[thetinywanderer]

So, I am in a little bit of a situation with my Skoda Laura - the other day I was driving back home on my regular route via Atal Sethu and suddenly the check engine light started blinking along with EPC light and I started losing power but it did not turn off completely. Luckily I was only a few kilometres from my house and somehow made it to my apartment. I could not make out at higher speed but once I started approaching home, i figured what happened - one of the cylinders was not firing. I was in the situation before almost an year ago, and it turned out to be a faulty ignition coil, replacing which the car was back in running condition.

This is the car I am talking about - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ra-2024-a.html (My 1 year ownership of buying an used Skoda Laura in 2024)

The next 2 days -
I am still new in this area and do not have a go-to mechanic, I found one online and thought I would get an opinion. The scan identified that cylinder two was not firing at all. As suspected, ignition coil on cylinder 2 was kaput - we got some spare coils which we knew were working and after plugging in the car, we could even see the sparks from coil 2 (which was not there in the faulty coils) and even replaced all the spark plugs


However, despite this, the misfire on cylinder two persists.

Additional Observations:

While inspecting the spark plug for cylinder two, noticed unusual amount of soot deposit which was not there in the other cylinders

What We’ve Ruled Out:

Faulty ignition coils – tested with working replacements.
The basic wiring to the ignition coil appears fine, as the coil is firing.

Current Challenges:
The misfire remains unresolved despite addressing what seemed like obvious causes. It’s starting to feel like the issue might be deeper, possibly involving:

- Fuel delivery to the cylinder.
- Compression problems in the misfiring cylinder.
- A potential ECU or sensor-related issue affecting cylinder timing or fuel-air mixture.

My Questions to the Community and some thoughts going on in my mind,

- The mechanics advise is to replace the entire engine as opening this current one might be expensive and with no certainty that the issue will be resolved given the scarcity of spare parts.

- I am trying to get a second opinion from DMP Automobiles given all the good things I hear about them but they are held up for a few days with other projects and I am having to wait.

- Has anyone faced something similar where replacing the ignition coils has not solved the problem? Any possible advice? (I heard from someone it could be a valve issue?)

- Also because the topic of engine replacement came up, I started wondering if I could just convert this car into more of an enthusiast/ project car with a engine replacement from a Skoda Superb/ if I can find a VRS engine also. Any specific engines that you would recommend that could fit the Laura?

- I mean, the car weighs less than a Superb and with some more power, my power/weight should get better?

Again, maybe I am fantasising about this but figured this would be the best place to brainstorm and I’m open to any advice or troubleshooting tips to help narrow this down. This car means a lot to me, and I’m determined to get it running perfectly again.

Thanks in advance for your help and expertise!

[agambhandari]

Hi, you need a proper diagnosis first and then decide on whats the best option for it. I would recommend to visit an expert working on these cars regularly.
As you are in NCR, bhpian Viraat13 has a top notch workshop and I've seen multiple Laura and Superb TSIs fixed up perfectly by his team. You should get in touch here.

Viraat's Automotive Garage
098730 77992

https://g.co/kgs/yfE7MWT

[thetinywanderer]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

Hi, you need a proper diagnosis first and then decide on whats the best option for it. I would recommend to visit an expert working on these cars regularly.
As you are in NCR, bhpian Viraat13 has a top notch workshop and I've seen multiple Laura and Superb TSIs fixed up perfectly by his team. You should get in touch here.

Viraat's Automotive Garage
098730 77992

https://g.co/kgs/yfE7MWT

Hey Agam,

I have now relocated to Mumbai (Ulwe,Navi Mumbai) and no longer in NCR. I am awaitng an appointment with Darshil from DMP motors (https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZwoR1JscJzpbqWFr7) about whom I have heard great things on this forum and will update here with a status on the same after I have this check up

Please do suggest any other mechanics in Mumbai if you know of any who specializes in VW/ German cars

Figured I would start a thread to collate opinions meanwhile, thanks for the advice

[PrasadS]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

I have now relocated to Mumbai (Ulwe,Navi Mumbai) and no longer in NCR.

Please do suggest any other mechanics in Mumbai if you know of any who specializes in VW/ German cars

Figured I would start a thread to collate opinions meanwhile, thanks for the advice

Welcome to Navi Mumbai. I stay in Panvel at the end of JNPT road. Message me and I'll send you the contact of my FNG in nerul where i get the work for my Rapid done.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

- The mechanics advise is to replace the entire engine as opening this current one might be expensive and with no certainty that the issue will be resolved given the scarcity of spare

Well, I think replacing an entire engine over a single cylinder misfire is a bit extreme! You need to see a different mechanic that has the correct diagnostic skills and tools!

There's what I would do;

Make sure you have an OBD reader that can read all manufacturer/model codes. If you use a cheap code reader, you are likely to see manufacturer specific codes.

If you have an obdnreader that can also read live data you need to look at the short and long fuel, trim settings.

Just as a double check I would swap the coil assembly of one of the other cylinders with cylinder number two. Check the codes again. Still misfire on cylinder two or has it moved to the other cylinder.

Check fuel pressure. at idle and at high rpm.

Pull the fuel injector and test it. If you can't test it, again swap it with one from a different cylinder and see if the misfire moves to the other.

Do a compression test.

Good luck. Let us know what you find.

Jeroen

[paras211]

Please Do a compression test .

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

I am awaiting an appointment with Darshil from DMP motors (https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZwoR1JscJzpbqWFr7) about whom I have heard great things on this forum and will update here with a status on the same after I have this check up

Rahil of N1 Racing - https://n1-racing.com/ is who you should talk to. They are walking / talking encyclopedia on all thing Laura TSI. Their track car is a super modded Laura TSI.

N1 is at Dockyard Road, not very far from DMP and actually very straight forward when you get off the Atal Setu.

One cylinder not firing/misfiring could be based:

1. Check Sparkplug
2. check when the timing belt was replaced
3. Clean injectors

[thetinywanderer]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Rahil of N1 Racing - https://n1-racing.com/ is who you should talk to. They are walking / talking encyclopedia on all thing Laura TSI. Their track car is a super modded Laura TSI.

N1 is at Dockyard Road, not very far from DMP and actually very straight forward when you get off the Atal Setu.

One cylinder not firing/misfiring could be based:

1. Check Sparkplug
2. check when the timing belt was replaced
3. Clean injectors

Thank you! You are opening up a lot of ideas here, I will definitely reach out and understand what are some of my options if I were to go for a engine replacement + mod situation

Originally Posted by PrasadS

Welcome to Navi Mumbai. I stay in Panvel at the end of JNPT road. Message me and I'll send you the contact of my FNG in nerul where i get the work for my Rapid done.

Thank you, Prasad. I will be taking advice from one more FNG to see if they have some parts in stock/ spare to diagnose the exact issue

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Well, I think replacing an entire engine over a single cylinder misfire is a bit extreme! You need to see a different mechanic that has the correct diagnostic skills and tools!

There's what I would do;

Make sure you have an OBD reader that can read all manufacturer/model codes. If you use a cheap code reader, you are likely to see manufacturer specific codes.

If you have an obdnreader that can also read live data you need to look at the short and long fuel, trim settings.

Just as a double check I would swap the coil assembly of one of the other cylinders with cylinder number two. Check the codes again. Still misfire on cylinder two or has it moved to the other cylinder.

Check fuel pressure. at idle and at high rpm.

Pull the fuel injector and test it. If you can't test it, again swap it with one from a different cylinder and see if the misfire moves to the other.

Do a compression test.

Good luck. Let us know what you find.

Jeroen

Thanks Jeroen for the detailed advice, some of the things we did from the above, given that my car is still in the apartment parked at not at a garage right now, we were limited

- Darshil got a lates OBD reader and it read out error codes for engine 2 misfire also an ABS sensor error (which right now is not P1). Also, this was a live one

- we could not do the swapping of the coils

- we could not check the fuel pressure or test the injector because the car is still in my apartment parking. Just curious - how would they test the pressure? Is there a gauge/ tool that is plugged into the system?

Originally Posted by paras211

Please Do a compression test .

- could not yet as the car is parked at home

---------
Also a quick update on this thread, after giving my GMAT today, I still had time to spare - co ordinated with Darshil from DMP Automotives. He was kind enough to drop by to my apartment with his OBD reader and give his take on the situation.

- Errors were for cylinder 2 misfire
- The spark plugs were NGK plugs and he thinks that could be the issue as the stock ones are the best for VW engines
- He also suspects the ignition coils but did not have spare coils to test it out - wants to buy 4 brand new ignition coils and brand new spark plus. Replace them as the first step
- He also observed a lot of oil on the replaced spark plug on cylinder 2, suspecting a ring failure and compression loss
- I am not too sure about just buying out the coils and spark plugs only to figure the rings are gone which means they will have to open the engine
- another advice was to again replace the engine as a whole as I will be spending on a lot of other misc things that are also nearing its life like the alternations, belts etc

So I am now left with making a decision if I should invest my time and money trying to fix a VW engine or replace it or if either of it makes sense?

Given this is a DL registered car with the current registration ending in July of this year, I am more concerned of the validity of any of the repairs if I cannot get a FC again everything will be just a waste of effort

Any advice and thoughts is greatly appreciated - while I would like to keep the car, I am not sure if its a wise choice, I should probably just scrap it and look for another if I figure out that this is definitely not a coil/ spark plug issue and has something to do with the engine.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

- we could not check the fuel pressure or test the injector because the car is still in my apartment parking. Just curious - how would they test the pressure? Is there a gauge/ tool that is plugged into the system?

- He also suspects the ignition coils but did not have spare coils to test it out - wants to buy 4 brand new ignition coils and brand new spark plus. Replace them as the first step
- He also observed a lot of oil on the replaced spark plug on cylinder 2, suspecting a ring failure and compression loss
- I

There might be a pressure sensor that would allow you to read the fuel pressure via OBD live data. But usually you just hook up an appropriate manometer to the fuel line.

Please do not swap out all coils! Whyneould you do that! Makes no sense at all. First check if the error moves to another cylinder when you swap the coil and spark.

Oil on the spark plug is not necessarily a ring failuere. I'm sorry but you need to find a competent mechanic. Trouble shooting a single misfire on a modern engine should not take more than 30 minutes if you know what you are doing and have the correct tools. Its not rocket science and unless proven otherwise doesn't warrant replacing all coils, let alone a whole engine or car for that matter.

Poor compression might still not mean the rings have failed. There could be an issue with the valves. Again easy to check if you know what you are doing.

Good luck

Jeroen

[paras211]

could not yet as the car is parked at home

Get the garage guy to come do a compression test - it's a small gauge, remove sparkplugs and crank.

[nik0502]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

Thank you! You are opening up a lot of ideas here, I will definitely reach out and understand what are some of my options if I were to go for a engine replacement + mod situation


Given this is a DL registered car with the current registration ending in July of this year, I am more concerned of the validity of any of the repairs if I cannot get a FC again everything will be just a waste of effort

Any advice and thoughts is greatly appreciated - while I would like to keep the car, I am not sure if its a wise choice, I should probably just scrap it and look for another if I figure out that this is definitely not a coil/ spark plug issue and has something to do with the engine.

Hey!

I would recommend you sort out the validity of this car before spending any money on fixing it. Given that this is a Delhi registered car you can not extend the validity and the only choice you have is to get the NOC and register it in a different state and that will require road tax and registration cost to be paid. Do the maths and then decide if it still makes sense to spend all this money on the car.If I was in that position I personally would just sell it off and get something newer like an Octavia maybe.

[AKSarkar1]

Changing the entire engine seems to be too big of an exaggeration. There are so many Lauras/Octavias in Europe that have crossed the 4L kilometres mark, many of them also have their engine light on

Jokes apart, get a proper diagnosis on the car first, once you have figured out what is wrong you can source the parts via an OEM private parts supplier who give you the same cost at a fraction of the price, for example- my jetta door latch gave way and VW guys were quoting 19800 for the part, I got the same part for 2800 from a private supplier.

There is a great team of skilled mechanics at VW Autobahn Mumbai West, if you are unable to get a diagnosis that you are happy with from your FNG then I would be happy to connect you to a master technician over there.

Yes, these cars have faults from time to time, but you seem to be a person who maintains their car well so just by that virtue I feel the car should be fixable.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

So I am now left with making a decision if I should invest my time and money trying to fix a VW engine or replace it or if either of it makes sense?

Given this is a DL registered car with the current registration ending in July of this year, I am more concerned of the validity of any of the repairs if I cannot get a FC again everything will be just a waste of effort

Any advice and thoughts is greatly appreciated - while I would like to keep the car, I am not sure if its a wise choice, I should probably just scrap it and look for another if I figure out that this is definitely not a coil/ spark plug issue and has something to do with the engine.

Couple of things:

Laura TSI is a EA888 Gen1 engine which has an oil consumption issue. Changing the oil scraper ring will not help much. The oil consumption drastically increases after about 55-60K running. Mine went from about 40 Hrs of running to consume 1 litre to 20 hours. That meant in Mumbai standing/ crawling traffic, I was topping up 1 litre every 300-350 kms. However there was no loss of power. The only way out is to change to EA888 Gen2 engines that came in Octavia 1.8TSI from 2016 onwards.

Given yours is a DL car, you will not get FC extended in Delhi atleast. So the option is get a NOC now ( before RC expires) and transfer it to MH / Or any other state. That also will mean paying some road tax again. If you are not willing to do this, then just scrap the car and move on.

[autoliebe]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

So, I am in a little bit of a situation with my Skoda Laura

Hey thetinywanderer! Get in touch with this guy - Mukesh Chandra. He is an expert engine guy. You may read more about him on YouTube as well. He is based out of Noida but can surely lend his advice over phone. Hope you may get some direction. I fetched his number from social media - 97185 81969

You may give it a try.

Thanks,

[thetinywanderer]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

There might be a pressure sensor that would allow you to read the fuel pressure via OBD live data. But usually you just hook up an appropriate manometer to the fuel line.

Please do not swap out all coils! Whyneould you do that! Makes no sense at all. First check if the error moves to another cylinder when you swap the coil and spark.

Oil on the spark plug is not necessarily a ring failuere. I'm sorry but you need to find a competent mechanic. Trouble shooting a single misfire on a modern engine should not take more than 30 minutes if you know what you are doing and have the correct tools. Its not rocket science and unless proven otherwise doesn't warrant replacing all coils, let alone a whole engine or car for that matter.

Poor compression might still not mean the rings have failed. There could be an issue with the valves. Again easy to check if you know what you are doing.

Good luck

Jeroen

Thanks again Jeroen for the detailed inputs, I went to another garage today and below are some findings

- Again, it showed engine 2 misfire. We interchanged the coils from 1 and ran the engine again - this time still engine 2 misfire. So the coil works fine so its something wrong in cylinder 2

- given that we were sure of an issue with cylinder 2 and not the coil, the garage recommended that he checks the injector next if that has any issues

- also showed him the picture of the older spark plug which was covered in soot, he then checked the new one which was installed after the misfire issue creeped in and it also had quite some oil on it (also attaching old spark plug image here)



- because there is a lot of oil, he is saying a high probability of the ring issue or something to do with the valve either way need to open the engine and they had seen something same with another VW engine recently

Originally Posted by paras211

Get the garage guy to come do a compression test - it's a small gauge, remove sparkplugs and crank.

Hi Paras,

The guy did not have the tool to check compression :(

Originally Posted by nik0502

Hey!

