daverapid

Good morning all. It's been a long time since posting on Briskoda. I used to be on here a fair bit but have had some life and death to deal with. Anyway, just thought I'd say hello and horrify you with some photos of a couple of my special needs cars that are used almost daily.

Clamp all the brake hoses. If the pedal is still poor there is most likely a fault with the master cylinder. If the pedal is good with the hoses clamped release each hose clamp one at a time to work out which corner your problem is at.

I met him once and exchanged a few messages on the internet. I'm so sorry to read this news, he's obviously a very respected man. Best wishes to all who love him.

Use a good quality 20w50 engine oil.

Yes, Skodafest will be at Stanford Hall on 28th May. http://skodaowners.org/events-diary/ ​

Sorry, but I don't understand what you are asking?

Your Estelle only has four hoses, the Rapid has two hoses going to each front caliper.

That block with its enormous crack is scrap!

Have you removed and refitted the timing chain?

I'm a victim of a shady mechanic....I see him every morning in my mirror!

I've had similar symptoms before from a failed mechanical fuel pump diaghragm leaking petrol into the sump. The engine ran rich as a result of petrol fumes entering the carburettor via the breather hose from the rocker cover. I wouldn't say it's a common fault, but worth checking that the oil level isn't rising, is thin and smells of fuel.

That is a very bad idea in my opinion! For a start the disc isn't designed to be strong enough to lift a car with, and if the disc/hub turns while supporting the car there's a good chance of hurting yourself! Great that you're fixing your car, but please play safely!

Crank bolt is 30mm

Couple of things to check that you may not have thought of: Check the valve clearances aren't tight, if [when] they close up the idle speed drops considerably and the engine won't run "right" Check the front to rear brake servo hose isn't split/crushed/leaking, giving a direct air leak into the inlet manifold. If it's the original fabric covered hose then it will almost certainly be in need of replacement. I replace those with 10mm diameter copper pipe and join at either end with good bits of the original hose [or new rubber hose if it's really bad]. Both those things are often overlooked and make a massive difference. Hope that helps :]

Fantastic, well done on all counts! I love these cars, can't imagine ever not owning at least one rear engined Skoda.

https://bulliesout.com/event/skodafest-2016/ My daughter Gail suffered at the hands of bullies. We lost her as a result at just 16 years old in May 2014. I'm honoured that my colleagues at Skoda Owners' Club have been raising money for Bullies Out in memory of Gail. ​

I think they are handles to make lifting the manifold easier

There is no way the lambda sensor or the fitting of it should have been charged for in this example. I don't even follow the logic of replacing that to cure a misfire on one cylinder. But, how about this example that I just made up?. A customer brings a car with a suspension noise on the N/S front. Mechanic looks and quickly spots an obviously broken spring that's about to damage the tyre. Customer quoted for new spring and agrees to have it replaced. Mechanic fits the spring, road tests the car ,but there is still a knocking noise because there is also some wear on the anti roll bar link joint. In this example I agree that the spring and labour for it should be charged for [and the situation explained to the customer properly] even though it didn't completely cure the noise fault.

I definately wouldn't even look at the lambda sensor with a view to curing a misfire on one cylinder. I'm intruged to know how the pushrod got bent? Was the valve or rocker operated by that pushrod tight/seized?

I'll be there with the help of friends with 3 old jalopies

From what I've read in this thread I would begin with carrying out a compression test [cold engine] and then checking the valve clearances. I suspect that you will find a compression is low on one or more cylinders due to the clearances being tight. If that's the case re-do the compression test after correctly setting the valve clearances. Have a new set of correctly gapped NGK spark plugs to hand, you will already have the old plugs out any way. In my experience modern mechanics forget/don't realise that valve clearances need to be checked/reset during a service on these engines. It's right back to basics and crucial.

I don't know quite how to word what I'm about to type without it appearing that I'm looking for sympathy. I'll probably waffle a bit so please bear with me! My beautiful inside and out daughter Gail never quite "fitted in" at her secondary school. She had a few medical problems, was a bit overweight and as a result was bullied for almost her entire secondary school life. She managed to hide that from us for a long time, but we knew she had a depression problem. We had tried to deal with it by talking with her, involving doctors ect. There was a particularly bad incident of mental bullying towards the end of her school life that really knocked her badly and she never recovered from that. You may notice that I'm talking about Gail in a past tense. Tragically Gail took her own life by taking an overdose at the end of May 2014 at the young age of 16 years. I won't try to explain how that feels for our family and friends. Luckily we are a tough lot and we have awesome friends. As some of you know I've been a Skoda fan almost all my life, a member of Skoda Owners' Club G.B. [sOCGB] for many years [lost count] and have been on it's Committee as Treasurer for almost eleven years. The Club is more of a traditional Club than the internet based Briskoda, but although we go about our business in different ways both communities do a lot of good for Skoda owners and enthusiasts and I'm proud to help support both. I digressed a bit there. I was talking about friends. Some utterly awesome friends in SOCGB have set up a "friendship" with the charity Bullies Out in memory of Gail. That the Club's members would do that out of respect for Gail, myself and my family is very heart warming. I am so grateful. Bullying is rife. It kills. Please support Bullies Out. Last year Club members raised quite a lot of money at our Skodafest event. The event is being held again this year on May 29th. As always Briskoda members are welcome to come and display their Skodas. Disregarding the charity we'd love to see you there, if you'd like to join in the activities and in doing so donate to Bullies Out that would be awesome. Thank you for reading my waffling! https://bulliesout.com/event/skodafest-2016/ ​

Fancy asking for help, you never help anyone else!! Only joking! Windscreen leaks are common on these.

RicardoM, I see you used a genuine thermostat assembly. Are the genuine units the modified type with a circlip to secure the thermostat or is it the original design with the plastic tags that break?

I bought mine from Euro Car Parts, their part number is 441440460 and it was OE spec, identical in every way to the original. It came without the sender unit, the old pump is easily removed from the sender unit, and the new one easily fitted to the original sender unit.