Yes. I'm gutted. My 2011 Octavia VRS TDI CR broke down today and had to go through the shame of being taken away by the breakdown company on one of those dolly things!  

 

Feeling very shocked and I get the feeling this will not be a good news... 

 

It cut out as I went to pull away at a junction in first gear, low speed just a normal pull away. I glanced down and saw the rev counter had dropped. No warnings, lights, messages. Nada - except a sole red battery light. I coasted to the side and stopped and tried to restart. It turns over not sounding like it would normally - faster than usual. 

 

With a reasonable knowledge of cars and fearing no compression I called the breakdown people. He turned up, had a poke about and a listen and said it needs to go to the garage (same fears). 

 

Now the the nerve racking waiting game. It's had a cambelt kit change and water pump before at 48k (at Skoda) and has behaved completely normally up to its current 65k mileage. It was even in at Skoda last week for its MOT and has given me no reasons for any impending mechanical doom. 

 

Balls. 

Edited 23 March, 20179 yr by Vegasphil

Gutted for you, hope it's not terminal. Indy or stealer for investigation?

3 hours ago, Vegasphil said:

Yes. I'm gutted. My 2011 Octavia VRS TDI CR broke down today and had to go through the shame of being taken away by the breakdown company on one of those dolly things!  

 

Feeling very shocked and I get the feeling this will not be a good news... 

 

It cut out as I went to pull away at a junction in first gear, low speed just a normal pull away. I glanced down and saw the rev counter had dropped. No warnings, lights, messages. Nada - except a sole red battery light. I coasted to the side and stopped and tried to restart. It turns over not sounding like it would normally - faster than usual. 

 

With a reasonable knowledge of cars and fearing no compression I called the breakdown people. He turned up, had a poke about and a listen and said it needs to go to the garage (same fears). 

 

Now the the nerve racking waiting game. It's had a cambelt kit change and water pump before at 48k (at Skoda) and has behaved completely normally up to its current 65k mileage. It was even in at Skoda last week for its MOT and has given me no reasons for any impending mechanical doom. 

 

Balls. 

did he not try a bump start with his battery pack if the battery light came on?

12 minutes ago, Canders said:

Gutted for you, hope it's not terminal. Indy or stealer for investigation?

 

Indy mate. Hopefully get some news soon. 

2 hours ago, thomasaspin said:

did he not try a bump start with his battery pack if the battery light came on?

Are you serious?!

Sounds like crank sensor failure 

12 hours ago, James@Pentagon_Seat said:

Sounds like crank sensor failure 

 

Would be happy if it was only that. Would it cause the engine to turn over like I have described though?

 

Many hours spent on google searches. I'm finding they are not returning people that have experienced similar faults with this engine! 

If there's no crank signal then the injectors don't fire and the resistance caused by the fuel compression drops off, hence the increased cranking speed. 

did you notice if the rev counter moved when you cranked it?

Edited 15 March, 20179 yr by James@Pentagon_Seat

1 hour ago, James@Pentagon_Seat said:

If there's no crank signal then the injectors don't fire and the compression drops off.

 

Surely the compression is dependent on the valve/piston seal and not injectors?  Or have I missed something...

When there's no fuel to compress the engine turns over faster. 

Did the recovery man not plug in a code reader?

As a failed crank sensor would thrown a code up.

 

2 minutes ago, tubbytommy said:

Did the recovery man not plug in a code reader?

As a failed crank sensor would thrown a code up.

That would be something along the lines of:

 

crankshaft sensor implausible signal

Camshaft sensor implausible signal

cam/crank correlation outside of spec

Didn't get codes read at the roadside. It was a local recovery firm sent to scoop us up! 

 

Unbelievably I'm still waiting for the initial news from the garage nearly 1.5 days on. They were rammed with cars in their defence, and I don't want to seem like a pain calling for updates. Makes it a little difficult to plan though ha. 

4 hours ago, James@Pentagon_Seat said:

If there's no crank signal then the injectors don't fire and the compression drops off.

did you notice if the rev counter moved when you cranked it?

Not True.

2 hours ago, hrvrs said:

 

Surely the compression is dependent on the valve/piston seal and not injectors?  Or have I missed something...

