing! Different additives have definitely had their place and have been useful additions in years gone by, but modern vehicle engineering, fuels and oils are so good these days that in my opinion, there is no need for them in well-maintained modern cars. Good luck with your car in the future anyway. I also see that you're quite new here, so don't be afraid to join in and discuss anything with us. That's how this keeps being such a great forum for us all!

Modern engines running modern oil really do not benefit from any additives these days. And indeed, there is evidence that they can even do more harm than good. Also, as you have stated, if you bother to use decent fuels like Shell V-Power, or the new Esso Synergy, they have decent additive packs anyway which do the job of keeping the fuel system, inlet valve stems and combustion chamber nice and clean for you. Combine that with a sympathetic driving regime like this: After starting, warm the engine gently by driving in a low gear, keeping the load on the engine low whilst it is warming up - and I mean the oil fully warmed, not just the coolant. When the engine is fully warmed right through, don't be scared to give the car a decent caning on wide-open throttle once in a while. Then when you are nearing your destination, drive gently for the last few minutes, then once stationary, allow the engine to idle for a minute before shutting down. Yes, I know that turbo-charged Skoda have an auxiliary water pump which runs coolant round the turbo after shut-down, but to me, this is still best practice as it allows the oil to flow through the turbo as it cools as well. And you'll have no problems! This regime has served me well for cars and motorbikes, including race engines, over my 35 year driving and racing career! It's all about having just a little mechanical sympathy and using decent fluids. Hope this helps!

Nice one. It's so satisfying doing your own bit of maintenance, and obviously, a lot cheaper. Well done! Was the old filter pretty grubby? When was it last changed, do you know?