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I own Skoda octavia 2001 2.0. since last month, engine keeps stalling:

  1. while driving (for 10km or sometimes for 1 - 2 km in distance).
  2. keeping the car idle for 20 - 35 minutes.

and when it stalls, It cranks but does not fire-up. unless, waiting for 10 - 15 minutes, or push-start it.

special cases:

  1. when I am driving (over 60km in speed), I feel like the engine is holding back and loosing power or about to stall. As soon as I accelerate, it powers back (or lets say looks like gaining power to run again) and runs smoothly. This happens, in couple of seconds (like 1 - 2 seconds.). If I don't accelerate, engine goes off, but I can push-start it if I kept the speed over 40 km.

  2. sometime I drive for 4 hours without having this issue (this is rare other than having the engine stalling twice everyday).

Things I have done so far:

  1. I have changed the battery since it was kinda old.
  2. got the car scanned (no issues or fault were found).
  3. checked if the car still runs while the battery is unplugged (checking if the problem from the alternator).
  4. Replaced the fuel filter.

note:

  1. This happens since I changed the engine oil type to ( 20w50 ), while the car type is (5w30) but I have been told that the oil type won't cause this issue to happen.

  2. When the car stalls or about to stall, I hear clicking noise from the relay box under the dash. I checked the relays by just touching and found two of them were too hot compared to the others (which were kida cool).

Edit:

Forgot to mention a couple of things:

  1. I started to get the immobilise light before the car start stalling, but now I get the lgiht a lot lately (like 85% everytime I want to start the car). So all I have to do is switch off then back on for the light (warning) to disappear and be able to start the car. But I don't get the immobilise light when the car stalls or shut-off.

  2. When I force start the car when it's about to stall at low speed or trying to push-start it, I get the oil warning light and the car stalls (this happened to me sometimes).

  3. The car looks like to give me more driving time at cold weather. for example: at the morning (weather degree between 17 - 19 C)I can drive for more than 11 km (in distance (depends on weather)) then it stalls, but I can fire the car up after less than 5 minutes. But afternoon(as its hot 25 - 28 C), it drives me less than 9 or 10 km (in distance) and I won't be able to fire it up unless after 10 minutes of wait at-less.

  4. When I try to fire-up the car after stalling, I hear a crazy clicking from the relay box.

Edite: Scanned the car again and got the error code: 17978 (Engine Start Blocked by Immobilizer).

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  • Comments: (1) never run your car without the battery, it will cause risk of electrical damage to expensive components, (2) 20w50 oil is way too thick for your car, but probably not the cause of this issue.
    – juhist
    Aug 11, 2017 at 19:13
  • Welcome to the site. First of all SWITCH BACK TO 5W-30 OIL! The 20W-50 is doing your engine absolutely NO GOOD and may be DAMAGING IT due to less oil flow through the engine. Bearing clearances are set with a specific weight oil in mind. Running thicker oil can starve bearings and such ultimately causing issues. It's also harder to push around the engine, so it will lower fuel mileage in the process. As juhist said, never run the engine without the battery attached. You used to do that when generators were on cars, but now you are looking to fry the alternator and other vital electronics.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Aug 11, 2017 at 19:16
  • Check your fuel pressure. The 4 main ingredients to combustion are fuel, air, spark and compression. If your engine is turning, then you're getting compression (probably). If it isn't starting, then fuel air or spark are missing. Check the fuel pressure first.
    – kyle_engineer
    Aug 11, 2017 at 19:25
  • First, thank you all for replays. well, I haven't drive the car without battery, it was just a test for a couple of seconds. But I didn't know it could harm the car. I will make sure to change the oil to 5w30 as soon as I can, and will do check the fuel pressure. As for me I suspect the fuel pump relay. Would a fail relay do this to the car?
    – Jaz
    Aug 12, 2017 at 5:57
  • I managed to get the car checked for fuel pressure. the mechanic just contacted me that we get the computer fault code: 17978 Engine Start Blocked by Immobilizer. Any Ideas?
    – Jaz
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:48

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I have got the car fixed by replacing the crankshaft sensor. since then it's working fine.

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