MarkyG82

If shocks are just not performing as preferred then smaller wheels (more rubber) will help with comfort. If shocks are worn then they should be replaced before a wheel change. Bad shocks are bad shocks regardless of how deep the side walls are on the tyres.

That's only 5mm ride difference, not 10mm.

I must agree. Even now not owning a Skoda (after 2 Octavias) I return to these pages almost daily for the well informed discussions and I learn something most days.

What I've done with my Passat is to turn the octopus control off. Not had any issues with them knocking me off yet and it's been like that since September. Do I can now time all my charging and preconditioning with the car timer. One thing you lose by doing it that way is the extra slots you get via the intelligence. Edit: I also found that octopus didn't realise my car couldn't charge at 7kw so it didn't ever give it long enough to get a full charge. Most I ever got was 17 miles out of a usual 28 at that time of year.

It may feel unbalanced with different tyre brands/models. But then may not depending how hard you drive and how sensitive you are to that sort of thing.

To do a proper visual inspection requires you to turn the engine over 2 full rotations. The 1.5 might be different due to the required tooling but usually it's cost prohibitive to just inspect. You may as well change it by the time you've looked at the whole belt. Most garages I suspect will just open the cover up and look at the small section they can see. That's not a visual inspection as far as I'm concerned.

VED is the same for all cars with combustion engines from 2017 regardless of hybrid capabilities. Granted the alternative (read hybrid) fuel cars are £10 pa cheaper. That's not a big enough difference to bring VED into the discussion.

Is that really true? I assumed the wet clutch variants (particularly DQ250) were the most common.

@Esseesse200 how are you finding the konis? I'm 2½ years in and it's never felt right. Admittedly they were fitted incorrectly in the front which was corrected by a good friend mechanic while doing another job for me. That was after 6 months so I've been going 2 years as is. I find the frequency selective bit to blow through the travel when I would rather it gave support. I have often hit the bump stops particularly on the front. More so than any other car I've owned by a big margin. Been looking at swapping out for bilstein B6. Had the same spring/damper combo on my Octavia and it was great. That was a torsion beam rear though and a lighter car. I keep going round in circles with what to do as swapping out will be ~£1k. I've tried to find someone with this platform that has tried both but it's like a one or the other situation.

Just be aware that a skoda service history doesn't necessarily mean it has had all the correct stuff done. It just means that what was done has been recorded. If DSG then it should be coming up for it's 3rd gearbox service. By the book it should being having brake fluid every 2 years (I think), although this is not done by many and they aren't all skidding off the road. Regular cabin and air filters. I'd expect at least one fuel filter in that time. Have the brakes been done since new? If not then it may suggest some very gentle motoring. That would put me off as the engine (DPF) would have needed a blast now and then. 6k per year is quite low but they could have all been motorway miles. Otherwise sounds like you could have found and ok car. Has it been modified in any way? e.g. lowered, different wheels, trim colouring. If not then the previous owner is likely to have been a normal driver. If yes then it may have been an enthusiast. Either of which has benefits in how they look after their cars.

@Rooted we've discussed similar in another thread and your thoughts on the condition of tyres "checked" at last MOT certainly rings true with my findings in local carparks etc. The number of times I've seen tyres worn so far to be bald is frightening. They must be crazy hard to drive on in the slightest be of wet. Tyre types aside, you need to be legal as a bare minimum.

Just to clarify, the pedal box is different to a tuning box. It doesn't alter the power at all. @Esseesse200 You probably know this, I am just clarifying for others who read it.

Cross climate 2? Using them in place of full winter (UK spec)?

So I got the CP removal and FEC/SWAP the wrong way round. Been a while so apologies.

More steps required. @pab567 will see you right. Simplified, the steps are: install new unit and go to dealer for component protection to be removed, send old and new unit off for swap codes to be copied, install new unit. Does the bolero system have a glovebox unit? If not then the cables will need sorting to allow that and the screen to be plugged in.

