Hi all,

So, I recently bought an 08 plate octavia scout and have gradually been testing its off road abilities more and more. Unfortunately I learnt its limitations tonight, the hard way (how else are you supposed to learn?!), when I beached it on some rocks. I managed to unbeach it with some painful maneuvering, only to find some smoke and a funny, indescribable smell coming from the underside of the engine, just behind the sump (I think, cars are not my area of expertise, hopefully I'll learn a thing or two here).

I'm slightly embarrassed, as the car clearly isn't a land rover, but hoping somebody can maybe shed some light on what I may have damaged and whether its going to cost a small fortune?

Video attached, not very good though sorry. ill get some better videos and images tomorrow (when the misses isn't about!).

Cheers

Sean

The video smells OK to me!

 

You really do need to fit the stock engine undertray (preferably the metal version) even if you are not going to be offroading again.

 

On the positive side if you did have one you would have wrecked it when you beached it on the rocks.

1 minute ago, J.R. said:

The video smells OK to me!

 

You really do need to fit the stock engine undertray (preferably the metal version) even if you are not going to be offroading again.

 

On the positive side if you did have one you would have wrecked it when you beached it on the rocks.

Ha! 🤪

I've been looking at undertrays online but haven't got round to buying one yet. I will be using it for occasional light off road, as my job occasionally requires it, but won't be getting cocky again!

Cheers

I can only guess the impact has cracked the sump allowing oil fumes to be exhausted, try removing the engine oil filler cap and dipstick, the fumes may then lessen having somewhere else to escape.

12 hours ago, Scouting_for_crumbs said:

a funny, indescribable smell coming from the underside of the engine, just behind the sump

You've cracked something. Examine the sump and gearbox, looking for a fresh oil film on one or both.

6 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

You've cracked something. Examine the sump and gearbox, looking for a fresh oil film on one or both.

 

8 hours ago, MicMac said:

I can only guess the impact has cracked the sump allowing oil fumes to be exhausted, try removing the engine oil filler cap and dipstick, the fumes may then lessen having somewhere else to escape.

 

7 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

You've cracked something. Examine the sump and gearbox, looking for a fresh oil film on one or both.

Thanks both,

Silly me! In the attached images, I assume the sump is the blue circled part? The smoke was coming from a join between two parts at the red circled area. Zoomed in shot also attached. Not very clear I know, as I say I'll get some better images today. The smoke seemed to stop emitting after I drove for 10 mins, but the smell was still lingering. If I had to describe it, I'd say it was a chemically smell, not oily, not eggy. Looks like I'll be ringing the garage first thing tomorrow anyway.

 

As promised, some clearer images attached. You'll have to forgive my crass attempts at describing parts, and/or getting part names wrong.

The image I have marked up is a duplicate, as you'll see. All the 3 marked points / areas took some damage from rocks, as below:

1 - the point where smoke was emanating from the bolted join between the sump and whatever its bolted to. I'm assuming this smoke is what was causing the smell.

2 - where the sump has been scraped. I can't get a great view lying in the street but don't think there are any cracks or punctures in it. There appears to be oil down the front of it, but this looks old to me. Probably worth looking into though?

3 - can anybody tell me what this part is please? It also took some scraping damage.

I also remember at one point, when stuck on aforementioned rocks, the engine noise becoming distinctly different. I panicked at the time that the rocks were putting pressure on the engine, pushing it upwards and making it run funny. This would be bad right?

I started the car just now and it started fine, but the smell was still...erm....smellable. The oil light flashed a few times on the dash, but went off. I dont remember this happening pre-rocks.

I also took the oil filler cap off and slight wisps of smoke were coming from the hole. The oil level also looked very high, which I dont remember it being previously. Could this be to do with the engine being pushed/put under physical pressure?

I have some further videos of these two things which I will post separately.

Obviously, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but hopefully that makes some sort of sense to someone!

Be interested to hear comments (and slightly dreading them).

Thanks

 

 

.....the videos are too large to upload and if I edit them to be a suitable file size they're not worth watching! 

Here's a screen shot of the oil level in the filler cap hole. Looks high?

Item 3 is the oil level sensor. You'll need full engine details to find/check the part no. of the sensor. AFAIK it can be changed without removing the sump although the oil will need to be drained.

 

This is possibly the part, but check

04L 907 660 C or 03C 907 660 G

 

https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/04l907660c-oil-level-sensor-hella-30794.html

 

The oily deposits around the top of the sump look like the usual old oily leaks that are normal on older diesels and they've been there for a long time before the incident.

