Just jumped in my old girl and sounds like the start of a wheel bearing starting to rumble. quick question do you need a press to release the front or rear bearings or can I use the trusted large socket and hammer to release it !! Not sure which one it is yet but before I start planning next weekends little jobs I want to make sure I can do it before stripping the wheels off.

Needs a fair amount of pressure to get them out and the new one in iirc...

But it depends also on how long its in there. A set of manual windy pullers might be enough though.

I recently bought one of these kits and it worked a treat on the front bearings of a MK4 golf which I believe will be the same as the Octavia mk1.

 

I smashed the hub out with a hammer and socket first with the inner race still attached to the hub, you will need to grind a slot in it to remove the race to re-use the hub but I bought new hubs because of the state of the ABS rings. Obviously you need to make sure you use the outer race to install the bearing and the inner race must be supported when installing the hub.