Old Dude

I have a November 2001 20V Turbo 4x4 Hatchback, bought as an ex demonstrator, 7 months old with 4384 on the clock. It has done 205,000 miles now. Following a blown head gasket in 2014, it had the head skimmed, then the turbo went and needed a rebuild, followed by the cat and lambda sensor needing replacing. The net effect of that was for it to be running better than when new. Unless there is a catastrophic failure, I'll not be getting rid of it any time soon as I fully retired in 2016 and it is now doing not much more than my local running around mileage. Anything further and my wife wants to go in her car, unless conditions are more suited to mine.

I've had my Octavia 1 4x4 turbo hatch since 2002 and done 203,000 in it. It is also wearing its 4th windscreen. I have long had the impression that the replacement screens come from 3rd party suppliers rather than the vehicle manufacturer's suppliers. As the insurance companies direct you to preferred replacement companies, I have assumed that they have bulk purchase deals going that probably mean the excess paid for windscreen replacement pretty much covers the cost of the job.

I would agree with that analysis. It recently happened with my wife's 18 year old Avensis. The dealer quoted £250 to get a new key and program everything up so that it'd work. She went somewhere else and bought a new car instead.

Just a final note. Since the car was returned to me in December with the assurance that I should stop worrying about valve seals, I have done 2,500 miles and mysteriously the oil consumption is now 50% less than it was before I first had the head gasket problem. I can only assume that the garage quietly put new valve seals in, or successfully used Wynn's Oil Stop to fix the problem. Three trips down to the family home at flooded Langport have seen a dead alternator, a noisy alternator tensioner, a very worn front o/s wheel bearing and rear discs and pads all being replaced. On its last trip however, it was back to running like a dream, so the private plate can stay on for a while yet, I hope.

Update: I took the car back to the garage on the 10th December and they kept it for a couple of days. They said they'd spent the time 'testing it' and that they'd given it a 50 mile run and it didn't seem to be using any oil. They were most emphatic that I should stop worrying about the oil seals and that I should take it and see how it went. They assured me they hadn't topped it up or anything and said there'd be no bill for what they had done since the original payment on 'completion.' I checked the consumption over the period prior to returning it to them and for several days after and found that it had gone up to 928 miles per litre. That was a significant improvement. I topped it up again so that I could do a further check on what it was doing solely after their 'testing'. I have checked it again today and it only needed 50mls adding to hit the full mark. It has returned 4280 miles per litre. I'm seriously wondering if they were so keen to have me stop worrying about the seals because their 'testing' involved replacing them. Getting that consumption around town is unheard of in the period I have been keeping records. I've checked with friends in Somerset and the flood waters are down enough for me to go and get on with some work there now, so I'll be testing it on a 500+ mile round trip over the rest of the week. We'll see if things hold up.

Most of the technical conversations here are a bit over my head however, all I can add is that having had coil packs go on about five occasions, they have all been accompanied by the engine warning light flashing on and off. I did have mine start running like a dog one time after filling up at a shabby looking filling station. It took a few refills before it sorted itself out.

@IulianE: Thanks. I have found a UK supplier. If the consumption isn't better after this recent time in the shop, I will give it a try.

@VRade. Hi. Post#14 seems to explain away the blue smoke. There's no sign of oil anywhere and as I recall no sign of an under tray either. I suspect that a main dealer 'forgot' to put that back on some years ago. The emissions tester reckons that it is doing its job well within limits. I don't know what can be done to check it out beyond that. :think: Thanks for the input.

I’ve had a chat with a the guy who lives opposite me over the weekend. He used to be a Ford mechanic but works in general engineering these days. He’s got a garage full of tools and occasionally does jobs on cars for his old mates. He told me that when the head would have gone for the testing and skimming, the first thing they’d do would be to stick it in a bath of solvent to get all the muck off it. He said that can do a great job of cleaning out round the valve seals and making them leak. He also said that for that reason, when you get a head kit to replace all the gaskets you’ll need, it also contains a set of replacement valve seals. He thinks they’ve probably swapped them if it has stopped losing oil now. I don’t know, I’m just keeping an eye on the dipstick still. On the topic of dipsticks, I bought a replacement one on eBay. It maps onto the right part number and is the same length but the graduations are different. The minimum levels are about the same but the maximum level on the new one would take probably 200mls more oil to top it up. I can file them off to match, but would 200mls make much difference?

