mixskoda

Great thanks, that will be useful.

Hi all, I'm usually on the Octavia forum as I own one, but we also own an 05 plate fabia sport 1.4 16v. We've owned it for approx. 18 months now but I've never had chance to work on it till now. So the plan is to do a cambelt change on it and sort out the annoying ticking noise on it. Firstly the cambelt, are there any special tools needed to set tdc or lock cams ? - I've done cambelts before even on my last Octavia tdi which needed special tools for that. Secondly the ticking noise, it sounds like a sticking tappet and when viewed from above the noise is near the cambelt side of the engine, common fault ?? Any advice would be appreciated as I'm going to be doing the work anyway but just thought I'd see if there are any things to watch out for. Cheers guys.

Here are some pictures to help explain the the above. The 100amp fuse on the fuse box, The slot in front of the heater matrix - after the cover has been removed, The heater with the +ve and -ve threaded posts and the small plug hole along with the new cover, The unit fitted to the heater box with the heavy wire in view and the small plug with wire to splice into the canbus loom.

Hi, as mikeholroyd said, I fitted a canbus controlled one to my Octavia and had Mike activate it through VCDS. I purchased it from a vw breakers along with the small connection that plugs into the side of it. This is what you splice into the canbus wires, I attached mine behind the heater control unit. I used heavy 6mm wire with proper crimped connections for the 12v and earth. The +ve wire went from the fuse box through a 100amp fuse and followed the loom through the bulkhead and attached to the +ve terminal on the heater. The -ve wire went from the -ve terminal on the heater to an earth point at the base of the nearside door pillar. I found if you went to a breakers yard and looked at the fuse box first, if there was a heavy red wire coming off it with a 100amp fuse, chances are it had a heater fitted. This was on vw golfs or passats. If you looked inside at the heater controls, if it had climate control then it would be the canbus controlled heater fitted. By pulling the side trim off the passenger side of the centre console then you would be able to see the heater and heavy wires directly in front of the heater matrix. If you do find one, make sure you get the small plug and some wire for the canbus, plus the cover for the heater as this will differ from your existing one which covers the hole where it goes in the heater box.

I purchased a couple of fused cigarette lighter plugs and joined them with a length of wire. Using this I can plug one end into my lighter socket on my jump start power pack, and the other end to the lighter socket in my cars centre console. This will maintain a 12v supply sufficient to keep things ticking over whilst the main battery is disconnected.

The thread I had read mentioned about using mineral as apposed to synthetic claiming that the synthetic could separate out again when the fuel is sat in your tank over night whereas the mineral is instantly dispersed into the fuel.

I saw a thread about adding low ash mineral 2 stroke oil to the diesel at a 200/1 ratio to aid lubrication of the fuel system. Cant see it doing any harm.

I have a similar noise on mine. I mainly notice it when I first start it up and after a few seconds this rattle appears. Hard to pinpoint where it is but I read a thread on here once about someone who traced a similar noise to the fuel pipes on the bulkhead. I'll investigate further when its warmer, for now I turn the radio up !

I fitted the 'e' version to my Octavia a few months back and mikeholroyd kindly offered to do the install through vagcom to activate it. It lasted briefly but then packed up due to faulty resistors inside it. As a stop gap I fitted the more basic 'f' version through a very heavy duty relay operated via a switch I located on the drivers side lower panel . I chose this panel as its the easiest one to replace if need be if I don't need the switch any more. They draw a lot of current so opted to only wire up the two outer elements so as not to put too much strain on the battery. Its not instant heat but you do notice the difference and it makes winter motoring more comfortable with a diesel. Also I find that you can have the fan on fairly high and still get good heat through the vents without the cold air sapping all the heat out of the engines coolant matrix and the air getting cooler again.

I managed to get away with just a seal kit on my rear calipers on my tdi. The problem was caused by the aluminium body of the caliper corroding and this corrosive coating causes the piston to tighten up in the bore. I took of the caliper and did the work in a vice after first pumping the brake pedal to push out the piston till it was loose enough to remove by hand. The piston itself cleaned up fine with some polishing emery and the caliper casing cleaned of corrosion around where the dust seal fits. Obviously keep the dirt out of the internal area and reassemble with new piston seal lubricated with brake fluid and dust seal - as said above by Micmac - using a piston wind back tool, a bit fiddly but ok once you have got the piston back on the thread. Overall a simple enough job for a home mechanic with great results for not much cost. Once refitted and bled they worked perfectly and when the handbrake was released the wheels spun freely without binding.

I don't know if its the same engine or not but I did some work on a friends seat leon cupra r and there was a little electric water pump situated just behind the radiator that used to run on for a short while after the engine was turned off to continue to circulate coolant. may be wrong but just a thought.

your car will be fine, I had a friends car with the same problem, I just drained off the diesel, put fresh fuel in, ran it for a couple of minutes to get petrol through the fuel pipes then changed the fuel filter. the car ran fine after that.

Is this the turbo or the alternator slowing down again after the sudden deceleration of the engine and the alternator clutch pulley doing its thing ? Just a thought.

Welcome, nice to see some more local enthusiasts.

Just took a picture of the noisy culprit under the bonnet and it seems to fit your description.

Maybe we should start a dirtiest car thread !

Gave my car a good wash and hoover out the other day, was really proud of my efforts. Next day got stuck behind a tipper wagon in the rain so all the spray from his wheels made my car look worse than when I started !

Faulty relay ?? Have you tried giving it a gentle tap. Try using a spare key if you have one to rule that out as a possible cause.

My previous Octavia was bought with just one key from a couple who had just bought it 6 weeks earlier from a second hand car dealer. The wife couldn't get used to it so I bought it from them at a cheaper price. The service book had the first owners phone number in it so I rang him about the other key, it turned out he traded the car into a skoda dealership to buy a newer model with only one key but found the other key about 2 weeks later and took it to the garage. In the mean time the car had gone to auction so the key was put into a box of other odd keys and left at that. I phoned the garage and told them my tale about the key and they said by all means call in and we'll try them, lucky me as the last key I tried opened the doors and started the car, it was brand new and had never been used and obviously the numbers matched my existing key. Luckily he didn't charge me for the key.

Thanks for that. Will I be causing any harm if I just ignore it ?

Have you tried the - will they fit - website on google, you just put in your existing wheel dimensions etc along with the new wheel sizes you want to try and it compares them and tells you the differences in width, diameter, speedo correction etc.

I'm not sure on the 2010 models, it will depend on the heater box that is installed. The set up I used was found in vw golfs and passats around the 2008 era. It fitted into a slot just in front of the heater matrix and was controlled either through relays or electronically through the canbus fitted to models with climatronic. Depending on the one fitted there was different covers to match as in the photo's.

As the title says, when I turn off my engine it has now developed a strange groaning sound that starts about 10 seconds after you turn it off and lasts about the same. It still runs fine its just that it never used to do it so was wondering if something is on its way out ??

You will be ok to run the engine with the aux belt removed. I assume your not driving it, just running it to see if the noise goes away. The red charge light will stay on as the alternator wont be charging the battery. The alternator clutch pulley should rotate freely in one direction and spin the alternator in the other direction. There should be no play in the pulley which could suggest worn internals. Try spinning the idler pulley to see if this is causing the noise.

Excuse the muck, I got stuck behind a lorry.