Hi I'm new on the forum, and have little idea about cars, ive had my Skoda for about 2 years, its a taxi and does short runs (90 miles a day? city driving) it is due a service and is booked into the local skoda dealer for a "major service" which I am led to believe all filters etc are cleaned or replaced for some extortionate amount of money, however I'm between garages right now so at least it is done properly (I'm hoping)

 

right the problem ive been having over the past 2 or 3 days is that the car normally idols at about 8 and its started to tick over at about 10 instead,(103,000 miles) causing more work on the engine than normal and making it sound noisier than normal, the first 2 days it only done this twice, maybe 5 minutes over a 12 hour shift (I'm a taxi driver doing short runs most of the time), but today it seemed to be doing it dozens of times, it resets itself if I knock the engine off but after about an hour or so ive found its started doing this again, normally when I'm sat in traffic or at traffic lights we are stationary.

am I expecting some huge bill on Monday when I take it into the dealer?, I have been panicking, ive checked the water but there's plenty there so its not some head gasket fault (my driving instructor told me to look for a beer head on your water as sure sign of head gasket problems on a rover I owned once) no beer head so hoping I'm fine.

but as for this, I'm just hoping its some filter that is blocked, other taxi drivers know you pay out and pay out and pay out and theres not much coming in with £3 fares so I'm starting to worry somewhat.

 

oh as for EGR faults people keep mentioning, yes mine went about 6 months ago (90,000?), it was cleaned dozens of times but no avail, the light would just come back on, paying £20 for some diagnostic check only for it to come back on afew hours later, money down the drain. Eventually I changed over the valve, that was an hours labour then vat on top and about £55 for the valve, I think £141 in all, but that didn't work, then they knew it was either a wire or a box thing (egr controller), it turned out to be the controller, ive no idea how much it is for a new one but my mechanic told me that he expected they would be expensive.  He managed to get a 2nd hand one cheap but it had no guarantees on how long it would last, but it was quick to change it over, 10 minutes rather than several hours (I have a 2010 Octavia)

It is quite normal for the engine to idle at 1000rpm. It will do it if the electrical load is high, battery low, cold engine and air con etc.

 

If it's suddenly started doing it a lot then it could be an early sign of a weak battery.

 

Mine does it from time to time (same 1.9 engine) but usually on a cold morning. But it never causes a problem as I have DSG.

 

I think the first port of call is to have the battery and alternator checked as it could be raising the idle to get some more juice into the battery.

 

Phil

Are you sure its not just re-generating the DPF.? Mine goes up to 1000 when doing it, but not as often as you say.(im no expert, but im sure some-one better qualified will be along very shortly.

Another thing I've just thought of is if you lift the throttle pedal up while it's doing it does it stop? As the accelerator pedal can also cause this but you would normally notice it revving a bit more and when changing gear.

 

Are you sure its not just re-generating the DPF.? Mine goes up to 1000 when doing it, but not as often as you say.(im no expert, but im sure some-one better qualified will be along very shortly.

 

The 1.9 doesn't have a DPF so I doubt it :p

battery is new in December so I'm hoping its not that, however it did have a 3 year guarantee. somebody else (a work colleague) mentioned how theirs did this when the dpf was blocked but the 1.9 2010 does not have a dpf filter. its just started this in the last 3 days, as for lifting the pedal up, I cant do that, I cant get my foot under the accelerator pedal so its not or shouldn't be that.

thanks anyway

Edited 7 April, 201610 yr by mags101

When was it last serviced, air and fuel filter changes might help. Mine was doing this and it was the DPF but as you say yours doesn't have one.

