Hi all,

Just bought my first Skoda (Superb 1.8T Comfort) at the weekend and am very impressed so far. It's an 03 plate with 69k miles, full history and never had an advisory on any MOT and in top condition so am very pleased with it for less than £3k. I've had a Polo and a Golf in the past that had no end of faults so I was a bit hesitant to come back to VAG but the Superb has really impressed me.

There's a couple of tiny niggles on the car (nothing major) that I'd like advice on from any more experienced owners:

1. The temp gauge is always showing the engine is cold. Only once has it come on and showed an increase in temperature but the rest of the time it never moves, even after journeys of 30+ miles. I'm assuming it's the coolant temp sensor and will be replacing it next week when it has the cambelt done but could anything else be the cause?

2. Reverse parking sensor - seems to be a common failure but my fault seems to be the opposite of everyone else's. Instead of the long beep there's just nothing at all. On the test drive there was a long beep when I put it into reverse but since then there's nothing at all. Is this likely to be a failure of the sensors or the control box? Will probably replace them all with an E-bay kit but not been able to find a thread to show how it's done (ideally one with pictures for clueless people like me!)

3. Cruise control - doesn't seem to work at all. I get to the speed I want, move the switch on the stalk to "on", and then press "set" on the control but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Should a light or some kind of indicator appear to show it is working? Seems like cleaning out the circuitry inside the stalk has helped some people but are there any other common fixes?

4. The battery is dead in the spare key - what size battery should I replace it with?

Otherwise the car is excellent for the age/mileage - very comfortable, brilliant ride and plenty of power from the 1.8T engine without being too heavy on the juice, don't know why I didn't get one sooner!

The temperature gauge problem is almost certainly the sender - VAG have been supplying duff ones for the last 10 years. GSF/ECP sell them. Use only G12 or later coolant and change the "O" ring and the clip.

Cruise control has no light but check the brake and clutch pedal switches if it won't engage.

I didn't bother with reversing sensors - they're too unreliable. A towbar is much better...

The fob battery is a CR 2032. Amazingly, changing it is not in the service schedule.

Enjoy your Superb and read all about - and fix properly - the water ingress fault.

rotodiesel.