Bete Noir's one owner Octavia mk1 RS

[Bete Noir]

We bought our Octavia mk1 RS new in Dec 2002. I was driving a SEAT Leon mk1 Cupra at the time, and we wanted something to replace the SEAT Toledo mk1 Sport which my partner was using. The requirement was for a 5-door with a bit of poke and a large boot, and although we talked about and/or drove a few alternatives, the Octavia was the only one we liked.

We settled on Black Magic (very easy choice) with sunroof, but no parking sensors. This frustrated the dealer somewhat as they had a black one with sunroof and parking sensors in stock, but the deal they offered was not to my liking, so we waited for the one we wanted to be manufactured and delivered.

[Bete Noir]

We ran the car bog standard for years. I traded my Leon Cupra for a Mitsubishi Evo VIII, then sold that to buy a Leon Cupra R and a mk2 Ibiza track project, so my time and money for modifying cars went to those, until I decided I needed to do something about the Octavia’s standard silver wheels. Initially, I painted them Rover Stone Grey.

[Bete Noir]

The next set of wheels I tried were SEAT Sport Speedline GT1s.

[Bete Noir]

I had never been a massive fan of the two-tone interior, and I had just fitted a set of black leather S3 Recaros in my Leon Cupra R, so I sourced another set for the Octavia. Whilst I had the seats out, I replaced the carpet with a black one, and I swapped the door cards for some leather trimmed ones at the same time (thanks to Luca Oet on here for door cards and carpet).

The gearknob was replaced with a SEAT Sport leather item, and the ‘carbon look’ dash and centre console panels were swapped for some I had sprayed in black magic.

[Bete Noir]

At the same time as I had the dash panels painted, I also had a radiator grille surround done. Sadly, when I came to fit it I discovered my schoolboy error, which was that I had bought the wrong Octavia grille. So I sold that one, bought the right part, and painted it myself.

Under the bonnet, I have left things pretty much standard. The OEM plastic dump valve has been replaced with a Bailey alloy recirculating valve, the inlet manifold has been sprayed black, and a few of the hoses have been replaced with black silicone items.

[Bete Noir]

Another change of wheels was obviously overdue, and this time I went for SEAT Sport Oz F-1s, in gunmetal. The F-1 is a favourite wheel of mine, and I had acquired more of them than I needed just for winter use on my Leon, so I fitted a set on the Octavia, and sold the Speedlines.

My Leon Cupra R had come with awful FK coilovers fitted, and once I replaced them with some decent Bilsteins, the handling on the Octavia began to feel very loose, not to mention it looking like it was on stilts when next to the Leon. The Octavia is my partner’s daily driver, and she did not need or want coilovers, so I settled on a set of H&R lowering springs. These were fitted by JKM, along with Golf R32 front and Whiteline rear ARBs.

[Bete Noir]

My Leon mk1 Cupra R was replaced with an Audi RS4 B7, and then this went to make way for a Leon mk2 Cupra R, various SEAT Ibizas came and went, and I acquired a Felicia Pick-Up BriSkoda thread here, and through all this the Octavia has remained a constant.

More wheel shuffling resulted in my getting a set of the SEAT Sport Oz F-1s refurbed in VW LA7Y, and I bought some decals in apple green to make them look more like they belong on a Skoda. New centre caps help the looks too.

I have a Leon Cupra six speed gearbox, along with driveshafts and gear selector in the garage, ready to swap in when the clutch gets replaced, but the Octavia has now done 93k on the original clutch and it shows no signs of letting go (of course it will now that I have written this!).

I have been trying to persuade my partner that we should sell the Octavia, as we no longer really need it, but as we have had it from new, and I know how well it has been treated both in terms of how it gets driven and regular servicing, I think we might be hanging-on to it for a bit longer yet.

[dubDEAN]

love the trim really couldnt find the leather cards so solf my s3 seats then seen this    

 

i must do the black carpet mod 

[Bete Noir]

love the trim really couldnt find the leather cards so solf my s3 seats then seen this    

 

i must do the black carpet mod

Thanks. I was really lucky I found some ready-made leather door cards for sale on here, because I really did not want to put the S3 seats in and still have two-tone door cards. I made some similar door cards to suit the S3 seats I fitted into my second Leon, and it was a proper fiddly job. Changing the carpet is a bit of a pain too, as obviously you have to remove a lot of interior trim to do it. I think it is well worth it though, as the light grey carpet never looked either clean or classy.

[Bete Noir]

I posted this on my Leon thread on SEATCupra.net here, so I thought I ought to post it here too. It is unusual for both my Leon and Octavia to be clean at the same time, so I took a picture.

Edited 8 May, 2016 by Bete Noir

[Paul thornton]

Cool reg plates!

[Bete Noir]

Cool reg plates!

Thanks, I picked them up together around the same time as I got the Octavia. I have since bought *700 SLO for my track car, and *70 OLO for the pick-up too.

[Vegasphil]

Great thread - Nice to see how loyal you have been to it, particularly as you seem to like a change of car! 

[Bete Noir]

Nice to see how loyal you have been to it, particularly as you seem to like a change of car! 

 

It is more about pragmatism rather than loyalty, TBH. Whenever we have thought about changing it, it has come down to how much money we would have to spend to get something else to do the same job as well as the Octavia does. The sums have always said we would be mad to change it. Now that we have the pick-up for load carrying, and the children are grown-up, we could probably change it for something smaller.

