Dads got my old Octavia mk1, year 2000 1.9TDi and was driving it today as he was entering a dual carridgeway changing from 3rd to 4th and he said there was an almighty bang and a puff of black smoke from the exhaust, so he pulled into the side and was towed back, I have taken off the engine cover and there's no evedence of anything wrong, tried starting the car and as the starter motor engages the lights go dim and there's no movement turning the engine, so we then put the car in gear and pushed it to and fro and the engine didn't turn, so it looks to me as though the engine has seised, engine coolant is fine and normal,if anything the engine oil has been overfilled eg plenty in there, cambelt is in place,fanbelt is also OK, anybody any ideas whats gone wrong ? ps - I will put VCDS on it tomm to see if anything has been logged. cheers - Stuart :(

Edited 23 March, 201115 yr by sparky2

Could just be a failed turbo which has jammed in such a way that there is an airlock in the engine preventing it from turning.

Checked the timing belt?

Yeh took the top cover off the belt and it was in place

SNAP

we had one towed in over the weekend exactly the same.. locked solid I'm in the middle of getting the sump off to see of there is anything amiss there.. removed oil filter and that was full of oil so it had been circulating oil when it stopped. cambelt is on but unable to check timing as cant turn motor over etc, removed injectors and there is no damage to the tips like I would expect from a dropped valve so I'm guessing a thrown or bent rod at this point.

i'll update tomorrow when I have found our problem and maybe some help to you

Thanks for that 16v I take it your a mechanic (skoda ?)cheers - Stuart

yea work for a Skoda specialist, we were a dealer years ago bit got fed up with the VW corperate stuff.

never seen one of the TDI motors just seize up so 2 in a week is very strange indeed lol, this one has just topped 100K so just run in really

well my dads just done 75 tho and I looked after it for 60 tho

I had a simalar thing happen on a friends mitsubishi carisma,it turned out to be a tiny locating pin on the crankshaft pulley had broken off & worked its way into one of the main bearings & caused the engine to lock solid,it took a while to find the cause,i had gearbox out & still engine wouldnt turn,removed engine,stripped cambelt etc off & dropped sump & removed bearing cap one by one until i found the damage then it turned freely! i put a sechondhand engine in & its still going fine now!.Weird thing was she drove it to work & it was fine switched it off then when she came to leave it wouldnt start.....i knew summat serious was wrong when we tried to bump it off & nearly went through the windscreen when i realsed the clutch & it stopped dead!

Ok found it..

sump full of piston bits but the crown is still in the bore and appears complete so I'm thinking piston skirt failure or just a dodgy rod!!

Don't forget to change the oil pickup while you're there

Joking aside, that is a more unusual problem.

Tom

Hmmm, that's an interesting one. Has it damaged the crank or cylinder bores at all?

Is that a PD engine, or an older one? Might be a flaw in the rod casting maybe.

its a 2003 90bhp tdi mate the big end was still free to turn on the crank pin so no siezure there, also the oil filter was still primed when I removed it to check oil had been circulating.

piston crown appears to be complete from the top of the gudgeon pin upwards and is not seized in the bore (at least not now anyway)

I'm suspecting its ingested some water at some point and has been running around with a slightly bent conrod which has finally given up

no sign's of excessive heat anywhere on the rod or bits of piston and the driver recons "it just stopped".

now I have unjammed the broken bits the crank turns ok so I dunno. block is scrap as its cracked a bit where it all jammed at the bottom of the bore so its new engine time

:( Update on my dads car,had a look under the rocker box cover and all was fine, removed sump and found some bits of metal in the bottom (see pics)also took pics inside, am I right in thinking the rods look bent and the piece of metal has come from the edge of the bore caseing, cannot turn the engine over either with starter motor or crankshaft its totally seized any techs think the same, is it worth rebuiding or is it a second hand engine ? cheers - Stuart

Update - Dads having to have a new engine fitted as the block is cracked and there is 'some' damage to the top, do the oil pumps fail on these engines ? there are plenty of mk1's driving around as taxis are they having any problems ? cheers -Stuart

Sounds like bad luck to me. Sometimes these engine just have problems with the oil pump in the sump and they seize up. A decent enough low mileage scrapper engiine shouyld sort things out.