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... that is an even better price - that is what I would go for and fix the car for £32 :-) Alan. PS. Please don't take this as advice, you should always fit genuine VAG replacement parts of course, just like it says in the book...

This is a really easy DIY job; it should only take about 20 minutes/side. This is not advice of course, but it if it were me I'd fit some pattern parts such as the Kayaba ones I just saw on eBay for £49.51/pair. Good fortune, Alan

Hi, I'm guessing you have seen this: 1. Remove the mirror glass, disconnect the heating element wires - you have done this bit. 2. Remove the downlighter bulb. 3. Remove the 2 Torx head machine screws. 4. Remove the 2 Torx head self tapping screw securing the top half of the mirror housing and the two catches, then gently lever up the top half and remove it. 5. Unclip and remove the bottom half, with the repeater light unit still attached. 6. Remove the 2 Torx head self tappers holding the downlighter bulb holder and remove it to expose the screws securing the repeater unit. 7. Remove the 2 Torx head self tappers attaching the repeater unit to the bottom half of the mirror housing and disconnect the wiring block from the light unit. All the Torx screws are T10. I can't remember exactly, and i forgot to take photos at the time. If I do recall correctly there is no need to remove the motor itself - just the upper and lower plastic shrouds that are held on by the various torx screws I've listed above. Take your time, leave the motor alone and the order in which the screws come out should become obvious as you gain access. Take some photos as you go to remind yourself how it goes together. Good fortune, Alan

The easiest way to remove the springs is to undo the pinch bolt that attaches the wishbone to the hub carrier and drop the wishbone down: the spring falls out easily. Use a trolley jack to support the wishbone while you knock out the pinch bolt, it will give you control as it drops down (I used my motorbike jack, it stays level and gave good control to realign the bolt). Be careful doing the passenger side if you have xenon headlights as it's easy to pop the ride height sensor linkage apart. Pop off the sensor drop link before you let the wishbone down. The wishbone pinch bolt uses a deformable locknut and the service manual recommends replacing the nut and bolt after removal. P/N's for the nut and bolt are N106 286 02 & N101 064 02.

If the fault is a physical one with the cylinder head then that would not be such a difficult problem to fix yourself if you have a little mechanical aptitude and some ordinary garage tools. A company like one of these: https://www.knightengineservices.co.uk/ (I can recommend this company if you live close to Northants). https://cylinderheads.co.uk/skoda-cylinder-heads/ ... would be able to supply a head (may well need an exchange where you would get your deposit back after returning the old head, or they may well re-manufacture your own head). The cost might well be only hundreds rather than thousands and would make the car economically viable to save. I bought a reconditioned head for one of my cars (an older Volvo with an OHC red block motor) for £99 and had it in the car in a day plus the time it took to get the correct valve shims (your car would have more bits to remove to get access). It is up to you as to whether you would feel competent enough to swap a cylinder head. If you are, then this is something that could be done in a garage, car port or drive in a day. A lot of that time would be taking stuff off to get access, I'm not sure whether your engine is a belt or chain cam drive (belt is much easier) but either way the job is nothing to be scared of. Generally it is easiest to swap the camshaft on the bench where access is a bit easier. So, you could probably fix this yourself for about £500, in which case it would be worth doing if the rest of the car is okay, if you can't then spending £3000-£4500 on a car worth about that much would make no sense. That is a sad indictment on our high cost-high wage society which often manifests itself in throwing stuff away. Good fortune, Alan

Good morn, I did this job a few years ago and recall it was fiddly but pretty simple, here is a link to my notes:

Many thanks. I'm not sure why I thought winter tyres might be different :-)

I know: it is only September, but indulge me for a moment. Back in the summer I acquired a set of Audi 16" steel wheels with very good 205/55R16 Yokohama winter tyres fitted (for only £60, which was nice). I drove with them for a week whilst I got the 18" alloy wheels (trilogy I think) powder coated, so I know they are all good. My plan is to swap the alloys (with 255/40R18 tyres) which are poor in the ice and snow for the winter tyres from about November to March each year. Now to my question: do I just inflate the winter tyres to the standard Skoda Superb pressure for 205/55R16 tyres (2.4 bar), or do winter tyres require something different? Alan

