13 hours ago, JR RS said:

First wash for Gandalf for 2025. Scrubs up well after almost 8 yrs 😁

Plenty of gloss there pal 🫡

On 11/03/2025 at 07:44, travs said:

Plenty of gloss there pal 🫡

tis nothing more than a high-pressure foam covering followed by the good old "wash & wax" combo shampoo, followed by a tire shine.

nothing fancy.
no 3+ hrs time spent.

no 2 bucket method.
no detailing.

4 hours ago, JR RS said:

tis nothing more than a high-pressure foam covering followed by the good old "wash & wax" combo shampoo, followed by a tire shine.

nothing fancy.
no 3+ hrs time spent.

no 2 bucket method.
no detailing.

“She’s a witch! Burn her!”

Good enough for the shots you took.

37 minutes ago, travs said:

“She’s a witch! Burn her!”

Good enough for the shots you took.

I still get comments from people asking how recently did I buy the car or where I get the car detailed!?!?

U don't need to b fancy to keep a car looking "new".

Of course, if u have the time, money and patience - a full proper wash & detail is the way to go. Nothing wrong with that.

Finally got hold of a set of genuine Superb III hatchback roof bars! Found a chap via Facebook that had sold his Superb, still had the genuine bars, only very lightly used (carried a roof box a few times). In perfect condition and complete with both keys. T-channel rubbers not cut and in good condition too (just a few indents from where the roof box was pressing down on the rubbers). Might replace the rubbers at some point, but not urgent. Overall, a significant saving over buying a brand new set, even with the cost of driving round to the other side of London and back to get them (was actually a nice late evening drive, no traffic). That was the last accessory I was after really so the car is now equipped exactly as I want it. Now I can get back to messing about with virtual cockpit options in Carista.

On 27/02/2025 at 21:36, Graham Butcher said:

Front or rear one? I just had a front replaced at a cost of £442 fitted. MOT history of the car before I acquired it in 2023, shows that in 2020 both front shocks had an advisories of having a light misting of oil.

It was the front near side.

I was the same and bought the car last summer with an advisory of misting on both fronts, so I was expecting it.

When I had the car serviced the local dealer (VW, but have just become Skoda approved) flagged it as a definite mot failure (due in may)but not bad enough to be covered under warranty🤔

So I took it up the road to another, let’s say more established and old school Skoda dealership and they replaced it all FOC with no mucking about.

Had some time to get the summer wheels out and give them a clean while they’re off the car. The barrels and back of the spokes were awful and still not great.

Carpro Retyre for the tyre walls, Koch-Chemie Greenstar (an APC) 1:10 for general cleaning, then thoroughly rinsed and followed up with Carpro Tri-X (Iron Fallout remover and Tar remover combined).

I hoped the Tri-X would shift more. Not sure it’s not compromised but even tried Carpro Spotless (waterspot remover) on a couple of stains but no go.

Can confirm the wheels are also in a shocking state and will be reconditioned before going back on the car!

Edited 23 March, 20251 yr by travs

crashed it

Today I've mostly been putting oil in my Superb's engine. Had a "Check Oil Level" warning yesterday afternoon (yes, been a bit lax in checking the fluids of late). Really not used to car engines that use a lot of oil between services (my Fabia doesn't, the Rapid I had didn't, and neither did the MG ZS SUV). No oil leak eitehr. Anyway, a litre of VW Spec 0w-20 later and its back up to level and seems to be happy.

Lesson - check fluids regularly - especially on the 1.5 TSI :)

9 hours ago, travs said:

Had some time to get the summer wheels out and give them a clean while they’re off the car. The barrels and back of the spokes were awful and still not great.

Carpro Retyre for the tyre walls, Koch-Chemie Greenstar (an APC) 1:10 for general cleaning, then thoroughly rinsed and followed up with Carpro Tri-X (Iron Fallout remover and Tar remover combined).

I hoped the Tri-X would shift more. Not sure it’s not compromised but even tried Carpro Spotless (waterspot remover) on a couple of stains but no go.

Can confirm the wheels are also in a shocking state and will be reconditioned before going back on the car!

I got my 19" Trinity wheels powder coated Black (black car). More durable finish, easier to keep clean & seems to hide any surface dirt better than silver wheels. Personal preference I know but it worked for me.

