Breezy_Pete

No.

Item 3 in whichever of these two diagrams applies, by the look of it (view on computer, not phone to see all info): diesel: coolant pipe; auxiliary heater - Octavia(OCT) [EUROPA 2015 year] (7zap.com) petrol: coolant pipe; auxiliary heater - Octavia(OCT) [EUROPA 2015 year] (7zap.com) Comes with bits of hose by the looks of the images.

Diesel or petrol engine?

Yeah, I think it must be this, though you'd think that ought to have been picked up as a separate fault. Last night I was thinking in terms of exhaust leak affecting one or other of the wideband pre-cat sensor or 'normal' post-cat one, both of which are very close to the engine. But a leak further back - much more likely - could affect lambda as measured at the tailpipe by their machine without there being anything much wrong with how the engine is actually running. Flexi section probably prime suspect, or one of the dual-sleeve joining pieces.

It's so far out I even wonder about their machine or operator?

Running extremely lean*, check brake servo vacuum hose and for other air leaks, but yeah, needs a code read too. Is emissions warning light not on? Approx geographical location? * See later posts.

I don't understand how there can be any clutch release bearing involvement if the noise only happens when the clutch pedal isn't pressed. My picture of how a clutch works is that the release bearing only does anything at all when the pedal is pressed? More likely the bearings at the far end of the shafts, I'd say. e.g. I Found The Gearbox Noise On The Skoda! - YouTube

Could you clarify what you mean by in and out, please? In = pedal to the floor? Out = not?

Would need to know the last 8 numbers of the VIN to be sure (or you could check if they are in the range 54421760 - 64648255) , but it looks like this one if the car was built before May 2006. Don't know if a dealer would be interested; probably only if you bought the part from them.

This is the view you can get from above on a 1.2/12V, with just the engine cover removed, I think. Just visible beyond the starter motor:

I would fall off my chair in surprise if any such customer/environmentally friendly planning has happened.

Depends, it may show the presence or absence of a freewheel pulley, depending on the angle you've caught. Cable breakages are almost always at the area highlighted in my photos above though, which you may well be able to see looking down from above, I'll link you to a thread with lots of photos. Page one, two different cars, red one most like yours. load signal alternator cable - Skoda Fabia Mk I - BRISKODA The alternators tend to start up without the blue wire, but only once a certain rpm is exceeded, this mostly causes problems with diesel variants, where some journeys may never surpass the necessary rpm, so the alternator never starts charging. The cable damage is usually very obvious, like dead-ends of wires that go nowhere, because they've completely snapped. You can add in lengths of any old cable to bypass the connector pair if there's not enough available to reach by whatever repair method you choose. Really not sure of the relevance level, to be completely honest.

This is the one I've got. Probably a good plan to check that this is what's in your current unit before we go too far.

I'm near Abingdon, Oxon; so posting seems the obvious way of getting it to you, if you PM me a delivery address we can discuss payment there.

I'm pretty sure I've got a spare relay I could send you; or as you're not a huge distance away I could fit one to the original unit here 'while you wait' (or by post) if you wanted, for a small consideration. Easier to just swap in another whole unit though. If you can get the coding of the current one via a VCDS autoscan, then just poke that into the replacement unit once fitted.

The latch pushes inward to release, towards the main bit of the connector, from memory. May take a fair pull to disconnect though. You could probably do it with plug in though, just by poking a paperclip or similar in the cable entries of the relevant pins to short them, bypassing the relay.

Thanks for that Nige, yeah, no idea what that equipment may be. Any idea on location?

I'm nowhere I can check the value of that fuse just now, 10 amp rings a bell? Take a spare with you tomorrow, and try to locate that heater connection just in case.

I just try to have a shred.

I'll give you that one, but my point of not trusting everything you read stands, I feel. 😊

"Clean Diesel" ring any bells?

So the best answer you could have given to my request for supporting evidence is: "No, I cannot, I was just parroting stuff I'd read". That would've been fine.

(Good) Science needs to be done by independent parties with no financial interest in the experiments. Varta are not that.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant documented, repeatable, measurable differences; Scientific evidence, rather than assertions from other parties. This statement near the end is interesting, shame they don't name names. Many car brands do not even require an active recoding as the system recognize the new battery by itself.

Please supply evidence to support this assertion.