I'm just in preliminary discussions with someone selling their 2000W Octavia 1.9TDI SLX. It's done just short of 93k miles but is generally appears in good condition and is very clean and tidy. Little written service history. He says he's done brakes and timing belts etc himself within the last year. Before that it was owned by a friend and his son. What little info written info there (is v5, last two MOTs) all seems to tie up. Seems to be a genuine seller at their home address - getting rid because they've now got a company car. He didn't do the water pump when replacing the cambelt though and I understand that this is advisable.

A local garage has quoted £120 ish for replacing the pump alone or £360 for full timing belt, tensioners etc and water pump (using VAG parts). Does this seem reasonable? I gather it would be sensible to get the water pump done as a precaution?

Will get the usual stuff done. Test drive then if I'm still interested HPI - maybe AA inspection or local mechanic to have a quick look.

Anything much else to look out for beyond the following: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/skoda/octavia-1998/?section=bad ?

Edited 8 March, 201115 yr by Uriel

My personal opinion would be to leave the water pump until it either starts to leak or the cambelt is next due for replacement & replace it then.If you want to replace it now then id replace the belt as well as the pump.

The £360 is at the high end of "typical figures" for the belt kit plus water pump, but the £120 for pump alone seems too cheap. Other than parts, the difference in job time between belt kit and kit plus pump is about 10 minutes!

I would say that the pump is less critical on the diesels, but a mate of mine had his go in the high 90ks, and I impressed his garage by correctly diagnosing the fault from 400 miles away.

If there are no documents to support the timing belt being done, i'd walk away. Accepting the sellers word for doing the timing belt is madness.

if the water pump goes on the sdi you can take out the thermostat and jam it open as a temp measure to stop it from overheating, but if you go to dingbro whos my local parts suplyer you can buy the water pump "trade" for £35 and well hes charging you £85 labor for 30 minutes work really (Dishonest), but as the others said don't take there word for the timing belt being done, if you do buy it get that done right away, if you get a decent mechanic he shoulden't charge you much more for sticking a water pump on when hes doing the belt...

hope i've been some help

if the water pump goes on the sdi you can take out the thermostat and jam it open as a temp measure to stop it from overheating, but if you go to dingbro whos my local parts suplyer you can buy the water pump "trade" for £35 and well hes charging you £85 labor for 30 minutes work really (Dishonest), but as the others said don't take there word for the timing belt being done, if you do buy it get that done right away, if you get a decent mechanic he shoulden't charge you much more for sticking a water pump on when hes doing the belt...

hope i've been some help

I dont think the garage is been dishonest,he is quoting £120 to replace the water pump only which will involve him removing the timing belt to fit it.As ken says the £360 seems expensive & the £120 seems too cheap.

I thought reusing a cambelt was a bit naughty once it had been tensioned once?

I dont think the garage is been dishonest,he is quoting £120 to replace the water pump only which will involve him removing the timing belt to fit it.As ken says the £360 seems expensive & the £120 seems too cheap.

One difference is you don't have to remove the belt from the car, which means you don't have to remove the engine mount, etc.

I forgot to mention that Matt; best practice for replacing the water pump on this engine requires a new timing belt for sure, and take the tensioners and idlers under advisement on when they were last known to be replaced.

To replace the pump you need to remove all the arch and belt covers (and the intercooler pipes on a TDi), detension the belt, change the pump, then refit the belt and check the fuel and cam timing before reassembling.

I thought reusing a cambelt was a bit naughty once it had been tensioned once?

Inow some vauxhall engines have a setting on the tensioner for either a new belt or the old belt,id never re fit a old belt personally,seems false economy to me.

Inow? doh.... should be I know

Inow? doh.... should be I know

There is an edit feature

Or is that just a cheeky way to get your posting stats up :wonder:

Edited 9 March, 201115 yr by mbames

There is an edit feature

Or is that just a cheeky way to get your posting stats up :wonder:

Ha ha,no its not to get my post count up lol. Im on my works goverment computer & it only lets you do certain things & the edit section amongst other sections wont work on here but it does on my home pc.

Ha ha,no its not to get my post count up lol. Im on my works goverment computer & it only lets you do certain things & the edit section amongst other sections wont work on here but it does on my home pc.

government computers... you are excused then. We are still forced to use IE6 here (apart from me, and I use Chrome )

This was delayed a bit as I picked up a couple of apparent typos on the V5 VIN (2 and 3 mixed up, U shown as '11' then error carried forward) when doing due diligence checks. It's gone off to the DVLA for correction.

My test drive and check over went pretty well so I'm hopefully going to buy, subject to clean HPI (have already discuseed VIN discrepancy with them) and check over at local VAG indy specialist not revealing anything horrendous. I have a budget in mind for any work needing doing. If the seller can't produce a receipt for timing belt and tensioners I may have this done as a precaution if the garage think it's worth it.

One other thing: the brake pedal had a little more travel than I would expect before offering much resistance. I'll ask this to be investigated. May just need a bleed but I'm guessing worst case might be new brake cylinders. Any idea on a price for that sort of work?

Edited 18 March, 201115 yr by Uriel