Lare111

The previous owner drove 60000 kilometers a year on highway. I doubt clutch is worn yet after 3 years. The car doesn't drive or feel any worse than my dad's Octavia with 60k kilometers and lots of city driving. I had the car serviced this week. The workshop confirmed that the gearbox rollover noise is normal on VAG diesels. My old 2018 1.6 TDI gearbox was actually much louder since it had single mass flywheel from the factory. DMF dampens most of the rollover noise but some can be heard inside the cabin especially when the AC is working hard and the engine is pulsing. Also, the workshop didn't find anything wrong with the DMF. There are absolutely no DMF rattles even right after cold starts at and the car doesn't vibrate at low RPMs. If it only makes clunking noise when turning the engine off with clutch pedal up, I don't think expensive DMF and clutch replacement are justified yet. The car has extended warranty for a year but it doesn't cover normal wear and tear despite including flywheel as a covered part. Not sure how flywheel could fail any other way than from wear.

Two months ago I bought a MY2023 Skoda Octavia with 2.0 TDI engine and 6 speed manual transmission. It now has 184000 kilometers in it. To my knowledge, DMF and clutch are still original. There is no knocking or tapping sound coming from the DMF when the engine is cold. There are also no vibrations even when driving at too low RPMs. Gears change very smooth and clutch doesn't feel worn at all. There is, however, a clunking noise if I turn the engine without pressing the clutch. Can this solely be a symptom of a worn DMF? I also noticed some neutral gear rollover noise when the clutch is up. This can only be heard inside the cabin for some reason. It changes or even disappears everytime I press the clutch once.

I just got the first infotainment crash on my 2023 Octavia. I have all the latest software updates installed. Shortly after leaving the parking lot, the screen froze and audio cut off. I held the power button, screen went black and I got traffic sign recognition fault. After the infontainment system turned on again, everything worked but I had no sound. I turned it off and on again but no luck. Then I switched the whole car off and back on and got the audio working again. I had lost all the radio channel favourites though. Should I be worried or is this common with these cars? I suspect TuneIn app in Android Auto since it crashed my previous mk3 Octavia headunit several times too. Fault code was U105400 and even the engine had it.

It has been couple weeks and no SOS fault since the 0311 OCU update which is great. Today I noticed that the globe icon on the infotainment screen was gray and had a red cross. SOS button on the roof still had green light and GPS worked just fine. After I came back from a shop, the globe icon was white again. I believe it is pretty common with these cars that they sometimes go into offline mode?

I have now successfully updated both infontainment and OCU OTA. Can't remember what version the infontainment is currently at but OCU version is 0311 which should be the newest one. It took over 30 minutes to download the OCU update and another 30 minutes to install. I hope this fixes both popping noises and SOS error.

I was able to read it in OCU module info using OBD11. Yesterday there was some other infotainment update that was installed successfully. No more popping noises or SOS faults so far. The car still wants to download the 03A8 update and I would like to download it too. It just takes so long that it never finishes the download process.

Yeah, it was weird how the car was downloading the update just fine and then suddenly the whole update disappeared. I managed to install some other infontainment update though. There was no popping noises on test drive but OCU version is still 0144. There are no updates available in the settings.

Nevermind, I went back to the car and it started to download 03A8 again. I went for a drive and heard popping noise. The update download was at 20% until it just disappeared. Not sure how to proceed.

Last week I bought myself a MY 2023 Skoda Octavia. I just got SOS Emergency Call fault while driving. The fault code was about the small battery in the SOS module. I could not delete the code and restarting the car did not help. Live data showed that the battery was fine. rSoH was 89% and state of charge 86%. Right after the troubleshooting I noticed that the car was downloading the 03A8 update but it was stuck at 25MB. I went to the grocery store for 5 minutes and after getting back to the car there was no SOS error and the infontainment took a while to download settings. I can no longer find any available updates. SOS module software version is now 0144. Was that a software issue and not a battery issue? And did the update 03A8 actually fix the issue despite it seemed to be stuck in downloading? Not sure if the 0144 version is actually the newest one. I also wonder if the whole install process actually caused the fault. I mean like the SOS module had to turn off the whole SOS feature while the car updated software. There was also a popping noise right before the fault.

My 2018 1.6 TDI Octavia now has 194000 kilometers. The sound has been there since I bought it with 160k kilometers. I feel like it has gotten louder recently. I also think it takes longer to disappear when the engine warms up. I can even hear it when warm if I listen it closely. When I pump the brake pedal, the noise changes and it is audible even with hot engine. Is it normal to hear it even when the engine is warm and oil temperature is above 80C? I change oil every 10k kilometers and just two days ago replaced oil with Mannol 7715 5W30. Oil changes don't seem to affect the noise at all.

And the original issue still persist even with the new alternator. Voltage fluctuates between 12.2 - 15.0V after startup and eventually stabilizes...

Car repair shop refused to fix the alternator for warranty! For some reason battery coding said 80Ah instead of 70Ah. They said it caused the alternator to burn. I have no idea why battery capacity said 80Ah since I coded it several times and I'm 100% sure it was 70Ah. I also doubt 140A alternator will explode if it has to charge 80Ah battery. The shop quoted 1000€ for the alternator replacement. Even though I had the car towed to the shop, I just drove it home without serpentine belt. 2 hours and I had removed the alternator. I can't find anything wrong with the bearing or freewheel. I will get the replacement alternator tomorrow for 265€. I hope it fixes my charging issues.

It came from the alternator freewheel. The seal was detached and the freewheel shot all the lubricating oil on to the fuel filter housing.

