Idiot buys car ( Octavia Mk1 Estate )
Discussion
bungz said:
Mid last week we had a brown trousers incident mid rush hour in a huge line of cars. Car died, not a hint of it restarting.
Not one rotten b
d stopped to help me push the thing across the junction either.
Had this in an old 320d.. Came off the A14 approaching a big roundabout and it died as I was engine braking (turns out it had snapped it's timing chain).. Rush hour traffic, and I was left to push the car up to the lights and on to the roundabout into a safe "bay" in shoes/shirt/trousers. No one offered any help! Should have just left it in the middle of the traffic and caused chaos.. Not one rotten b
d stopped to help me push the thing across the junction either. 
Some time has passed and I learnt a few things.
It died again leaving me stranded again
On a round about in Chelmsley Wood 
Was on the way to a Mrs friends house, this time I knew it wasn't the belt. Stuck a scanner I had in the glove box on it no crank sensor signal.
I imagine thats what it was last time but I just had it timed a tooth out from the start and just panicked at worst case senario (nothing to lock this engine its a bit st to see the timing mark the gear box end, the new belt still looked odd so glad I changed it again).
Went and had a beer came back a couple of hours later and it fired up, got home and ordered a new sensor.
The sensor that failed was from the donor engine, wasnt even from the original car was a bit unlucky. It was also causing some of my rough running issues, was breaking up at lower rpm causing hesitation. That and the wrong maf had really cause me some head scratching.
So correct MAF now on the car, new crank sensor and its driving well, trust it enough to take it to work for a couple of days and it starts flagging a P0172 code for running rich just when I think its sorted.
Swapped a few parts back and forth which I wont go into and while I think I still suspect have a bad fuel trim she is running well enough.
There is a slight exhaust leak which needs attention, that prob isnt the cause of the code but it wont help.
Anyway like a pheonix from a blazing pile of turd she made it to the Festival of the Unexceptional without issue, ran quite well infact! I had a boot full of tools as well!
Was a great event.
There was a rather long queue in hot weather to get in which made me a touch nervous. We followed a rather sickly Hyundai Lantra that seemed to be chuffing a bit of oil ( it stunk!) and none of its windows seemed to work as they kept wafting the doors open.
Obviously the lad handn't spent his cold wet winter evenings with a torch sorting his windows out like moi
Got in, parked up and had a great day with my old boss who loved all the older 70's stuff, being from Brum he was quite at home with all the Milands made stuff ( ste ) there.
Only blot on the day was there really wasn't enough facilities for the amount of people, the food stalls all ran out of food by 1pm or so which was a bit ridculous.
We stopped off at a pub on the way home, was starving!
It died again leaving me stranded again
On a round about in Chelmsley Wood Was on the way to a Mrs friends house, this time I knew it wasn't the belt. Stuck a scanner I had in the glove box on it no crank sensor signal.
I imagine thats what it was last time but I just had it timed a tooth out from the start and just panicked at worst case senario (nothing to lock this engine its a bit s
t to see the timing mark the gear box end, the new belt still looked odd so glad I changed it again).Went and had a beer came back a couple of hours later and it fired up, got home and ordered a new sensor.
The sensor that failed was from the donor engine, wasnt even from the original car was a bit unlucky. It was also causing some of my rough running issues, was breaking up at lower rpm causing hesitation. That and the wrong maf had really cause me some head scratching.
So correct MAF now on the car, new crank sensor and its driving well, trust it enough to take it to work for a couple of days and it starts flagging a P0172 code for running rich just when I think its sorted.
Swapped a few parts back and forth which I wont go into and while I think I still suspect have a bad fuel trim she is running well enough.
There is a slight exhaust leak which needs attention, that prob isnt the cause of the code but it wont help.
Anyway like a pheonix from a blazing pile of turd she made it to the Festival of the Unexceptional without issue, ran quite well infact! I had a boot full of tools as well!
Was a great event.
There was a rather long queue in hot weather to get in which made me a touch nervous. We followed a rather sickly Hyundai Lantra that seemed to be chuffing a bit of oil ( it stunk!) and none of its windows seemed to work as they kept wafting the doors open.
Obviously the lad handn't spent his cold wet winter evenings with a torch sorting his windows out like moi
Got in, parked up and had a great day with my old boss who loved all the older 70's stuff, being from Brum he was quite at home with all the Milands made stuff ( s
te ) there.Only blot on the day was there really wasn't enough facilities for the amount of people, the food stalls all ran out of food by 1pm or so which was a bit ridculous.
We stopped off at a pub on the way home, was starving!
Edited by bungz on Monday 31st July 00:12
Mercdriver said:
10/10 for perseverance! I would have scrapped it a long time ago, hope it keeps going OK though, lang May it’s lum reek 
Absolutely, though I was quite glad I didnt on Saturday was quite satisfying taking somthing nobody else on this earth would have saved 
Tyrell Corp said:
puzzling, is it possible the cambelt tension was wrong?
Thinking about it when it did stop the first time the tensioner was too tight, wasn't like that when I set it so maybe somthing was a miss.Will never know, will keep check of it.
I have just bought one of these after driving merc’s for thirty years.
I had reservations about the dsg gearbox but I like an auto, lazy driver. Why re invent an auto box, General Motors and ford have made reliable millions of them?
After I bought it discovered that VW are not manufacturing them any more, what do they know?
