Pinking/Knocking with FSI Engines?

[doctorelectron]

Before my first service and during my 11th month of ownership from new, my Octavia 1.6FSI started to produce rattling noises from the engine bay. During my third visit to try to rectify the problem with my dealer, they highlighted a pinking problem. This problem is apparently found with some 1.6FSI engines. An ECU software patch was applied to rectify the engine timings but it did not solve the problem! :(

Has anyone had a pinking problem even after an ECU timing software patch???

My car pinks occasionally when pulling away on the flat in 1st, and often noticeably between 2000-3500 revs in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear when accelerating. The problem seems worse with more passengers, I assume when the engine is under more load.

Now after my 4th visit to my dealership, I have been told that they and apparently Skoda UK now do not seem to have a solution other than to suggest using Premium fuel, which I use anyway and does not make any noticeable difference to the pinking. Any help or advice greatly appreciated!

Cheers.

[Tom_vRS]

Well, the first thing I can think of is the fuel - the FSI is designed to run on 98RON fuel. Other than that, not heard of any issues for this engine :(

[doctorelectron]

Hi Tom thanks for the reply.

Yes, I have been using 98RON or better fuel (Tesco 99 or VPower etc) with the car but it does not seem to make any difference. :(

[mercian]

One year on (1.6FSI) and never had any problems with pinking except under load with 95RON petrol. Changing to higher RON fuel has cured this.

[Tech1e]

To be honest they all knock a bit, especially when moving off. Seems to be a side effect of such a high compression engine and direct injection.

[mercian]

Does that mean I can go back to using 95RON?

At the risk of starting yet another thread on fuel quality, higher octane subjectively seems to make a difference to performance - and even a slight fuel consumption improvement.

[rvacaru]

I think 1.6 FSI does NOT require CO98 (at least in Germany). On my fuel cap is written 95/98 Super Benzin (that is CO95 in Germany).

Just first FSI engines required 98, coz of lean mixture story. Octavia has BLF engine, homogenous, should work OK with CO95, right?