Hello, firstly I've been a real admirer of Skoda's alas from afar having not owned one, however i have my first! It's a Skoda Felicia 1.9D with a GLX 'badge' on it yet I'm not entirely sure whether it's an X or and I !! anyhow it's a 1999 model and not bad at all for £1000.

I have already given it a service Air Fuel and Oil, replaced the broken odometer (this is the first time I've had my hands IN a car!!) and it's just had it's timing belt changed - not by me, but for the grand sum of £160 from a RAC approved garage. They didn't change the water pump but will do for £46+VAT. (they couldn't get in touch with me on the day of the TB change)

Since I've had it back however, I've felt a bit more confident at driving it a bit faster and further. I've covered 70 miles in it today and got it upto 65-70mph, just to give it some beans etc.. but it's suddenly started to 'misfire' and kangaroo at lower revs. Cruising seems to be OK, but this all happened after the TB change..Ever since I had it (about a month) there's a slight 'hesitation' when your accelerating then suddenly the extra beans kick in. That almost seemed to be cured with the TB change, however this new kangarooing issue is a worry.

I've searched the excellent BRISKODA forum, and there does appear to be a suggestion that the throttle body may need a clean. This to me sounds like it's a good idea. Are there any Felicia /Skoda owners who have had this issue. Should I take it back to the garage and claim that it' didn't happen before ? I don't want to fall out with them as they are a really good value for money garage it seems and have got an excellent reputation in the town (Harlow). Or is it coincidence and it's simply gunged up with carbon in the Throttle Body (would call it TB but i've called the Timing belt that all through this rather long post!!!!) sorry !!!! Im very impressed with all iv'e read on this forum so far, so hope to contribute lots (but in smaller quantities) regards, Mark

Welcome!

There are many threads on this topic with the 1.9D engine. One of which was started the other day:

http://briskoda.net/favorit-felicia-fun-forman/1-9d-irregular-engine/155417/

No definate answer on a cure for this particular case but plenty of tips on what to check!

Phil

Welcome to Briskoda

Hello

Thanks for your welcome Ladies and Gentlemen.

Having scoured through my Haynes I've come to the disappointing conclusion that I can't treat myself to cleaning my Throttle Body as a 1.9D GLX doesn't have one. :confused:

Thats a shame - as my cars been showing the symptoms (kangarooing / hesitation when accellerating etc)..., and this miraculous cure that everyone suggests (for their unleaded cars obviously) for a fiver sounded right up my street.

Ahh well I'll have to use it as deoderant now..

I'm beggining to think towards the injectors ? or the ignition ? Surely the ignition is just 'starting the car' isn't it... I've chucked a bottle of that injector cleaner in my full tank about a month ago.

.......maybe another bottle wont hurt..i have half a tank left (apart from when doing a LH turn I get nearly 2/3's! )

Nope the diesels don't have a throttle body!

It could be the coolant temperature sensor also as this is a very common problem accross all engines fitted in the felicia.

Does it just do it from cold or all the time?

Hi there Philje123 thanks for responding. To be honest, looking in the engine bay it looks to me like there's been a new Cable fitted recently, which corresponds to where the Coolant Temp sensor is located so im hazarding a guess that it's not that.OR is the cable 'just a cable' and the sensor is in the engine itself ?

The car had been running pretty much all day on and off, I was so pleased to be TBelt worry free that I wanted to give it a good spin. As it happens it was only really going 6-7 miles into towns etc back and forth all day, until I span it down to Enfield in the evening which is about 18 miles using dual carriageways. Thought id give it a few more beans than i'd been doing so prior to the belt change (so about 65-70) and it was only on the outskirts of Enfield that it started to mess me about. Really felt like it was starved of fuel, so as it was sitting at 1/4 tank I put £15 (incase the fuel gauge was a bit faulty) of diesel and carried on. Still a bit kangaroolike. Stopped for 2 hours (cinema!) and drove back with a couple of hiccups and now I really don't know..... Cruising speed at the moment really doesn't seem to be a problem, although the problem first occured last night when I was doing about 50-55. Wondering whats sitting in the lower recesses of the tank ?, maybe it's a one off...Im off to France in it on Thursday so papping it a bit now....also my radio has crap reception, are the Skoda's ariels that bad...!

Sounds like the fuel pump (lift pump) isn't working or the fuel-filter is blocked...

