I own this car for about 6 month for now. Since the beginning I noticed the hesitation in the 1st gear and took the car to two different skoda dealers. Both of them told me that there is nothing wrong with the car, just need some extra throttle when taking off. I have also mentioned the hesitation issue with the 1.5 TSI engine, but they have assured me that it's a completely different story.

While agree on this, I still find the throttle behaviour a bit strange. For a slight push on the pedal the engine quickly revs up, but falls back on the clucth release and revs up again, causing the hesitation.

Now, I have an OBD tool which wich shows the same behaviour on the throttle position sensor. I have also used a small USB camera to check the throttle valve, by pressing the pedal from the idle position to the max. (ignition on, engine off). On the video at 09 sec the valve flips backwards shortly, despite I was pressing the pedal forward. I beleive that it could be the culprit, but I am not a mechanic. Can somebody shed a light on this ? Maybe a throttle body alignment would help ? Thanks.

 

Arh....I know the very problem. The same problem is on our 2017 Skoda Fabia with a 1.2l engine 108bhp which I have fixed (or made less jerky).

 

Two areas of investigation:

 

1) Make sure the throttle pedal is working correctly and not producing any errors on the CANBUS system. They can occasionally fail causing jerky throttle responses.

 

2) The high revs from the off - is the anti-stall function kicking in. It's a pain but I haven't as yet seen a way to dial it out.

 

3) Follow this suggestion to improve throttle response on the car - works on Octavia's, Superbs and Fabia's.

 

 Go to adaptations (under 44 - steering Assist) and search ‘driving'  Under “Driving profile switchover’ as std it will be:  “Incremental: controlled over time”    44 - driver profile switchover     Change this to:  “Direct: controlled over threshold value”    44 direct contolled     What you will now have is more ‘normal’ throttle pedal.

1) I am limited on CANBUS tools, as I only have an ELM327 compatible OBD2 device, but cannot see any DTCs.

 

2) I bet the car would takeoff smoother if this "anti-stall" function could be turned off.

 

3) I have tried this before for a short time, but barely found any major improovement on the throttle response. The ECU or PCM still over react the slight pedal pressing when in 1st gear and about to takeoff.

 

One thing I use as a "workaround" to prevent the stalling apart from the Direct setting in the driving profile. I don't fully release the clutch until the car runs at least 10-15 kmph, but I find a bit weird to control over the anti-stall function.

"For a slight push on the pedal the engine quickly revs up, but falls back on the clucth release and revs up again, causing the hesitation."

 

After clutch release it shouldn't rev up again without the car speeding up without the clutch slipping? or is it not fully released?

 

I'm not sure you can check operation of throttle valve with ignition on/engine off as there is a complex startup algorithm that controls all sorts of things to minimise emissions (airwash, rapid catalyst light up etc).

 

I've driven my sons 2016 1.2 Octavia a few times and have never noticed a problem with his.

 

[EDIT] When driving at slow speeds + lower revs if you floor the throttle how does if feel - any hesitation or feeling of dropping a cylinder. These engines are very plugs/coils sensitive

 

 

Edited 20 July, 20214 yr by bigjohn

"When driving at slow speeds + lower revs if you floor the throttle how does if feel - any hesitation or feeling of dropping a cylinder. These engines are very plugs/coils sensitive"

 

There is no problem when accelerating from low speed. The sparks were changed two years ago and the car ran only 13000km (8k miles) since then.

I can't better describe it as a very short stall or hickup.

With the video, just wanted to check how the throttle valve follows the pedal when the engine is off. I have found interesting that the valve flips backwards when I start to press the pedal, but it's maybe normal. I still find it strange , but again I am not a mechanic.