On my wife's A3 1.8T Sport (same engine as in the Skoda), the first start of the morning is always rough.

It starts every time but for the first minute or so, it splutters and you'd think it was about to stall on tick over as the revs dip. It never does stall. Once driving it is fine.

Any ideas?

Also, which oil grade is best of the 1.8T engine?

Thanks in advance!

Steve

Edited 23 June, 201016 yr by Steve vRS

A lot of 1.8T's do this on cold start, and it is partly caused by the secondary air pump running for the first 90 seconds or so, along with an overlapped valve timing. Both these things go to warm up the cat quicker, to pass cold start emissions.

One method is to just let it do it's warm up cycle for a minute or two, and then pull away when you see the revs drop to a semi-normal level.

But, you can improve it to a point where you can't notice it anymore. When I first bought my car it would do this badly, coughing and spluttering for the first 100 metres or so, and like you say trying to stall. But now I can drive it while the pump is running and it's fine, just like it should be.

The problem is I can't remember what I did to fix it! I think it was a new intake air temperature sender (located in the inlet manifold) that cost about £30. But it could have also been a new coolant temperature sender that fixed it, new spark plugs or a throttle body clean. Either way, they are all cheap and quick fixes.

For oil you have two options. 5W-30 for variable servicing (supposedly good for 20k miles), or 10W-40 for fixed servicing (only good for 10k max). Personally I only use Castrol Edge 5W-30, and change at 10k miles. It's more expensive, but worth it in my opinion. There have been cases of sludge build up on this engine, resulting in a starved oil pump, and a new head. So personally I go for the lower viscosity, and longer life. Double check this for your car on the Castrol website.

Ta

Steve

try a throttle body clean aswell, this sorted my rough idle

Hi, once the car has ran for 30 secs to a minute, the rough idle goes. It's purely on the first start of the day.

It's in Awesome GTi in a few weeks for another cam belt (2nd since we have had it!) and I've asked them to look at it. I'll take the car there the day before so they can cold start it in the morning.

Steve

Well just to let you know I had my throttle body replaced less then a year ago and my car still spluters when it starts.

All I do is leave it till it drops bellow the 1k mark on the revs an she runs fine.

Hope this helps