Hi, Thank you for that - and I agree - but I'm still minded not to bother getting this done by Škoda. I've just read the Škoda letter again, and I really wonder whether a software update regarding the sensitivity of the front indicator monitor is worth half a day in Northampton and a 50 mile round trip. If my car was still under warranty and being serviced by a main dealer I would of course get the work done, but it is 7 years old and has been looked after by a local independent garage for the last 4. I might see if the independent garage can get hold of the software patch for next year's service - like you I slightly mistrust main dealers (and rather suspect a dealer may use the opportunity to fabricate some other pressing requirement that the perfectly competent independent has somehow missed). Perhaps the front indicators on my Superb estate will suddenly go haywire causing the motor car to spontaneously combust whilst triggering a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic :-( Alan

Hi, I see your point, but I wonder whether this would really be of any value to a 7 year old car; I don't think it would make any difference to the resale value (not that I'm planning to sell it, I've owned it since new and like the motor car). I read your piece above about having a few problems after your visit to the dealer... and still I wonder. Best wishes, Alan

Good morn, Well, I seem to have fixed the problem - it looks like it was a bad sensor (#4 - on the right). I dropped the diffuser panel off again this morn (fortunately an easy job, just 4 torx screws) to reveal the sensors, removed each in turn, tidied up with contact cleaner and reassembled (see first photo). All the wiring seemed fine. I re-booted the system (thank you Declan) from the menu but still got the system unavailable error message (see the second photo - apologies for the lack of focus). Remember I had gone back to the old sensors (by old I mean pre-one month ago when the intermittent issue started), I reasoned (to myself) that one of the sensors must be bad, so I started swapping them out for the new set I had bought, starting at #4 (right side); fortunately the first one seems to have solved the problem and the system seems to work fine now. This is of course notwithstanding the intermittent fault that had brought about issue a month ago, only time will tell whether I have cured that problem or not. I not sure why the system would not work when I changed all 4 sensors for the new set yesterday, I can only assume that one or more of those 4 was bad, out of the box. I have no way of knowing which of the 3 remaining new sensors is no good (I suppose I could work it out by elimination by swapping them one at a time for a new one, but I don't want to take it apart again), so I'll just keep them all as spares. It was a £20 set from eBay, so perhaps a 25% failure rate is okay? One tip for putting the diffuser back on is to smear a little silicone grease on each of the tangs I've shown in the third photo - it then slides in easily (and I suspect it will help make a weather-tight environment for the sensors). Well, I've answered my own question - it would seem that the best advice for fixing parking sensors is to be methodical and keep notes. Best wishes, Alan

Hi Declan, I tried the 'system' element of re-boot (from the setup menu), which didn't make any difference, but I seem to have solved the issue (see below). Thank you so much for your advice. Alan

... I've just swapped back to the old sensors (I had carefully numbered them) - it is only a 10 minute job on the Superb. I still get exactly the same problem: a long beep when I first put the car into reverse, but no graphic on the Columbus screen. I had rather expected that the system would have reverted back to its previous (intermittent, but screen graphic still working) fault with the old sensors in their original positions. Any ideas?

I received one of these letters (2013 Superb estate) - is the general consensus that this is one to give a miss? Alan

My car is a 2013 Superb Elegance estate (diesel model). I have owned the car from new. About two years ago I replaced the two reversing sensors on the right side, the system had been behaving a little erratically and that solved the problem until about a month ago. An intermittent problem developed whereby the sensors would sometimes report obstacles where there were none - but most of the time the system would work normally. Today I dropped down the rear diffuser (a 5 minute job) and have changed all 4 sensors for a new (aftermarket) set. I noticed a couple of clips that hold the loom onto the body had slipped off, so I put everything back together properly and gave everything a clean up before carefully reassembling everything. On startup, and on putting the car into reverse I got an error message saying the reversing sensor system was not available - I have tried switching off and on several times but the system does not respond (I get no reversing graphic at all). I'm wondering - is there some software that needs re-setting, or perhaps there is a hardware fault? Is there a test procedure? Perhaps I should restore the Columbus navigation system back to the factory settings? Any assistance would be much appreciated. Alan

The right side rear shock on my 2013 Superb diesel estate has a slight weep, I've bought a pair of replacements and had a look at changing them today. It all looks straightforward, apart from the 21mm bolt that secures the bottom and faces straight inwards to the coil spring. There doesn't seem to be a way of attaching a socket spanner (which I would prefer) apart from removing the coil spring (which I could do, but would prefer to avoid if I can). Would it be possible (and safe) to use a 21mm ring (combination) spanner, which might just have enough clearance? If so, how could the nut be torqued up on reassembly? I'm hoping someone has done this and come up with a simple solution for what looks like an otherwise simple job. I've attached a photo which explains the problem.