Superb mk3 reliability

[fabia88]

Hi everyone,

I am considering upgrading my car to a Superb mk3 and am looking for advice as to their reliability and longevity, I'm considering a 2.0tdi 150 4x4 model with a manual gearbox as I do mainly motorway miles and appreciate the added security of 4wd, also its useful for muddy fields and snow of course. I am was looking at some with 90-100k miles, is this too high for it to still be reliable? Also, what are the main issues to. look out for?

Edited 1 April, 2023 by ColinD
removed white space

[SurreyJohn]

If you are looking at secondhand car with 100,000 miles, the reliability will depend a lot on how previous owner looked after it and serviced it.

 

If they did lots of preventive maintenance and replaced parts as they were getting worn should be good.   But if they were sort of person (or company) that stretched service intervals, and only fixed things when they failed, then I would not go near it, unless you have budgeted about £2k for a very heavy overhaul.

 

There is also also a debate about if 4x4 is needed on a motorway, or if better buying a good set of winter wheels and tyres.  Personally after experiencing good winter tyres I am now in latter camp, especially after seeing some 4x4 drivers in snow and ice struggle because they had summer tyres.

 

 

[Q102]

can't comment on reliabilty, a 2wd with good all season tyres will be more effective than 4wd with summer tyres

[numskull]

Hmmmm, well from experience I’ve found the situation to be completely different. If I hadn’t had 4WD on a trip to Ireland in Dec 21, I’m sure I’d never have got home on the P7’s. I think is was five cars I passed who had to give up on the snow and ice for lack of grip and brakes, albeit two were already in the ditch - but the Superb carried on at a steady 20mph without any major dramas. It was the night decided that I’d fit AllSeason tyres after the P7’s were tired and did so in Dec ‘22. 

[numskull]

PS.. I was expecting something exciting to appear on this thread, given the huge white space pauses @fabia88! 😂

PPS.. apart from a failed rear wheel speed sensor failure, which caused the dash to light up like a Christmas Tree (most worrying at the time) the 280 has been completely reliable in three years and 18000 miles.

Edited 27 March, 2023 by numskull

[MChris]

My 2015 Mk 2.00 ltr DSG diesel has 154K miles and going strong.  I service it all myself apart from the DSG and always always ahead of the prescribed periods. Very reliable, so far!

[MarkyG82]

Can you please confirm what you mean by ahead of period?  I have always serviced (oil change) my cars annually. The US and aus do it every 5k or similar. Yet we in Europe get long life of 18k or 2 years. Why the extremes?

 

PS. Sorry for hijacking the discussion.

[MChris]

MarkyG82, By "ahead of the prescribed periods" I mean that I change the engine oil + filter around  every 9,000 miles and the get the DSG oil + filter changed around 38,000 miles.  Same with brake pads.  I don't wait until they are wafer thin.  Tyres, I tend to change them when they are at about 3 mm tread depth.  I believe in preventative maintenance.   At the first signs of the battery getting towards the end of its life I change it.  Mind you, I've only changed it once.  I've been told that I am throwing money away but I always err on the safe side.

Edited 27 March, 2023 by MChris

[fabia88]

Thank you for all your replies. I appreciate that for a vehicle of this age and mileage, a huge factor is how well it was maintained and treated by its previous owner(s) and is something I will be checking in detail before buying any car. My main concern is that the vehicle does't have any catastrophic issues like the old pd engines with the oil pump drive shafts failing or clutches on later models which would fail and machine through the gearbox casing causing it to fail. I heard there are cases of oil burning in the 2.0tdi engines fitted the mk3 superb, does anyone know how common it is or which years are affected? also, is this the kind of vehicle a competent DIY'er can maintain? 

I understand people's points about 4wd being unnecessary in some cases, however I relatively often need to negotiate muddy tracks and fields and find 2wd cars to be pretty limited, even with good tyres (Michelin cross climates) also when towing and on wet/greasy roads I find fwd cars often struggle for grip, especially when pulling out of inclined junctions. Its just a nice feature to have and doesn't seem to impact the running costs too badly. When it comes to maintenance I also have adopted the same proactive strategy with my cars, changing oil regularly (every 5 to 9k miles) and changing other fluids such as manual gearbox oil and power steering fluid, it was quite surprising how dirty they were. 

