Hi all!

Very new to the family (less than 24hours!), and it might be a flying visit…

Yesterday I picked up my new car from Cinch, a 2018 ŠKODA Octavia VRS Petrol Manual, 230ps.

I was all very excited, having come from a 31yo Volvo 850, to experience ‘modern reliabilty’.

On my drive home from collection however, the EPC light came on, accompanied by a system error for the start/stop function.

I pulled over to do some googling, and considered that it might be a low battery health causing it, but my symptoms were also as follows:

• [No EPC light on] I accelerated hard in third, the engine got up to high RPM before jerking, and releasing power [EPC light comes on]. I would then be put into what I assume is a type of limp mode, where I couldn’t do any real acceleration at all.

• Turning the car on and off again reset the issue (ie; no light, and system check saying no errors with start/stop), but accelerate hard again and it all reoccurs

Cinch are taking the car to be code read and repaired imminently, but have assured me that I can exercise my right to return the car free of charge.

I did my due diligence prior to purchasing from cinch, and was aware that this could happen as a customer - I just didn’t think it would happen to me, fatal mistake !

So MY QUESTION…

Am I an absolute fool for considering keeping this car after the EPC issue has been diagnosed and fixed? I got a lovely spec, and thoroughly enjoyed driving it (albeit, for 30 minutes…), and part of me doesn’t want to go through the stress of waiting again for another to come up for sale in the spec I want.

But the sensible side of me is completely aghast that I’d even consider keeping a car that has literally broken down within hours of taking delivery.

So my question is, please can I get some advice (the harsher the better) as to whether I should be 100% taking this back, or whether I should wait to see what they diagnose the EPC error as before making any decisions.

Thanks all, from one disheartened, but otherwise impressed, recent ŠKODA owner!

Edited yesterday at 16:591 day by MikeT850
Needed updating title

Not Engine Light but It could be as simple as needing spark plugs. Misfires. It could be remapped and they have E10 Unleaded in.

2 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

Not Engine Light but It could be as simple as needing spark plugs. Misfires. It could be remapped and they have E10 Unleaded in.

Hi, thanks for the response! Say it was the spark plugs, given the car failed straight after purchase, should I still be walking away, or are spark plugs a common issue?

Regarding the E10, I actually filled it up form 1/4 empty to full with E10 myself on the way home. I’ve got no indication that it’s been remapped, so would assume it should run fine on E10. Could I get the garage to check the ECU for any previous tinkering when they take it away to code read it?

Thanks 😊

What SERVICE HISTORY do you have? What indication would you get that a vRS had a remap. CINCH never reset to Factory Settings. Has the VAQ Diff been serviced? Steering assist or brake assist might not be at Factory setting. This is what happens when buying used cars from Private sellers, Dealerships or car supermarkets. You do not know what you get until you can check everything out.

Edited yesterday at 17:361 day by Evolution13

The fault could be something as simple as a sticking turbo actuator arm, wait and see what the investigation shows before considering rejection.

1 hour ago, Warrior193 said:

The fault could be something as simple as a sticking turbo actuator arm, wait and see what the investigation shows before considering rejection.

Thanks for the advice! I'm definitely going to wait and see till the diagnostics has been run before making any decision. Out of curiosity, please could I get some further advice if that's okay? If you were to list what sort of issue you would accept, like the sticking turbo actuator arm, vs what sort of issues would lead you to walk away from the car, how would the lists look? That would help me massively once I get the diagnosis back to decide whether to keep the car or not. Appreciate I'm asking a lot, but if you knew of any other threads that might cover this list of accept/reject faults, that would be greatly appreciated. I really want to keep the car, but I don't want to make a 5 figure mistake if I end up keeping a dodgy one...Thank you so much for your help! :)

2 hours ago, Evolution13 said:

What SERVICE HISTORY do you have? What indication would you get that a vRS had a remap. CINCH never reset to Factory Settings. Has the VAQ Diff been serviced? Steering assist or brake assist might not be at Factory setting. This is what happens when buying used cars from Private sellers, Dealerships or car supermarkets. You do not know what you get until you can check everything out.

Hi, thank you once again for your help! So, this is where it gets interesting... Cinch, being a massive moneysupermarket of cars, don't tend to give out much service history. I therefore did my own digging (calling MOT centres, online paid searches etc) to build a picture of the service history. Looks likes its head general maintenance (oil change, brakes +fluid, plenty of tires etc), but no indication of any other major services that I could find. I know, a little dodgy already, but that's just how they operate. Maybe car people like us are not their target market! In terms of remap, i have no idea if it would have had one, and I have no idea how to check. It hadn't occurred to me that it would have. VAQ wise, I'm pretty sure as this is a 2018 230ps model, it didn't come with a VAQ unlike the 245 editions? But please correct me if I'm wrong, and advise on how I can check if I have one or not. Is there any way for me to check any of the things you mention out through the infotainment system (in the Car tab, or settings etc?), or would it need to be OBD read to determine these things?

I appreciate I sound like a novice, and to anything post 2000s, I am! But I would really appreciate any help I can get on this so that I can make a more informed decision as to whether to keep the car or not. It's a Meteor Grey Petrol Manual Estate which to me is the ultimate spec for these cars, so I don't want my attraction to blind me, and leave me stuck with a very expensive paperweight when it turns out to be a dud. Thank you so much for your help :)

@OccyVRS knows these cars, I don't. Hopefully he will be along.

