Major Fuel Leak - Due to bolts shearing on the fuel injector rail assembly

[PaulTheCat]

Hello,

 

I'm looking to see if any other Skoda owners have experienced issues with fuel leaks, due to the bolts shearing on the fuel rail assembly, compromising the seals around the fuel injector.

 

I'm sorry I don't have photos of the damage in situ, but the problem was hidden behind the inner manifold, so I had to leave it in the capable hands of my local independent garage.

 

My Rapid Spaceback is barely  5 years, old, and has only done 38,000 miles, so I wasn't anticipating any issues with the engine for a while yet.

It's had an easy life.

 

For reference, it's a Rapid Spaceback Se Tech T 1197 Petrol Manual 6 gears

Engine code CJZD980068

I bought it second hand, from the Skoda dealer who had sold it new to the previous owner in 2016 - It had about 23,000 miles on the clock.

 

Last week, there was a strong smell of fuel in the passenger compartment, which I initially thought was from neighbouring cars, as I had the windows open.

The smell lingered, so I checked under the bonnet, but could so no obvious issues.

 

Then an EPC engine light came on, and a short while later (under 2 miles), the fuel light flashed up, saying I had only 50 miles capacity left.

Then 200 metres later, the car just conked out while idling at the lights.

 

I ended up being stranded on the after-school run, and had to be rescued by my neighbour with a 5-litre can, which got me to the petrol station and tentatively re-fuelled.

It was lucky that I'd already booked my annual service and MOT, and the distances were short, so it was into the garage 8:00am next day.

 

No fuel had leaked onto the ground while the engine was off overnight, so I was prepared to start the engine cold in the morning.

But as soon as the engine was running, there was a clear trail of leaked fuel where I'd driven - My friend followed me as back-up, and said the smell of petrol was overwhelming.

The trails and puddles I left when I arrived at the garage are in the photo - It was pumping out.

 

All this happened very quickly.

From first smelling fuel, to getting it into the garage, I covered no more than 10 miles, tops.

I am just incredibly relieved it happened on short local runs, and not on a long journey up the M1.

 

The mechanic thinks it happened in quick succession - One bolt came loose, then it sheared, then the slack allowed the vibration to start loosening a second bolt, and petrol just flooded out.

The seals were damaged, so in addition to buying new bolts, I had to buy a new seals set, so the parts bill came to £53 from an approved VW supplier.

The last two bolts were still tight.

 

This is is not something you'd expect from a car of this age and mileage.

It's possible there's a design flaw, and the action of the injectors hammers the bolts loose over time, but you would have to remove the inner manifold to check them, and that's not a routine service.

Equally, the bolts might not have been torqued down correctly at the factory, but it seems strange it would take 38,000miles for that to have an impact.

 

I'd love to hear from anyone who's had similar problems, as I'm intending to write to the Skoda dealer, and try and get the £53 parts bill paid, if nothing else.

If it hadn't coincided almost exactly with my annual service, the bill would have a lot higher.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Paul

[Breezy_Pete]

Do a search on here for the phrase "fuel leak" in quotes like that, and you'll see that there are two or three threads about the same thing on just the first page of results.

Alarmingly common. Recall-worthy really.  Someone will probably have to die before it happens though.

Edited 13 July, 2021 by Wino

[PaulTheCat]

Thanks Wino - I didn't realise you had to use quotation marks, so I started a fresh thread.

 

Am appalled at what I'm reading elsewhere on the forum - exactly the same pattern of bolts shearing.

Wondering if I did the right thing getting official VW replacement parts, if they're the same 'quality' as the ones that failed.

 

Your'e so right -  This is crazy fault to allow to go unresolved, and Skoda Uk need to sit up and take note before someone goes up in smoke.

 

[Breezy_Pete]

You're welcome, and no harm at all in starting another thread, awareness of this needs to be raised, I feel. 

I didn't suggest a search as a way of saying "Why did you post this?" but more because I didn't have time to link you to several similar threads by digging out each and every one that I could find. 

Yours is also excellent in terms of detailing the parts used with photos etc.

 

The very fact that there is such a thing as a 'repair kit' for this problem seems like sufficient evidence that Skoda/VW group are well aware that there is a significant issue.  The sheer cost of recalling all of the possibly affected vehicles is probably why not much seems to be happening in that direction.

