When I purchased my VRS, after owning a rather nice MG ZT 190+ in Trophy Blue, I was hoping for some equal reliability. Christ, I seem to keep throwing money at it though. Just recently spent the best part of 600 quid on new driveshafts. Today, I noticed the temp was higher than usual. I stopped and checked the water and the oil and it was OK. When I continued, as soon as I applied any power, the temp shot up into the red and the warning light/bleeper came on. When I stopped, it cooled of quickly. If I drive really really steady, the temps OK, as soon as I apply power, up it goes again Reading through here, it looks like I need a new water pump, will also have to get the cambelt done, and who know, maybe even a head gasket! Probably looking at 300-400 quid. It's in with my mechanic now, and I am driving the wife's Pug. i bought the car of a fellow Briskodian and admittedly, it's immaculate. 2003 with (now) 45K on the clock, Jabba remap, etc. etc.

Bleedin cars

One more rant if I may - Inconsiderate tw@s who live in major built up city areas that get a nice cuddly pet cat annoy me :arge:. Just dropped the wife off in town and we came across some slow traffic (3 lanes traffic). There was poor cat clearly in major distress what can only be described as breakdancing in agony in the middle of the road after being hit by a car. No houses, only VERY built up City area, very main roads, and some "appartments". Get a Budgie instead, or get a stuffed cat

:rant:

Unlucky mate, I suppose when you get the water pump and belt done you can forget about it for 60k / 4 years.

I paid £290 for both of mine to be done for reference.

I know how it feels when things go wrong on a car, I had my oil pump fail on my astra dti and it cost the best part of £900 to fix :(

The Octavia is not a reliable car, despite what a lot of people say. People are often impressed by the fact that they don't break down as often as a French car, and you get a lot of car for your money, but that is all that is true.

Some will flame me for this, but I can honestly say that my one year of ownership of a 2.5 year old 1.8T, was the worst experience of cars in my 18 years of driving. That says a lot when I owned a D reg Astra that broke down once every 2 weeks, and a Maestro that fell to bits as I drove along.

Sure I got a lot of car for my money, but now I can see why. The engineering is poor, with weak materials being used (water pump failure, engine mounting failure). The electrics are poor (car cut out on left hand bends, accelerating etc etc). The turbo hoses often split or would come lose, the car could not be driven from cold without stalling and the engine management light would come on at least once a month.

The dealers could not fix the problems as quickly as they happened and I ended up spending half my days off at the garage and about £2000 worth of bills. Plus the dealers burnt the clutch out as well and refused to fix it

In the end I gave up and went back to Honda. In the last 18 months I have not had one fault, and of the 4 Hondas I have owned not one has ever broken down.

Sorry to tell you this now, but there are cars out there that are better made.

Flame suit on.

The Octavia is not a reliable car, despite what a lot of people say. People are often impressed by the fact that they don't break down as often as a French car, and you get a lot of car for your money, but that is all that is true.

Some will flame me for this, but I can honestly say that my one year of ownership of a 2.5 year old 1.8T, was the worst experience of cars in my 18 years of driving. That says a lot when I owned a D reg Astra that broke down once every 2 weeks, and a Maestro that fell to bits as I drove along.

Sure I got a lot of car for my money, but now I can see why. The engineering is poor, with weak materials being used (water pump failure, engine mounting failure). The electrics are poor (car cut out on left hand bends, accelerating etc etc). The turbo hoses often split or would come lose, the car could not be driven from cold without stalling and the engine management light would come on at least once a month.

The dealers could not fix the problems as quickly as they happened and I ended up spending half my days off at the garage and about £2000 worth of bills. Plus the dealers burnt the clutch out as well and refused to fix it

In the end I gave up and went back to Honda. In the last 18 months I have not had one fault, and of the 4 Hondas I have owned not one has ever broken down.

Sorry to tell you this now, but there are cars out there that are better made.

Flame suit on.

There's good one and bad ones I suppose, mine at the moment has been the most reliable car I have had (touch woood) I've had it nearly 2 years and had a few problems but it's never failed as such to the point where I'm left stranded. and mine has a very hard life. 300 miles a week stop starting with me driving usually shows up a cars weak points.

The Octavia is not a reliable car, despite what a lot of people say. People are often impressed by the fact that they don't break down as often as a French car, and you get a lot of car for your money, but that is all that is true.

Owned my Octy vRS since August and had more problems already than I had with my 306 which I owned for just over 3 years and covered 55k in.

Just one of them things but it does make me laugh when people go on about VAG quality as a sweeping statement. I'm not going to knock the Octy vRS because for my tigh budget and huge list of requirements it was the only thing that could deliver but I find overall the build quality to be quite lacking and you can easily see where they've cut corners on the car.

Apart from my coilpack issue (common fault) Ive had no problems in a year of motoring, so Im happy with it so far

Apart from my coilpack issue (common fault) Ive had no problems in a year of motoring, so Im happy with it so far

Alot of the things that bug me aren't really seen as faults. For example the fact that it runs a bit ropey when the secondary air pump is running after start up, the water flooding the boot, random rattles that you get for an hour or so then they disappear for days/weeks etc.

I'm just stupidly picky I guess, over all though I do like the car and I haven't had anything critical happen to leave me stranded.

Had mine 12 months now (2002 done 93K miles) and it gets a hard life, I'm not shy with it at all. So far it's as reliable as any other car I've had, nothing has gone wrong, and it's been great.

