I know this topic has been covered many times before, but please excuse me for asking

My PD105 yesterday started to hesitate and become less smooth while accelerating between 1500 & about 2200 rpm. It's been repeating the fault today and seems to do it most while in second or third gear. It's not the old stutter issue as it happens both when accelerating gracefully, and when the car is getting a good ragging. I took the plug off the MAF sensor which i've done the cage mod to and all seems fine there - plenty of grease left. At all other times the car is pulling like a freight train - i use a single measure of Miller DS4 at every fill, the car is using sainsbury's diesel and she's running on a standard FRAM air filter which was replaced about 3 weeks ago.

Does this sound like my MAF sensor is heading south ?

Best thing to do is unplug the MAF and see if there is a change.If no change then the MAF is faulty.

Would also be worth checking to see if any fault codes are showing too.

is there any way to check the fault codes without having vag.com ? the engine management check light hasn't lit so i've had nothing visual so far. I have a generic OBD-II cable and some software i pulled off the net but i presume thats not going to be much use to me?

In case anyone was interested..... I took my octy to Abrahams Skoda yesterday and they couldn't find any faults logged on the ICU. They suggested that it could be down to something as simple as a bad fill of diesel - since i had nearly a third of a tank left of the Sainsbury's juice in, i took her for a very long drive (and she went like a dog), and then immediately filled with BP Ultimate (137.9 a litre - ouch!). Problem seems to have sorted itself - no more stutter or hesitation and the car seems to be going well. I'll be adding my usual measure of Millers DS4 tomorrow to see how that combination works

Many thanks to the guys at Abrahams Skoda for giving my car a good check out and taking the time to investigate the fault. A fatwa on Sainsbury's for having such sh*te diesel!

Don't waste your DS4 in BP ultimate derv, it will have very little effect.

Glad everything is ok for now:thumbup:

Good luck.

My Octavia is my second VAG diesel in my experence I have found them to prefer branded fuels rather than supermarket. Mine always gets run on Shell or Esso.

I think this "City diesel" that sainsburys and tesco sell is real sh*te.I have used it once and my car hated it so have never used it again.

it must be brutally poor quality - i've owned diesels for 10 years or so and i've never had an engine behave so badly. Sure - i've always been able to tell when a particular brand of diesel wasn't good - the vehicle has simply become sluggish but on this occaision I was really convinced that the intermittent power loss and very poor performance was something much more serious.

cheezemonkhai :

After typing that last post i sat back and thought about it - you're right - it would be a waste! I have noticed that althought the car is definately exhibiting signs of cetane enhancement (smoother response, quieter running) it doesn't have quite the "warp factor" that the millers gives me. I dont think i can get Shell V-Power here in N.Ireland so i cant do a direct comparison.

Anyway, thanks for your comments fellas