Evening gang

 

I’ve currently got an ultra gauge plugged in to the OBD, mainly to check if the car still produces boost when I feel it lose power (it does, but tends to stall at about 15/16psi goes north of 22 when I’m round town and give it a boot full in 3rd/4th) anyway.. I’ve noticed the engine temp reading tends to start at -30/40 when it’s cold, and it takes absolute age for it to get warm, I’ve also noticed the fans staying on.. could this be a temp sensor issue? 🤔 

It wouldn’t be one of my cars if it didn’t have constant issues 🤣 this afternoon it decided at a very busy set of traffic lights that it didn’t want to accelerate and had a flashing glow plug light)… luckily I always have a tow rope and other various bits in the car and my best mate was behind me in his Discovery. I managed to limp it to a safe area at the side of the dual carriageway (police car parking area) to get it set up to tow. Got it home and left it all afternoon, started it at about half 8 (after unsuccessfully connecting the diagnostics to it) and it ran and drove absolutely fine… 

 

Very quickly starting to lose my rag with this car, I’m hoping that I can figure out the cause tomorrow morning as I need to be at the office in Manchester at 6am Monday morning to open up 

On 21/01/2025 at 22:45, JoeHindle said:

I’ve noticed the engine temp reading tends to start at -30/40 when it’s cold, and it takes absolute age for it to get warm, I’ve also noticed the fans staying on.. could this be a temp sensor issue? 🤔 

 

yes a very common failure, when it happened on mine the only symptom was the engine surging instead of slowing down when I took my foot off the throttle at lower RPMs, like someone else was pressing on it, very disconcerting as it would happen slowing for traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and traffic in front.

 

One of the few bits where pattern parts invariably are as bad as the failed original, I think its a green VAG one that you have to look out for.

Quite a productive day off so far, I’ve cleaned the MAF as best as I could, cleaned the air filter housing out and cleaned the panel out as well. Found the reason for my horn not working (fuse was missing 🙄) and removed the vacuum bowl that sits on the front of the engine as all the hose had perished.. 

 

now to figure out why my reverse lights stay on permanently 

On 03/02/2025 at 13:30, JoeHindle said:

Quite a productive day off so far, I’ve cleaned the MAF as best as I could, cleaned the air filter housing out and cleaned the panel out as well. Found the reason for my horn not working (fuse was missing 🙄) and removed the vacuum bowl that sits on the front of the engine as all the hose had perished.. 

 

now to figure out why my reverse lights stay on permanently 

reverse light issue fixed! Passenger side bulb holder had some corrosion on the bottom of it, used some WD40 equivalent (other water dispersal sprays are available) and some steel wool to clean it up and refitted the reverse light bulbs and the didn’t come on until I engaged reverse! Now I can see when I reverse onto the drive when it’s dark 🤣

 

Next jobs are temp sensor, sort the turbo and replace the NSF wheel bearing. Then it’ll be time for a cambelt change and a service 😁

So it’s been a little bit.. boost issue seems to have fixed itself and whoever mapped that car in the past did a hell of a job! It pulls extremely well in every gear, especially 5th.. I had an R56 Cooper S that was mapped and it pulled well, but this little Skoda is something else 🤣