[Bete Noir]

In the (nearly) fourteen years we have had this car, it has only let us down twice. The first time was several years ago when it cut-out suddenly after we had driven through a deep puddle. That proved to be due to a dodgy fuel filter, which allowed the fuel line to become detached when the water from the puddle hit it. The second time was yesterday. We had used the car to transport my son's worldly goods to his new house. When we came to leave, I pressed the clutch pedal, and it went all the way to the floor and stayed there. The pushrod had become detached from the pedal, and it was pretty obvious I was not going to be re-attaching it, especially without tools, so I made use of my breakdown cover. I have both AA and Green Flag cover, so I phoned them both, and then cancelled Green Flag when the AA van arrived. The Octavia suffered the ignominy of travelling home on a dolly behind the bright yellow van

 

The cause of the problem can be seen in this picture.

The small rectangular piece of metal has come away from the part of the pedal where the pushrod end mounting clip pushes in. This allowed the pushrod to push right through the bracket.

 

The AA guy reckoned the problem might have been caused by the clutch getting stiffer as it nears the end of its life. We had not noticed the clutch getting stiffer, although given that it has never been replaced, and has now covered almost 96k miles, it would not be a big surprise if it needed doing soon. I will sort out the pedal, then see how the clutch feels. If it needs doing, I have a 6-speed gearbox from a SEAT Leon Cupra which I will be fitting.

 

Just realised I had been describing issues with the clutch cable on a car with a hydraulic clutch - doh!

Edited 1 October, 2016 by Bete Noir

[Bete Noir]

The new clutch pedal and clips, plus a new pedal rubber, all arrived in the week, so I fitted them today. The new pedal is on the right in this photo. You can see how the bracket for the pushrod end clip is supposed to look.

 

I cannot say I enjoy any task around pedal boxes, mostly because of the awkward working position, and this job was not a huge amount of fun. The clip was persuaded onto the end of the pushrod using some stilson pliers, but the bit I was really dreading was re-fitting the over-centre spring. In order to hold the clutch pedal in the depressed position to get the spring back in, I used a broom handle between the pedal and a plank of wood (wrapped in a towel) which I placed against the drivers seat backrest. As my Octavia has S3 (electric adjustment) seats I could then just adjust the tilt of the seat back to get the pedal exactly where I wanted it. All a bit Heath Robinson, but it did the job.

[Bete Noir]

When the Octavia was hooked-up to the diagnostic gear at JKM recently, they noticed that the boost valve was sticking. This was an old Baileys valve, that had been fitted to my son's mk3 Ibiza Cupra when he bought it. I replaced this was a nice new Forge 008 valve.

 

I went out for a test drive when it was all back together, and the clutch feels absolutely fine, which is a bonus (although I am looking forward to having the gear ratios of the Leon Cupra 'box). It also feels like it is boosting more quickly, in fact it feels a lot more sprightly, which makes me think the Baileys valve must have been deteriorating for a while.

 

Having seen under the engine top cover for the first time in a while to fit this valve, I think replacing some hoses might be in order soon.

[Bete Noir]

Earlier this week, my partner told me that the Octavia was not running properly. She had been out for the evening, and it had been fine on the way there, but when she came to drive home it was lacking power and the engine warning light was coming on intermittently. I started it up the next day, and it was pretty obvious it was running on only three cylinders. I did not have time to look at it until today, but in the interim I had my fingers crossed that it was a simple fix.

 

I had some new coil packs in the garage, so I thought they would be a good place to start. I removed the first coil pack and replaced it with a new one. When I then started the car, it appeared to be running perfectly. I could not believe it could be so quick to fix, so I swapped the coil pack back to check. The problem symptoms duly reappeared. So I refitted the new coil pack, and took the car for a test drive. All good. I cannot quite believe my luck how my first diagnosis was correct, and how the first coil pack I replaced was the faulty one.

[Leeboy]

Ah yes,  the simple early wins are always welcome.   As oppose to those jobs you think are five or ten minutes tops and half hour later your still wrestling and swearing at the damn thing! 

[dubDEAN]

then she will make you work for every win for the rest of ownership :p

[Bete Noir]

After over 18 years of ownership since we bought it new, and 112,000 almost completely trouble-free miles, the time came to move the Octavia on. It was still doing a fantastic job, but it had come to the point that if anything serious (i.e. expensive) went wrong with it I might have had to scrap it, and that would have been heartbreaking. I had not got as far as advertising it when my daughter and her partner mentioned they were considering looking at Octavias. When they found out ours was available we struck a deal very quickly. Before it went I replaced things like engine covers which had been sitting in the garage for a while, and gave it a clean under the bonnet.

 

The deal we had agreed included me keeping the Oz F-1 wheels, and replacing them with something of the same size. A set of VW Santa Monica alloys came up on eBay locally, and after I had given them a good clean and fitted Skoda centre caps I put them on the Octavia.

 

The wheels are not to my taste, but that is kind of the point. Before it went off to its new owner the personal plate was replaced with a 'standard' registration.

 

I never loved the Octavia. It was my partner's car and I always had my own car which I liked better. Having said that, every time I drove it I enjoyed it, even when I had something much faster (Evo VIII) or more flash (RS4). It was a bloody good car, which I never regretted buying, and which I was sad to see go.

Edited 8 May, 2021 by Bete Noir