Tilt

I didn't know there was an Octavia MK2 in 'sport' spec ..................

Yep ..................... Skoda should be able to help you with that one.

Lol ............... You're not the only one with that problem. When it's raining I like the way it stays half way up, as I can duck under it, but I sometimes forget just how much it hangs behind my head, so still hit it sometimes. Grrr

It's your posting ............. you can go where you like with it ............... within reason of course, Lol. Tell me about it..... When I started seriously looking earlier on this year I was unaware of the inflated prices, due mostly to a shortage of silicone chips I believe. I was hoping to find something similar to when I bought my A4, ie a quality car (possibly an 'A200 this time and no more than a few years old with low mileage at about half it's original retail price, so expecting £13 to £14K. Not a chance, try £18 to £19 grand. I best keep saving hadn't I, Lol.

Yes, it makes sense to do your cam / timing belt IMO............ especially considering the miles you do. Recently spent £1000 on mine, well actually £999.98p to be precise, Lol. Timing belt with new pump etc etc, a new MOT, an oil and filter change and it had to have new discs and pads on the rear. (Though I think if the older guy had done the MOT he would have passed it. He was the one that gave an advisory re rusty discs last year. It has been ran well since then and the brakes worked great). I replaced the front discs myself, just to be sure. I've only been considering a newer car for about 6 years now, Lol. Had this one 11 years now. My Timing belt was ............................ only 14 years old. Still in great condition according to the mechanic....... They always tell me that the brake fluid is fine and changing it as often as is usually recommended is unnecessary. (I know about the hygroscopic theory).

You. (nice way of putting it btw...........So you lot.........) If you went shopping in Tesco and put a tin of beans in your basket, but then changed your mind and put it back on the shelf, but it fell on your foot a moment later. Who would you blame for that. Would that be Tesco's fault too???

@NobbyTucker It might be nowt to do with this and I've said it before........... But I just re-soldered the contacts on the switch's mcb in the stalk, fitted it back together and it has worked ever since...... Does your switch's mcb have a push on plug or soldered wires???

I would ask why you want them??? Visual aesthetics .......... fair enough. To deflect wind ........... I'm not so sure, I have the Heko brand on my MkII estate and they suit the car very well. I purchased them so that I could leave the windows open a bit if I had to leave my doggy a short while in the car on the odd occasion. They work very well for the purpose of stopping the rain dripping into the car.

Audi A3 2009 2.0D. His dash lights dim sometimes, IIRC he said when he presses the brake pedal...... I've advised him to start with a digital battery test / readout but other than that, not sure. Any knowledge on this would be helpful. His work journey is circa 20 minutes / 7 or 8 miles.

Because they can, and their (probably) ain't a lot you can do about it. Oh, and because they are clever little 5H1T5. I'm convinced some birds dive bomb just for fun............. Well, why wouldn't ya if you could, Lol. They got nothing better to do.

I'm glad you put that as I nearly got sucked in. Well spotted. I was going to say the springs don't even look the same size............ width wise that is.

Thankfully, no. I think it would be disabled / turned off if it was, anyway. Yes, I do believe (note I say believe) the battery type requires coding, or possibly just re-coding, if a different type is used. It is usually fairly quiet on here at weekends so you may get more replies in the week............

Have you tried charging it with an external charger??? Cannot comment on the AGM battery but I have had a Bosch S5 008 on my Mk2 for ten years now........ I use a solar charger on it if it is stood doing nowt tho. And give it a proper charge every now and then if very cold / freezing weather.

Just out of curiosity......... what model??? Ambiente???

