Got a second hand Octavia 1.4 TSI 2 weeks ago mk3. All been working fine and now won’t start with yellow epc light.

I don’t know if this is relevant: My friend moved the car last night reversing up a hill slightly and maybe over revving with a very strong lasting smell of petrol.

Now I’ve come to start the car this morning and the starter motor kicks in sort of sounds ok and then all goes quiet.

We’ve tried recharging the battery but that hasn’t worked.

Still a strong smell of petrol.

Maybe the engine is flooded. I’ve tried holding the accelerator down but I’m not sure if should do that while I’m trying to start the car or just with the ignition on.

Any other ideas from the wonderful people here.

RAC can’t come for 4 hours 😢

Just noticed a small amount of petrol pooled on the bottom panel underneath the engine block. I wonder if that makes flooding more likely or another issue…

Going to try this clearing mode soon by pumping the accelerator but slightly terrified about causing more damage??

As per my reply to your other post, stop any further attempts to start engine. It is highly likely that the fuel rail bolts have failed or loosened!

Hopefully you have home recovery as it will probably be necessary to recover to garage.

3 hours ago, Warrior193 said:

As per my reply to your other post, stop any further attempts to start engine. It is highly likely that the fuel rail bolts have failed or loosened!

Hopefully you have home recovery as it will probably be necessary to recover to garage.

Thank you, yes all left alone now. I think you’re right. Still waiting for recovery from RAC

@harpix42 What was RAC technicians finding?

yes i was going to come back to you thanks for asking. He got the engine started by holding down the accelerator (i think my friend had flooded the engine as well as the underlying leak). Maybe he caused the leak by stressing the engine or maybe it was already there... anyway I've forgiven him... 😅

So we got the engine running but we couldn't see a leak but there as clear smell of fresh petrol. nothing coming from the rails or the fuel line. He presumed O ring seal failure. In the garage now, hoping it's a simple as yours with just a seal replacement and tightening of bolts. Annoyingly garage won't deal with warranty companies but I might just take the hit.

Will let you know what the garage says. Glad to hear you've had no further problems. Like I said we only got the car 10 days ago so it feels really worrying that this might suggest loads of further problems but it seems like it could just be a coincidence??

Edited 16 March16 Mar by harpix42

6 hours ago, Warrior193 said:

@harpix42 What was RAC technicians finding?

@Warrior193 sorry I forgot to tag you in my reply above!

Unless there is a faulty injection system, in normal operation, can you flood an engine these days?

Probably not - although there is a message flashed up on my Octavia's screen if the throttle is touched while starting engine.

15 hours ago, ords said:

Unless there is a faulty injection system, in normal operation, can you flood an engine these days?

@ords good point. Is that something else to worry about? Or maybe it wasn't flooded and it just wouldn't start because of the fuel leak? RAC man got it started by holding down accelerator whilst turning on ignition

@Warrior193 so mechanic got to the fuel rail and yes one bolt sheared off and two loose with some seals damaged. He has never heard of it before and his VW parts seller has never heard of it BUT then they have this whole repair kit on the shelf which suggests (like you are well aware) that it's a known problem.

Unfortunately he said it was really difficult to get to and will have to charge 3 hours Labour in total. ☹️ Will try the warranty though although they might say normal wear and tear.

Going to try and complain to VW group given the potential risk of fire - did you report yours to anyone? Not that it would probably do anything! I'm trying to find the US recall that i keep see being mentioned about this issue. Can only find something related to VW Jettas.

EDIT. I found it: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCRIT-20V648-7026.pdf

All skoda jettas (octavias basically) with a 1.4 TSI engine made between 2016 and 2018 all recalled. Unbelievable!!

Edited 17 March17 Mar by harpix42

Have read its a fairly common fault hence why they have a repair kit on the shelf. Cant see it being classed as wear and tear (more of a manufacturing defect) but maybe check with garage that gave you warranty first as if its fixed by someone else they may say warranty invalid. Years ago had a radiator fail 2 days after buying car and had to be fixed elsewhere as we were away from home. When I tried to claim from garage they said that unless they did the repair they werent liabel.

