mediumheat

Struggling to fix the issue with my 1.8 TSI octavia and looking for advice Problem started with water pump thermostat housing leak. Coolant leak had stopped after engine was cold. Happened on the road so had to drive it home and kept filling it up. Added some leak stopper stuff the next day and was able to run the car for some essentials, but I noticed the car losing power and so stopped driving it after that, decided I should get it somewhere I could fix it. After researching I was sure it was the water pump that had caused the leak as it's been well documented. Rang a mate who was able to provide me with some space to do the repairs. Over the next week I had bought a new water pump and thermostat and went about replacing it. The intake manifold came off with a bit of force as I hadn't realised the oil filter was in the way, dent in the filter, new one ordered. I'd bought a new gasket for the manifold and some o rings for the injectors.Used some carb cleaner to clean the closed valves the flaps and the injectors with wire brush. Put everything back together but the car initially wouldn't start. I came ba k a day later and spent 5 minutes priming the fuel, tried to start it and eventually the engine came on but it didn't run right, felt lumpy and wouldn't accelerate, figured I must've not placed the intake in properly or missed a connnector. Next day I went about taking everything apart to try find the issue, breaking the thermostat housing part in the process. Frustrated I ordered a metal one and waited for it to arrive. In the meantime I got hold of a injector testing/ cleaning kit and used the carb cleaner to spray the injectors from inside. They all worked and sprayed fine. I then fully serviced the injectors with new teflon seals and filters which I hadn't done the first time. I did the thing where you insert a small scew in the end and pull the screw out, using a vice and a hammer to pull the screw. Dropped one of the injectors on my carpet but didn't think anything of it. Finally the metal pump came and I carefully put everything back together and torqued all the bolts, made sure every connector was tight and made sure the manifold, charge pipe and fuel line was all done up properly. Started the car after priming the fuel and it started after a few goes, but I immediately noticed white smoke from the exhaust and a lumpy engine. Using a friend's code scanner an error came up with a misfire on cylinder 4. Swapped plugs and coil packs but same issue, same cylinder. Spark plug on the suspected problem cylinder was looking quite black and wet. I'm guessing cylinder 4 on these is the one farthest to the right? Started researching and wondered if I had messed up the injector that fell or if there was a head gasket leak due to the water pump leak causing overheating. I tried with a compression tester today to check the dry cylinder compression, and compression on all cylinders seemed fine. Cylinder 4 had slightly better compression than #1 C1 C2 C3 C4 First 40 60 60 50 Max 125 135 135 125 I managed to remove the injector plug for cylinder 4 without taking the manifold off so I could get the leads from the tester in there to check if it's working at least. Tried on all settings and the injector clicked nicely, didnt seem to be stuck open. I'm assuming if it was stuck open then I wouldn't have heard the clicks. Started the car again but same thing, misfire, very lumpy idle, bad acceleration. No codes came up on the little scanner though. So now I've ordered a new set of spark plugs and a couple new injectors to see if they sort the problem but I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Dreading having to take it all apart again and back. It's been quite depressing as I only bought the car recently and I don't have much of a budget to keep trying to fix this, so I'm trying to save money by sorting it out myself. Thanks for any help

Thanks, will probably give it a go then. I'm hoping I can figure it out but might aswell ask on here in case anyone is able to help with the leak? D According to the mechanics the leak was coming from somwhere behind the intake manifold. When the leak was at its worst I noticed little stream of water deep by the fuel line/injector (Sorry image is sideways!)

Thanks. By the way, where can I find these diagrams? Yeah that doesn't seem to be correlated to the leak at all, I'm going to email the mechanics that looked at the car to ask them to explain what they thought the problem was so I have it in writing and so I have a better idea in case I take it on myself. To be honest I didn't get a very clear answer about where exactly the leak was coming from, just that it was under the manifold, and was quite tricky to see as they had to remove the air intake pipe and look from underneath to see it properly IIRC.

Looking for advice on what to do next ... Garage did engine work, replacing valves, cams and timing chain at 119'000 miles which was carried out a while ago, in November 2022 by the previous owner Car is now on 128'000 and I had coolant leaking near the front of the engine. I had a mobile mechanic come to check things over as I was worried this could be the water pump, after inspecting they found the leak coming from a different connection, water pump is fine but they noticed parts around the intake manifold that had loose bolts or no fittings at all. They asked about work carried out on the car and I immediately thought about the engine job. I took some photos. In them you can see one missing bolt, one loose bolt, and a wiring connection hanging loose. They weren't able to fix the leak but said it was to do with the lose connections. I've since been adding water to the coolant every few miles to keep the coolant topped up as I've had to drive around as a matter of necessity, which the mechanics said would be fine for now to just replace with water. Added some coolant leak stopper stuff and it's helped massively. I'd like the garage who did the engine work to take the car back to sort these bits out ideally, but I'm sure it won't be as simple as that. Wonder if it's worth the hassle as I could probably sort these things out myself as I have some mechanical experience and the tools, but I'm worried I might end up opening up a can of worms and need a garage anwyay. Thanks for any help guys

I would also like to do this but I think VCDS is required?

Hi everyone I've been browsing the forums for a while and decided it was about time I joined! Very happy with my 59 plate 1.8TSI hatchback in blue, coming from a very basic Renault clio. Driving is night and day, loving this car and looking to take care of it and improve little niggles as I go. Went camping with it recently in the peak district and I'm impressed with how practical and spacious this car is! Fitted two bikes in the rear along with gear easily with just the two rear seats folded down. I just miss not having a higher fuel economy, I'm used to getting 55mpg+ coming from a diesel, but I do shorter journeys so a petrol makes sense here and the power is just right, as I'm missing the thrills I used to get from riding motorbikes.