 

If its a 2.0tdi engine, possibly like the one below, then it looks like the oil sump guard is missing. IIRC Scouts usually came fitted with sump guards (plastic I think)

 

 

https://skoda.7zap.com/en/cz/octavia/oct/2008-419/1/103-103020/

 

Edit: I've removed a sentence from my reply as on re-reading the original post properly, I realised the smoke was not coming from the sensor , so ignore what I originally said about the sensor being damaged.

 

Edited 6 June, 20215 yr by xman

51 minutes ago, Scouting_for_crumbs said:

where the sump has been scraped.

Yeah, that's a scrape mark, but there's no new oil thereabouts. There is some around (1) though. Check engine oil using the dipstick, not the filler hole , and also check the gearbox oil level.

 

As to the videos, load them to youtube, and copy those URLs to Briskoda.

The sickly smell and smoke was from where you overheated the clutch trying to drive it off the rocks, if the clutch does not slip in the higher gears when under boost then you have got away with it.

 

The scraping to the sump & bellhousing is minimal, you were very lucky as the cast alu sumps break easily, I dont think that you have damaged the sensor, the wrning lights will have been where it was pushed and not making contact.

 

You should really learn how to check and top up the fluid levels, oil, brake fluid, coolant, windscreen wash etc before taking to the road let alone going off road.

Edited 6 June, 20215 yr by J.R.

^ Good work. 

17 minutes ago, J.R. said:

The sickly smell and smoke was from where you overheated the clutch trying to drive it off the rocks, if the clutch does not slip in the higher gears when under boost then you have got away with it.

I did wonder if it was clutch as I was riding it a lot! I checked if it was slipping afterwards and seemed fine. Phew!

17 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

The scraping to the sump & bellhousing is minimal, you were very lucky as the cast alu sumps break easily, I dont think that you have damaged the sensor, the wrning lights will have been where it was pushed and not making contact.

 

You should really learn how to check and top up the fluid levels, oil, brake fluid, coolant, windscreen wash etc before taking to the road let alone going off road.

I intend to soon! My brothers a mechanic (obviously doesn't run in the family!) and said he'd show me the basics. 

 

Thanks for the reply.

18 minutes ago, Wino said:

^ Good work. 

Moi? I try! 😁

1 minute ago, Scouting_for_crumbs said:

Moi? I try! 😁

I meant J.R. with his analysis, sorry! 

27 minutes ago, Scouting_for_crumbs said:

48 minutes ago, J.R. said:

The wrning lights will have been where it was pushed and not making contact.

 

 

 

@J.R the warning lights didn't come on whilst trying to get off the rocks. I have since noticed the oil light flashing for a few seconds when I turn on the ignition / start engine. This may be normal, but I don't remember noticing it before scraping everything. I'll get the vids onto YouTube and share ASAP.

Thanks

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

Check engine oil using the dipstick, not the filler hole , and also check the gearbox oil level.

Will do. Luckily I'm not a total dip stick when it comes to checking the oil! 😁

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

 

As to the videos, load them to youtube, and copy those URLs to Briskoda.

Thanks for the tip 👍

5 minutes ago, Scouting_for_crumbs said:

Will do. Luckily I'm not a total dip stick when it comes to checking the oil!

Well, you are the one who implied that the filler hole shows the oil level, rather than trace from the last refill/top-up.

2 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Well, you are the one who implied that the filler hole shows the oil level, rather than trace from the last refill/top-up.

I did didn't I. Unintentional. 

@xmanthanks for the info 

Lets not forget that we all started learning with zero knowledge.

 

A pal of mine was the oldest child & brought up by his divorced mother, he had to become the man of the family well before he was really ready for it, he bought a Morris Marina and had heard that it would be a good idea to do an oil change, that was his introduction and every bit as eventfull as becoming beached off road.

 

He had never heard of a dipstick (pre Delboy days!) and after draining the sump & refilling with oil decided it looked very low & he needed more oil, he walked into town to buy another 5 litres and it still wasn't enough so had to return again, he never let on how many times but he spent all his wages before the engine was finally full to his satisfaction & he could start the car.

 

He has experienced something that most of us never will! It did actually start but sounded very rough and it slowly dawned on him what he had done

Don't forget to check the oil level with the engine turned off for 5 minutes to let the oil drain down, I met someone trying to check his level with the engine running...

Well, on that general context, I'd been helping (actually helping, not "6YO helping") my dad with the car since I was tall enough to see over the front wings.

 

Not relevant to Skodas, but engine running is the correct way to check the oil level on a dry sump car.