What mileage has this vehicle recorded? Your mention of it having had 'plenty of tyres' might possibly be of some concern.

Check .gov website for recorded mileages at MOTs for past 5 years.

The accelerating hard then stumble and limp mode but cleared when stopped and restarted does sound like what warrior said sticking actuator or if its variable vein turbo they may be carbon up. My old 1.9tdi used to do exactly the same thing. Slight blow off noise then down on power. Pull into layby and stop then start and back to normal. Slightly sticky actuator in my case.

Alasdair

23 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

What mileage has this vehicle recorded? Your mention of it having had 'plenty of tyres' might possibly be of some concern.

Check .gov website for recorded mileages at MOTs for past 5 years.

Thanks for the advice. To be fair the car is on 86k miles, doing about 15k miles per year for the last 3 years, so maybe the tires being shot makes more sense in hindsight.

Cinch have finally given me the list of repairs and rectifications they made before selling the car. I’ll attach the list below. Do these fixes give cause for concern, or should I be happy that these have now been sorted before my ownership? I know the cooling system is a common fault from what Ive read.

Thank you so much, I appreciate any insight you may have!

6 minutes ago, Alasdair1 said:

The accelerating hard then stumble and limp mode but cleared when stopped and restarted does sound like what warrior said sticking actuator or if its variable vein turbo they may be carbon up. My old 1.9tdi used to do exactly the same thing. Slight blow off noise then down on power. Pull into layby and stop then start and back to normal. Slightly sticky actuator in my case.

Alasdair

Hi Alasdair, thanks for the insight! Would you say this is something to be concerned of, regarding further troubles down the line? Or once this is fixed should I be reassured do you reckon? Thanks !

I lubricated mine and manually operated until smooth. It was sticking at a certain point. Lasted another two years plus without any further problems. Alas old skoda is now a parts donor due to rust.

Thats a fair list of repairs but nothing serious (mostly cosmetic). Tyres I havent heard of ?? See how they are when driving. They are Xload so will have stiffer side walls. Only thing that jumps out is shock absorber replaced due to leaking. They are normally done in pairs to keep suspension in balance and I would have replaced timing chain etc as they had the cover off but at 86k reckon wouldnt need doing.

Alasdair

19 hours ago, Evolution13 said:

@OccyVRS knows these cars, I don't. Hopefully he will be along.

Sorry - read this last night and then got sidetracked. Please let me know if I've missed anyting.

1. A FL Octavia vRS 230 does not have the VAQ diff. The easiest and most foolproof way to check is to confirm that the interior stitching is white, and that you have solid rear brake discs (which will be 272mm), rather than vented (310mm)?

2. Did you get a good deal? How much did you pay, and what is the mileage? I'd normally avoid buying from Cinch as the majority of their stuff is part-ex/leasure return stock obtained from BCA and WBAC (their parent company). If it's a good deal, however, then that's a different story, provided you know what you're buying.

3. An EPC light can mean a million things. In the simplest form, it means the car has detected a fault with the throttle, engine management or the electronic system. The first step is to see what DTCs have been thrown. I doubt it's the battery, given your description of events. My money would be on an ignition coil having an issue under load, a boost issue, or potentially a fuelling issue. At high RPM (above 5k) these cars can also suffer with oil pressure problems.

4. Reading everything, it does potentially indicate a car that hasn't been cared for that well. Two cut tyres, one over-worn and one being the incorrect size... none of these are good things! The oil seperator is interesting though, as that's part of the PCV system that is a) known to be an issue and b) could be relevant to the EPC light. The boost pipe is also intersting, see my above point on a boost issue.

5. I'm a bit confused about the first point on their list... leaking engine oil, so the water pump/therm housing was replaced? Eh? For context, these engines, along with many, many more, have a plastic housing on the thermostat/water pump. Over time, and many heat cycles, this housing becomes weak, cracks and leaks coolant. I think my car (a very tidy 2020 on 40k miles) may have this issue developing. Okay, sure, the housing is right next to the oil filter, etc, but there's no relation. I think the car had a coolant leak (hence the new pump) and an oil leak (hence the new VVT seals and timing cover).

What would I do?

That's a tricky one. I purchased my car as part of an agreement with a main SEAT/Skoda/CUPRA dealer as a replacement for a previous car they sold me with hidden crash damage. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, and checked everything myself, before having my mechanic tear the car apart too. Hell, I was sat on the forecourt running diagnostics and checking the specs list against the PR codes and VIN.

It's good that you've done your research and checks. None of these issues are great, but they're also not terrible. Crap tyres, leaky shock, knackered water pump and some dinged body panels are par for the course on an eight year old Skoda. I would see what they say about the cause of the EPC light, and go from there.

3 hours ago, MikeT850 said:

maThanks for the advice. To be fair the car is on 86k miles, doing about 15k miles per year for the last 3 years, so maybe the tires being shot makes more sense in hindsight.

Cinch have finally given me the list of repairs and rectifications they made before selling the car. I’ll attach the list below. Do these fixes give cause for concern, or should I be happy that these have now been sorted before my ownership? I know the cooling system is a common fault from what Ive read.

Thank you so much, I appreciate any insight you may have!

Several duplications of faults regarding the scratched wheels appear to 'pad' the rectification list, plus look to have fitted cheap replacement tyres.