Had a strange problem yesterday. Car had been parked for 36 hours or so facing up hill on the drive. Whilst I was waiting for my wife to lock the front door I backed it down the drive, onto the pavement without starting the engine. When I did try to start the engine, no joy, starter motor turning at a reasonable sounding speed, but not engine not firing up. Several more attempts and still nothing. Car blocking entrance to our drive preventing the mrs from getting her car out and also totally blocking the pavement. Due to the incline of the drive, there's no way I can get it back on, so with the help of a neighbour, pushed it onto verge on the other side of the road (pointing very slightly down hill).

Called Skoda assist and went back out to it 10 minutes later with VCDS on the laptop. Only code that's been thrown is from the sat nav saying function limited due to low voltage. So I then think somehow the battery's discharged and maybe the starter motor wasn't turning quite fast enough after all. I then gave it a few more goes and still nothing, so continued to fiddle with VCDS for a few minutes. Gave it one more go with a bit of throttle and it splutters kicking and screaming to life, running really roughly for a few seconds before settling down.

Best guess is for some reason all the fuel was able to drain back to the tank whilst it was parked facing up-hill on the drive and being parked facing downhill for a few minutes and the repeated starting attempts resolved the problem and the low voltage error from the nav was as a result of it trying to boot whilst the starter motor was cranking for such a long time, stealing all the power.

Once I got it going I took it for a good hard 10 mile drive and it was perfect. I put the car back on the drive. Not long after I got back the Skoda Assist guy arrived. He checked the battery and it was in excellent shape. No real current draw when once the car had been switched off and locked for a couple of minutes. Car started perfectly several times whilst he was here so not much he could do.

I tried starting it again just now after it had been parked for 24 hours facing up-hill again. Started instantly.

Any thoughts on that? Is there a valve in the fuel system that could have stuck open or could it be a problem with the lifter pump?

I have had the same problem for the last 9 months now. No one seems to be able to fix it.

I've had 2 instances where the car turns over but doesnt fire up. The VW assist man had to put a huge battery pack on to start it up, the first time it took about 45 seconds, the second time took almost 2 minutes :eek:

Almost every time the car starts up it coughs and splutters into life with a cloud of grey/white smoke (unburnt fuel most likely). And it also sounds like its running on three pots until the engine is revved a bit.

Both times my car has been parked on a very slight nose up incline with the nearside of the car sloping down slightly towards the gutter if you know what I mean.

There are a few theories knocking about; there is a non return valve in the tandem pump on the RHS of the engine block, this might not be sealing properly. There is also the theory of an injector seal letting by, both allowing the fuel to drain away from the top of the engine. Preumably the tandem pump doesn't like priming itself.

Its been in for an ECU update which was along the lines of a chocolate fireguard ie fecking useless.

They now want it back in to check the lift pump and fuel filter housing for crap.

Personally I don't think this will help but obviously they don't want to start whipping out unit injectors and/or tandem pumps.

I have been unofficially recommended a certain injector cleaner so i'll give it a shot.

Another point worth noting - it all started after a major service which involves changing the fuel filter :holmes:

Must be air getting in somewhere. Maybe a dud seal on the fuel filter?

I had it too, i thought it was just me. I was on a very slight uphill slope. Had quarter of a tank of diesel in in and got a gerry can, put a gallon in and it started.

I checked the seals around the top of the filter body and I even changed the spring clips for jubilee clips in case one of them was a bit slack.

IIRC the 'rail' between the tandem pump and the 4 unit injectors should maintain a certain pressure when the engine is off to allow an easy start next time round. A dodgy non return valve could cause this pressure to disappear.

Thanks dstev2000 - I've been reading back through your posts about this in another couple of threads. It definitely sounds like we've got the same issue.

Something I forgot to mention in the original post.. When I was cranking it for ages on the drive, after several seconds on one attempt, I got a red maxidot warning for low oil pressure. Oil level is fine though.

I *think* my engine came from the factory with the 26E6 map.

Thanks dstev2000 - I've been reading back through your posts about this in another couple of threads. It definitely sounds like we've got the same issue.

Something I forgot to mention in the original post.. When I was cranking it for ages on the drive, after several seconds on one attempt, I got a red maxidot warning for low oil pressure. Oil level is fine though.

I *think* my engine came from the factory with the 26E6 map.

This happens my TD140, it doesn't happen that often but when it does I always get the oil warning light. It only seems to happen after the car has been left for at least a night. I have started to "prime" the ignition at least twice on the cold mornings and it seems to do the trick !

I tried running the lift pump several times prior to starting and its made difference for me unfortunately.

I have had the low oil pressure warning whilst trying to start the engine, the VW assist man saw it and didnt bat an eyelid. Presumably the ECU is looking for a certain oil pressure after cranking the engine.

I have a booster pack onboard now, I can connect it across the battery to provide a longer starting duration to hopefully fire up the engine.

I never let the tank drop below 1/3 if being left overnight. I will try the injector cleaner as recommended and we'll see what happens. The spluttering has been less obvious while running on V power but that might be coincedence or a purely subjective obvservation

Has anyone else affected by this had a major service fuel filter change?

I had another Octavia on an '06 plate with the same BKD engine and guess what? it started messing about AFTER the major service like my current L&K. I changed jobs and it went back so I don't know what became of RE06 ZZH :confused:

Thanks dstev2000 - I've been reading back through your posts about this in another couple of threads. It definitely sounds like we've got the same issue.

Something I forgot to mention in the original post.. When I was cranking it for ages on the drive, after several seconds on one attempt, I got a red maxidot warning for low oil pressure. Oil level is fine though.

I *think* my engine came from the factory with the 26E6 map.

Forgive my ignorance but when did you get you vRS TDI? Quite recently I presume.

Ours was delivered in June 2007 and it was subject to the 26E6 update.

I only got it at the start of April, but it was built March 08. The guy I bought it off said he'd asked the garage he bought it from if it needed 26E6 and they said it didn't (that was Rainworths though...). I just went outside and tried that revving with the clutch down thing you mentioned and sure enough it only went up to 2900.

Its usually stamped in the book if the work has been carried out. I am uncertain when cars were being built already '26E6'd' but a call to Skoda CS will tell you unless someone else can confirm when it was.

Yeah, I will call Skoda CS and check. Rainworths aren't very good at stamping anything in the service book unfortunately.

I left my car from Friday to Tuesday at the dealership last week, parked on a hill in their car park to see if we could rerpo the starting problem. No joy :( . What I could really do with, if it happens again on the drive, is to have a technician nip up to my house to witness / analyse it. I only live 4 miles / 10 minutes from the dealers (same road), but even so I don't suppose they would do it. I think next time it happens I'll get Skoda assist out and see if we can get it transported to the dealership in the broken state.

Annoying problem this.

I left my car from Friday to Tuesday at the dealership last week, parked on a hill in their car park to see if we could rerpo the starting problem. No joy :( . What I could really do with, if it happens again on the drive, is to have a technician nip up to my house to witness / analyse it. I only live 4 miles / 10 minutes from the dealers (same road), but even so I don't suppose they would do it. I think next time it happens I'll get Skoda assist out and see if we can get it transported to the dealership in the broken state.

Annoying problem this.

The service dealer and the Skoda assist chap told me to do exactly that when it next fails to start, get them to tow it to the dealership so they can inspect it in it's failed state.

Its really crap isn't it

Video record the failure as evidence?

I think they would want the car in its failed state so they can dismantle certain parts of the engine (tandem pump, injectors) to see if they are bone dry or not, that would give a big clue as to the cause of the non start.