chimaera

Pretty much every decent towing electrics kit comes with a 13-pin socket these days, even if it's the simpler '7-pin' setup. The Skoda 13-7 pin adapter is really cheap if you need the older style 7-pin socket.

What head unit are you planning to fit to replace the damaged Bolero unit? Unless you have a clear answer to that question, it's difficult for any of us to offer advice.

Basically yes. Whatever is inside the box, its only interaction with the engine/ECU is inserting itself between a sensor and the ECU so that it can modify the sensor reading sent to the ECU. Having looked at a bunch of the popular ones in the past, I saw nothing in their setup/installation that would allow them determine anything else about what the engine is doing e.g. read RPM, load, etc. It was plug one end into the sensor output, and plug the other end into the sensor lead going to the ECU. If there are more sophisticated devices on the market, well and good, but they're still inferior to a remap in terms of being able to control the engine behaviour properly.

No. There's a fundamental difference. A tuning box is sending bad data to the ECU so that it overfuels and overboosts relatively indiscriminately. A remap is changing the known parameters fed into the ECU to change its behaviour while retaining full control over the engine. With a tuning box, the ECU doesn't know if the fuel rail pressure or boost has gone too high because that information is hidden from it until the engine has gone way over the limits set by the ECU. With a remap, the ECU knows at all times what the actual rail & boost pressures are and can take action if they're in danger of being exceeded. Let's say a tuning box is set so that it will deliver 5 % more rail pressure above the ECU spec, or put another way, the ECU is now being told the rail pressure is 95 % of what it actually is (give or take a small bit). If the ECU's upper limit for rail pressure is 2000 bar, the tuning box will now run the rail up to 2000/0.95 = 2105 bar. These boxes are dumb devices in the sense that they don't have any feedback from the ECU to allow them to tweak/control what they're doing to the engine. They're a bunch of resistors set up so that an input signal from the sensor is manipulated to present a lower reading to the ECU. This is done irrespective of operating condition or load. The better ones may have some curves to tailor the manipulation as the sensor value changes, but they're still operating blind relative to what the ECU is doing. Consider a simple example: modern TDIs have multiple injection events per combustion cycle, generally some small pilot injections followed by the main injection event. The engine has multiple sets of injection patterns, combinations of duration and pressure, depending on operating condition e.g. cruise, warmup, DPF regen. The engine designers, and remappers, can look at all of these and tweak the injection patterns exactly so that the right amount of fuel goes through as it's needed, so maybe a short pilot injection and the rest of the fuel in the main injection during cruise, or under light load, just small pulses of fuel as the flame propagates down the cylinder. During DPF regen, they might want to avoid too much fuel in the post-injection but still push fuel during combustion. And of course, all of this can be matched to the turbo's behaviour to ensure the best use of fuel and air to maximise power without damaging things or clogging everything up with soot. All of these things are under the control of the person writing the map, and leave the ECU in full control of the engine when they're done. The tuning box is incapable of this level of sophistication in managing injection behaviour. All it can do is turn up the rail pressure so that more fuel flows during each injection event, regardless of whether that's a good idea at that point in time or not. So yes, there's more fuel during the main injection, but there's more fuel during the pilot injection too, and more fuel during post-injection for DPF regen, more fuel any time the injector opens. Imagine all that extra fuel draining down the walls of the cylinder after a mid-regen shutdown?

I've already explained at length how it is inferior. Fooling the ECU into overfuelling and overboosting is not the same as remapping the ECU to adjust its operating parameters.

Factory towing prep means that a certain amount of the cabling for towing electrics would be preinstalled at the factory, so you would have less work to do to install the electrics (and you would use a different kit). Either option is still best with dedicated/OEM wiring as it integrates better into the vehicle's other systems and it is a cleaner install. The Westfalia kit linked a few posts back is a good option if you don't want to get the Skoda version.

PR codes are 1D0 for no factory prep and 1D1 for factory prep. I'm struggling to dig up much information on the wiring kits from ETKA, but it looks like the OE part number for the wiring kit for cars with factory prep is EEA800002EL. Westfalia's UK website doesn't show an option for this from what I can see.

If you have no interest in tuning boxes why are you so keen to defend an objectively inferior solution?

One other thing to check before you order is whether or not your car has factory towbar wiring prep. The option code for it will be printed on the options label inside the cover of the service manual (there's also a copy of the label in the spare wheel well). Go to http://igorweb.org/equidec.aspx and enter the codes printed on the label to see if you have towbar prep or not. If you do, you need a different wiring kit.

IIRC the ignition needs to be on & the door closed for it to work. Beyond that @langers2k's suggestion is worth trying, or see about a diagnostic scan to see if the controller has stored any faults.

My initial thought here is that the key has retained the original memory setting and the car is trying to revert to the key's stored setting every time you get in. That may be why you can't program setting 3 as well. To match the key to the memory, move the seat into position, store the memory using the buttons on the seat, then remove the key from the ignition and press the unlock button. You should here a ding from the instruments confirming the setting.

You fundamentally misunderstand what choice supportive bias is. It is not the same as confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is seeing the results you want to see or distorting the evidence to support a pre-conceived theory. Choice supportive bias is not wanting to see the flaws in a product you have invested in and are happy with e.g. in this case, buying an expensive tuning box and not wanting to accept that your expensive purchase is not as good as you want to think it is. It requires you to accept that you made a poor purchasing decision. Darkside's work as presented in the video is sound from an engineering perspective. It is exactly the sort of test that should be done with these devices to highlight their deficiencies compared to a remap. I would have liked to see a teardown of the boxes after the tests were done, but I suspect Darkside would be opening themselves up to accusations of reverse engineering for commercial gain had they done that. The problem with the video is that Darkside sell a competing product to these boxes. This leaves room for champions of tuning boxes with their choice supportive bias to accuse Darkside of confirmation bias. Thus we continue going around in circles.

Customers will have choice supportive bias: basically not wanting to acknowledge that the thing they have invested time and money in might be rubbish.

It's free to create an account. After that you pay for access for an amount of time. An hour is around €10, 24 h is about €30. The 24 h is usually enough to find your way around and download all manuals for your car.

It's more likely to be the dampers than the springs that need replacing. Once they wear & the gas capsule loses pressure, you'll lose 10-15 mm of ride height easily.

I think it requires some upholstery pliers. It's not a job I've tackled though my seats are not heating either and I'm feeling it in the mornings lately. If you didn't want to pay through the nose at a dealer, I'd imagine it'd be well within the skills of a trimmer.

You can purchase the Skoda service manual at https://erwin.skoda-auto.cz/erwin/showHome.do

The heating mat in the seat cushion is known to fail, so that may be what's happening here. The mat in the base also includes the temperature sensor for the entire seat - if that's gone, you'll get no heat out of it.

72 dB is quite loud. Michelin Cross Climate in 225/40/R18 is only 69 dB.

Can't remember offhand. There's a list in the owner's manual though.

These cars do not cope well with low battery charge. I'd suggest trickle charging it at least overnight and see how it is in the morning.

Any damp patches on the carpets? What condition is the battery in?

The BL part is the driver's door harness for LHD cars. It looks like the AL part has been superseded by the BL one. I'm struggling to find RHD part numbers right now. I'll try and take a closer look later.

A map update is not the same as a software update.

Low SAPS is required to avoid killing the DPF prematurely with oil ash.