PSbridge

I had exactly the same experience as Terry with the addition that it seemed worse on a cold day! My Roomster was bought new 5 years ago and went to the dealers several times, including an overnight stay in the middle of a frosty spell, to try and locate this rattle. Mine was diagnosed as a lead to my SatNav on top of the dash. How on earth a wire taped in position could be thought to be causing this noise, I just do not know! I removed the lead and SatNav to prove that the problem was definitely nothing to do with that at all. Unfortunately the warranty had expired by then, and it was apparent that I would have to pay for future investigations myself, so gave up. My hearing has deteriorated, and presumably my brain is now programmed to expect this rattle, so I take no notice nowadays! If anyone ever solves the problem, I'll be the first to tell my dealer how wrong they were! Peter

Thanks for the link, I can see why 40psi came into the equation now. Oddly enough, the steering felt very light on the way home, probably the over inflation which I discovered when I tested the pressures the next day. All now set at 32psi, the spare temporary wheel checked and inflated to around 36psi, so that if I did have a cause to use it out on the road, at least I can let it down a little to balance with the rest. Thanks to everyone who helped. Hopefully we are all OK now until the rears approach their end of life tread depth. Peter

Went out to check the pressures after standing for 24 hours and a bit surprised at what I found! The rears, should have been checked at the last service a few months ago were balanced @ 28psi, the new fronts were @ 40psi! I thought that I had converted the information inside the fuel flap correctly that on the 1.9 TDI, they should be 2.1 bars lightly loaded or 2.2 bars with a full load, and that a bar equated to 15psi approx. I approximated this to 32psi in all 4 wheels, meaning that the fronts were a fair bit over inflated, and the rears a little under. Obviously with tyres now costing £120 each, I'd like to get it correct before I bomb down a motorway, and wondered if the Tyre fitter knew something I didn't about the Roomster, or whether they just blew it up until it looked about right? There is nothing I can see in the handbook which helps, just the information that the values are inside the fuel cap flap. Peter

They must be a mechanical type mechanism, screwing them on raises a green marker inside the plastic dome, removing them causes the marker to drop down out of vision. You are right in that they must depress the centre pin of the actual valve and hold it open to detect any loss of pressure. In my case it failed to detect a loss of 15psi, over an unknown period, but reinflating back to 27psi caused another loss of 2psi overnight. It worked correctly this time! I'm just estimating that the damage to the sidewall was probably a week ago using the 2psi / day rate of drop, conclusion - they are rubbish as you say. I certainly will not replace them, I'm using the standard caps as supplied by the tyre fitter. I was surprised at the queue at the company who obtained the Bridgestone tyres for me, it was like the queue at the local chippy on a Saturday tea time, and they had 8 bays fully working! I'm guessing that the adverse winter weather forecast caused a sudden surge in work, and the other outlets consulted didn't want the extra work of ordering them in. If I had tried on a quieter day, maybe they would have been more interested, who knows? I didn't check with my local Skoda dealer, who took up the franchise just after I purchased the car from another town! I will call in there when passing next time to see what their set up is with regard to tyres. It proved to be an interesting exercise though because I even got the spare wheel out to check its pressure and discovered that it is a "Dunlop Sport" restricted to 50mph. Obviously this is much better than a tube of sealant as supplied today. I knew that it was a steel rim as opposed to an alloy, but had never twigged that it was a restricted speed tyre because the labels faced downwards to the floor of the boot! As the centre fixing spindle scewing it to the boot floor had either paint, or sealant, jamming the threads, it took quite a while to free it. Obviously there is no requirement to check it on a sevice or MoT, it had never been out since new until I freed it yesterday! It was the correct pressure, but in hindsight, maybe I should have added a few more psi to make sure it would be correct at anytime in the future. Thanks for all the comments Peter

