Octavia vRS owners in here!

Liverpool-Lad · 13 Aug 2006 at 15:37

Got a few questions regarding these, Ive got up to 5k to spend and Ive found one locally on a 51 plate with 55k miles on the clock in red (best colour IMO) for 5k - seems to be a decent price?

How are they generally to drive, running costs (MPG/part costs) service intervals and so on. Also Id probably want to get the ECU remapped - what cost does this involve and also what power am I likely to expect?

I may go and take a look at this one tomorrow (Its a big, used car place and Im sure they have had this one for a month or 2...) Should alarm bells be ringing or are they not very sought after? Any general info would be great also.

Cheers.

Deathwish · 13 Aug 2006 at 16:19

Have you ventured onto the Skoda Forums?

http://www.briskoda.net/

Loads of good info

I can only speak for the "normal" Octavia in saying its a great car, well built, reliable and economical (diesel).

Edit: Just looked in the Glass's Trade book and a 51 plate with 50k miles has a trade value of £5k and retail of £6.3k. Make of that what you will.

WJA96 · 13 Aug 2006 at 17:11

Briskoda is your best bet. Red cars are not sought-after second hand so bargain hard. Black and Silver are the preferred colours with yellow being a distinct no-no at resale time. A remap at 55,000 miles is likely to be at £300-£500 to have it done and then quite expensive when the clutch, turbo and head-gasket all need replacing. Jabba and Celtic Tuning won't remap cars with over 70,000 miles on the clock at all. This is because a 10,000 mile car still has 90,000 unmapped miles of life in it's major components but only 50,000 miles life left in the turbo, head gasket and clutch after it's been remapped. A 50,000 mile car potentially only has 10,000 miles left. People tend to blame the tuner when expensive parts go pop soon after an upgrade so you can't really blame the tuners for being reluctant to do higher-mileage vehicles.

That said, I've had my Fabia vRS revo'd and it's just silly how fast it goes from 30-70mph (which means anything with broken white lines down the middle is now a valid overtaking opportunity!).

The 1.8l Turbo motor is very good, but as it's a 2001 model make sure it's had the ignition coils done as these tend to go at 50,000 miles and are quite pricey. Also apparently it will need an unplanned (ie. not on the service schedule) expensive timing belt change before 70,000 miles or the engine may go bang.

Check out www.honestjohn.co.uk for more information.

And the Skoda name continues to be a source of amusement for loads of people. I don't know why, but they're just not as 'respectable' as Audi, Volkswagen or even Seat (which is a simile for crap in Spain!).

On the upside, Skoda dealers are brilliant and the cars are cheap and strong so I'd go for it.

[TW]Fox · 13 Aug 2006 at 17:52

WJA96 said:
Briskoda is your best bet. Red cars are not sought-after second hand so bargain hard. Black and Silver are the preferred colours with yellow being a distinct no-no at resale time. A remap at 55,000 miles is likely to be at £300-£500 to have it done and then quite expensive when the clutch, turbo and head-gasket all need replacing. Jabba and Celtic Tuning won't remap cars with over 70,000 miles on the clock at all. This is because a 10,000 mile car still has 90,000 unmapped miles of life in it's major components but only 50,000 miles life left in the turbo, head gasket and clutch after it's been remapped. A 50,000 mile car potentially only has 10,000 miles left. People tend to blame the tuner when expensive parts go pop soon after an upgrade so you can't really blame the tuners for being reluctant to do higher-mileage vehicles.

Wow, this all sounds rather worrying. Are those VW 1.8T engines not noted for their strength, durability and reliability then? Virtually all engines will last well past 100k these days, yet from what you are saying there it seems the 1.8T is an exception to this, especially if the major tuners who know the ins and outs of these engines refuse to remap even reasonably low mileage 71k mile cars.

Liverpool-Lad · 13 Aug 2006 at 17:59

That has slightly concerned me! The cambelt change, fair enough, thats to be expected. However I was also under the impression they were very strong engines too.

tblocksom · 13 Aug 2006 at 18:52

I have a 51 plate RS (yes, I can still call it that

), which is currently on 128K miles. I've had a Jabba remap done at 45K after I bought the car with 35K on the clock. In the 3 years I've owned it, it has never missed a beat and is taken on 2-3 track days a year to keep me entertained.

tblocksom · 13 Aug 2006 at 18:54

Oh, and I am still on the original clutch, etc. Only the cambelt was replaced at 70K (due in 12K again

). Servicing is usually around the £150 mark at a friendly (Skoda) garage.

Liverpool-Lad · 13 Aug 2006 at 18:58

Did you have the coil issue as aforementioned and also how much was the belt change? (I have a mechanic mate!)

How was it also before and after the remap?

Sorry for all the questions...!

Oakesy2001uk · 13 Aug 2006 at 18:59

tblocksom said:
Oh, and I am still on the original clutch, etc. Only the cambelt was replaced at 70K (due in 12K again ). Servicing is usually around the £150 mark at a friendly (Skoda) garage.

I was about to say, VAG 1.8 turbo's have been being re-mapped for years with no ill effects I have heard of!

A lot of car for 5k that!

