Graham Butcher

With my old mk2 170DSG L&K I could get anything from 50 to 60mpg on a decent run, but currently with my new one I'm getting around 67mpg on trips of around 30miles so I think I may be able get more on a decent run.

Thats odd, the colour seems to change its name in different parts of the world, over here in the UK it is still called Petrol Blue.

Oh, they have changed the name of the colour then, it was petrol blue when I ordered mine back in 2013.

I think it would not be a good idea to use anything that would retain water should it ever find its way there as it will start to rust away from the inside and hidden from view and by the time it is detected, probably the damage will have been done and beyond repair. That pillar and door sill is I'm sure a major structural part of the car.

Yes, those were the 2 clips that I deduced were the ones to go with as the others at the other end are way to big and thick to bend. However, I'm really struggling to get these to release their grip. I think that most of the problem is because they are at the bottom and the armrest only goes upto the vertical position making access and visibility difficult.

I have the same issue with my 2016 model. Please, can you tell me just how you managed to remove the top cover, I can see that there are 4 clips that retain it, and I guess from looking at them, you have to release it from the back towards the front as the front clips look to me like they would just snap off if I try it from that direction? I have tried to undo the back 2 (bottom when the rest is upright) but they also do not want to come undone. Is there a secret or a knack to this please, I'm desperate to resolve this squeaking, my mk2 was silent, and I'm frustrated with the constant squeaking with the mk3.

Yes, that is on my view, about the best colour to have. My face lifted mk2 L&K was also that colour and at that time it was a special order option, so I was one of the trend setters and back then there was 3 to 6 month waiting list for new cars (2013) as they were pretty much made to order. These days they seem to be ex-stock, certainly over at my local general aviation airfield, there is a reasonable stockpile of new Skoda's waiting for buyers and more 50% of them are in that petroleum blue colour, so It's getting to be very common now.

Yay, the silicone spray has arrived, and I've already been spraying, the centre consol now sounds quiet but the centre armrest, although quieter with that foam "gasket" inserted, still squeaks between the honeycomb section and the leather trimmed section, which I'm currently struggling to separate in order to treat it. The door cards squeak (both front doors), I have tracked down to the switch plates for the windows. Popped those out with some trim removal tools, cleaned around the edges and then sprayed the area and the plate edges with silicone, popped them back in position, and they are now as quiet as the proverbial church mouse, so now if only I can separate the centre armrest I might be able to have all quiet inside the car.

Here are a few photos of my mk3 which I collected just 8 days ago following a long-drawn-out search for ideally another L&K to replace my mk2 one that got written off in April. The previous owner has removed all Skoda and L&K badges wherever possible, just glad they were unable to do the same with those on the interior. I must admit though I do kind of like the fact that it doesn't shout about where in the range line up it sits and the only external non logo badge is the Superb on the boot.

Forgive my ignorance, but I keep seeing references made to MIB this and that etc, how do we know which it is that we have in our cars?

I totally understand, I used to think the same way, and I love the small display appearing in the main instrument cluster and for years I was happy with the built in system, until I had to have a courtesy car for a few weeks while my mk2 was off the road after being rear ended. As I was technical sales rep I still needed a satnav but the Citroen Saxo (courtesy car) never had it, so I had to purchase one, either that or buy a load of new maps. I saw then just how handy they were, being easily transported from car to car should the need arise and free map updates and also free speed camera warnings etc, Couple that with their ability to know the speed limit for the road your are on, they have saved my licence many times. Recently there has been a growing trend towards lowering speed limits in city/town roads to 20mph from 30 or 40mph and in strange place the warning alert they give you, can mean you get to keep your licence and in almost 60 years of driving, I have never had a fine or points on my licence. In the end I used to use the Tom Tom for new maps and camera warnings and use the built-in satnav when the destinations was on the old map. Now the maps are way out of date and the TMC is not working, I'm so glad I have the Tom Tom, it just works and because they are now also considered old fashioned with many people using smartphones, I have no worries about it being stolen, they have no mass appeal anymore.

