Dooge

I cant help with the bumper/rad but with the headlight you'd have to do a pair even if you could do it. I would imagine the plugs would be different and you'll have errors for motors/headlight levelling without coding. Synetiq on eBay have a fair few Octavia's in for breaking.

Mine especially creaked when its icy. The ice around the window edges creak against the rubber mouldings and seals.

Good to analyse. The first, not worth going for if its got gearbox issues. Ive had a few modern manual VAG cars and Ill be honest, the manual gearbox really is nothing to write home about in my opinion. They used to have issues with chocolate slave cylinders which would crack (my old MK6 GTi went at 93k but still had meat on the clutch) but if you prefer manual, aim for it. The DSG does feel lazy in normal mode and automatic mode. Its something I have noticed recently that when you push the shifter across to manual, the throttle response seems to liven up. Not sure if anyone else finds this? For me its the best of both worlds because If I am driving for fun I would want ultimate control and can have it through the paddles in sport mode. Yes, fuel consumption is poorer for short journeys and when driving hard. I drive mine as a daily but shorter journeys with the odd motorway job which, when up to speed and on cruise has achieved 40mpg consistently. Town and shorter use, especially in winter has been 27/28 or an easy 30 in summer. Thats pretty good from a 2L turbo auto. As for the VAQ, unless you adapt to a car very quickly I doubt you'll feel it on a test drive. As for power, yes the 245 will feel more potent, especially if you didnt come out of auto on the DSG. But again, if you are looking at stage 1 maps at any point (and you should because they transform the car) then stock power wont matter. Any GPF model may map slightly less but itll be so marginal you wont care. Keep hunting and try a good manual. I would offer mine but Im 6 speed DSG and you are leaning towards a manual.

Coming from a mk6 Golf GTi as my previous car the gen1 EA888 suffered massively with tensioner issues. Although I think alot of it depends how often you drive it. The issue with these tensioners, and Im pretty sure its the same with the older versions and this revision, is they work from oil pressure and I think keep a bit of pressure after turnoff. When the engine is off for a decent amount of time, the pressure drops and the tension on the chain drops so when car starts there is a few seconds of chain slap. This is how the chain skips timing, not often on driving but on startup. Im not sure if there is a mechanism to provide oil pressure It doesnt sound great, I would advise getting someone else to have a look. Chain and tensioner replacement is a big job but luckily it seems to have given you the headsup with that noise on startup. As above, the values should be registering something.

Probably in links above but waterpump is a main issue, especially for leaking. This is harder to diagnose for a drive and inspection unless you can get to the waterpump it's impossible to see. Creaks lock to lock, most symptoms point to front topmounts. Rear toe adjustment is often seized as the bolts were not greased from factory. This can lead to tyre wear. If you get a helicopter or thrumming sound at 40mph+ it may be badly worn tyres on rear which can flatspot (see photo from mine before I changed them) Octavia's display alot of road noise which is normal but this sometimes masks other sounds.

Celtic Tuning have been on my radar too. Back in the old days they had a reputation for being a bit spiky as maps go but I think it's all greatly improved. Yeh, I couldn't find an actual map for a 220PS VRS. I found one for a 245 but that was factoring in the GPF so figured it would be more expensive due to probably more coding or tweaking to ensure the GPF is happy. And yes, it was their ECU and TCU tune together, but the Awesome GTI site didn't show the discount. Racingline's 'shop' site is down atm so Awesome GTI was the only place I could find a price

No opinion as I've not used them, I just notice that everyone's stage 1 remap is approx 300+ and then you normally get stage 2 which is a small jump with supporting mods, maybe to 325 and stage 3 is often bigger turbo territory and looking at 380+. TVS have a stage 1 which quotes a 30hp gain and a similar amount of torque. This is unusual in the big names of remapping but could be known as an 'economy map' through cheaper flash mappers. Often done with the sole reason (from what I understand) to smooth out torque curves and enable better economy whilst delivering a marginally better driving experience. When talking about modifications its generally recognised that anything that's worth less than a 10% gain in power/torque won't be felt very easily. So 30hp on a car that's already rather at close to 220hp is only just above a 10% gain. Then they have stage 2 which is equivalent to everyone else's stage 1. Nothing wrong with doing it this way and makes things a bit more accessible.

