Hi.

Loving my Mk1 Vrs Octavia (despite its tendency to moo like a hundred cows when reversing!) but am a bit concerned about the engine management light that keeps reappearing.

I bought it back in the summer and had it re-mapped by Angel tuning in Plymouth. Amazing increase in performance and flattened out the turbo lag......pity it dropped the fuel economy a tadge, but I can live with that.

The light came on shortly after the re-map, but I plugged a mate's gizmo in and it indicated a temperature sender/coolant sensor fault. Fair enough, the car is ten years old (although only 51k on the clock) so bits can be expected to break....right? Replaced that with a Hans Pries replacement from ebay and it seemed to solve the problem. Should I perhaps have gone to Skoda for the replacement sensor? :S

Returning from Luton last night and, about half way through the journey (so, engine hot) the light pinged on again; this time I also noticed that the engine was pinking slightly when idling, by this I mean that it seems to over-rev ever so slightly causing the car to vibrate! It is still doing it this morning (engine cold). I won't be able to read the codes for a couple of days, but has anyone got any ideas?

Any assistance gratefully received.

Happy New Year all.

I would guess at coilpacks. Does it smell like sulphur at all?

I would guess at coilpacks. Does it smell like sulphur at all?

Hi. Not that I've noticed, but I'll go and have sniff.....possibly a dumb question, but is this going to be from the exhaust?

I always recommend fitting genuine VAG CTS as aftermarket ones tend to fail.

There's a Skoda coilpack upgrade/recall running at the moment so it's probably worth checking with Skoda to see if your car qualifies for new coilpacks.

first of all, never go for ebay CTS as they do fail alot...

secondly, try the coilpack recall. if one of them is faulty it throws a code with the cylinder nr that's suffering from misfires. if you're coilpacks are aftermarket (not covered by the recall) buy a genuine one (or more if more are faulty). if buying coilpacks, watch for the part nr to end with either D or R (other ones are prone to fail -> the reason for the recall).

just had a coil failing about 3~4 days ago, the car was juddering incredibly, power loss was huge and the CEL kept flashing. 30 sec job to change...

first of all, never go for ebay CTS as they do fail alot...

secondly, try the coilpack recall. if one of them is faulty it throws a code with the cylinder nr that's suffering from misfires. if you're coilpacks are aftermarket (not covered by the recall) buy a genuine one (or more if more are faulty). if buying coilpacks, watch for the part nr to end with either D or R (other ones are prone to fail -> the reason for the recall).

just had a coil failing about 3~4 days ago, the car was juddering incredibly, power loss was huge and the CEL kept flashing. 30 sec job to change...

Thanks folks.

To be honest the car isnt shuddering or losing massive amounts of power (it sat at 90+ most of the way home last night!), but I've booked my mate's gadget for Tuesday so should get a better idea then. I'll change the temp sensor for a genuine part and see if the dealer can advise me on whether my coilpacks are covered by the recall. The car was a genuine one-owner job serviced by the Skoda dealer who sold it on to me, so I would like to think that they would have done this anyway?

The CTS has 2 outputs 1 to the gauge & 1 to the ECU. It's very common for 1 side to fail, but the other to work fine. If the ECU side fails it causes the

ECU to fuel incorrectly, which in turn causes running problems.

Coilpack failure will cause misfire & usually turn the EML on. Skoda coilpack recall hasn't been running for long so it's quite possible that the dealer hasn't done it on your car.

The CTS has 2 outputs 1 to the gauge & 1 to the ECU. It's very common for 1 side to fail, but the other to work fine. If the ECU side fails it causes the

ECU to fuel incorrectly, which in turn causes running problems.

Coilpack failure will cause misfire & usually turn the EML on. Skoda coilpack recall hasn't been running for long so it's quite possible that the dealer hasn't done it on your car.

Thanks again mate.....am currently writing out "I will not buy stuff for my Vrs on ebay" one hundred times.

I would guess at coilpacks. Does it smell like sulphur at all?

Hi again. Took the car out for twenty minutes last night to warm it up and check for any odd smells. As soon as I got out of the car I could smell what I would describe as 'burning clutch' or similar. As I dont ride the clutch I now it isnt that, so does this support the coilpack theory....and what the hell is it that is burning??

Check the fuses that sit on top of the battery. Look for corrosion & any signs of melting.

Check the fuses that sit on top of the battery. Look for corrosion & any signs of melting.

Thanks very much, will do that tomorrow in daylight. The engine is now getting worse.....revs blip to 1800 without me touching the accelerator and then will drop to 700 when idling. Hopefully I'll get some fault codes tomorrow and will definately be heading to the Skoda dealer ref the recall. Cheers.

Thanks very much, will do that tomorrow in daylight. The engine is now getting worse.....revs blip to 1800 without me touching the accelerator and then will drop to 700 when idling. Hopefully I'll get some fault codes tomorrow and will definately be heading to the Skoda dealer ref the recall. Cheers.

Hmmm.....so, I've plugged the kit in and it confirms an error with the Temp Coolant Sensor, and another with the Lambda sensor plus a handful of errors that explain the misfiring.