I've been watching this thread for a while now and I can't help but wonder if this is not all part of the forth coming great plan to introduce road charging by the mile, time and type of roads used, after all, they can't track you with the current sat nav system, but, start using an an app like Apple Play, or Android Auto and you can be tracked, so is all part of big brother watching us, it makes you wonder if it is all part of a bigger scheme of things. Personally I use a Tom Tom sat nav with lifetime map and speed camera updates which works well when paired with a mobile phone as their system draws information from other Tom Tom users who are using mobiles for updates. They can detect traffic events in real time and display traffic jams on the screen by turning the road red and will if you have an active route in operation, present with an alternative route if it finds one and tell it has another route, and also tell you how much time it will save you. It will also ask you if you want to accept it and then if yes, proceed to direct you around the hold up. I started using that system a few years ago when it got expensive to keep buying new map updates on cd/dvd formats for my old mk2 Superb. EDIT. Just a thought, does this also affect the SOS system installed in the mk3's?

Ok then, today as promised I had another go at the dash cam install any you were quite correct, removing the end of the dash did make a lot of difference, but it was still a bit of faff getting the power cable through the very small gap between the fuse box and the rear of the dashboard itself. All the excess cables are all coiled up and cable tied to the metal work behind the end cap. Now there will be no more forgetting to plug the dash cam, sods says that you are far more likely to a fender bender when the dash is not plugged in thus making it harder to prove who is to blame. I have been using dash cams for about 20 years now and every time I have been involved in crashes, the camera had shown they were not my fault and thus kept my NCD intact. If anyone hasn't got one, then I encourage you to go out and get yourself one, well worth the investment.

Just a thought here, but I seem to recall while playing around with a OBDII device on my old mk2 Superb that for certain lightings, such as DRL's etc, there was an option to regulate the voltage that was supplied to them. I'm not 100% certain however if the DRL's were included in that aspect, but certainly some of the lights did have the option to do just that with. Is this option carried over to the mk3 and if so, has someone invoked that possibly and chosen an bad voltage? This is something that my own newly acquired mk3 has, when I saw it at the dealers it had the long horizontal section on the N/S not working, they ordered anew fitting and fitted it prior to handing the car over and now the N/S is nice and white light while the O/S has a yellowish tinge to it.

Yep, I did have my wire tap into position #47 as this location would have been for the rear window wiper if it was fitted, as you did JR RS, I also had a nylon draw tape threaded down though all the packing at the bottom of the A pillar and managed to get it into the area in front of the fuse box. I had already checked to see if the fuse 47 was ignition switched, and also the white connection as ApertureS seemed to indicate that was ignition switched, which it was, but fuse 40 will not fit into that location and make a connection to the 12v power plug as his instruction to Berisford seemed to indicate. I taped the USB plug to the draw tape but it would not pass between the fuse box and the thick plastic frame behind the glovebox. I also could find anywhere to connect the negative lead. For some reason, I had completely discounted removing the end cap from the dashboard, which would have given me easier access to the fuse box and the negative connection points. I'll have another go tomorrow at installing this dashcam, I still think that the fuse box in a stupid place though, I'm too old for all these contortionist acts to install / repair a bleeding fuse. Edit, I just had a look at the Power Magic Pro, its a shame that it outputs 12v, my Next Base dashcam operates at 5V, I like the idea of having the option of constant operation, especially when parking in certain areas.

No, that does not happen on my car, my son moved the fuse down into the white one and it was dead. The actual connection is switched via the ignition, but it seems that the other connection the fuse is then connected to a switched live and a unswitched live, you need a fuse that picks up the 2 outer connections and leaves the centre connection (unswitched) unpopulated. Threading a dashcam cable down, through the A pillar and then through the dash in the corner and into the fuse box seems to be impossible. The fusebox, for starters in a really stupid location, you have to be a contortionist to get to it and then the tolerances are so tight that it is impossible to get the mini USB plug past to fusebox and the only place go attach the ground cable is to splice it into the glovebox light. 😟 Has anyone actually hardwired their dashcam in, if so how did you do it? On the mk2, it was a doddle, fuse box on the end of the driver's dash, pop the cover off, run the cable down the A pillar, straight into the fusebox, attach ground to one of the bolts there, pop the cover back on, and you're done.