This seems to be an area of conjecture. Lots say because the car smart charges the battery rather than throwing a constant amount of power back in and battery architecture is different to older batteries the car has to be coded so that it knows a new battery is in place.

I think you are right. Upping boost, fueling, etc must have a negative effect on emissions. VAG were caught first but you now see adverts for legal action against Volvo, Ford, Renault, Nissan, Fiat and Mercedes Benz. Pretty sure Mitsubishi have already been through the legal mill with emissions too. Most car manufacturers have already stressed that up and coming emissions targets are too strict and not viable as well which just speeds up the push to electric and increases the chances of manufacturers cheating.

Looking at TVS and their remap standards are alot different to most of the big ones. I did price up APR, Revo, Racingline and TVS Performance for stage 1 ECU and TCU maps, Revo was just the cheapest both pre-black Friday and without because they offer £200 off when both ECU and TCU is bought together. -Revo - £576 ECU + £478.80 (Inc tax) - £200 is £854.80 -APR - £529.85 - £662.33 ECU + £662.33 (Inc tax - I can't find an accurate price online) is £1192.18 at cheapest and £1324.66 at most expensive. -Racingline - £1020 for both (Inc tax - for vehicles with GPF's) -TVS Performance - £858.96 for both (Inc tax - converted from Euros on their website, this is for their stage 2 software)

Reading that gone are the days of Italian tuneups to unclog things. I suppose they can't be seen to promote aggressive C02 producing driving along with advancements in technology ensuring it should be part of standard day to day driving of the car. I drive like a granny 90% of the time at the moment, combination of commuting and trying to save money after having a baby. Although I do try and go for a spirited drive on the local B roads at least once in awhile to justify owning a VRS.

Thanks buddy, I did read your topic but the waterpumps ar different although symptoms the same. I'm going off the gauge which isn't accurate so I'll get my Torque app monitoring it. It's the first time it's done it and I think if I am doing the waterpump I'd do thermostat and DSG thermostat at the same time to be sure, although I'm tempted to do the latter myself as it seems far easier and cheaper option to try first.

The drive is about 15 minutes and just under 7 miles long. I always let cold start get done and the revs drop before pulling away. I would have been only 3 or 4 minutes into my journey when I noticed the coolant not rising initially and after I thought it hit 90 and dropping maybe 7 or 8 minutes. As I replied to J.R above I only turn them on to demist, normally I just put the heated seat on as I know the journey is short. Good to know, I'm guessing the OEM unit is plastic still? I remember on the mk6 Golf forum they used to talk about metal 'gates' branded waterpumps as an upgrade.

The VRS is a petrol, for the short journeys I do daily I didnt see much point of going for a diesel. Maybe I was demanding too much of the car. I was thinking that if the car is running is should warm up in a nice linear fashion regardless of the climate control temperature. Normally I drive with the climate control off and just put the heated seat on. I always allow the engine to get out of its cold start and the revs to drop so combined with the driving the engine wouldn't have been on for any more than 4 minutes when I first noticed the coolant gauge not rising. But you are right in that the coolant temperature gauge is damped and inaccurate. I have Torque and an OBD11 dongle so tempted to monitor coolant temperature through that. I've also recently changed my route into work as my standard one is only 4.5 miles long and was basically flat. The new one is closer to 7 with the steep hill to give it a bit of load to deal with. The DSG always keeps the revs so low so I've found it's a car that definitely takes longer to get warmed up in comparison to my old mk6 Golf GTI which was a manual. Not so much coolant but engine oil. Thanks J.R., I will monitor and see if I can investigate. I'm handy to a degree but I don't know how hard these are to bleed so wouldn't want to create an airlock after tackling the DSG thermostat, the coolant systems seem so sensitive with the heater core's.

Hi all, Probably a common question but I've done a bit of search and not found very much. MK3 TSI DSG VRS on 86k, today when leaving early for work the external temp was 3.5 degrees. Had to crank the AC and climate temperature up (25 degrees) to get rid of a misty windscreen. After a few minutes and a steep hill I noticed that the coolant temperature gauge wasn't getting past a third of the way up the gauge, normally it would be almost at 90. Dropped the climate temperature to 17 degrees and the coolant started rising getting to 90. Put the climate back to 25 degrees with AC on full again and the coolant temperature dropped by a quarter. I've read the main thermostat is part of the waterpump, is that correct? There's no sign of it leaking or coolant level dropping meaning I don't want to go down that rabbit hole of changing it if I can help it - seems some have continued issues after changing. Can I change the thermostat without changing the waterpump? Also read about faulty temperature senders, could this be the issue? I believe there is also a DSG thermostat, although unlikely could this cause the same symptoms I'm experiencing? Is it a DIY-able job? Thanks for any help, Doug

Winter packs don't seem overly common which is a shame. I do shortish journeys atm and it means the car isn't up to temp for very ling before I turn it off. I don't bother turning the climate control on but you still have control over rear heated screen and heated seats even with the climate control off which is great. Only other option I'd like would is auto folding mirrors, I'm forever folding them in and out manually. Mileage isn't a problem if its been serviced. The engine and and gearbox are both quite reliable if maintained properly. It took me over a month to find mine, something will come along!

Estates are great but boomy at higher speeds. Not sure if hatchbacks are but they neither have alot of sound insulation in the rear end. I paid £14k for it with 80k on the clock in April, prices have dropped a little since. Its got a very good service history so I was happy with the mileage. Looks great, definitely love those fabric quilted seats with the red insert.

Racing Blue is definitely a good colour! I wanted either Meteor Grey or Racing Blue, estate, DSG, black pack, winter pack, cruise and larger screen. Managed to find it after several months. Definitely seems more around now than there was when I was looking earlier this year. As for DSG vs Manual, I've never found manual VAG cars to be brilliant however each to them own. If you plan to map it however, you'll probably want an uprated clutch at some point. Worth making a list of must haves and wants. Lots of bits are optional extras but I think the VRS are a bit rarer and original than Golf GTi's.

Most of them don't have a mat under the bonnet so any heat will get through to the bonnet easily. It should heat up quickly being a petrol, certainly after 20 mins. It's normal for oil temps to hit 115/120 but not go over that and in the winter should sit closer to 100. Sounds like something I would walk away from. If its not the colour you want, service history is non existent and high mileage for the age that would be enough to put me off. High mileage in itself is not a problem if its been serviced. Age can be as bad if not worse than mileage but on a 3-4 year old car that's quite high. May be motorway mileage though. You can get a pre-facelift TSI with similar mileage for less if you look around. In terms of power, yes they are less from factory but if you plan to map them they all map to the same. There is some things that only really came to later models, depends if you are picky on spec/seat colour and finish. Looking on Autotrader, as an example, there is a 2016 pre-facelift meteor grey hatchback with 55k on for £14,600. Black pack, DSG, parking sensors, etc.

Thanks for the reply, It makes sense they would do it under real world conditions and load. But it is nice to see what the curve is like. If I'm honest, I'm not chasing power but driveability. I love the DSG box for everyday driving but there is tweaks that I think can be made. I'll check our TVS, what's different about their DSG tune?

Post up the ad Matty, I'd be intrigued to have a look!

Hey all, As above really, I am bouncing between a Racingline engine and DSG map or a Revo engine and DSG map. I had a quick search but couldn't find specific answers. Racingline have 3 dealers within an hour and a half of me. Revo have a dealer in Plymouth, 10 mins up the road and another 1 hour away. My main issue is I would prefer a proper dyno applied map and these local 'dealers' for both appear to just provide flash services. Am I expecting too much? Is a dyno applied map needed? Any experience on either map on a stock 220ps TSI VRS DSG? Thanks for any help, Doug

I think the 245 is probably as good as they got in the mk3 as it was towards the end of the line. There are documented known issues with the Octavia platform and MQB platform in general such as creaky rear suspension, flatspotting rear tyres and creaky front topmounts. The EA888 is generally a reliable lump with known issues around waterpumps in this generation of engine and DSG failures are well known now if they arnt serviced every 40k. But as others have said, it comes down to how the previous owners have used and abused it and sometimes low mileage isn't always a good thing.

See if there's any local motorsport specialist or check with local dealers for a price. Can't imagine it would cost masses, guessing an hours worth of labour and a check on an alignment machine. Subframe alignment kits aren't too expensive, £100+ and help keep everything straight and in check with no downside other than cost. I would be getting someone who knows what they are doing to align everything and fit it however I don't have any recommendations on garages or specialists.

As Langers has said, sounds like someone wanted US style. Was common on mk4/mk5 Golfs to has side markers permanently illuminated. As others have said, I'd take it back to the dealer and see what they say.