Don't worry, it's not my car I'm talking about, but that of a fellow Dutch Skoda Octavia 1.8T driver. I hope someone here with the same experience can help us out.

Here's a description of what's wrong.

Since the winter Frank's car - a 2002 Octavia 1.8T Elegance (FWD) with Oettinger chip (roughly the same as mine) - is suffering from serious cold start problems. The engine will start but when he puts it in gear, lets the clutch go and gives it mild throttle, it starts to stutter, with the revs dangling at about 600-700rpm. It then stops reacting to the throttle and stalls. He has to go through this practice several times before the hiccup is gone and he is able to drive away safely. The stutter is comparable with driving at ultra-low revs.

What's been done? Well, everything related to fuel mixture - from MAF sensor to coilpacks - has been changed. The dealer is now focusing on the drive-by-wire. Frank has been told that this is "a common problem" that is seen with all types of 1.8Ts, so 150hp and 180hp versions, both standard and chipped/remapped. According to the dealer's this effectively wipes out the Oettinger chip as the bad boy.

They are now trying to sort the problem on his car in order to have the solution for the other cars that suffer from the same niggle. That means that he's been driving a Golf 1.6 for the past two weeks, which hasn't been a pleasurable experience, to say the least

My advice has been to put back the original ECU anyway, just to close off that route for sure, but I don't know if they will do that. He's with the same dealer as I am, incidentally...

It could yet be a fault in the drive-by-wire system - I'm sure it's electronics - but why re-invent the wheel when they might have dealt with this problem (and solved it) in another country?

So any help or hint is appreciated.

:cheers:

Has the dual temperature sender been replaced? When the temperature sensor packed up on my Felicia the engine would start straight away from cold but then immediately stalled. This happened a few times in quick succession until it was possible to catch the revs and hold them above 2000. The sender was sending completely the wrong temperature to the ECU (it was indicating that the engine was hot), which in turn meant that the engine was being starved of the extra fuel needed when cold. The sender should be a fairly cheap and easy part to replace and rule out as a possible cause.

Well, this will be a short thread - problem solved!

Was over at my dealer's this morning to get my mobile phone kit problem sorted and sneakily informed with the chief mechanic about Frank's car. He then told me they had just found the problem. It was connected with the drive-by-wire after all, but it was not an electronical glitch but an old-fashioned mechanical one: a sticking throttle valve...

They put it a new one and it now runs like a charm.

Remarkably, he said that they put in a newly encased development valve that isn't due to run in production models until next year, but if this works out fine, they might revert that decision... :eek:

Was good for another couple of hp too.

don't want to cause any undue worry.. but VW issued a major recall on any VWFleet car with regard to Petrol engines from 1.0 litre and up as there have been severe problems on cold starts - something to do with condensation in pipes freezing over and on starting up the engine, it starts to obliterate it internally.

This issue was pointed out some time ago on the channel 4 - 4car website.. and although they had not reported that the problem has gone across to any diesel engines (yet) my Fabia 1.9 TDI appears to struggle on cold mornings around 1deg C and lower - I'm not convinced there's no problem at all - I'm keeping a watch on it.

Any chance your problems could be related to this issue?

Regards,

I have 2 VW group TDI,s, my Superb and a Transporter (5 cyl 2.5, 102horse) and neither of these have suffered. The only problem I have experienced with any starting is faulty fuel pump relays, of which I have had 3 over different vehiecles, and know of 4 others that have had this problem.....which would suggest a VW weakness.

I would query though how you could condensation in a diesel fuel pipe as that would suggest an air leak of some sort surely allowing ingress?

Anyway....just my comments.

Cheers

My 1.6 Octavia had no problems starting during winter, or even heavy

rain like this morning.

However, my neighbour's Golf GTi (2.0 litre one) sounds like an asthmatic

smoker when he tries to start it in the morning!

Rob.

With regards to cold morning diesel starting; diesel freezing? Have no idea what temperature this happens at though.

May be the widget (glow plugs?) that heats up the diesel is faulty.

Just bouncing ideas.

Cheers.

Adrian.