redscout

This was the first dealer to provide me with assurance that they'd fix the misfire on my car that it only developed after Skoda had performed work (stage 2 rebuild). They couldn't find the problem and washed their hands of it. Whether this says anything about their capability, I don't know, but it says a lot about customer service in general from the Skoda Group (Skoda UK included). I found them pleasant enough to deal with but at the end of day have no faith in them.

This is the garage that performed the Stage 2 repair on my motor. Those familiar with my posts will appreciate that I am less than happy with my experience. I now have misfires that the car didn't have before it went in. I received assurance that they would resolve the issue and left it with them a month whilst they consulted technical etc. to no avail. My whole experience, including with Skoda UK customer services has been atrocious and I very much doubt I'll ever buy another Skoda...and probably not anything VAG.

Thanks chaps. Might be worth getting one from the stealers as a one off. The specs listed for Crossland, Mann, Bosch are all the same on the face of it but there's no mention of internal specs...and I can't find a UFI listed anywhere.

Interesting. My other car's a BMW E87 with the crossland fitted and that's been good for nearly two years. Am I right in thinking that Skoda's filters are provided by Mann?...which aren't much more expensive than crossland!

These are interesting points that I wasn't aware of. I'm suffering a misfire at the moment that disappeared for a couple of weeks after I put a new fuel filter in. My replacement was a crossland from ECP. The misfire is back. Do crossland fall into the 'cheap' bracket?...I've used them on other cars without concern. Is there any easy check for the tandem pump operation or is it just a matter of checking colouration in the filter?

Hi Almal The original repair was stage 2 rebuild. This included new pistons, rings, con. rods, timing chain, tensioner, and camshaft I think - these were the cause of the original problem which was massive oil consumption. Skoda carried out these repairs but when I got it back it sounded to be running noisily so I took it back. Skoda scanned it and said all was well. The car broke down within a week and went back to them - they replaced camshaft adjuster valve. Since this time it has been misfiring. It's been back twice since- the first time they took it apart and found a broken mesh of some sort on the variable valve timing which they repaired and assured me that the timing was within spec (but only marginally). The car started running better but still misfiring (only after gear changes still). It went back again, Skoda had it for 3 weeks, plugged it into diagnostics, tried donor plugs and coils, took the inlet manifold off to inspect valves (after consulting 'technical') and then recommend head/valve clean but offer no guarantee that this will fix it. The cars since been to an indy who tried VAGCOM and VCDS only to report that it wasn't an electrical problem - however these tests were performed stationary so I'm not sure whether I've gained any insight. I think what I really need is the car plugged in whilst driving and gear changing to see if the issue can be pinpointed. So, the critical moment in these events seems to be the camshaft adjuster valve failure, although the car wasn't right before then. I'm not clear what the camshaft adjustor valve does and whether the break down could have damaged valves etc.

Cheers fellas, just ordered a reader which seems to offer real time monitoring - it'll be interesting to see how that works and it'll keep me busy over Christmas!

No, and don't have the means but would have thought this would have been on Skoda's diagnostic check. I'm intending checking the N80 as suggested above by PerformanceDiesel as a further cheap check because I don't want to be throwing money at the car. However, I'm now feeling torn between throwing money at replacement parts and throwing money at diagnostic tools!

These were supposed to have been checked during the cars 3 week stay with Skoda. They said they'd borrowed plugs and coils from a donor car that was running fine but mine still misfired. I've had the plugs out and they looked healthy...and I've checked the wiring harness which visually seems fine.

now that's my kind of solution...no messing about, just a good old fashioned Italian tune-up! I think what you've described is the MAF sensor isn't it? It's the Manifold Absolute Pressure sensor I was after locating. The end of the head looks clean enough - it's just the back corner that was oily - I'm half suspecting the rear PCV pipe connection where it connects to the air pipe. They wouldn't clean the head while they had the manifold off because they don't quite want to put the customer first before hard cash. Because the car's out of warranty they won't accept any liability, whether or not it was their fault for making the pistons out of cheesecake in the first place, or whether or not the car was misfiring before they touched it...what that says about Skoda's ethics, I'll let you decide.

