JohnGimber

Yeah, think I'll get it to the skoda garage and get a proper diagnosis, then decide what to do from there. Never really thought the coolant leak was much of an issue - have always had cars that require a topup once or twice a year. Thanks for the suggestions though. John.

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can provide some advice about my skoda fabia 2 (2007/2008), 1.4 16v petrol engine. It has 66k miles on the clock. Here's the history: Over the last year or so, once or twice the engine overheat light has come on. On each occasion I have stopped as soon as possible, and checked under the bonnet. On each occasion, the problem has been caused by the coolant being below the minimum level. I have left the car cool down, and topped up either with water or proper engine coolant. Yesterday, the car started juddering (when idling), and losing power, and lurching somewhat when accelerating. I took it to Halfords, and they diagnosed a faulty ignition pack on the last cylinder. This was replaced, and they showed me the spark plug from that cylinder - black. New plugs etc. OK, so I drove off, and the problem came back bigger and better than before. Straight back to Halfords, and they found that the problem had re-occurred. No failure messages (initially) on the diagnostics, but something definitely not firing. The new spark plug in the 4th cylinder (with the new ignition coil) was black again. They left the engine running, and took each coil off in turn. They were all clicking - so firing correctly. With the 4th cylinder, they took the plug out, plugged it in to the ignition coil, and started the engine. The spark plug was sparking nicely. They tried swapping the coils over, but definitely a problem with the 4th cylinder. I didn't opt for a full diagnostic at the time, despite the garage starting to warn me about compression readings on the cylinders. So I drove home. On the way, the engine management warning light came on. (Only a mile away from my house, thankfully). So now I'm home again, the car is worse than before, but I have no idea what is causing this problem. I haven't seen any white or blue smoke coming out of the exhaust, but the garage warned me that the unburnt fuel from cylinder 4 would be dumping into the catalytic converter, and would damage it if not sorted soon. Has anyone else had these symptoms, and if so... 1. What is it? 2. How can it be fixed? 3. What kind of price am I looking at? All help gratefully received! Thanks John.