Tightmartin

That is of course very true. Of the 100s of 1000s of this design of engine how many have actually failed? We may never know as VW will not be sharing that information with us, but this point has been made before that people don't often post on forums about how well their engine is running and only seek out forums when they have a problem. It is a real problem and I am worried about my 1.8TSi having read this post but how much I need to worry I don't know. I guess only time will tell......

Well came back on here having received a useful postcard from Skoda telling me about their straightforward servicing as my 1.8TSi is due for its 6th (major) service (57k miles) and came on here to see if there was advice about going to an independent garage. I have looked on this thread before and decided it was unhealthy and decided that if I had this issue it would be covered by Skoda's goodwill. Well now my car is a month from being 6 years old I am starting to worry. In addition I am thinking with the current woes VAG are having with their dodgy software a bit of bad publicity about its engines failing will in the future being the least of their worries I would expect then to give up on good will on this kind of issue. Now I have a dilemma, I like the car and am not ready to change it yet, but I do seem to be putting more and more oil in it (I might be wrong as she as always loved that Castrol Edge and has always seemed to use more than any car I have ever had). There is no noise apart from the injector clatter from the front of the engine but I am a little worried. I just did a quick check for a VAG Skoda Warranty and for £271 for 10K miles I can get full cover if I accept a £250 excess so I think that might seem like a way to put my mind at rest and if the worse happens the most it will cost me is £250. This of course will be on top of the £278 for Major Service and MOT and I suppose the £49 for a brake fluid change. What do you think, is £271 good value for peace of mind?

Mine has just done this. Seems to happen when the car has been left out in the sun. Oil checked and correct level. Do you get a solution to this?

I had my software updated on my Bolero today at Progress Letchworth and I have to say that changing tracks and folders is now miles quicker. Also when reversing the music does not mute at all now but I don't think that is a problem. As for the shuffle I have never got that to work properly and it looks like the softare update has not changed that but I am not bothered about that. After over 3 years I have bolero I am totally happy with. I first reported this "fault" a year ago and even though the warrany has now expired 2 days ago Progress had it as an open warranty claim so I got it updated for free. The SD card I am using is only a class 4 and my understanding of flash memory is that the class is all about the write speed to the SSD chip and not read speed, so I think that is a bit of a red herring.

I was very suprised as I had not heard of the water pump being an issue on the Petrol VAG engines. In fact the only problems I have heard of on the 1.8Tsi seem to be the ones I have had. Lucky me ......

Well I got my 1.8 back from the dealer today having had a new water pump fitted as the one leakin had a distorted body causing the leak. I wonder how it got distorted as the engine has never overheated. I say the invoice for the warranty and it said £545 cost so glad I still in warranty. Had 3rd service and 1st MOT too as it was in the dealers. I asked about the coolant I should use if it leaks again and the I was shown the G13 stuff and they gave me a 1.5L bottle for free for my inconvenience which was appreciated.

Well when I stop and turned mine off it would not restart. It was running until I turned it off so maybe it would have made it to a dealer but I will never know. If an injector is stuck open pumping fuel into the cylinder when it should not I am not sure that would be good for the engine.

I would say it is an injector as I had the exact same symptoms on my 1.8TSI last year about this time (car was just 2 years old). All going nicely then suddenly accelerating off a roundabout (flooring it a little) the EPC light came on, lost power carried on for a bit in limp mode. When trying to restart it clouds of white smoke. It was diagnosed as an injector stuck open and the smoke was caused by the unburnt fuel or something like that. I thought the engine was lunched but when the injector was changed all back to normal until yesterday when I found I had a coolant leak as described in my earlier post. So far Skoda's famed reliability is a crock of manure for me !!!!

Well took my 1.8TSI into the dealer today for a look at the supsected leak and they have kept it in as they have found a leak somewhere at or around the engine block at the front of the engine. So much for Skoda reliability, it is the second time this car has been back to the dealers for repairs since I have had it (first time was a broken injector about this time last year). I am glad it happened before the warrany expired but I am now worried what is next? I will have to wait until they have stripped the engine to find the exact location of the leak before they can say how long it will be in for. They did not even have a courtesy car available which is a pain but okay until Thursday when I will need one so I hope the dealer either fix it or sort me a car out by then. Not too happy as you can imagine, not sure it it is worth a call to Skoda Customer Service.... ?