[PaulTheCat]

Don't worry Wino - I didn't take it that way 

 

After posting on one of the threads you directed me to, I've just had a comment for a helpful chap in Denmark, who's mechanic had the technical spec back from Skoda.

 

To quote Erik DK:

I received a copy of information about the manufacturer's work to resolve the problem.

The problem affects 1.2 TSI and 1.4 TSI engines (CZE*, CZD*, CHP*, CJZ*, CYV*)

New equipment was implemented in the production process to automatically tighten the rail bolts in week 25 of 2018.

Sold vehicles with the problem need to have the rail, injection gaskets and all rail mounting bolts replaced.

The rail mounting bolts should be tightened to a torque of 10 Nm.

 

I'm lucky, as my mechanic has a friend who works for Lookers Skoda, and he rang him to double-check the torque needed, before doing the work.

 

 

I'm just concerned I should have had the rail replaced, as well as the bolts and gaskets.

But if the issue is with the tightening of the bolts in production, why would a new rail be necessary?

[Breezy_Pete]

8 minutes ago, PaulTheCat said:

But if the issue is with the tightening of the bolts in production, why would a new rail be necessary

Belt and braces, I should think, in case excessive movement/vibration due to 'loose screw(s)' causes wear to sealing surfaces or something.

[rum4mo]

Maybe the issue over replacing the rail is more done to the repair mechanic being able to assess whither of not it looked like the rail ended up getting deformed by one end of it be free to rise up under the pressure of the HP fuel supply. Erwin the official workshop manual used to quote 9NM for these M6 8.8 grade bolts, but maybe they have upped that now to 10NM..

 

I'm not sure if you are the 10th or 11th 1.2TSI engine owner to suffer this and logged it in this forum, there will be many unknown at least to me 1.4TSI engine owners also out there in the many Audi, SEAT Skoda and VW motoring forums that will have suffered like you, not very good at all.

 

The last bolt can be reached I think, ie the one nearest the "free" end of the fuel rail.

 

The "repair kits" seem to just be a set of seals and a clip for one injector, so a total of 4 are needed for these 4 cylinder engines - and quite expensive, I have yet to work out what the other part is that was listed, I'll need to dig deeper for that. My wife has an August 2015 Polo with that engine but it is obviously an earlier build than your one, actually "half" the serial number of your engine, so maybe the tooling was adequate at that time and became defective later on in the production run, I did buy 6 bolts, I used the extra 2 to see at what torque they failed and was quite happy that they seemed to be as strong in tension as the 8.8 grade spec intended, and then a poster in the Fabia thread updated it with his info about it being an assembly issue and not a bolt supply issue, so for now I'm sitting on doing anything on that car.  The part that masks these bolts is mainly the inlet air air<>water heat exchanger and it looks like the water side remains sealed and there is a gasket that seals the opening in the manifold that it gets fitted into, so maybe I'll remove the heat exchanger and see if that improves access enough for me to check all the bolt torques.

 

This continues to get hushed up, so far no mention of this in the main SEAT Ibiza motoring forum or the main VW Polo one, which is strange as all these car's 1.2TSI 16V engines were manufactured in a Skoda run factory.

Edited 13 July, 2021 by rum4mo
nor > not!

[rum4mo]

Just an other comment that should be made here just in case anyone uses that  TPS order form that was included in an earlier posting to this thread, the bolts being ordered are actually M8 X 32mm and so are not the correct part numbers for this repair, the bolts that hold down the fuel rail are M6 X 16mm Torx cap head 8.8 grade/strength and their part number is N10546403 - I'm only commenting on that so that someone does not end up ordering in the wrong size of bolts.  There could be many reasons unknown to me why these parts were included in the TPS for what looks to be a complete listing for parts required to carry out this repair.

 

The Supp.Parts are clips one for each injector which probably need replaced after taking things apart to replace the seals - the old ones are shown in the picture along  with sets of injector seals.

 

I think that the true cost of parts for this repair will be nearer £100 when you add in the 4-off bolts and the 4-off injector clips.

 

Edit:- well it seems from the other thread that the parts cost was £71.81 2 years ago, so maybe closer to £80 right now.