@BrownBarge. Location is close to you, looking out onto Tandle Hill by Royton Cemetery. Good idea about the cardboard, will give that a shot. Did a few more miles this afternoon without any effect on dipstick. Fingers crossed. I've just bought 4 litres of Magnatec 10W40 so it'll have to drink that first. I'll give 5W40 a shot next time, if there is one. Halfords were doing a deal on 10W40 a good while ago and the 4 litre 'cans' were only £17.50. I bought 4 or 5 and only ran out of it a couple of weeks ago. Hi Russell. Yeah that was my experience once the miles started piling up. The real cruncher was the price of that VW/Audi oil. I seem to remember it being about forty odd quid for a can. I'll go and Google 5W40 oil now and see what I'm missing. Thanks guys

I went over to Yorkshire this morning to pick the car up. They showed me the emissions test ( I know it wasn't under much of a load) and listed the things they'd investigated and cleaned up. Since I topped it up to take it to them as far as the dipstick is concerned it hasn't used any oil. They said they gave it 40 miles of hard driving and the odometer reading was consistent with that as I'd made a note of it when I topped up the oil before taking it to them. The mileage I did taking it there and coming back home has put over 100 miles on it. Based on previous calculations I'd expect it to have used at least a couple of hundred millilitres and possibly almost twice as much. So on the basis of that, it looks like maybe something along the way of cleaning out the breather might have done something to fix it. Even if they'd given it a sneaky top up, I'd have still made a noticeable difference on the dipstick and I did check it before I left and it was right on the mark. They've not charged me anything for what they've done now or the oil and filter they swapped after putting the Shell oil in previously, so I have nothing to be aggrieved about there. @Cntuning. I'd been hoping to hang onto it for a while and if the problem has been mysteriously solved I probably shall, however I'll let you know when I get round to parting with it. Liverpool-Lad. I was using the specified oil, I think it was 0W-30 when I bought the car, and it used virtually no oil up to maybe 120K. I think that maybe by then they had upped it to 5W-30. The guy I've been dealing with used to be a VW tech and he said that VW garages were telling people to used Magnatec 10W-40 instead, so I did. I'll keep you posted as I put a few more miles on the clock. Thanks for the interest and support everyone.

@David 8: Mine's B16 SKO something that'd look a bit odd on the new Avensis automatic my good lady would like me to buy.

Thanks for that David 8. It brought tears and smiles to my face at the same time. My dilemma is that it wasn't guzzling until they had the head off and it appears to run perfectly now even though it is guzzling, so it's hard to kick it into touch.

I'll ask if he did the compression test when the engine was hot when I see him. I'm beginning to wonder if it is time to get my personal plate off this one. :(

Thanks for that guys. It is the 20V turbo engine but with nominally about 30bhp less than the vRS. I thought that having it under load could make a difference to the emissions. This garage is a private garage and was recommended by another previous private garage I used because they couldn't sort out a sensor fault. They reckoned this guy was the tops and had all the best equipment. To be fair he's done a bit of work before that I have been happy enough with. I'd happily believe that it was damaged while being skimmed and he knew nothing about it. Much appreciate the kind thought, that you'd have had a look for me Sysvrs, but I agree I need to get away from what now seem to be closed minds on the subject. My guy seems to have whittled it down to just 'the fairies' left now. My wife reckons I'll get there tomorrow and it'll be working because he's found and fixed something too embarrassing to own up to. It'd be nice but I'm not holding my breath.

LOL. I don't believe in fairies either but the garage aren't so sure. They assure me that the emissions are not just okay but close to perfect. I'm going over to pick it up in the morning and they've said they'll put it on the emissions tester and show me. I'm not so sure that the results would be representative in the case of an intermittent fault because they are intended to spot engines that are plain worn out. It was the sudden cloud of smoke that made me wonder if it is doing something intermittently. They say they've done the compression check I asked for and say it has the cylinders all pretty much the same and the compression okay. There's no sign of oil film on the back end that I remember seeing. The tail pipe on the 4x4 isn't like the ones on the vRS and points down at the ground, so maybe the vortex would be less likely to paint the back end with an oil film in its case.

