kevinw4

Excellent guide; many thanks ap0gee. Further to comments from echase about removing the ECU, I found that you can just squeeze your fingers behing the mounting plate and depress the plastic catch by the bottom lug. Its a bit tricky but the ECU & frame complete then simply slides up a bit and comes off. I then wiggled it out of the frame to give a bit more working space. Reassembly afterwards is just then a case of pushing it all back in.

Re: "....how easy is this stuff to do..." Bit like asking how easy is it to bake a cake when we don't know how good a cook you are! All I can say is that there is nothing really complicated about the mechanical physical bits; - its basically undoing lots of nuts and bolts to remove things, cleaning them & then putting them back - in some cases with new gaskets and such. ... BUT... some of these are very awkward to get at and you will need a good selection of hex bits, extensions, small rachets etc. to get into some of the small spaces. Some are easier from underneath so you will need a lift or ramps/axle stands. You will also need relevant gaskets, carb cleaner, degreasers, small bottle brushes and similar plus plenty of rags, elbow grease, hours of patience and some spare knuckles for those you will skin off ! For the elctronic management part you must have (or get access to) full licensed VAGCOM to be able to do the necessary, together with the right routine codes to suit you car makeup; - you can find most of these by serching these forums and various websites such as Ross-Tech etc. Or if you are very lucky a good indie will have the proper Skoda manuals with all such info. Good luck.!

Don't know if my experience with fixing EMl emissions issue on our 2001 1.4 16V might give you any ideas - see my new thread

There is lots posted about this issue, but much of it is scattered and if you're a newbie like me then you aren't even sure what you are looking for, so I thought I'd add my few pennyworth and share our experience in the hope it might help someone else. We had this issue on my Son's 1.4 16V Comfort. 2001 model with 70,000 miles. Same as everyone else, numerous trips to dealers, light reset, EGR cleaned/changed etc. but always came back on within a few days. Finally the dreaded ".... needs new Piston rings, too much oil passing..." dealer finale (not economic to repair). Not I guess that may be the case on some cars as seems a known issue, but a few old fashioned tests meant I was not convinced about ours so I did lots of research, found a few ideas, dusted off me old overalls & got stuck in. Result - been running couple of months now & just passed MOT with emissions less than ever before!. - oh, & it runs better than ever also. I am not an expert and may be entirely wrong, however I think that there may be a few points that many miss. the main things we did were... Make sure all electrical issues sorted Strip & clean all the EGR system - specially the actual inlet pipe within the throttle body Strip/ clean/replace all the engine crankcase breather system - know issues with condensation sludge & if oil separator/breather gets gunged gives excess pressure causing some oil blow by re-initialise the ECU (bit brave & I take no responsibility) Recommission system completely with VAGCOM as per Skoda instructs for new throttle body alignment EGR valve adaptation each and every one of the EGR components test and calibration routines. Systematically work through & replace any if faulty until you get all those magic readiness tests passed Ok If anyone is interested I could post more details

Symptoms sound similar to our 1.4 16V, and replacing the sensor cured it for us. You should get it hooked up to VAGCOM and do the diagnostics check on the Steering assist control unit. Measuring Block 2 will show you the sensor reading & if its faulty will probably jump about even at standstill and coincide with you hearing the pump kick in. Also shows you the motor current, and in MB 1 you can monitor the voltage & if you see if drop significantly when the pump cuts in, thats the reason for the flickering lights; - there just isn't enough grunt left in the battery for them.

Hi, Using the excellent info I have picked up here from various threads, i have been ovehauling the EGR system on my son's Fabia (as it has all the usual issues to do with this it seems), but have hit a bit of a query. Car is 01 Y Fabia 1.4 16V Comfort - AUB engine. My query is that everyone (& Haynes) mentions the vacuum connection on the EGR valve, & sure enough on our EGR valve there is a tube port on the side which has rubber connector to thin plastic tube and this then goes.... er, nowhere ? Its quoted as going to the air intake as a vacuum line which i presumed to be the inlet manifold (same as other vacuum connections) or maybe even the air filter box, but it just ends in a small cylinder which looks to be a filter I guess. I've lokked everywhere & cannot see anywhere it coudl possible connect to, so is this correct or are we missing something. Is it not actually vacuum driven & this is just some vent line or something? Would be appreciated if anyone can clarify for us. Thanks