Update on this, the car was due to be serviced so went into my local "claim to be Vaxwagen specialists" where it got serviced, I mentioned that idoling problem and to investigate it, they came back and said the car is fine, tickety boo and will see me in 10,000 miles. I fogot to mention that there was an odd bumpdebumpdebump under the engine too, and had been for about 10,000 miles of since Christmas.

anyway, after being in 4 different garages, some of them twice, and not a single mechanic picking up on the issue I had it serviced in the VW specialist and paid £229 for a major service, within 4 days of the service I was finally told by 1 of the many mechanics id been to that the flywheel was going, unfortunately by the time I was told this it was so far gone that about 2 days later it flew off and took out my starter motor and mucked up the power steering too.

6 different times in garages since christmas, 4 separate garages if not more, 1 VW specialist for a full major service 2 weeks before it blew out. pretty disgusted, so about £400 worth of work turned into about £800 worth of work, even when it died on me the bloody mechanic who towed me off said "ooh its probably something minor!", starting to wonder where these people trained? or do they just hate women, this was my livelihood by the way, as I'm a taxi driver, so pretty damn annoyed as you the can guess. They are supposed to take the car out on a test drive after servicing or replacing a part, so none of them picked up a basic problem like that.

 

I am now in the process of selling the car "as is" condition and the man who bought it paid for the repairs, strangely enough they found the issues when he took it in. I was made to feel like I'm the mad woman who was imagining issues.

completely sick and sold the car.

so if you car idols high and there is an odd bumpbumpbump going on under the engine tell the deaf mechanic to check for a flywheel issue before it wrecks more of your car.

or rather try and find the mechanic who is NOT deaf, I had just lost faith in any mechanics in the North Cumbria area after my experience this year.

 

the words trading standards and VOSA are still going through my head right now.

Edited 3 May, 201610 yr by mags101

Update on this, the car was due to be serviced so went into my local "claim to be Vaxwagen specialists" where it got serviced, I mentioned that idoling problem and to investigate it, they came back and said the car is fine, tickety boo and will see me in 10,000 miles. I fogot to mention that there was an odd bumpdebumpdebump under the engine too, and had been for about 10,000 miles of since Christmas.

anyway, after being in 4 different garages, some of them twice, and not a single mechanic picking up on the issue I had it serviced in the VW specialist and paid £229 for a major service, within 4 days of the service I was finally told by 1 of the many mechanics id been to that the flywheel was going, unfortunately by the time I was told this it was so far gone that about 2 days later it flew off and took out my starter motor and mucked up the power steering too.

6 different times in garages since christmas, 4 separate garages if not more, 1 VW specialist for a full major service 2 weeks before it blew out. pretty disgusted, so about £400 worth of work turned into about £800 worth of work, even when it died on me the bloody mechanic who towed me off said "ooh its probably something minor!", starting to wonder where these people trained? or do they just hate women, this was my livelihood by the way, as I'm a taxi driver, so pretty damn annoyed as you the can guess. They are supposed to take the car out on a test drive after servicing or replacing a part, so none of them picked up a basic problem like that.

 

I am now in the process of selling the car as is condition and the man who bought it paid for the repairs, strangely enough they found the issues when he took it in. I was made to feel like I'm the mad woman who was imagining issues.

completely sick and sold the car.

so if you car idols high and there is an odd bumpbumpbump going on under the engine tell the deaf mechanic to check for a flywheel issue before it wrecks the rest of your car.

 

the words trading standards and VOSA are still going through my head right now.

Wow that's pretty disgusting. I would be sorely tempted to get some legal action in there.

Wow that's pretty disgusting. I would be sorely tempted to get some legal action in there.

was tempted but the car is fixed now so it would be hard to prove I guess, when it died on me which was about 10 days ago luckily another taxi driver stepped in and rented me a vehicle, he had bought that one 2nd hand, so I figured if he had bought that one maybe he would want mine, by that time I was just completely disheartened and given up hope with any mechanics in the Carlisle area after how id been treated, but for a VW specialist not to pick up the issues is disgusting, the treatment from all of them was pretty disgusting really.

I'm now renting back my own vehicle!

 

I left a 1 start review on the VW specialist

Edited 3 May, 201610 yr by mags101