Morning Gents,

I'm a long time skoda man having had estelles, favourits, felecias then about 4x Fabia VRS (god designed that car himself!) and then my beloved Octavia VRS limited edition.

Sadly about 2 weeks ago I had to sell the Octy Limited Edition due to incoming baby so could buy two cars (one for the mrs), I then decided to go against my instincts and buy myself a 2.2 diesel Honda Civic.... Its nice and all, EX spec with all the extra options (18" alloys, full leather, voice activated satnav, bluetooth phone integration, panoramic roof... and all that jazz) but being so used to Skoda I just can't seem to learn to love the way it drives. So I'm about to sell it on after just two weeks and get a cheap OctyVRS.

My questions therefore are threefold:

1) All of my Fabia VRS's were PD engines, but my Limited Edition was a CR engine. I simply don't understand the difference between the two. I've had a poke round in the existing threads here but still none the wiser other than the CR is "smoother", the PD has more "grunt" and has a DPF? What is the DPF as I heard someone talk about removing it?

2) I'm having to look around the 56 plate range. Are all of these engines PD or are some CR? How can you tell and is variable servicing limited to the CR engines?

3) Bolero/Columbus stereos. I had the Bolero in my LimitedEdition and it was ace. Considering throwing in an aftermarket Columbus this time around and was wondering what I need to do/get for it to work in a December 2006 (56) Octavia II. Can I just plug/play or do I need to mess around with VAGCOM? Sadly the one I'm looking at doesn't have maxidot, although I suspect that might make the stereo install easier...

Any thoughts are much appriciated. I'm in Southampton, UK.

Any diesel Octavia vRS has a DPF (as standard) and they appear to cause more problems in the PD engines than in the CR engines. Variable servicing is available on both engines.

The DPF is the diesel particulate filter which reduces (almost eliminates) the smoke when you floor the accelrator... They catch the particlse and have to run a regeneration cycle to burn off the soot that it's caught. Thank you Europe... Not

The age of car you are looking at wil have a PD engine as the CR didn't arrive in Skoda's until roughly mid 2008

The Columbus upgrade will probably need an updated gateway on the age of car you're looking at. There are plenty of threads on here about that, but essentially, if the gateway is pre-revision K the Columbus (or Bolero) will flatten the battery overnight. This appears to be mid 2007 or thereabouts so a 56 plate car will almost certainly require the new gateway which means, yes, you'll need a VCDS bod to programm the new gateway with the option that the old one had...

I did read that they fixed the overnight battery drain issue with an updated software version... any truth to this and what needs to be updated?

If I do have to update the gateway, are there any part numbers or links?

EDIT - Also read there are two versions of the Columbus, 1ZO and 3TO as memory serves. Also read that the 3TO is for Superb and doesn't work in OctyII - also read that it works fine Anyone got a definitive answer?

Cheers

Edited 17 June, 201115 yr by MoogleAssassin

I did read that they fixed the overnight battery drain issue with an updated software version... any truth to this and what needs to be updated?

If I do have to update the gateway, are there any part numbers or links?

EDIT - Also read there are two versions of the Columbus, 1ZO and 3TO as memory serves. Also read that the 3TO is for Superb and doesn't work in OctyII - also read that it works fine Anyone got a definitive answer?

Cheers

I believe it was actually a hacked software version that stopped the battery drain, but am not certain as i have a FL model and didn't need to worry about it

My Columbus is a 3TO model, but again, it's a FaceLift car so couldn't say for certain which one you'd need in a pre-FL

Anyone have any information on the software battery drain fix and specifics of installing a columbus into 56 plate OctyII? If possible I would appriciate part numbers

Cheers

Anyone have any information on the software battery drain fix and specifics of installing a columbus into 56 plate OctyII? If possible I would appriciate part numbers

Cheers

anyone got any ideas?

ta