jimbojames

Welcome to the forum! Can I ask why you want to update the firmware? Are you having problems? As I understand it from other posts, updating the firmware is a dealer only thing, and only done if there are issues. I don't think it will give you any extra features.

My 2013 Vrs was starting to feel a little loose lately, and it's normally really solid on corners (if driven within it's limits!) Found the lower control arm bushes were starting to tear, replaced the arms, all back to tight and solid again. It's on 160k miles, so not surprising really.

Ah OK, I wasn't sure where the pressure was measured from. When it was regassed, the fill pressure went up to around 5 bar, so to me that meant still full of gas. I didn't mean that pressure meant it was fully working though. I'll check the shear plate on Saturday, my next available free time, but other than that, it'll be time for someone with the right equipment to check it over it seems. That's the problem these days, I'm more than capable of fixing most things (my day job) but haven't got the specific knowledge or equipment for everything!

Well, seems lack of gas wasn't the only issue, I'm back to no more cold air today. Checked with my obd11, and I still have 5 bar of refrigerant pressure, so that's fine. When I turn on the air con, the compressor current is reading 0.82 Amps. Anyone know if this is normal?

I've got a cheap OBD device £15 years ago I think, that I use with the app Torque on my android phone which was £5 I think. It's good for looking at live data, but only gives a very broad guess at faults as @Paws4Thot said. I've since got the OBD11 and it's far superior. Just keep getting vag vehicles and you're fine!

There's superskoda, (or what used to be superskoda anyway) https://www.kopacek.com/skoda/octavia-iii/17-facelift/ Sadly they've increased shopping just to the UK since brexit, so it's not as cheap as other places. Got the face lift one though.

Ah OK, driver side and passenger side is the other way round in UK!

That certainly looks like the problem! Left side not cooling, left side fault. Hopefully someone can point you in the direction of its position in the car.

I've had a similar issue on and off for a while with mine, same year, but 160k on the clock. It's possible you've got oil on the sensors for the cam angle on the intake and/or exhaust. One of them is right next to the oil cap. Take the plugs off, and see if there's oil inside making a bad connection. I've very inexpertly circled their location here! If you have access to vcds or obd11 etc, you can check what the sensors a reading

I went for the Revo stage 1 map. I got it on 75k I think, now on 160k. Didn't upgrade anything else, still on original clutch. I did need to replace the turbo though, and I have a 2014 petrol 230... What year is yours? There's a known issue with the actuator on the turbo that can seize up, and cause catastrophic damage to the engine if the turbo over spools, thankfully mine seized only slightly open, so no damage to the engine. VAG USA did a recall on them, but not in Europe...

I've just had my 2014 Octavia regassed for the first time since I got it. The tech pulled a vacuum on it first and left it for about 10 mins while we were chatting to check for leaks. None found, so regassed it, back to ice cold. Don't take it to halfords are similar, they don't vacuum it first, they just use the little disposable bottles to jam as much in as they can. Find a back street garage somewhere that does regassing, they tend to have the portable machine on wheels to vacuum and regas.

I've got a 2014 mk3 Vrs petrol DSG. Best car I've ever had, but the fuel economy isn't great. I've been using the fuelio app for the last 4 or so years, so here's my mpg log. My work commute is around 50 miles a day on the A19, so get around 40mpg on that run, but pretty much everywhere else I go is minor A roads or round towns which drag the average right down. I tend to drive sensibly most of the time, but need to have a bit of fun every now and then! I had it stage 1 mapped before this log starts, but my fuel economy went up very slightly since then.

I certainly will! Though you never know, it might come with a really nice thick finish on it....

I work maintenance at a car factory in the North East (I wonder who!) and I really shouldn't have been surprised by all this. Car manufacturers these days seem to put the absolute minimum into quality just to get it through its warranty! Truly a throw away society now.

I've got a screwfix near me, so just put this stuff on, my superstar neighbour has offered me his little run around clio to use until parts arrive, (he's got a brand new Octavia Vrs that I'm very jealous of) so this stuff just needs to hold while it's parked on my drive (on a slope so no oil touching other than the tiny bit to roll the car down from my garage). All parts ordered, £255. That's the side cover plate, front cover plate, gaskets for both, new oil and filter. I was planning to do the oil and filter later on this year anyway, so I'm not too sore about draining it all now.

