Hi, Ive been looking for a Fabis VRS for a few weeks, found one at a dealer this morning , looks to be in good nick. 05 plate , 20000 miles, Ive put a small deposit thats refundable , so i can view next Saturday. Question is , what should I be lookng for? Ive seen posts on sites saying to look for PAS light on dash , but thats all i can find. Anything else i should keep my eye out for?

many thanks

mark

someone was asking the same thing the other week - have a read here

Thanks for that link . Looks like a need to find out if it's had cambelt change too. Thanks again. Mark

If it's only done 20000 you shouldn't need to worry about the cambelt for another 30-40000 miles

Leaky door seals are common problem on 05 models. Wet floors in footwells, look out as carpet could be dry but it's underneath where the liner/padding could be wet. This could be caused in the front passenger footwell by blocked plenum chamber. This excess water can cause many problems due to condensation forming inside after engine switch off. Condensation can effect anything but especially the electrics and is a pain in the winter with the amount of water on the inside of the windscreen which tends to form into ice!

Also paint bubbling underneath the bump strips on the doors. Something you ain't really gonna know about unless you want to remove these though after you buy.

If it's only done 20000 you shouldn't need to worry about the cambelt for another 30-40000 miles

Leaky door seals are common problem on 05 models. Wet floors in footwells, look out as carpet could be dry but it's underneath where the liner/padding could be wet. This could be caused in the front passenger footwell by blocked plenum chamber. This excess water can cause many problems due to condensation forming inside after engine switch off. Condensation can effect anything but especially the electrics and is a pain in the winter with the amount of water on the inside of the windscreen which tends to form into ice!

Also paint bubbling underneath the bump strips on the doors. Something you ain't really gonna know about unless you want to remove these though after you buy.

Check the cambelt was done last year it's 4 years not just mileage!

Also try and drive over some speed bumps, check for suspension knocks - it's just console bushes but I got mine changed before collection when I pointed it out on the test drive.

I think I would want to know how the car was used. In my experience low mileage turbo diesels can be very bad news. If the car has done 20K miles in 5 years then that's 80 miles per week. Now, if the car did all 80 in one hit then it probably got warmed up, but it's much more likely that someone did a few miles a day in it to work and back and that the car has been run cold for most of it's working life. If that is the case then the clutch and turbo will be more worn than you might think plus I think I'm right in saying that there will be a higher than usual build-up of carp from the EGR valve back into the top of the engine so it's possibly not going to perform the way it should.

It's also probably worth asking to see the service records - it should have had annual services pretty much every birthday. If anything looks amiss then call the dealer that did ther service. These cars are almost pathetically easy to clock and they take high mileages very well indeed.

If the car has been used in an urban environment it may well have spent an unreasonable amount of time hitting speed humps, in which case, definitely listen out for clonks from the front. Fixing the bushes isn't expensive, it's just a pain having your car off the road.

It may pull fractionally to the kerb side. That seems to be normal.

The alloy wheel finish is awful, so look for corrosion and flaking paint. Again, it's more a bargaining point than something to walk away from. Read up on the specification of the standard car. Some options are rare (airbag deactivation, satnav, xenons) while some are surprisingly common (cruise control!). If it has cruise control make sure all the switches work on the stalk. They quite often don't in my experience.

The heater vent direction flaps are operated by motors and they can fail through age and lack of use. Make sure the aircon blows cold too. That's hard to check, but if you turn all the vents off and let the car steam up it should clear it pretty quick (30 seconds or so). The heating is climatic (automatic) - so if you set 20 on the dial it should be a set temperature in the car. It shouldn't vary much.

It should have 2 proper plip keys, a plastic card with the radio code on and a plastic strip with a barcode and a 4-digit number. If it doesn't have any of these - ask why? The 4-digit code is handy if you ever need anything done to the car involving the ECU. If you don't have it, it has to go to a VAG garage with a link to Germany to read the code and allow the technician to change a setting. The computers no longer give out the codes either, so when it's gone, it's pretty much gone (some folks can read it, but it's not guaranteed).

It's also worth taking someone else with you (a woman?) to look at the car critically. Remember - you want to buy this. You are easy pickings for a salesman. You need the voice of reason there with you.

The radio/cd unit 4 digit security code can be found on inside cover of the (thick book) 'AUTORADIO SYMPHONY S CD'.-- basically the radio manual.-- Resetting 'OIL' and 'INSP' message or the ONE-TOUCH WINDOW SWITCH can all be found on this site or in a 'Haynes' manual, plus servicing details and there's lots of 'How to' advice on this site.---

Service history is all important no-matter what mileage or age car is, because the Fabia VRS is annual or mileage related. --(10,000miles or 12 months)-- personally I like to see all paper work, whether the owner or a garage has carried out these issue's.--

Good luck with your new car, and read all members input and advice, after all it's their already in place experience your benefitting by.

At that sort of miles should be serviced every year, and cam belt should have been done last year (4 years...).

And the Fabia has air conditioning, not climate control

Edited 8 February, 201016 yr by Babs

At that sort of miles should be serviced every year, and cam belt should have been done last year (4 years...).

And the Fabia has air conditioning, not climate control

VAG basically have two variations of their heating/ventilation system. Climatic, which has a single temperature monitor in the dashboard and gives reasonable temperature control and climatronic which has a digital display, two temperature/humidity sensors and a sunlight sensor. I thought everyone who drove a VAG car knew that?

Edited 8 February, 201016 yr by wja96

thanks for all the advice

I checked today , car had cambelt, tensioner and service at 19000 Oct 09. Only problem i can see is finding out how the car was driven by the last owner......80 miles per week , in one go , or 10 miles per day . I cant see how i can find this out, and is it true a low mileage TD can be a problem? Tis my only worry at the mo

thanks again for all the help!!

m

Only problem i can see is finding out how the car was driven by the last owner......80 miles per week , in one go , or 10 miles per day . I cant see how i can find this out, and is it true a low mileage TD can be a problem? Tis my only worry at the mo

If you're really worried about this you could try asking the dealer for the contact details of the previous owner and then give them a call. If they are reluctant to do so for data protection reasons ask them to pass your number to the previous owner.

Cheers JulieD, Ill give that a whirl, good idea.

M

Test drive yesterday. Everything looks and sounds fine, going to collect next sat am. Happy days. Car is for my other half but after the test drive I might get into he drivers seat once on a while too.

Paperwork all in order, cambelt and service done in october at 19000 miles . So fingers crossed we won't have anything to worry about for a while. Thanks for all the advise last week!

M