Buyers Guide for a mk1 Fabia vRS

[billy2981]

Hi guys,

I am looking at buying one. I have done a few searches and the search button just spits out crap......... I am just interested to find out what these cars are really like to live with and what to look out for.

any tips and hints on things to do while looking at the cars to check for problems.

Does the leaking doors only apply to older moddles? or is it right thru?

What sort of car could I look at getting for my £4k max budget? (silver or black prefered but not too fussed) Would prefer a std car as Ive heard the turbos are not all that strong?

Cheers guys,

if this is as informative as I hope it might be worth making a sticky like the Octy 1 boys have.

cheers

billy

[Ryan90VRS]

The leaky doors run all the way through unfortunately

try and get one with as many extras cruise control etc saves you wanting to get them retro fitted later on thats what i did.

try get one thats had some spiders and LCR splitter too lol that will save you some time and money.

[mark.r.cullen]

- Starter motor signal wire snapping - had this one happen, easy fix if you can solder.

- Alternator load signal wire snapping - parents had this one happen, easy fix if you can solder.

- Leaky rear doors - easy fix, if I can do it anyone can (software engineer and never touched sealant before in my life!)

- Front drop links bent causing some clunking - ~£20 + fitting (my father did this one whilst I was out, so I don't know what it involves).

- Intercooler boost pipe popping off causing a massive lack of power and lots of black smoke. Never happened to me personally, but apparently fairly common.

My 05 vRS has been pretty trouble free all things considering! Best car I have owned so far. In addition to some of the above my turbo ( It was a second hand turbo when bought) went pop about 15k miles after I got it remapped; my radiator sprung a leak and my drivers side window motor went, both leccy windows stopped working.

Edited 29 December, 2010 by mark.r.cullen

[fitlike]

- Starter motor signal wire snapping - had this one happen, easy fix if you can solder.

- Alternator load signal wire snapping - parents had this one happen, easy fix if you can solder.

- Leaky rear doors - easy fix, if I can do it anyone can (software engineer and never touched sealant before in my life!)

- Front drop links bent causing some clunking - ~£20 + fitting (my father did this one whilst I was out, so I don't know what it involves).

- Intercooler boost pipe popping off causing a massive lack of power and lots of black smoke. Never happened to me personally, but apparently fairly common.

My 05 vRS has been pretty trouble free all things considering! Best car I have owned so far. In addition to some of the above my turbo ( It was a second hand turbo when bought) went pop about 15k miles after I got it remapped; my radiator sprung a leak and my drivers side window motor went, both leccy windows stopped working.

[fitlike]

Re windows not working..what was the fault/fix..I have same but intermittent.

Tried fuses/battery disconnect/door key opening(not remote)/holding switch down for 10 secs when working, but fault returns..grrrrr!

Cheers,

Steve.

Edited 31 December, 2010 by fitlike

[wja96]

There is really very little MAJOR that goes wrong. There are quite literally dozens of niggly little problems though and reading the stickies here and in the Fabia Technical forum will show you how to fix most of them.

Please do bear in mind that you are buying an old car. The youngest will be just under 4 years and the oldest will be pushing 8 years old. For your budget you'll get a low mileage 53 or 04 plate or a very high mileage 06 plate. The best cars do tend to be at Skoda dealers who are still trying to charge megabucks for them. Robinsons in Norwich have a black 56 plate car with no options at all on it but it has only done 31,000 miles so it's an eye-watering £7500.

Avoid yellow if you want to sell it again.

Unmolested cars are becoming unusual, although it is common to put the cars back to standard-ish to sell them. I would specifically ask the seller if the car was modded and put back and if they know of the car ever having had a remap or tuning box fitted. Get that in writing if possible. You could never enforce anything based on it, but the same people who will quite happily lie verbally are often very unhappy about lying on paper and signing it.

When I was weighing up selling my own 110,000 mile August 2006 car I reckoned it would cost me about £2000 to replace the turbo, clutch and suspension, but that would give me another 100,000 miles from it.