Hi guys, newbie here so please be gentle. I've done a search and haven't found anything quite like this so please bear with me (posting on behalf of a friend)...

My mate came round last night with his Skoda Octavia 1.9 diesel (PDi?). Its a 55 plater pre-facelift.

Anyhows, he said he turned the corner and the car just revved itself up to max for a few seconds and there was smoke everywhere. The car then cut out and wouldn't start.

After a while, it started ok but drove like a bag of spanners! It is basically misfiring exactly the same as a petrol car would if it was running on 3 cylinders.

I don't know anything about diesels, but I unplugged the MAF to see if anything would improve, but nothing. The MAF plug was covered in oil though!

A month or so ago, he filled up with petrol and drove it a couple of miles. He had the whole thing drained out, and the fuel filter replaced and it drove absolutely normal after that until now.

No warning lights on or anything.

People from another forum that I frequent (non-Skoda) reckon the turbo is shot. The car is at a garage today and my mate said the guy who know's his stuff isn't there, but the other guys reckon the engine's shot (no compression)... surely it would be a duff cylinder rather than the whole engine?

Any help / advice appreciated. And also, do you know of any specialist (at a reasonable cost!) in the Birmingham area???

If it's a PD (unit injector engine) then even if he's not burnt a valve or broken piston rings (most likely causes of low compression on 1 cylinder) he could well have damaged the injectors and/or fuel pump by running even a few miles on petrol.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of potentially bad news, but optomism is "just" a burnt valve or broken ring!

Thanks for the reply Ken.

My mate just called me (the cars not PD by the way).

The garage said possibly turbo, maybe injector, maybe even head gasket. Thats with them not having opened anything up.

Apparently the next step is to take the head off before anything can be tested :eek:!

Would this be a common occurance at 70k miles? ANother thing that is quite surprising is that the guys at the garage are saying these cars don't like to have engine oil near the 'full' mark... I find that hard to believe.

I don't see it being the turbo, or indeed a dropped valve, unless the engine actually overspeeded when it revved up. That suggests an injector (always a possibility with a misfiring diesel, esp when it's had petrol in it) but I'd bleed it before condemning it, head gasket or broken compression ring. These can all be tested for cheaply, and without removing the head (well unless they've already done a dry and wet compression test, oil water content and water exhaust gas tests to confirm it's head gasket or valve(s)).

I've never heard of needing the oil down from the dipstick mark, and that's where my Skoda dealer (Henry's/Queensborough in the Scottish delaers' section of the review centre) puts it at service!

Which makes me think that if they've not done these tests your mate should get it out of there, and take it to a Bosch Diesel or TurnerTune place, and there's bound to be one or both of those in Barmyhum!