I bought this car as it is likely to be my last car, I am 76 and only do 3000 miles a year, we will see
I had reservations about the dsg gearbox but I like an auto, lazy driver. Why re invent an auto box, General Motors and ford have made reliable millions of them?
After I bought it discovered that VW are not manufacturing them any more, what do they know?
I bought this car as it is likely to be my last car, I am 76 and only do 3000 miles a year, we will see
Mercdriver said:
I have just bought one of these after driving merc’s for thirty years.
I had reservations about the dsg gearbox but I like an auto, lazy driver. Why re invent an auto box, General Motors and ford have made reliable millions of them?
After I bought it discovered that VW are not manufacturing them any more, what do they know?
I bought this car as it is likely to be my last car, I am 76 and only do 3000 miles a year, we will see
VW cars are still available with DSG. Some models only available with DSG. Also available in Skoda, Seat & Audi cars. I had reservations about the dsg gearbox but I like an auto, lazy driver. Why re invent an auto box, General Motors and ford have made reliable millions of them?
After I bought it discovered that VW are not manufacturing them any more, what do they know?
I bought this car as it is likely to be my last car, I am 76 and only do 3000 miles a year, we will see
2020 petrol estate 4x4, estates seem to be desirable and sell quickly. 4x4 wasted on me if weather is bad enough to need a four wheel drive car I will not be out in it. Retired and good bus service into Dundee so do not really need a car but it is handy to have. Got the right amount of toys for me sat nav, air con, cloth seats do not like leather in winter, radio for boom gave up on R2 when they binned the decent DJ’s and kept the idiot cyclist, forget his name. Roomy interior inside even in rear, superbe just too big for us.
Persuaded when taxi drivers are using them, says it all.
I bought a 1.1 pop plus escort way back and swore I would never ever buy the small engined version of a car again. So Considered 1.6 petrol but found out they had turbo which I did not want so bought a two litre more than enough power, probably as fast as the five litre v8 Merc I had even in economy mode never tried it in sport mode. Vr6 possible magnet for the thieves, v6 only used by the boys in blue, diesel no good because of the miles. Well pleased with it comfy, tyres noisy but I will fix that next time I need tyres.
Persuaded when taxi drivers are using them, says it all.
I bought a 1.1 pop plus escort way back and swore I would never ever buy the small engined version of a car again. So Considered 1.6 petrol but found out they had turbo which I did not want so bought a two litre more than enough power, probably as fast as the five litre v8 Merc I had even in economy mode never tried it in sport mode. Vr6 possible magnet for the thieves, v6 only used by the boys in blue, diesel no good because of the miles. Well pleased with it comfy, tyres noisy but I will fix that next time I need tyres.
Brilliant write-up 
king hell hole. Think I was in a continuous state of panic until I got to the nearest train station
bungz said:
Some time has passed and I learnt a few things.
It died again leaving me stranded again On a round about in Chelmsley Wood
I use an indie specialist a stone’s throw away from there and once ended up going to the Greggs in their shopping centre after dropping off the car. fIt died again leaving me stranded again
On a round about in Chelmsley Wood king hell hole. Think I was in a continuous state of panic until I got to the nearest train stationSport220 said:
I use an indie specialist a stone’s throw away from there and once ended up going to the Greggs in their shopping centre after dropping off the car. fking hell hole. Think I was in a continuous state of panic until I got to the nearest train station
Ha ha yeah its a bit grimking hell hole. Think I was in a continuous state of panic until I got to the nearest train stationThat said there are faaaaaaar worse places in brum I could have conked out in
Quick update on this.
Lots of time spent trying to get the bottom of the exhaust leak, I have two different manidolfd and it turns out they were both cracked.
Got one repaired after I found a local guy who was happy to test it as I went along ( I made a load of blanks and using a shop vac and soapy water we could then tell if it leaked!)
All together, still a bit of blow from the join to the cat but enough to keep the engine light off.
All welded up and ready to go back on.
I drove the car for a while and it was happy enough, decided to drop the oil when it got to around the 60K mark
Was nice to see it roll over to 60K, a very unlikely milestone!
I decided to see what the £2 ebay special oil filter had found in the £80 donor engine.
Loads of carbon ( head was pretty full of it!). Some small amounts of sparkles but on a 90-100K engine I guess thats to be expected, will see how it looks with the next change!
Cheap filters and Mannol 05w-30 means a service is about £12, cant grumble.
She continues to be a handy addition to the fleet, currently many trips to the tip with a new kitchen and lounge revamp.
Lots of time spent trying to get the bottom of the exhaust leak, I have two different manidolfd and it turns out they were both cracked.
Got one repaired after I found a local guy who was happy to test it as I went along ( I made a load of blanks and using a shop vac and soapy water we could then tell if it leaked!)
All together, still a bit of blow from the join to the cat but enough to keep the engine light off.
All welded up and ready to go back on.
I drove the car for a while and it was happy enough, decided to drop the oil when it got to around the 60K mark
Was nice to see it roll over to 60K, a very unlikely milestone!
I decided to see what the £2 ebay special oil filter had found in the £80 donor engine.
Loads of carbon ( head was pretty full of it!). Some small amounts of sparkles but on a 90-100K engine I guess thats to be expected, will see how it looks with the next change!
Cheap filters and Mannol 05w-30 means a service is about £12, cant grumble.
She continues to be a handy addition to the fleet, currently many trips to the tip with a new kitchen and lounge revamp.
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