Ended up at £998.14..... inc. 6 hours labour plus Timing belt Kit, Alternator belt, Water pump, Oil and Filter with sump bung and washer. And Rear brake discs and pads and a Lower Arm Bush for / plus the MOT cost. Yes, the brake discs are about 50% MORE than what I paid for my front Brembo pair from ECP just last year. If it wasn't so freakin cold I would have considered doing these myself and the oil and filter change.......... Too cold though. So a little annoyed re the cost of the brakes especially as they braked very well as they were. They won't allow you to supply your own parts anymore BUT they are a very reputable garage and I do trust them. And I would hate to think what a franchise garage would charge me for that work. The Timing belt was actually in pretty good nick for 14 years keeping the car ticking over. It is a DSG which generally keeps the revs quite low most of the time. Anyways done now so it will give me some peace of mind and more time to try and save up a bit more dosh. It has been a good car at £5500 in 2011 with £3000 off for my traded in Transporter it replaced for work use.. And they put a new DMF on it. It is just a bit noisy for my liking now, but so easy to drive being the DSG. And it should still fetch a bit If I get around to swapping it. Good bodywork and everything works bar the A/C. Even the Sat Nav still works, for what that's worth, Lol. Thanks for the input guys.

Could have been worse though, I guess....... Originally I was intending to sell the Octavia (or trade in maybe) early this year, until I saw just how much cars have increased in price, supposedly due in the main, to a shortage of chips.......... no, not the ones you have salt and vinegar on......... but silicone chips. I was expecting to pay something around £12 to 14 grand but they are priced around £18/19 grand instead. I knew the timing belt was nearing being due mileage wise and also knew it was a bit overdue time wise............... but put it off until I realised just how overdue it was. Checking it's service history it was 14 years old. I say was as it has been done today, along with the water pump, Oil and filter change and it's MOT. Got an advisory on all of my brake discs being rusty last year but was advised that they would be fine once used regularly, which it has been. I did put new front discs on though just in case. The Brembo replacements have been excellent. Unfortunately they informed me that the rears do need replacing this year, along with one of the (aluminium housed / console) suspension bushes. I'm sure the brakes look in better nick than they did last year, and they work very effectively, but hey ho............. no choice but get them replaced. So, Instead of having a shiny new-ish motor sat on the driveway / or me driving it, it looks like I may have to live with this one for at least a bit longer and try to save up a bit more wedge. I have had the Octavia for 11 years now. It has been pretty reliable (apart from the brakes seizing a few times) but just a bit noisy particularly being the PD. Not looking forward to the bill tomorrow which I know lies somewhere between £1000 and £1100............. hence the 'Ouch', I suppose an extra £2 for every week that I have owned it is perhaps not too bad if you look at it that way., and at least it did not blow up on me (blow the engine) It is now having a well earned rest, overnighting in the garage (Lol) hoping that they are doing the rest of the work (brakes, bushing and complete the MOT) tomorrow morning, and they will road test it too. And I have asked them to save the old belt for me to have a look at. Very interested to see it's condition after 14 years and 70,000 miles of use. I hope they do save it.

@OldTrilobite Guessing that means you still use Win7 for banking then. Sounds similar to mine, though I do still rely on MSE. I believe that still gets updates. I also use Malwarebytes free......... No dodgy sites and very careful with my email. (touch wood). What I do like though is my two factor information gets sent to an older phone that never connects to the internet and always stays in the house. Only recently became slightly more awkward due to Amazon sending links rather than numbers, so have to type the link in, but I don't use Amazon very often anyway. Cheers.

Thanks guys. I actually decided to use my phone and it wasn't as difficult to sort through my statements as I thought.......... re small screen. And I think it is secure enough and un-compromised. I really do wish I had not bought my Windows 10 laptop. the updates have been a pita ever since purchase pretty much.

Thanks guys........ It is really only when driving towards an almost blinding sun............ So where the sun is shining right into the camera.

I use my phone as a dash-cam. Secure bracket screwed through the roof lining beside the light / glasses holder, and it works pretty well. Sits just to the side of the rear view mirror. Well chuffed with it in fact and with an SD card I can record in full HD The issue I have is that is is no good when driving towards a very low lying (edit. ie blinding) sun............It gets blinded / glared out. And this is a prime time for accidents happening I would think. Do dedicated / everyday dash-cameras do this or do / can they compensate for this, assuming automatically if they do / can. Cheers.

