Superb_Owner_1

The car had the factory fill and one main dealer service which was vw 508 0W-20. All the problems I had with the engine got worse, with the loud whistling noise coming from around the turbo inlet pipe when the engine was at operating temperature, the reduction in performance and driveability, and an increasing level of vibration. Eventually it started going into limp mode with cam timing issues, this I think was due to the oil being full of metal particles which were traced to a failed crank thrust washer on the non clutch side. This failure I heard happen as a loud metal mashing sound several months previously, this meant the engine suffered crank walk on right hand turns causing the clutch pedal to get stuck down momentarily. A new engine was fitted under warranty. However some vibration still remained which got worse over time. This I believe led to the next problem which was abrasive wear through vibration of the rubber fuel line from the tank to the high pressure pump where it's retained by the interference C clips on the inlet manifold. (My theory is the vibration on the new engine was caused by refitting the old flywheel from the damaged engine which was damaged by the old engine) I only spotted the fuel line wear by chance as I could see rubber swarf around the area which I thought was odd. The line must have been close to wearing through as i cant imagine the wall thrickness is that great. This would have resulted in fuel at a few bar being sprayed over the top of the engine and only 40cm or so from the exhaust! The fuel line was replaced under warranty but there was to be no investigation into the root cause so i had every belief the same problem was going to repeat and after only a few hundred miles i could see the same wear pattern occuring in the new fuel line. At this point I'd lost total confidence in the car and it's safety, and Skoda's ability and will to fix. The car was traded back to the supplying dealer who had been dealing with all the issues.

The sound and behaviour of mine right now is exactly the same as it was in the very first post I wrote back in August last year. I just checked and the vid attachment in the post which still works.

Interesting, thanks.

Is that behaviour after the removal of the plastic washer on the pcv diaphragm? Thanks

I've just made the videos pretty short, and I think you can usually degrade the quality in your phone video editor

Curious, interested to know how you get on with the mod.

My car has never had a fault code in relation to the evap, crankcase ventilation or air / boost leaks. The pcv valve was changed twice on the old engine and the same humming sound always occurred, it is also present exactly the same with the new engine. My current speculation is that there is a small air leak somewhere in the evap system below the threshold which would trigger a dtc. But at this point it remains speculation and I'm continuing to monitor for any changes in symptoms or behaviours which would support or rule this out.

In mine air pulses into and out of the holes as the diaphragm oscillates and this is what I think creates the characteristic humming sound. There is no overall leakage of air volume in or out of the holes which leads to the conclusion that the diaphragm is not perforated.

One thing to note is I think there is an earlier and later version of this engine, mine I believe is the later where the evap is routed to just upstream of the compressor, I think in the earlier version it is routed to the pcv valve on the valve cover. The pcv on mine has a blanking plug where the evap pipe would have connected. Whether this is relevant to the behaviours observed I've no idea.

I'll post any updates too. I'm sure the humming from the pcv wasn't present when the car was new until around 10k miles or so which is when all the issues started, they were subtle at first getting progressively worse over time.

Yes, there is a fair amount of suction at the oil filler cap when the engine is idling, and some at the dip stick too. Removing either when the engine is running results in increased idle speed. I think this is normal, however what is considered to excessive vacuum in the valve cover I don't know. The vacuum level has never been measured on my car and I don't have a reference valie for what the normal range is. What I can say though is that after the engine has been operating for a while, say several long journeys, the dip stick is really hard to remove, for instance to check the oil level (engine off obviously). I'm not sure if this is just a design issue or whether there is excessive vacuum which is pulling a small amount of air past the dipstick seals and drying them of oil.

One question I have is whether anyone with this engine notices there never being any vacuum in the fuel tank? I thought it was usual for there to be some vacuum on petrol cars as the vapours are pulled into the intake. When removing the fuel filler cap on my car after short or long journeys three is never any air in rush into the tank.

Yes there is still quite a lot of vacuum in the valve cover, I think some is normal, and the pcv valve still hums.

This was the whistling noise on the car's original engine 20231121_084658_1_1_1_1.mp4