As said, there's good and bad in everything, and generally people only make a noise about the bad, when everything is going great you don't hear a peep out of anyone.

look at the badge mate you bought a skoda

Temp sensor changed, no difference. Thermostat changed, no difference. It's now having a new water pump, cambelt, tensioners, etc. If that don't work, I'm probably looking at the head/gasket. It seems to spend more time in my mechanics yard than it does on my drive lately. I am having thoughts that I should have kept the ZT, or just got a ZT260 instead

I was hoping to upgrade in a year or two to the MKII Octy, but confidence is getting knocked, and it's starting to look unlikely - shame though. Although it's best car I have owned for putting a big grin on your face, it's also the most unreliable one I've owned. The big V8 might win !!

To be fair though the cambelt and other gubbins was due anyway.

To be fair though the cambelt and other gubbins was due anyway.

What, at 44K ?

Seven years of skoda cars and so far (about 80,000 miles).......one pd injector failed, done under waranty, and maybe coming up the turbo is sticking but thats under warranty as well, so I have no problems so far

4 years or 60k, whatever comes first.

If YOUR octavia is reliable and well built, depends on your experience. As for the first posters issues and 4 good Honda's, is it as equal to say I have had 4 vauxhalls which have given no trouble but a lexus that has been nothing but bother, therefore lexus is far worse built than a vauxhall?

Going by the JD Power survey, the octavia is more reliable on average than any of the others eg golf/mondeo/a4/3 series etc. It came in just under the top place by 0.5% thus beating all honda's/toyota's (bar the 1 lexus that came top).

Similar good results in other surveys.

Still, I have dealt with enough faulty ones. Seems to me that some things just will need fixing if you own a car, a car that doesn't need anything is more like a run of good luck

Had my Octy Vrs 1 three years 23k (not much I know) but only probs were self induced. At present I am well happy!!

you get good and bad in all cars and unfortunatley its look of the draw

A lot of it is how you treat them!

I've had mine from new (5 years now) apart from the coil packs, water pump and a freak ECU faliure nothing has ever gone wrong!!!! Mind, very little is standard now, but that is beside the point!

I have it serviced every 5k (oil and all the filters replaced, MAF cleaned etc.) and a full service every 10k (new spark plugs, brakes stripped and cleaned, new brake fluid etc.). On 58k now and runs sweet as a nut. Had my first cambelt done at 30k/3 years old, second one done when the water pump was replaced for the brass model (40k ish, and the last belt was by Jabba when the turbo and everything else was fitted.

If you drive it hard from cold don't expect it to last long, all turbo engines are delicate especially on start up.

As a point of interest I have a oil temp gauge and it takes nearly twice as long for the oil to get to its optimum running temperature as it does for the engine coolant......so when you think your engine is up to temperature and ready to give it some stick think again! Leave it a good 10-15 mins where possible regardless of the temp gauge!

Regarding the water pump get the brass impeller model they'll outlast the car no problems! Jabba stock them if you find it difficult to source one.

apart from the coil packs, water pump and a freak ECU faliure nothing has ever gone wrong!!!!

I always like these type of posts!

So, apart from some pretty serious failures, it's been faultless:confused:

My Superb was a bag of Sh*te but we have others that have been fine, the MK1 Octavias on the fleet are generaly pretty reliable apart from an unhealthy addiction to eating gearboxes, but the MK2 Octavias are woefully unreliable and seem to have all been built by un-trained monkeys using parts that come out of the 'failed quality control, but we'll stick em in anyway' bin.

Skoda are due to take a massive tumble in all these surveys, and if they dont i'll eat my hat! *looks for eat my hat smilie* (you'd think of all those smilies i'd be able to find one eating a hat:rolleyes:)

Regarding the water pump get the brass impeller model they'll outlast the car no problems! Jabba stock them if you find it difficult to source one.

Can't seem to find them on their web site :confused:

GSF do metal waterpumps, around £25

GSF do metal waterpumps, around £25

Thanks

(I miss my ZT - It was better on the wallet - Here's a pic)

I used to own a rover 220gti. What a load of rubbish. Cylinder head always leaked oil and it had Rubbish brakes,Oh and the engine didn't last long at about 100k you could really feel the rumble. 136 bhp 0-60 time was quoted 7.9secs....Yeah right. The octy would absloutly cain it.

Hope the Mgs were better made and actually go as fast as they claim.

I always like these type of posts!

So, apart from some pretty serious failures, it's been faultless:confused:

I never said it was faultless.......

You'll get problems with any car, let's start being realistic.

The coil packs and the plastic water pumps were/are a very common weak spot across the whole VAG range. The ECU was a random unexplainable fault that had never been experienced before - you win some, you loose some, their is no point moaning about it, or suddenly deciding the car is now a piece of dog $hit because of it....be real!

If you constitute a squeek as a fault you'll be looking a long time for a 'perfect' car. My dads 745iL has more annoying traits than my Skoda.

Finally heard from my mechanic bloke today. After trying the thermostat (just in case), and changing a sensor that VAGCOM flagged up, the removal of the water pump showed that the "PLASTIC" impeller had broke apart and deposited itself in the water tract. Who's ever heard of plastic being used on a water pump!! Bleedin tight ar$e cheap-skates trying to cut costs and screwing up my motor !

I'll post the final bill when I get it back Tuesday or Wednesday, but it wont be a pretty sight - any guesses

By the way, he's fitting a metal WP