SoupDragon

Same car and engine and same problem. When I pull away from standstill, the engine dies and the car lurches. I thought I would be able to learn how to drive round it but no; I am getting really fed up with it now. I got the software upgrade to stop the high revs when parking and that was good but now the nose diving on pull away is really tiresome. Apart from that, the car is very good. It's a great motorway drive with plenty of power and a comfortable cabin and very good on economy.

I had a Cavalier which my daughter named Charles. Geddit? My Yaris had the reg GNU and I waited for three years before I spotted another car with the same reg. and I could say 'Look, a ganother GNU'

There are two other running-in concerns, the tyres and the brakes. The tyres definitely need to be treated gently for at least 200 miles to get rid of the mould release. It's been dry here for sometime but new tyres can be frightening in wet weather. Also the brakes take a few 100 miles before they reach their best. I guess the pads have to match into the surface of the discs before you get full stopping ability. I had a diesel Yaris once and the fuel consumption kept on improving for the first 7,000 miles, so something was gradually changing/improving in the engine for a long time. I don't know if petrol engines need so long to bed in fully.

I set the gas pedal into sport mode soon after I got the car and hoped for a bit more response but it made no difference at all. The throttle pedal response is very very slow and unpredictable. I find that I often have to modulate the clutch and gas controls maybe three times as I try to get a smooth getaway. It leads to loss of confidence about what is going to happen when you enter a roundabout etc. It's like a very old car when the carburettor is worn out.

Just the same BigK. I had the software update which stops the unwanted rev. rise but has left the poor throttle response you describe. After 4 months, I still can not make a reliably smooth takeoff and still occasionally stall the engine. To guard against stalling, I use higher revs than necessary but even then it feels like the engine completely dies as you release the clutch. There does seem to be an exceptionally long gas pedal movement. I can not tell if the uncertainty is caused by imprecise gas pedal detection or if the ecu is sometimes rather slow to detect the gas pedal movement. I wonder if the original rev. rise issue was an attempt to overcome the pedal detection problem. My car is same as yours.

I have noticed that the rear number plate on my 3 month old Octavia Hatchback seems to be coming loose. When I close the boot lid, sometimes I hear a rattle sound and I know that I have to press one side or the other of the plate back back onto the body work to re-fix it. The material that the plate is made of seems to be too springy for the adhesive that holds it to the curve of the body work. There are no screw fixings, just what I guess is double sided foam tape. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a problem, I mean if the ends of the plate are loose and rattle, will the plate come off altogether or will the fixings in the centre hold the plate firmly? I have thought about taking it back to the garage where I bought the car but it seems that the plate is fixed in the correct and normal way.

When I got my ecu updated to stop the revs. rise, I asked for a printed record to show that the work had been done, But, I was told that because the update was not a recall or a series mod, there was not an official need to record the update. I was given a print out to show what had been done and I was told that I could keep it or throw it away. The revs-rise is not a safety issue and it is not regarded as a fault. Some people may find it useful and many other people may find it very annoying. After the mod, the engine no longer wants to rev its bum off when you are trying to fit into a tight parking space etc, which is an improvement. However, I still have a niggle with the action of the accelerator pedal. It is still an unnecessary business every time I pull away in first gear. I find that I can not just balance the gas pedal and the clutch release to pull away. I find that I have to usually press the gas pedal and partially release the clutch but then dip the clutch a little and press for more gas and even then, I might get a jumpy start. The engine reaction to the gas pedal feels very delayed and the gas pedal movement feels very imprecise. Does anyone recommend the DTUK Pedal Box? Does it get round these problems? If it is a time-lag problem, I don't see how it can help. Other than that, it's a lovely car. There is a cabin resonance on some roads, it sounds like the tyres are resonating, but that is very road-surface specific.

My question was serious, would not active noise cancellation null out noises that you need to hear?

With that order of noise cancellation, what happens if your wife wants to talk to you or the children in the back start complaining?

Try NOT using the re circulation. The auto setting does use the re circulation when necessary, eg when you use the windscreen wash and when it is particularly dusty outside. Otherwise, don't use the re circulation. Is it very dusty where you live? Perhaps you can get or make an upgraded pollen filter and use the outside air.