I've had a 1.9TDI Roomster since new in 2009. It hasn't got tyre pressure monitoring system, so bought the correct bandwidth valve caps from one of those countless publications selling what appear to be "good ideas"!. These caps have shown "green" ever since fitted, so no problems with tyre pressures. My MoT was around 4 months ago, and from the finger marks on the wheel rims, and caps, it was obvious that the tyres were checked and pressures taken as you would expect on a service / MoT. With a forecast of ice / possible snow, I decided to check my tread depths for winter running, down to 3mm on the driver's side front, a fraction less on the passenger side front. The caps all showed green, but noticed that the passenger side front tyre looked a bit flat at the bottom. I took the cap off, checked the pressure, down to 10psi as opposed to 27 in the other wheels. Inflated the tyre again, put the cap back on, green showing again until the next morning inspection, this time the telltale had disappeared, meaning a pressure loss. This time it was 2psi down, ie 25psi and was indicating correctly of a loss of pressure, a pity it didn't do that for a loss of 17psi! The conclusion from this is that they may work, on the other hand might tell you all is well when it clearly isn't! Moral: Don't trust them without actually checking the pressure! Rather defeats the object of buying them. Then came the interesting bit, a couple of National chains advised that the 205/45/16 87W tyres were an unusual size so had no stock at all. A family run tyre business, local to my area, also advised the same, but they went the extra mile and resourced a couple for me. There were 2 types of tread pattern, old and new, I selected the latest of course, but they came back later to tell me that there was no source holding these, so had ordered the older pattern for me, which turned out to be identical to my originals anyway. If you have this size of tyre, there doesn't appear to be a ready stock to draw from? The puncture was quite unusual as well, there was a tiny leak in the inside sidewall of the tyre. The fitter showed me just a puncture hole, no abrasions, so not pothole inflicted. Suggestions were a sharp bit of stone, metal, glass etc was propelled into the sidewall due to airflow under the car. Repairs to sidewalls are not allowed, so although the tyres were "legally" OK, but at 3mm ought to be changed sooner, rather than later, the decision in this instance was already taken! Peter

I was also advised that my cambelt on my 1.9 TDI required changing at 4 years, despite only having run 15,000 miles. I believed them, so reluctantly sanctioned the work which included replacing the water pump. It appeared to stir up all sorts of vacuum pipe problems, and visited the garage 3 more times to sort it all out! Hopefully I will have changed the vehicle by the time the next cambelt is "due"! Peter

That's interesting, I'll poke the probe in again tomorrow and try to see what goes on there. The phonecall was quite specific "we've found a split vacuum pipe at the back of the engine, and replaced it, it was difficult to spot"! I've got no write up of course as no charge was made, and "it could have unknowingly have been pulled when the valve was being replaced" was the next comment. So sounds a bit of a mystery. Peter

Was offered a slot at the Garage this morning, problem found, a split vacuum pipe at the back of the engine! I understood that they had already replaced one, but this was in addition and not spotted at the last visit, therefore no charge! Thanks to everyone who helped with this frustrating problem, diagnosis spot on! Thanks Peter

Tried my fibre optic probe to check pipes down the back of the engine, cannot see anything wrong. Hoping a friend of mine would return today from his hols, he has a pit and a VAG, but he is towing a caravan and may wait until the wind dies down tomorrow or Tue. Thanks for possible causes, they will be checked out ASAP. Peter

Thanks for all the info. I've got a friend who does all sorts of work on vintage cars, but he is away until the weekend. He was in the trade before retiring, so if he hasn't got direct access, he is bound to know someone locally! I did an approx 100 mile journey with it today on a notoriously windy road where everyone seemed to want to go faster than me. It was hard work with endless gear changes to keep it from labouring, so I'm guessing that the engine is in emergency mode, it could be described as "lumpy"! It got us there and back safely without shutting down, but the alarm stayed firmly "on". Appreciate everyone's help. Peter

Good idea, thanks for the suggestion. Peter

Used car for the 1st time this morning after it returned from replacing EGR valve and replacing vacuum pipe. Started up fine, no cloud of black smoke, engine management light went off everything seemed fine. Around 400yds down the road the engine management light came back on and stayed on. I tried accelerating up to the red line, no trailing smoke cloud, but the light stays firmly on. The saga has now been going on since 8th August, so it will be back on auto pilot finding its way to Colchester again next Monday! To say I'm frustrated is a gross understatement! Peter

Thanks Phil for that information, I wondered how it had passed! I also discovered that I could produce a smoke screen by a quick tap on the throttle, and have been known to use it to back off a persistent tailgater! Thanks for all your help Peter

Thanks very much for the information Phil, you could be spot on about the length of time. It has been heavily smoking for a while if two much welly was applied! I was surprised that it passed the emissions test on its MoT in April. The mechanic who collected it to drive to the Garage suggested it was quite poorly on its journey there! Unfortunately it was very busy on the way back today, so he had little chance to try it out. I'll do that tomorrow on the A14! Cheers Peter

All completed and working fine again. Problems were a leaking Turbo pipe (thanks Phil for suggesting that) causing the EGR valve to gum up so badly that they deemed it beyond economical repair. I thought that there had been mention of a faulty transducer, but that doesn't appear at all in the diagnosis, so maybe that was suspected, but put back and found OK? I haven't taken it out for a spin yet, but even on tickover it sounds much smoother. Parts replaced were a Vacuum Hose + the EGR valve. Thanks to all who offered suggestions as to what the fault might be. Peter