2011 Skoda Octavia Scout (No, I'd never heard of one too)
Discussion
I'm sure this will sound quite normal to the PH fold; we were looking for a new car for my partner, who wanted another 4x4. She's a big LR fan (old school stuff) and owned a Disco 2. We were considering a number of different cars so I did what anyone would do and punched 2k into Auto trader and set transmission to 4x4.
After scrolling through the usual suspects I noticed there were two cars listed under Skoda. I assumed it was most likely be a few cheap yeti's, and I was half right.
Sat under a very ropy and 230k mile Yeti sat this Octavia.
A scout. An Octavia Scout. Have you ever heard of one? I admit I never had. Now I worked for VW for about 11 years so I know them fairly well, and I've had VAG stuff for daily drivers for years.
I turned to Google and quickly found out the Scout is Skoda's version of Audi's all road. It came with a metal undertray in place of the usual plastic one, underbody protection down both sides to protect the brake and fuel lines, and rear protection too. It has unique front and rear bumpers, side skirts, wheel arches, wheels and few other bits and pieces.
The interior is unique and "hard wearing" according to Skoda. What is cool though its SO WELL THOUGHT OUT. There are cup holders everywhere, three cubby holes in the dash, cubby holes in the seats, tie downs in the boot.
It also came well specced, with auto lights, wipers and auto dimming mirror, air conditioned glove box and centre arm rest, cruise control, and mine even came with a handy rubber boot matt.
Being a face-lift mk2 Octavia it has the gen 4 Haldex. I'm a huge fan of Haldex and think it's a great tool for on road and the occasional trip off it.
So, as you can tell it peaked my interest. At the same time I also came across a Freelander 2 for my partner which she absolutely loves, so I decided after a bit of man maths it would be financially better to swap into this from my then-current daily.
So cutting to the chase it was listed at a MUCH lower price than anything on the market. About half its retail value. The advert read well and the owner noticed the car was in limp mode. He had the codes read and was told it was an EGR fault, and on these they are a right PITA to change (read big bill).
We spoke on the phone and he sent over a load of videos and photos for me - a really nice chap. We came to an agreement on the price and I arranged for the car to be collected (it was over 200 miles away and I didn't fancy that trip in limp mode).
I got it home and it was even better than I expected; it came with full history and only two previous owners - the first being a Doctor who purchased it from new and had it maintained by the same Dealer he purchased it from for his ownership (10 years and 111,000 miles). I purchased it from the 2nd owner.
It also came with a spare set of steel wheels on winter tyres which was another added bonus.
Using my diagnostic stuff I ran output tests on various things and found the anti shudder valve was unresponsive. I unplugged it and no limp mode! So I bought a replacement and threw it on.
The second issue I've found is the haldex is a little unresponsive. It works, but logs a fault with the pressure valve so I'll need to look a little further into it, but for what it owes me it's still way under its value so I'm over the moon with it and a perfect partner to my high comp 205 Gti (that has its own thread on here)
After scrolling through the usual suspects I noticed there were two cars listed under Skoda. I assumed it was most likely be a few cheap yeti's, and I was half right.
Sat under a very ropy and 230k mile Yeti sat this Octavia.
A scout. An Octavia Scout. Have you ever heard of one? I admit I never had. Now I worked for VW for about 11 years so I know them fairly well, and I've had VAG stuff for daily drivers for years.
I turned to Google and quickly found out the Scout is Skoda's version of Audi's all road. It came with a metal undertray in place of the usual plastic one, underbody protection down both sides to protect the brake and fuel lines, and rear protection too. It has unique front and rear bumpers, side skirts, wheel arches, wheels and few other bits and pieces.
The interior is unique and "hard wearing" according to Skoda. What is cool though its SO WELL THOUGHT OUT. There are cup holders everywhere, three cubby holes in the dash, cubby holes in the seats, tie downs in the boot.
It also came well specced, with auto lights, wipers and auto dimming mirror, air conditioned glove box and centre arm rest, cruise control, and mine even came with a handy rubber boot matt.
Being a face-lift mk2 Octavia it has the gen 4 Haldex. I'm a huge fan of Haldex and think it's a great tool for on road and the occasional trip off it.
So, as you can tell it peaked my interest. At the same time I also came across a Freelander 2 for my partner which she absolutely loves, so I decided after a bit of man maths it would be financially better to swap into this from my then-current daily.
So cutting to the chase it was listed at a MUCH lower price than anything on the market. About half its retail value. The advert read well and the owner noticed the car was in limp mode. He had the codes read and was told it was an EGR fault, and on these they are a right PITA to change (read big bill).
We spoke on the phone and he sent over a load of videos and photos for me - a really nice chap. We came to an agreement on the price and I arranged for the car to be collected (it was over 200 miles away and I didn't fancy that trip in limp mode).
