Hi,

A mate came to see me today with his mk1 Octavia. He has a problem with starting sometimes which is caused by what we both assume is some sort of cutoff valve.

This valve clicks shut when you turn the engine off, and should open up a second or two later. In his case sometimes it sticks shut. This means the car wont start until he flicks it over by hand.

The problem seems motto be caused by the fact it gets full of sticky oil. I gave it a wipe out and it wasn't anywhere near as sticky.

The hose that connects to the left of the valve also has this oily residue in.

Any ideas on where the oil is coming from and how to fix it?

Edited 17 November, 201213 yr by 2SkodaFamily

Fords 2.0 diesel suffer from shutter valve sticking, there method to fix it is to file flap down a little so its not such a tight fit

According to this thread

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/136596-hard-to-start-when-hot-octavia-110-bhp/

the oil is coming from the EGR valve?

The oil ultimate comes from the crank case breather. Just after the anti-shudder butterfly valve is mixed with some exhaust fumes to create a nice sticky tar which gets all over the inlet manifold. The best solution is to fit a catch can. I cheated and took the elephant mod route (vent to atmosphere).

This thread has reminded me that I need to fix my anti-shudder valve, as the external plunger is broken so the vacuum valve isn't operating the butterfly valve.

Is this caused by short runs and less than optimal engine temps? I never had this problem with my mk1 Octavia, but it seems to have become a feature of the car in question.

My car pretty much always does long runs - 60 miles each way to work, but mine seemed to only stick when I was about 3-4 miles away from home (on the return leg) when I stopped for fuel.

Ever since I cleaned up the EGR assembly the problem went away.

Don't really know my way around the engine bay as well as I should! and I don't have my Haynes manual any more! (It went with the car)

Where's the EGR valve to be cleaned please Matthew? Cleaning the anti-shudder valve only gives a month or two grace before the problem reappears.

thanks,

Martin

The anti-shudder valve is part of the EGR valve assembly (the plunger on the top is the EGR control). Basically remove the right-angle rubber pipe, undo the 2 allen bolts from the EGR supply pipe from the turbo (under the main EGR assembly), remove the 3 allen bolts securing the EGR assembly to the inlet manifold and then give it a good clean with some petrol. Avoid cleaning the actual inlet manifold unless you push any oily "chunks" deeper into the inlet manifold....

If this problem occurs lots, then the options are:

- disable the anti-shudder (fine, unless an oil seal in the turbo fails....)

- fit a catch can / perform elephant mod

- reduce the EGR cycle / blank off

Is this car particularly smoky when running?

The anti-shudder valve is part of the EGR valve assembly (the plunger on the top is the EGR control). Basically remove the right-angle rubber pipe, undo the 2 allen bolts from the EGR supply pipe from the turbo (under the main EGR assembly), remove the 3 allen bolts securing the EGR assembly to the inlet manifold and then give it a good clean with some petrol. Avoid cleaning the actual inlet manifold unless you push any oily "chunks" deeper into the inlet manifold....

If this problem occurs lots, then the options are:

- disable the anti-shudder (fine, unless an oil seal in the turbo fails....)

- fit a catch can / perform elephant mod

- reduce the EGR cycle / blank off

Is this car particularly smoky when running?

Not as far as I know but it could be. It's done well over 200k miles and has run a lot of the recent past on a home made biodiesel, although not for the last year.

I think the catch can is the way forward, now all I need is a fool proof guide for doing it on a diesel engine!