iriches

There is no official maintenance schedule for the chain/tensioner AFAIK. The earlier EA888-Gen2 engine, as used in 1.8 and 2.0-litre petrol Mk2 Octavias, has developed a reputation for issues with the tensioner leading to chain failure and expensive damage. This has led to some Mk2 owners upgrading their tensioners to later designs to try and ward-off the issue. As of yet, I have not seen any significant reports of such issues with the EA888-Gen3 engine that you have. But I have also not been looking too closely as I have to make do with a 1.4 TSI... Others may have more info.

In a MK3 VRS 220 TSI you have the EA888-Gen3 engine. This uses a cam chain, not a belt.

I was quoted £389 inc. VAT. The car is 5 years old and has done 53,000. I paid £428 for the cambelt change and an MOT. The actual details of the invoice were a mess, as my dealership has just been taken over and they seem to be having having a severe case of "computer says no" right now. It seems the only job code they could get to stick on the invoice was for a combined waterpump/cambelt change, which they then discounted back to the cambelt only price.

On the EA211 1.4 TSI engine that you (and I) have, the cambelt is driven via a separate belt from the water pump. The are located on opposite ends of the engine. I've just had my cambelt changed at a Skoda dealership, and their advice was that it was not necessary to change the water pump as well.

There's quite a bit of reasonably readable and useful information on Front Assist in the instruction manual :-) Examples would be situations where you really need to be switching Front Assist OFF - e.g. In the following situations, Front Assist should be switched off for safety reasons. When the vehicle is being towed away. When the vehicle is on a rolling test bench. If an unfounded warning or a system action was taken. When on a truck, or a car ferry service or similar. If you've misplaced your manual then PDF versions can be found here: https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Model/Octavia_5E

Does it feel different with the lane assist on and off? I'm pretty sure it was a standard feature on a 2014 VRS. IIRC number of drivers have complained that they don't like the feel of the steering with lane assist enabled, as it does try and keep you where it thinks you should be.

That's my understanding too. MIB1 units (such as markie1810 has) were supplied with an 8GB card. Skoda managed to release an update which was too big to fit on the card unless it was reformatted with 4kB clusters, as suggested by PetrolDave. I strongly suspect that the original card and a 4kB cluster size will fix all of the issues.

That's 100% an MIB1 Amundsen unit. If the SD card you have is ~16GB in capacity it will not work with this unit. You've been sold the wrong one.

I *think* that 5L0 051 236 C part number is a 16GB card for an MIB2 Amundsen unit. I'm pretty sure your 64-plate model will require an 8GB card for a MIB1 Amundsen unit. If the SD card is 16GB in size, it's likely the wrong one.

IIRC it's Rustynuts who does the fixes. https://www.briskoda.net/forums/profile/53783-rustynuts/

The above advice for a soft reset has always fixed my infotainment system when it throws a wobbly. (About once every six months or so...) The last time I had the exact opposite to you: I could hear the radio, but the screen was completely blank, and could not be coaxed into life in any way.

There's a 2.0 190 PS TSI 4x4 showing in the spec sheets - but only in SE L or L&K trims. Maybe punchy enough for you?

Good review, and after 50,000 miles / 80,000 km in my 1.4 TSI I'd pretty much agree. The only major points of difference would be: My engine has never needed topping up with oil between services (done every ~10,000 miles /1 year) Never had an issue with the touchscreen going haywire in the cold Mines still averaging about 48 mpg (UK) (roughly 6 l/100km) Steering wheel and gearknob still fine at 80,000 km / nearly 5 years. But yes - the rear suspension and headlights are the car's two worst features. I carry a rag around in winter to clean the lights off before every journey, as the headlight washers are not enough to guarantee being able see where I'm going...

Doesn't look like there's a conclusive pattern from this thread. My Mk1 1.9 TDI 110 consistently over-read by about 5 MPG (the computer's 58 MPG to a calculated 53 MPG). My Mk3 1.4 TSI 140 also over-reads, but by about 2 MPG (typically an indicated 50 MPG to a calculated 48 MPG).

Is it easy to change? Do you have the part number?

This has just happened to my 2014 Octavia. I was on holiday, and a local Skoda dealer forced open the flap (doing no damage) and removed the lugs so that it no longer locks. Has anyone had any MOT issues resulting from such a "fix", as IIRC, a "locking" fuel system is necessary?

Agree that they are hard to see. I've had another look at my car, and they are indeed there. Apologies to all....

Just checked my 2014 Elegance model, which I've owned since it was 9 months old, and I've got no caps on the back of the seat runners either...so it's probably not that.

The 1.4 TSI with piston issues is the earlier EA111 twincharger engine. The only Skoda this was ever used in was the Fabia VRS. The Mk3 Octavia 1.4 TSI uses a different EA211 engine, so does not suffer from this issue.

Yep - that's an 8GB card for the MIB1 Amundsen system fitted to earlier Octavias (built before calendar week 22 2015). You can see that from the date on the card (calendar week 45, 2014), and the fact that you said it was only 8GB in capacity.... You definitely have a MIB2 system in the car - that can be seen by the fact that you don't actually have a CD/DVD drive in the glove box, just a blanking plate. The dealer has given you the wrong card. The Amundsen systems will ONLY work with an original Skoda SD Card. The only way you'll get it working is thus with a genuine Skoda SD card for the MIB2 system - which should be (I think...) 16GB in capacity.

Sounds to me like they've given you the SD card from a MIB1 unit (notionally 8GB in size) - but you have a MIB2 unit in your car (which is what you'd expect for a 2016 model, and matches the 12GB download size you report). If you can post images of the card and headunit we can confirm.

AFAIK, your 64-plate 2014 model should have the MIB1 unit, the same as in my car. If that's the case, then I believe that the only option for navigating and selecting media from the SD card is by the actual names of the directories/folders on the card. The ID3 tags for artists/album/title etc. are used once the media is playing, but are not used to select the media. What I do, therefore, is to organize all of my music on the SD Card into separate folders for each artist, then a separate folder for each album within the artist folder, e.g. - Artist #1 ---- Album #1 ---- Album #2 - Artist #2 ---- Album #1 ---- Album #2 etc. Note: I never use playlists - so if you make use of those there may be some tweaks / differences that others can advise on.

My 2014 1.4 TSI also has this anti-stall feature - but it is largely unobtrusive and does not cause the issues that the OP is experiencing. If I let the clutch up without pressing the accelerator, the revs will rise, but only by around 2-300 rpm. It doesn't bounce or kangaroo down the road.

I should have said - it's very much there on my 14-plate 1.4 TSI manual as well.

It's normal. On an automatic car, the click is when the "kickdown" feature operates - and the car drops down as many gears as possible for max acceleration. They use the same pedal on manual cars, where the click serves no real purpose.