I have a query please for the friend that we sold our old Octavia to.Its an 8 year old Skoda Octavia turbo 1.9 diesel going in for 8 year service and cambelt change. Does it also need glow plugs changing at this point ? Thanks very much.

Simple answer is no. Glow plugs don't have a service interval. If they fail, they throw up a fault. If the light doesn't go out quickly in the winter and you suspect a fault they can be tested quite simply with a multimeter.

That said, I am given to understand that they don't last for ever and 8 years is a fair while.

Your friend should leave them alone until winter comes and see if the cold weather starts are difficult - IMHO.

Thanks very much FriendlyFire. Really helpful.

I never had glow plugs changed on my 11,5 years VW Golf TDi. During the last winter I owned the car, I could start my car by immediately turn the key after the glowplug-light was out. Appearantly some of the plugs were not working, you can start your car on 3 out of 4 plugs, maybe even on two plugs.....

On my 4 years old Octavia Scout I had one glow-plug changed since it gave an error-code. Glowplugs are not expensive nor difficult to replace, it will cost about 100 Euro incl labour costs.

Ive just had a quote from a local garage to change all 4 glow plugs for £97.68.

They recommended to change all of them at the same time instead of just one at a time.