MikeTheThinker

Which wheels do you have on the car? A piccy would help. Might also be helpful to have a look through this:

Our daughter took loads of piccies of the car as located but the Police have asked that we don't post any until they've completed their forensics investigation. From the looks of the piccies I believe the sequence of events was something like: 1. spot the car and decide to have a root about to see what could be nicked. 2. break the front passenger window, pull out and discard the child seat that was on the front passenger seat (recovered at the original parking place) 3. have a ferret through the lockers and pockets for anything of interest 4. find the keys (stupid place to leave them, too) in the knee locker, clip the drivers' seat belt into place to silence the alarm and drive the car away to play and explore further 5. play cross country idiots for a while until a sideways slide put the car over a tree stump and it couldn't be moved 6. abandon the drive (note all doors still deadlocked) and smash the remaining windows to get at whatever was in the car, scattering stuff all over but finding little of interest. 7. run away - at least they didn't torch the car like many others have been. Their insurance company - Admiral - have been excellent and have dealt with things very quickly. Both the Police and Admiral have been told about the spare keys in the knee locker and have still accepted the claim. We now wait to see how creative the insurers will be when it comes to offering a settlement, at which point I will be pulled in to 'negotiate'

Update Monday evening: Car has been found, less than a mile away. It has clearly been robbed for a joyride then driven around fields and generally wrecked. Shame but at least the uncertainty is over. Thanks to all for the support; it helps. @john999boycan you unpin this now, please? Ta.

Result! Deal agreed and I'll be travelling to sunny Surrey to collect the car this Saturday. Daughter & son-in-law very happy (looks most unlikely their nicked car will reappear) and many thanks to Tony for going the extra mile to help with getting this sorted.

We knew what you meant, Skomaz

Seems they broke into the car by some means and went through the compartments opportunistically. Unfortunately, a spare set of keys (including a house key) was in the 'secret' cubby down by the driver's knee and we assume they used these to drive the car away. Not the smartest move IMO but the kids will know better in future! I am interested in how the initial breach was made as we have two mk2 Octys of our own, but it may be they just broke a window. We hopefully will find out if/when the car is recovered.

Thanks John. In reality, if it doesn't turn up in the next few days (abandoned after a joyride or the trip home from the pub) it will either disappear for good or end up burned out somewhere. Shame, it's a darned good car despite the cosmetic challenges.

Not the world's greatest piccy but all I have to hand:

It looks like an air intake duct from the filter box, and depending on your engine it should be shown on HERE or HERE.

As you may see elsewhere our daughter's car has just been nicked and is unlikely to be seen again, so I'm definitely interested in yours. I'll PM my mobile number. Regards, Mike

Some scrote(s) nicked our daughter's Octy estate last night from the Brookfield area of Preston, Lancashire. Car is a 2007 Octavia mk2 Estate in dark grey/silver with roof bars and a towbar. Baby seat and odds and ends inside. FN07 WCF if anyone around notices it; please let me or the Plod know. Cheers, Mike PS Piccy added a few posts down.

I don't know what your engine code is but if you take a look HERE you can see all the exhaust options for an '07 Octy 2.

As risk of possibly mentioning the obvious but are you the trip in question is sound? It is not unknown for trips to false-trigger.

It looks like the problem is part number 038 103 493 P VAG Hose, cylinder head cover breather. Initially I'd give it a good clean and then check on a regular basis to confirm where the oil is misting from. You may also be able to smell the sour engine oil smell in the cabin. Parts diagram details HERE. BTW your forum details are showing as a 2006 mk2 Octavia, not a mk1. Is this correct?

I've not listened specifically to a worn Octy cam chain but in my general experience worn cam chains 'rustle' rather than rattle. Your random tapping noise could be tappet-related instead. There are a number of threads on here regarding worn cam chains so a forum search would be of interest.

Hi Gary Whereabouts on The Wirral are you? We're over in Heswall for the time being while I work on my folks' house for (eventual) sale. Regards, Mike

I had this problem on our 1.9tdi estate (2007) as it had stood for some time before we got it. In our case, repeated use of the 'unlock' seemed to free off the works and we've not had a problem since. You could try removing the lower plastic trim from inside the door and dosing the lock works with a ptfe spray.

If you change the immobiliser and also (I believe) the board you would have to recode the key to the car. I've never had to do that but there should be plenty of 'howtos' on the Tube.

Are you sure you need the 'innards replacing? You can find replacement shells online and just transplant your old innards and key into the new case.

As a suggestion have you checked that the battery in the key is good?

Have a look at the options sticker either in your service book or under the carpet in the boot. That will tell you the engine type, gearbox, paint code and all the other options on the car. In the above case the car is a 1.9tdi ambiente with a JCR gearbox, 9154 paint and a BXE engine.

Search on fleabay for "octavia mk2 rear subframe". There are at least 2 listed at the moment. A new one from the likes of Autodoc is around 150squid plus carriage.

As far as I can see (see links below) all the mk2 rear subframes are the same but they are different to the mk3. 2007 mk2 rear support frame parts diagram 2013 mk3 rear support frame parts diagram

Did a quick Google[tm] on "GQQ gearbox oil" and the links below came up with some commentary about oils, viscosity and how to ensure the box has been fully drained: https://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/197081-1-9-tdi-GQQ-gearbox-crunch-in-2nd-gear https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/changing-manual-transmission-oil.379338/

Don't have the relevent Skoda manual for your car but Mr. Haynes quotes 1.9l for a 5-speed manual box.