Auction Buy Octavia vRS Estate

[jsims1]

What to some may be another boring VAG Reader's Cars thread is my 2010 Octavia vRS estate.

I picked this blue behemoth up from Mannheim Mansfield for an exceptionally good price this Wednesday after having it in my watch list for a couple of weeks. After what was a rather stressful bidding situation where my bidding screen went blank conveniently at the moment this car was gong up for sale, luckily everything went back to normal and the car was mine.

It's a 2010 car with a lowly 26000 miles on its clocks and the EA888 2.0TSi motor under its bonnet mated to a 6 speed manual 'box. The car has a great service history with a mix of main dealer and specialist stamps / invoices and overall I'm very pleased with it.

Unfortunately the car had no number plates on it when I picked it up (luckily had the trade plates) and the mot was set to run out in a couple weeks si got it straight back to work, new plates on and sent up for mot. She only failed on a snapped spring so this is set to be fixed very soon.

I'll try and keep this updated when I get various bits done.

[Nunga]

Very underrated, as is buying auction cars. Looking forward to more stories about it.

[Brompty]

I hope it is just a snapped spring - it looks a bit too good to go into auction oherwise. If it is just the spring, what a cracking purchase.

[Stu08]

Brompty said:

I hope it is just a snapped spring - it looks a bit too good to go into auction oherwise. If it is just the spring, what a cracking purchase.

Very nice car. I had one of these (preface) with a stage 2 Shark tune - around 280 BHP and 330 lb/ft torque. Great car, still miss it today.

[jsims1]

Nunga said:

Very underrated, as is buying auction cars. Looking forward to more stories about it.

Thank you. I've bought several of my cars from auction now and really don't see what everybody seems to be so scared about. In fairness I did buy both of my Focus ST's from auction, the first being an 80k mile example and cost me a fair bit of money on upkeep but it was all general maintenance bits / common issues for that mileage anyway. The other was a 25k mile example and was near mint and cost no money on repairs as expected.

Hopefully I'll have an update or two in the week.

[LosingGrip]

I have a soft spot for them. I spent three weeks in one (although diesel) on a driving course and it's very capable. Loads of room (we had four of us, all sox foot plus).

Love the colour as well.

[jsims1]

Stu08 said:

Brompty said:

I hope it is just a snapped spring - it looks a bit too good to go into auction oherwise. If it is just the spring, what a cracking purchase.

Very nice car. I had one of these (preface) with a stage 2 Shark tune - around 280 BHP and 330 lb/ft torque. Great car, still miss it today.

Cheers guys, I can confirm it has been up on the ramps at work now also and between the mot tester, myself and the technician who has fitted my rear springs it really does look in good order underneath.
It drove great on the 150 mile trip back home also so I'm happy I've made a good decision with this one. There was a 2012 car going through BCA auction a week and a half ago that was almost exactly the same as this car and sold for £1500 more so that made this one feel like even more of a bargain!
This one will be getting mapped at some point in the future so I'm looking forward to that stu!

[Narcisus]

Keep a very close eye on the oil level and book it in to have the chain tensioner done...

[jsims1]

Narcisus said:

Keep a very close eye on the oil level and book it in to have the chain tensioner done...

My Mk6 Golf GTi with the same engine never used a drop in my ~20k miles of ownership so I'm not so worried about that but when it goes into the garage to have the front springs done I will be getting the technician to take the inspection cover off of the timing chain cover to check if it has the revised tensioner! Last thing I want is to have to spend a lot of money on the engine for no reason!
I will do my usual weekly checks on oil level regardless though.

[jsims1]

LosingGrip said:

I have a soft spot for them. I spent three weeks in one (although diesel) on a driving course and it's very capable. Loads of room (we had four of us, all sox foot plus).

Love the colour as well.

Thanks LG, I have bonded with it quite nicely in my relatively short time with it and not being dissimilar to my Mk6 Golf GTi I hope it will be able to put a modest smile on my face when I've got a few extras bits done to it.
It's currently had the rear lowering springs fitted so I could get the mot re test done so fronts are to be fitted this week, then off to the body shop to get a couple of bits tidied up which i shall document here before I start using it.

