Hi All: I'm new to this site, but I've had 4 "Skoda's" since 1973. I have a Skoda Superb 1.8T Comfort Petrol (from new). But:

After 6 years of use, and all servicing as per schedule by Skoda agents, I had to stop halfway between Leeds and Newcastle Nov 08. The onboard system showing "Low Oil Presure", @53k miles. Car was transported to the Skoda Agent I normally use, they inspecting my car and stated that the oil pump had failed.

They replaced the pump, and told me that changing the pump had not cured the problem and my vehicle would require a new engine! When I questioned why, I was told "Thats what the Skoda service computer recommends", They got a bit upset when I asked if they were Mechanics or just Fitters.

I towed my vehicle to a local garage, the sump was removed and the pump inspected. The pump was new but the O ring between the delivery tube and the pump was split and not seated correctly. The center of the 10mm delivery tube was reduced to less than 1mm diam by oil contaminated deposit, the sump and cranckcase were also heavily coated in the same deposit; however all the internal oilways were clear and all bearings checked ok. After scrapping all encrusted parts for many hours almost filling a 2 Gallon bucket, and running the engine for 10 hours and 5 engine flushes, the car was put back on the road. I have now driven a further 10k miles and changed the oil twice. Examination of the sump is not showing any excessive build up of contaminents.

I contacted Skoda UK requesting whether this problem had been reported. Several days later Skoda informed me that I was the only person to have repored this problem.

Looking worldwide on the Internet I found that the same engine in some States in America had recalls by Skoda due to the same problem, which according to the sites is caused by high temperature on the long life oil; Skode fitted an additional oil cooler, and the oil service intervals have been halved to reduce the problem.

Am I the only one that has experienced this problem?

I thought it was a well known issue TBH...

I thought it was a well known issue TBH...

Me too, There are posts all over the internet of this happening in all the cars that use the 1.8T engine.

welcome to briskoda

Roofus....this a very, if not unforunate piece of reading....there has been threads on here regarding oil pump issues, and personally i think there is nothing wrong with the pump. If the oil is of the specified grade, and the service interval is doubled, and i mean not wait till the service light illumintes and do the oil service inc filters every 6,000 miles then i dont think the problem will arise.

I have seen results first hand of a passat 1.8 engine with the sump and surrounding area's caked in a thick black sticky film of baked on sludge, and basically one couldnt identify anything in the sump at all. In my father's passat which i must add was the older generation vehicle, before being ungraded to the b5 model passat, i heard a buzzer sound.....and my father who is hard of hearing couldnt hear this noise.....so naturally he carried on driving, and eventually the cambelt snapped writing off the cylinder head.

I made some enquiries at the local vw dealer and they said it the problem was in the sump....so we removed it and it was apparent, that the gauze covering the oil pick up pipe was full of this gunge, therefore no oil could get past it. After spending hours scraping and washing the contaminated sump in MEK ...a solvent that strips anything to do with sludge, we reassembled the pick up pipe and sump, and used a straightened out metal coat hanger to clear the oilways from the pump to the cylinder head.

We then put a new cylinder head on, which in fact was redesigned and had one bearing less for the camshaft, and fitted a new cambelt and fresh oil...my father's passat went on for another 45,000 miles before being p/xed for a seat leon tdi 130bhp model.

I've read various comments from people on here condeming the oil pump, which is a fair point if the engine has done a very high mileage, but low mileages like your car for example this should never had happened. Basically, the service intervals are incorrect, expecting oils wether long life or not to do far more milages than they can safely protect the egine for is false ecconomy.

Thats why i change my oil every 6,000 miles and dont even bother waiting for the countdown of when the service is due. Hopefully you wont have that problem again, but for the sake of say £50 for oil/filter it makes sense knowing that the engine will always have decent bodied oil inside it, and you can continue to drive without any further issues with the sump / pump ad cylinder head siezing up.

Forgot to add, MEK is unavailable to by off the shelf, as it is more volatile than petrol, one only has to dip the pump and pick up pipe and sump into this liquid and it basically came out after 5mins looking brand new.....i purshased mine through a friend who worked in a rubber factory, he told me that it dissolved rubber......so that will give you an idea how powerful it was as a cleaning agent...i tink mek stands for methyl ethyl keytone......for those who want to try and get some instead of petrol.

apologies for the typo problem.....keys are stuck with sticky drink.......thanks kids!!! dont think it would be wise to use petrol or mek on computer keyboards