The car was investigated last week. Authorized Skoda service said that everything is fine. They just told me to drive. Now the alternator exploded. I noticed that something was really slowing the engine down. Then I heard a popping noise and smelt burning so I turned the engine off. Oil was everywhere and alternator flywheel parts on the bottom. It's good that nothing else was damaged and the engine was still running fine. I also have 5 days of warranty left. I got the car towed to the same useless service shop and they should replace the alternator for free.

Yeah. I removed the battery and cleaned and tightened all the contacts. Idle was 1030RPM after test drive and battery was charged with high current. I think alternator connectors should be investigated next. If I cannot find anything wrong with the connectors I might buy a new negative cable with the battery module and replace that. It doesn't cost much. I also need to learn how to check cables with multimeter. I tried measuring the negative battery cable and it showed 5 ohms. I think the battery module has resistor inside.

The issue has not been resolved yet. Today something weird happened. I noticed that the car engine braked harded than usual. Idle RPM was also 1000RPM even though DPF regenerated just yesterday. The alternator tried to charge the battery with up to 100A current which is way too much. Idle increase request fluctuated between stage 1 and stage 2 which also made the idle RPM jumping up and down. Voltage was between 12.2 - 14.7V and battery charge was 87%. Electrical consumption was low. No AC or lights and just radio. When I restarted the engine everything went back to normal. My old Passat had similar issues. Suddenly idle RPM jumped up to 1100RPM and I got start stop fault message. Sometimes lights blinked when this happened. There were fault codes for voltage and broken battery. The issue was bad battery contact. This time I have checked battery contacts but there are more cables in the engine compartment too.

I have time booked for next week but I'm pretty confident that authorized Skoda service cannot do much without fault codes. At least I am not paying anything since I have 3 weeks of warranty left. I looked at live data and I believe Generator Specified voltage value is the one that Gateway tells the alternator to produce. I can control it myself in outcome test too. When the rough idle starts, generator specified voltage value jumps to 14.7V and then battery voltage follows it shortly. I am pretty confident that alternator is fine. It produces the exact voltage values it should and can produce 160A at 14.4V. Is the J367 Battery Monitor Control Unit just a small resistor attached to the negative battery pole? I don't think it can break down. I believe this might be Gateway software issue or bad contact somewhere. Maybe service could update gateway module?

It happens every single time I start the car. Sometimess the idle starts fluctuating immediately after the startup. Sometimes it takes minutes and I'm already driving the car. Voltage fluctuating happens just once and doesn't happen again until I restart the car. Voltage also fluctuates after start stop has been used. Since it happens only one time after each startup, I feel like it's a software issue. I have only checked battery connectors and fusebox connectors. I might take a look at alternator connectors tomorrow too. I have my old battery installed right now and I have to switch back to the new one. I am afraid that the car wont start tomorrow with the old battery 😀 I also found a document which explains the whole smart charging feature very well on the page 50. If I am correct, the issue could be J533 (Gateway?), J367 (Battery Monitor Control Unit) or the alternator itself. https://www.vag-technique.fr/ext_files/ssp/vw/SSP_477_Audi_A1_EN.pdf

What does the LIN mean here? I am wondering if ECU sends the signal to alternator or if there's some other device controlling the charging.

The issue is getting worse. Now I can feel the fluctuating charging even when driving on light throttle. The car hesitates when the alternator suddenly pulls 160A. I even tried another battery but the same isssue persists. The alternator can handle stable 160A load at 14.3V when tested. I feel like the issue is with battery management system or ECU. If I pull the BMS cable off, car runs and charges smooth but then I get start stop fault.

@gicu Did you ever solve the issue? I have the exact same issue on my 2018 1.6 TDI Skoda Octavia. Voltage fluctuates up and down on idle which causes idle hunting too.

Yeah, that feature is called recuperation and I tried to disable it. Nothing changed. I can see that usually the alternator only charges when I am engine braking. But I don't think recuperation explains alternator load jumping up and down when idling. It almost seems like the car doesn't know whether to charge or not.

Nevermind. The issue came back. When I start the car with a warm engine, alternator doesn't charge at first. When the charging starts, it fluctuates between 0A and 150A. This also makes idle revs go all over. I doubt it's a mechanical fault with the battery or alternator since turning for example heated seats on causes stable charging and smooth idle. But it seems like something is telling the alternator to charge pulses after the engine has been started...

I fixed the issue. The car tries to use the battery as much as possible to save fuel. Alternator isn't being used apart from engine braking (recuperation). When the car eventually has to charge the battery, it will do it in 150A pulses. This causes the idle revs to jump up and down. The engine has hard time keeping up with the 150A alternator load while maintaining steady idle. I solved this by coding the battery again. I have EFB battery and used EFB coding but this time I chose AGM coding. When I saved the settings, I immediately heard that idle changed. Now there's no more pulsating idle and charging is much more stable. I don't know if the EFB coding in my car is "broken" or if it just doesn't like EFB batteries. Or maybe charging the battery in pulses works faster. To my knowledge, EFB and AGM are pretty similar so I can use AGM coding without damaging the battery. And I really prefer having smooth idle rather than pulsating revs and shaking car. Even the Skoda authorized service didn't know what caused my rough idle. Fortunately I have my OBD11. I was worried that I might have bad injector or high pressure fuel pump but in the end I only had to change one setting to fix the issue. It took me a while to find the culprit though.

My 2018 1.6 TDI Octavia has rough idle after warm startup. Revs go up and down for a while until the engine runs smooth. I noticed that alternator load jumps to +90% when this happens. I can also make revs jump up and down if I switch heated seats on and off. What causes high alternator load this way after startup? I replaced the battery couple months ago and coded the new battery. Alternator voltage is 13.7 - 14.1V. https://youtu.be/2R948TvNPoE?si=59iSaXdj7JY5IzaU