[MarkyTDI]

On 27/03/2023 at 23:33, fabia88 said:

Thank you for all your replies. I appreciate that for a vehicle of this age and mileage, a huge factor is how well it was maintained and treated by its previous owner(s) and is something I will be checking in detail before buying any car. My main concern is that the vehicle does't have any catastrophic issues like the old pd engines with the oil pump drive shafts failing or clutches on later models which would fail and machine through the gearbox casing causing it to fail. I heard there are cases of oil burning in the 2.0tdi engines fitted the mk3 superb, does anyone know how common it is or which years are affected? also, is this the kind of vehicle a competent DIY'er can maintain? 

I understand people's points about 4wd being unnecessary in some cases, however I relatively often need to negotiate muddy tracks and fields and find 2wd cars to be pretty limited, even with good tyres (Michelin cross climates) also when towing and on wet/greasy roads I find fwd cars often struggle for grip, especially when pulling out of inclined junctions. Its just a nice feature to have and doesn't seem to impact the running costs too badly. When it comes to maintenance I also have adopted the same proactive strategy with my cars, changing oil regularly (every 5 to 9k miles) and changing other fluids such as manual gearbox oil and power steering fluid, it was quite surprising how dirty they were. 

Totally agree on the benefits of 4x4. I have a Superb 280 4x4 and previously an Octavia II 4x4 and I wouldn't go back to 2wd now. I also do a fair bit of boat towing and the 4x4 is very reassuring launching on gravel/sand/seaweed covered slipways etc as well as just in cold wet or snowy weather. I run on cross climates in the winter as well so I'd hope it would need a significant amount of snow to cause it any problem at all.

 

Reliability wise mine is coming up on 60k miles since 2017 and has been fault free in the two years I've had it other than a leak into the boot that the dealer couldn't solve when I bought it. The spare wheel well had an inch of water in it when I picked it up after it had supposedly been fixed (it had been with them for three months as I was working abroad).....at which point I decided it would never visit the main dealer again. 

[numskull]

On 27/03/2023 at 23:33, fabia88 said:

My main concern is that the vehicle does't have any catastrophic issues like the old pd engines with the oil pump drive shafts failing or clutches on later models which would fail and machine through the gearbox casing causing it to fail. I

It doesn’t. The MK3 have a much newer range of engines. 

 

On 27/03/2023 at 23:33, fabia88 said:

I heard there are cases of oil burning in the 2.0tdi engines fitted the mk3 superb, does anyone know how common it is or which years are affected?

Anything between 1000 and 3000 miles for a litre of oil would be considered “normal”. Some owners say their 2.0 220/280 petrol use a litre of oil over the the same mileage, yet ours doesn’t seem to use anything. Both are normal. 

[fabia88]

On 29/03/2023 at 18:24, numskull said:

It doesn’t. The MK3 have a much newer range of engines. 

 

Anything between 1000 and 3000 miles for a litre of oil would be considered “normal”. Some owners say their 2.0 220/280 petrol use a litre of oil over the the same mileage, yet ours doesn’t seem to use anything. Both are normal. 

My understanding was that a diesel engine that is in good condition shouldn't really burn any oil though, maybe I am wrong

[k.young]

I just chopprd my 2016 2.0tdi DSG L&K against my current car in January. Can't remember exactly but it had circa. 400k kms on it. I had it on long life servicing and sometimes I had to top up the oil before a service interval...........a couple of wheel bearings and a DCC shock was all that failed on it.

[numskull]

1 hour ago, k.young said:

Can't remember exactly but it had circa. 400k kms on it......a couple of wheel bearings and a DCC shock was all that failed on it.