Edited 13 July, 2021 by rum4mo

[PaulTheCat]

18 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Just an other comment that should be made here just in case anyone uses that  TPS order form that was included in an earlier posting to this thread, the bolts being ordered are actually M8 X 32mm and so are not the correct part numbers for this repair, the bolts that hold down the fuel rail are M6 X 16mm Torx cap head 8.8 grade/strength and their part number is N10546403 - I'm only commenting on that so that someone does not end up ordering in the wrong size of bolts.  There could be many reasons unknown to me why these parts were included in the TPS for what looks to be a complete listing for parts required to carry out this repair.

 

Thanks for flagging that up - My mechanic did say TPS originally sent the wrong bolts, and he had two sheets of invoice.

I mixed them up, and posted a crop of the first invoice, which had the wrong ones on - Here it is again, but followed by the replacement bolt invoice.

 

As rum4mo says, the part number for the correct M6 x 16mm bolts is N1054603.

 

The question of the correct torque to be applied to those bolts seems to differ - Mine are now at 10 Nm, based on current info my mechanic obtained from Lookers Skoda.

 

Here's hoping they torqued a good game...

[rum4mo]

@PaulTheCat, good good!

 

I can see that you understood why I posted that, ie I was not trying to say "you are wrong!" more trying to make it clear to anyone thinking about getting together a kit of bit, what all they needed to get ordered.

 

The box in the picture that is called a kit, it seems a bit strange that it is that size when all that is in it was 2 parts for a single injector, the TPS order shows that 4 were ordered,  so I reckoned 1 for each injector. Logically that is the best way to sell them as the same 1.0TSI engine also uses these seals - so it would need 3 kits if that fuel rail or injectors were ever removed.  The supp parts seem to be clips for the injector and maybe only ever required if the fuel rail bolt(s) snapped and these parts were considered to now to lifed. So, did the order arrive as 4 square boxes each with a single set of parts in each one, that seems like packaging overkill - but seeing would be believing.

[PaulTheCat]

My mechanic kept the box, but not all the parts he'd removed to replace, so what I've photographed and shared isn't the full inventory on the invoices.

The wrong bolts were ordered initially, (TPS error I think), but I can confirm the fuel rail takes four bolts - One of mine had sheared, and a second was in the process of being stretched.

I think the only way to get all the parts needed was to buy a complete kit, even though some components didn't need replacing.

 

[rum4mo]

Yes yes, I understood the accidental ordering of the wrong bolts, it is just that the size of the box which is labelled as a kit, looks to be big enough to fit all the parts into - but they needed to order in 4 of them for your repair - unless extra kits were being ordered in, but in which case you would not have been asked to pay for them.  Also when thinking that VW Group had organised a kit of parts for this known failure, then once again why were you billed separately for 4 bolts and 4 supp. parts - which were shrouds/clips, very strange, I'm sure that now you don't bother about any of that, but I was just curious - a case of due to you including pictures to make life easier for others it has ended up with someone, ie me, asking more questions!!  Sorry about that, my curiosity should force me to order in a kit and see what turns up - and report back to this thread or the other one.

 

Edit:- I've just checked the parts cat online and yes, "repair kit" is only enough seals for one injector, so while mention of VW Group supplying a kit of parts to address this unfortunate situation, has come maybe from a couple of people that have had this failure, it seems like individual parts need to be ordered in to make up a kit of parts for carrying out this repair - I will not ask any more questions concerning your repair!

Edited 17 July, 2021 by rum4mo

[Digdug]

I've got pretty much the same car, same year, bought from Skoda with about 5k on the clock and exactly the same happened to ours, exactly the same.

It cost over £800 to fix; the mechanic replaced the injector as well as the bolts and seals. I've got a job sheet with pictures and videos to send to Skoda. 

It failed after a short trip but the day before it had driven about 300 miles back from holiday. The mechanic said we were very lucky it didn't go then when the engine was very hot.

[Ootohere]

Skoda / VW could not care less. 

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/468348-fuel-leak/page/10

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/515229-fuel-rail-removal/page/2

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/515752-petrol-leak-from-engine

 

 

 

[Digdug]

Thanks toot, yes I saw those threads after posting. That seems a fair conclusion!

 

The RAC recovery driver knew what the problem was immediately and said he'd seen loads. I'll try the Skoda dealership that we bought it from, then Skoda UK, then a letter before action. I'll also report it to DVSA so they can send me one of what looks like their standard letters.