So I swapped the 2006 1.9TD for a 2010 1.9TD Octavia with similar mileage. I'm at the main dealer again tomorrow for them to activate the  new second key, so it might be an opportunity to get any digitally adjustable features changed.

 

I find the rain-sensitive wipers a nuisance and possibly dangerous. I never liked the way on the old car that the wipers stopped when the car stopped, but this is ridiculous. The speed control is useless and I have to have the wipers just on or off.

Can the dealer plug in something and tweak the wipers to completely manual?

 

The old car had 15" wheels, the new one 16". I don't like this as I have to do a lot of bouncing up kerbs to load old people into the car, but also the road noise is horrendous on the tyres. At the right speed through the Mersey tunnel, the whine from the tyres is steady, but on the right and left curves, I can hear the audio beat note (like what piano tuners use) between the off and nearside tyres.

When I first got the car, I thought a wheel bearing had gone it was so much worse than the old car, but the dealer has assured me it's normal, it's the tyres and that they are safe.

Additionally, we had to pinch the spare from the old car as there was just the empty well in the new one, so I have a 15" spare on a 16" car. I assume this will get me home in an emergency.

 

The mpg seems slightly down on the old car, but still OK.

 

The clutch takeup is immensely better than the old car, to the extent that I wonder if this has a normal flywheel as opposed to the dmf on the old one. We did 70k miles in the old one and from day1 I thought the flywheel felt it was about to fail. It would very occasionally get out of sync with the engine as I pulled away, there would be a ban and the engine would stop. The new one hasn't yet ever seemed to want to do that.

Did dmf's improve in the 4 years? Is there any way of telling what sort of flywheel the car actually has. We have quite a lot of the service records, but there's no mention of flywheels.

The 1.9 PD105 has a DMF but there are lots of SMF conversion kits out there now.

 

The auto wipers do take some getting used to. I don't believe it is possible to revert back to standard intermittent wipers unless you completely code out the auto feature. I reckon it might be possible with VCDS but I'm pretty sure the dealer will say 'no'.

 

The 16" alloys should be quiet, any noise will be tyre related. I'd be looking to change brand when they are due and look out for a set with the lowest noise rating.

The 15" spare will be fine assuming it has the factory spec tyre on it (195/65 R15).

 

The rolling circumference of the 15" tyre is 1,993mm compared to the 16" (205/55 R16) at 1,985mm.

Thanks for the replies.

 

I'll ask the dealer about coding out the rain sensitive wiper function, as I don't think I'm likely to ever get used to it. I'm assuming it's not faulty.

 

If they won't do it, can anyone tell me where the sensor is and whether it can be replaced by a resistor, put in a tiny bag of water, or something?

 

The info about the tyres is useful. I'll wait until I need to change them before I do anything.

 

In my sentence about the DMF, or lack of, the word ban should, of course, have read bang. I've now fished the hair out from under the g key.

The rain sensor isn't actually a water sensor. It's a light prism built into the base of the interior mirror. It's sensitivity is adjusted by the switch on the top of the stalk.