Hi all,

Well I have bitten the bullet and put a deposit down against my first octavia. Its a 2002 1.8t 4x4 estate. Last owner was for 7 years and has a decent service history file, cambelt kit changed 8k miles ago.

Must say it drove like a dream on the test drive, nice and smooth etc.

Really looking forward to picking her up now and already thinking about a remap down yhe line.

Nice man

I bought a VRS before I even new there was a 4x4! Something I might look at in future

Good buy buddy and welcome to the site.

The 4x4 is a great car. Hope you enjoy it.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

to make the 4x4 a truely good car you need to change the haldex controller to the blue type

as your 4x4 in standard trim is actually a heavy fwd most of the time being a 97% to 3%front to rear split and nly when you lose traction to the front will 30% be pushed to the rear and can be a pain

with the blue controller the power is shifter when the car is under accelaration/load and sends 50% to the rear and makes the car a completly new beast and a pleasure to drive

best mod you can possibly do even before a map

welcome

I have seen people talking about the blue haldex cintrollers, how much do these usually go for?

First things first I will be enjoying having a decent car!

So I picked her up yesterday and after driving her around have found a few niggles I hadn't noticed on test drive.

1 - indicator relay randomly clicking. Fixed after searching forums, contact cleaner sprayed on stalk

2 - temperature Gussage seems a bit intermittent, normally shows about 90 degrees but goes down to cold every now and then. Is this a dodgy temp sensor?

3 - passenger side doors do not activate interior light or door open warning on dash, guessing this will be the micro switches?

Apart from those bits absolutely love the car, must remember not to pull off quite so quickly though!

Mine had an intermittent gauge, fixed yesterday was the thermostat. Can't believe the difference it made to the heaters also like a furnace now!!

My heaters are fine, my first thought was thermostat but guage will sit nicely half way when travelling at speed then drop off to cold in traffic. From reading thrugh various posts suspect it will be the sensor I need to replace.

Youd be suprised, the thermostat can cause that drop off too.

I thought my heater was fine as well. I'd say stat bud.

A year or so ago my gauge was also randomly going to 90° and back to zero...it was the temp senzor.

Definately temp sensor, engine management light csme in yesterday. RAC confirmed sensor failed. Whilst checking that out also found the breather pipe has disintergratted. New sensor from RAC is 40 + vat. Local garage is 28 + vat for sensor and breather pipe.