REPOSTED HERE AFTER BEING REDIRECTED

Hi im new to the forums having just bought a Skoda Octavia RS 03 plate (yesterday infact) 87k miles

Brilliant car, really nice, mint outside, mint inside and got it for a very very good price.

My problem is that on the way home after purchasing the car, going down the motorway slip road as we accelerated up to around 60mph the red oil light flashed on! now we had been driving this car around town for a good 20minuites before with no problems. We pulled over in a services and the oil light went off, so we checked the levels and they were topped up and fine and it was not using any oil. The engine sounded spot on aswell. no black smoke from exhaust (presume the turbo is not gone or faulty)

But when we parked up at the services while we were chekcing everything the oil light went off again. so we sat stationary and revved the engine, and the red oil light came on yet again at 6k revs.... we let it drop to tick over and it went off, revved again and the liught came on at 4k, then repeated it and it came on at 2k then consistently at 1.8k revvs conviently the same revvs at which the turbo spools up. coincidence?

After getting the car home very carefully. (with the oil light on and engine sounding fine and smooth).. we managed to get the light to go off again...let the engine cool for 30mins... only for it to come back AGAIN! after a short 2.5mile drive to see if anything had changed.

Finally after we parked up in the drive again the red oil light switched off permanently and the yellow engine sign popped up instead!... skoda book says electric fault *confused*

What is going on, i need to diagnose this ASAP because if it a MAJOR fix i need to take this car back sharpish, but if its something like oil pickup, oil pump, or the fact it hasnt had an oil change in over 10k miles and 15months ago. then ive paid a massive amount under what the car is actually worth and spending a few hundred quid wont bother me because ive got it cheap and its a very very nice well kept car (husband wife just had a baby, moved house and cant afford insurance)

I expect its the oil pump, but is there a common 'skoda' problem with this? is it a 'oh look another ones done it, these always go wrong, just bibble babble this and itl be fine'

if it is the oil pump how big a job is it? engine out?

Thanks in advance any replys much appreciated

Andy

oil pressure is the problem

shouldnt drive the car now

it could be a blocked strainer most common ( sump off strainer is £12 from skoda ) easy to do take 2 hours

or it could be the pump again sump off job to do this ( prob best to get it to garage if not mechanical)

i would advise you dont drive it as if it is low preesure or stavation it could end in a big way ( engine go bang or turbo go bang)

good luck keep us posted

all in all no more than £100 to fix imo

Edited 20 October, 201015 yr by westallc

Agreed, sounds like oil pressure, I blew the oil pump on my last vRS at high speed, very high, got the flashing red oil light and a beep every few seconds, and somehow god only knows I was lucky enough to get away with it, even after limping the car another 5 miles to work and 18 miles home after work. Get it looked at asap, and try not to drive it, if it is the pump and it fails altogether then its gonna be hello Mr Barclaycard lol.

Good luck with it, hope its not too expensive, don't take it to the stealers, it cost me £700+ for a new pump, strainer etc and labour. Won't be doing that again! lol

Edited 20 October, 201015 yr by Rob_OctaviavRS

First of all thanks for the replys so far.

Theres been a bit of a development.

We drove the car again tonight after reading and clearing the engione management fault which throughout the night did not re appear (camshaft something maybe a senser had a spaz) and gradually increased in speed and how many revvs we took each gear up to, to the point when we were giving it a bt of guts.

It took 1 hour 10mins and 40miles of driving before the oil light came on, then it wouldnt stop unless we were stopping at a roundabout and then came on again as soon as we came to pull off. oh and just to note the engine sounded spot on still with no ticks bangs anything even after the oil warning appearing

Its looking to me like this is only happening when the oil is getting warm. How can this be the sum pickup, surely warm oil is thinner and would flow better through the pick up in the pump.

Maybe the oil in the car is completely screwed and useless.

Im taking it to work tommorow and were gonna drop the sump and drain all the oil. and have a little luck.. only problem is time, im going to get an engineer at work to do an engineers report aswell incase i have to take it back.

How hard is it to change an oil pump.