No way can they be over. Hella are the main manufacturer as depicted in the photo taken from their web site, you see the dipped headlight symbol embossed on the edge of the glass along with the 1% downward decline that the beam must not be less than. In the middle of the headlight there is a circle depicting the centre of the light. Mark that height on a garage door etc and move your car 10m away from the door/wall etc, switch on your headlights and set them in dipped beam and then measure where the cut-off line is on the wall. If that line is less than 10cm from the centre line, then you are over and will fail the MOT test. If the distance is 10cm or greater you have a pass in the MOT, however that does not mean that you are safe to drive it. There is little point in setting your lights lower then you need to if it means that you approach an on coming car, you dip and then can't see past that car because your lights don't light the road enough and you hit a brick or some other obstacle on the road, which cause you to have an accident with the oncoming car. Now given that the machines that Halfords use are height adjustable and also have to be at a set distance, imagine if the distance it is used at is incorrect and or the height is set too low, that could also account why he said they were pointing skywards, or indeed if he tried to calibrate them using high beam instead of dipped beam. If that is what happened, it would certainly explain why they were performing so badly when driving around town on dipped beam and were almost unusable in the country, because the wrong beam was used to set them, making dipped beam go even lower. Here is a video that clearly demonstrates the difference between headlight types and also dipped and full beam, look at Xenon section and that is how mine are now set, which is correct. (1185) Halogen vs xenon vs LED, an objective comparison (complete english version) - YouTube

There shouldn't be a need to lower them for the MOT as long as you have set them up as I did so the hard cut-off line is just above the other cars bumper at roughly 27-30metres away. According to Hella, the correct angle on dipped or dimmed beam is 1 degree down from the horizontal, which means that at 10metres away from your headlight, the cut-off should be around 10cm lower than the centre of your headlight. This info is to be found around the edge of of your light, under the bonnet.

Yes, I have tried my high beam ad as all the cars I've had with these lights on they also light up the tree canopies where they form a tunnel and also illuminate the road ahead brilliantly, altering their beam pattern according to the speed, just all the other did and they always passed their MOT so must have been within spec. More importantly the dipped beam is now fit for purpose, lighting up both sides of the road as it should do in urban pattern also there is really distinct cut-off line on the road and they now reflect back from things like cats eyes, number plates, car reflectors and there is enough overspill to reflect back from road signs but not to be annoying enough that others flash me. 😊

Not much of a turn of the adjuster, maybe half a turn or so. I parked up behind a parked car at something like 5 to 6 car lengths away and adjusted the lights until the beams was just hitting above the bumper so the dipped beams would not annoy the driver.

Went back to Halford's today and the chap there said they were OK on his machine, but tweaked that up a tad. I think that he must have set them up on full beam rather than dipped beam, as he said that they were pointing at the stars. Anyway, I took it for a ride again tonight, nah, still rubbish, still had a sharp cut-off line on the road and your eyes are just drawn towards it, and it was making seeing anything beyond it impossible to see. I did a rejig of the alignment myself and nailed it. Nobody flashed me and I once again to pick up road signs, and reflectors far quicker than I was before, so I'm calling it done.

Today, we cleaned the leather seats with some leather cleaner and conditioner and paid particular attention to the area of the front seats that abut the central console and also cleaned the plastics at the front of the console where it meets with the dashboard plastics and it has most certainly eliminated many of the squeaks and groans making it somewhat of a quieter ride now and you can even use the central armrest without it constantly squeaking away. I pulled the trigger on a can of Autoglym Silicone spray from Amazon today, it says that works with leather, rubber and plastics etc to eradicate squeak, so when that arrives later this week I'll spray it all the joints and wipe off the excess and also give the door rubbers/seals a wipe over with it and maybe if I can crack the door cards open enough, a quick spray behind them to try and stop them from squeaking if someone uses the door armrest. I'll update everyone when this has been done.

Yeah, I managed to also kerb my nice new wheels parking outside my house, I had to come in at an acute angle due to how others had parked and I managed to kerb my OSF 🤢, only had the car a few days as well.

That's about it, there were/are still some other scumbags who also lied through their teeth, remember cheaper food, clothes, fuel, VAT reductions, we did after all hold all the cards, err yah only we didn't.😒

Well for years and years we have had it rammed down our throats about how we could not do this or that as it was against the club rules. Turns out the rules did not prevent us from doing any of it, it was our own people who prevented it and they forgot that once we out of the "club" that they should stop their side rackets, which of course they didn't and now hopefully people can see where the blame for our situation belongs and next time we get the chance, show them the door.