Hi, i am from Ukraine and cant solve my problem here. i have my fabia 1.4 AUB 2000 year with 103000km. second owner about a year. car perfoms great(except the slow accelerator pedal, can it be solved???) and have low fuel consumption.

now the bad - its really pinking like a b*tch uphills and when i try to accelerate fastly on low revs. i want to clear some points that i found out:

- 98-100 petrol makes it better a little

- cold motor = no pinking

changed front lambda(was faulty), sparkplugs, filters, cleared and adapted egr, throttle body, checked all that i can! vag shows no errors, readiness code all passed.

i have several questions to you, if you have time, please answer. hope you guys can help me.

1 - i am thinking about the EGR cr*p, i have cleaned it with the throttle body after i bought the car, it didnt showed any vag errors and i did that just to be sure its clean and i didnt know any pinking, but i cant say for sure that it began to pink after i touched it.

so i read this topic http://briskoda.net/diagnostics-vag-com/1-4-16v-aub-engine-pinking/119075/

and my measurement block 74 shows adp ok but i cant do anything to start test on block 75. i have elsawin and did all there as should but it always says test off! i cant force it to test on. what i need to do exactly? also i am thinking about egr tightening or gasket change but i am not sure, my guess is no leaks there, but who knows...

2 - few month ago i opened air filter box and found there a some kinda valve, but i couldnt get it to work by water or hot lamp. now i know that i need a cold water or possibly ice to test it, i will try. but if it will be faulty - what should i do? replace it or throw it away and stick the valve to some position? can it be the reason to engine pinking?

please help me, i like my car but thats pinking making me mad, its sooo loud so everyone is looking at me like i am driving some kinda junk!

I think the 1.4 16v is meant for higher rating petrol anyway, so that might explain that aspect.

In regards to 2. I think you will find that closes as it heats up instead. (it lets warm air from the exhaust in when the engines code).

Nothing else I can add I am afriad, except to say that I think mine pinks at low speeds/crawling, either that or I have something wrong with the clutch or something.

have you tried fitting a new knock sensor? it is on the back of the engine block right in the middle

In my experience all the aub's tend to pink a bit, as long as your knock sensor is still working its not something you need to worry about, you can check the knock values in mvb with vag com:thumbup:

Edit: /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ beat me to it

i have checked the mvbs where it supposed to registed detonation and drived a little in the city and it didnt register any values. i am not sure about knock sensor, but i will try to refit it and check that 20nm

just checked it costs 50$ new and thats not good if it will not solve my problem

get one out of a breakers yard, most of the older 6n polos will have the same knock sensor

no guarantee that it will be working there :(

and how explain that it doesnt pink when engine is cold?

i think it something with EGR, because it activates only when car is warm to normal temp

it's to do with the fine balancing act between fuel ocatane/ignition timing/combustion chamber temperature... a colder chamber needs more ignition advance to get the fuel burning and this gradually backs off as the engine temperature rises..

adding the egr into the equation, having exhaust gasses in the intake charge makes it necessary for more retarded ignition timing again due to the added heat... or higher octane fuel... to be honest a more detailed explanation of volumetric efficiency and octane and ignition timing is beyond the scope of this thread and it will go over the top of most peoples understanding anyhow...

i only suggest using a second hand knock sensor to just test it out so you avoid having to spend out a fortune on a new one only for it not to solve the problem... after all it's only 1 bolt that holds it in so it's not difficult to change it

The other possibility is that the is a high volume of breather fumes getting into the engine, try disconnecting the crank breather from the airbox temporarily and then driving to see if there is a difference?

This engine tends to suffer from piston ring failure due to excessive carbon build up on the ring lands.

The EGR system is fitted to reduce combustion temperatures and prevent pre ignition, google it. I think your symptoms may point to more than one fault, but I would investigate the EGR and knock sensor as previously suggested. Although the knock sensor does not make big adjustments to timing, the torque setting is crucial - it's also a bit difficult to get to. I think you could also have an air leak and possibly faulty plugs. Are you sure there are no other fault codes on VAG COM?

You can improve throttle response by initialising the throttble body - essential if you have ever disconnected power to it.

