Diff Bearings?

[kenycymro]

Hi, I wonder if anyone's had the same problem on their Octavia as I have.

Seemed to have a noisy front n.s. wheel bearing during road test, but when jacked up noise seemed to come from the o.s. bearing.

Started the car in gear with the o.s. wheel off the ground and the n.s. wheel was spinning every now again filling the air with tyre smoke. I know the mk1 SLX Tdi doesn't have an LSD so I'm wondering if it's a diff problem?

Anyone else had the same problem?

By the way the car's done 185,000 and still runs well..

[kenycymro]

Looks like I'm the only one with this problem :'(

[rk696]

Does sound like a dodgy diff, you should be able to stop one wheel if the other is in the air.

[kenycymro]

Does sound like a dodgy diff, you should be able to stop one wheel if the other is in the air.

I lifted both wheels off the ground today and put a metal bar against each tyre in turn with the car started in gear. Each time I was able to stall the engine.

The car's worth £500 at the most, so do I look for a 2nd hand unit or scrap a fantastic car because of the cost? :(

[rwbaldwin]

This car has EDL. I think you will find it is braking the spinning wheel causing the wheel on the ground to brake traction.

[kenycymro]

EDL? Is that electronic diff lock?

Doubt if it has that fitted as the SLX is a pretty basic model.

Anyone know if rwbaldwin is right?

[Tech1e]

Does it have abs?

[rwbaldwin]

Don't get too excited

The electronic differential lock (EDL) employed by VAG is not - as the name suggests - a differential lock at all. Sensors monitor wheel speeds, and if one is rotating substantially faster than the other (i.e. slipping) the EDL system momentarily brakes it. This effectively transfers all the power to the other wheel

[bajanpete]

That does sound like a problem with the diff. However, if the car has esp/asr or anything like that make sure it is turned off. If it is a problem with the diff, it may not be that costly to replace. Though the car is only worth "X" amount, you know the problems with the car while a replacement car may have problems you know nothing about

[kenycymro]

Blimey, I just found this: http://www.buyacar.co.uk/cars/skoda/skoda_octavia/review_skoda_octavia_1998-2004_1503.jhtml

"Equipment lists are par for the course, with all models apart from the base LXi getting ABS. GLXi, SLXi and SLX TDi models were all fitted with EDL traction control systems, should the urge to emulate a Skoda works rally driver overcome you."

Apparently rwbaldwin is spot on..

All Slx Tdi's came with EDL :yes: so there's probably nothing wrong with the diff, it's supposed to do that :no:

Cheers mate.

[rk696]

Ahhh, completelety forgot about the EDL.

When you try to stall the engine by stopping a wheel, does the ABS pump run? You should be able to hear it grinding.

As rwbaldwin says, it brake the wheel which is spinning, effectively locking that side of the diff and forcing the power to the other side. You can't disable it either (You may be able to pull the ABS fuse, but I don't know if that will work or not).

[kenycymro]

Yes there is a strange noise, not sure if it's the pump, but most likely the source

[Bodge]

Hi, I wonder if anyone's had the same problem on their Octavia as I have.

Seemed to have a noisy front n.s. wheel bearing during road test, but when jacked up noise seemed to come from the o.s. bearing.

Started the car in gear with the o.s. wheel off the ground and the n.s. wheel was spinning every now again filling the air with tyre smoke. I know the mk1 SLX Tdi doesn't have an LSD so I'm wondering if it's a diff problem?

Anyone else had the same problem?

By the way the car's done 185,000 and still runs well..

Sounds dangerous! This is why the Skoda workshop manual says to never run the engine while the vehicle's wheels are raised off the ground!

Some normal yet confusing things happen with this car's gearbox. The first one is that if you jack up both front wheels and turn on the engine while in neutral, the wheels will start to rotate, and you will hear a rattling noise from the gearbox. People panic and assume the gearbox has had it, when it's fine. The second one is if you rotate one wheel by hand (with the front end jacked up and engine off), the opposite wheel will rotate in the same direction. This would normally indicate an LSD is present, but there isn't one obviously.

Are there actually any driving problems? If not, then I'd say it's probably just a worn wheel bearing that's making the noise when driving.

[kenycymro]

In the 8 years I've had it I've never had a workshop manual, so that's the first I've heard of that.

The car drives well apart from loosing turbo power every now and again, which after reading this forum seems to be a MAF sensor fault.

I rarely drive it as the wife loves it so much she won't let me abuse it

She did say it had a wobble and a rumble from the the front end at speed (not always).

Mind you it could be the as new 'part worns' I fitted causing this.

[STSKODA]

if you need help with a manual send me a pm

[kenycymro]

O.S. wheel bearing fitted today, boy was it tight, I had to use the 10 tonne press at work to get it out.

Very quiet on the road now

Now just a MAF sensor to source.. :wonder: