Major-Frodo

Hi Warrior193, thank you for the welcome This is a private sale. Cambelt incident was at 89,792 mileage, invoice dated 16 February 2023. Major skoda service carried out at 93,936 miles on 04 October 2023. The car is being sold now at around 94,500 miles. These are the private sellers exact words "It didn't completely snap. We've changed it in time. But the old one didn't have much life in it", vs the invoice labour description of "Diagnosing potential faults from timing belt failure, s&f new timing kit" completed by JBM Performance in Sheffield. I feel like something isn't quite right.

Hey team, I am going to visit a Skoda Octavia Estate MK3.5 (2018 plate) tomorrow that (potentially) had a failed timing belt. I asked the owner what happened and he mentioned that it was ripping or making noises so he had it replaced. He maintains that it didn't actually snap or completely fail, but didn't have much life left in it. The owner has sent across invoices and service history. I can see one of the invoices is for "Diagnosing potential faults from timing belt failure, s&f new timing kit", as part of this invoice there is a new timing belt, water pump, and injector seals. And a compression test was done. Cylinder 1 - 20 Bar (290 psi) Cylinder 2 - 20 Bar (290 psi) Cylinder 3 - 17 Bar (247 psi) Cylinder 4 - 19 Bar (276 psi) "Test was performed on a cold engine once timing had been rectified, and visual inspection of roller rockers and valve stems revealed no obvious faults" To me, compression on cylinder 3 seems a bit low. It is less than 10% variance compared to the others. I tried to google the compression required for the 1.6 TDi and I think I found a compression ratio of 16.2 which is around 238psi (16.4 Bar). Apart from this the car seems in good nick, has been serviced regularly, and has new rear brake discs/ pads. It also had a major service at 93,000 miles by a Skoda garage, change of oil, fuel/ air/ oil filters, and brake fluid change. The car is now at 94,000 miles. I guess my question to you guys, is, are there any specific questions you'd recommend I ask the owner, or any general car-buying advice you have for me? Does something seem suspect here, with the low compression on cylinder 3, could there have been some damage to valves with a timing belt failure, that results in lower compression? Or is the lower compression within the realms of factory tolerances?