Hi first posting, just aqquired my octavia 1.9tdi and with the cruise control off the car still pulls at idle speed approx 9000 revs with my foot off the accelerater the garage i bought it from said this is normal because the engine does not want to drop below its idle speed so will kick in and keep the car going at idle speed.I was not convinced and thought i would try a forum post for answers.

thanks pedro68

I assume you mean 900 rpm and not 9000 :-)

That behaviour is quite normal on my 110 TDi. I can easily get into 3rd gear by gently lifting the clutch when in 1st, and then quickly changing to 2nd and then 3rd. Expect the car does not really like it in the higher gears, but I do it in 1st when in slow moving traffic. In 1st gear the car does about 5mph, and in 2nd about 10mph, can't remember about 3rd gear.

I can't remember the road speed either, but mine will certainly do that in 3rd, probably 4th, and very nearly does it in top (not fast pickup, but will pick away from as little as 1_000 rpm).

Oh and idle speed should be more like 800 to 850 IME.

third gear is about 15mph on mine 110tdi, perfect on a site I worked on which had a site speed limit of 15. In 5th it tries to go at about 25 but doesn't like it, lots of juddering so probably not a good idea.

I think it's down to the torque produced by a diesel engine. It came in useful when the accelerator cable snapped on my old diesel ZX, I managed to limp home albeit rather slowly.

I could get my old 306HDI 90 into 5th gear, never tried on the Octy. <==== that could sound so wrong if taken out of context!

I think it's down to the torque produced by a diesel engine. It came in useful when the accelerator cable snapped on my old diesel ZX, I managed to limp home albeit rather slowly.

Similarly with a Xantia.

hi THANKS for all your replies so it would appear that the idle/tick over speed keeps the car going with foot off accelerator is this the same on all octavia models and is it uniqe to skoda thanks again.

In first and second gear, it's common to most or all turbo-diesels, and back in the 1980s you could do the "feet-off" trick in first gear on most 2.0l petrols as well.

What is unusual IME is having sufficient torque and idle-stabilisation control to achieve feet off running in 4th gear!