Sort of,  Diesel engines need compression to burn the fuel. when a diesel is on compression stroke it's compressing air, the fuel is injected just a few degrees before it reaches top dead centre, it's the compressed air/fuel mix that cause the power stroke. if the valves and injector don't seal properly then this can misfire or give a chuffing noise.

 

If an injector is not firing then that cylinder or cylinder will misfire, injectors not firing will not cause loss of compression.

Petrol and diesel engines both use the same 4 stroke which simplified is SUCK,SQUEEZE,BANG,BLOW.

 

Been working on diesel and petrol for 22 years and never seen a diesel loose compression because the injectors aren't firing, diesel needs compression to run if no compression it won't run regardless if the injectors are firing or not.

 

Edited 15 March, 20179 yr by Ju1ian1001

I'm not on about the cylinder compression, I was on about the compression of the fuel, or lack there of causing the faster cranking. 

 

Poorly explained on my part.

Edited 15 March, 20179 yr by James@Pentagon_Seat

1 hour ago, James@Pentagon_Seat said:

 

That would be something along the lines of:

 

crankshaft sensor implausible signal

Camshaft sensor implausible signal

cam/crank correlation outside of spec

I'm amazed they didn't read any codes as any of those you listed would point to a broken cam sensor

Been along to see it on the operating table. It still doesn't start! 

 

No fault codes stored. 

Timing looks ok (at the moment)

Compression test shows low compression across all four cylinders

battery ran out... So it's on charge now. 

 

So something affecting all cylinders - a head scratcher. Possibly oil Pickup? I forgot to ask about the sensor mentioned above. No fault codes registered though. :( 

 

 

2 hours ago, Ju1ian1001 said:

If an injector is not firing then that cylinder or cylinder will misfire, injectors not firing will not cause loss of compression.

 

This is my understanding too, never heard of a noticeable difference in crank speed due to injectors not firing

 

After an engine transplant or similar work you can fire up the car with the injectors disabled via software to check if everything is working before putting fuel through the motor, crank speed is effectively identical with or without injectors firing

 

One thing that can noticeably affect crank sound and speed is issues with the cam belt/chain - if it's snapped you'll get all manner of oddities depending on whether you have an interference engine or not...

Hinder the fuel system on a Diesel engine and the cranking speed will be faster than when full pressure and completely atomised injection takes place. 

 

you might not have come across this before but I can assure you that it happens, on both diesel and petrol engines, in fact it's how the ECU determines that a misfire is present. 

Incomplete combustion results in faster crank rotation due to the lack of resistance.

GOOD NEWS

 

It's back and working. The mechanic admits hes very confused as it everything was pointing to a bad fault. 

 

Basically he drained down the sump and went to turn over the engine just to drain the last of the oil from tappets etc and it wanted to start. Quickly put it all back together with a new filter and an oil change and it started straight up and was good to go. Had a few test drives, plenty of time sat idling and then gave me a ring to say collect it. 

 

No warning lights or fault codes have appeared, no swarf in the old oil, nothing. It drives perfectly just as before. 

 

I was stunned when it went in as the CR engine looks to be unbelievably reliable with hardly any faults showing on many forums for all manner of models! Massive thanks to the independent guy who did the work, spending a fair amount of time on it even when totally baffled by the fault. I wonder if a main dealer would have got this far or just phoned me up saying it needs a new engine! 

 

I'm one relieved and happy guy! 

 

Happy days!!

Good result. Fingers crossed it doesn't do it again though.  Faults without a cause can be a nightmare! 

Glad to learn all is well now, so how about this.Couple of years ago our 55 reg Octy had dsg box troubles, was in Skoda garage for a week and even Skoda uk could not solve the problem. So they said the box requires renewing at around £3000. Now we had done about 55000 at the time and I thougth that it would not be worth it, so got the Cr one.This week my son told me about that website VEHSMART. Went on it found our car and its mot for last three years.Then put the old reg 55 to ee whether it went to breakers, did it Bl** well, it has passed all its Mot and now done 30000 more miles.Wonder what the new owner done to get it going again. Should mention the car ran well except for sympton of slipping clutch.Gutted.