I got it home and it was even better than I expected; it came with full history and only two previous owners - the first being a Doctor who purchased it from new and had it maintained by the same Dealer he purchased it from for his ownership (10 years and 111,000 miles). I purchased it from the 2nd owner.
It also came with a spare set of steel wheels on winter tyres which was another added bonus.
Using my diagnostic stuff I ran output tests on various things and found the anti shudder valve was unresponsive. I unplugged it and no limp mode! So I bought a replacement and threw it on.
The second issue I've found is the haldex is a little unresponsive. It works, but logs a fault with the pressure valve so I'll need to look a little further into it, but for what it owes me it's still way under its value so I'm over the moon with it and a perfect partner to my high comp 205 Gti (that has its own thread on here)
Skyrocket21 said:
Yes, they're very popular as Paramedic fast response vehicles (or were), the rarer one is a Golf Alltrack, that's on the mk7 platform. It's the EGR cooler than can cause problems, it can be emulated away or mapped out. They are nice engines the CR, that's a facelifted version, in a nice colour too, they're more often white. Enjoy.
Yeah they all seem to be white - understandable for paramedics! Believe it or not its actually a silver. I SWEAR it's blue
I also have a set of steels with winters though I'm looking at moving to 17 inch steels to regain the correct ride height.
I'm lucky that working for VW for 10+ years and having diagnostic stuff means I have a reasonable head start with maintenance.
My 4WD works but seems to be sluggish in operation. It also has a,pressure valve fault which can be hadlex control unit. So once the weather gets a little nicer and my 205 Gti is back out to play I'll whip the control unit off and check out the circuit board-it's common for water ingress.
It's now mapped which has made it a lot nicer to drive, and plans include a roof rack and light bar, some suspension raise blocks, 17 inch steels and better tyres and some additional water-proofing
I'm lucky that working for VW for 10+ years and having diagnostic stuff means I have a reasonable head start with maintenance.
My 4WD works but seems to be sluggish in operation. It also has a,pressure valve fault which can be hadlex control unit. So once the weather gets a little nicer and my 205 Gti is back out to play I'll whip the control unit off and check out the circuit board-it's common for water ingress.
It's now mapped which has made it a lot nicer to drive, and plans include a roof rack and light bar, some suspension raise blocks, 17 inch steels and better tyres and some additional water-proofing
A long overdue update.
The Scout has soldiered on remarkably since my last update. While it doesn't cover much mileage day to day (circa 15 miles) it gets a good regular run and this month has seen me put 550 miles on it in the space of about 3 days, at an average of above 60mpg.
The 4wd issue is still an issue however, and being very odd. In short, the Face-lift Octavia uses the Haldex 4 system, which unfortunately doesn't use a pressure sensor to measure pump pressure like the earlier haldex 2 systems. This is a pain in my case, as my issue is a haldex clutch control valve fault.
As I mentioned, I had my 205 gti back for the end of the summer as its been having some work done, which gave me the opportunity to remove both the haldex ecu and the control valve.
|https://thumbsnap.com/tyYdZneG[/url]
A super easy job, with only two bolts and two multi plugs to remove. It's situated on the side of the haldex unit so easily accessible with up on my ramps.
I then sent them to matt at Haldex repairs, somewhat confident that my issue was water ingress into the ecu. Matt received both parts and duely rang me.
Both the ecu and the valve were in perfect working order....
He returned them and I refitted them both and the saga continues. Its an odd issue; the 4wd either works or it doesn't. The valve isn't at fault, but the code is still there. I cant check pump pressure as there isn't a pressure valve, so I think next step is testing the output on the pump, which could possibly be sporadic in operation.
When it is working its absolutely fantastic; wet weather grip is massive and off road it can go further than it really has any right to.
It's had another oil change with an OEM filter and oem quantum oil, and I've just replaced the pillow filter which wasn't in the best of condition:
We're closing in on 157k and it still runs super well, I'd struggle to think what to replace it with if I had to.
Next on the list is a good clean and treat on the underside to keep the rust away.
[url]
The Scout has soldiered on remarkably since my last update. While it doesn't cover much mileage day to day (circa 15 miles) it gets a good regular run and this month has seen me put 550 miles on it in the space of about 3 days, at an average of above 60mpg.
The 4wd issue is still an issue however, and being very odd. In short, the Face-lift Octavia uses the Haldex 4 system, which unfortunately doesn't use a pressure sensor to measure pump pressure like the earlier haldex 2 systems. This is a pain in my case, as my issue is a haldex clutch control valve fault.
As I mentioned, I had my 205 gti back for the end of the summer as its been having some work done, which gave me the opportunity to remove both the haldex ecu and the control valve.
|https://thumbsnap.com/tyYdZneG[/url]A super easy job, with only two bolts and two multi plugs to remove. It's situated on the side of the haldex unit so easily accessible with up on my ramps.
