hi i have a skoda octavia classic 1.9 sdi , its used as a taxi and has 260,000 on clock but full service history, today its started lossing power in 2nd and 3rd and blows a cloud of smoke out if you put it under any pressure but its ok if you just drive it normally , any ideas re ther problem will be welcome thank you

What colour is the smoke?

seems to be black sometimes but could be blue

hiya ive just took it round the block it feels like its miss firing and id say the smoke is whitish

Im no expert, but white smoke is normally head gasket related. Is the oil milky? Even if the oil is clean you can still have water ingestion into a cylinder but if it is milky its conclusive.

Hi just checked oil and seems to be ok but thanks for advice

sounds like head gasket, if its pumping out white smoke, keep an eye on oil and coolent level.

Like I said ealier milky oil is not always the case with a blown head gasket. It depends where the defect is. ie It can be directly from a waterway into the cylinder and not contaminate the oil at all. Obviously check your water level and you could also remove your radiator fill up cap (when cold obviously) and start the car. If any bubbles appear then your getting blow back from cylinder compression confirming head gasket failure. Another thing is a turbo seal but i didn't think the 1.9 SDI had one.

As i'm no expert best to get it checked out properly anyway.

All the best.

hi thanks for that , i have been topping up my coolant bottle every other day for the last week but hadnt thought much of it just though it had leaking pipe , is head gasket a big job to do if it is that

Yeah, would cost a few hundred quid usually.

Yeah, loosing water and white smoke 99.9% head gasket failure. Not sure on price, that very much depends on what is found. Worst case senario the head could have warped or cracked. But if it just requires a new gasket its not a massive job but still 3-4 hundred upwards most likely.

Unfortunately these thing do happen on any car.

ok thank you for all your help it is much appreciated