Hi,

A shot in the dark...any help gratefully received....

My 1999 Octavia TDi GLX 90 bhp (40k miles) has recently developed a very annoying fault. Twice now in a week, when cruising along in 4th / 5th, the oil-pressure lamp and buzzer comes on (scares the **** out of me), the engine just loses all power in about 10 seconds - doesn't feel like a stall, it's a smooth but rapid loss. Both times, I pulled over, the engine re-started fine first time, journey completed O.K.

The first time I noticed that the trip-computer had been re-set (lost all data for current jouney) after the re-start, didn't happen the second time.

Skoda dealer could find no fault : oil level fine, no fault codes showing on diagnostics, no indication of mechanical fault.

Suggestions? If not, sympathy will do! Lost all confidence in otherwise fine car.

Cheers!

Awed

OK, bearing in mind I don't know a whole lot about cars, and should probably keep my misfounded conjecture to myself...

Could it be a problem with the fuel pump? Sounds by the way it's dying as if the fuel supply is suddenly being cut off, think there's some kind of relay or other that can fail...

I'm sure one of our resident experts will know better...

Rob.

Rob,

Thanks for the suggestion. I doubt it's an intermittent fuel pump problem simply because I've been searching on other sites, and have found many references to similar or identical problems from drivers of VW / Seat / Skodas, petrol and diesel. Common suggestions seem to be...

"glow plug / fuel pump relay"

"microscopic crack in the main relay"

"mass air flow sensor"

"tempature gauge needs replacing"

"throttle body needed cleaning"

"throttle body,idle settings changed & fuel lines cleaned out"

ECU problems

(I cannot say I even understand what most of these mean)

Fuel pump is never mentioned - doesn't mean that it's wrong though!

Awed

Well, I meant something related to the fuel pump, so I'll change my answer to fuel pump relay...

Rob.

Agree with Rob, sounds like a fuel pump problem.

Check for any loose electrical connections.

Had a similar problem on a previous car after the radiator had been replaced. The garage had disturbed the fuel pump solonoid connection (well something like that anyway, I cant quite remember) when fitting the new radiator.

Anyway the car would cut out when driven over a "bump" in the road, which was big enough to interfere with the loose connection.

Another possibility is a faulty oil pressure sender unit, causing the engine to go in to some sort of safety "limp mode"

Hope you manage to sort it out!

i will go with either oil pressure switch faulty or a loose/bad earth

There is a long history of VW fuel pump relay faults, across all their TDI,s all marques and cylinder configs, I have had the problem myself with 5 cyl TDI,s, and in my old Octy. The fault, although not resetting your trip never shows up on diagnostics, only by chance if the technician actually is able to replicate the fault.

By all means check out other ideas, but I would change the fuel pump relay anyway. It isnt expensive, and is easy to replace. The last thing you want is to be in the outside lane of a motorway ,and have the engine die only to restart....believe me its very scary.

Cheers

Andy

I may have found a solution to this : see thread "Tdi Sudden Death Syndrome" under "general maintenance" forum. Cheers!