OCTAVIA III Owners discussion thread

[Spinifex]

Thanks mate. I've heard of Brisbane prestige as being one of the better places to go.
And yeh I understood that too with warranty.
I probably would have bought and just had servicing from Skoda Brisbane if they'd had the car I wanted in stock and they hadn't offered me a ridiculously low trade figure for my current car!
That really put me off dealing with them at all but I'm sure other people have had fantastic experiences with them.

[Jondalar]

Pick up my RS wagon tomorrow.... one more sleep to go!
Can't wait!!!

I'm going to have a lot of time spent reading manuals and fiddling with settings and taking suggestions from these forums.

One thing I need to ask though - when setting up the individual characteristics in the drive mode settings, what practical purpose is there for being able to change the DSG settings?
I assume it's just shift-speed that is adjustable, but why would anyone want to make gear shifts slower than the quickest available setting?

Do fast gear change settings give extra wear on the clutches?
Reduced gearbox life with faster shifts? Or just harsher? People reduce the setting for comfort?

Sorry if this has been covered before/elsewhere but in 90+ pages of reading this thread in the last 2 days, I don't remember seeing anything about it.

Mine isn't an RS but I do have the drive mode setting. There are not that many options for the DSG, just normal and sport. Sport holds lower gears longer and revs the engine more. Not as economical but more fun. I've set the individual to have sport steering and normal DSG. Hope this helps.

Enjoy the new car!

Cheers
Karl


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Spinifex]

Ahh of course .... Thanks mate. I didn't even think about the longer gear holding. Makes sense.
So it's nothing to do with the speed of the gear changes at all.

[woofy]

Does the RS come with a TPMS sensor inside the wheel rim at the valve?
Or is the TPMS an indirect system via the ABS unit.
Looking at buying a internal TPMS system, but if the rim has a TPMS Sensor then obviously I need to get an external one or some how display the values on the dash.
Cheers

It's an indirect system, but I found it works better than the one I had in the Mk2. I tend to find it won't say much unless its nearly 10PSI diffferent but it did tell me which tyre had a problem specifically whereas the Mk2 system just said there was an issue with one, but not which one. To be honest, the point of them is to alert when something is wrong. It does that, so I wouldn't bother putting another system on it. Never noticed you had a Sierra until just then. A guy at my Dads work had one in the mid 90s he imported from the UK, was an XR4 badged turbo one and was a really fun car. There were only about 4 in total in Australia and that was one of the two turbo versions. I recall it breaking down a few times and the owner had fun getting parts under a month for it.

[HPRS230]

It's an indirect system, but I found it works better than the one I had in the Mk2. I tend to find it won't say much unless its nearly 10PSI diffferent but it did tell me which tyre had a problem specifically whereas the Mk2 system just said there was an issue with one, but not which one. To be honest, the point of them is to alert when something is wrong. It does that, so I wouldn't bother putting another system on it. Never noticed you had a Sierra until just then. A guy at my Dads work had one in the mid 90s he imported from the UK, was an XR4 badged turbo one and was a really fun car. There were only about 4 in total in Australia and that was one of the two turbo versions. I recall it breaking down a few times and the owner had fun getting parts under a month for it.

Yea ok, great. Ill get a TPMS for the rim then. Yea understand the system is a warning, Its sort of my thing tyre pressures (motorsport background).
Ill be getting a TPMS-201-D from: TPMS Purchase
Have had TPMS in the Koup for many years, its great! you turn 3 corners and feel the car isn't right, look at TPMS, oh thats why.
The Inawise one im looking at is 0.1 PSI resolution for the 19 inch rims as there will be less volume in the tyre and pressure will matter more.

Yea hard to get parts for! Its a little easier now with the internet around, but still... hens teeth...
Cheers

[Spinifex]

OK - picked up the car yesterday and drove 150km back to home. ABSOLUTELY LOVING this car!!!
Modern cars with modern technology makes for lazy drivers... but hell it's a fantastic car to drive!
Radar cruise control is the best thing ever - especially on Qld highways where drivers just don't know how to be courteous or how to drive or merge.

Couple of questions though, even though I haven't fully read through the manual yet, but I'm sure I've read about this in this thread before:
I cannot for the life of me get the Smartgate apps to connect to the car. I can get BT connected no problem. Same with Apple CarPlay. But how do I get Smartgate working? I understand this operates through wireless, not cable or BT.
I have the Skoda apps installed on my phone - and it's an iPhone 5S, which is in the list of approved devices.

Can anyone help - this one is annoying me, as I'd really like to monitor the telemetry and diagnostic information that they work with.

[woofy]

Smartgate isn't enabled here. No idea why but your wifi etc all is. Also don't use cruise control or tow at all for the first 1500km. That's pretty much the only instructions on running in they give, but that is common for all cars. Not quite as bad with the ACC as it does change speed, but a bad idea to sit at one speed for too long in the early days. There is more info in the manual about what to do in that first 1500km if you want to look further.

[Spinifex]

Thanks woofy. Yeh, I'm not planning on using cruise too much, but it did get a workout yesterday driving home. The plan is to do a few mountain runs this weekend and various speeds and loads... should run it in pretty nicely!

And does anyone know if Smartgate is something that can be enabled with the VCDS thing?

Also - couple of additional questions as I'm not sure if they are bugs:
1: I've noticed that the infotainment system (Columbus I believe) will not remember the setting for "screen off after 10 seconds"
I have to set this again every time I start the car.
I like having minimal distractions while driving, so I like the fact I can have the screen go blank, then only display again when my hand gets into proximity.... but it just won't remember that setting after switching off.

2: I've ticked the selection to "mirrors lower when reversing" which I think is an awesome feature. But they don't do anything when selecting reverse. The rear-camera works flawlessly, but I like to use mirrors as well..... This setting IS remembered each time I switch car on/off, but just doesn't do anything.

3: The window-lock button seems to only work on rear-windows. The front passenger window can still be activated while the window button is "locked." Is this normal? I've tried to lock the windows for the first week, as the car is freshly tinted - but testing the buttons very briefly, it appears the passenger window will still activate.

4: I may have misread this thread or car specs, but doesn't the MY16 RS have auto high-beam dipping function? Tried it last night and pissed off quite a few people by deliberately not dipping my high-beams, expecting the car to do it for me?

5: Anyone have any contact details for guys in Brisbane with the VCDS cable and program? The only references I can find in here are from about 2 years ago, but the website links no-longer work. Does this affect warranty, if I get some additional functions activated? Will service centres be able to see the car has been accessed/reprogrammed?

Thanks all for any replies. Loving the car, but it's all a learning process.

[woofy]

No 2, I beleieve you need to leave the mirror adjustment knob selected to the left side.

no 3 I never tried the front passenger, but in my mk2 it locked all of them.

no 4, I think since May builds they have lane guidance but maybe not high beam. Check the manual as there is a light in the dash that shows when it is on.

[Spinifex]

2, i can fold the mirrors in using the adjuster knob manually, and the setting to fold-when-parked works. They just don't dip down when reversing despite the setting in the infotainment.

4, Yes - mine has lane guidance, so maybe that's all it is.
Strange they couldn't use the signal from the front-camera to perform two functions... is this another VCDS hack?