Went to look at a big turbo 1.8T - Gbox & Boost Issues
Discussion
-About the car I might buy
Mk1 Octavia VRS, 2003
Bodywork wise, looks fine, faded paint in some places but no bigy, metal looks straight all round, apart from the folded lip on the sills at the front but they all seem to have that.
Interior is a tale of extremes. Door cards retrimmed in faux leather, new rooflining, rear seats okay.
Front seats are a disaster.
Steering wheel is worn and so is gear knob, apparently its got 210,000 KM, seem more like 270,000 to me.
It's got an integrated sound system upgrade ie speaker pods on the front doors, housing big mids, tweeter and crossovers. Hertz brand. Looks a nice job, trimmed in the same faux leather as the door cards. Full install in the boot, all trimmed in the same faux leather, subs either side with two large amp in the boot floor covered with perpsex. Professional job.
It needs an offside driveshaft, its clicking on full lock
Suspension is crashy. It's wearing what looks like Bilstein B8 or B6 with some yellow springs. Not sure of the brand. I think they are too low hence the crashiness so it will need some decent springs and lifted a little bit, I'm thinking H&R.
Engine bay looks mint, no leaks that I can see from anywhere.
The turbo in question is a K04 from an S3 TFSI as far as I can tell.
Plenty of power, easily spins the tyres in third.
Clutch bites okay but pedal is high, its towards the end of it's life
-The big issues
Driveability is terrible. The car wants to take off with very little throttle from about 2000 rpm onwards. Trying to precision measure the throttle for steady speed gives some turbo surge noises. I think it's trying to make too much boost at too little RPMs. In general it's very hard to drive slowly and very hard to accelerate slowly.
And the gearbox
No crunching but generally imprecise selecting gears.
And then there's second gear. There is no indication that second has engaged and I mean none. Nine times of ten it's in, but you're hoping when you lift the clutch if you know what I mean? Other times it needs a couple of attempts to get it in. Ultra vague engaging second, other gears just vague.
-Negotiation
He says he needs an answer today, I've kept him waiting a week because I wanted him to put a new MOT on the car. It flew through, 10ppm for the HC emissions. Alignment was out, I spoke to the tester he says it's out of spec but just needs a minor adjustment, nothing bent chassis wise. I'll have to trust him
It's in Greece so second hand car prices are stratospheric generally. I've got him down to four and half from five *before* I test drove it.
So what was a avg/good car has turned into a bit of a project. I'm thinking to ask him if he wants to do something with the price (again) because of the second gear issue and driveability.
-The questions I am asking myself are,
Is it definitely a mapping issue or are there some other possibilities?
And the second gear issue. Is this 100% a synchro problem or could the problem be potentially solved without disassembling the gearbox?
Advice/comments welcome (wanted!)
Mk1 Octavia VRS, 2003
Bodywork wise, looks fine, faded paint in some places but no bigy, metal looks straight all round, apart from the folded lip on the sills at the front but they all seem to have that.
Interior is a tale of extremes. Door cards retrimmed in faux leather, new rooflining, rear seats okay.
Front seats are a disaster.
Steering wheel is worn and so is gear knob, apparently its got 210,000 KM, seem more like 270,000 to me.
It's got an integrated sound system upgrade ie speaker pods on the front doors, housing big mids, tweeter and crossovers. Hertz brand. Looks a nice job, trimmed in the same faux leather as the door cards. Full install in the boot, all trimmed in the same faux leather, subs either side with two large amp in the boot floor covered with perpsex. Professional job.
It needs an offside driveshaft, its clicking on full lock
Suspension is crashy. It's wearing what looks like Bilstein B8 or B6 with some yellow springs. Not sure of the brand. I think they are too low hence the crashiness so it will need some decent springs and lifted a little bit, I'm thinking H&R.
Engine bay looks mint, no leaks that I can see from anywhere.
