MK3 Octavia - List of Defects, Faults and Issues

[woofy]

It's not unclear, it's only for the my16 models as it is different hardware. Been asked plenty of times in another thread.

[daMama]

Soz, I've been busy with lots of things over the last few months, hence the absence.
Anyhoo, yesterday I noticed, not for the first time, a burning smell from somewhere in the car, like you would get from a dusty heater. Thought it might be the car in front, but it wasn't as it happened again when I was in the car park. I also noticed a hmm... Rattling noise when I was going down the ramp. The smell came and went. When I parked, I couldn't smell anything externally. I would have popped the bonnet, but I was late for work.
Any ideas? I didn't have the fan runny, but the dial was set to warm as it's still cold in the mornings here.

[k_rider]

Something caught on the exhaust system? You may have run over a plastic bag blowing around on the road and it's stuck to the exhaust system and is melting/burning. Although this usually smells more like burning candles.

[ozgti]

Petrol or diesel? Diesel could be the dpf regeneration. It k8nda smells like that.

[daMama]

Petrol or diesel? Diesel could be the dpf regeneration. It k8nda smells like that.

Petrol, but it doesn't happen all the time. I've only noticed the smell about 3 times in the 7 mths of ownership...[emoji58]

[ozgti]

My mk6 would do this, but it went back for a whole lot of things. Injectors replaced, cracked turbo manifold... That cured it!

[GTR27]

So far touch wood mine has been faultless. All faults so far have been mine. Rear reversing led globe has a single faulty led and it shows on the in car register. Will get around to ordering another led reversing light set to replace it. They are so bright it's worth it!

Will only just crack 9000 k by the first 12 month service. Have used about 400ml of oil, but that was mostly in the first 1-2000k and I can't be certain that it was 100% full when I picked it up

[hobbie2k]

We used about 1.5l of oil by the first service, but we also ran 15k in six months. We're now at 21k with no further oil consumption.

We do have to take the car in soon to replace the power boot struts for the well-documented leaking issue. There is also a rattle under the car when the A/C is on, only noticeable standing still at idle.

The only other issues come from the wife's tendency to leave 20-odd half-empty coffee cups and McDonald's bags in the foot wells.

[donweather]

I assume this also applies to the MkIII vRS?

VW Golf GTI hot hatch added to emissions cheats

[GTR27]

I think you will find that Australia doesn't even have euro 5 emissions standards, let alone euro 6. Which would be why it won't be an issue in Australia. But yes, same engine/model. Different issue to the other one though - this one is for CO2, not NOx like the other 'scandal'

[woofy]

It won't be the emissions, rather that the stated fuel economy won't match the sales/marketing figures. Mine has just entered the order system so I'm curious as to what state things will be by the time I get it.

[Gerrycan]

I read quite a few car reviews and vehicles actual test results are rarely near the official figures.
The one make that stands out for me as consistently being the worst is Mercedes.

The make that used to be the worst was Hyundai/Kia but since they were found out and fined in the USA the new releases here have had much more realistic figures, and most reviews still cannot match them although much closer than they were.

Judging by the comparison reviews the VAG brands are no worse and most times better than other makes in terms of actual fuel consumption so if VAG are cheating on the results then the others must be as well.

There was one vehicle that was released recently where most reviewers actually got very close to the official figures.
It was the new Suzuki Vitara, it only has a NA 1.6 litre engine but the kerb weight is down to 1100 kg which is quite remarkable for 5 star rated and quite roomy 2WD SUV. Other aspects of the car got panned a bit though.

The problem is the CO2 road tax bands in the UK are such that being a couple of grams over or under a level can add 100 pounds to your annual road tax.
I would have thought the simplest thing to do is drop the road tax completely and bump up the petrol tax for an equitable user pays system.
Now we are soon to lose our car manufacturing industry in Australia, the same could apply here.

[bobski]

Some cars are terribly underquoted, it wouldn't surprise me to find out cheats are employed to get the economy figures down. Anti Vaggers like to claim the economy of VAG is bad, but my ex vRS and Superb have always been within 10% of their claimed economy in normal driving.

If cars are up to 10km/h out at an indicated 100km/h, then the km travelled would also be out and their fuel economy calculation would follow (my ute is 6km/h out which got me thinking about it)? Is that right?

[GTR27]

Typically odometers are dead accurate, but speedos can be out by up to 10%

[brad]

If cars are up to 10km/h out at an indicated 100km/h, then the km travelled would also be out and their fuel economy calculation would follow (my ute is 6km/h out which got me thinking about it)? Is that right?

Typically odometers are dead accurate, but speedos can be out by up to 10%

When my speedometer was 10% out the odometer was 5% out. eg: the 15,000km service came due at a genuine 14250km. It doesn't sound like much but if I'd continued with 205/55r16 tyres my current 165,000km on the odometer would have only taken 156,750km to achieve.

I ran oversized tyres from about 50,000km to 150,000km and have probably evened things out by now.

Bobski is right, my "apparent" fuel consumption got worse when I was running oversized tyres despite my RPM on the highway being slightly less.