Someone Else's Problem: 15ft of sensibleness: My new Octavia

Those remind me of the blanked out grilles electric cars have, I'd have one painted body colour and then go full fake electric car, just for shits and giggles.

Are those things designed to just protect from stones or do they help the engine warm up? I'm very familiar with rad-muffs that block air flow, been considering getting one myself to get the Disco up to temp. As said above it's slow to warm up, even in our relatively mild climate.
 
They're intended for the very cold, helping with warming up and maintaining temp at short stops.
 
When I was in the Czech Republic a few weeks back the method of choice just seemed to be sticking bits of cardboard box in the grille, you could do that. Very popular on Skodas given the country :p
 
I can tell you that the 'stache protector does indeed work. I bought one and it heats up noticeably faster.
 
I'm certain it does, in -20?C weather... I think the coldest this car has seen in operation was starting at -13.5?C, many winters we never really drop into double digits. Here's the relevant months in my car's life (let there be statistics! ):













Registered January 21st 2010, that -13.5?C start was a few days later. The red graph is measured at the fjord, so it's a bit warmer than elsewhere. The blue graph is measured at Kiel Lighthouse, a few miles out - a bit warmer again, especially single cold nights are damped nicely by the water.
The last few winters were exceptionally cold and snowy, and we still only have a few nights in double digits.


Going back into winters before, you can see how it's never "Finnish cold".









I'd post more, but the Forum keeps breaking if I do :lol:
 
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Apparently an LED managed to break in the right hand side mirror's indicator :dunno:

Oh well, four-year warranty to the rescue!
 
That reminds me, I have 2 lightbulbs to swap. Might go for LED for the rear plate indicator.
 
Don't. It almost always looks like ass when you do conversions in lamps made for incandescent.
 
Eh, if you get the right ones they don't suck. Find ones with the widest dispersion pattern possible.
 
A friend runs an LED webstore, he has good stuff. Good, soft dispersion and wide variety of colour. Not going for something too cold.
 
I got these for the sidelights on the Skoda. It actually came with painted "cool blue" W5W bulbs from the factory, but this "extreme" type is even whiter because halogen. Matches the xenons pretty well.
 
It's the car of broken lights :lol: just finished swapping one of the rear plate illuminations.

In other news, took the Octavia to work for a change...



...I've only once tried to do things without the clutch :cry: at least there was a purrty sunset when leaving work.

 
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Perc said:
By popular demand, I figured I'd bump the thread. :p
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Ditto :p

It's approaching 37Mm on the clock, currently on vacation with my parents... I'm stuck here with the Eos :cry:... oh wait, not :cry:... :burnrubber: :lol:
So far they've only managed to put a small scratch on the underside of the rear plastic skirt, nothing serious and virtually invisible :dunno: also, for some reason dad manages to put tiny scratches in the clear coat around the door handles with his fingernails :shakefist: don't ask me how/why, they were much worse on the Astra due to a darker colour. Here they blend in with the bright silver.



Meanwhile, during routine fluid level checks I found the turbo :clap:

 
You can even hear it if you roll down the windows and floor it at around 3500rpm. Just.

Edit: lol at the "Skoda recommends Shell Helix" sticker. For me it's Castrol, I have Castrol logos both on the oil cap and on a small fabric flap sewn into the leather binder for the owners manual so it's serious business, apparently. My dealer uses Mobil. :lol:
 
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Perc said:
You can even hear it if you roll down the windows and floor it at around 3500rpm. Just.
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You can also hear it on upshifts, dumping excess pressure :nod:

Edit: lol at the "Skoda recommends Shell Helix" sticker. For me it's Castrol, I have Castrol logos both on the oil cap and on a small fabric flap sewn into the leather binder for the owners manual so it's serious business, apparently. My dealer uses Mobil. :lol:
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I disobey the Shell sticker and use Castrol Edge... it's what I can get for reasonably cheap that's a proper brand and meets VW 504/507 standards, at about 9? a litre instead of the ass-rape that is a VAG dealer.
 
No idea what my engine had in it when it was delivered, but it used a bit of oil in the first 10,000km or so before the first oil change. About 3 dl I'd say. I topped up twice. Anyway, at about 10k they put Mobil in it, and the level hasn't moved as far as I can tell. I'm at a smidge under 15k now.

Their parts guy told me that they standardized on Mobil's ESP Formula 5W/30 because it, apparently, meets a wider range of standards than the Castrol stuff that Skoda wants them to use. I don't mind, I've always been partial to Mobil anyway.

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And I like not having to go to the "VAG dealer" btw. The one on the other side of town that sells everything else VAG makes, that is.

Helkama Auto has been running their own show importing Skodas since 1947. As far as I know, they're still totally separate.
 
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