Thanks for the interest. The car runs brilliantly, smooth and quiet with plenty of go in it. That's one of the reasons they don't want to believe there's a problem and for the same reason I don't want to write it off. There's no sign of any oil anywhere in the engine bay, it is as clean as a whistle. My garage has a painted floor and there's not so much as a single drop of oil on it. I've asked the garage to re-check for signs of leakage because they have already said there are none. Apart from that one time this week when it put out those clouds of white smoke I haven't seen any sign of it otherwise. The only time I noticed anything unusual about oil was when I came to check it after about a 240 mile run down into Somerset and found for the first time ever, there was oil in the metal channel that surrounds the oil filler cap. It is something that gets dusty over time but when I top up, I always clean it. So it definitely wasn't overspill from filling. That made me think that a breather or something might have got blocked and was pressurising the crankcase. I got them to check that but they best they could come up with was that they had done it insofar as possible. That's not very conclusive, I just walked across the ceiling insofar as possible. I'm hoping they've done something dumb that is inexpensively reversible because on the face of it the facts don't seem to add up. Anyone have any ideas on what it would cost to replace the valve oil seals?

Hi, I'm in the Manchester area but the garage is over in West Yorkshire close by where I used to work. If the consumption had just gradually increased I'd have not been too bothered because I was monitoring for it, and would have put it down to wear and tear, but it just fell off a cliff when having this job done. I don't really know how they pressure tested it but wondered if the testing could have blown the valve seals. Edit: They say the emissions are perfect and there's no indication at all that it is burning oil.

I have a 51 plate Octavia 20V 4x4 hatchback. It has done 184,000 miles and had 3842 on the clock in 2002 when I bought it as an ex demonstrator. Around 2 years ago my use of the car became more variable, so I started topping up the oil around every 500 miles and re-setting the trip when I did. Its average consumption over twenty months and 27,000 miles has been 1540 miles per litre. In October I found that coolant was disappearing and it looked like a head gasket problem. My independent Skoda garage recommended having the head pressure tested and skimmed as part of the job. I was told later it was tested with the valve assembly attached because stripping it down was too difficult and time consuming. I had a long motorway journey I needed to make as soon as I got it back. The car made a few weird noises that I traced to things under the bonnet that hadn’t been fastened down properly and it sounded a bit harsher than usual. However, it had stopped losing water. When I got to my destination I checked the oil and water and put a bit of oil in to top it up again. When I got home, I found the oil was only just showing on the dipstick. I did the calculations and found it had been doing only 500 miles to the litre. It was about a quarter of the distance I’d expected to get out of a litre on that journey. The garage said they’d had the exact same problem with an Audi TT and they’d cured it by putting a thicker oil in and adding STP. On their recommendation I have been using Magnatec 10W-40 for years but they had refilled it with a lighter Shell oil after doing the job. So I agreed to try that but it made no difference. It is now doing about 280 miles to the litre on regular running around and 500 miles to the litre on a longish motorway journey. This total transition from okay to not okay hinged completely on them having it to replace the head gasket. Went in losing water came out guzzling oil. There seems to be a compelling argument that something went wrong with the job somewhere. I took it back earlier this week so they could check it out again. On the way there it belched out a thick cloud of white smoke, and then did it again to a lesser extent a couple of hundred yards up the road. Their only explanation is that perhaps the valve seals are leaking and if I want they’ll replace them but they can’t guarantee it will make any difference. The whole focus now seems to be on blame deflection and the last thing anyone wants to find is a smoking gun.. The car is way too good to scrap but I can’t afford to pour money into it if I’m going to have to replace it, so does anyone have any bright ideas ?

