Hi again guys,

I want to go to look at a MK1 Octavia VRS with the intention to purchase. I have't commited yet to going to see it (it's quite far). Everything seems ok to do with the car except that the current owner says that the ECU Light on the dash is on and that the ECU has a checksum error. He reckons that he has had this looked at by a VW specialist and that he said all it is is a checksum error and nothing to worry about. He says that the car pulls fine in all gears and has no issues, just that the light is on. He also reckons that it is easily clearable/able to be reset.

What is the worst thing this is likely to be? Wil it cost me to get this "fixed" ?

Would a sensible thing be to get him to get an error code after a vagcom scan? I doubt whether he would be bothered with that and probably hasn't even heard of it.

I did ask whether it had previously been remapped and he said he was not sure and that it was possible that this was why it was like it.

Advice? I don't really want to walk away from it as it could be something simple. I have been looking for a VRS for almost a year so I wouldn't necessarily agree there are "plenty more to look at" etc.

Cheers

Another member's car on here had a checksum error on their ecu and after a few engines starts the ecu gave up the ghost.

If it's an easy fix the seller would have sorted it and not ever told you about the problem. I'd say stay away from it. Could be a lot of hassle if you owned the motor.

Hi

Check sum error kill is something that APR can do

If the car is mapped , then it will put it back to standard

The usual only other way is a new ECU

£49.50 + VAT is the charge on that

Hope that helps?

Sarah

the member whos car had the checksum error got stranded far from home with SWMBO in tow. Fixed with a replacement ECU

Damn it Sarah you are too quick for me I was talking to KW about V2 rebuilds and got distracted by the cost :eek:

Sorry I have been out of the loop for a while. Are Awesome GTI now the same as APR? Same company? There does appear to be a APR dealer near to where the car is located so maybe it had previously been remapped there. I have seen a couple of threads with google search, that mentions older APR remaps can give this fault code and that a quick session with them clears it.

Why are some of you saying new ECU though? Either it can be fixed or it can't? or is it really hit and miss?

It depends on what has been done to the ecu. JCB's motor had a chip soldered/re-soldered which is what appeared to screw it... hence the new ECU. You'll need as much history about the car your looking at a possible to make a worth while punt at if it's worth buying. If the seller has woolly memory about certain bits of the car but can give you immense details about others.... then to me that shouts "hiding something."

A flash back to standard should sort it out, I'm not 100% convinced JCB's ECU actually needed to be replaced either to be honest but I never got to look at it for myself. I have a spare AUQ ECU here.

APR Europe head office is here @ Awesome GTi

APR did develop the Check sum kill , this is due to any car can have issues with it

We have seen cars that are mapped (by all tuners) and also standard cars can have the same issue

Sarah

I wouldn't be keen on buying it unless I knew for sure whether it had been remapped or not, as the insurance will want to know. Also if the current owner isn't sure about the remap then what else could have been done to it that he doesn't know about?

If the light is ON, the seller has to turn it off. If this was a simple task I think that the light would be off by now.

Some very true words there

Sarah

True I will email him back and see what he says about fixing himself.

It means you've sent your ECU off to Gary for a postal remap?