Hi all, had a rather shocking discovery today on my 2013 Petrol VRS DSG! I've just been replacing the front wheel bearings (2nd time since I've owned it, on 160k miles now...) and noticed a little bit of oil on the under body tray. Took off the inner wheel liner, and under trays to find the side cover on the gearbox had a few rust pimples, including a rather large one. I made the rather foolish decision to poke at it, and a nice chunk came off, revealing a lovely hole right into the side of my gearbox!! 😱 The overall condition is pretty shocking considering it's been above covers all it's life, where could it have got any damage from?! You can just see in the corner of the photo that the front cover is also really badly rusted with some really deep pitting in places. That'll need replacing too. I'm in a bit of a pickle now as well, cos as soon as I lower the car back down on its wheel, oil starts dribbling out of that hole! I'm currently pricing up parts/oil etc before I brave lowering it down, then quickly backing it down my drive to a slope where hopefully the oil will stay inside! Has anyone else ever come across something like this? The car is 9 years old with 160k miles on it, but surely this shouldn't happen yet!

I had a tiny leak of petrol on the large thread on the front of the high pressure fuel pump on my 2013 Vrs, new pump was silly money (out of warranty), so just unscrewed the thread and put some PTFE tape on it! Been like that for 6 years now.

I've had my 2013 petrol vrs with the DQ250 for 8 years now, it's got 155k miles on it, and does occasionally do the little jump/shunt thing since I first got it. It only ever happens if I'm in a bit of a hurry, and don't let it get into gear properly first before setting off. It was serviced at around 40k, and at 90k, but haven't had chance to book it in again yet. Never had any issues with it, just treated it carefully, even with the engine stage 1 revo mapped at 85k.

Ah OK, interesting stuff. I've seen welding nuts on many times in many YouTube videos, never been in a position to try it myself yet though, this may be the time! I've used heat before from my little propane torch, it just takes ages. Thanks @J.R.!

Thanks @TheClient some great advice there. I very much like the sound of the 2x4 method for getting the strut out, instead of trying to take the whole hub assembly out. I've managed to find the pinch bolt in autodoc, though it wasn't in the section I thought it would have been! Got two of them on order, as no doubt the other side will be the same. I'll just take more care and use far more penetrating fluid! I'm thinking for the stuck one, soaking in liberal amounts of penetrative fluid and using the nut to put a bit of pressure on it should possibly loosen it, failing that I'll give the screw extractor a go. I'm going away for a few days, then it's the whole Christmas/new year carry on, so I'll get back onto this in the new year once parts have arrived. Just glad I've got my land cruiser for winter back up!

Morning all. Has an interesting one yesterday. Took my 2013 Octavia 2.0 TSI VRS in for its mot yesterday, confident there wasn't anything wrong with it. Turns out I was very wrong! It failed on a snapped front offside suspension spring, and going by the amount of rust on the end of it, I'd say its happened quite a while ago. It's snapped at the top of the spring, so right up in the wheel well, and I'll admit to never checking that before. I've had a few rear springs snap on my old mk2 Octavias over the years, but never a front spring! Sadly, the story doesn't end there... I got a new spring (pair of) from Euro Car Parts thinking it'd be a fairly straight forward repair, boy was I wrong! First off, I couldn't break loose the front wheel bearing bolt. Bear in mind I fitted that a couple of years ago, and torqued to spec. Thought I'd work around that, so continued. Got the brakes and brake carrier off with the usual fight given the amount of aluminium corrosion in the bolt holes in the steering knuckle (foreshadowing!) Got the anti roll bar links off, but they fought me too, the allen bolt hole has seen better days, (I'll replace that while I'm on). The suspension strut bolt however was another matter. Got the nut loose just fine, but the splined bolt itself was crazy tight. Without checking assumed it must be threaded through the knuckle (silly me). Got my big breaker bar out to get it loose, and the head sheared off!! This is an M14 splined bolt, so not small at all! The amount of aluminium corrosion must be mega inside that hole... It makes me annoyed once again that car manufacturers have opted for a cheaper, lighter material that isn't well suited at all to a climate that needs roads salted every year. Anyway, now I'm gonna have to drill out and replace the offending bolt. A few questions then: Does anyone know where I can get the bolt from? Autodoc just seem to sell replacement nuts. What can I use to protect the inside of the bolt holes? Is copper slip OK for this application? If I ignore the wheel bearing bolt for now and take the drive shaft out of the gearbox, will I let the oil escape?

I've decoded most of the things from your post (I'm bored on night shifts!)

Yep, that's it. 5th from the left, top row, '1KD' is your brake option.

Have a look in your owners manual, there should be a sticker placed in it with all the different option codes for your specific car, top row 5th from left is the brakes option.

The cons I found with them is when it's raining. At motorway speeds, the rain peels off the top nicely, but anything slower and it tends to drip off right onto the middle of the window, which in the winter means you get mucky water all over your drivers window! I take them off during the winter now. These are the ones from superskoda so maybe give those a miss.