hi, i'm going to get some advice regarding my 2003 octavia vrs. when starting the car, the car needs to be left for approximately 30 seconds before it can be driven. if you start to drive immediately the car gives out loads of thick black smoke from the exhaust.

also when driving over 90 mph or building up speed quickly the oil light flashes. when checking the oil i have found it to be just below max although the level tends to fluctuate a lot. im not sure if there is a leak or if its burning oil as i've had to top up with 2 litres over the last 1500 miles.

any ideas.....please help!

I think oil burns more with blue/white smoke, black smoke sounds more like fuel mixture being way way off though that would only be my non expert view. Two litres of oil over 1500 miles is high though.

Oil light coming on could be indicative of oil pressure being low, which is what happens when you run out of oil but in your case you havent. Without reading and searching the forum.... oil pump flocked or thinking about it.... Its normally intermeshing gears spinning that pump and cause the pressure so if they are worn...... Also not sure if its belt driven of ancillary belt, could this slip? Hey its just ideas, will go forth and multiply upon request :-)

Also fully synth oil is designed to burn off, ok not as much as you are going through but something to think about.

Good luck

is the turbo making any funny noises?

Black smoke suggests that the engine is over-fuelling. This could be the result of:-

1) under-boosting, so as Tom asks, is the turbo (and the pipework to the plenum chamber) ok?

2) Fleabay resistor mod. If you have one of those, get it out of there now!! There's a huge amount on this already, so use the Search!

3) dodgy remap that's over-fuelling (I've seen this one done before).