Stuck in France - Octavia mk 3 popped

Jonny Gutteridge

Jonny Gutteridge

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Hi

Would be great to get some ideas about how bad this is...

We're stuck in central France after my girlfriend's Skoda Octavia mk 3 (2016ish, 88k miles) broke down last night. Breakdown assistance company are gonna tow it to a garage on Monday and we need to decide whether to wait here while it's fixed or to hear back to the UK. It would be great to hear forum users thoughts on how quickly fixable it might be, or any other useful tips.

Basically we were doing 75mph on the motorway, no problems or symptoms, then there was a distinct pop noise which seemed to come from the right side of them car (but hard to tell) and immediate loss of power. My girlfriend pulled over thinking we had a flat. The EPC yellow warning light was on and had stayed on. Once we knew it wasn't a flat and the car still ran we got going again and managed to get up to about 60mph crawling behind a lorry.

We stopped at the next services and got picked up by breakdown recovery. Car's now at the recovery depot and we're not sure what to do. We've got an autistic teenager and two dogs with us so it's not as easy as jumping on a plane back to the UK.

Any thoughts on what the fault might be please? If it's likely an easy fix or safely drivable it's perhaps worth us hanging around but if not we'll have to hire a car to get up to Calais and get ourselves home.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
You better off asking on a specialised forum, if it exists.
I mean Skoda Octavia forum, or Skoda, Vag, etc.
Anyway, a pop and loss of power usually is not a great combination.
 
Is it diesel? Was there a big cloud of black smoke out the exhaust when it popped?
Does it drive OK but " no guts"? Takes ages to get up to a speed but can hold the speed mostly?
 
Could always creep it home.

When I was an apprentice at Vauxhall, we had a Ventora that had thrown a big end cap, driven all the way back from Germany on 5 cylinders by a soldier who had been stationed out there. The piston and rod had been removed along with the push rods for that cylinder. The sump had been repaired and a jubilee clip had been put around the b/e journal to stop oil pressure loss. It needed a complete rebuild - crank regrind, new rod and piston etc. The bore was untouched! They don’t rebuild anything these days.
 
carmanmemoranda said:
Is it diesel? Was there a big cloud of black smoke out the exhaust when it popped?
Does it drive OK but " no guts"? Takes ages to get up to a speed but can hold the speed mostly?
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Thanks for the reply. Unleaded. No cloud of black smoke as far as I know, think the gf would have noticed. But yeah drives ok, no oomph but can get to about 60 and hold it, less on the hills. I managed to drive it onto the breakdown guy's rollback lorry with plenty of revs. Sounds a bit whistly when you give it revs away from standstill.
 
Thanks
Mottie said:
Could always creep it home.

When I was an apprentice at Vauxhall, we had a Ventora that had thrown a big end cap, driven all the way back from Germany on 5 cylinders by a soldier who had been stationed out there. The piston and rod had been removed along with the push rods for that cylinder. The sump had been repaired and a jubilee clip had been put around the b/e journal to stop oil pressure loss. It needed a complete rebuild - crank regrind, new rod and piston etc. The bore was untouched! They don’t rebuild anything these days.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Tempting but not with all the family on board.
 
Sounds like turbo then.

Impossible to give advice online but it should be OK to drive just gutless.

But without checking and looking for damage and any other issues it's only a guess
 
carmanmemoranda said:
Sounds like turbo then.

Impossible to give advice online but it should be OK to drive just gutless.

But without checking and looking for damage and any other issues it's only a guess
Click to expand...
It's really useful to know. Obviously might not be that but it's enough to make it sensible to see if that's confirmed by a garage on Monday.
 
Orange light it usually means it's driveable. Obviously not ideal to do so over a long distance but if needs must!

I'd be seeing what my policy covers in the first instance - I've seen people thousands out of pocket in this situation - failed repairs, weeks to get parts, onward recovery not covered, other policy limitations etc.

If they can't get it sorted within a day or so (if it needs a part) I'd be pushing for full recovery of you and car home.
 
cdbe said:
Orange light it usually means it's driveable. Obviously not ideal to do so over a long distance but if needs must!

I'd be seeing what my policy covers in the first instance - I've seen people thousands out of pocket in this situation - failed repairs, weeks to get parts, onward recovery not covered, other policy limitations etc.

If they can't get it sorted within a day or so (if it needs a part) I'd be pushing for full recovery of you and car home.
Click to expand...
Cheers that sounds like good advice.
 
Jonny Gutteridge said:
Cheers that sounds like good advice.
Click to expand...
depends on your cover, you may not have the option of getting the car recovered home. Recovery probably only means getting you and the family home and then costs to go and collect car when it is repaired.

Read your policy before demanding too much
 
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