[Narcisus]

jsims1 said:

My Mk6 Golf GTi with the same engine never used a drop in my ~20k miles of ownership so I'm not so worried about that but when it goes into the garage to have the front springs done I will be getting the technician to take the inspection cover off of the timing chain cover to check if it has the revised tensioner! Last thing I want is to have to spend a lot of money on the engine for no reason!
I will do my usual weekly checks on oil level regardless though.

Nice one. I had a 2010 Scout from new with the 1.8 motor. Loved that car and would probably still have it today but at 5 years and 24k miles it was using about a litre of oil every 900 miles plus the tensioner time bomb was enough for me to change.

[ahenners]

I had a 59 plate hatch in the same colour. Traded in for a MK3 VRS but was a good car with no issues bar a
considerable thirst for oil. As above tensioner issue was a concern and the weekly oil top ups became irritating. Sounds like you've got both in hand though OP and it looks like a great buy.

Edited by ahenners on Sunday 2nd June 22:53

[jsims1]

Narcisus said:

Nice one. I had a 2010 Scout from new with the 1.8 motor. Loved that car and would probably still have it today but at 5 years and 24k miles it was using about a litre of oil every 900 miles plus the tensioner time bomb was enough for me to change.

It was a great drive on the way back to work and really looking forward to using it on a daily basis once my springs are fitted and a couple bits of paintwork are finished. I shall be keeping an eye on the oil level to make sure she's all good!

[jsims1]

ahenners said:

I had a 59 plate hatch in the same colour. Traded in for a MK3 VRS but was a good car with no issues bar a
considerable thirst for oil. As above tensioner issue was a concern and the weekly oil top ups became irritating. Sounds like you've got both in hand though OP and it looks like a great buy.

Edited by ahenners on Sunday 2nd June 22:53

I hope it turn out tp be good, all being well this one is meant to be a keeper for some time. The fact it had a very low mileage and a nice colour are a massive plus for me and should prove to be relatively depreciation free motoring for a couple of years due to the purchase price.

[Narcisus]

It’s a great looking motor :-) prefer the shape to the mk3.

[jsims1]

Narcisus said:

It’s a great looking motor :-) prefer the shape to the mk3.

Cheers Narcisus, I also prefer the 2.5 to the 3 and that's not just an "I can't afford it so I don't like it" statement. I do actually quite like them, just prefer the shape of the earlier car.
There's no denying that the mk3 has a much nicer interior though!

[jsims1]

Overdue update.

I've been using the car for just over a week now and I really do love it, gelled with it very nicely.

Due to the cracked spring at MOT time I ordered a set of H&R 45mm lowering springs and they have set the car off real well. I'll get some pictures up in due course, had the car 4 wheel aligned afterwards and I'm due to get it re done in a few days time once it has all settled.

The biggest and most unfortunate update presented itself to me today though. Work caught up with the back log of bits in the workshop so needed something to do, I was quick to hand them the keys to the Octavia so somebody could check the timing chain tensioner and bad luck for me, it is the old revision so new parts duly ordered, it is booked in for Wednesday to have the work done so that I have piece of mind it won't (read shouldn't) fail! Now I know it's the old style tensioner I daren't start it up! But if I don't start it I can't get to work so tough titties to me!

[jsims1]

Quick update time.

Today was the day I could finally get the timing chain tensioner replaced. I only ordered the tensioner itself along with a new timing chain case (these are prone to bending on removal) as the car is such low mileage there is no need to replace the chains/ guides.

The whole job took a couple of hours in total and went hassle free.


Old tensioner here on the floor. Excuse the terrible quality, I couldn't even be bothered to bend down to take a picture of it so zoomed in instead!


And here is the new tensioner sat in its place amongst the spaghetti of chains and guides. Tensioner is located at the left of the picture about half way up the image.

[jsims1]

Aaaaaand the god damned pictures have rotated, thanks thumbsnap! I'll look to get this rectified soon.

[stevemcs]

And this is what they look like when they fail



Blue is where they should be, red is actual