What did you do to your Octavia today?

[GTR27]

Did a Nulon Foaming Intake Cleaner treatment.

Oil & filter change. 5w-30 Mobil1 504.00/507.00 & Mahle filter

Pulled the O2 sensor out & blasted it with a blow torch until it was cherry red to get rid of the 0,5mm coating of gunk all over it.

Drilled a 200mm x 100mm opening into the undertray so my mechanic doesn't have to remove it to do an oil change.

Bloody car goes far better than it has a right too. My Liberty RS was ready for the tip at the same mileage.

I wasn't sure about upper engine cleaners until I got a gsxr750 that has been running pig rich for a while and literally had 1/2 a cm of carbon build up on the back of the intake valves. Saw nulon recommended, so have it a crack. Hosed down in the throttle bodies. Took the plugs out hosed into the bores. Left it for an hour then cranked it out, then re hosed both. Put plugs in and tried to start after another hour, took about 30 secs of cranking but it coughed and fired into life. Not before blasting a full cup of carbon out the exhaust. Literally a cup, I could pick up carbon chunks, and the driveway has a black fan shape on it. Did it twice more and the valves were pretty much squeeky clean. I do it on all vehicles every service now. I love the stuff.

[notflyingscot]

Sorry Mysticality but other than shiny misshapen bit of metal left of centre what is exactly am I seeing as a "fixed" issue?

[brad]

Wire around the flex joint of the DP I think. flex joint must be a bit loose

[woofy]

The Mazda dealer I used before all my Mazdas went used to do the upper engine cleaner as part of their service, about $100 extra. Only place I know that did and it made a difference.

[brad]

Fuel Filter & Air Filter.
Bought UFI brand of eBay and was unsure of the quality & only when changing the fuel filter realised that the OEM VW init was UFI branded, so I'm happy with that.
For reference: OEM partno 1K0201051C. UFI partno 3184000

I did the last fuel filter at 60,000km and forgot it was due at 120k so was keen to see how much rubbish would come out after 82,500km. Surprisingly, after a shake & back flush there wasn't much in the way of loose contaminant.

I do air filters at 45,000km and the unit that comes out never looks any different to the new one, so nothing to report there.

[Mysticality]

Sorry Mysticality but other than shiny misshapen bit of metal left of centre what is exactly am I seeing as a "fixed" issue?

Wire around the flex joint of the DP I think. flex joint must be a bit loose

Sorry, yes, exactly this.
Flex joint cover was rattling something chronic, only at 2,800-3,100rpm so was difficult to pinpoint, but we got it! In the end...


Have now left my baby at the dealership for awhile, 2nd gear, 1st gear and 3rd gear synchros all went in the brand new 9,000km old gearbox...
Heres hoping its another warranty job! Argh!
I have a brand new whineline front/rear ARB to go in too!

[Martin]

Did a Nulon Foaming Intake Cleaner treatment.

Pulled the O2 sensor out & blasted it with a blow torch until it was cherry red to get rid of the 0,5mm coating of gunk all over it.

Drilled a 200mm x 100mm opening into the undertray so my mechanic doesn't have to remove it to do an oil change.

Great ideas - I'll have to copy you!

I had a few misfires on cylinder 1 and 2 the other day, car is just coming up to 60k
Pulled the plugs out - they were all the bottom of the range (cheap) Bosch
The gap on them all was huge - 1 and 4 had a lot of black soot (so I assume inlet and valves need cleaning)
Threw a new set of NGK iridium plugs in and she's smooth now

[brad]

Front ARB requires the x-member to be dropped. Do they have to faff with that when they remove the gearbox? If so, get them to put it in at the same time.

[brad]

Great ideas - I'll have to copy you!

I had a few misfires on cylinder 1 and 2 the other day, car is just coming up to 60k
Pulled the plugs out - they were all the bottom of the range (cheap) Bosch
The gap on them all was huge - 1 and 4 had a lot of black soot (so I assume inlet and valves need cleaning)
Threw a new set of NGK iridium plugs in and she's smooth now

O2 thing was because I was getting really good economy if I could keep a rock steady rpm but the moment the rpm or the load varied (eg: suburban traffic) the economy fell over much worse than it used to. I figured the O2 sensor wasn't keeping up / was lazy. A bit of googling revealed that you could rejuvinate them a bit with heat. It does seem to have helped - I assume that the sniffer holes being partially blocked & the coating of crud were both contributing. For those of you without a blow torch, you can use the kitchen blowtorch that is used to make the hard crust on Cream Brulee (yes, kitchen or garage, equally proficient).

It appears the 1.8tsi only has 1 O2 sensor between cat1 & cat 2 whereas the 2.0TSI has 2 sensors? One directly at the turbo outlet before cat1 & another just in front of cat 2? Does that sound right for the 2.0L (both belt & chain drive versions).

Keep in mind I'm at 142500km.

I kept my OEM plugs in until 90,000km and they looked new on removal. Replaced them with whatever the Skoda dealer sells for ~$22 each. Have got some Denso Iridium Power spark plugs enroute from the USA at the moment. Cost was AUD54. I'll swap them out at 150,000km. I don't mind doing it early when the price is right.

[Martin]

It appears the 1.8tsi only has 1 O2 sensor between cat1 & cat 2 whereas the 2.0TSI has 2 sensors? One directly at the turbo outlet before cat1 & another just in front of cat 2? Does that sound right for the 2.0L (both belt & chain drive versions).

Keep in mind I'm at 142500km.

I do believe the 2L has two O2 sensors and one is even a wide band sensor
(but the ECU seems to run more off the map as at times I have a fuel haze out the back)

Ok - I'm a long way from needing to clean the O2 sensor - thanks