classic

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.

The answer is a cylinder leakage test then. Old school way was to squirt oil down the bores and do a compression check, if it was leaking past the pistons the oil would improve the results over a dry compression check. Next step, cylinder leakage test. If you have access to an air compressor you might be able to rig something up but a proper tester is the correct thing. You can then find if the air leaks out of the inlet, exhaust, cooling system, dipstick tube etc.

I’m only guessing from far away, but, all 4 compressions very low and timing definitely ok, then it has to be something equally affecting every cylinder. You would have to do something badly wrong with cylinders, pistons or rings to get the compression so low. Or the cylinder head would have to be not sealed. You say you didn’t check the piston ring gaps, but did you space the gaps correctly so they aren’t in line (usually 90 degrees apart, depends on number of rings and manufacturer instructions) ? Other than that my money is on the tappets. Possibly they expanded and the valves were not properly closed and possibly cranking the engine may have bent them very slightly. What you need is a cylinder leakage test where high pressure air is pumped in and you can listen for where it escapes. Put some oil down the bores and check the compressions, if they go up it suggests piston/ring/cylinders.

Leave it overnight and try again, I think maybe the hydraulic tappets may have expanded out whilst removed. Very very low compression on all 4, I’ve seen this happen before.

I have the electrical workshop manual which suggests it is possible to only have a rear sensor. This is what it says. Unfortunately I don’t have the Chassis manual. “1.18 Vehicle level sensor -G78- front left or -G76- rear left The vehicle level senders are an integral part of the headlight range. The assembly work is described in the Workshop Manual ⇒ Chassis. Note Depending on model year and country variant, the variant may also only have a vehicle level sender at rear. ♦ Sensor for vehicle level front left -G78- ⇒ Axles, steering; Rep. gr. 43; sensor for vehicle level ♦ Sensor for vehicle level rear left -G76- ⇒ Axles, steering; Rep. gr. 43; sensor for vehicle level “

See the actual workshop manual is my advice 😬. Balance shafts on other engines I have worked on have had timing marks, a special tool or simply been aligned level with each other depending on the manufacturer - in this case it was obvious even one tooth out that they weren’t level (these were big engines though).

I don’t know the answer. I believe there may be special tools required to fit the rear main oil seal and crank position sensor. My only suggestion is to register with Erwin and download the workshop manual. Costs about 7€ to get 1 hour access and you can download as much as you like in that time. https://erwin.skoda-auto.cz/erwin/showLogin.do

Good luck, that is a big job to do. I remember when I was brave enough to do these things !

Bad points : 1. The noise from the front of your car which sounded like the engine destroying itself, was in fact the engine destroying itself. 2. You will have to replace the engine. Good points : 1. You’ve confirmed the oil level and oil pressure warning circuits and lamps are working. 2. You will get a new engine. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Zero….

I hope you get it sorted, there has to be something wrong to knock out flywheels so quickly which is why I suspect the new flywheels or clutches themselves could be bad.