Not too sure on Felicia diesels where the pump is, but if it is an "in-tank" design, try taking it out and cleaning the inlet pipe out...Replace the fuel filter too as these are supposed to be changed every 10K miles or so...

If that doesn't work, check for air leaks in the fuel line, tank side of the injection pump...

Thanks for the responses. In the end I took the car back to the garage to ask them to look at the timing belt again, (and replace the water pump this time) and also do a check on the glow plugs (thanks Philje123).

New Water Pump

Recheck the belt and timing

Replaced all glow plugs (3 of them were burnt out)

Car has been an absolute belter since. Still have the odd flat spots at speed, but it's not bothering me that much. Starts beautifully, runs amazing and the MPG was awesome.

On my return last night, did 222 miles on 17 litres. Thats' 59.8 miles per gallon by my reckoning. The only doubt to that amazing claim is that I used a higher pressure petrol pump (for vans and lorries) to refill my tank late last night, so it was difficult to fill it 'carefully' without it spurting everywhere, however a bit of fine trigger action got it up to 17 litres and it kept telling me it was full, so there you go.

Drove it (mostly) like a vicar though.....

Heard the same as you, that the diesels need to be thrashed every so often to keep them running right but it never seemed to make that much difference. Last week though, I had a good clear road and the car was warmed up so I wound it right out in third - foot to the boards, up to the limit and then came right off the throttle. The cloud of soot was like someone had thrown a bin bag over the back window The car is much better to drive now - I had a few low speed hesitance and misfire problems before and do a lot of shortish journeys. I don't know if this is recommended but it seems to have worked for me.

When we say "take it to the limit" we don't mean a speed limit, we mean to rev the engine right into the governer in 2nd or 3rd gear until the car actually stops accelerating. With a mechanical pump engine the governer will make some funny noises as it tries to back the fuelling off if you hold the pedal right down, but don't worry, you can't do any damage unless the cam drive is in bad order and breaks.

How does the governor work on mechanical pump engines?

The Pug 306 we have is a mechanical pump etc and when driven hard it's like it doesn't rev as high as it should and just stops revving but with no signs of fuelling being cut off. Hard to explain really but compared to my old Citroen ZX with pretty much the same engine in it is no where near as willing to rev and get shifting.

A good thrash does do wonders for these old dervs though I can testify to that!

phil

To check exactly how it works you;d need to identify whether it's a Bosch or Lucas (or possibly others) pump, and then find an expert. All my Haynes says is that they have mechanical governers, and my Xantia sounded a bit like a slipping ratchet when on the governor (which it was a couple of times every year, normally a week or so before the MoT).

Hmmm.... never heard any sound like you describe. I'm pretty sure these have a bosch unit in them.

I will have a flick through the Haynes and see what I can come up with. Am I right in thinking that the govenor pin can be change or something on mech. diesels to give a few more revs? Maybe not the wisest idea though on something like a felly.

Phil

My Haynes Xantia manual says that you can adjust the governer in a mechanical pump, but it's not a good idea unless you know exactly what you're doing.

If you remember Scrapheap Challenge's "Scrappy Races", when the "Barley Pickers" had that runaway truck engine, that's what you can do by ppening up the governor too much! (cos no-one was hurt, and it was waay spectacular).

As far as cleaning an old diesel out, a damn good thrashing works well, and some injector cleaners do help as well - STP stuff worked a treat on the Fel Diesel my Mum now has - it hadn't been run in 4 years.

There's no reason a governor on a mech pump diesel should make any noise, it's just cutting the fuelling at the rev limit, and normally does it in a fairly innocuous manner.

You can, of course, increase the maximum revs by increasing the governor's setting, but given the weight of diesel pistons (lots) and the possible increase in power/satisfaction (not a lot), I can't see the point. It's asking for trouble, in a fairly terminal way.

The runaway truck engine, by the way, was caused by oil leaking into the inlet and being consumedas fuel. Can happen on diesels in a number of ways, and if it happens on a big enough engine there's no way to stop it - truck engines that do it (if the turbo springs an oil leak) cannot be stopped other than knocking the sump plug out to drain the oil and have it seize. Messy.

if it happens on a big enough engine there's no way to stop it

Stalling it or choking the air intake maybe a little more favourable than just emptying the sump...

Er, you ever tried stalling an artic on full throttle?

I've resolved the same problem removing the black pipe from egr actuator and obtructing it with screw, my felicia runs great now :-)