Ive been researching some of the forums, and 90% of people are saying 10w 40 oil will do nicely in the VRS because 5w 40 is rather thin....

This person ive bought the car from doesnt seem massivly mechanic. and im 99% sure the last time it was serviced was 14months ago and i presume they would have put in the oil it says in the book (5w 40) now if this oil is 14 months old and thin as hell and lost its body, this could cause low oil pressure in a higher mileage car (87,000miles)? maybe ruin the oil pump?

What do people think? a oil and filter change along with the oil pickup gauze 10w 40 sound about right?

Thanks

Andy

Edited 20 October, 201015 yr by Milkybadger

i wouldnt keep driving it to see how long until the light comes on lol

if the pickup is getting blocked it will only take a few moments of oil starvation and bang goes the engine and turbo

seems very silly to keep driving the car !!!!!!!!

We went on the assumption of, the engine sounds fine still sounds spot on and could be a dicky senser..... seeming it got us (slowly) 30 miles home with this on, and oil lights are designed to come on well before iot does any damage, and we cleared the faults with a testbook earlier and went to see if it was gonna come back.

So question from above still stands

This person ive bought the car from doesnt seem massivly mechanic. and im 99% sure the last time it was serviced was 14months ago and i presume they would have put in the oil it says in the book (5w 40) now if this oil is 14 months old and thin as hell and lost its body, this could cause low oil pressure in a higher mileage car (87,000miles)? maybe ruin the oil pump?

What do people think? a oil and filter change along with the oil pickup gauze 10w 40 sound about right?

any help is again much appreciated im on a very tight time limit on whether to take this car back or not, i might get a repair quote from a skoda dealer and send it to the seller and tell him to pay up or the broken cars back on his drive.

If its a private seller you have no come back anyway. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate the fact that you have been driving it with the oil light on either. Drop the sump and check the strainer and take it from there.

Replace the strainer,put cheap(ish) oil in,run it for 200miles then drain & replenish with 10w40 semi synthetic & change oil every 6 months(once a year max). oh & stop driving it or you will need a engine or if your lucky a turbo.

Just spoke to a garage (family friend) and hes seen this a million times.. the first thing he asked was 'is it the turbo engine?' we said yes ... he instantly said oil pickup!

Apparently only in these engines other turbo engines are ok but the VAG turbo seems to dirty the oil and the bits clog up in the pickup and they go at about 80k. my car has done 88k...

So taking it there weds. Havign a new oil senser and pump aswell as i bought everything for a full do over before i got this diagnosise... and a timing belt kit (20 bent valves sound expensive!)

So i will update weds and see what the results are.

and yes GFS confirmed my thoughts that the oil that is 5w 40 aka nats **** , is stupid and useless miles too thin. so i did get 10w 40 semi today with a filter

Cheers for the help every1

i run my 122k vrs on motul excess 5w/40. which was recommended to me by these http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-877-motul-8100-x-cess-5w-40-gasoline-and-diesel-engine-oil-100-synthetic.aspx

and its been fine no troubles what so ever :wonder:

Edited 21 October, 201015 yr by sivrs

I've just done this myself, new pick up etc. and was advised by Volkswagen to run it on 10w/40 to flush, then drain and replace with 5w40.

Edited 21 October, 201015 yr by Rennie

When your friend replaces the timing belt make sure he replaces the water pump as well at the same time.

My old mk1 octy vrs had 10w50 semi synthetic oil,it had a oil change every 10k & was still going strong when i sold it at 125k. Never had a blocked strainer problem in that time.

10w40 not 10w50......sorry!

Yeh well my first impression when i saw 5w 40 went along the lines of.. thats gotta be a typo they dont make oil that thin ... that cant be right.

Im going to stick with the 10w 40 a good all round oil.

Water pump aswell?

The water pump is driven by the cambelt & has a habit of the plastic impellor breaking up.Most people replace it with a metal impellor type. Its a known problem on the 1.8t 20v.

Same thing happened to me when I bought my VRS mate, it was at a even lower mileage 72k and FSH/2 owners. After 60 miles the light came on, drove it home and it started making a noise like there was spanners in the engine. Turned it off straightaway.

