WesBrooks

25,000 per annum minimum. Mostly commuting, vast majority of that on motorways. Not yet had DPF issues. Got car with 102k on the clock now has 228k. I always treat the car easy until the temp needle has settled at the 90C. I'm trying to adapt my driving style to give best chance of reaching 300k with little drama. Replacing the car now when I have no repayments on it and it has minimal value makes little financial sense. It'd take about 3 years to cover the costs of swapping to an £8k second hand greenline model. I'm interested to here the comparative merrits of a driving style that advocates getting into 6th as soon as possible in comparison to one that favours picking gears to keep the revs near 2000 when stuck in flowing traffic at 50. Yes the engine is running faster and pumping & friction losses may be higher but I think the leaner mixture would produce less soot, and so clog less. But, I don't know when the EGR comes into play. If this is it's ideal opening conditions then I may be making the situation worse as I understand the EGR to be about reducing NO emissions and it has a detrimental effect on particulate emission

This is risking running off topic here. I am interested in what I can do to reduce the build ups and a few of the comments have helped remind me to thrash it from time to time! With regards fuel, I run a premium brand and swapping to a supermarket or other fuel is unlikely to reduce build up unless someone has news that Shell VPower has terrible carbon buildup?

Yes. At least on the same brand pay more and it's Octane/Cetane levels will improve and there is likely to be more additives that focus on cleaning or lubrication. Yes, the bulk fluid is the same but as with many things a small addition on the bulk can have a notable effect on the overall performance (economy, peak power, cleaning...) of the engine. It is my understanding that the supermarkets skimp on cleaning and some of the other additives that premium fuel brands add, but unfortunately other than the octane/cetane levels there isn't much the layman can do to compare the specifications of the fuel other than seat of the pants.

As far as I'm aware the refiners don't just sell one grade of petrol and diesel. This is evident by the performance differences between regular and performance grades on the same forecourt. As far as I'm aware buyers from these refinerys are able to specify levels of additives that can increase the performance or cleaning ability of the fuel. All that said BP's top spec diesel didn't fair too well in the last test I saw online.

No gear recommendation display on my car. I have found these to generally tend to favour MPG over all else. Fair point on the flat out acceleration once in a while.

From internet searches I've found so far responses generally say avoid cheap fuel and driving style advise varies from 'you can't do anything about it, it's just a time/miles issue' to keeping the revs up. Not found anything that really shows a detailed study. It's a result of trying to get the emissions within limit (along with their cheat ECUs ;-) ) but 25,000 miles per annum (thankfully less than it used to be) in a petrol isn't too appealing. Like for like swap with the now 1.4 petrols with cylinder deactivation would be about the same on fuel costs but the 1.6 TDI eco models of the same age would still have the fuel costs of the 1.4 petrol beaten.

I've a 2 litre 2009 170bhp Skoda Superb that I use for commuting and get do high mileages compared to Joe Blogs. I've always recorded brim to brim mileage and fill levels just to keep an eye on costs and have an extra advanced warning of anything heading towards the tits-up side of the spectrum! In the past I've been able to get high mpg figures (55 on the tank average, and one 700 mile tank full with a 55l fill) between the quoted urban and extra urban when on motorway traffic that was limited to 50 by average cameras. I guess a lot of this was slip streaming. After a couple of months of driving like this the car became unhappy and often stalled and refused to start until temperatures dropped below 65C and the everything was as if nothing had happened. Nothing showed up on the computer and DPF issues would have shown up as there are plenty of sensors on that. The general consensus is probably EGR getting a little clogged up, but it is an pain of a job to get to, so not worth attempting until confirmed. I swapped my commute to a longer faster route and the car seems to have cleared itself. MPG average for tank full is now more like 45-48 brim to brim. Reduction in MPG mainly down to a 5mph increase in target cruise speed from a GPS validated 65 to 70. While modern diesels seem to be able to be driven comparatively economically for a given maximum power of the engine, it appears as if even with motorway miles unless there are a little higher up their % loading the EGR system and inlets tend to clog up. So. Main question is when plodding along in slow, but flowing traffic at say 50mph which gear would be best for reducing the rate at which everything blocks up? My guess has been to drop to a lower gear which would keep the revs and airflow up, but the ECU would probably reduce the weight of fuel per shot as it doesn't need the same amount of energy from each combustion event. Higher gearing would slow the engine and airflow down keeping the hot stuff in the cylinder longer, but in turn any requirement to speed up would require much more torque due to the lower engine speed and therefore would likely run toward the rich end of the spectrum without getting much acceleration. Thoughts? I'm tending towards keeping the engine rpm around 2000 when holding a speed for a long period of time but would be really interested to see if anyone knows of some driving style advice that is a little more in depth than the standard generic advice for economic driving!

Hi All, I've not had much joy following on line procedures for the key syncing for my Superb. Both keys unlock the car, but for some reason one won't work the boot!

225924 Alternator Failed £280 Alternator repaired with new brushes. Air conditioning will require regassing as it was discharged for access.

