hi there, i bought a 51 plate skoda octavia 1.9tdi 16 months ago and thru this website managed to sort out any faults that came up and clocked up 21000 miles and am well impressed with it, so much so that i bought my partner an 05 skoda fabia 1.4 sport. i've noticed a couple of things that confuse me and an engine noise.

first the confusing things - when you first open the door to get in there is a noise that sounds like the fuel pump that sounds for about 5 seconds ??? i havent even put the keys in the ignition yet ???

secondly, when your driving it with the blower on, when you select reverse the air flow goes from incoming air to recirculating air, and then when you come out of reverse it goes back to normal incoming air ??? a bit strange but there might be a reason for it,

lastly the engine noise, there is a ticking noise which is coming from the rearmost ( inlet ) camshaft and near to the belt pully, its there when idling and accelerating but virtually dissappears when coasting. you would think from this that it would be big end bearing noise but it is definatly camshaft related, i'm tempted to take the top off and investigate further but thought i'd try on here first to see if anyone else has come across this.

lets see if briskoda can come up trumps again as every issue on my octavia was sorted through this excellent forum.

The air recirculation is normal, it's to stop fumes from outside the car getting blown in while your reversing.

One of a few things the car does by itself, others include a one touch indicator stalk, tap it once and it should flash three times.

When using screen wash the wipes will swipe 3 or 4 times, stop for 5 seconds and then swipe again.

When you have your wipers on (possibly mid speed or above) and then put your car into reverse the rear wiper will swipe automatically.

If I recall the noise when you open the door is the fuel pump priming plusnthe evap system purging the vapour from the tank to the charcoal canister.

i guess that it is the 16v engine from your description, if so leave the top of the engine well alone, that whole aluminium casting comes off complete with the camshafts as one piece, and you need to remove one of the timing belts to do so, under the cover you will be met by 16 tiny little roller rockers and 16 tiny hydraulic lifters which might all stay in place if you are lucky, to refit the top camshaft carrier you need to scrape off and reseal it with the special instant gasket type sealant... so in short unless you want to cause yourself a world of pain leave it alone..

it's probably just a sticky hydraulic lifter, an oil change could fix this.