A little update:

A new tandem pump was fitted 2 weeks ago and unfortunately it hasn't cured the problem.

The car was taken back in on Monday morning and they have had it since. By all accounts they have the engine in bits, particularly the cylinder head and injectors.

From what I can see it can only be the head or injector(s) now causing the problem :confused:

Fingers crossed it will be resolved next week one way or the other, I have faith in the techies at West Sussex Skoda, they seem to making more progress than anyone else has

Got a phone call from Skoda customer services today, they are replacing the injector seals tomorrow so hopefully I will get it back soon. I can tolerate a 1.6 Megane for so long

My worry is what effect diesel leaking into the engine oil can have, hopefully very little as I am guessing/hoping it will be a small quantity.

It might also explain the engine's rubbish fuel economy.

It still doesn't explain the coolant loss that started at about the same time.

Got the car back today after almost 2 weeks away, it now has nice shiny new injector seals fitted and guess what? it spluttered and misbehaved after being left parked for just 2 hours :thumbdwn:

Coupled with the continued loss of coolant there can only be one real cause can there not?

Cylinder head? :confused:

Yip sounds like classic case of porous cyld head. When engine hot after a run, small amount of water enters block while car is standing. This water in cyld hinders starting from cold. Surprised a piston has not given up.

Not read your full thread, but if under warranty I'd say based on all the hassle and time car away, your in-line for a replacement engine foc

:( :( sorry to hear this

Its been a real struggle to get it looked at under warranty as the car has done 108,000 miles now. The only thing that helped was the the fact I reported this problem to Skoda at 40,000 miles.

The engine has recently got very 'clattery' even by a PD engine's standards which is obviously a concern.

The engine never ever catches first time, it always seems to want to crank for at least 3-4 seconds before it coughs into life, and that's on a good day :thumbdwn:

Rest of the car - excellent, can't fault it.

Engine - crap!

Oh well, we'll see what happens next week. Can't be much more left to try other than a new head.

Time to trade it in?

No can do, it's a lease car which i'm lumbered with until July2010 and the leasing company couldn't give a toss about the whole thing.

Hopefully the problem will be resolved pretty soon.

No can do, it's a lease car which i'm lumbered with until July2010 and the leasing company couldn't give a toss about the whole thing.

Hopefully the problem will be resolved pretty soon.

This is why the world is in such a mess. Some bean counter somewhere will have decided that it's cheaper to incovenience you and let the car destroy itself than it will be to investigate and fix the problem. It appears that even Skoda Octavias are throw away items today

D