Hi Bigjohn I understand that the carbonisation will have been increased but I would expect that, if that were the cause of the misfire, it would misfire all the time, rather than only after gear changes. The valve/manifold clean is on my to-do list though.

Thanks PerformanceDiesel I don't think the valve cover is the source but it's hard to tell. I had some fresh oil on the metal pipe that runs down near the DV and ends in a J (like a U-bend) but I wasn't sure what that pipe was (had a braided metallic protective cover) and that oil could have got onto it anywhere along its travel. There was a lot of old oil right around where the air pipe that runs round the back of the engine links to another section as it drops to the turbo; sitting all around the joint. but to be fair the whole area was covered...I've cleaned it all off so will monitor if it reappears. I've removed the dipstick with engine running and it did negatively affect tickover. I also had the entire PCV off to check the spring which seemed ok, and the diaphragm which I couldn't get at (not sure if there's a special tool for the top circular cover, or if it's even supposed to come off) The N80 did cross my mind - when touched I can feel it clicking but I was under the impression they made an audible clicking/tapping if they were failed. At least it's easy to get to so I'll have a search for how to check operation - I seem to recall something about testing whether they hold vacuum but I don't have the means for that. Skoda reckoned that the severe oil burning (up to a litre every 250 miles by the time it was diagnosed) could have dramatically increased the rate of carbonisation but I did wonder whether they were just looking for some money for their 'efforts'....in any case, that job's a last resort really, and I'd clean the injectors while I'm in there. My other half drives it a lot more tamely than I do but it doesn't feel to me like carbonisation is likely to be the problem or it should misfire at other times....instincts are telling me it's a problem specific to the sudden and opposite change in pressure and load when put in a new gear and throttled...(which is why I considered the N75, because I could be leaking pressure to the wastegate between changes - but I may be completely wrong...it wouldn't be the first wrong tree I've barked up!..

Hi trundlenut Thanks for your quick reply... I've spent a lot of time on the phone to Skoda UK customer services, explaining the problem and telling them that before the car went to them, there was no misfire. They arranged for the car to go back in for checks and I was told that they'd gone back over their work and could find no problems with that aspect. At this time, I spoke with the service manager who told me they'd investigate fully and sort it out. The car was in for 3 weeks during which time they said they'd referred it to 'technical' who advised the next step was to manually clean the valves because they'd had the inlet manifold off and seen that they were dirty/carbonised, potentially an after effect of the excessive oil consumption. However, they wanted circa £1k to perform this and offered no guarantee that it'd cure the misfire (they also originally told me they wanted £350 just to put it back together without a clean...or I could tow it away - you can imagine my reaction to that suggestion). So, Skoda UK customer services have effectively now washed their hands of the issue, as have the dealership, as have the muppets I bought the car from in the first place. Thanks for the advice on VCDS - I'm just not convinced in my own ability to get anything meaningful from it!

Hi trundlenut... The cars spent months at 2 different Skoda dealerships for the Stage 2 repair, subsequent cam adjuster valve replacement and then to identify the misfire (which started occurring after the cam adjuster failure/repair). They've had it plugged into their system and nothing shows up. I've since taken it to an independent who has plugged it into VAG-COM and the other (VCDS?) neither of which showed anything up. I'm not sure what happened at the dealers but the indy's tests were while the car was stationary. The problem here is that I only get the misfire whilst driving (after gear changes). There is noticeable whine/whistle noise when letting of the gas that I thought might be turbo problem or leak but the dealer assured me that was normal turbo sound. I've tried investigating around the N75 area but I'm not convinced that my symptoms match to a N75 fault because after the initial misfire, acceleration is smooth...and it's very hard to access that area of the engine bay which was also caked in old oil...I mentioned this oil contamination to the dealers but they didn't seem to think it pointed to anything significant. I've just been looking at the VAG-COM leads on ebay but most seem to exclude the Octavia 2 from compatibility listings - and I'm not sure yet whether these would help me (because I'm not familiar with them yet and still struggling a bit to build my understanding of all these valves/sensors etc.) but if they would enable analysis/monitoring whilst driving, that might be a sensible purchase...