400,000km?? Amazing. 👍🏻

[PatFinland]

In terms of running costs for the 4x4, we just switched from a 150 TDI 2wd to a 190 TDI 4x4 Scout. Granted the Scout is slightly higher, little more power, so I dont know if it's all due to the 4x4, but the new one burns about an extra 1 L / 100km consistently. Same drivers, same roads, the 2wd averaged 5.5 L all day long, 7.5 towing a trailer. The Scout, 13000kms for us so far (37k total), and the average is sitting at 6.6L, 8.5L while towing.

Of course, here in Finland the added benefits of the 4x4 are worth it! 

[k.young]

4 hours ago, numskull said:

400,000km?? Amazing. 👍🏻

 

I put 650,000kms on an Octavia 2.0tdi (140) DSG

[numskull]

8 hours ago, k.young said:

 

I put 650,000kms on an Octavia 2.0tdi (140) DSG

And when do you sleep? 

[k.young]

5 hours ago, numskull said:

And when do you sleep? 

 

I have been a travelling salesman for 30 years.........have driven a few million kms.

[fabia88]

Wow, that's a lot of miles. I guess the engines are pretty solid then and not a cause for concern provided they are maintained properly. Just noticed a lot of the taxis I my area are diesel superb and octavias. 

 

[KeteCantek]

Highway miles are really easy on the drivetrain. Assuming k.young was doing that. If not then he really doesn't sleep much or do anything else lol. 

 

My superb 280 only has 29k miles since 2016 but during my ownership, I had a year of very very short journeys.  Not very good for the engine.  It's still fine and over the 3k/year I do, no oil consumption or not noticeable

[numskull]

On 01/04/2023 at 09:57, k.young said:

I have been a travelling salesman for 30 years.........have driven a few million kms.

I kinda guessed you must’ve been up ‘n’ down the Emerald Isle; absolutely amazed, because….

 

17 hours ago, KeteCantek said:

Highway miles are really easy on the drivetrain. Assuming k.young was doing that. If not then he really doesn't sleep much or do anything else lol. 

😳Have you seen the state of most of the roads in Ireland?? You need….

1/ 🏀s and an a#@e of steel and

2/ a really well made car to survive 650,000 and 400,000kms of Irish roads respectively! 👍🏻

[CB_4x4]

On 26/03/2023 at 17:38, SurreyJohn said:

If you are looking at secondhand car with 100,000 miles, the reliability will depend a lot on how previous owner looked after it and serviced it.

 

If they did lots of preventive maintenance and replaced parts as they were getting worn should be good.   But if they were sort of person (or company) that stretched service intervals, and only fixed things when they failed, then I would not go near it, unless you have budgeted about £2k for a very heavy overhaul.

 

There is also also a debate about if 4x4 is needed on a motorway, or if better buying a good set of winter wheels and tyres.  Personally after experiencing good winter tyres I am now in latter camp, especially after seeing some 4x4 drivers in snow and ice struggle because they had summer tyres.

 

 

Sorry late to the convo.

I loved my Š4x4s but not the additional fuel costs.

This yime aroind I opted for a high mileage Greenline 1600 (yes, but money was tight) - 1 owner (M-way commuter dealership rep so all servicing was on time).

I got lucky I guess، anyway now kissing 150k miles at 5.5 years old.

Big costs =

•Estate tail lifters (£215 /pair new from China - less than 30mins self fit with no'previous')

• Fit a full set of CrossClimates and wet weather roundabout handling now approaches the 4x4s in Eco mode.

• 1st cambelt change at 145k ... water pump fine so left in saving £30 - my spannerman informs the servicekit items are only lasting 15-18months 😞

• next issue to address is a low voltage report on ign-heater ... circa £100 apparently ... will need a fix before the summer ends.

[k.young]

On 01/04/2023 at 18:41, KeteCantek said:

Highway miles are really easy on the drivetrain. Assuming k.young was doing that. If not then he really doesn't sleep much or do anything else lol. 

 

My superb 280 only has 29k miles since 2016 but during my ownership, I had a year of very very short journeys.  Not very good for the engine.  It's still fine and over the 3k/year I do, no oil consumption or not noticeable

 

 

I would say the ratio is 60:40 motorway to non motory driving.........BUT........when it's not on a motorway.....It gets pushed on.....hard!!