A bit of an fyi for interested parties. I had searched on this issue and found how to do a full System Extensive Test (Turn on / press ESC once a second / press F2) brings up the HP UEFI hardware diagnostics, and ran a fast test and then an extensive test. Everything has passed (just with one check / you can leave it running over and over / loop test, until it finds a fault), although it does tell me that the diagnostics version is not up to date, including how to update this. I will get onto this asap. This time the windows setup (remember I did a re-install of Win10) has all gone well although I have not connected it to the internet yet. ONE QUESTION, anyone know if it is likely to use LOADS of data for updates, or (if it continues to work properly) will the updates just be the usual and latest items?? I ask as I have limited GB and may take it to work if the updates are likely to use lots of data. Cheers

I forgot this bit. The HP BIOS has updated (or at least tried to) itself a number of times now. This is why I am unsure if it is a Microsoft or HP issue, or both????? This when it won't restart..... Windows Hardware Error Architecture. It gives me 100% complete, but it will not restart itself. I have to force it to shut down, even after leaving it a good while.

As I am having problems with my Win10 laptop (other thread) which I only really purchased for banking purposes, due to Win7 updates discontinuing last year, I am considering / looking at what other options there is for safe online banking. Especially if I cannot get my Win10 laptop working properly. What do you guys / girls use. I'm not sure if my (Android) phone is secure enough but ideally the screen is too small anyway. Does anyone still do online banking using Windows7 ??? If my laptop issue proves to be a Microsoft issue, I may consider a windows alternative. I believe a lot of guys are very happy with Windows10 though but it has not been a good experience for me so far. Being not very tech savvy I do like to stick with what I know / have learn't, but that would be Win7, Lol. Cheers.

Please note (it may be obvious) that this post is from a not very tech savvy soul..... It seems my (other) laptop (HP15s-fq1505na 10th Gen i5) has crashed, BSOD I think it is. It is only two years old and was new from curry's warehouse iirc. (how long it sat in warehouse I don't know). It generally only gets used for banking purposes checking statements and generally once a month, so also updated once a month too. It was only purchased due to the ending of Win7 updates and I was / still am happy with this Win7 laptop currently using. A good first question I need to suss out is, is it an issue with the Windows 10 OS or is it an issue with the laptop itself. (so a Microsoft issue or a HP issue). The first meltdown showed as Windows 10 stopcode / critical process died. so assuming a win10 problem. Ok, I can start it up sometimes and sometimes it fails straight away. It has struggled to do updates in the past (another thread a while ago) but this seemed to have been sorted by taking it to work and getting the office lass to connect to work wi-fi and get the updates installed. It has been fine for a while after doing this. (She has now however, moved to another job, but still with the company). I resorted to trying to reset the Windows 10 Operating System as this came up eventually on the screen, I thought I would give it a try. It seemed to work and setup starts, but within a short while it stopped working again. A screen comes up stating your computer has issues, please wait while we collect some info and we will restart it for you. (I assume this bit is HP related though???) It does not shut down at all, well, without forcing it to. The second stopcode showed after doing the reset and was stopcode WHEA uncorrectable error. Any advice on this so far will be gratefully received.

I too liked XP and still use my Win7 laptop most of the time. When I shopped for a new laptop a number of years back (needed one as I forgot I had left my HP Pavillion XP laptop open and the sun put it to an early grave) I asked for Vista and the girl said that that had been superceeded by Win7. A lucky escape there I think. A lucky escape missing out on Win8 and 8.1 too. I'm not very technical minded with computing. I,m having problems with my Windows 10, or the laptop it is on. I will start another thread for advice on this. Hopefully some of you guys will look out for it and advise if you can.