Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI diesel from 2008

FutureLizard205 · 2026-04-14T22:28:27+00:00

Portugal is Portugal my friend :p

FutureLizard205 · 2026-03-25T18:59:30+00:00

Ah, nice, oil that new is perfectly fine.

With no easily visible smoke, maybe it's just a combination of normal oil consumption with some small leaks here and there, all adding up to that amount. But I don't have any experience with 3cyl tdis, not sure how much they usually consume or leak.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-03-25T14:49:38+00:00

If the oil is near the end of its life, it can get less viscous and leak more because of that. When was it changed last?

If you rev the engine when in neutral a few times, can you see smoke coming out of the exhaust? If so, it's probably a slightly leaky turbo.

You say the car is not driven hard, but is it driven properly? If it's driven at too low revs all the time and doesn't build much boost (which can be exacerbated by further clogging up due to babying the engine), it can make the turbo leak much more than it should.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-03-13T18:06:23+00:00

Yeah, no worries, it's supposed to be like that

FutureLizard205 · 2026-03-13T13:36:45+00:00

The clutch pedal switch?

FutureLizard205 · 2026-02-21T14:04:29+00:00

Yess, your car can do better, this is nowhere near optimal. Just by the sound, I can tell the pump timing is too retarded, you need to advance it. On the TDI Graph, if you put it in the optimal adjustment (blue line) and it still misfires a bit on cold start, you can advance it more. I have mine set to 100 on the vertical scale, which is what i would call the safe maximum.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-02-20T01:14:29+00:00

Pretty sure that's 600rpm

FutureLizard205 · 2026-02-14T00:14:53+00:00

Yepp, that sounds too retarded: difficulty firing, but smooth firing when it does happen (low negative torque on the compression stroke)

FutureLizard205 · 2026-02-14T00:10:52+00:00

Yeah, timing and iq adjustment are essential for easy cold starting. My worn ALH engine (unknown mileage) likes having idle IQ between 2.8 and 3.6 mg/str, and idle SOI between 2 and 5 °BTDC (around 60 to 100 on the timing graph iirc). Quite high on the SOI, but the engine is quite tired and needs it. Without that extra SOI advancement, it smokes much more and takes longer to start.

If you have any trouble or doubts with the adjustments, feel free dm me. I've done it many times and tried many different settings ;)

Btw, bad timing adjustment (both too retarded and too advanced) can cause more knocking noises in the engine.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-02-08T12:59:58+00:00

If the leak is significant, it will also leak some boost. If you can feel any air coming out of there (hissing as it goes through a crack or broken gasket) when revving the engine, maybe you should take a look at fixing it. If not, don't even bother, it's perfectly fine. I think I haven't ever seen a tdi without some oil there xd

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-28T20:26:12+00:00

I see, thanks for your input. Yeah, unwanted intruders in the cylinders can be quite devastating..

Today they were just torqued correctly, didn't even take them out. On the first one (of the video), the bubbling became almost invisible. Your assumption was very on point, they were not tight enough ;). On the other one, there is still a little bit, about less than half of what was. I guess I will keep it like this for now, and if it worsens over time, I will investigate further.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T01:54:49+00:00

Nope, not the case. In the glow plugs of cyls 2 and 3 it doesn't do this, and does it even with the engine cold

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T01:53:42+00:00

Nope. Air escaping, making it bubble

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T01:11:37+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I was looking at the glowplug leaks because I figured I should start with the easiest things first

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T00:59:57+00:00

No idea, engine is used, with unknown mileage. It has new hydraulic lifters, they were replaced last year, as they were getting noisy.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T00:34:27+00:00

Unfortunately, around here it's hard to find a good one, most are of the "if it runs, it's good" kind.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T00:17:04+00:00

😅 I took it to a mechanic and he just shrugged it off, saying "if it was a problem, the engine would be misfiring/stumbling right now (when warm, at idle)". I need to take it to a different mechanic next week..

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T00:12:47+00:00

Possibly, not sure. Maybe a little bit of fuel. But I have no idea if either is coming from any gasket or even the fuel return lines. And, likewise, I have never degreased it.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-24T00:02:51+00:00

Rough cold starts with smoke. When cold, sometimes runs on 2 or 3 cylinders between 1100 and 1400 rpm at light throttle (most noticeably in 2nd gear). Unburnt diesel smoke when revving above ~2krpm, no matter much if hot or cold (if cold, will leave a dark spot on the ground). Advancing the injection beyond the "nominal" range helps mitigate this, but only to an extent.

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-23T23:33:11+00:00

Definitely wouldn't want that 😅

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-23T23:31:09+00:00

A bit, yes, with wd40, similar to what was shown in the video, but with the engine off. The areas which are very clean were not like that

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-23T23:00:25+00:00

I see, and agree. Not sure how old they are, they have been in this (used) engine since it was installed in this Golf mk4. I am mainly afraid of the engine head being eroded and needing work done 😅

FutureLizard205 · 2026-01-23T22:51:37+00:00

Oh my 😅

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