Hoping this is a good place to reach really technical folk, because the workshop isn't helping. 

 

My Superb mk3 TDI 190 L+K manual, 2 years old 20k miles was stopped at lights. On depressing the clutch, engine tried to restart and stalled. It then automatically restarted again (clutch still depressed) and a big vibration was immediately apparent. 

 

Car was drivable and the vibration gradually reduced but never went away. Called skoda assist, they found no engine management fault logged but vibration still apparent. 

 

Workshop now tells me this is normal. No injector faults apparently. Yet it runs like a tractor, vibration most apparent through sterling wheel at idle and in low revs acceleration, less obvious when cold. Stalling is common, I have to give it more revs than I feel I should. 

 

For comparison, dealer was kind enough to let me film next to an identical spec engine at idle. Both were warm. Should be very apparent which is mine. Needs to be warm for the fault to be visible, could it be a sensor issue? 

 

 

Ideas much appreciated because this is not the car I bought! Feels a little down on power but could be deceptive due to the changed vibration. 

 

Thanks in advance! 

Possibly Lambda/MAF sensor giving misinformation or loose connection etc ?

Edited 23 August, 20196 yr by MiniEggs

Thanks for the idea, MAF sensor fault does seem to fit the bill except for the absence of engine warning light. Is there any diagnostic that could confirm or deny in the absence of the Ecu logging a fault? I have about 8 months of warranty left for something to properly fail! 

Is it possible it's a timing issue,,,,,,,,,maybe belt has slipped slightly, a problem with one of the pulleys in the set up.

Not a bad idea, because the original start/stop stall that caused the issue was violent, where the auto restart happened before the engine had fully stopped. The vibration was worse in the first 5-10 minutes, then settled but never went away. How would you convince a garage to look at this and maybe reseat or replace belts? My local Citygate Skoda (Slough) has declined to investigate further so I intend to take to Marshalls Skoda (Reading) for a second opinion. The car has done 2k miles in the interim, waiting for a development. But it's neither better nor worse than after the initial 5-10 minutes. 

I wonder if you can take cover off, or take a picture from the right to front of the car side... this sounds to me like the variable valve solenoid playing up... will not show on any diagnose as fault code, but observing the timing from cam sensor and crank sensor... could be a revelation... i think is somewhere a bulletin about it, on some cases also creates intermittent long crank times for over a second on start up. Do not take my word for it but...

25 minutes ago, SpAwNtoHell said:

this sounds to me like the variable valve solenoid playing up... 

What variable valve solenoid?

This  one... if it looks identical as in my pic is the unrevised type the revised one looks different. Sometimes puts up also P0016 as pending. I would of thought, judging by the vibration yours would put up the code. I know is not much and and is not 100%  but the symptom is not only on your engine are others also... maybe not on briskoda... considering yours is with low millage and still in warranty i think your only chance is to try different dealerships till you find one that a trained technician knows about it or has came across before. Should be easy to diagnose with a oscilloscope to cam sensor and crank and look at the wave form after...

17 hours ago, SpAwNtoHell said:

This  one... if it looks identical as in my pic is the unrevised type the revised one looks different. Sometimes puts up also P0016 as pending. I would of thought, judging by the vibration yours would put up the code. I know is not much and and is not 100%  but the symptom is not only on your engine are others also... maybe not on briskoda... considering yours is with low millage and still in warranty i think your only chance is to try different dealerships till you find one that a trained technician knows about it or has came across before. Should be easy to diagnose with a oscilloscope to cam sensor and crank and look at the wave form after...

 

Thanks SpAwN. Below is a video with the cover off, I think you'll tell me it's a revised version. 

 

hi, yes yours has the revised version on... so doubt is a vvt system issue... was the  dmf flywheel excluded by any of the dealerships? what did they check (except telling you are no codes)?

They told me they checked injectors. That's because Skoda assist suggested it and I asked. Other than that they told me no codes and nothing they can do until there is a code (claimed no warranty work authorisation until code gives action plan) . This is great stuff for me to ask the next workshop, thanks so much! 

in my view customer complaint is more then obvious from your videos, especially i never seen a engine to bounce that much and run right, the fact that you feel less power and that now and then it stops like you said: "Stalling is common". next thing it made me think is the flywheel, obviously is just a thought... another thing i can think of is to try to find a independent garage that knows what is sees on the diagnostic as idle live data could point again towards the problem... just plug in a scanner and reading some parameters how the engine runs... wont require any physical work... people who work on this engines day in  day out should  know how is supposed to run what parameters should read and what stands out... Aside all this i do not know what to advice really that could help you.

