Scratched my Skoda Scout itch

[Bora Sport]

So its only been registered in my name since the 1st of December and today I was a bit surprised when I got the dear John letter from Skoda about the progress, or lack thereof, of the dieselgate fix. Basically they are telling me they will be in touch.

I'm pretty surprised. Obviously they must be monitoring the VIN numbers through the various registration authorities.

[wfdTamar]

Steering wheel may have been taken off (possibly a clumsy wheel alignment fix to get the steering wheel to sit straight). It's quite tricky to put the sensor behind the steering wheel back on correctly. My guess is they did it wrong.

Definitely get parts from Europe/UK. Czech, Latvia sellers can be cheap.

I needed a whole steering column just to fix 10mm freeplay because a simple plastic (or ceramic) part in the column had broken. $960 from the dealer here (and fitting which would have been very expensive). Got a good used one from Germany for $250 shipped, fitted it myself (quite tricky).

[Bora Sport]

Perhaps but I was reading a post on Briskoda and a guy was explaining what happened to him and it was exactly the same. He actually heard it break, just like I did.

After much searching on EBay I have gone with a seller in Russia. It seems there are heaps of people selling the complete upgrade kit to get cruise control in your non cruise control cars. It includes the clock spring, steering module and the two stalks. I decided to purchase the whole kit as it was around $300.00 including postage. I don't know what the result will be but it's supposed to be genuine VW parts. I actually messaged the seller and for an extra $26 or so I'm supposedly getting express postage. Wait and see I suppose.

The drivers side air vent is buggered and the surround to the centre vents has a small section missing. The drivers side air vent was $135 trade price from the dealer. A wrecker quoted $75.00 but when we went there he didn't have one. So I found a Chinese site and I got the entire centre section and the air vent for about $120 including postage and once again they are supposed to be genuine Skoda parts.....

[wfdTamar]

Cruise control is worth paying that for. I had to replace my cruise control stalk after the little switch on top that cancels cruise failed from overuse (car had only done about 100,000 km's - you're better to leave that switch alone and dab the brakes to cancel cruise). Got a genuine stalk from China for about $25-35.

[Bora Sport]

Yes my wife often uses the on/off switch for the cruise. I've never touched it on the Skoda because it was already on when I got the car lol. I had to replace the stalk on my Bora 4Mo when it was about 13 years and 250,000k's but otherwise I've been pretty lucky. I decided to buy all 4 items because the price wasn't much more than for just the clock spring that I needed so I thought why not. I might replace the whole lot with the new or keep them for spares and just install the clock spring.

I see that you have the upgraded Haldex controller. Where did you get it from and how much did you pay? I have noticed that if I get on the gas too hard too early in a corner or roundabout it tends to run wide like a front wheel drive befor the rear kicks in. My Golf R is much quicker to transition power to the rear without any noticeable extra understeer. Maybe the higher (and at the moment) pretty worn suspension is a contributor as well.

Are you happy with the FSD Koni shocks?

[Bora Sport]

The clock spring arrived. The air vent arrived sooner. I ordered it on the 23rd of December and it arrived on the 3rd of January. Can't complain about that. Both are fitted and the air vent looks pretty good quality and it's nice in the recent Queensland heat to get the air flow again. The clock spring is fitted and so far so good.

I took the car down to see Gavin. He did a DSG service for me and a full scan. There were no problems with the DSG. There were heaps of fault codes for the engine. Whilst looking under the bonnet I noticed a piggy back chip type thing. It probably explains what the Graysonline guy was trying to explain to me. It is unbranded and has no numbers or anything on the outside to identify what it is. I don't know if anyone here has any ideas of what it is. I could post a photo but as I said there is nothing to identify it. Anyway we decided that it might have been causing all the fault codes. Gavin cleared all the codes. The car didn't and so far hasn't performed any differently.

If I get some spare cash I will ditch that thing and get a proper tune from Gavin.

I've got some 18" wheels Charlstons I think they are called, that I am thinking of trying on the Skoda shortly. My son wants to put different tyres on his Golf R so I might put his existing tyres on these wheels that I've had sitting here for a while.

[Bora Sport]

Okay so after a few months of ownership and driving it pretty much everyday I can honestly say that I quite like it.

I still haven't been able to sort the phone Bluetooth issue. My mate Graeme who is quite good with Vagcom and I spent a few hours trying to get to the bottom of it. The phone module under the driver's seat appears to be the problem. It is part number 7P6 035 730 B. I have a mate that works for a Skoda and VW dealer and he has gone to some lengths to try and help also, even emailing Skoda for information.

It appears that the part number of my module doesn't appear in his parts list for Skoda but does for VW. My Scout is a March 2011 build.

Could any other Scout owners out there please help me out by checking their cars and telling me what part number module their car has.

I'm wondering if mine has the original part in place or someone has mucked around with it.

[ozscout]

The part number on my unit is 5K0 035 730 E Built Oct 2011

[Bora Sport]

Thanks. That is the part that Greg from Skoda says should be there. Perhaps that is my problem. Somebody has put the wrong one in.

[Bora Sport]

Put the wheels on during the week. I think it totally changes the look for the better. I put 235/40/18's and the grip level is noticeably higher as you would hope. My son organised the tyre change and left the VW centre caps on just to confuse people.



I got an Underground Performance tune done by Alex last Sunday and ditched that piggy back box. It feels much smoother and is definitely a lot gruntier and I thought it went well before. The check engine light came on and I've been driving until yesterday with the light on, but it doesn't seem to have affected the performance. I've been intermittently getting the check engine light come on and then go off again after a couple of days. It was off last weekend when I got the tune and then came on again on Wednesday. I think it relates to the Differential Pressure Sensor. I bought a new one and I was going to put it on this weekend but the light went out yesterday and stayed off again today. It will need to be calibrated anyway if I change it and I don't have a Ross Tech cable yet. Maybe I can ask Greg Roles for help.

The thing I have noticed is that it now changes into 6th at 65kph like my wife's Jetta 125TDI whereas it used to stay in 5th. This is with the cruise control on. The 235/40/18 is a couple of percent smaller rolling radius than the 215/55/17's that were on it so I'm not sure if it is the gearing or the tune that has made the difference. Maybe a combination of the two.

As an aside, my son wacked the piggy back box onto his work Caddy TDI and he said it goes a lot better.