I had something like that. Main dealer swapped all sorts of bits under warranty and it made no difference. Then a real mechanic got a grip of the front coil springs and told me to turn to the steering wheel slowly from side to side while he got hold of the front coil springs. He told me to get out and get a grip of the near side one while he turned the wheel. I could feel it twanging as it turned. He said it was a top bush or something. Whatever it was swapping it fixed the problem. All the bits the main dealer swapped smartened up the handling too. You could give that a test, its easy enough.

I've had this warning light thing for years on my 4x4 hatch and never got any sense out of the main dealers. They've just wanted to keep swapping the same parts over and over. I didn't mind that under the extended warranty but there was no way I was paying for it. The light only ever came on when the car was barely moving and my foot was off the accelerator. There wasn't any perceptible change in the performance and after a week the light would go out for a week or two at most. I've been keeping an eye on this thread for ages and when the 'pipe' solution showed up, I thought it was worth a try. It made a huge difference. I've never been disappointed with the performance but it was transformed and became much smoother. So far it has done 3,500 warning free miles since the swap and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it really has done the trick. )

My 4x4 hatch was first registered in November 2001. It is just coming up to 120,000. It runs brilliantly. The best investment was the extended warranty as the main dealer couldn't diagnose a problem for nuts and was happy to keep swapping parts until the problem went away. My clutch pedal broke too, faulty welding. Local Skoda specialist, an ex main dealer recovered vehicle, lent me a car for 3 days, fixed the problem and billed me for £81.14. Like anything else in life you never know what the future holds. I'm hanging on to it until it turns its toes up. Cheers.

It looks like I might be missing something. I'm just coming up to 65 and my kid is 19. He decided that he'd like to take a year long break between 6th Form and University, so he got a job at Currys. The hours were variable, so some weeks he didn't earn much. He supplemented that by working in a nightclub as bar supervisor on the few nights a week they opened. It still didn't add up to much so I gave him £100 a month pocket money. Three days a week he'd work at Currys until 6pm, start at the club at 9pm, get home at 4am and start back at Currys at 9am. So he was putting some effort in. I shipped him off to Canada for a winter season skiing in January. Obviously he couldn't work and ski all the time, so I gave him £400 a month pocket money. (The cost of living was not cheap.) He did ok and came back a CSIA level 2 ski instructor. Then he went off to India paying for most of it himself and worked for free in a clinic there. I kept paying him the pocket money. He's home now having lost a lot of weight and been snacked on by a wide range of insects for many weeks. He's giving some thought to getting a job before going to university but not made much progress, so I've been really hard on him and cut the pocket money to £100 a month. I thought spending everything you earn on your family was normal behaviour. It appears there is a school of thought that believes he should be giving me money. I find that quite appealing as I retire in about five months. Can anyone explain how it works?

We had a couple of Opels nearly 25 years ago. Someone nicked the Opel badges off the bootlids one night. They scratched them a bit but the trouble was in replacing them. The cars didn't come out of the factory with them. The boot lids were drilled and badges fitted on the docks when they arrived in the UK. Consequently you got whatever badges they'd got a bucket of at the time and diffrent ones had got different lug spacings on them. One of them took weeks to track down and was actually an official part off a Commodore. Garages really knew how to mess you about in those days!

New in November 2001, is a 2002 model 4x4 20VT Hatchback. A really nice car to drive, has now done 80,000 miles. Reliability has been poor but I put a lot of that down to the dealer's inability to solve problems quickly as they arose. Our other car is a Toyota and the typical garage response for the past 15 years in which we've dealt with them, has been "Pop it round and we'll sort it". Nothing has ever gone unsorted for more than a day or two at the outside. Then it has only been parts availability. Diagnosis has been 100% correct first time. First line response with the Skoda, has been "Never heard of that one before" presumably in the hope that I'd just go away. Some issues took months to resolve. If I had seen a couple of day turn round on everything then I'd be happy enough. I've been very happy with the AAs Skoda assistance who must have turned out to me around 7 or 8 times now. Up to buying the Skoda I've only called the AA twice in my life. They were both for company cars, which broke their clutch cables about four years apart at the same road junction. Ive been driving 40 years now. I can't see me moving to a New Octavia for a whole range of reasons, the above is just one of them