Thanks SpAwN, k.young and minieggs, very helpful ideas. I wasn't expecting full remote diagnosis, just reassurance that the first workshop was talking rubbish that this level of vibration is normal (Citygate Skoda Slough is newly-established, might have less-experienced staff), and a few possible ideas. I'll update here when I get any progress. The car is on a VWFS PCP (I don't technically own it yet) so I can still take it up with them as well.

4 hours ago, ando2040 said:

Thanks SpAwN, k.young and minieggs, very helpful ideas. I wasn't expecting full remote diagnosis, just reassurance that the first workshop was talking rubbish that this level of vibration is normal (Citygate Skoda Slough is newly-established, might have less-experienced staff), and a few possible ideas. I'll update here when I get any progress. The car is on a VWFS PCP (I don't technically own it yet) so I can still take it up with them as well.

 I am very curious what the issue is, what actually gived up.

Small update, as 2nd garage want the car for 3 days or more (yet I was only booked in for one day). However first action was interesting, they checked whether my vehicle was affected by a known battery fault. Apparently it is not, but it makes sense to me that this issue might be electrical and not mechanical? 

This is presumably what they looked up. Similar but not identical to mine. 

Update that isn't much of an update: the 2nd garage found a fault with the fuel pressure regulator valve N276 and replaced it under warranty. They handed the car back to me as fixed, but actually this fixed a different issue!

 

I remember even on test drive 18 months ago commenting to the salesman (car had 6k miles) that the sport mode seemed to make no difference to throttle responsiveness. I never pursued it as a fault , yet it turns out it was, because replacing the fuel pressure regulator valve fixed this. However the undue vibration remains, especially once warmed up (presumably they didn't warm it up enough before declaring the issue fixed, this is understandable as they found a genuine fault).

 

The car has now been back at the garage for 2 weeks, they have been very good so far and tell me they are sending diagnostics directly to Skoda. They still believe it's some issue with the fuel system.

 

Warranty expires early 2020 so I need this fixed and am beginning to worry what happens if other fuel system issues develop after warranty expires.

 

 

Apparently Skoda are developing a software fix... not yet available for this engine. Anyone heard of similar?

 

What's weird to me is that a software fix could be needed for some issue that occurred following a stall... but had not previously been apparent for 2 years of the car's life.

Edited 16 November, 20196 yr by ando2040

This is really weird... I am really hoping you get to the bottom of this and i am interested of the outcome as now own a car with the EA288 engine. I am in a continuous search of possible and common issues on this 2.0tdi for either vw audi seat or skoda but i have to say never got across over something similar. A bit worried it could happen to me.... I am getting now to 112k...

Bit of a clarification, as I spoke to the engineer on collecting the vehicle. Apparently the diagnostic software has found an unspecified fault, and directed that another test should be run. HOWEVER the extra test referred to is not available, and that is the software fix we are (still) waiting for. So it's not a software fix directly for the car (yet). I will keep this updated. 

If is not available to skoda... What chance do we have if the same occurred?!😪

On 25/08/2019 at 20:12, ando2040 said:

They told me they checked injectors. That's because Skoda assist suggested it and I asked. Other than that they told me no codes and nothing they can do until there is a code (claimed no warranty work authorisation until code gives action plan) . This is great stuff for me to ask the next workshop, thanks so much! 

Right so I'm quoting this from August last year because the genius action plan from Skoda is now... to replace the injectors! Garage has done so with parts from a similar vehicle and reports improvement! Now seeking authorisation to replace under warranty. The car has been in the garage for 4 weeks continuous, total of 8 weeks, before they came up with that... 

Hmm so they checked... F all....

It was the original garage that checked F all (major complaint about to go into them because they missed the fuel pressure reg valve as well) . The new one have been pretty good and frustrated that Skoda wouldn't give them a feasible action plan. Seems skoda were incapable of recommending what was obvious to every experienced mechanic who looked at it, until the software found something wrong. I think it's possible the faulty fuel pressure reg valve actually caused the early injector failure? I'll pick the car up on Friday and confirm here if I agree it is fixed, had a false dawn already but hopeful. 

 

Thoughts please?