Skoda Octavia VRS (My eBay Disaster)

[DrewP]

 

Hi.

 

So this has been long time, wasn't sure about posting, but my failure is the next persons warning, I was selling up and wanting something bigger from my fiesta, look about with no rush and come across this.

 

Skoda Octavia VRS

2012

82k

Diesel

Rally Green

 

on eBay, I have bought cars eBay before and I know what to look for (well I thought I did), messaged the selling and over a couple of days, paid the man, the first red flag was that he offered to bring it to me from over two hours away for £50, but thought, hey why not, saves me the traveling, he brought it to me late, like 11pm, red flag number two, I did my best to look around it but couldn't see much, we did the paper work and he went and that my friends is where is all begins...

 

Here are the eBay listing pictures.

 

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/199134896@N04/6grYh3o3s4][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53181813482_8ab413d70c_h.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/199134896@N04/6grYh3o3s4]IMG_20210123_211155[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/199134896@N04/]Andrew Picken[/url], on Flickr

 

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/199134896@N04/1Sw1TkdoE7][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53182850040_5b5f75c43a_b.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/199134896@N04/1Sw1TkdoE7]IMG_20210123_211230[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/199134896@N04/]Andrew Picken[/url], on Flickr

 

[DrewP]

[DrewP]

The next day is when my disaster purchase journey really started, when it wouldn't start.

 

 

[DrewP]

Got the car running to find the instruments where bringing up strange warning signs, like,

 

Warning light for adblue, when the car doesn't have adblue,

Putting the handbrake on would bring up the warning light that the boot was open,

The fuel and temp gauges where the wrong way round.

 

And loads more, sent the cluster away, and it turns out some one had been at the cluster before and most of the wires had been cut and soldered back in the wrong places, after a lot of sending it back and forth to the specialist for testing, they fixed it.

 

 

[Ootohere]

You notices when you got it that the dash had the wrong mileage i take it?

 

Does the engine number match the V5?

[DrewP]

At this point, I could just tell I had been had, but I tried contacting the seller anyway and the number was not ringing and no reply to texts, so reported to eBay, to see if I could at least get some money back, but he had deleted his account and they couldn't trace the seller, I couldn't sell the car on, that wouldn't be fare and I wouldn't get my money back if I stripped it, so I though "how bad could it really be" and kept going, I decided to SORN the car just in case there was more and I am glad I did, the brakes where short, they where that bent, my dinner plates looked straighter.

 

[DrewP]

5 minutes ago, toot said:

You notices when you got it that the dash had the wrong mileage i take it?

 

Does the engine number match the V5?

 

When I got it, I thought I'd checked it and was right, but the next day was showing different, it turns out the display screen was damaged so was showing 8's and 3's.

[Ootohere]

It was almost at 86,000 at the last MOT last year.    You posted 82,000.     Were you not checking anything before buying?

[DrewP]

Next, I wanted to try some "Upgrades, I like the OEM+ look" I stripped the front grill and did my best for a bit of colour coding.

 

 

[DrewP]

[petrolcan]

Did you happen to look through the flickr photostream at the time to see any other cars pictured? If so, what were they?

 

Ignore. I'd thought I had found them on another forum but it turns out it was just you 🤪

Edited 12 September, 2023 by petrolcan

[CookieMonster87]

You mentioned it had been a while, how is the car running now? Have you resolved all the issues? If so hopefully at no significant cost over what you paid for the car (i.e. I hope you got a good deal on the car that made doing the extra work worthwhile).

 

I had a Mk2 vRS TDI (also came from an Mk7 Fiesta ST) and the lighting on my instrument cluster began to flicker with one set of gauges giving up all together. I ended up sending them off to a specialist recommended on the forum who returned the unit within a couple of days with new LEDs all around.

 

Someone may have had the same or tried to upgrade the lighting and just made a mess of it.

 

I’ve always liked that colour and think you’ve done a good job on the grille surround! Added a splitter too I see.

[twonks]

This smells a bit fishy to say the least.

 

Not sure I'd be making any mods at all without checking the cars full details - could be two cars, a dodgy repair, and a lot of other things.

 

A quick auto trader sell my car says it has had 6 owners and not scrapped, stolen or written off, so the basics look ok - although the condition you've said above suggests otherwise.

 

In the seller pics, there is a garage name on the number plate surround - might be worth a call to them to see if they know anything about it.

