1.8 TSI broke down in a cloud of white smoke :(

[Tightmartin]

After nearly 2 years of faultless motoring, whilst driving home this evening my 1.8 TSi Elegance died after pulling away up a bit of dual carriageway from a roundabout. First symptom of the failure was the EPC and "Control system for exhaust" warning lights came on and the car started to misfire, then I noticed white smoke so i pulled over immediately and turned off the ignition. I tried to restart and it would not restart but there was lots more white smoke and a smell of burning oil so i gave up and phoned the RAC. Whilst waiting for the RAC I had a quick look over the engine and could not see anything but did notice the dipstick was on low where as it was half way between the upper and lower level at the weekend when I checked less that 100 miles ago. I guess that oil had become the white smoke i saw earlier.

The RAC guy could not see an obvious problem and towed it off to the skoda dealer so I guess I will have to wait for the verdict tomorrow.

Anybody else heard of anything like of this or any clue what it might be I would be grateful for a view.

[El Dingo]

After nearly 2 years of faultless motoring, whilst driving home this evening my 1.8 TSi Elegance died after pulling away up a bit of dual carriageway from a roundabout. First symptom of the failure was the EPC and "Control system for exhaust" warning lights came on and the car started to misfire, then I noticed white smoke so i pulled over immediately and turned off the ignition. I tried to restart and it would not restart but there was lots more white smoke and a smell of burning oil so i gave up and phoned the RAC. Whilst waiting for the RAC I had a quick look over the engine and could not see anything but did notice the dipstick was on low where as it was half way between the upper and lower level at the weekend when I checked less that 100 miles ago. I guess that oil had become the white smoke i saw earlier.

The RAC guy could not see an obvious problem and towed it off to the skoda dealer so I guess I will have to wait for the verdict tomorrow.

Anybody else heard of anything like of this or any clue what it might be I would be grateful for a view.

Sounds like a blown turbo to me. :(

[Tightmartin]

Sounds like a blown turbo to me. :(

My first thought but surely not, 2 years and less than 20000 miles.

[D@z]

Almost certainly the turbo I'm afraid, k04 time!

[Tightmartin]

Almost certainly the turbo I'm afraid, k04 time!

Lucky it is still under warranty I suppose. All I need is to find that turbos are excluded from the warrany. Would a shagged turbo cause the car to not start or would the ECU shut the engine down under those circumstances? I was running fairly roughtly until I pulled over and then when i turned it off it would not restart.

[Wardy]

Could be turbo. If it has failed then it might also explain the rapid oil usage you've observed as well.

Await further news from the garage and see where you go from there.

[Tightmartin]

Could be turbo. If it has failed then it might also explain the rapid oil usage you've observed as well.

Await further news from the garage and see where you go from there.

No news yet thought when I went in to collect the courtesy car earlier and got some things out of the car I noticed they had bonnet up and looks like they had the head off but could not look too closely as there was not much room and there was only the receptionist there. I will phone service guy tomorrow.

I got a 1.2SE Octavia as courtesy car, quite impressive for a 1.2 and the Bolero is supper fast on the SD Card compared to mine so not sure what is difference is but I want mine to behave like that one.......

[Tightmartin]

No news yet thought when I went in to collect the courtesy car earlier and got some things out of the car I noticed they had bonnet up and looks like they had the head off but could not look too closely as there was not much room and there was only the receptionist there. I will phone service guy tomorrow.

I got a 1.2SE Octavia as courtesy car, quite impressive for a 1.2 and the Bolero is supper fast on the SD Card compared to mine so not sure what is difference is but I want mine to behave like that one.......

Just spoke to the dealer, but service manager was not there this morning. The person on the service desk spoke to the technician and apparently he said it is a failed injector (stuck open). Does not sound right to me, would that really cause the car to not restart and white smoke and smell of burning oil? I can imagine the ECU could shut down the engine for a failure like that when you stop but surely it would just go to limp mode to enable you to get to the dealer?

[m0bov]

Make sure the CAT is replaced as it would have been damaged by the oil or overfueling.

[countryboy]

Just spoke to the dealer, but service manager was not there this morning. The person on the service desk spoke to the technician and apparently he said it is a failed injector (stuck open). Does not sound right to me, would that really cause the car to not restart and white smoke and smell of burning oil? I can imagine the ECU could shut down the engine for a failure like that when you stop but surely it would just go to limp mode to enable you to get to the dealer?

Quite possible the ECU would prevent the engine from starting to prevent further damage from the injector being stuck open and dumping unburned fuel down the exhaust. It could be that there is an oil seal in there which has picked up and allowed oil to be sucked in too. Perhaps Tech1e is the one to answer this being a technician himself.

Ian

[Tightmartin]

Well I collected the car today and was confirmed to be the Fuel Injector on cylinder 3. They changed that (dealer said never seen one having failed before) and changed the oil and filter. Car runs fine now so hopefully that sorts it and we can get back to rock solid reliabilty I have become used to.

[El Dingo]

Wow, that's good news, especially the warranty bit.

Worth keeping an eye on the oil consumption now.

[Tightmartin]

Been a week and 300 or-so miles and still seems to be okay. Fuel consumption as before, no warning lights so looks like it was just the injector as diagnosed by the dealer. Another couple of weeks and it is due its 2nd Service so will monitor it until then.

[cheezemonkhai]

Not piezo controlled injectors are they?

[Tightmartin]

Not piezo controlled injectors are they?

I don't know. Is that significant?

[cheezemonkhai]

I don't know. Is that significant?

Well the PD injectors in the PD170 had a alleged design issue which means they fail a lot.

I was curious and thinking I wonder if the injectors in the 1.8TSI are peizo and if they are will this sort of problem affect lots of other vehicles both petrol and diesel.