After just over 7000 miles on the road the factory filled wash/wiper tank in my Octavia vRS finally emptied itself this week.

I am amazed how long it has lasted but am even more amazed at how long it took to refill. I must have spent four minutes filling it up from the Tesco garage water hose after pouring some wash fluid in.

My questions are 1) What is the volume of the wash/wiper tank?, 2) What ratio of water to wash/wiper fluid do you recommend.

Don't know what the over-all capacity is but the fluid manufacturers tell you the ratio. 4 water to 1 fluid in deep winter [icing] conditions with most I've had, but down to as little as 20:1 in summer. It's on the label.

I keep a used container [one of the big 5 litre ones] when empty, and make up a mix in it as per above. Then I only have to top up the tank from that instead of the concentrate. As the year goes by I make up stronger or weaker mixes accordingly. I generally do this once a week on a Sunday morning when I check the oil and tyres etc., so it is never a long chore.

don'e know about the vRS, but the tank on my Elegance doesn't last nearly as long as the previous Mk1.

Be very careful about which washer fluid you use. the fine fan jets are prone to clogging with the standard halford/garage forecourt stuff.

Use the proper fan jet stuff from a VAG dealer - its not the much more expensive.

I tend to keep it quite concentrated all year round just because it cleans better, not because of freezing etc.