Thanks for this... I changed the fuel filter about 3 months ago and did notice a significant improvement for a couple of weeks but then the problem reappeared (I put cleaner through at the same time). I used a Crossland filter for the replacement - I've used these filters on other cars and never had any issues. You might be right that there's a link here but it shouldn't really be the filter again already should it? My wife took the car out earlier (after my DV check) and said it was playing up. When I took it for a run, the revs seemed to stick at 3k for a short while when I let off the gas - I thought I'd succeeded in making my problems worse but I can't get that particular symptom to happen again! I'll probably try a TB clean next to keep costs down but I'm skeptical of that making a difference.

Pulled the DV out today and it's fine - no split, tears etc. so that's something else ruled out. I did notice when I fired the car up from cold that the idle dropped within about 30 seconds - is this normal? It is a mild day but I wonder if this point to Idle Control valve or not...clutching at straws perhaps! Would appreciate some help in pinpointing this issue if anyone has any ideas please......

Yeah, thanks. That's a job for spring though. I have very little shelter from the elements and don't want to be stripping it down too far in case I need to get it back together in a hurry...and I'd sooner be working on it without my extremities going numb from the cold! Having said that I've been back under it today to look for the DV. I appear to have the G version and there are signs of leakage around the seal. I do have what sounds like a slight vacuum leak when I lift the throttle so I'm going to replace it anyway - didn't bother to remove it completely to check the rubber diaphragm because it looks like a PITA to get back in so I'll wait until I get the new one - not sure yet whether it needs to be the revision D or C. I'm mindful of throwing parts at the car willy nilly but the G version of the DV appears to have a bad reputation whether there's visibly any damage or not.

Coil connectors checked - Earth continuity is ok but don't have knowledge to check others, rubber seals replaced, terminal connections are fine PCV system checked - appears ok but can't get top (circular) cover off to check internal diaphragm - will revisit if can find instruction High pressure fuel pump cam follower checked - no sign of wear

Commiserations. My 09 1.8tsi had engine rebuild (stage 2). I took mine back cos I thought it wasn't right but got a shoulder shrug from stealers. A week later it broke down - turned out to be camshaft adjuster valve. Now sorted but misfires on gear changes!

OK. Just updating this thread to keep a track of my progress (or lack of) and to see if anyone can add anything along the way. If I solve it, it may become a useful solution to someone in the future. Yesterday I pulled some sensors. The camshaft position sensor was full of crud on the connector so I gave that a clean up and cleaned the sensor end - the misfire after the 1st to 2nd gear change has disappeared but is still there on 2nd to 3rd etc. I've seen how to check wiring to this sensor but not how to test the sensor itself - is this possible? I've also cleaned the inlet manifold temperature sensor but can potentially rule that out because the misfire was still there after that, though there's no guarantee that it isn't defective (and comparatively cheap to replace). From reading other sources, the MAP sensor might be a culprit but as yet I can't locate it - any tips welcome. Likewise, I'd like to locate the crankshaft position sensor. After servicing the car (and dropping a very heavy Scout undertray on my bonce) I noticed a fair amount of oil down the rear left (looking at it) of the engine (turbo area). This could indicate a turbo leak or be contaminating sensors in that area. I can't find a picture/diagram of this engine (1.8tsi CDAA) so any pointers or links would be hugely appreciated,

Cheers Tranberg, I'll have a look through

Easy to lose balancing weights in the change overs. Might be worth trying a swap between front and rear to see if the problem persists?

Balancing or a defective wheel?...if it's following the wheel

Ps I mean in terms of Haynes

Hi Am I right in thinking the mk5 golf is the same engine as the octavia petrol 1.8 - it's particularly engine sensors I'm interested in at the moment ... ?