Hello, 

I experienced some strange issues with my 2019 Skoda Fabia. I was driving on a hill, at low speed (stopping and starting due to traffic) and on a slightly steeper part, the car failed to start. There was a bit of gravel on the road and the road was a bit wet so the wheels lost traction a bit. In that bit, the engine stopped. I tried to rev the engine a bit and it wouldn't go past 4000 rpm. I managed to go past that spot because someone gave me a push.

 

Same thing happened more than 1 year ago, in the summer, on an uphill gravel road. When I had the technical inspection I told them about the problem, but they couldn't find anything wrong with the car and they explained that it was caused by overheating of the clutch and the engine entering protection mode (or something like this).  I kind of accepted the explanation (it was a really hot weather and a bad road), but the recent incident showed me that something is definitely wrong.  

If you are wanting to use 4k revs + on a hillstart your clutch will need all the protection that it can get.

 

You have not said what engine or fuel your vehicle is, most diesels will not rev above 2.5k rpm until the vehicle is moving, it is done for good reason.

2 minutes ago, J.R. said:

If you are wanting to use 4k revs + on a hillstart your clutch will need all the protection that it can get.

 

You have not said what engine or fuel your vehicle is, most diesels will not rev above 2.5k rpm until the vehicle is moving, it is done for good reason.

The engine is the 1l TSI, 110hp, manual. I didn't try to start the car revving the engine at 4k. I put it in neutral and revved the engine to see if there is something wrong. It didn't go over 4k.

When in gear, I tried to start normally, without revving the engine. 

The ECU limits the engine to 4000 rpm when the car is stationary, so that bit at least is normal behaviour.

You see that vital piece of missing information (your engine type) would have avoided the confusion, the small turbocharged petrol engined vehicles need to be revved a lot more for a hill start than a diesel but those revs need to be modulated in conjunction with the clutch, not easy especially with a surface lacking traction.

 

As has been said they are limited to 4K RPM until the vehicle is in motion, the diesels are limited to 2.5K rpm which shows the difference in torque.

 

At low revs you are effectively doing a hillstart in a very underpowered small engined but very heavy car, a Mini 850 would have a far easier job, using all the revs available means full boost and more power than the small flywheel and clutch can cope with under hillstart conditions, I'm sure the torque limiting did come into play.

 

You say the engine stopped, do you mean stalled or gave reduced power?

Edited 14 February, 20224 yr by J.R.

1 hour ago, ionutus said:

it was a really hot weather and a bad road

Aside from engine type, we do ask for "where you live", because this may affect technical and/or legal advice. On what's been posted thus far, I'd agree with the other posters that this is a designed in engine and clutch protection system.

28 minutes ago, J.R. said:

You see that vital piece of missing information (your engine type) would have avoided the confusion, the small turbocharged petrol engined vehicles need to be revved a lot more for a hill start than a diesel but those revs need to be modulated in conjunction with the clutch, not easy especially with a surface lacking traction.

 

As has been said they are limited to 4K RPM until the vehicle is in motion, the diesels are limited to 2.5K rpm which shows the difference in torque.

 

At low revs you are effectively doing a hillstart in a very underpowered small engined but very heavy car, a Mini 850 would have a far easier job, using all the revs available means full boost and more power than the small flywheel and clutch can cope with under hillstart conditions, I'm sure the torque limiting did come into play.

 

You say the engine stopped, do you mean stalled or gave reduced power?

 

The engine stalled. My impression was that the stalling was related to the slight loss of traction and not to an under-revving of the engine. Further details: no heavy loads in the car, luggage for a weekend, driver + 1 passenger.

 

@KenONeill: I live in Romania.

1 hour ago, ionutus said:

I live in Romania.

So a steep gravel road in Roumania in Summer; Perfect conditions for the protection software to activate, and your engine to be slightly down on power.

It could be a combination of the traction control braking the spinning wheel, removing the fuelling the and the lack of torque causing the stall when the wheel gained traction.

 

Often it is hard to replicate these things.

3 hours ago, KenONeill said:

So a steep gravel road in Roumania in Summer; Perfect conditions for the protection software to activate, and your engine to be slightly down on power.

There were 2 incidents. 1st incident: summer (2020), steep unpaved stones/gravel road in Greece (terrible heat). I couldn't climb that hill. I asked the service about the issue and they told me that it was the protection software caused by overheating.

2nd incident: last weekend (rather cold ~ 0ºC), steep hill (but not very steep), asphalt road with a bit of fine gravel (leftovers from the winter anti-slippery material). The road was wet, no ice. I had winter tires. This incident worried me because it wasn't really something out of ordinary with that road. 

3 hours ago, ionutus said:

2nd incident: last weekend (rather cold ~ 0ºC), steep hill (but not very steep), asphalt road with a bit of fine gravel (leftovers from the winter anti-slippery material). The road was wet, no ice. I had winter tires. This incident worried me because it wasn't really something out of ordinary with that road.

This sounds like an ASR system doing what it's designed to do. Did you get a warning light?

Usually in situations like that which require concentration the last place that you will be looking is a small area of the instrument binnacle to see a momentary flash of an orange symbol.

 

Perhaps those of you with 2 working eyes and better pereipheral vision can see it but I can't, I have to actively look for it.

12 hours ago, KenONeill said:

This sounds like an ASR system doing what it's designed to do. Did you get a warning light?

 

12 hours ago, J.R. said:

Usually in situations like that which require concentration the last place that you will be looking is a small area of the instrument binnacle to see a momentary flash of an orange symbol.

 

Perhaps those of you with 2 working eyes and better pereipheral vision can see it but I can't, I have to actively look for it.

I didn't notice any warning lights. Maybe I missed it, in the heat of the moment. Anyhow, I will ask a different service for a second opinion.