My pre-owned Skoda Laura TDI: 1.84 lakh km update

Even after all these years & kilometres, the car’s ride quality is phenomenal & the way it picks up speed is terrific.

BHPian asit.kulkarni93 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Apart from regular Nashik trips, not many trips were carried out. One afternoon, I reached my workplace and the car showed the overheating symbol. I let it cool and scanned it till then. No errors were found but the coolant tank was empty. Once the car cooled off, I topped it up with some water and checked for leakages. Found a coolant elbow near the radiator leaking. The cost was less than Rs. 1000, but had to search a lot to get it. It was replaced the same evening and since then the car has been good to go.

The brakes needed attention for a long time. Finally I got all the 4 rotors, brake pads and caliper pins replaced. Rotors were from Bosch and brake pads from Brembo. The brakes feel much better. I had faced an issue during my Nashik trip when the older rear brake pads had hardened and there was a lot of brake fade. The caliper pins were an issue too.

Since the last trip to Nashik in April, I felt the performance wasn’t upto the mark. The car would occasionally wobble on acceleration. This definitely wasn’t an issue with the wheel balancing but either the flywheel or drive shafts. The switch to SMF was turning out to be a mistake, the already Coarse PD engine became even worse and somehow the car didn’t feel good to drive.

I had checked another Laura with an SMF but because it was a stock car, it was doing pretty good. The flywheel on my car was worn out and I could feel the difference in the low end. Finally, I got back to the DMF with a new clutch from Sachs. The old clutch was good but I didn’t want to risk it.

The car feels much better now but I felt something missing about the power delivery and on certain roads, there would be a humming sound at lower speeds. Checked the wheel bearings first and they were good to go. The only other thing which was suspicious was the drive shaft bearing because it would make a ‘kat’ sound on hard braking and heavy acceleration once in a while. The axles were refurbished and the car is back to its usual. While the car was stationary, I got the subframe bush replaced along with the re-threading done for 2 bolts.

Apart from the overheating issue, most of the other things were taken care of as a precaution. Got LED turn signals installed. No canbus error. We were keen on replacing the Laura this year but the Figo replacement is a priority hence pushed this purchase. At 184k KMs, this car drives really well. I took it for some unexpected work late in the night and on my way back I was ripping the car. The ride quality is phenomenal and the way it picks up speed is terrific.

Returning from Nasik

Leaking coolant elbow

Awaiting monsoon drives now

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