On the advice of Skoda I changed the Temp Coolant Sensor for a pucka VAG version but it doesnt seem to have made much difference. I,m waiting for the engine warning light to pop back on so that I can see what error codes are left. Not looking hopeful, especially as the lambda sensor is £100 plus!

CTS won't cause misfires, lambda error won't to... misfires are caused primely by coilpack failure (other reasons may be spark plug fails and not enough fuel (injectors and others)).

CTS may cause a bit of an overboost, and slight variations in fuel consumption (as far as my knowledge goes).

lambda errors either pop up when the lambda sensors are on their way out, or as fuel to air mixture is bad. lambda codes may be triggered by misfires (if you run the car long enough).

be advised, running a car on constant misfires will ruin your cat...

post the codes if you're having doubts, or look them up on ross-tech's wiki

CTS won't cause misfires, lambda error won't to... misfires are caused primely by coilpack failure (other reasons may be spark plug fails and not enough fuel (injectors and others)).

CTS may cause a bit of an overboost, and slight variations in fuel consumption (as far as my knowledge goes).

lambda errors either pop up when the lambda sensors are on their way out, or as fuel to air mixture is bad. lambda codes may be triggered by misfires (if you run the car long enough).

be advised, running a car on constant misfires will ruin your cat...

post the codes if you're having doubts, or look them up on ross-tech's wiki

Hi. OK the codes are as follows:

1. Oxygen Lambda B1 S1 malfuntion in circuit P0130

2. Random/multiple cylinder misfire detected P0300

3. Cylinder 1 misfire detected P0301

4. Cylinder 3 misfire detected P0303

5. Cylinder 2 misfire detected P0302

According to Skoda, my coil packs were changed earlier this year (ie before I bought the car).

I take your point reference continuing to run it and am (unwillingly) considering just biting the bullet and handing it over to the main dealer to fix....although I have just found the website for volk city, has anyone had any good / bad experiences of them?

Are the coil packs all seated correctly?

If you bought it from a dealer does it have any kind of warranty? The fault codes look like coil pack problems on cylinders 1, 2 and 3 to me so either the coilpacks are loose, the leads to the packs are knackered or the coil packs weren't replaced by the dealer as they claim to have. If there was a dealer warranty you could just take it back to them.

I would also agree with the lambda sensor fault possibly being due to running with the misfires, if you do it for too long it also knackers your cat.

Are the coil packs all seated correctly?

If you bought it from a dealer does it have any kind of warranty? The fault codes look like coil pack problems on cylinders 1, 2 and 3 to me so either the coilpacks are loose, the leads to the packs are knackered or the coil packs weren't replaced by the dealer as they claim to have. If there was a dealer warranty you could just take it back to them.

I would also agree with the lambda sensor fault possibly being due to running with the misfires, if you do it for too long it also knackers your cat.

Doh! I had assumed that my warranty had expired but have just checked and it was for 12 months. Am now calling them.....at six pm?.....in the vain hope that the cleaner might be able to let me know whether the USED AUTOTRUST WARRANTY covers this fault.

random misfire in cil 1, 2 and 3... check if the coils are seated correctly (press them down as far as they go in) and check the wiring harness is seated correctly (worst case pull the connectors out, spray some contact spray on them and plug them back in). if the coilpacks have been changed not long ago, misfiring (by coilpack failure) in 3 of 4 cil is highly improbable. another option would be 3 injectors failing at the same time (to trigger misfire by lack of fuel) which is highly improbable to, so i would go with either a wiring fault or improper seated coilpacks. it's curious that cil 4 is unaffected, and by knowing that no 4 is beneath the vacuum reservoir (pressed down by a bolted metal plate) i would defo go with improper seated coils.

check them as soon as possible, dodgy coilpack-sparkplug connections can cause them to melt...

the lambda error would be the last to worry about, as it may have been triggered by the misfires.

Doh! I had assumed that my warranty had expired but have just checked and it was for 12 months. Am now calling them.....at six pm?.....in the vain hope that the cleaner might be able to let me know whether the USED AUTOTRUST WARRANTY covers this fault.

Should do, they're not wear and tear parts and if they weren't fitted correctly by the dealer then it's up to them to put it right. I'd leave it with them tomorrow. And if the lambda sensor and/or cat is knackered as well then I'd expect them to replace those under the warranty too.

p.s. the warranty might not pay out if you admit to having it remapped :S

p.p.s if it turns out that the problem was just that the coil packs had popped off then once it's fixed I would get some coil pack hold downs and re-gap your spark plugs.

http://www.awesome-gti.co.uk/product.php?xProd=13235&xSec=294

If you don't re-gap the plugs after a remap it sometimes ends up loosening and unseating the coil packs. Some of the guys on here who've done it will be able to tell you what the right gap is for a remapped VRS

28 thou for stage 1. Don't know what that is in metric.

28 thou for stage 1. Don't know what that is in metric.

Well, Volks City (Plymouth) have worked their magic. It was a blown turbo divert valve in the induction breather system. Dont think I would have found that in a month of Sundays. Coils and plugs all checked out (but I will re-check the gaps on the plugs). The car now runs ridiculously well and is back to its grin-inducing performance. Thanks very much indeed for all the advice everyone!

glad you got it sorted