Thanks guys, I will give the dealer a call in the morning as I have the day off to see if they can look at it asap.

Sorry this got posted twice as can not work my wife's iPad

Got in my 1.8 tsi last night and the low coolant warning light came on. Checked the header bottle and it is on minimum. I have to admit I do not remember the last time I actually looked at the header bottle when checking the oil but I am sure it has dropped in the last couple of weeks. Has anyone else had anything like this happen? I do not have any coolant to top it up with and can not find any G12++ standard locally. Will have to book into dealer soon as warranty runs out in 3 weeks.

Got in my 1.8 tsi last night and the low coolant warning light came on. Check the header bottle and it is on minimum. I have to admit I do not remember the last time I looked at the header bottle when checking the oil but I am sure it has dropped in the last week. Has anyone else had anything like this happen? Will have to book in dealer soon as warranty runs out in 3 weeks.

I get 34-36 mpg brim to brim in my 1.8TSi and I tend not to hang around as the 1.8 just loves to motor. On a run at legal motorway speeds I can get 45mpg on the computer so probably around 43mpg in reality. Booting it and running in busy town traffic and it will drop to low 30's. I was going to get a 1.4TSi when I bought mine but only decided against it because I could not find on to test drive at the time. On reflection the 1.4 would have done me fine, but still love the 1.8 and the actually economy is not that different.

Great thanks, I will take you up on that. Martin

Well I wasted am afternoon at Progress Skoda Bedford who have never heard of the problem with the SD card before and tried changing the actual Bolero unit. They also reloaded some "software" on the advice of Skoda but this did not speed it up. I guess I will have to get Progress Bedford to speak to Progress Northampton to let them find out exactly what needs to be done. I wish I checked this thread before I went over there!

Love mine, plenty of every day power and will suprise many other cars who do not expect a non VRS octavia go so well. Can easily get 40mpg and if you drive very very carefully even up to 45mpg on a run. Mine broke down at 19K miles with an injector stuck open leaving me stuck by the side of the road in a cloud of smoke and warning lights on but by all accounts I was very unlucky as this is rare. Still love my 1.8TSi though despite that problem.

My 2009 recently started creaking over bumps too. Did you find out what caused it?

I had a 1.2tsi as a courtesy car when my 1.8tsi was in for repair and I was surprised how well it went for a 1.2. Obviously it was a lot more sluggish from a standing start but once underway it felt fine. To be honest it was not all that more economical than my 1.8 in real workd driving because you do have to work it harder to keep up with the traffic.

I don't know. Is that significant?

Been a week and 300 or-so miles and still seems to be okay. Fuel consumption as before, no warning lights so looks like it was just the injector as diagnosed by the dealer. Another couple of weeks and it is due its 2nd Service so will monitor it until then.

Well I collected the car today and was confirmed to be the Fuel Injector on cylinder 3. They changed that (dealer said never seen one having failed before) and changed the oil and filter. Car runs fine now so hopefully that sorts it and we can get back to rock solid reliabilty I have become used to.

Just spoke to the dealer, but service manager was not there this morning. The person on the service desk spoke to the technician and apparently he said it is a failed injector (stuck open). Does not sound right to me, would that really cause the car to not restart and white smoke and smell of burning oil? I can imagine the ECU could shut down the engine for a failure like that when you stop but surely it would just go to limp mode to enable you to get to the dealer?

No news yet thought when I went in to collect the courtesy car earlier and got some things out of the car I noticed they had bonnet up and looks like they had the head off but could not look too closely as there was not much room and there was only the receptionist there. I will phone service guy tomorrow. I got a 1.2SE Octavia as courtesy car, quite impressive for a 1.2 and the Bolero is supper fast on the SD Card compared to mine so not sure what is difference is but I want mine to behave like that one.......

Lucky it is still under warranty I suppose. All I need is to find that turbos are excluded from the warrany. Would a shagged turbo cause the car to not start or would the ECU shut the engine down under those circumstances? I was running fairly roughtly until I pulled over and then when i turned it off it would not restart.