The oil pump was clogged up, new oil pump and oil change later the car was back on the road, went upto 80 mph on the duals and my car just wouldnt accelerate any more and black smoke was bellowing everywhere.

Drove it home, towed back to the garage and turned out the turbo was gone. So got a reconditioned turbo for £250.

I'm almost on 84k miles now and the oil/filter has been changed about 4 times so far. I use fully synthetic 5w/30, been fine so far. Next time Ill them to get a new pickup aswell (not expensive are they?)

Same thing happened to me when I bought my VRS mate, it was at a even lower mileage 72k and FSH/2 owners. After 60 miles the light came on, drove it home and it started making a noise like there was spanners in the engine. Turned it off straightaway.

The oil pump was clogged up, new oil pump and oil change later the car was back on the road, went upto 80 mph on the duals and my car just wouldnt accelerate any more and black smoke was bellowing everywhere.

Drove it home, towed back to the garage and turned out the turbo was gone. So got a reconditioned turbo for £250.

I'm almost on 84k miles now and the oil/filter has been changed about 4 times so far. I use fully synthetic 5w/30, been fine so far. Next time Ill them to get a new pickup aswell (not expensive are they?)

About £30 to £40 for the pickup and around £10 for the gauze or something like that.... think im gonna give the water pump a miss tbh, the temperature is rock solid so theres no fault there just yet

and my engine sounded fine but we got told not to drive it for obvious reasons because theres a timing chain thing at the back of the engine that will go PING! without any warning while the pickup is buggered.

When the plastic impellor breaks up you won't get any warning of its impending failure. If you are getting the belt done, you may as well change the pump at the same time. Everything will be off, so there will be very little extra labour required to change it, but a lot required if it goes after the belt has been done.

For the sake of about £30 its probably worth doing?

About £30 to £40 for the pickup and around £10 for the gauze or something like that.... think im gonna give the water pump a miss tbh, the temperature is rock solid so theres no fault there just yet

and my engine sounded fine but we got told not to drive it for obvious reasons because theres a timing chain thing at the back of the engine that will go PING! without any warning while the pickup is buggered.

YOU KNOW AFTER READING THIS WHOLE THREAD THIS GUY HAS TAKIN NO ADVISE FROM ANYONE AND HAS DONE WHAT HE WANTED TO DO SO WHY POST?????? JUST DO IT?? :S :S IF YOU DONOT DO WATER PUMP YOUR CRAZY//FOR £35 IT HAS TO BE DONE.....ALSO PICKUP PIPE IS A TENNER THAT IS IT SEAL IS £15 JOB DONE

YOU KNOW AFTER READING THIS WHOLE THREAD THIS GUY HAS TAKIN NO ADVISE FROM ANYONE AND HAS DONE WHAT HE WANTED TO DO SO WHY POST?????? JUST DO IT?? :S :S IF YOU DONOT DO WATER PUMP YOUR CRAZY//FOR £35 IT HAS TO BE DONE.....ALSO PICKUP PIPE IS A TENNER THAT IS IT SEAL IS £15 JOB DONE

Why listen to my advice eh?...........only been a mechanic for 20+years.......what do i know! lol.

You can lead a Horse to water, but you can't make it drink

lol so true what the feck do we know

sometimes you just cant help people

lol so true what the feck do we know

sometimes you just cant help people

By all means i am not ungrateful for the time and knowledge given, but i like to take onboard what your all saying and also fellow colleagues and family members who have been in the trade twice as long lol aswell including my own mechanical knowledge and i make a judged decision on cost, time need.

The reason i dont want to spend £40 on a water pump is budget. when buying the car i was not expecting to be shelling out £300-£400 parts and labour instantly.

So no disrespect to people but i shant be changing everything for the sake of it straight away (apart from the cambelt cus this cars gonna be taking a beating) if it isnt broke dont fix it (just yet) till i get a little bit of cash floating again after these repairs

I have taken your advice onboard and i thank you for it.

I have the capability and knowledge to conduct all work so far stated on the car myself, but with work so hectic as it is i just dont have the time.

:-)

Edited 23 October, 201015 yr by Milkybadger