3 hours ago, Colin170CR said:

I got my 19" Trinity wheels powder coated Black (black car). More durable finish, easier to keep clean & seems to hide any surface dirt better than silver wheels. Personal preference I know but it worked for me.

Thanks Colin - as much as the original finish looks lovely, I’m not that sentimentally attached to it.

I like the anthracite colour - has a nice bluey tone to it, so might see if I can get the guy to powder that colour and then clear powder over the top.

On 01/03/2025 at 21:15, zacko_O said:

3Q0 -> 2Q0 camera retrofit with all SWaPs and TravelAssist with KLR now work

As a bonus, I installed a frameless mirror

 

After 2Q0 swap, I activated Travel Assist

Now, simply enabling ACC does not activate adaptive lane keeping. Below 60 km/h, neither adaptive lane keeping. After 60 km/h, only lane departure resistance is active.

Pressing the Travel Assist button activates adaptive lane keeping across the entire speed range.

This logic is very useful when driving in the city with adaptive cruise control. The car won’t interfere with your steering. On the highway, with a single button press, you can relax and enable all assist systems to their full extent.

For this retrofit, a steering wheel with KLR is required, which has some nuances.

I also developed a LIN adapter for button configuration for new SW and KLR emulation.

Hi,

The today to do... done list on my TDI190 4x4 at 135000km on the clock:

• Engine oil + oil filter changed

• Cabin filter changed

• Fuel filter changed

• Haldex oil changed

• Haldex pump strainer cleaned.

The strainer was quite covered with a kind of marmelade...

It's the 3rd time I clean it (previously done at 45000 and 90000km), but the 1st time I've seen this kind of film looking like a thin piece of paper. But it was indeed nothing but this kind of marmelade...

Strange...

Coming soon: swapping for 19" summer wheels and deep clean to sell it (if I can find one to replace it 😐)...

Edited 30 March, 20251 yr by Bap33

Summer wheels back on. With Forge 11mm hubcentric spacers all round so it doesn’t look quite like a fat guy with tiny feet.

Uploading pics from iPhone seems to flip them upside down.

I turned the pictures upside down in my photo album thinking I’d play the system…and it uploads as is, still upside down 🤯

Today I booked the car in for full Paint Correction and Ceramic Coat.

1 hour ago, logiclee said:

Today I booked the car in for full Paint Correction and Ceramic Coat.

Been thinking of doing this for mine for some time now. However, something else always seems to crop up & take my time & money elsewhere.

There you go Lee…

I replaced the stock turbo inlet elbow with an aftermarket one for fun and giggles.

Gandalf hit the 6-figure mark today!!

Almost 8 yrs, since new.

Still puts big smiles on my face 😁

Cheers to another couple of years.

Had my Sportline Plus less than two weeks and in that time I've changed the floor mats to the thicker Superb embossed ones, fitted front and rear mud flaps, changed the washer filler cap to the funnel type, changed the rear wiper arm to the old type and changed all the wipers to new, also had a removable towbar fitted,

And have ordered the black and body matched colour badge for the bonnet.

Oh and washed it twice thanks to our bloody British weather.

It was ceramic coated when I bought it which makes cleaning it so much easier!

Edited 1 April, 20251 yr by yesman

4 minutes ago, yesman said:

And have ordered the black and body matched colour badge for the bonnet.

Did you order this from Kopacek?

22 minutes ago, Dave77 said:

Did you order this from Kopacek?

Yes, through the links given in the thread I started

1 hour ago, Dave77 said:

Did you order this from Kopacek?

(Pssst do it)

15 minutes ago, travs said:

(Pssst do it)

Yeah, was going to last year but thought I'd wait until spring/summer this year hoping there would be some cheaper ones on eBay! There's a few on eBay but not in Meteor Grey, not a common enough colour I guess. Ordering from Kopacek now, and looking at other stuff on there to waste my money on 🤣

Edited 1 April, 20251 yr by Dave77

This week is detailing polish and ceramic for mine as well. Soon to post some pics when ready!

I also took the plunge* and bought the rims, settled on Trinity 18s from Kodiaq, on a brushed/polish finish. It obviously seems I will engage in being VERY careful in driving 😁

* I feel like a featherless chicken, but had to do this sooner or later ... at least the tires were on their last mm so I would have had to spend for them regardless ....