Hi all,

I had to have my car (54 reg standard mk1 vrs) recovered to my local Skoda dealer yesterday becuase it started misfiring on my way to work.

I've just picked it up again now after the coil on cylinder No.2 has been replaced to be told the exhaust is blowing, probably from the manifold but it needs striping down to find out exactly.

I've booked it in to have it done next thursday now as that's the soonest they could give me a courtesy car.

Drove it home, only about a mile if that and the exhaust is definatly blowing....it wasn't doing it before the coil failure though!

The recovery driver yesterday morning revved the engine very, very hard a few times while it was cold and misfiring......could that have caused the exhaust problem?

Also between now and next thursday I need to use it a bit, will it be ok? Obviously I'll take it easy and try and drive it as little as possible, but I'll probably need to do 200 miles or so.

Many thanks and any advice greatly appreciated in advance,

Andy

If it is the exhaust blowing, I would think it should be okay to drive unless the thing is hanging off which could be a safety risk.

Agreed, but it's a bit of a nonsense to say that you need to strip anything to locate where an exhaust blow is, unless you've already identified it as being up at the manifold (inc turbo).

Hi again, thanks for the replies....just had a call from my dealer after taking it in last night apparently it's the downpipe which is blowing...however it's attached to the cat and I need to replace the cat as well at a cost of nearly £600. I've told them not to bother for now.

Can anybody tell me if this is correct?

Have I got any alternatives?

Just my luck the warranty ran out on the 6th of Jan.

Alternative would be to replace it with a (cat-free?) performance down pipe from one of the tuners on here. Or you could bodge it with some exhaust weld stuff, depending on where abouts it is blowing. Was the £600 just for the parts or did it include fitting?

Chris

Im sure you could get it welded by a specialist exhaust place or failing that check ebay etc.

it seems a bit steep for the front part but I suppose it's the cat

the only alternative I could suggest is that for not much more you could bite the bullet and put a stainless steel on on

these guys are advertising the full milltek system for £640.00

Skoda Octavia (97 to 04) - Milltek Sport Performance Exhausts - ICJ Performance

Just sold the OE one off mine to another member on here £100 sounds cheap now:(

Phil

I think you did alright with £100 for a secondhand one.

Thanks for all the suggestions, first thing I'm gonna do I think is try and have a look for myself where it's blowing, which I'll do on saturday when it's daylight.

I really need a cheap fix right now, so hopefully the tape repair kit or a weld might do it...........I think I need to find myself a decent local exhaust place and while I'm at it a decent place to get my car looked after full stop...........I don't think the dealer is ever gonna see it again.

If you need a cat from an Mk1 Octy vRS , then just give me a PM as I have one that came off of mine at 30K when I had a complete turbo back Blueflame fitted.

If you need it, make me an offer, I'm in Essex, so not too far.

So this saga rumbles on.....I've just taken it to a couple of local exhaust places, acted dumb and said "I think my exhaust is blowing, can you look at it".

First place (Wilco Fast Fit) had a good look and seemed to know what they were doing, as I was stood beside the ramp watching. They had a little trouble finding the blow by feeling around and when they pushed upwards on the little plate that I assume protects the catalyst the noise lessened. They seemed to think it's a flexible pipe that's knackered near the turbo end...I'm not sure if this is the same as the downpipe the dealer said was at fault. However they were unable to obtain any parts cos my vRS is such a uncommon car apparently and suggested I go to the main dealer.

Second place (ATS Euromaster) took it out the back and I could only see vaguely what they were doing, they seemed to have equal trouble finding it and their method involved revving the engine. They think the problem is a leaking gasket between the turbo and the exhaust, which is also what the dealer suspected in the first place I guess. Again the advice was to take it to the main dealer.

So now I'm even more confused because everybody has a slightly different answer. If I was made of money I'd get the dealer to sort it, but I'm not. I haven't got £600 and I haven't got a clue!

I'm considering contacting Skoda since the warranty only ran out in early January. See if they might offer something towards it.

I guess the main thing I want to know is whether this downpipe and this flexible bit are the same thing.

Why didn't I buy a bicycle!

Skoda won't probably do anything cos an Exhaust problems are 'normal wear and tear'.

Though you could moan alot saying how you'll never buy another Skoda, certainly worked for me when I told them this was my second Skoda when I had problems and if they wouldn't help I wouldn't be buying another one. Miraculously the dealership had a phone call from Skoda and got the problem sorted ASAP!!

Havent you got any specialist exhaust places around like Blueflame, Milltek etc? Im sure theyd sort it. Or Jabba arent very far from yours? However you may come out skint!!

Skoda won't probably do anything cos an Exhaust problems are 'normal wear and tear'.

Though you could moan alot saying how you'll never buy another Skoda, certainly worked for me when I told them this was my second Skoda when I had problems and if they wouldn't help I wouldn't be buying another one. Miraculously the dealership had a phone call from Skoda and got the problem sorted ASAP!!

This is my second Skoda too, I had an 02 Reg Fabia 1.4i 16v before this. Up until now I've been more than happy with both cars.....anyway Skoda Customer Service have been emailed.

If your going for a new cat or uprated then these are the people to talk to

PipeWerx - Performance Exhaust Specialist

PipeWerx look good......I'm sure I remember one of their twin engined vw cars on the website from a magazine years ago.

However........Skoda customer services have been kind enough to provide the part foc as a goodwill gesture so I only need to pay the labour charge.......I'm happy with that and I'm happy with my Skoda again!