sez

Thanks! Ordered new battery (Varta) earlier today.

I have a 1.8 petrol Superb Estate with keyless entry. Car wouldn't start last night. After being jump started this morning it is ok at the moment, but battery needs replacing. Currently I have a Banner 70aH battery. I have checked the Euro Car Parts site and put in my reg. I see that Bosch seems to be a popular replacement with several owners on here. ECP has three Bosch options for me, 70aH, 74ah and 77ah. Should I go for the 74 or should I opt for the higher 77? Am I correct in assuming that any of these options will be of the same/similar size to the existing battery, or should I be checking battery measurements to see what would fit best? Finally, I have read some useful threads explaining which order to do things and that some things may need resetting after the battery change, like windows, seats, etc. Is there anything else I need to consider as it is keyless entry?

Thanks psycholist. Yes I was struggling to find a definitive answer and saw lots of conflicting advice too. I would assume H would be ok if a a skoda dealer is offering that, but wanted to make sure first! Yes, 94 load rating will definitely not be negotiable. Thanks for comments re road noise too. I will certainly check that out.

Local dealer called yesterday to say they couldn't get steel rims. So I am back to probably getting them from Skodaparts. Just one other question please. My spare tyre has a speed rating V. Skoda are saying these winter wheels are supplied with H rated tyres. From what I can see this may be slightly under the quoted max speed. Have read somewhere that it is ok to drop down one rating in the speed with winter tyres? Should I pay a little bit extra and just get wheels and tyres separately and stick with 94Vs instead of getting 94Hs? I am getting a bit confused by all of this and just want to make sure what ever I do is right and not going to cause an issue with insurer.

. Yes that was a consideration too. Although probably the increased cost for 18" tyres and the cost to get them swapped over twice a year would probably be more costly than this route. From what I have read the 16s will probably cope better with all the pot holes that are appearing in the roads around here than 18s would? What is the best way to store the summer wheels? Some sort of tyre tree? Or something else?

Thanks for all the replies. I had a look to see if I could find any used alloys. Couldn't see anything reasonably local/reasonably priced. If I had thought about this a bit sooner, I could have taken my time to find some. For convenience, I am going with steel wheels. Friday I could feel the car slipping a few times in the snow (despite driving slowly) and this morning I had trouble getting parked back on the drive, so the sooner I have winter tyres on the car the better! No idea why I didn't consider them years ago!! My local dealer has agreed to match the price offered by Skodaparts, so I will save on the delivery cost and they will fit them for me too. I know this is not the attractive option and if I waited I could probably find some decent alloys for a similar cost but both hubby and myself are keen to get winter tyres ASAP on my car (quite a lot of my driving is with our four year old son in the car). I can live with the steel wheels. I rang my insurance company (Direct Line) this morning to check there would be no problem with the change. I had read some people had experienced problems with them but they were fine. Said to confirm when put them on and then when taken them off but there was no change to my premium. Hopefully I will have winter tyres on my car by Thursday. Once again, thank you all for taking the time to reply.

Thanks for the reply silver1011. I agree the alloys look better and that's a good point about wearing them down to the legal limit, once the tread is a bit too low for winter. I have been back to enquire about the availability of any alternative tyre brands. I have been offered Goodyear Ultra Grip 9 for an extra £100. Anyone think this would be worth the extra? My initial thoughts are probably not, but I am certainly open to any opinions from those who are more knowledgable than me!

Thanks for the reply. I will take a look at the auto express winter tyre tests.

Having been reading about the benefits of winter tyres, I am considering buying a set for my estate. Does this look reasonable? http://www.skodaparts.com/product/new-octavia-a5---new-superb-16-inch-winter-tyres-and-steel-wheels-38275 I have been told the tyres are Uniroyal MS PLUS winter tyres. I realise that maybe buying in the middle of winter is not the best time, but having recently experienced some sliding on wintery roads, I am hoping switching to winter tyres would be of benefit. I would prefer to purchase new rather than look a secondhand options. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Yes I was surprised when I first saw it that I hadn't managed to notice it on any previous occasions. Particularly as I seem look at the dash regularly! It isn't easy to miss! Maybe I was previously so focused on the lights staying and the wiper not working that I missed what was quite possibly right in front of me!!

A bit of a late update to my original post. The dealer didn't update the sat nav to v9 maps when I purchased the car in October 2013, despite me asking for this to be done, before completing the purchase. They then kindly offered to update it for me for just £195. I complained to Skoda UK. It was agreed in would be updated with v10 when this was available. Had to chase a few times as there seemed to be a long delay with the dealers actually getting this update. Dealer I purchased car from, arranged with my local dealer to do update for me. Cost would be £25 which dealer I purchased car from would subsequently refund to me. When my local dealer finally got v10 maps in, in August, they kindly updated it for me for free. I am happy that I had a positive result.