The temperature was remained at the dead-band 90C position, no cooling system fault light, and as far as I'm aware no squeaking from any belts! Interested to hear how far people have made it with the light flashing at them too. I guess the only major loads are the injectors and fuel pump. The display (Columbus was off) and ECU should be very efficient and the ECU will be capable of running down to the single figure voltages it'll experience on cranking.

Morning, Curious to see how many other alternators have been replaced on Mk2 Superbs without stop start? Any instances where the Alternator warning light was cured by something other than replacing the alternator? My car is at an independent and hopefully getting fixed today. They're getting a second opinion from an auto electrician before stripping things down to be sure it is the alternator. Mentioned it could be dodgy connections which would be nice, but expecting the unit to be re-wired or replaced. The light came on about 15-20 minutes from home and was intermittent. All non essential electrics off including dropping to position lights in well lit areas and it made it home, and subsequently restarted and made it to the garage. On the occasion things were a bit too quiet to be comfortable on position lights only switched the mains back on which made the warning light far less intermittent! Yeah, if I'd realised this year would entail front lower control arms (bushes shot), front wheel bearings, and an Alternator I would have changed car! Now hoping for little more time away from the garage next year!

Same thing on this page: http://www.mossmotors.com/SiteGraphics/Pages/brake_discs.html But essentially the advice that I originally advocates still applies. 1) Ensure propper initial bed in. 2) Take it easy while the pads go through there extended bed in. I think when all of the discs original machining marks are gone on the wear surface is a good indicator of this. 3) Don't hold the car still on the foot brakes for more than a brief pause. I'll add another: 4) Avoid only ever lightly dragging your brakes to slow to a stop.

This post discusses the warped disc as a myth, but discusses something that is often referred to as a warped disc which is uneven brake efficency between the pad and the disc through out a revolution. http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/-warped-brake-disc-and-other-myths In other words if you lightly applied the brakes to slow down you would feel a slight oscillation in the braking effort as the pads grip some bits of the disc better than others. Broadly speaking I think each one of the situations I have described above also describe a situation where this problem can be created. I conceed that I may indeed not be talking about warped rotors at all!

Not sure what they are trying to cure with the skim. I think a warped rotor would need replacing but warped rotors can be caused (or at least used to be caused) by and of the following. A poor break in procedure (garag procedure or the driver hammering the brakes from new once back from the garage) could also mean the contact between the pad and disc wasn't right. I guess that could warrant a skim too. New discs and pads have a break in procedure the last time I did it in when replacing the discs on my partners yaris it was a a couple of moderate braking efforts from 30 to stopped then a few more drop anchor ABS stops from 40 then the same from a higher speed. Needless to say this is usually done by the garage (for one they won't panic when they see a column of smoke coming off your disc!) for safety reasons and it can be quite difficult to find somewhere safe to do it. The instructions for the eight or so full on stops from full speed do specifically say something like 50 or 60 to 10, not stationary. The reason here is the pads and discs will get very hot and holding the brakes on while this hot can warp them. Secondly when driving the car after getting the discs and pads fitted you are supposed to take care to avoid situations where you'll be braking heavily. In other words bigger gaps and taking it easy if you are someone who sits on the speed limits or worse. You have a second opportunity here to knacker the discs if you give them no mechanical sympathy while they bed in. If not warped rotors your pads and discs may not perform as well as they should once bedded in fully. Final opportunity to warp discs is if you regularly slow down from motorway speed or fast traffic to stationary and hold the had still on the foot brake. This again holds the hot pads on the hot discs leaving one bit of the disc to cool differently to the rest and so risk warping due to internal stresses. The hand brake only operates on the rears which has to dissipate significantly less energy (back can't brake as hard as fronts due to weight transfer) and so are generally cooler. Some manufacturers have a completely different braking system for the parking brake (think toyota is one) but I think on the VAG fleet when you have discs at the back it just acts on the pads still. All that said I do wonder about the hill hold brake, and how those systems functions as the last car I had with it on it worked by pressing down hard on the foot brake and releasing when stationary. If this does work on the fronts as well as the rears then I guess they either don't care about the risk of warping or they've designed it out. Modern discs are much much thicker than the original Jag versions and so you would have thought this would reduce the risk of warping. Perhaps it's not as much of an issue as it used to be.

When my clutch, flywheel, slave cylinder, and release bearing were changed I ended up having to get the gearbox casing and selector replaced too. The input shaft bearings were spinning in the case and there was significant wear on the selector. Apparently common for high mileage examples of this gearbox on VAG group cars. I did have difficulty getting it into one gear from time to time but can't remember which that was! Gearbox much nicer now. Not sure how much of that you can check without the box being on the bench.