Liverpool-Lad · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:03

Thats what Im thinking...mmm

CypherPunk · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:11

[TW]Fox said:
Wow, this all sounds rather worrying. Are those VW 1.8T engines not noted for their strength, durability and reliability then? Virtually all engines will last well past 100k these days, yet from what you are saying there it seems the 1.8T is an exception to this, especially if the major tuners who know the ins and outs of these engines refuse to remap even reasonably low mileage 71k mile cars.

Its common sense really, 70,000 - 90,000 thousand miles is where things can begin to go wrong if a car hasn't been cared for properly, especially clutches and turbochargers both of which are expensive parts to replace. A lot of people will blame the tuners if one of their engine/transmission parts wears out after recently having a remap, even if it is nothing to do with the remap. I'd also imagine that most of the people who have their car remapped aren't exactly the slowest or most engine/transmission friendly of drivers, combine these problems and you can see why it makes financial sense not to remap cars over 70,000 miles, especially if they guarantee their work and that it has nothing to do with how long a well looked after engine will last.

tblocksom · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:18

Liverpool-Lad said:
Did you have the coil issue as aforementioned and also how much was the belt change? (I have a mechanic mate!)

How was it also before and after the remap?

Sorry for all the questions...!

I was aware (thanks Briskoda!) of the coilpack issue before I went to the dealer and haggled. I made sure they were all replaced (as it turned out, the car had all 4 replaced already as it was one of the first affected) before I signed on the dot. There is a lot of info on Briskoda about which type numbers they should be and it is easy to verify.

My was 180bhp before, and 216bhp after. Here is my graph. The best spend £500 (odd) ever

IIRC, the cambelt was around the £350 mark, well worth doing yourself if you can, cos it is all labour.

[TW]Fox · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:18

CypherPunk said:
Its common sense really, 70,000 - 90,000 thousand miles is where things can begin to go wrong if a car hasn't been cared for properly, especially clutches and turbochargers both of which are expensive parts to replace. A lot of people will blame the tuners if one of their engine/transmission parts wears out after recently having a remap, even if it is nothing to do with the remap. I'd also imagine that most of the people who have their car remapped aren't exactly the slowest or most engine/transmission friendly of drivers, combine these problems and you can see why it makes financial sense not to remap cars over 70,000 miles, especially if they guarantee their work and that it has nothing to do with how long a well looked after engine will last.

So why do the peopel who remap Mercs, BMWs, Fords, etc etc not have the same stipulations?

tblocksom · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:21

Just noted the above

Also apparently it will need an unplanned (ie. not on the service schedule) expensive timing belt change before 70,000 miles or the engine may go bang.

It's not unscheduled at all, just 10K earlier than the service schedule in the owners manual. Skoda has already revised their service schedule to once every 4 years or 120K KM, whichever comes first.

[TW]Fox · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:25

I don't get it, a cambelt every 4 years? On a modern engine?

Are they made of cheese or something?

WJA96 · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:25

I never said they weren't strong or that they wouldn't last, but you're taking an engine that is already producing almost 100BHP/litre and then looking to go higher. The early VAG engines only produced 150BHP from the 1.8T 20V motor, so it's already been tweaked. Remapping the engine will definitely shorten the life of your clutch and almost certainly shorten the life of the turbo and head gasket too. The question is how much will it shorten it by?

I had a 2001 1.8T Passat that had the coil problem early in the life of the car and there were no coils, so VW gave a loan car for about 9 weeks. The problem is restricted to cars built in a short period in 2001/2002 so your car may not be affected, but it's worth checking out.

I wouldn't put you off buying the car at all, they are excellent and much better value than the equivalent Golf or Leon, but I would suggest that the remapping of any unknown engine should be done with a bit of caution, that's all. The car is 5 years old and has done only 10,000 miles per year, so many of those journeys may have been quite short. I'd rather have a car that had big motorway miles than one with low, town, miles where the minor components take a hammering.

tblocksom's car is an excellent example of this - If he bought his car 3 years ago with 35,000 miles on the clock with 128,000 now showing he must be doing almost 30,000 miles per year. Those are almost certainly going to be long milemunching journeys and the car will be under relatively little stress where the engine gets to warm up fully before he uses the performance and probably he cools it down properly after using it too.

Liverpool-Lad · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:26

Sounds like Vauxhalls great idea - 4 years or 60k, whichever is first. Their issue was down to plastic components in the timing system - great idea, huh?

WJA96 · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:27

[TW]Fox said:
I don't get it, a cambelt every 4 years? On a modern engine?

Are they made of cheese or something?

No - I'd say that's pretty normal on modern engines. And it's actually a very old engine - it dates back at least 10 years.

WJA96 · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:28

tblocksom said:
Just noted the above

It's not unscheduled at all, just 10K earlier than the service schedule in the owners manual. Skoda has already revised their service schedule to once every 4 years or 120K KM, whichever comes first.

As I understand it the timing belt is not the cam belt, but I'm willing to be corrected.

[TW]Fox · 13 Aug 2006 at 19:29

WJA96 said:
No - I'd say that's pretty normal on modern engines.

No it isn't, decent engines have an interval of at least 8-10 years and 80-100k miles or better still, a timing chain.

We don't live in the 80's or early 90's there really isnt any excuse for 4 year cambelt intervals these days, it just smacks of cheap components and under-engineered engines.

You'd expect this sort of trick from Vauxhall but not VW with their 'uber quality' reputation. Worrying thing is I guess this will also affect Audi's with the same engine?