Skoda Octavia Tdi for sale £550

[phil_lihp]

A quick update as I bought this off Lee a couple of weeks ago, it's just coming up to 190,000 miles and...well...it's working just fine.  Nothing to report.  Nada.  Zilch.  Works perfectly, eats up the miles (it's been clocking up a fair few this week) and doesn't drink much fuel.  Yes, it's dull and it's not strictly 'shite' but I actually really, really like it.  Pretty comfortable, the engine pulls nicely and plenty of space, which is handy because it's full to bursting at the moment, I've emptied a ton of filthy crap out of my damp, leaky garage today ready to be dumped tomorrow and it swallowed the lot.  Just an all round mega-useful and reassuringly reliable workhorse, the perfect pairing with the Jag, which is none of those things but nevertheless quite wonderful anyway.

 

Judging by the ones on eBay still going strong with anything between 220-350,000 miles on them, this one might be a long term keeper.

[Lacquer Peel]

Do you need any parts for it? My old one is still resting near my mum's house.

[phil_lihp]

Hmm, not really, as everything works fine!  Only thing I'd like to do is to get a set of proper Skoda fitted floor mats, I don't suppose yours has a set?

[Lacquer Peel]

Hmm, not really, as everything works fine!  Only thing I'd like to do is to get a set of proper Skoda fitted floor mats, I don't suppose yours has a set?

 

Mine wasn't boringly reliable, sadly! The floor mats are goosed, sorry.

[phil_lihp]

No worries, thanks for the offer anyway.

[garethj]

It's an amazing car, not one that I could form a deep and meaningful relationship with but it was incredibly useful at being almost an estate car and sipping tiny amounts of fuel.  It was so cheap to run that it changed the way I thought about visiting places - no problem to travel a hundred miles, it's less than 2 gallons of fuel.

 

Enjoy it, as much as anyone can enjoy a grey Skoda

[phil_lihp]

Yup, still working.  But wait!  A thing has occurred.

 

It's being pressed into service as my work hack next week and I thought it would be a good idea to make sure it was 100% beforehand.  It's always been a bit slow starting when hot, it spins over OK but the starter on these 1.9 diesels tends to wear and slow down, if the engine isn't turning at 200RPM or more, the fuel injectors won't turn on so when it's hot and therefore harder to turn over, it will sometimes take 3-4 seconds before it starts.  No big deal, I think it's been like this for years anyway (I knew about it before buying it) but it will be doing a lot of hot starts and possibly being borrowed by colleagues as well from time to time so I could see it getting annoying.

 

I extracted the starter motor last weekend and dropped it in to a local auto electrician who specialises in alternators and starter motors.  They found a large chunk of solder had come away from the armature, repairing the existing motor would cost £65 +VAT or they had a brand new exchange motor in stock for £68 +VAT.  A no-brainer really.

 

Shiny.

 

 

Bolted it in yesterday and it now turns over much faster and starts instantly whether hot or cold, I'd say that's money well spent.  Should last another 190,000 miles or so, hopefully. 

 

 

 

A relatively straightforward and easy job, I've never done a starter motor job before but it took about an hour to get the old one out and another hour to put the new one in.  I could probably do it rather quicker now, it would also be easier without what I assume to be an air-con pipe in front of the motor which gets in the way of the ratchet when undoing the lower bolt holding the motor in.  Incidentally for anyone who might have to do this, the two mounting bolts are 18mm, this stumped me for a while as I do not have an 18mm spanner or socket (in fact, I have never needed one either) but fortunately an imperial socket of almost the right size came to the rescue.

 

It's also had a quick wash and wax which has brightened it up a bit and on Friday it's going in to be sign-written.  I hope it appreciates all this effort.

[garethj]

Good man, it's probably not a known weak spot on these Octavias as most of them never have the engines switched off.

[phil_lihp]

Hah, true.  There was a very late 56-plate one on eBay recently with 389,000 miles on it, I can only imagine what that looked like inside.  The engine's well known for it from what I can tell, a mate of mine had a 54-plate Golf with the same engine and he had the same slow hot starting at only 115,000 miles and there's lots of forum posts on the internet about it. 

[inconsistant]

Why are all the photos on this thread in black and white?

[Lacquer Peel]

Grey scale car.

[oldford]

We look after a 1999 90hp model for a local Taxi driver.  It's now done 550,000 miles, with the most major repair being a clutch and flywheel, it's still on its original turbo.

[phil_lihp]

And on it goes...it's now signwritten down both sides and on the bonnet, mileage is currently over 191,700 miles and increasing rapidly, it's in daily use driving all over North Devon visiting clients and last weekend it took the family and a boot full of luggage down to Lyme Regis and over the 300+ mile trip averaged about 47MPG according to the fuel computer, pretty good considering how hilly it was. 

 

As of this morning the air con's been regassed and I've treated it to a full set of proper Skoda floor mats from the local dealer (£30!) to replace the tatty/entirely missing ones it had in it.

 

I even washed and polished it.  Nothing else to report, come back later.

[garethj]

The trip computer was very pessimistic when I had this car, the mpg app on my phone said 60mpg but the car's display never went higher than about 48mpg

[phil_lihp]

I might try and work it out at some point, it's never going to be brilliant given the roads and relatively frequent, short journeys it sees most of the time but it's been up to 51MPG on the display, it seems to go for a long time between refills anyway!

