Is this the most stupid first question ever?

I'm not young and have just traded in one of my 2 automatic vehicles for an 06 Octavia 1.9 tdi manual estate. I went for the manual version partly for tax reasons and for economy (the only DSG vehicle I could find was out of my price range). I last drove a manual vehicle about 5 years ago, but that was a LR Defender with good old technology.

I have a path that has a 90degree bend uphill to our gate and then crosses a fairly obscured pavement trodden by even older codgers than me. Reversing in and forward out is extremely difficult because of the topography and the very prickly holly hedges.

When I reverse out of my path, I have to keep the revs fairly high to avoid what feels like the clutch disintegrating with vibration. I'm used to driving the older vehicles where the torque converter just let the engine tick over while backing.

Also, yesterday, on the motorway, I was travelling at about 60mph in 5th, had to slow to about 40 in the traffic and then, when accelerating still in 5th, there was an alarming judder. The revs were about 1500. Dropping into 4th, the car accelerated smoothly.

Is all this normal? I've had the car for 3 days from a main dealer, and it has the main dealer warranty. I chose it over a newer Focus estate because that had just had its DMF replaced, and I was worried about our house entrance .

Also, I've tried to download the manual for the vehicle from the Skoda website (I have the paper manual, but a pdf would be much easier for me to plough through at leisure), but after about 5 attempts, it still times out before the download finishes.

Edited 19 December, 200916 yr by Billaboard

Diesels don't like it when you floor it while the revs are very low, the vibration is normal and to be avoided. If you accelerate very gently from as low as 1000 rpm the car will pull smoothly, but to get proper acceleration you'll need to drop a gear or two to get it to around 2000 rpm where the engine starts to pull very strongly. An auto gearbox does this automatically for you in response to flooring the accelerator.

The vibration you describe in low speed maneuvering is likely to be the engine threatening to stall, again it's a zone in the operating range of the engine to be avoided. On flat ground you should be able to move the car around at tickover by just raising the clutch slowly, but you will need more throttle for steep slopes. Octy's have a DMF too and they're all less reliable than one piece flywheels - the good news is if it's a problem there is a one piece flywheel available for the 1.9 PD. Driving the car in the load/rev range where it judders will shorten the DMF life.

Thanks, that does set my mind at rest. I was worried by the juddering at 1500 rpm in 5th on the motorway, but I was accelerating fairly hard.

I never remember anything like this in the Defender, a 200tdi and a much heavier vehicle. That went in and out of the path smoothly and motorway speeds only happened occasionally.

I had been lurking here and had seen that people had Skoda SMF's fitted. That's one of the reasons I went for the Octavia over a Ford.

Hopefully your car is not having a problem with its DMF.

At least now you know how to drive around the problem

And Welcome

And I've now, at the 7th attempt, managed to download the pdf of the manual.

I wiil discuss the juddering briefly with the supplier on Monday, if only so that I have a record of having brought it to their attention at an early stage.

Mostly, the car is really nice to drive though, and feels well put together. Lots of stuff that I still need to find out, but much will have to wait till after the snow clears.

A quick update on the situation. The service manager of the main agent/supplier of the car took me out for a drive in it and agreed that there was a problem with juddering when under load at about 1500 rpm. In fact he found that the judder was there in each gear when the revs were about 1500. As this was soon before Christmas, he is dropping off a courtesy car next Monday and picking up my Octy for remedial work. I will position the car so that he will experience the other judder when backing out of our path.

If they do find this is a problem with the DMF, what are my options? Is the single mass flywheel an official Skoda option that I can legitimately ask the main agent to fit, and would this be a sensible move?

Because of the sheet ice, I've been using our geriatric but solid Disco to skate around rather than risk the Octy. I'm getting a lot of hassle here from SWMBO. I bought the Octy in preference to a newer Focus estate because I couldn't try the Focus for size and driving as it was on a hoist having its DMF replaced. When they finally presented it for a test drive (actually quite nice), I decided it was just a bit too small and it was pouring diesel from some little plastic pipes in the engine. The accompanying salesman kept saying the smell of diesel and the 7mpg it was saying was because it had just come out of the workshop. SWMBO meanwhile was saying "We don't want to be buying a repaired car" about the Ford and now is similalarly unimpressed by the Skoda. More and more, I think modern cars and me don't mix.

Just get a new DMF- they should do it FOC, I'd say.

I'd go for a DMF tbh, the SMF will be more reliable, but will also there will be notably more noise and vibration at idle. If the supplying garage are doing the replacement, then it might be worth contributing to get a replacement clutch fitted at the same time - might be £150 or so, but would be worthwhile imho.

I'd go for a DMF tbh, the SMF will be more reliable, but will also there will be notably more noise and vibration at idle. If the supplying garage are doing the replacement, then it might be worth contributing to get a replacement clutch fitted at the same time - might be £150 or so, but would be worthwhile imho.

Well, they say that everything will be covered and I have 2 years' main agent warranty, whatever that means. I'll discuss the clutch when the car is picked up - thanks for that suggestion.

I'm still leaning towards the SMF because of reliability. I'm not bothered by noise and vibration within reason and I'm quite happy with the Discovery diesel's shake, rattle and roll. I'm not sure that the wife will feel the same, though.

I'm used to trading in vehicles at about 200k miles with no significant work on transmission or engines ever having been necessary. The Disco is fine at 160k. Only the last, third Omega failed us at 95k with its complexity and resultant repair expense, so encountering possible failed flywheels at 18k (Octy) and 35k (Focus) has just multiplied my gloom about modern cars.