Good evening,

I bought my wife for a run around today a 2003 octavia 1.9tdi estate with 118000miles on the clock for £1500. The body work is straight enough and the engine and gearbox seem good but I do have a few questions. These are:

1. Although it has full service history there is no receipt for a cambelt change. When should this be done and how expensive is it?

2. It has flashed up on the dash as you start the car that it is due a service soon. It has marked in the book that it is a variable service. What does this mean and what is required at this service?

3. I have bought the car now, some may stupidly after this question, and when you start it the glow plug light comes on, goes out, then comes on again and flashes. The car pulls well enough, returns 55mpg on the return trip and doesn't seem to have any apparent issues. When I questioned the garage they told me it was because the egr had been disconnected. Could this cause this issue?

4. As it will be used as a runabout and my misses going down to Yorkshire we have looked at the tdi tuning box for better fuel economy. Does anyone have any experiences of them?

Sorry for all the questions but being new to owning a skoda and the 1.9tdi engine I just want to get the few things sorted before they start causing any major issues.

Thanks

Ryan

Timing Belt and Water pump were done on mine at 98000.

 

From Skoda website -

On variable servicing, intervals are determined by driving styles and conditions of use. The on-board computer will indicate when a service is required which could be up to approx. 20,000 miles for petrol engines, 30,000 miles for 4 cylinder diesel and 24,000 miles for V6 diesel. Further information may be found in the Service Schedule contained within the vehicle document wallet or by contacting your local retailer. All franchised retailers can fulfil your warranty and servicing requirements

 

Havnt experienced the Tdi tuning box, currently avergaing 55 - 60 mpg outa mine standard, so happy with that.

 

Someone smarter will follow along about the Glow Plug / EGR issue. I dont know much about diagnosing things like that,

though i do know alot of people has blanked off the EGR valve with no ill effects

Also, Welcome to Briskoda

Good evening,

I bought my wife for a run around today a 2003 octavia 1.9tdi estate with 118000miles on the clock for £1500. The body work is straight enough and the engine and gearbox seem good but I do have a few questions. These are:

1. Although it has full service history there is no receipt for a cambelt change. When should this be done and how expensive is it?

2. It has flashed up on the dash as you start the car that it is due a service soon. It has marked in the book that it is a variable service. What does this mean and what is required at this service?

3. I have bought the car now, some may stupidly after this question, and when you start it the glow plug light comes on, goes out, then comes on again and flashes. The car pulls well enough, returns 55mpg on the return trip and doesn't seem to have any apparent issues. When I questioned the garage they told me it was because the egr had been disconnected. Could this cause this issue?

4. As it will be used as a runabout and my misses going down to Yorkshire we have looked at the tdi tuning box for better fuel economy. Does anyone have any experiences of them?

Sorry for all the questions but being new to owning a skoda and the 1.9tdi engine I just want to get the few things sorted before they start causing any major issues.

Thanks

Ryan

 

From advice received on here by some dam good experts you should stay away from TDI tuning boxes. Get it re-mapped instead.

1) If you've got the service book, the cambelt shows as "toothed belt". If it's not marked there, or it's over 60_000 miles/5 years ago, I'd say it needs doing. When doing this, get a new water pump fitted (If you need a water pump, you need to replace the cambelt, so it's preventative maintenance).

2) Already covered. Think about switching to fixed service if you don't anticipate the car doing more than about 12_000 miles a year.

3) They're golden, not crystal. The light's showing a fault but that's all I can say from that alone. It could be an old code that's not been cleared properly, so if the car drives well, ask the servicing dealer to read and clear the fault memory.

4) Not as such, but I'd prefer a remap anyway. From what you say, ask about a "half and half" map, which gives you better economy when cruising and more power when overtaking.

Welcome to the forum.

General rule with VAG cambelts is every 60k or 5 years, which ever comes first. Skoda do seem to recommend 40k or 4 yrs, but that goes against the rest of the VAG group using the same engines! Good for Skoda's revenue?

Just service it every 10k using VAG parts & Quantam oils, & you can't go wrong.

Glow plug light on is usually linked to MAF failure or the glow plugs themselves. EGR delete usually causes the EML to come. You should get the ECU read for fault codes which will reveal the problem.

Tuning boxes are a contentious subject. I've had remaps , & high end expensive tuning boxes so have experience of both. The cheap tuning boxes that fool the ECU into thinking the engine is cold are rubbish & generally contain a 50p resistor. Tuning boxes that plug into the fuel injector rail are completely different deal & way more expensive. If you intend keeping the car for a few years then a remap wins all day, but if like myself you change cars often then a quality tuning box is a good option as you can potentially use it on another car.

My Van Aarken Smart box works very well on my A4 but it cost over £400 new.

Thanks for the replies. I phoned around a few garages and they all quoted between £350 - 400 to change the cambelt, water pump, oil and filter. It's booked in to get it all done. I' ve also ordered some mk4 aero wipers and arms for it.

I managed to take it out for a drive today just to pick up some parts for another car and I am impressed with how it pulls for a 1.9 tdi. It was all a roads and it returned 58-61mpg but I did notice on the way back that the temp gauge was sitting at 90 before dropping down to about 55-60 sat there for a minute or two before bouncing between 55 and 90 for about 10 minutes.it eventually stopped and settled on 90 for the rest of the journey. Could that indicate the thermostat is on its way out?

Thanks

Ryan

Either the temp sender to knackered (it has 2 lots of outputs - one for the dash gauge and for for the ECU), or the stat is sticky.  Or possibly the wiring loom is faulty

 

Once the car was up to temperature I would expect the temp to remain pretty constant (stat open).

 

The sender is here, might be worth checking the connector plus is attached soundly.

 

Sounds like a dying coolant temp sensor to me. Replace with genuine VAG CTS or you'll be buying twice.