lowedb

It's not new legislation. It's been around for years. The document I found easily was from 2008. It's regulation ECE 97.01. The specific paragraph is attached. The significant part is that any signal SHALL (my emphasis) be optical. In other words shall not be audible. So technically, cars cannot arrive with a chirp from an approved alarm system that is part of the type approval. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:42008X1230(01)&from=en

I suspect that Skoda realised the option should never have been there on EU cars. I was always surprised the option was there given the ECE rule is 'no chirp'. I reckon they thought it was OK to have it leave the factory off but allow the owner to change it. But maybe now someone has told them 'actually the rules say you can't even have the option to enable it'. I know at least one other VAG brand never had the option to switch it on for EU cars (for the same reason).

No. The above does NOT correspond to me. I've been part of many forums for many years, and you are by far the rudest poster I have ever come across. Please, do not waste my time any more by calling me all the names under the sun, I have more than shown you (if you cared to listen) that I am informed and experienced in what you asked. And I politely and reasonably answered your question from direct and relevant experience and knowledge. In fact, I'm now pretty sure you are what is known as a Troll. Your presence here is not to obtain information and advice about a problem you had, but to irritate and upset members of a community that tries to help others. If you are what you say, good luck in getting help that you claim you didn't need. If you are who you appear, good luck in your trolling. Bye!

Our previous car was a 16 plate and still had the original factory tyres on when we sold it just over 12 months ago. Its had new fronts just after we sold now the rears are either only just changed, or about to be (lockdown has intervened and I haven't spoken to the current owner about it). It has way more than 30k on it (59k in March), but apart from its early life (6 months as a staff car at Skoda UK Milton Keynes) It always had winter tyres on while we had it. So at least 4 months of the year the factory tyres were stored in the shed and not wearing.

Regarding the age of the rear tyres. I don't know the age of your car, or the mileage, but it's feasible that they are the tyres from the factory. And you would expect them to be older than the car though probably only a few weeks. Also it's possible the car was actually made some time before it was registered. Put those together and it might explain it.

Some tyres are fine in the dry, and awful in the wet. Back in the early noughties Dunlop tyres had a real problem with wet grip. No idea why, but I experienced it across a number of cars, even able to compare the same model on different tyres as I was on short term leases with them. A new Micra we had came with Dunlops, and it was transformed by some relatively cheap replacements (Courier I think). So I'd agree, the first point of call is to get some half decent rubber on the front.

Thanks for the help. But isn't that what may of us said?

Is that the version in a Porsche?

Yep Millbrook proving ground near Ampthill in Bedfordshire. Done work there a number of times, the last (although almost 20 years ago) on a brand owned by VAG and on a vehicle owned by HRH. Only saying this to show the OP that I do 'kind of' know relevant cars. So on modern VAG vehicles, setting up the coding is everything, and it's not made easy. If you add something to the electrical system, and don't sort out the coding it won't work properly. ZacDaMan72 has posted a list of things that will need to be recoded. I have no reason to doubt that is correct. There are a number of ways to get that coding sorted. Dealers generally don't want to know, and indeed are often limited by the systems they have. There are alternatives but they vary in price and reliability (one tends to offset the other). For example VCDS seems to be one of the better, but isn't cheap. If you don't want to seek out someone to assist, you are going to have to buy and learn to use one of these systems, in my opinion, or you will be beating your head against a very tough concrete wall. I don't think you will get any other answer from here, no matter how much you want one, because I honestly don't think there is any other answer. BTW, on my 2012 Superb, I fitted my own towbar, having the pre-wiring already fitted from the factory. That included adding the towing electrics ECU (Electronic Control Unit). I coded that with VCDS and then it worked fine with the rest of the vehicle systems (though not a folding one).

I think there's limitations on what startup can be. For many years the emissions / economy tests had to be done in whatever the default startup mode was (and this is not just true of cars). That's why things like Start/Stop default to on and there's no (standard) option to change that. For example our dishwasher is A++ rated because it has a default ECO mode. Just a shame that it fails to clean properly so we always use auto. Bear in mind, too, that if it were different and you could get the car to remember to run in a different mode to that on which the emissions and consumption tests were done, people would be screaming dieselgate all over again, and demanding compensation.

Regarding the always on but at 5%. I guess that's possible. I think VAG now use variable displacement pumps on some models and it's entirely possible that Fabia is one. So in this case it never switches off completely just compresses much less than at full tilt. With the automatic control, if you select front demist MAX setting (a separate button) then if AC is off it is switched on (there's the letters A/C in the display). If you switch off MAX again, then A/C switches off. If however you use Auto to switch off MAX, then A/C stays on even when cold. Can't say about just selecting the 'screen' direction as we never use it.

Skoda UK have a few cars from their internal car schemes, for example for their staff at Milton Keynes. Our previous one was from MK, on a KX plate (actually Grimsby where they import them I believe). Usually only 6 months old but maybe they'd had it a while. Hard to believe the automated headlamp setting on the production line passed it though!

It's not always on with ours. We have the automatic control and there's an A/C on off button. You can certainly feel when its on or not. That said remember that just air blowing on you will feel cooler than still air. That's why you can buy fans for your house, too. So maybe it's just that?

My rear camera is particularly bad in area view mode. If I get the back of the picture car on the white line, in reality it's way before it. If I align the start of the tail lights (the front) then it's about spot on.

Solar chargers can work OK. But with limitations. Not all cigar lighter sockets are permanently connected so it's not always possible that way, but when I checked after a previous question the Furby 3 is. Small cheap panels don't have much output and although they will help may still struggle to keep up with the cars load if the weather is dull, and heading into winter. Bigger panels are great if you can get them in decent sun (my drive is to the North of the house) but you might need a charge controller to ensure you don't overcharge. I use a solar panel on one of my older cars throughout the year because it gets little use, and funnily enough the older version of the same model has a switched cigar lighter so I can't do the same with that one. This time of year it has been keeping up, but over winter it needed topping up quite significantly from a smart charger.

I bought a GB70 version after they got one at work and used it extensively and were happy with it. Only used it to power a tyre inflator so far but it's waiting if I need it!

The biggy is the rear quarter panel (wheelarch / wing). Front wings simply bolt on. Rear quarters are part of the shell so need a lot of time (labour) to replace if it needs it.

As mentioned. If it's a genuine cable and software, then you should be able to get support from RossTech. Why don't you contact them and ask for help?

Many turbos these days are water cooled, with a pump than runs on when the engine isn't. As far as I know the problem was that the oil in the turbo could overheat unless you gave it a few seconds pushing oil through while the heat dissipated.