The turbo in question is a K04 from an S3 TFSI as far as I can tell.
Plenty of power, easily spins the tyres in third.
Clutch bites okay but pedal is high, its towards the end of it's life
-The big issues
Driveability is terrible. The car wants to take off with very little throttle from about 2000 rpm onwards. Trying to precision measure the throttle for steady speed gives some turbo surge noises. I think it's trying to make too much boost at too little RPMs. In general it's very hard to drive slowly and very hard to accelerate slowly.
And the gearbox
No crunching but generally imprecise selecting gears.
And then there's second gear. There is no indication that second has engaged and I mean none. Nine times of ten it's in, but you're hoping when you lift the clutch if you know what I mean? Other times it needs a couple of attempts to get it in. Ultra vague engaging second, other gears just vague.
-Negotiation
He says he needs an answer today, I've kept him waiting a week because I wanted him to put a new MOT on the car. It flew through, 10ppm for the HC emissions. Alignment was out, I spoke to the tester he says it's out of spec but just needs a minor adjustment, nothing bent chassis wise. I'll have to trust him
It's in Greece so second hand car prices are stratospheric generally. I've got him down to four and half from five *before* I test drove it.
So what was a avg/good car has turned into a bit of a project. I'm thinking to ask him if he wants to do something with the price (again) because of the second gear issue and driveability.
-The questions I am asking myself are,
Is it definitely a mapping issue or are there some other possibilities?
And the second gear issue. Is this 100% a synchro problem or could the problem be potentially solved without disassembling the gearbox?
Advice/comments welcome (wanted!)
I would assume it needs a new clutch and gearbox. You don't say how much power it's producing but if it's spinning the wheels in third then presumably it's a massive increase. In that case I would also assume that any standard spec clutch and gearbox you fit will be consumables, and the engine will probably have a relatively short life.
Around 300 bhp is the claim. These engines are gearboxes are supposed to be reliable up to this point, hence my disappointment at the apparent state of the gearbox. I wouldn't have expected the power to wear out the synchros faster though, bearings and gear teeth sure. This box is silent from what I can tell.
Are you actually in Greece, to be considering buying a scrapper from Greece ?
Really the gear issues could be anything from a f
ked gearbox, to just a linkage/cable issue.
the driveability issues could be a plethora of problems, or it could be a dodgy map. There are plenty of them about.
Really the gear issues could be anything from a f
ked gearbox, to just a linkage/cable issue.the driveability issues could be a plethora of problems, or it could be a dodgy map. There are plenty of them about.
"plenty of them about" - That's a sad state of affairs. People should be asking for their money back.
Personally, big turbo or not, I expect the power given by the engine to correspond to how much I am pressing the accelerator. But maybe I am asking for too much of an engine with a big turbo swap.
Personally, big turbo or not, I expect the power given by the engine to correspond to how much I am pressing the accelerator. But maybe I am asking for too much of an engine with a big turbo swap.
Gearbox issue could potentially be the 1-2 shift fork issue that some/lots of the 02m gearboxes suffer with, a broken rivet on the shift fork which requires a box strip to fix.
Does the car actually have custom software for the K04-064 swap and all the other supporting bits, injectors etc? They can usually make 330/340 pretty comfortably so if its only 300 its maybe just on some generic software not suited to that turbo?
On the subject of power, you don't mention if the engine has had any work? If it does not at the very least have upgraded rods then it is basically a ticking time bomb with that turbo and what sounds like a very spiky boost delivery.
Does the car actually have custom software for the K04-064 swap and all the other supporting bits, injectors etc? They can usually make 330/340 pretty comfortably so if its only 300 its maybe just on some generic software not suited to that turbo?
On the subject of power, you don't mention if the engine has had any work? If it does not at the very least have upgraded rods then it is basically a ticking time bomb with that turbo and what sounds like a very spiky boost delivery.
Edited by Warby80 on Friday 24th March 17:01
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