Having a few problems with the Felcher:

Drove for about five minutes, noticed recently the car is starting to emit plumes of white smoke from exhaust.

Driving home before, white smoke was coming out even while driving. It's not 'thick', but it's hard to tell what is a lot in this situation, and it's very cold out.

Heater started blowing cold, and lukewarm, it has been doing this intermittently for about a week, but now it's just cold/warm.

The car isn't overheating - the temp gauge goes up to halfway, and comes down when the thermostat supposedly opens.

Radiator is hot/very warm after five or so minutes, coolant bottle water is freezing (it wasn't pressurised like a HG would be). Could it be blocked??? I can't figure it out. Also, no white deposit at all in oil, only a tiny, tiny bit on the oil cap (I do a lot of short driving).

I'm going to have a proper look tomorrow - I bought the car for purpose of driving 200 miles a day - is this a good idea with these?

Edited 4 February, 201214 yr by Violet

sounds like you need to bleed the radiator.

I'd flush the coolant and try bleeding the rad, I don't know the in's and out's of a "felchers" cooling system but it seems this way to me.

Will try that, I changed the water two weeks ago and it's not been right since. Thanks

Think it's a case of hose pipe in every rubber hose with axle stands.

I think this is bad ...

White smoke all the time, and big plumes, even driving, it follows the car. Car doesn't even come close to overheating - not sure if this matters.

Felicia oil cap mayonnaise by Jibijib, on Flickr

Felicia white smoke by Jibijib, on Flickr

Felicia white smoke by Jibijib, on Flickr

Anyone with any knowledge on this?

Tried compression test this morning - it's getting 11 - 12 on cold engine on all cylinders. Smoke is still present from exhaust - there's a lot if moisture dripping from the pipe. It took about half an hour to reach max temperature where the stat opened. Going to try test on hot engine now.

Compression test is 10bar+ - approximately equal across all cylinders.

There's a lot of moisture coming from the exhaust, but not as much as last night due to temperature - in fact I'm wondering if this is normal now?

After a 20 minute idle test, wiping the oil cap first, the cap had condensation underneath:

Skoda Felicia wet oil cap by Jibijib, on Flickr

Car is definitely overfuelling though.

Cylinder #2 (assume #1 is the same, I didn't take a photo) - also I couldn't take a photo in time as the needle peaked just below 11bar:

Skoda Felicia - cylinder 2 by Jibijib, on Flickr

Spark plug #2:

Skoda Felicia - spark plug 2 by Jibijib, on Flickr

Cylinder #3:

Skoda Felicia - cylinder 3 by Jibijib, on Flickr

Spark plug #3:

Skoda Felicia - spark plug 3 by Jibijib, on Flickr

Cylinder #4:

Skoda Felicia - cylinder 4 by Jibijib, on Flickr

Spark plug #4:

Skoda Felicia - spark plug 4 by Jibijib, on Flickr

Plugs were heavily sooted up - this was after wiping back to metal, and sooted up again after 20 minutes of idling. ???

Does the temperature guage stay at half way during a run at over 40mph ish without stopping for say 15 minutes or does it go down a lot?

Reading through your posts I'm starting to think it's the usual broken plastic thermostat housing leading to overcooling, poor heater and condensation in the oil cap syndrome.

The gauge does fluctuate a lot - goes to mid way and then drops, but generally stays within a certain range after a while.

I've just replaced the thermostat!

I'm probably speaking to myself on this now, but drained the water today, and filled it the correct way (with the CTS out), until it got to the top and then capped it, topped it up and then put the tank cap on.

Had to stop on two occasions because the heater started blowing cold and each time took the CTS out and it was pure air. Heater gauge was fluctuating a lot - think steam/hot air was doing this. Seems OK now. Also steam is a lot less, think that was down to the weather. Have bought some K-seal just in case.

You're not talking to yourself, please keep us posted on how it goes.

do you have a plastic thermostat? (I see plug leads in one pic and only the late spi cars had plastic one)

it is most likely the cold weather causing the steam but it could also be helped along by a coolant temp sender playing up which is in the plastic thermostat housing on the late cars and on the rear of the inlet manifold on the older spi cars,if yours is on the manifold then check the wiring carefully as they used to break there causing the engine to overfuel.

wet in the oil cap is normal in this cold weather especially if its taking half hour for the engine to get to temp.

if you remove the sender from the thermostat housing when the motor is cold and remove the pressure cap it should bleed itself thru the sender hole, then warm it up with the pressure cap off this allows the air to work its way out with out causing pressure in the system then refit cap and take it for a drive to see of the heater is better

Drove for about 3/4 hour tonight and heating is constant. I'm less worried about the steam from exhaust, think I was being paranoid.

I think it's bled properly now - I had a plastic elbow for the thermostat, where they metal on the SPi's? I replaced it with an MPi one (identical), but have two different CTS's - a yellow spot and a blue spot one - both are only slightly different OHMage cold and warmed up.

Sounds like it just needs a really good run.

With the coolant not being bled properly and before that the thermostat open all the time it's probably not been getting warm enough for long enough to burn the moisture off.

These engines do suffer from condensation in the engine especially if used on a lot of short journeys.

I always used to take mine for a good long run every week or two as I only used it for short journeys and always had mayo under the cap (no coolant loss though and HG was fine). Just wipe any mayo off you see and take it for a good run.

Phil

I'm hoping it is - I've got a few 240 mile journeys ahead of me next week for new job!

Did it again today - went cold, parked up, took sensor out - loads of air and then coolant. It didn't take an MGF this long to do!