CombatWombat

Thanks for all the repliies on this, gents! Much appreciated, and all duly noted!

Apologies if this has been covered before. On rare occasions, the 'low oil level sensor' came on whilst driving my MK2 1.9 PD Superb. After checking the dipstick (and topping up with oil), I came to realize that on that car, the warning did correlate to the lower markings on the dipstick, so not in the 'Danger Zone' at all, a very useful safety-net for the high-mileage driver! Does anyone know if the current, MK4 2.0 diesel, has the same warning system? If so, is it as accurate? Asking for a friend. Cheers!

Whilst its not going to make your car unreliable, I think the top edge of the front wheel arches, starting from the innermost lip, are prone to rusting. It's as if the wheel arch liners, when they are removed (for cambelt replacement on a diesel, so maybe not happening on petrol models), they scrape the paint on the inside edge of the wing, leaving it prone to rust. It starts off out of sight, then works its way around the bend and upwards onto the vertical face of the wing. I've seen this on quite a few older Golfs, Passats etc., and it's started on my 2019 Superb, but is still out of view. A close-up picture with a camera, using the flash, will reveal the paint bubbling at the lip, if it's started. In a different vein, my heater fan motor had started very gently squeaking when spinning down/turning off. On both occasions this has happened, I've popped the motor out and lubed the lower bearing. (The carbon brushes seemed a reasonable length, btw). Has this prevented an eventual motor seizure and replacement? Who knows? The car has done 155,000 miles, it's a 2009, 1.9 PD. I bought it at 20,000 miles.

I have an idea that the part on the left-of-centre of the picture, is the LED that gently illuminates the area behind the interior (chrome) door handle. In the dark, you don't see the light source, just that there is some illumination getting there somehow!

I think any fault in the engine operation which could impact the engine's emissions has to put the engine into limp mode, even if the engine itself could happily run normally in that state. This is to force the driver to take notice of the fault and get it fixed. If I remember correctly, this was written into the relevant EU regulations around 2000, with minor tightening-up in the years that followed. From the OP's point of view with EGR and related faults; on common-rail diesel Toyotas, some owners report success with using the higher-spec 'super' diesel fuels. Don't expect an immediate fix, obviously. And this might just be helping mask another fault, but it's probably cheaper than having to go out on a high-rev run exclusively to just get the engine really hot.

Thanks for the suggestion and YouTube link. I had spotted this video, but only after posting my original questions. I had expected something bigger to be controlling the glow plugs. The car has been fine recently, I'll see what happens in the next cold snap. I'll measure the resistance of the glow plugs in situ, if there is anything of interest then Il'll post it on here. I have a suspicion that, although the engine spins over well, the battery voltage might be sinking too far when under big demand - new battery time looms, perhaps! I've started using my cigarette-lighter-socket voltmeter some days back (which was previously loaned out to a neighbour), which should give a clearer picture on that. Cheers!

Thanks for the quick reply! Ah! - pulse width modulation! I see now! From looking over a friend's Kia a long while back, I was vaguely aware that some cars have 12v glowplugs, and some other cars were definitely not using 12v on their glowplugs. I can see where the PWM comes in now. I've got a DVM or two in the house. I have a cigarette lighter voltmeter as well - I'll retrieve it from my next door neighbour, so I can more easily check what's happening. If there is an intermittent glowplug 'non-operation', as there seems to be, where does the controller live? Are there any corrosion-vulnerable connections to check? I have a clamp-on DC ammeter, too, If that is any use in this situation. Cheers!

Hi, This fault is actually on a Skoda Superb II, but as this engine type is massively more popular in the Octavia , I thought I'd cheekily post it here in case someone's suffered similar with an Octavia 1.9 PD BXE. The car's covered 148,000 miles. It generally starts and runs absolutely fine, hot or cold, but once or twice in the last few months it has been reluctant to fire up. The first time this happened, a few months back, I did a VCDS scan and a defective glowplug (the first one to fail on this car) was shown. I metered this - it was indeed duff, and I replaced it. But, a few days back, the day after a very long motorway journey, the car wasn't quite 'catching' on attempting a (very) cold startup; the first first in a long while. The engine was turning over OK though. After about 5 attempts it started and ran fine for the rest of the day's startups. Although the following day's similarly cold start went with no problems at all - near instant. I have checked for new codes with VCDS and there are none. My thought is that the glowplug controller (where is it?) has some ageing, pitted contacts and is intermittently not cleanly switching the glowplugs up to full current. Any thoughts? If there is a contoller/relay, is it easily opened up to clean the contacts it has ( I have a diamond-faced spatula, and have done similar on other non-automotive equipment)? The battery seems AOK and the motor spins at a decent speed on the starter. I have had the car for 9 years, it is all standard. Thanks in advance!

Hi, I have a 2009 Superb 1.9 S. It's covered 148,000 miles. It starts and runs fine, hot or cold, but once or twice in the last few months it has been reluctant to fire up. The first time this happened, a few months back, I did a VCDS scan and a defective glowplug (the first ever on this car) was shown. I metered this - it was duff, and I replaced it. But, a few days back, the day after a very long motorway journey, the car wasn't quite 'catching' on attempting a (very) cold startup. The engine was turning over OK though. After about 5 attempts it started and ran fine for the rest of the day's startups. The following day's similarly cold start went with no problems at all - near instant. I have checked for new codes with VCDS and there are none. My thought is that the glowplug controller (where is it?) has some ageing, pitted contacts and is intermittently not cleanly switching the glowplugs up to full current. Any thoughts? If there is a contoller/relay, is it easily opened up to clean the contacts it has ( I have a diamond-faced spatula, and have done similar on other non-automotive equipment)? The battery seems AOK and the motor spins at a decent speed on the starter. I have had the car for 9 years, it is all standard. Thanks in advance!