Conrod and warranty

[Ambiente Geoff]

Driving to Morcambe, after my 1.9 tdi Octavia Ambiente (2004) had carried on accelerating after I had taken my foot off the accelerator, there was a plume of white smoke. I stopped the car and ultimateley got towed to David Ian in Morcambe. Many suggestions were made as to what the problem was; Turbo, engine management, too much oil and finaly the conrod is bent!
i have about 22,000 miles on the car. As I admitted putting a litre of oil in the car in April no warranty work is forth coming, they now have to diagnose the cause of the fault.
I have had no car for 2 weeks as they will not give me a courtessy car.
What do you think?

[Jimmy]

Is the dealer saying that you over filled the car with oil and hence caused the failure??

[cheezemonkhai]

I think thats awful service that they have had your car for two weeks and no courtesy car. Your car is under warrenty, so I would expect decent service. Is the dealer trying to imply that you topping the oil up has caused this failure? I have seen overfilled cars and usually the oil just ends up escaping somewhere/being burnt not blowing anything. It isn't like the oil in that car is thick either, it's only a 0/5w 30 depending on what you have put in there. Additioanlly my main delaer actually told me, doesn't matter what you top it up with really, you will be ok as long as you don't put more than a liter of oil in as long as it's roughly right.

No courtesy car because they are boooked out is fine, but they are not booked out for two weeks. They should definately find you a car in my opinion.

[Ambiente Geoff]

the garage drained 4 litres of oil from my car to get it to a reaonable level (they said there was 7 litres in the engine) and htey have been umming and ahhing since the beginning. The garage where I bought the car gave me more advice without having the car to look at. The Morcambe dealership want to blame my 1 litre of oil for it all!
The number of alternative problems that the head mechanic came up with before setling on teh conrod and needing a short motor does not give me confidence

[Jimmy]

What I'd like to know is:

1. Why did you put 1 litre of oil in when it would be obvious that it already had too much oil in it to begin with??
2. Why did it have too much oil in it in the first instance (6 litres). Who last serviced it??

[cheezemonkhai]

In addition to the good points made by jimmy..

How did they fit 7 litres of oil in the car?

If the bottom of the dipsick to the top is 1 liter, then to have 3 liters too much in it would almost certainly have caused some oil to leak out of the dipstick and appear over/under the engine.

I'm sorry but I just don't believe you can fit 7 litres into the 1.9TDI, although if somebody knows better feel free to correct me.

Also what do you mean by needing a short motor?

[Tom_vRS]

Short motor is the bottom end - an engine without the head.

This sounds pretty strange. 7l in the engine would certainly be a cause for concern, but sounds a bit fishy to me.

And as for a courtesy car - give Skoda UK a call - they can be helpful if you have the right attitude...

Good luck getting it fixed, and keep us posted.

[cheezemonkhai]

Ouch for most of motor being replaced.

However I still don't see how you could fit 7 litres of oil in that engine. I just don't see where it would all go without it first spilling out from an obvious place.

[Ambiente Geoff]

the mechanic said that I need a short motor as the engine comes in 3 parts and the conrod and sump need replacing because the conrod is bent! I don't need a cylinder head.
I am not hte most mechanically minded person in the world, so wjhen I looked at the dipstick and couldn't see where the oil finished (a good 2 inches above the max.) I thought the car needed the oil.
There has been no trace of oil outside the engine.
The car was serviced by teh Skoda dealership I boughrt it from and according to hte log book, thery changed hte oil

[Tom_vRS]

So are they going to do the work under warranty? I imagine the bill would be around £2500 otherwise!

[texasjohn]

Hang on a minute...

You say you checked the oil and it was ALREADY 2 inches above the max?

In that case someone had ALREADY overfilled it...(and possibly already caused any damage due to overfill).

Surely not your Skoda dealer at the previous service?

I am confused now, but good luck with this.

I think if I was in your shoes I'd change my story and not admit to putting that litre of oil in.

You might want to have it towed elsewhere, and ahem, 'start again' with your story at a new dealership!

Not the most ethical way forward, but my ethics tend to take a back seat if big bills are the consequence of being honest!!!

[Ambiente Geoff]

I am phoning customer services at dinner time (yes, I'm doing this at work!) as the garage was due to phone me yesterday and didn't. I can't lie about the oil I put in, its too late but I will not allow them to railroad me in to accepting blame. I'll keep you posted.

[TaviaRS]

My bet would be on the oil pump. Had it on a XR3i I borrowed. Engine oil light came on so I stopped and filled it till the light went out, even though there was some showing on the dipstick. Drove about 20 miles before it just stopped, much like yours did.

Fairly cheap to fix.

[Lummox]

Originally Posted by cheezemonkhai

I'm sorry but I just don't believe you can fit 7 litres into the 1.9TDI, although if somebody knows better feel free to correct me.

You can fit 24 litres of engine oil in a 1.9 TDi, trust me I know. Seen an oil dispensor go wrong and didnt cut out (not on me i'd like to add). It will fill up too the oil filler, then back down the breather system, into the inlet manifold and fill up the engine (theres 1.9 litres for ya) out through the exhaust valves and into the turbo, exhaust etc.

[cheezemonkhai]

Originally Posted by Lummox

You can fit 24 litres of engine oil in a 1.9 TDi......

Ouch, bet that was an expensive repair, still if i ever feel like putting 24 litres of oil in a car .....

[oskah]

If its a PD engine is there anywhere on the injector system under the cam cover where the diesel could leak from, causing it to run into the sump and mix with the oil and overfilling the engine. Mind its only a theory and I would have thought the mechanics would have noticed it.

[cheezemonkhai]

if it's ambientie it's non-pd

[fordfan]

after my 1.9 tdi Octavia Ambiente (2004) had carried on accelerating after I had taken my foot off the accelerator

Looks like it has been using its oil as fuel, one explanation is that the overfill of oil caused the turbo seals to go allowing it into the engine and act as fuel - resulting in the bent con rod as too much oil got into that cylinder and it hydraulicked, also the engine would over rev as the limiter is within the fuel system.

If that was the case you would be very lucky to get it repaired under warranty. As well as a new engine you may also need a turbo

[KenONeill]

They're saying you need a complete short engine for one bent conrod!? Unless the rod's gone through the block, or it's cheaper than a rod, crank and main bearing set?

[Stuart_J]

A complete s/hand lump with turbo etc might be the answer then its just a swap over. certainly worth getting a few prices from reputable breakers as a guide before deciding