Hi everyone,

Desperately need some help on a couple of things.

First off my car is an Octy vrs 53 reg, standard, and has done 55,000 miles.

1) Been having some problems lately starting the engine from warm, so read some threads on here and in short have got a myself a shiny new green coolant temp sensor/sender. But, (risk of sounding stupid here), I have no idea where it goes. I have a Haynes manual and the picture is so close up it could be absolutely anywhere.

Here is a picture of my engine bay, could someone possibly somehow circle the area it is in? Or describe it to me?

2) Now for the scary one :(

Today whilst doing an oil/filter/air filter change I noticed something that worried me. Alot. Around the engine itself there was a fair bit of oil (before the oil change I might add, it wasn't me spilling it everywhere!). Also when I had the engine running there was a rather loud ticking/knocking noise. This isn't the charcoal box on the left. I have a couple of pictures of the oily engine.

Please tell me this isn't something serious.

Thanks in advance for all your help,

Rob

Edited 27 October, 200916 yr by mrtwosh

Not sure how much difference there is between the petrol and diesel engines but the CTS is on the right hand side of the block (looking from the front of the car). Kind of hidden in a mass of pipes and wires.

Could the oil on the top of the engine come from someone being a bit messy topping up the oil and it getting under the engine cover?

Yeah it could be, although I have owned the car for 3 and a half years and have not noticed it before to be honest. Also the oil is all down the front of the engine block too.

I haven't had to do the tempsensor on the vRS yet but it will most likely be mounted on the thermostat housing which will be attached to the engine block and connected to one of the large hoses from the radiator.

As for the oil, you appear to have a weeping rocker cover gasket. Doesn't look bad to me. Have you noticed losing any oil? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. My old polo had a weeping gasket for the whole 7 years I had it and it never caused a problem.

iep

Hi look at this thread, it has good tips and a pic where the water temp sensor is.

I changed mine a year after I got it, only do it when engine is cold, its only a 10 minute job.

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/engine-coolant-temp-sensor/92795/

Peter

The coolant temp sender is easy to find and replace. It's below the Y-shaped breather hose to the right hand end of the cam cover. The thread above shows it's location.

With the oil. It's either a sloppy re-fill at some point, or the rubber seal in the filler cap has perished, or a weeping cam cover gasket. None of which are serious. If the oil level doesn't change over say 500miles then I wouldn't worry too much.

Check the rubber seal in the filler cap and go from there. If it's not that, and you know you're losing oil, then just change the cam cover gasket or even the cam cover itself if you think it's leaking because it's warped for example.

We get lots of leaks like this at work on big diesel engines, and it's normally caused by a warped cam cover. Every car I've owned has weeped oil from the cam cover gasket.

Thanks for all your help everyone, put my mind at rest at least!

I will get it looked at when I get my cam belt done in a couple of weeks to be on the safe side. On the subject of cambelts, I have been quoted £320 for the cambelt and waterpump change. Does this seem reasonable?

Thanks for all your help everyone, put my mind at rest at least!

I will get it looked at when I get my cam belt done in a couple of weeks to be on the safe side. On the subject of cambelts, I have been quoted £320 for the cambelt and waterpump change. Does this seem reasonable?

Yeah that seems reasonable. I paid £300 for belt and water pump at my local Skoda dealer 2 years ago.

Make sure they fit a new cambelt kit - not just the belt itself.

Mine was leaking oil from the rocker cover gasket but it was at the back of the engine and most of it was being burnt on the exhaust, the oil level was going down but very very slowly. I think it cost £20-£30 for the gasket and about £45 labour from the local garage to change it