 

Gerry Hill Car Sales :: Home

 

Auto trader suggests £5.4K selling with 82K miles. In that condition, assuming the basic car checks out ok, I hope you paid around £3K for it!

[DrewP]

 

 

On 14/09/2023 at 14:04, twonks said:

This smells a bit fishy to say the least.

 

Not sure I'd be making any mods at all without checking the cars full details - could be two cars, a dodgy repair, and a lot of other things.

 

A quick auto trader sell my car says it has had 6 owners and not scrapped, stolen or written off, so the basics look ok - although the condition you've said above suggests otherwise.

 

In the seller pics, there is a garage name on the number plate surround - might be worth a call to them to see if they know anything about it.

 

Gerry Hill Car Sales :: Home

 

Auto trader suggests £5.4K selling with 82K miles. In that condition, assuming the basic car checks out ok, I hope you paid around £3K for it!

 

On 12/09/2023 at 21:25, toot said:

It was almost at 86,000 at the last MOT last year.    You posted 82,000.     Were you not checking anything before buying?

 

Ok, ok, ok, it didn't have 82k on it it had more, that was just an example, chill out...... Yes, I did a HPI check and I was happy with what came back, it all matched, and yes I know I got scammed, but I wasn't prepared to sell it on to some one in that condition, I have too much of a conscious, after checking the car out, yes after I bought it, I weight up the cost of fixing it and wanted to have a go myself, to learn new things, as I am a chef not a mechanic, I am only doing this thread to so show progress from before to after, to show and help others if they are in a situation like mine. 

[DrewP]

On 13/09/2023 at 21:27, CookieMonster87 said:

 

I’ve always liked that colour and think you’ve done a good job on the grille surround! Added a splitter too I see.

 

Thank you, Yes forgot to say, I added a TRC front splitter/lip, very well made and look mint.

[DrewP]

Moving on, every time it rained, water was filling the spare wheel well, I just couldn't figure out where is was coming from, but after a lot of sitting in the boot while the wife sprayed water over the car, it turned out to be the air grills(what ever they are called) in the boot, bought new ones and siliconed them on, sorted.

[DrewP]

 

 

Kept finding these in the there, not sure what they where, but sure they weren't anything to with the car, if anyone know, please let me know,

 

 

 

Sorted!

[DrewP]

Service time!

 

It's got a full service history but after the above I just wanted to make sure.

 

 

I know it looks like a different size, but fit prefect?

 

 

Cabin filter was bad,

 

 

[DrewP]

Time for some modifications, I wanted air ride, but that was more than I bought the car for, so went coilovers.

 

 

The stance and ride is some much better now,

 

 

[DrewP]

One of the headlight was getting water in, so had an investigation into it and found it..... well like this!

 

 

Yes that's right, a plastic bag???? and it gets worse,

 

 

Why? all it needed was a new rubber seal and the a new wire to bulb block (what ever it is called) fitting and it was fine.

 

[J.R.]

1 hour ago, DrewP said:

Kept finding these in the there, not sure what they where, but sure they weren't anything to with the car, if anyone know, please let me know,

They are carbide inserts for lathe tools or CNC machine tooling, car was probably owned by a machinist.

[CookieMonster87]

That stance is much better, keep wanting to stick some springs on mine to help get rid of the arch gap.
 

Just need to get the alloys done in black now!

 

There’s a very distinct “grime line” around the spare wheel well, is that how much water was in it?

[DrewP]

19 hours ago, CookieMonster87 said:

That stance is much better, keep wanting to stick some springs on mine to help get rid of the arch gap.
 

Just need to get the alloys done in black now!

 

There’s a very distinct “grime line” around the spare wheel well, is that how much water was in it?

 

Cheers, It was grim, when it rained for a long time there could be up to 10cm of water in there, really random for saying where it was coming from.

[DrewP]

 

On my way home from work one day there was a big bang on the door, I thought is was it was a bird hitting the door, turns out it was the window wire snapping, the door seal had failed and was letting water on and the cable was rusted thought.

 

 

I got a good deal on a door new skin,

 

 

It was a pain in the arse and wouldn't want to do other one, I haven't got a picture of it but changed the door seal as well and all was good.

[J.R.]

Why did you not replace the cable only?

Edited 17 September, 2023 by J.R.