YetiSweden

Well, one more update: total engine failure! The garage dong the engine repairs messed up somehow so that the engine took in air, failed, and has had to have major repairs again, this time on the top of the engine. It is now finally repaired properly by the Skoda garage, with the insurance company from the previous garage footing the bill for the botched work. But now, finally, hopefully, it's all over and we have a decent car again!

Thanks so much for the detailed advice! This is quite mysterious about the oil quality thing. From googling it seems a lot of people are confused about whether or not there are oil quality sensors in these engines. The sound has gone for now. It came from the front right, from the driver's perspective. I'm not 100% sure it's from the engine space, it could have been brake pads on that side. I will try to troubleshoot it more on the next cold damp day when I expect it to return.

Yes, they did. Two of them. And the garage doing the work (supposedly specialised in Skoda servicing) concurred that this is what has happened. I won't be paying for the oil change, so OK, they can do it. I don't know what that is... It goes away when the engine is warm. Yes, I noticed it before the water pump change, and mentioned it to the mechanic. He thought the change (done for coolant leakage) might fix it. It actually seemed worse after the change, but now it seems to have gone away. Thing is we've had warm weather though, and this seems to be a cold weather thing.

Sweden prices :( I actually don't know, but I suspect now that it must be on variable if it's the oil quality that's triggered the service warning It doesn't do it while idling, which makes me think not (?) Accelerating and turning sets it off, and it stops after 10 mins or so of driving.

An overdue update to the Yeti saga. It's been back to the garage once more and needs to go back again. The last time was a loss of coolant and I was worried it had a damaged head gasket and was burning it (instead of oil as it was doing! My husband calls it a flexifuel car), but they reckoned it was just a leak in the water pump so that was £400 for a replacement. Now after 400km since the engine overhaul it's showing a message that it needs a service... but it isn't due a service. The local Skoda experts (not the people who did the work) suspect it's bad oil quality caused by dirt after the rebuild setting off a quality sensor, which makes sense. So i really hope that's the issue as a simple oil change will do the trick (and was even recommended by Rayx, above). I really long for the day when I don't have to keep taking it in for work... but maybe that will never happen... it's making a chirping noise on cold days. I really want to trade it in for something that's under warranty, but I don't think we can justify the expense given how little we actually use the car. When we need it we really need it though.

Thank you so much, that is really great advice! I made sure the trip milometer was zeroed after the piston change, so will keep an eye on that. Fingers crossed for no more engine troubles!

I got the car back the other day. The contact from the garage reckoned that after replacing the gasket, there haven't been any issues in his test driving, and it seems ok to me for now... we'll see. Even if there are no issues in the near future, it will be a while before I feel comfortable doing a long drive in it. The odd thing is I got them to send me a copy of the invoice and it had come to around £3,000 not the £5,000 that the dealer told me he paid. Not sure why he felt the need to lie about that.

That's all the information I have regarding the oil leak/EML light. I spoke to them again this afternoon and they think it's fixed, but they said they'd rather hang on to the car for a few more days for more test driving to make sure the EML doesn't come on again. I said to keep it for another week. We cycle to work, so it's not such a big deal. It's not so cold now :) The good thing is we will have a warranty on the engine. I don't have the full details yet so I don't know how long, but it will be covered in September, when the car has to have its equivalent of the MOT, which includes an emissions test. So that's good to know.

Nope, though I didn't have the car for very long before dropping it back off with them. The only place I parked it was in our garage, which already has a floor saturated with crap from the previous owner's car! But I will anyway have a look for an oil puddle when I get home from work.

Another update: I still don't have the car, but apparently it was an oil leak (can this be the cause of the engine warning light (EML) ?), and the garage has had to order a gasket.

Thanks!

I just dropped it off at the (unmanned) drop-off point. I asked for the full paperwork the other day, and they said it'll be in the car when I get it back. i also have a bad feeling. I was hoping someone could put my anxious mind at ease, but I guess not! *sigh*

That's very good advice. I will do that. The crazy thing is that the Skoda garage quoted me £5000, but the seller didn't want to go with them, because he thinks they're too expensive, then it ended up being £5000 anyway, but without the Skoda-specific knowledge. I hope this doesn't drag on too long. I really enjoyed driving the car this morning. We've just had a load of fresh snow overnight, and it doesn't bother the Yeti one bit :) The engine seems a bit quieter than I remember, and I checked the oil this morning and it's oil colour, rather than mucky-brown.

They told us to drive as little as possible and drop it off with them asap. Dropping it off tomorrow. It just seems too much of a coincidence for it not to be related to the work they did, so I guess it's unlikely to be the Lambda sensor.

Sorry, forgot to add, it's the yellow/orange check engine warning light (http://i.imgur.com/2Mgqg.jpg) Edit: correct term emissions control lamp

Once they have figured out what the problem is, I will ask about the possibility of a courtesy car depending on how long they think the fix will take. I know that the pistons, rings and rods were changed, and the whole job came to about £5,000 (paid by the dealer, work done by an independent garage). I really liked the car, and I was looking forward to having it back with pretty much a brand new engine! Now I'm concerned they haven't done the job correctly (this was the first job of this kind they have done and had to order new tools to do it). I'm seriously wondering whether the car is worth the hassle.

Another update on my Yeti: I got the car back yesterday, drove for a couple of miles and noticed the orange engine warning light is on! Aaagh! It has to go back to the garage. Super annoying. It's -24ºC and we're going to be without a car (cycling everywhere instead) for who knows how long!

Latest update from the car workshop: the pistons are badly damaged, as expected. They're replacing everything, so the seller must have given them the go-ahead.

I'm still waiting to hear. The car is still at the workshop. It's been over two weeks now, so I'm thinking about getting my Swedish speaking friend to give them a call to get an update. I'm not really enjoying the courtesy car.

Thank you for all the info. Where we stand now is that the Skoda garage have sent an email to the dealer informing him that a ring change will not be sufficient. It's important that we have that in writing for if and when we follow it up when the problem isn't fixed. I think he might offer a refund in the end. We would have to think hard about that. We don't really want the hassle of car shopping again.

Thank you everyone for your comments, and explaining this annoying design flaw. It's interesting and shocking to hear about the scale of this problem in VW-group cars in this age group. @Briskodian: That was a useful, succint decription that I've copied for my records. I hope your Octavia is now fixed. I'm glad your dealer was so helpful and you haven't had to pay for that extensive work. I'm really in two minds what to do myself. I think here in Sweden the price for all the work that needs to be done to fully fix the problem (upwards of £5000 at the Skoda garage) would be almost equal to the value of the car. I could force the issue with the small business that I bought the car from and probably legally get him to pay, but I don't know if that's the right thing to do. This design flaw is Skoda's fault, not his, and he had no idea about it when he sold me the car in good faith. I'm ****ed off about his crappy communication about the work that he's arranged to be done (ring replacement), but does he deserve to foot the bill for the complete work? I don't know. I also don't want to offer to pay part because part would still be a hell of a lot. I'm leaning towards accepting his not-nearly-enough-to-fix-it ring replacement and just running the car into the ground. I really like the car, and except for sometimes wishing for more space when we go on a road trip with two kids in their car seats, we have no intention of selling it any time soon. I live in the north of Sweden and with our deep snow in the winter and muddy slush in the Spring I get to use the off-road button quite often, always with great satisfaction! It's kind of gone from a mechanical question to a moral quandry!

Thanks for that! My husband is Russian actually, so I passed the untranslated page on to him. The mechanical issue is becoming clearer now, but what will be done about it is less clear. I'm not sure I legally have the right to insist that the dealer does the full replacement required, if he's set on the cheap option of just replacing the rings. I can understand his point of view, as the work is extremely expensive. I'm not sure if we're doing the right thing insisting that he fix it, given the age and mileage of the car. But at the same time, if we were to sell it on, the problem would come back to us and we would have to pay for the work. Edit: Presumably the mechanic replacing the rings will see the dire state of the pistons and realise a ring replacement is not sufficient?!

They have already ruled out valves/seals being the issue, so yes I think it was a compression test they did. That's amazingly specific! Can you give me some more background to this?

That's what the Skoda guys say is recommended by Skoda. Exactly why, I have no idea. Language issues are getting in the way of communication with the dealer who sold me the car. I'm getting a Swedish friend of mine to call him today and tell him that Skoda don't think ring replacement alone is going to be sufficient. He may just want to try it and see anyway, but I will be bringing it back in if it doesn't fix the problem, and that will mean he has to pay for the engine to be taken apart again... Edit: yes, 1.8 TSI. No mention of oil seal replacement.

Thanks both for your replies. It's TSI, 124000 km on the clock. Please excuse my ignorance, but would the need for reboring become aparant during the ring replacement?