Scratched my Skoda Scout itch

[Bora Sport]

My wife has been on to me for years to get a diesel for the fuel economy. I use my car for work so I decided for no particular reason that I'd like to buy my first ever wagon. I liked the idea of all wheel drive having previously had a Bora 4mo (hence my signature name). Also I was trying to do it as cheaply as possible so the end result was that I purchased a March 2011 build Skoda Scout diesel auto from Graysonline sight unseen so here's hoping.....

It arrived at my mechanic mate's place this afternoon and he will check it out and hopefully it will get a safety certificate and I can register it tomorrow. I had a quick look at it. It looks pretty straight with some possible repainting having been done on the front bar cover. The tyres look ok and the brake rotors don't have much of a lip on them. However it is missing the spare wheel, the luggage area cover and there are a few other bits and pieces need attention. It has no engine cover and I assume there is some kind of plastic or rubber holder to rest the bonnet strut on when the bonnet is open. There is just a square hole where I assume it would normally sit.

Anyway I just thought I might ask if there are any idiosyncrasies to look out for. Obviously the usual areas of DSG and Haldex will be looked at. Also there is no service record saying the cam belt has been changed but at 174,000 k's I would hope it has.

[Greg Roles]

The DPF should be getting towards end of life if it hasn't already been replaced, see if you can get it Vag Com scanned and see how much ASH is registering. Wouldn't suprise me at all if the previous owner got rid of it due to DPF issues - it may be into the short regeneration cycles around these kms. I'd also suggest getting a full inlet flush with upper intake cleaner - a few cans, and go to town with some diesel fuel additive.

On my Yeti the plastic hood strut part is on the stalk, the bonnet does just have a square open hole.

[Gerrycan]

My Scout itch is also unrequited!

I'll be interested to hear more on how this works out for you.
Funnily enough my wife is not adverse to the idea of a Scout either.

Just re-read my post and should confirm the Scout in question is definitely Skoda's 4WD version.

[Bora Sport]

I got it registered and drove it home. About 30k's distance and due to the rain, speed limits, traffic etc I barely got it to 100kph. I was told that it may have been tuned. It does jump off the mark quickly but in normal driving it doesn't feel as athletic as my wife's 2010 Jetta 125 TDI which is to be expected I suppose. It is quite deceptive though. It doesn't feel like its going as fast as it actually is.

I had a play with the menu and it says that the last service was 285 days and 11,000k's ago. It may be that it wasn't reset but it may also be the case. Anyway oil change and filter will be done in the next day or so. The thing that is really doing my head in is that I keep getting a message saying iPhone 6+ Connecting user. I tried everything and my phone will not find Skoda UHV. It's so annoying because I've had no trouble connecting to the Jetta and three 2011 Golf R's with the same phone. That is bad enough but even when I set the display to say mfd average fuel consumption it defaults to the above message after a minute or two.

I drove 2 other Scouts, both had around 30,000k's less on them and they rode quite comfortably, read softly, but this one feels quite stiff and stays nicely flat around corners. I will have to look into why that is. I rang two wrecking yards in Brisbane today that I found on Gumtree and EBay but neither answered the phone and neither has returned my call yet. Quite disappointing really.

First chance I get I will be asking Gav to do a scan on it. Probably change oil and filters in the Haldex and DSG as well.

[Greg Roles]

A tuned 103 4 motion will never feel as good as a 125 FWD, I noticed the same thing in the Yeti. Tuned it is quick, but given the extra weight, not as responsive.

[Bora Sport]

Thanks Greg for your input. I notice that you are at Caloundra. I have been hoping to drop in to say Hi. Maybe next Friday afternoon if you are around.

I've now done a couple of hundred k's and I'm getting to know it better. I am convinced that it has been tuned as it actually goes pretty well and if the trip computer is correct the fuel consumption is astounding. I've seen it as low as 4.3l/100 which is even better than my wife's old 2007 103 PD TDI Jetta.

I still can't get the phone to pair with the bluetooth. I've Googled it and tried everything. Like i said, I have had no problems pairing with at least three 2010/2001 VW's. The car is apparently seeing the phone but the phone can't seem to find the car. In the menu it shows a blackberry and an iPhone 6+ under media but it won't let me delete them. When I try it says it can't be done because they are being used as a phone. Is this something that can be addressed through VCDS?

As I mentioned the really annoying part is that it doesn't seem to matter what menu you want to display MFD, fuel consumption for example, after a minute or two it keeps defaulting back to the screen that says iPhone 6+ connecting user but nothing happens. Does anybody have a suggestion here?

[Greg Roles]

Nope, no idea. I have a vag com cable you can borrow till you fix it, but I've no idea what might be involved to put your head unit back to stock, I'm not very good with vag com outside DPF's!

[Lams]

not sure if it's any help but in my 2011 Caddy, to pair the phone I had to initiate it from the car. Get the car to search and get the car to attempt to bond. Enjoy the new car!

[Bora Sport]

Nope, no idea. I have a vag com cable you can borrow till you fix it, but I've no idea what might be involved to put your head unit back to stock, I'm not very good with vag com outside DPF's!

I'm hoping Gav will have some clues. I'll ask him to have a look at it when I next see him.

[Bora Sport]

A quick update as I'm sure you are all hanging out for the news lol.

My wife drove the car to Brisbane last week and did a round trip of nearly 400k's including a trip to a wrecker to pick up a spare wheel including the tool kit which was not in the car when I bought it and also a little green hub cap which was also missing. She also had to go into the city so there was quite a bit of traffic driving involved. It's the first car out of the last 5 cars that I have bought for myself that she actually likes driving. She even offered to swap her 2010 Jetta 125 TDI.

I also bought a new master switch for the electric windows and ordered a second ignition key from the local stealer and got a cargo cover from a Sydney wrecker. It seems the car has had a fairly hard life.

It had 839 kilometres on the trip meter on the first tank and the range was telling me I had 45 kilometres to empty. So we saw some cheap diesel and decided to fill up. It only took a bee's **** under 52 litres to fill (to overflowing) which by my calculations is about 6.2 litres/100 which I think is pretty good.

All was going pretty well until I was parking the car and winding the steering wheel from lock to lock when I heard a click behind the air bag and then a flip, flip sound as I turned the wheel. Bingo the air bag light comes on and the steering wheel controls stop working. A new clock spring is required. They retail for $600.00 from the stealer. I can get it for about $528 trade but I still don't want to pay that much. Pisses me off when VW replaced them free of charge in a voluntary recall in the US but they don't want to know about it here in Oz.

Anyway I am looking into other options, a mate who has connections in China and also a Russian site on EBay that are selling the genuine VW part for around AUD$275 including postage. Sounds good except that delivery won't be until the end of the first week in January at best.

Still haven't got the bluetooth working and I can't now either until I get the clock spring fixed.

[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?