225052 Both front wheel bearings (genuine kits) £399.62 First time for the bearings as far as I can see. Fault description: I'd become aware of a low volume, low pitch and sometimes oscillating drone/hum. Having heard of the stories of some Skodas/VAG cars wearing the tyres in such a way it can sound like knackered bearings, and of course having just done the gearbox/clutch I was a little cautious on diagnosis. The noise did get gradually louder over miles and was most noticeable on smooth motorways. Dropping the car into neutral and letting the revs drop had no effect on the pitch or volume of the noise so fairly certain it was bearing or CV related. Reasonably sure it was the former. It finally got loud enough for my other half to notice it, and a second opinion from my father-in-law a couple of weeks ago was enough to put it on for the work. Drivers side hub assembly came apart once off the car and the passengers side felt notchy. Much quieter now they are replaced. Edit: The noise also got louder when turning a corner with the worst wheel on the outside of the corner. Appreciate a gone CV is normally indicated by a clicking when accelerating around corners but was concerned this could have been early stage of a failure. Glad I was wrong!

Hi All, Considering a Fabia Greenline 2 Estate as part of a serious cost cutting drive. I appreciate that performance will be dull compared to my Superb but really don't like loosing more money than I need to getting to work and back! My minimum requirements are Cruise Control and Auto Aircon. I do mainly motorway miles - around 450 per week just for my commute - and currently cruise at around 70. Is 70mpg a reasonable estimate for the fuel costing? 20,000 mile service interval? What are the intervals/costs on the big services? Thanks, Wesley.

Can you describe the drone? Occasionally I get a noise like driving over a white line that has the rumble strips on it but not quiet as loud. Tends to oscillate/ pulsate a bit like you'd expect an out of balance wheel on the front to do. The noise is not linked to engine speed, and does not change with dipping the clutch. Can't feel any vibrations through the wheel and a recent front to back wheel swap didn't effect it. At 220,000 miles I wouldn't be surprised if the bearing needs a little TLC!

My insurance is around the 500 mark. I'm mid 30s, 25,000 annual mileage on a 2009 170 hatch elegance. No acidents or speeding tickets for around 8 years. Far from the worst insurance rating area but on the edge of a large town, so worse than living in the sticks. Insurance groups (2008-2015): 1.6 TDI Elegance Greenline 3: 16 2.0 170 TDI CR Elegance L&K 24 2.0 170 TDI CR Elegance 4x4 25 2.0 170 TDI CR Elegance 26 Yes, 2WD elegance 170 is worse than L&K packed elegancr, or 4x4 elegance. Insurance companies run their theivery by stats, so could be due to limited L&K examples and the 4x4 slowing you down.

The online parkers guide has the UK insurance groupings. Think the 170 TDCR Executive hatch is group 24 or 26. Either way the 1.6 is much lower and my the insurance group for my project vehicle is one less and it is a 3.9l V8i '95 Land Rover Discovery!

...also look at the insurance groups for the different engine sizes. BIG differences there. Owning 170 grants the insurance company permission to wallet empty each year!

I've done about 114,000 miles on my 2009 170 and I've got over 216,000 on the clock. It's costing me £500 annually in extra diesel over the 1.6TDI. Not enough to justify changing the car but enough to miss! Yeah the 170 is nice to drive but when doing the sort of mileage and driving that the superb excels at your pouring money away driving to and from work which is very frustrating! I've not had DPF issues but I do think I'm on the verge of needing work on the EGR, and I think this problem may have been exacerbated by trying to drive it as economically as possible, light throttle extra. You only need about 50bhp, to hold 70. Obviously you need a bit more than that to allow overtaking but you don't need 100bhp/tonne. I'm wondering if the diesels suffer from under use when trying to get the most miles per tank. I did achieve one 700 mile tank but have now gone back to cruising on the motorway at 70 and 75% ish throttle acceleration in the hope of clearing out the crud.

They said they'd expect main dealers just to change the box rather than strip and rebuild it.

Bearings on the input shaft were spinning in the case. There was also problems with the selector. This is apparently a common fault with high mileage VAG cars that share this gearbox. The gear change is far more positive now and seems to be less play in the transmission. Trouble is I'm not sure hoe you'd diagnose the fault with certainty without removing the box. Got the old casing and there is little to it. I'd think welding up and machining back would be more work/cost than the new case.

214,000 ish miles. Ok, big one yesterday. It went it for a clutch kit (dmf flywheel, clutch, slave cylinder, release bearing) and got a call to say that bearings were spinning in the gearbox casing. Symptoms were rattle when cold that reduced when warm or clutch down, pulsing through clutch pedal, clunky gear change, and quite a bit of play in the gear train when you came off, then went back on the throttle. Replaced: clutch, dmf flywheel, slave cylinder, release bearing, and gearbox casing with some associated seals and bearings. As others have said the clutch change has transformed the car, and much better feel going into gears. Not cheap work, but I think a good price. OEM parts and a recommended independent in Widnes, south of Liverpool. Selector Gearbox. £1288.57 As far as I'm aware this is it's first clutch. The friction plate had worn to the bottom of the slots (just) and there is slop in the dmf that you can rattle by hand.