Alasdair

4 hours ago, harpix42 said:

@Warrior193 so mechanic got to the fuel rail and yes one bolt sheared off and two loose with some seals damaged. He has never heard of it before and his VW parts seller has never heard of it BUT then they have this whole repair kit on the shelf which suggests (like you are well aware) that it's a known problem.

Unfortunately he said it was really difficult to get to and will have to charge 3 hours Labour in total. ☹️ Will try the warranty though although they might say normal wear and tear.

Going to try and complain to VW group given the potential risk of fire - did you report yours to anyone? Not that it would probably do anything! I'm trying to find the US recall that i keep see being mentioned about this issue. Can only find something related to VW Jettas.

EDIT. I found it: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCRIT-20V648-7026.pdf

All skoda jettas (octavias basically) with a 1.4 TSI engine made between 2016 and 2018 all recalled. Unbelievable!!

I reported my failure to DVSA - they replied that they did not regard this failure incident to constitute a fire risk!

I had fairly high quantity of fuel streaming down the front of the engine.

I'll see if I can recover the US fault report number.

Not sure of full title for the North America report - but it did result in a vehicle recall over there - that was 24Gi.

The reply I got from DVSA did state that they had previously investigated a number of these fuel rail faults with the 'assistance of the manufacturer'

The grounds that DVSA gave me for their findings was that there was no ignition source present at the time of my incident!

The starter motor has commutator, brush gear and a solenoid with switch contacts, all of which can produce sparking.

No actual ignition source is necessary if the vehicle is in motion if/when this fuel rail failure occurs - autoignition temperature of petrol is around 250-280 deg. C, diesel is lower at 210 deg. C

- Guess the name of at least two items in engine bay that run temperatures considerably higher than that.

Sorry, I thought i knew which thread in the Mk3 Fabia section had a post showing the pathetic reply the DVSA give, but my memory failed me, or i am just missing it.

1 hour ago, Warrior193 said:

No actual ignition source is necessary if the vehicle is in motion if/when this fuel rail failure occurs - autoignition temperature of petrol is around 250-280 deg. C, diesel is lower at 210 deg. C

- Guess the name of at least two items in engine bay that run temperatures considerably higher than that.

I can confirm. Had old volvo with small pin hole in fuel return. Stink of petrol was awful. Had car running to see where leak was and woosh small fireball. Pin hole was hitting manifold. Lucky was on the return and only enough to cause flash fire and had co2 extinguisher handy although eye brows took a while to recover. Any petrol leak is in my opinion very serious as vapours tend to build up especially when car is sitting. Also an immediate MOT fail and immediate prohibiton from driving. Read the Mk2 was recalled for fuel leak but havent seen any for the mk3

Alasdair

The mandatory recall was for North America - involved approx. 250 000 1.4TSI Passats manufactured between 2016 and 2018.

No recall (or even TSI) AFAIK issued for Europe.

Edited 18 March18 Mar by Warrior193
clarification

There was a UK DVSA Critical Safety Recall on 2014 VW Polo. Possible fuel leak, but that was Filter Canister i think, and not called for the fire risk but handling. I suppose liquid fuel on rear tyre / discs....

Edited 18 March18 Mar by Evolution13

Read that the recall in states didnt cover fabia as they dont sell them there. Its the usual problem. I reckon car manufacturers work out the cost of recall and the cost to them in legal cases and choose the lowest. Probably why recall in the states and not uk as they seem more prone to sue for a lot more money. Either way its a serious defect and should be recalled and fixed for free.

Alasdair

& it is not just 1.4 TSI,s. 1.2TSI,s as well, and threads in the Mk3 Fabia, Rapid, Kodiaq.

24 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

& it is not just 1.4 TSI,s. 1.2TSI,s as well, and threads in the Mk3 Fabia, Rapid, Kodiaq

Probably all 4 cylinder EA211 engines are affected?

7 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

Probably all 4 cylinder EA211 engines are affected?

Hope not as quick google and acccording to AI theres over 2.5 million of EA211 outhere. No wonder they dont want a recall. It would take years and cost a fortune

Alasdair