I then sent them to matt at Haldex repairs, somewhat confident that my issue was water ingress into the ecu. Matt received both parts and duely rang me.
Both the ecu and the valve were in perfect working order....
He returned them and I refitted them both and the saga continues. Its an odd issue; the 4wd either works or it doesn't. The valve isn't at fault, but the code is still there. I cant check pump pressure as there isn't a pressure valve, so I think next step is testing the output on the pump, which could possibly be sporadic in operation.
When it is working its absolutely fantastic; wet weather grip is massive and off road it can go further than it really has any right to.
It's had another oil change with an OEM filter and oem quantum oil, and I've just replaced the pillow filter which wasn't in the best of condition:
We're closing in on 157k and it still runs super well, I'd struggle to think what to replace it with if I had to.
Next on the list is a good clean and treat on the underside to keep the rust away.
[url]I'd imagine that the spare hasn't been cut correctly. I worked for VW for a decade and used to cut the keys; they're a pain. I'd take a close look at both to see any differences.
On a side note I had a chat today with the ever helpful Matt at Haldex repairs and he's sending me a spare control valve to try. I'm also going to fit a new filter and give the line from the filter to the valve a blow through, in case there is any debris causing issues.
Bar that, she's plodding along great. I'm looking for somewhere to clean and treat the underside to keep the rust at bay too.
On a side note I had a chat today with the ever helpful Matt at Haldex repairs and he's sending me a spare control valve to try. I'm also going to fit a new filter and give the line from the filter to the valve a blow through, in case there is any debris causing issues.
Bar that, she's plodding along great. I'm looking for somewhere to clean and treat the underside to keep the rust at bay too.
Small update time.
Scout continues to soldier on. Running on all seasons means it's brilliant in this weather.
One annoyance has been a cracked fog light. I bought it with it (given how cheap the car was I'm not complaining) however since then it's recently broken, leaving a nice hole and jagged glass. Not good.
£25 from ebay later and my 'new' one arrived, and on my lunch break today I quickly chucked it on.
A very easy job (thanks Skoda!) - simply prise the surround off and x3 torx screws later and we have a gaping hole.
One broken lense
And conplete with two working fog lights again
I will be popping some brighter bulbs in them soon.
On a side note another great inexpensive modification is a washer cap from a newer Skoda. It opens up to become a funnel of sorts, and makes chucking screenwash in much easier.
In fact I got one for my dad's golf and my other half's freelander 2
Scout continues to soldier on. Running on all seasons means it's brilliant in this weather.
One annoyance has been a cracked fog light. I bought it with it (given how cheap the car was I'm not complaining) however since then it's recently broken, leaving a nice hole and jagged glass. Not good.
£25 from ebay later and my 'new' one arrived, and on my lunch break today I quickly chucked it on.
A very easy job (thanks Skoda!) - simply prise the surround off and x3 torx screws later and we have a gaping hole.
One broken lense
And conplete with two working fog lights again
I will be popping some brighter bulbs in them soon.
On a side note another great inexpensive modification is a washer cap from a newer Skoda. It opens up to become a funnel of sorts, and makes chucking screenwash in much easier.
In fact I got one for my dad's golf and my other half's freelander 2
Jhonno said:
Haldex issues been sorted then?
Kind of. The system works 90% of the time (a big improvement) however I think I know what the problem is. Talking with Matt from Haldex repairs we think due to my Haldex filter coming out in a few separate bits, some debris has passed its way through to the valve. This would explain why when Matt tested the valve it worked. As it works the majority of the time.So plan is Matt is sending new a filter and with it a used but known to be working valve. I will remove the filter, clean the housing, remove the control unit and valve, blow compressed air through the feed line from the filter housing, clean up everything I can see, fit the used valve, new filter and new oil.
We hope this will resolve it then.
spreadsheet monkey said:
Octavia Scout Sterrato!
Definitely need to see pictures if you get round to doing these mods.
Ha, it definitely has a ring to it. Definitely need to see pictures if you get round to doing these mods.
First steps is getting the underside clean, and painted. It's - understandably - got quite the patina of surface rust over the axles etc, so plan is to get it up on some ramps, go at it with my wire brush attachment and then find some sort of underside paint to protect it.
Two front tyres will be needed soon, then after that I can start on the fun
Sporky said:
Nice - I have the VW version - Golf Alltrack. There was a Seat one too, I think it was the X-perience. If you think the Octavia Scout is rare and unknown you're in for a surprise with the other two. 
Believe it or not, I had no idea anyone made an Allroad equivalent in the VAG stable. It's only after getting the Scout that I now know lol. I knew Scouts were used by the ambulance services a lot (and still are), however I had NEVER seen a non-emergency Scout. Even today, now I know what I'm looking for, I can still count the amount of Scout's ive seen on the open road with one hand.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff