[kevinephraim]

Needed to get the Laura serviced since it has been 5000 kms since I bought it and thought I'd check with my local mechanic about the engine oil change.

I asked him about the company recommended Shell Helix oil but he suggested that i replace the oil with Castrol Edge. (there are a few posts about this on page 14)

I don't have much of a technical knowledge when it comes to the different ratings but the Shell Helix is VW 504 00 / 507 00 and the Castrol is VW 502 00

What is the difference?

[hemen]

Originally Posted by kevinephraim

Needed to get the Laura serviced since it has been 5000 kms since I bought it and thought I'd check with my local mechanic about the engine oil change.

I asked him about the company recommended Shell Helix oil but he suggested that i replace the oil with Castrol Edge. (there are a few posts about this on page 14)

I don't have much of a technical knowledge when it comes to the different ratings but the Shell Helix is VW 504 00 / 507 00 and the Castrol is VW 502 00

What is the difference?

Hi kevin

Firstly, oil change is not required at 5000kms. If you want get a wash done and air filter cleaned, it will result in quiet positive difference in performance.

Still, If you wish to change the engne oil get shell helix ultra extra which is recommended by Skoda or castrol magnatec professional recommended by VW only.

By using non recommended oil you may end up losing the manufacturers warranty.

[kevinephraim]

Originally Posted by hemen

Hi kevin

Firstly, oil change is not required at 5000kms. If you want get a wash done and air filter cleaned, it will result in quiet positive difference in performance.

Still, If you wish to change the engne oil get shell helix ultra extra which is recommended by Skoda or castrol magnatec professional recommended by VW only.

By using non recommended oil you may end up losing the manufacturers warranty.

Hemen,

I guess i should have been a bit clearer,

It has been 5k kms since I bought it preworshipped, the car is 5 yrs old has done 58400k kms, and the last service was done at 43k kms. As per service booklet the next service is due only at 60k kms. So there is no question of voiding any so called warranties.

The reason i asked was coz there was a discussion regarding using non OEM recommended oils earlier on in this thread, check page 14, and therefore wanted to know if using Castrol Edge satisfied the criteria / specifications of the Shell Helix Ultra Extra as suggested by the Manufacturer.

EDIT:

Picked up this information from the Briskoda site

The following oils meets specifications VW 504 00 and 507 00. All are 5W-30 oils.

Addinol Mega Light MV0539 LE
Agip 7008
Autol Carrera Longlife III
Aral SuperTronic LongLife III
Astris Matro L-3
Aviasynth 5W-30 LongLife 3
BP Visco 7000 Longlife III
Bucher AG Motorex Profile V-XL
Castrol EDGE 5W-30
Castrol SLX LongLife III
Castrol TXT 507 00
Castrol LongLife III Hochleistungsmotorenol
Castrol SLX Longlife III Topup
Cepsa Star TDI Synth
Divino Syntholight 03
Elf Solaris LLX
Eurol Syntence Longlife
Fuchs TITAN GT1 Longlife III
Galp Formula Longlife III
Gamaparts Super Longlife III
Havoline Ultra V
Madit Gold Longlife
Megol Motorenol Compatible
Millers XF LONG LIFE 5w30
Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5W-30
MOL Dynamic Gold Longlife
Motorex Profile V-XL
Panolin Avanis SV-X
Pentosin Pento Super Performance III
Q8 Formula V Long Life 5W/30
Quantum Longlife III 5W-30 - 504 00/507 00
Repsol Elite Longlife 50700/50400
Shell Helix Ultra Extra
Shell Helix Ultra VX
Statoil LazerWay LL
Tecar Motorenol 504 00 / 507 00
Top Tec 4200
Total Quartz Ineo 504-507
VAPS Vapsoil 507 00
Volkswagen LongLife III
Wintershall ViVA1 SLV Plus
Zeller+Gmelin Divinol Syntholight 03


VW 504 00 covers the following VW-specifications for petrol-engine cars:

VW 501 01
VW 502 00
VW 503 00
Vw 503 01

VW 507 00 covers the following VW-specifications for diesel-engine cars:

VW 505 00
VW 505 01
VW 506 00
VW 506 01

[hemen]

Originally Posted by kevinephraim

Hemen,

The reason i asked was coz there was a discussion regarding using non OEM recommended oils earlier on in this thread, check page 14, and therefore wanted to know if using Castrol Edge satisfied the criteria / specifications of the Shell Helix Ultra Extra as suggested by the Manufacturer.

EDIT:

Picked up this information from the Briskoda site

The following oils meets specifications VW 504 00 and 507 00. All are 5W-30 oils.

Addinol Mega Light MV0539 LE
Agip 7008
Autol Carrera Longlife III
Aral SuperTronic LongLife III
Astris Matro L-3
Aviasynth 5W-30 LongLife 3
BP Visco 7000 Longlife III
Bucher AG Motorex Profile V-XL
Castrol EDGE 5W-30
Castrol SLX LongLife III
Castrol TXT 507 00
Castrol LongLife III Hochleistungsmotorenol
Castrol SLX Longlife III Topup
Cepsa Star TDI Synth
Divino Syntholight 03
Elf Solaris LLX
Eurol Syntence Longlife
Fuchs TITAN GT1 Longlife III
Galp Formula Longlife III
Gamaparts Super Longlife III
Havoline Ultra V
Madit Gold Longlife
Megol Motorenol Compatible
Millers XF LONG LIFE 5w30
Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5W-30
MOL Dynamic Gold Longlife
Motorex Profile V-XL
Panolin Avanis SV-X
Pentosin Pento Super Performance III
Q8 Formula V Long Life 5W/30
Quantum Longlife III 5W-30 - 504 00/507 00
Repsol Elite Longlife 50700/50400
Shell Helix Ultra Extra
Shell Helix Ultra VX
Statoil LazerWay LL
Tecar Motorenol 504 00 / 507 00
Top Tec 4200
Total Quartz Ineo 504-507
VAPS Vapsoil 507 00
Volkswagen LongLife III
Wintershall ViVA1 SLV Plus
Zeller+Gmelin Divinol Syntholight 03

Except for shell ultra extra any of the above oils are not available in Mumbai.

I personally do not get my laura serviced at skoda A.S.S.
Have searched a lot for the oil in market.

You require a oil confirming to vw 507.00. Personally check the specification, It will be mentioned on the oil can.

Castrol Edge available in india is vw505.00.

Never use a oil below vw 505.01 specs in a 1.9 pd or you could face expense cam repair bill. You can get more info in briskoda about this.

[kevinephraim]

Originally Posted by hemen

Castrol Edge available in india is vw505.00.

Never use a oil below vw 505.01 specs in a 1.9 pd or you could face expense cam repair bill. You can get more info in briskoda about this.

You're right, I just checked the specs on the Castrol website, Thanks

[kevinephraim]

Here is better link to the list of oils that could be used in the Skoda PD engines

VW - Engine Oil - 507.00 - VW 507.00 motor oil

[ragzv]

But dosent Skoda also mention to use 5w40 in PD engines. The actual spec is 505.01 5w40 oil

[kevinephraim]

Originally Posted by ragzv

But dosent Skoda also mention to use 5w40 in PD engines. The actual spec is 505.01 5w40 oil

You are right, but do read the notes above the Oils mentioned, I have come to the conclusion that the specifications 505.01, 506.01 and 507.00 can all be used in PD engines however the differentiation is the service interval.

VW - Engine Oil - 505.01 - These oils are especially for "Pumpe-Düse" (unit injector or "PD" engines) running on fixed service intervals (15,000km / 12 months).

VW - Engine Oil - 506.01 - These oils are especially for "Pumpe-Düse" (unit injector or "PD" engines) running on extended service intervals (30,000 - 50,000km / 24 months)

VW - Engine Oil - 507.00 - VW 507.00 motor oil - These oils are suitable for almost all VAG diesel engines from 2000 onwards with extended service intervals, unitary injector pumps and also Pumpe-Düse ("PD") engines.

I think the Highlighted line would make the 507.00 type oils the best choice.

[Cesc]

A call for help! I have a 2007 Laura (1.9 PD DSG AT) which has done 1.01L kms. The car currently feels underpowered, mileage has dropped to 10-11kmpl and the car emits black smoke.

I felt low power and mileage + black smoke could be caused by either excess fuel or less air. Promptly took it to a trusted garage and plugged in a scanner. I was most terrified of injectors. Here is what the scanner showed:

-0.38 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 1
-0.14 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 2
-0.19 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 3
0.73 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 4

This thread here tells me that this is normal:
Octavia 2 with BDK Engine - Injector issues thrown up by VCDS? - uk-mkivs

The injection duration for the 4 injectors was between 1 to 7 degrees v.OT (no idea what this unit is) but again looks as if that is normal.

MAF showed a reading of 430 mg/H. No idea what value is normal here. I nevertheless got the MAF sensor cleaned. Nothing changed.

When I listen to the engine intently while driving around (and esp. under acceleration) I feel that it is gasping for breath. There is no misfiring/flat spots while the engine is running. Car was serviced less than 100 kms ago (it had this issue prior to servicing) so the air filter is new and I have checked the air passage for blockages.

The other stats that might be relevant are: Coolant temp - 74 degrees and boost pressure at idle (819 rpm) - 1009.8 mbar (looking back on this thread it seems that the boost pressure is low but not too low). Fuel consumption at idle is 0.6 l/H.

There are no fault codes at all. A** is a bunch of clowns so I am staying away from them. Do any of you guys have any idea what may be going wrong?

[Cesc]

I was doing a bit of research on Google and it seems that coolant temp., boost pressure and MAF values are also normal.

Please Help: Do You have VCDS

I am seriously lost now . The only thing I did not log are the EGR values.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by Cesc

A call for help! I have a 2007 Laura (1.9 PD DSG AT) which has done 1.01L kms. The car currently feels underpowered, mileage has dropped to 10-11kmpl and the car emits black smoke.

I felt low power and mileage + black smoke could be caused by either excess fuel or less air. Promptly took it to a trusted garage and plugged in a scanner. I was most terrified of injectors. Here is what the scanner showed:

-0.38 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 1
-0.14 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 2
-0.19 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 3
0.73 mg/str Injection Quantity Deviation Cyl. 4

When I listen to the engine intently while driving around (and esp. under acceleration) I feel that it is gasping for breath. There is no misfiring/flat spots while the engine is running. Car was serviced less than 100 kms ago (it had this issue prior to servicing) so the air filter is new and I have checked the air passage for blockages.

Hi Cesc,

Seems to me that you have got a turbo problem and the required boost is not getting delivered especially at driving speeds. Why this will not show up at idle is that at idle the turbo is running slowly and not adding much to the air mass being fed, but at higher engine rpms, a significant amount of the boost / air has to come from the turbo. What happens mostly in turbo failure is that the oil feed to the turbo bearing chokes on engine oil impurities / sludge and the oil supply is blocked. This leads to quick heating of the bearing and eventually failure of the bearing. Once the bearing fails, the turbo fan will seize completely (but this would have shown up as some fault). However, what is more common is that the bearing will become tight and not allow the impeller to rotate as fast as it should (typical rpm 100k -150k rpm) and instead will run much lower. This will lead to less air being fed into the cylinders. The black smoke which you have in your case is the outcome of the lack of air, since you have already checked that fuel injection quantities are proper.
IMO, the sign which you are getting is of turbo failure.
The second, though remote possibility is that of rodents cutting one of the boost control pipes, which leads to air leakage and incorrect boost mapping.
This had happened to another TBHP member's Skoda some time back and he was not getting the required boost (I can't recall whose it was, but if you search, you can find it).

If you are not comfortable with Skoda a.s.s, you can try an independent workshop like EMW in Gurgaon, which should be able to do the job ( just ensure that they use genuine spares and try to get the job done in front of you.)

Regards,
Behemoth

[Cesc]

Behemoth - Thanks for the response. At this time I am not sure it is the turbo because the car pulls to above 100 speeds with not too much of a time lag (pardon me for not putting that in the original post). It is my understanding that if the turbo fails, acceleration at higher speeds drops dramatically. That is not the case. My problem is more amplified in the low to mid-range - or so I think. I will take the car out and push it to 150 and see if I need a huge amount of time to get to that speed. I will have the scanner plugged in and check boost pressure and air flow at higher rpm as well. I did so only at engine idle yesterday.

I am slightly leaning towards the EGR right now. It is either the vaccum pipes going to the EGR or the valve itself which I think is jammed open. Take a look at this article:

https://sites.google.com/site/1810martin/egr-valve

It is talking about the EGR valve on the exact same engine (1.9 PD) albeit on a different car (Passat). Here is what it says happens when something is not right with the valve.

'Engine runs rough at idle, feels under powered and smokes more than usual, especially with hard acceleration. EGR valve is jammed open and not closing when it should.'

The words in bold sum up my situation so I am definitely giving this a shot today. With cars though you never know - the same problem may be caused by a gazillion different factors. I just hope I get this sorted asap. I tell you there is no fun in driving this car right now :(

[ACM]

Yep if the car crosses 100 kmph comfortably then it should not be the turbo as with a turbo failure the Laura finds it hard to even climb flyovers.

It could as you rightly mention either be the EGR or the throttle body. Though I believe if it is indeed the throttle body you would have the amber engine fault light glow in the dash. Do check if any of the rubber tubes coming to and going out from the EGR are blocked. The EGR itself is not servicable and would need to be replaced if faulty - Since you will not be able to know for sure that EGR is at fault it would be advisable to go to an authorized centre where they can check by swapping with another one - this would be hard in a third party centre where a replacement part would not be available unless purchased.

[anandbhat]

Hi Cesc,
I had my EGR vacuum pipes cut by rodents, and what I was having trouble with was that I was not able to go beyond 120kph even with peddle to metal, and beyond that my check engine light use to glow.
Your problem description seems to tell torque is not transmitting to wheel at a level it is required to be.
Then could it be sign of clutch plate wear?
Just get this checked in *** or other mechanic.

That's my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Anand.

[Cesc]

Originally Posted by ACM

Yep if the car crosses 100 kmph comfortably then it should not be the turbo as with a turbo failure the Laura finds it hard to even climb flyovers.

It could as you rightly mention either be the EGR or the throttle body. Though I believe if it is indeed the throttle body you would have the amber engine fault light glow in the dash. Do check if any of the rubber tubes coming to and going out from the EGR are blocked. The EGR itself is not servicable and would need to be replaced if faulty - Since you will not be able to know for sure that EGR is at fault it would be advisable to go to an authorized centre where they can check by swapping with another one - this would be hard in a third party centre where a replacement part would not be available unless purchased.

ACM Thanks for your response. There is a slight turbo whistle but my understanding is that it does not suggest anything is majorly wrong with the turbo.

There is no CEL on the dash. The rubber tubes are fine as well. I did get the EGR, throttle body and intake manifold cleaned on Saturday. The EGR was full of soot. I took pictures which I will post later. However the cleaning of parts did not change anything.

Having the exact same thought as you had i.e. geting the A** to install a new EGR and then checking performance, I went to Skoda A** on Sunday and had them scan the car for fault codes. The two that came up were:

'Intake manifold flap motor'
'Multiclutch adaptation limit reached' (Any idea what this is - apparently A** guys don't know a thing about it)

A** said the fault is indeed on the EGR and I asked them to swap it with a new one. They did and I took the car for a 10km drive. It did solve the smoke problem but the mileage problem and the feeling of car being underpowered remained. So I asked them to swap the valve back.

My mechanic had another Laura come in yesteday. That one has a burned ECM. He is trying to arrange for an ECM for that car and has suggested that I swap my EGR with that car for a while and see if it solves anything. That is what I am going to do in a day or two. While at it, I am also planning to get the turbo stripped and cleaned. Ditto for the intercooler.

Originally Posted by anandbhat

Hi Cesc,
I had my EGR vacuum pipes cut by rodents, and what I was having trouble with was that I was not able to go beyond 120kph even with peddle to metal, and beyond that my check engine light use to glow.
Your problem description seems to tell torque is not transmitting to wheel at a level it is required to be.
Then could it be sign of clutch plate wear?
Just get this checked in *** or other mechanic.

That's my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Anand.

Anand - thanks mate. I did read your posts. Really nice of you to put the detailed diagnosis of your car on the forum.

Like I said - I am able to go over 120. Did that a couple of times over the weekend. Clutch plate wear? I was under the impression that the AT transmission was built for life (unless the mechatronic monster fails). Since the dual clutch plates are always in oil and theoretically there is almost nill slippage, I thought the plates could go on forever. Is that not the case?

I am on the problem and will keep the forum posted. Thanks for your responses.