I was right. OllieVRS 1-0
WasaMotors Engineer.
Just joking, there was probably some truth to his claim, I'll go into detail later.
So I've fixed the idle oil pressure. After replacing all three accessible oil squirters, the hot idle pressure has been raised from 0.8 bar to 1.2 bar (12psi to 17psi).
The original guidelines from the Audizine forum state that the measurements are at 80 degrees engine oil but I think that's a load of BS so I just let the car idle for 15 more minutes after the coolant hits 90 and then take my measurements.
Measurements before fix:Idle: 0.8 bar (12psi)
2000: 3.6 bar (52psi)
3000: 3.9 bar (57psi)
Measurements after fix:Idle: 1.2 bar (17psi)
2000: 3.6 bar (52psi)
3000: 3.9 bar (57psi)
So only the idle pressure has changed after the fix, the other pressure remain identical. Measurements done on 0W40 before and 5W40 after, so difference should be negligible.
Final Hot Idle
Video of Idle-2000-3000rpm
eature=share
Picture of original oil squirter (left) 06F 103 154 A, next to newer revision oil squirter 06F 103 154 C. The only visible difference is that the ball-spring on the newer one has a flat face. Apparently VIN numbers matter when buying these, I asked the guys at
Skoda-Parts.com and they confirmed the newer one was the one for my Octavia.
Picture of where the oil squirters are located and how we reached them (the crankshaft has to been turned to a very specific angle for each of the three). We used 1/4" wobble-end extensions and big hex M8 spline bits inside 10mm sockets, and torqued the new ones to 27Nm. A long screwdriver is also required to point the spray jet nozzle in the right direction as you tighten the bolt and to line it up with the flat groove in the block.
My final thoughts are that my pressures are well within spec, but seemed to be capped just under 4 bar (59psi). I think this is due to the spring in the pressure release valve in the oil pump being weaker due to age and poor servicing in the past, so it's opening slightly prematurely.
Just 10k miles caused my idle pressure to drop from 18psi to 12psi, basically one of the oil squirters collapsed in that mileage, so I would be anxious that the spring in the PRV could collapse in similar mileage too.
The
WasaMotors Engineer pointed out the scratches in the pump mechanism look bad but it's impossible to measure the effect of them on the oil pressure. And that my pump would benefit from their oil pressure fix. Which I would look into were it not for the fact that my pump's PRV bolt seems to be permanently glued shut. Not even a breaker bar could get it open
. It must have been already fixed once by a previous owner, and they bodged it.
The scratches would affect the pressure across the board, whereas the PRV would only affect the higher RPM pressure. My 3000RPM pressure only being slightly higher than my 2000RPM pressure would suggest the PRV spring is the main limiting factor.
Ideally I should be able to surpass 4 bar at 3000RPM. I'll remeasure it in a few months to see if the upper pressure limit has degraded any further.
That's all for now. I'm going to work on an oil pressure solution guide for the forum considering how much knowledge I've gained researching this topic, and also from experience. Hopefully that will be of use to a few people
Cheers