[HillmanImp]

Do you not run the risk of falling asleep at the wheel in a car so damned reliable? The fear of imminent mechanical breakdown is the only thing that keeps the adrenalin pumping on most roads for me.

 

Even the worry that you will not make it to the petrol station in time is removed from the equation here.

 

Mrs Imp drives a modern (2010) car but its a Renault so it still keeps you on edge with new and interesting noises on every journey.

[phil_lihp]

Funnily enough, no.  I did think this would be boring to the point of disliking it but it's so nice to drive I actually like using it, plus as I depend on it for my job I don't want something that will give me 'ooh,what was that noise/smell/part tumbling down the road behind me' thrills every few days.  I have the Jag for that!

[groovylee]

bored at work, looking through for sale threads, and i spotted this one.  sooo glad it's still going strong lol.  I hate selling cars to people i 'know', but in this case, i was happy to, as the damn thing was so reliable!

 

also good to know about the starter motor, i'm glad it want anything more ominous.

 

cheers,

 

Lee

[phil_lihp]

Well, the story ends here, sort of.  It's still going strong but is no longer my car, I sold it to the company I work for a few months ago and my colleague's now using it instead as I've been allocated a modern Berlingo van (boo, hiss etc), it's still clocking up the miles and has just had a little fettling session at a local garage, the air con's still not working after a re-gas and we were quoted £500 for a new compressor so have gone with 'opening the window' as a cheaper solution.  

 

It's still reliable as a £350 car could ever be, since the passenger front window regulator broke it's suffered a stripped thread on the new starter motor's power cable which has caused a few starting issues but that's all fixed and other than that it's been boringly solid.  

[phil_lihp]

Random, unexciting update.

 

I had this back temporarily to sort out its MOT, passed with flying colours and treated to 4x new Dunlop tyres at the same time. Locking wheelnut key was lost (left on the wheel by someone who might have swapped the wheels front to back a few months ago...) but the local Skoda dealer got 3 off with a master key and the garage managed to get the chewed-up 4th one off without too much hassle and only a bit of scuffing of the already scruffy wheel. Four new wheelbolts ensure this won't be an issue again.

 

It will need some front brake pads and discs soon but otherwise it's on 194,500 miles and still feels like it has done half of that. Also, the air con has started working all by itself, marvellous car.

[hpi_matrix]

 Also, the air con has started working all by itself, marvellous car.

 

Ahhh the old leave it alone and it will fix itself, so satisfying yet mysterious...

[phil_lihp]

THRILLING UPDATE

 

Wiper stalk - inoperative

Wipers - squeaky

TRE - knackered

Brake pads - worn

Rear brake caliper - seized

Handbrake cables - knackered

Remote plips - dead

Door switches - intermittent

Coolant sensor - beepy

Turbo - leaky and overpressuring

 

Poor thing's having a hard life, it's now on almost 198,000 miles and they've been tough ones - lots of bad roads, steep hills and short journeys but the engine continues to run very well.  A glug of injector cleaner and an italian tuneup has restored the engine to full strength as it was noticeably down on power recently but as the list above shows, it is starting to gently unravel in certain areas.  

 

It's currently at the mechanics having a new rear caliper and handbrake cables so that the handbrake will work again, wiper stalk was resurrected by cleaning contacts and I've still got to change the NS track rod end and brake pads when I get time, the rest isn't much of a worry and nothing unusual on a VW of this age.  Only minor concern is the turbo which cut out a few days ago, I looked into it and turns out the pipes get clogged over time, first fix is a good thrashing and second fix is Mr Muscle down the pipes - fix number one seems to have sorted it for now, it's not done it since.

 

Still ace to drive, still looks smart enough when it's cleaned, still carries a lot of kit.  Still very happy with it.

[stripped fred]

Sounds very simar to my 406, same mileage, recent seized caliper and handbrake. A few things starting to give up. However, there's no reason why they can't continue onto 250k with a bit of luck. Both were popular as taxis after all!

[AMC Rebel]

<pedant> this is showing up tagged as for sale </pedant>

[phil_lihp]

Not my thread so I can't change it!

[Rocket88]

Probably one of the finest "real world" cars ever made.................................eleventy million cabbies can't be wrong.................

[sierraman]

Seized calipers are par for the course on the combined hand/foot brake type. Drums could be a pain but so long as they were maintained properly the shoes lasted for ages. A lot of the stuff with rear calipers seem to use the back brakes more so the pads go down much quicker than you'd expect.

[phil_lihp]

It does have rear calipers, they never seem as good as drums to me.  The brakes do need attention in general, I will be putting new front pads on over the christmas break and I'm intending to flush the brake fluid as well, the brakes are a tad mushy and the fluid's probably original.  A badly-judged overtake on a windy A-road by an oncoming muppet in a modern Panda a few days ago caused me to stamp very, VERY hard on the brakes from 50-60mph and it pulled up straight but not as rapidly as I'd have liked.  Also, new trousers needed afterwards but that's not the car's fault.

[Lacquer Peel]

How do you get on with the seats? The ones in mine were woeful and my friend changed the seats in his mum's partner's Octavia for Golf SE jobs because it was like riding in a torture device for his mum who's used to French cars.

[Richard]

Are the Lawn and Cement seats any better?