The 1.4 is a particularly nice engine to drive. The 1.5 in comparison is very smooth and predictable if a little dull. One thing to bear in mind is that both those will come with the dry clutch 7 speed dsg (DQ200) which can be reliable but has been know to have issues. The bigger engines have wet clutch variants 6 and 7 speed (DQ250 and DQ380/381). dont let that put you off. If looked after and had any recalls carried out they are all good.

I think you should be ok on the parts selection front. Like discussed already it would be hard for an insurance company to define all the different shocks available. PCP with lack of OEM parts is something you need to work out/take the risk on. On the 2 vs 4 swap. The hypothetical situation you describe: yes you may have a leaky front shock which requires the pair to be changed. If then leaving the rears part worn I would suggest you would notice the imbalance. Especially as you are clearly quite sensitive to suspension issues (not necessarily a bad thing). Take it further and fit B6 shocks to the front and leave potentially weak shocks at the rear.... the imbalance would be too much I think. The rears are cheaper to purchase and cheaper to install. If going to the effort and expense of fitting good quality parts to the front I think you would regret not doing the rear. Returning back to the subject of B6 shocks. I had some on my octavia and it was great. Currently about 25k miles on Koni Special Actives on my passat and seriously considering swapping out for B6 all round. They just don't feel safe and consistent. Unlike the B6's which felt supportive and predictable. Rules and regs of PCP and insurance aside, you would not be dissapointed.

So put all seasons on each wheel. If it's not clear yet, I'm not a fan of mixed tyres. If you can afford to have a pair of wheels/tyres for the colder months you can probably afford the full set.

@Rooted I usually value your knowledge and I would have hoped you would see through my comments above. In all cases I would avoid fitting mixed tyres to a vehicle. I would actually follow your past advice in fitting good summer tyres all round instead of mixed. In this instance the OP had commented in a previous thread that he didn't wish to get in a discussion on the mixed tyre topic so I left it. In this thread people asked the question so I gave the industry standard response. There are even tyre fitters out there who will not fit less worn tyres to the front. Make of that what you will.

Coming back to the original set of questions: Yes you should notice an improvement in handling and stability with B6 shocks. The only party who can advise if fitting is acceptable on a PCP car is the provider of said PCP. - What I think will happen: the company will ask why you are changing the parts if not worn out. If you say it's not performing correctly they will suggest you get it investigated and replace with OE parts. The imbalance of the car if fitting B6 shocks to just the front will feel bad. If doing it you should do all 4. A front drive car is more affected by changes at the rear for things like handling.

Take a look on tyrereviews youtube channel. The safest way is to have the more grippy tyres on the rear. It's definitely counterintuitive but when you start to look at the physics and when you want the most grip (emergency reactions) havnig more grip at the rear help keep the car stable. If you have more grip at the front then the rear will break free more readily and cause wild oversteer.

On the Passat you can set off peak charging time which starts charging at the start of that slot. Then the preconditioning bit does the AC etc for your departure time. I have the off peak set to finish after the departure time so it tops up the battery as it gets used by the car heater.

I have the dtuk one. Easy to install and able to transfer to other cars. Mine came from a golf gtd and has been on my old diesel Octavia and now my Passat gte. All with no recoding. I would also suggest that a pedal box with no remap is a worthy option. If you can find a used one then maybe give it a shot as you will lose very little if you wanted to sell it on.

Is it the DQ250 gearbox? They are quite well known to tuners (although maybe not 1000Nm!!!) and are quite reliable. Was the gearbox serviced at 40k miles? My suspicion would be no due to the failure at 59k. The 2.0 tdi takes a tunes quite happily but make sure you have done all the relevant servicing. I didn't do a dsg tune on my octavia (DQ250) but did have a pedal box installed which solves 70% of the gear change issues that people complain about. Combined with the engine tune it make the car far more eager to change gear when asked.

@Carlston's ability to gather data knows no bounds!