After a week of driving with the software upgrade to stop the rev. surges, I firstly find the engine much easier to get on with. What I found really annoying was the sudden uncontrollable rise in engine revs and the noise it made when making slow manoeuvers, especially when parking. I put up with the jerky pull away when the engine is cold. I do still have a problem with what seems to be dead movement on the accelerator pedal. It feels like the engine is not responding to the first small accelerator pedal movement. This loss of fine-feel on the gas pedal leads me to either give more pedal pressure than I think it needs or if I don't. the car nose dives, as BK2 reports. I often have to turn off a main road up a very steep slope into a tight car parking area. I want to be in first gear in the car park and I always double-de-clutched from second into first as I hit the slope. I can't do it with the Skoda, the engine revs never rise at all in the time interval during d-d-clutching. OK, I can slow right down in second and just change slowly into first but I think there is something that slugs the gas pedal action or is slow to detect the pedal movement. I am using 'sport' action in the 'users drive mode'. I have a suspicion that it is slow to detect the pedal movement and this leads to an occasional tendency for the driver to over-rev the engine to avoid nose diving or stalling. I expect that I will get used to these characteristics without too much trouble.

Me too, I got the software update from Silbury yesterday, They washed and tidied up my car as well. The difference is great, no more surprising rev rises. The unwelcome noise is gone. I have not driven the car much since the update but so far, it is a big improvement in the predictability of how the engine is going to behave.

Where and what are the little green tags please.

Big Kev 2 Congrats, enjoy the basking, you have done well there and you have helped me too. I look forward to having an engine that does not want to annoy the neighbours. As for the jumpiness when cold, you have described just what I thought, the choke was not pulled out enough, but it clears when the engine warms which only takes a minute or two. And I remember how stinky cars were on a cold morning with the choke fully out. You are right about how low geared first is, you have to change up almost immediately. I think it is something to do with how gutless the engine is below about 1200 rpm. How long did the job take? I have been told to allow for up to two hours and I will just wait and drink their coffee while the job is done. DevLees, maybe I will meet you at Silbury Skoda, I am booked in at 1pm on the 4th April.

Silbury Skoda have just phoned to tell me that they have the software update for the over-revving problem and can update my car. I have arraigned to get it done on 4th April. I will let you know what happens.

P.S. just phoned Silbury Skoda service department and they are going to enquire about the software update and call me back tomorrow.

Thank you Big Kev and Dave Lees and all the other members who have input into this problem. Thank you for persevering and hopefully coming up with a fix. At present I am accepting the lumpiness when the engine is stone cold because it soon disappears. I am getting used to the big rev rise when manoeuvring because it no longer comes as a big surprise to me but the rev rise is very annoying when I come home at night. It nearly always happens when I turn sharp right and then sharp left to get into the my drive and I hope the neighbours don't think I am doing it deliberately or that I can't drive properly. I will contact Silbury Skoda where I bought the car.

Sounds like you have made some real progress there OLI_G, thank you for your efforts. Please keep us informed.

I'm sure that's the answer. I have certainly noticed the drag when two wheels hit a puddle and the other two are on dry road.

I think they are genuine Skoda parts, I got the plain black ones for my Fabia and it tells you how to fit them. It takes a bit of nerve 'cos you only get one chance but they went on perfectly and they were well worth while, and not too expensive.

You have probably changed the mode by pulling the gear lever back to change into S mode. It shows you on the dashboard display whether you are in D or S. S is very sporty and keeps the gear selected right up to red line if you keep your foot down.

Thank you very much rdb, I think I might go for one.

Has anybody bought one of these from Super Skoda? ... http://www.superskoda.com/Skoda/OCTAVIA-III/Octavia-III-limousine-original-Skoda-under-the-rear-tray-multifunctional-box I am guessing that 'Limousine' is the hatchback. It looks useful and I already have deicer and other clutter rolling around in the boot area. I would like to know what you think.

About 1 month ago, my 3 year finance/hire deal with Skoda came to an end and the Skoda garage offered me a £3000 contribution to the deposit on a new Octavia if I bought it on the same finance terms. I don't know if they always do this or if it was a short-term offer. I accepted that happily and shortly after, I used half of the sum I had saved as a final payment on the previous car as a lump sum payment against the amount I had borrowed for the new car. This reduced my monthly payments by £100. Another thing that helped was that the car i traded in was worth more than the amount had left to pay so that added to the deposit as well. I am happy with the way it turned out.

BigKev2 That's exactly what I am doing. I have found out how to avoid the over-rev mostly by lifting the clutch a little, but still, when doing a slow park, you cannot avoid the engine taking over with high revs. It happens if the engine is cold or hot and if the gradient is nothing or steep and I don't think the steering angle really matters either. I am also familiar with the way the engine surges when cold, like every time I start up. It's annoying but my Fabia didn't do it. The engine settles down within 5 minutes of driving or less.