As already stated, these engines are prone to some pinking, especially if you use 95 fuel. I have done just about everything with mine, but I still get pinking between 2000-3000 revs on a light throttle. If I floor it at the same revs, I get no pinking - not figured that one out yet!

i have changed 3 pair of plugs - original, ngk bkur6et, now finwhale fs-23 running.

well about airleaks i dont know how to check them, but i notice that i have idle pulsing a little. dont know what is the problem, but i will replace air filter, fuel filter soon. also i want to clear the injectors on wynns stand. and want to check the compression in cylinders.

of course i perfomed all the adaptations of throttle body etc, but thats didnt change anything.

i will try to find the second hand knock sensor but the nearest skoda breaker is 350km from me :(

Given that the engine has an EGR system and its reputation for oil consumption, it is possible that there is alot of carbon build up in the combustion chambers. The carbon will raise the compression ratio, which can lead to pinking.

but i notice that i have idle pulsing a little. dont know what is the problem,

That is perfectly normal for this engine, they all appear to have poor idle control. If it does it a blip on the throttle or change in engine load (such as turning on the a/c or heated rear screen, etc) settles it down.

then how to clean the combustion chamber? i know that method of cleaning by wynns chemicals for example, but i am afraid that catalytic convertor will be blocked by the crap going from the cylinders. but that is not the main problem. i had a new front lambda and if it dies again, i will set this car on fire lol please more opinions. thanks

The only real way to do it is to remove the cylinder head. One way which I have heard of, but would not really want to try, especially on a catalytic converter equipped car, is to set the engine on a fast idle and sqirt a fine mist of water into the intake. I believe that our local Mercedes dealership used to use this method around 20 years ago.

If you have ever seen an engine that has had a failed head gasket and been run for a while, you'll notice that the bore that has had the coolant leaking into it has a lot less carbon build up.

Disclaimer: This is not a method which I have tried and the accepted way is to remove the cylinder head.

this is suicide!!!

The other possibility is that the is a high volume of breather fumes getting into the engine, try disconnecting the crank breather from the airbox temporarily and then driving to see if there is a difference?

This engine tends to suffer from piston ring failure due to excessive carbon build up on the ring lands.

Had a problem with pinking on SWMBOs 1.4 16v. It was always less of an issue when using 98RON and above. However it was finally "fixed", well as much as it could ever be I guess, by having a compression test! Head off and the pison rings replaced!

Didn't pink again after that, provided she stuck to 98RON fuel! I always knew if she'd been running it on carp stuff so as to "save a few quid"!

will do compression test soon. which values you had?

Wish I could remember! I'm afraid it was about 2 years ago and all I can tell you is that 2 cylinders were noticeably lower. So i had our local garage do all four for good measure! They did say that once they had the head off there was a bit of carbon build up on the rings and tha the splits were almost aligned!

Compression test should be around 14bar mark.....check with elsawin,

I took my inlet manifold off, cleaned egr inlet in throttle body readapted throttle body & egr valve, run test on block 75...system OK

Now runs like a dream

hey guys, i am back here with still old same problem. i didnt done the compression test, but i have new info, maybe it can help you guys to assist me.

i have elsawin and have tested deeply my car today, but not the whole as i wanted coz my laptop battery died like a crap. the knock sensor is fine. tested in 22/23 measurment blocks. on idle i have no ignition angle relief. but when i drive on low revs and accelerate in hills i have pinking sound from bonnet and values showing around 10 degree or more of ignition angle relief in all cylinders, so i guess the knock sensor is ok and works fine, its just not enough to deal with the crap fuel mixture to burn it correctly or something...

next.

i wanted to change the air filter. i have undone all screws and found out that all are covered in oil. so that how my car eating my oil slowly... here is the pics:

well i didnt changed the air filter because there is no point in that, all will be in oil again...

i know that it is that thing under that inlet manifold that somekind of engine crankcase breather. i heard it needs cleaning, but i didnt done that before and dont know what exactly what to do there. any help here?

well i have ordered the two seals that is used in that block and will try to clean it or something in near future anyway...

next

when i opened airfilter i have found out that the inlet flap that choose the intake source is jammed in down position so it always grabbing air from the heat shield.

i tried to heat with the zippo and used spirit to cold it but nothing happens!

what i need to do here? i think its bad when it always take pre-heated oxygen to intake.

thanks

You have to check all the crank case breather pipes! The service manuals in ELSAWIN should give you the procedure & I would also say you need to get the compression checked as soon as possible. The pinking is a known problem, but there doesn't seem to be a specific fix. I still think you may find an issue with the piston rings.

Good hunting & keep us posted!

thanks, but there is no information on crankcase breather in elsawin at all.

Unfortunately its engine build time my friend, the oil in the air filter and air box is due to too much crankcase breathing, caused by worn rings or excessive carbon in the ring lands, unfortunately its a very common problem on this engine : (

well i am not agree with you, the car runs good (not best) and there is no signs of engine worn, so i will clean the oil separator first and do compression test and report here. thanks