buying a octavia vrs mk1 what to look out for help

[jameskmacey]

Im going to buy a vrs mk1 this week just need to know common faults ect and what are these engines like are they reliable or not im coming from driving a mondeo st tdci and thats so bad its fault after faults, so advice would be good, I viewed one today but the rpm pointer was not dead still at idle im sure it was moving ever so slightly is that normal for these cars? also it seemed to have faint smoke coming from the exhaust even after warming up.

[ColinD]

HI,

 

Good luck on the hunt! They are a good car, had 2 of the Mk1 Octavia, one vRS one 4x4 tuned. Smoke I'd question for sure. Most of the component replacement/upgrades are a well trodden path. So even if a gremlin or two did crop up they can be sorted fairly easily. Maybe not trivially or with no cost... depends on the quality of your garage tool kit I guess. 

 

Testing wise, 3rd gear is the gear imho on this car. If that works from low revs to higher then happy days. 

 

Have a gander at the sump if you can, they hang lower than min suspension travel. 

 

The coil packs should be well past changed by now, early on there were issues. I'd be really surprised if any original *failure prone* ones were still out there.

 

So then check brakes, AC etc... The brakes are fine, I always put better fluid and pads in. Some went mad with 4 and 6pot conversions, no need IMHOfor road driving.

 

If getting a hatch, watch out for wet boots, the hatch drains into the boot when opening; still does on the new ones, it's a feature, so you can end up with a soggy bottom carpet and in turn the spare wheel well.

 

Pretty basic cars when all said.  Plenty being broken so again, parts supply isn't a huge issue. Beyond that it's the white carpet/seats, if they are clean then it's a good chance it's been looked after, or had seat covers.

 

HTH.