I would recommend you sort out the validity of this car before spending any money on fixing it. Given that this is a Delhi registered car you can not extend the validity and the only choice you have is to get the NOC and register it in a different state and that will require road tax and registration cost to be paid. Do the maths and then decide if it still makes sense to spend all this money on the car.If I was in that position I personally would just sell it off and get something newer like an Octavia maybe.

Hey Nik,

This is what I have been thinking more lately. If it is even worth getting all of this done given this is a DL vehicle. The moment I start opening the engine I am scared it will just sit at one place for too long and I will be stuck with that

thanks for the advice, I think I have made up my mind almost

Originally Posted by AKSarkar1

Changing the entire engine seems to be too big of an exaggeration. There are so many Lauras/Octavias in Europe that have crossed the 4L kilometres mark, many of them also have their engine light on

Jokes apart, get a proper diagnosis on the car first, once you have figured out what is wrong you can source the parts via an OEM private parts supplier who give you the same cost at a fraction of the price, for example- my jetta door latch gave way and VW guys were quoting 19800 for the part, I got the same part for 2800 from a private supplier.

There is a great team of skilled mechanics at VW Autobahn Mumbai West, if you are unable to get a diagnosis that you are happy with from your FNG then I would be happy to connect you to a master technician over there.

Yes, these cars have faults from time to time, but you seem to be a person who maintains their car well so just by that virtue I feel the car should be fixable.

Hey Sarkar,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I think with today's visit it's pretty clear that there is an issue within cylinder 2 and with so much oil seeping in, these guys re quite sure they might have to open the engine which I am not sure if I want to especially given the registration is ending in 7 months and its not worth the hassle to register a very old car

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Couple of things:

Laura TSI is a EA888 Gen1 engine which has an oil consumption issue. Changing the oil scraper ring will not help much. The oil consumption drastically increases after about 55-60K running. Mine went from about 40 Hrs of running to consume 1 litre to 20 hours. That meant in Mumbai standing/ crawling traffic, I was topping up 1 litre every 300-350 kms. However there was no loss of power. The only way out is to change to EA888 Gen2 engines that came in Octavia 1.8TSI from 2016 onwards.

Given yours is a DL car, you will not get FC extended in Delhi atleast. So the option is get a NOC now ( before RC expires) and transfer it to MH / Or any other state. That also will mean paying some road tax again. If you are not willing to do this, then just scrap the car and move on.

Originally Posted by autoliebe

Hey thetinywanderer! Get in touch with this guy - Mukesh Chandra. He is an expert engine guy. You may read more about him on YouTube as well. He is based out of Noida but can surely lend his advice over phone. Hope you may get some direction. I fetched his number from social media - 97185 81969

You may give it a try.

Thanks,

I have actually observed the same in experience in the last 3-6 months.


-----------------

Okay so I have an update today - I visited another recommended FNG and we tried changing the coils and a misfire on cylinder 2 still persists, so it was not a coil issue. Also, the spark plug seems to be picking up a lot of oil after some amount of running the car - the garage is saying a very high likelihood that it's something to do with the rings or something to do within the engine

They don't think the injector could be a problem but are okay to check that as a next step if I want but they are still getting back to the fact that 'engine kholpadega' and they are also not willing to take up the work as its complicated

After giving it some thought, I'm almost decided that I will not spend more effort on trying to figure out what is wrong with it. if all roads lead me to do something with the engine - replacement or repair, either way it won't make sense on me spending that money on a car whose registration expires in July of this year with hassles to renew with DL passing en all. Plus, I felt in the last 3-6 months the oil consumption rate was also going up - maybe a hint of deteriorating internals? I am just not getting a good feeling

I might as well just scrap/ sell this as is/ for parts and add on some more money to get another pre-owned car. I feel the car delivered more than its worth considering what I paid for it. Good trips and also drove it from DEL-BOM as well which was fun. Very very fun car to drive but alas.


Unless the better-informed folks on this forum think that I should visit another FNG who can check compression and get a 4th opinion - I am just going to sell it for parts/ scrap it