Doh!!! Even though I feel like a right muppet, I will post a follow up on here. Skoda couldn't find anything when car was serviced. After that, when it happened again, I noticed a car symbol appear on the MFD. I didn't remember seeing that on previous occasions. Anyway it turns out the boot wasn't shut properly on my estate, so that was the problem!

I have to agree that after replacing the battery in my key fob, my keyless entry has worked perfectly. After being intermittent, it suddenly got considerably worse and hardly worked at all. After a few weeks I got a replace battery in key message.

Had my badges replaced under warranty before I completed the purchase of the car last October, as well was some of the window trims. Car was about 19 months old.

Well it took a little while, but the problem has now re-occurred on three more occasions. Not a big surprise to me! Car needs to go in for a service soon, so I will ask them to investigate this as the same time.

I have been still chasing for my update to v10 maps. Skoda UK informed me last month that the updates were only just going out to the dealers. The dealer I bought the car from has agreed that I can get mine updated at my local dealer, rather than driving approx a 200 mile round trip to get v10 maps from the original dealer. I have been informed my local dealer will charge me £20 but the original dealer will then reimburse me. So as long as this all happens, I will be happy with the outcome, even if it has taken so long to get to this stage. Having contacted my local dealer on 6th June, they confirmed they are still waiting for v10 maps. Sounds like it should be imminent. So despite the v10 maps being available for about 6 months, it sounds like the dealers are only just getting the updated v10 maps in now. Sarah

My Columbus froze this morning. I got home from the supermarket and the radio kept on playing even after turning the engine off and getting out of the car. The screen was going off, like it had shut down, but the radio continued playing. I tried restarting car and playing around with buttons and settings. Nothing. Wouldn't play the CD, or play any other radio stations even though the screen display was changing appropriately. I also noticed when I tried to adjust the volume it had 'voice' there. So I checked the manual in case I had accidentally activated the voice control, which I have never used but nothing worked. I end up unpacking the shopping and then driving to my local dealer. They had a look and said it had frozen and did a reboot for me. I will try to remember the soft reset, in case this happens again, which I suspect it might!

Local Skoda dealer ran diagnostics test this afternoon. Nothing came up. He said they did a reset too. Said if problem reoccurs to get back in touch as they would then need car for a day to look into it some more.

Yes I end up using the key fob. I have noticed it seems less responsive at times when wet. It always seems to not work when I am holding onto my three year old in one hand to stop him running off in the car park and the other hand is full carrying bags, books, etc, or when I have lots of shopping! Having just quickly read part of the manual, unless I am mistaken, it seems to be saying that if you don't unlock the car within 60 hours of locking it then the KESSY on passenger door is deactivated and after 90 hours the drivers door is too. I do seem to find it doesn't work if I haven't used car for few days, so this may be why. Still doesn't explain why it sometimes doesn't work after only about 10 mins! I will pay closer attention to which times it doesn't work and when I also get the no key found message inside the car. Sarah

Thanks! Tried ringing local Skoda dealer but said servicing depot closed at 5pm despite their website saying 6pm. Will try ringing them tomorrow or pop in after taking little one to Nursery school.

Don't know if it varies but dealer I purchased used car from wanted to charge me £195 to update to v9, when I had asked specifically to check maps were up to date before purchasing, and they didn't do this. Hence my complaint to Skoda UK. Sarah

Thanks Chris.

Thanks for the reply Rob. It was all back to normal yesterday morning! Does anyone know if a possible battery fault would be a warranty issue? Car is about two years old now and I purchased it about 4.5 months ago. Sarah

I only got around to emailing Skoda UK recently. This is the reply... "Our Technical Support Team have confirmed that version 10 maps will work with older software." I have also been advised the V10 maps should be with the dealers around the end of this month. Sarah

A couple of weeks ago, when I started the engine the internal reading lights remained on (both front and rear). I also then noticed the rear wiper wouldn't work. I turned off engine and restarted. Same thing. Drove the car. Also noticed the internal reading lights were still on 5-10 mins after locking the car, so had to flick the front switch from the Auto to Off position. Rear reading lights went off at the same time. Did another couple of trips that day and the same, fourth trip of the day, the lights go off when the car was started and the rear wiper is working again. No idea why! Has been fine until Friday last week when I started the car to leave the supermarket, lights stayed on again and rear wiper has stopped working. Just wondered if anyone has had a similar problem. As car is still under warranty I will contact local dealer about it. Even better, if problem is still persisting then I will pop to dealer to hopefully show them! Sarah