classic

I only know that I don’t know what I don’t know, if that makes sense ! Thinking further about it, if this an engine heater that is plugged into your house mains electricity then why would it connect to the vehicle ground ? The car is sat on tyres so isn’t “grounded”. If anything shorted out or became live from the engine heater and was connected to the vehicle ground then the car frame could be live to your house mains electricity and go to “ground” through you if you touched it. Maybe your house earth tripped for safety because that wire is or isn’t connected to ground, but I’d definitely want to know for sure first.

You don’t know exactly what it is. JR says it’s 100% always a ground, then exceptions being the main battery terminal or if someone bodged something. What if it is something connected to something that becomes live and you bolted it to ground ? Maybe it is a ground connection it looks like one. I would personally want to know rather than guess.

Why not, it’s 100% always a ground. If it melts when you a press a button one day……

100% always, that’s a lot of times, ok then.

I don’t know what it is but in my experience earth wires on Skoda are brown. That photo looks like a black wire. Not much help but I guess it could be a switched live for one of those heaters… ?

Yes, but I’m not sure I’d want to do one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDnt8N_0X5o

The picture doesn’t show the worst area, (these cars are so low to the ground) it’s pretty crusty on the flat bit nearest the crank pulley.

The oil sump on my 1.4 tsi is very rusty. I knew it was rusting but I’ve been ignoring it and looks quite bad now. It is due an oil change soon and thought I probably ought to give the sump some attention. Options are - 1. leave it until it starts leaking 2. fit a new sump 3. paint it. Can anyone recommend a decent paint for engine sumps ? If so I might clean it up and paint it. Thanks

The Gates part number for a czda is KP1TH15680XS-2 which is all 3 of the ones in your picture, so I’m guessing that the GAT/Q, GAT/AC etc is something to do with the ribbed belt or serpentine belt that seems to be included in those kits. I had to change the water pump on mine and I bought a genuine one from the local Skoda dealer, more expensive but it was the correct part, came with a new belt and included the plastic housings and thermostats. As for recommendations I use genuine Skoda personally, my local dealer parts department is good, I’ve just had so much bad experience with wrong parts from independent places I’d rather pay the extra. If I was buying a timing belt from somewhere I’d stick with Continental, Gates or Dayco. I believe Continental supply the belts to VAG group factories. There is a whole further question as to the need to change the all these parts, but that is up to you.

I think I’m right in saying these engines will do a passive regen when the engine load and exhaust temperature is high enough. They do an active regen when the ecu detects the soot level in the dpf is high enough to warrant it (I don’t know this value). It monitors the driving style and exhaust temperatures and decides when the soot load could be high enough and does a regen. It also uses data from the exhaust pressures sensors, temp sensors and other ecu data to trigger an active regen. If it starts doing a regen it will be due to one of these two reasons.

I’ve said for years the 5 year interval was bull excrement. In fact I gave up commenting there were so many threads about it. The fact is the Skoda workshop and maintenance manuals, do not specify a time or mileage except for the certain dust rich countries. They do say examine the belt at services after a lot of miles (I recall it was 210,000 km whatever that is in miles) and the information released by vag when these engines were introduced stated the belts were reinforced and the drive system designed to reduce belt stress. Who does your maintenance Rodge ? The problem is no garage is going to examine a 10 year old belt and say it is ok just in case it did then fail.

Not to my knowledge - on this range of tsi engines - and I’ve been on here a few years. One or two have had issues from timing belts not being done properly at dealers…

😀 Tell me about it ! Just had to shell out £1300 getting one of our cars (a Ford though not Skoda), serviced, cam belt and mot….

I’ve said for a long time that the 5 year thing has always been a uk rip off on these tsi engines. I can understand anyone being worried and getting the belt changed, but the every 5 years age thing doesn’t make sense and was never in the official service manuals but dealers and many specialists have quoted it for years. Thank goodness they are officially saying it isn’t needed.

To be honest, in car maintenance terms, £2k ish for that amount of parts and work is pretty good in my opinion.

Maybe something wrong with egr system.

Scan it for fault codes ?

Give it a try. One clue the diagnosedan video shows is that a faulty variable valve timing thing losing pressure overnight alters the valve timing enough to make a very difficult cold start. This is how exact the timing must be. If your engine is slightly out of time it won’t like it.

If there is a problem with the rings after you’ve had it apart then I guess your engine is dead as it means reboring it, oversized pistons etc. So I would assume your work is good and test for other reasons for the no start. Timing you are happy with so go back to absolute basics. - scan for fault codes, is it getting air into the engine, does it inject fuel. An engine that has been apart takes a bit of starting anyway due to air locks etc.

I don’t know that engine but I wouldn’t do it without the tools. Can the cam be 180 degrees out ? Also you want the crank locked in exactly the right place. The fact you’ve got more or less no compression suggests an issue here.

It’s out of my league then ! Do you use locking tools to fix cam and crank in place ?

In fact if you do a leak test and for example it was leaking through the inlet that could still be because of incorrect timing holding a valve slightly open… Edit : Timing being correct is the inlet and exhaust cams being timed correctly together first before timing to the crank when fitting the belt. You wouldn’t need to be more than a tooth or so out to lose compression. I haven’t worked on one of these so don’t know how both cams are checked or locked.

It is a guessing game for me. Cylinder leakage test will find it. You may have to buy, borrow or hire a proper one. I hate to say it but All 4 low compression does point at timing, my route of cylinder leak test is presuming the timing is definitely correct. 😬

Well for number 1 cylinder if you time everything up crank, cam marks etc, that should be number 1 at TDC of compression stroke. At this point number 4 will be TDC of exhaust stroke. So a full turn from number 1 TDC should put number 4 at TDC of compression. Half a turn from number 1 TDC should put numbers 2 and 3 at TDC and check the position of the cams to see which has both valves closed. But if firing order is 1 3 4 2 then number 3 should be next. Hope I remember this right ! The cylinder leak test would show it but is there any chance injector seals are missing or not fitted correctly, did you fit them or your friend when they do the cylinder head ? Edit : by full turn I mean 360 degree rotation of crank, half a turn 180 degrees

TDC with the valves closed so TDC of compression stroke. You just keep pumping air in. If the cylinder tested is good it won’t let much in, but your compression is low so air will flow through it out of wherever the fault is. I’ve only ever used a proper tester but it is basically adapters to connect an air line to a glow plug, injector or spark plug fitting.