8.5 years ago I bought a Fabia VRS. It had been secretly remapped by the previous owner and was easily the most fun I have ever had behind the wheel. I followed it 5 years later with an Octavia VRS. What a hoot. Until it broke and it did that in spectacular fashion! After a clutch, dmf, turbo, gearbox, all brakes, all tyres, most of the suspension arms & bushes & dampers, abs sensors & set of headlights within 9 months of purchase...it started to burn oil at a rate that could only mean one thing. As I needed something bigger because of work and I'd fallen out of love with the Czechs, I headed to Sweden and have spent 2.5 years pottering around the country in a V70 & my current XC70. Now thanks to some spectacular leadfoot I appear to have reached the limit of what a Volvo gearbox & D5 engine can take without complaint and have recently been looking at other options.I distinctly remember thinking when I ditched the Octy, "If only they did a sporty version of the Superb"....

 

...so I collect my Horton Skoda ex-demo moon white sportline estate in the next 2 weeks (after it's been to the body shop as someone in a Bentley reversed into it in a car park on Thursday whilst it was on loan to a customer) and I'm so excited :-D It will be nice to drive something that doesn't need a fuel bowser in tow (33mpg on the XC70) and that has seats tall enough to accommodate my very tall back again.

 

I've been reading some of the posts on the SIII with interest and have answered almost every question I had through searches on here but there's still one that I can find a thread to answer (might be searching for the wrong terms though)

 

The estate I'm buying is a DSG SCR 190bhp variant (so needs adblue) It has an official CO2 figure of 120g/km (VED of £30). The one I nearly bought but didn't was a DSG estate with 150bhp. It had an official CO2 figure of 123g/km (VED of £130). I've read on here that adblue doesn't change the CO2 emission figure and is purely to get rid of NOx gases so doesn't change the characteristics of the carbon output.

 

My question is this: how can less power & torque give more emissions from the same 2.0 engine & DSG gearbox combo?

 

Go......

If one car has stop-start and the other doesn't that will put it a band or two lower, but as I understand it all Superb III models have stop-start. SCR engines have to use more energy to run the SCR system to process their exhaust gases, which, all else being equal will release more CO2 but much less NOx. The benefit of SCR is that, while burning the fuel, diesels with this system can use higher combustion temperatures and get better thermodynamic efficiency, knowing the extra NOx produced will be removed by the SCR system afterwards. Provided you ignore the cost and complexity of the Adblue system, this can give an overall better CO2 figure because the fuel is used more efficiently. Another possibility is that the higher CO2 car is a Kombi and the other is a hatchback.

Both were estates and were pretty much identical bar the paint colour and an electric tailgate. Interesting, I never considered extra energy would be required to process the NOx via the SCR system but of course this has to come from the fuel.

 

Thanks :-)

On 21/03/2017 at 21:22, BigBadRob said:

Both were estates and were pretty much identical bar the paint colour and an electric tailgate. Interesting, I never considered extra energy would be required to process the NOx via the SCR system but of course this has to come from the fuel.

 

Thanks :-)

 

Hi,

 

The AdBlue system does use a small amount of electrical energy to operate, it is an entirely electronic operation. It was developed by Mercedes Benz about 15 years ago & was (& still is) used on their big trucks (& now as well as everybody else's!), it was the only way they could get their truck engines to conform to Euro 5 & then Euro 6 emissions (Euro 6 compliant systems now have a Catalytic converter in the exhaust system as well as the Diesel Particulant Filter (DPF)). This technology has now been embraced by car manufacturers.

 

You would think that adding the catalytic converter would bring the emissions down even lower, but here's the paradox, as the engine has to work that bit harder to push the exhaust gasses through the cat, it increases the the amount of energy expended (burns slightly more fuel) hence slightly higher emissions.

 

AdBlue itself is not that expensive, a 10 ltr container is £14.00 (vat inc) from any MB passenger car or MB commercial dealer, although its widely available elsewhere, the cheapest source is Mercs, don't for heavens sake by it in 1 ltr bottles (except in extreme emergencies) as that is horrendously expensive.

 

Also 1 other thing to consider...when the AdBlue needs replenishing you'll get a message in the dash, usually around 1000 miles before it runs out, & then subsequent mileage count down messages (you can check how long to go by using the computer on "Driving Data" & then scroll though until you get to "AdBlue Range"). DON'T whatever you do allow it to run out! DO SO AT YOUR PERIL, because when it gets too low, the system shuts down the ability to start the engine! don't say I didn't warn you!

 

Just as an aside, before you collect your "new" car, ask your dealer to alter the engine coding (acceleration) from the "standard" factory setting (Volkswagen Skoda Seat) to Audi & also change the binary of that coding, instead of ending in 01, change it to 10. The car will now think it's an Audi sports.

 

Your dealer will probably politely but firmly refuse to do it, citing "it will invalidate the warranty"....EH... NO IT WON'T as they're using a VAG group code that's ALREADY embedded in the Engine ECU's memory. When I bought my (ex Skoda staff car) Superb 190 ps DSG estate in January, I asked my dealer to do this, they declined, as expected, so I asked them to contact Skoda technical, & low & behold they sanctioned it, my dealer charged me £25 for the time taken to do this. What a difference this makes! Now, even in eco mode, floor the throttle or change down it accelerates like a bat out of hell!

 

 

 

There are a few garages near me with AdBlue on pump which is likely to be the place I'll go when the time comes.

 

Interesting re: the acceleration coding. I'll have a chat with the fella at Horton but they may be unwilling to do it as I've got the car on a PCP so theoretically they will be getting it back in a few years time when I trade up and I doubt they will be keen to set the right hand pedal to 'Hoon' as default. I assume this can be done at a later point by someone with a robust knowledge VCDS in any case should I be so inclined or is it a dealer only modification? (is that a thing with Skoda these days, it certainly is with my Volvo - VIDA users are very restricted in what they can do outside a dealership)

 

My Mum came over in my old Fabia last night and I took it for a 15 min sortie to grab some milk. I miss that savage, uncontrollable torque so much. It's like a little black missile! 152k on the clock and feels exactly like it did at 30k. Just endless, glorious fun!

The dealer isn't coding to change any coding for you - majority of them won't even know it exists! You'll need a local member with VCDS for that.

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Coops said:

The dealer isn't coding to change any coding for you - majority of them won't even know it exists! You'll need a local member with VCDS for that.

 

 

 

 

It all depends on the attitude & co-operation of the dealer.

 

You're quite correct, my dealer didn't know about this coding change to alter the characteristics of the acceleration of the car, but once I explained what it was & what it did, they were interested, as they told me they'd had a number of "comments" from other customers who had told them that their 190ps didn't perform as well as they'd expected.

 

They carried out the coding for me & after it was done & the car road tested they commented "wow what a difference, that's how it should perform!".

 

But I work on the principle If you don't ask you don't get! & what's the worst thing they can say, No! & if they do, there's always a Briskoda member with a VCDS who'll do it for you!................So nothing ventured nothing gained.