mk3 Octavia 1.4tsi leaking oil and water

[Gerrycan]

Coming back to Adelaide from a fantastic road trip to Tasmania in a fully loaded (4 people with luggage) vehicle and about 150km from home the low coolant warning comes on.
Checked the oil temp and that was a normal 103 deg so we pushed on to the next service station and yes the coolant was almost out
Topped up with water and checked oil level which was normal and unpolluted with water and gambled on making the last 120km, which we did only losing about a centimetre of coolant.

Examination at home confirmed there was an obvious oil leak (high on port side of engine) but the water leak could not be worked out. The oil level had not dropped discernably but oil is like a blood spill, a little goes a long way.

Booked into dealer for examination tomorrow and I am guessing it is a blown head gasket which is very disappointing for a car that has now only done 54k km.

Of course it could have been a whole lot worse considering the remote roads we travelled, rarely seeing a car per hour and very patchy phone coverage.

I was never going to get really good consumption from a fully loaded car at legal speed limits, air-conditioner on full time and frequent stops on the Great Ocean Road, but I was on set for a comfortable 950km on the 50 litre tank until I chickened out at the forced stop and put another 15 litres in. Running out fuel would have not been appreciated.

[Gerrycan]

I was wrong (again) and I was not losing oil, the leakage was only the coolant but these days the coolant also contains lubricant so the oily residue I was looking at was what was left after the rest had evaporated.
Due to the complex cooling systems on this vehicle it required a lot dismantling, including the intake which then exposes how bad carbon build up might be.
Suffice to say the job is finished I may have some pictures of the valve intake stems to look at.
The costs are a mildly eye-watering $1300 but I guess it could have been worse.

I'll post pictures if I can.

[brenno]

I had a similar issue with a similar quoted price. Exactly the same car. I asked the dealer to request a goodwill gesture due to the low mileage (~32K) and they covered 75% of costs.

[brad]

My first water pump was around that price. I was time poor at the time, so payed the $$$.

The 2nd pump i DIY'd. The pump was around $150 ex-China including housing, thermostat, etc. It was not a hugely difficult task with the help of youTube but did take a lot of time because I had to do the intake carbon. I'd do it again.

[Gerrycan]

Stop press:
Leak has reoccurred on new parts.
Now slightly peeved!

[brad]

Did your guy replace just the pump or pump + housing?

Also, the fastener torque is only 8Nm (IIRC). Go to 12 and the housing cracks

[Gerrycan]

Just the housing.
But I noticed that when I drove the car back to the dealers this morning that the temperature only slowly went up to 80 deg.
Think they will replace both now.

I have a new Fabia manual to drive around. Necessary as we have a close relative requiring palliative treatment assessments and the current warm weathwr in Adelaide is very draining for him.

[Gerrycan]

So had a conversation with the dealers this morning and they have had the car on pressure test all night and no sign of any leakage.
They posit that there was an airlock and that was why it needed the 1 litre of coolant top up. Possible even probable

Doesn't explain what I saw as leakage (unless I am going mad) and why the car is now so slow to warm up and the temperature gauge did not reach the usual 90 deg C. after driving 20km in hot weather.
I did not appreciate my contacts attempt to suggest that new warm up behaviour was normal.

[brad]

If the 1.4 is like the 1,8tsi the thermostat is in the water pump housing.

A) Some of the housings come with a new thermostat. B)Others have to have the thermostats transferred over.

If (A) then either the thermostat is faulty or has a different opening temperature.

If (B) then maybe the thermostat isn't seated in it's little alcove properly or they have failed to transfer it.

In summer weather above 30c the temp gauge should be sitting at the mid-point within 10 minutes. On a VW, the midpoint represents 90+-10c so if it's lagging under the engine is running very cool.

/checks. there appear to be 2x thermostats. Items 6 & 7
coolant pump; coolant regulator Octavia (OCT) 2013 year Skoda EUROPA 121003

edit:
Or this one?
coolant pump; coolant regulator; coolant connectio... Octavia (OCT) 2013 year Skoda EUROPA 121005

[Gerrycan]

Thanks Brad,

I have been looking around myself and have this schematic which is helpful (ignore the auxiliary heating option bit though) and agrees with what you have said. The engine identifier is CHPA.

[woofy]

I had the waterpump replaced with the timing belt on our 08 RS and afterwards in the midst of summer I noticed that the thermostat was slow warming up and when you went on a freeway on a 40C day it actually cooled, was a busted thermostat. Part of me thinks something got caught in it not letting it close with the pump replacement but the dealer charged me the full amount and didn't want to admit it was something they would have done.

[Gerrycan]

Another phone call with the dealer this morning after he had taken it home last night.
Apparently it was driving perfectly on the way home but on the way in this morning the temperature would not rise and then the low coolant warning came on and when he looked under the bonnet it had disgraced itself on the water pump side just like I had described. Feel somewhat vindicated that I took a firm stand on my interpretation of the problem.
New water pump coming over from Melbourne overnight and will be fitted tomorrow, and will cost me another $800 for the part, no labour.
I now have to do a 500km round trip tomorrow in their loan car and now do not feel guilty about it.
He admitted that water pump and housing issues were pretty common on the 2 litre diesel and petrol engines (Octavia, Kodiaq and Superb), but less so on the later 1.4tsi.

Although this is the first major issue I have encountered with two Octavia in 10 years and 150k km in them it does erode confidence a bit.
This last journey went to some pretty remote parts of the country with no phone cover and few other cars on the road. We place a lot of faith in their reliability.
I expect we will run this Octavia for a couple more years at least, it has been a very good versatile and economical car, but not sure what will be the replacement as I am not keen on the SUV format.

[woofy]

Gee I paid not a whole lot more than that for a water pump in the mk2 RS and the belt changed at a dealer along with the major service. How did a pump get that much in cost now?

[brad]

Why another $800? They are starting to have a lend of you. If you have to pay for any parts then they should be at cost price.

[woofy]

Yeah I agree, I paid $1200 in 2015 for the full 105k service which also had the timing belt and water pump replaced in my mk2 RS. I'm surprised the pump alone is so much, it sounds like they marked it up. COuld always confirm by asking another dealer for the price of the pump.