bollard

thanks nta very good point there

thanks much appreciated

i was ok with the price toot, had a few issues with the skoda and never found the dealership a pleasant experience - i was expecting a bigger bill to be honest!

thanks again, bill was £165 - time taken to investigate fault apparently, eliminate coils as a suspect and this would have been more at a dealership for sure plus the long wait to book in at a dealership round here. no i haven't either got or seen the offending plug but i trust the garage.

thanks guys - much appreciated - really helpful and sets my mind at rest.

the mechanic in question is experienced and reliable, i'm both pleased and puzzelled to find this isn't a known fault here - thanks for your interest and comments.

thanks toot - it is a 1 litre engine, TSi Se. the mechanic said that they had a number of these engines with the overheated issue and showed me a fractured valve removed from one he said that it is a design fault that did not allow sufficient cooling to the middle cylinder and those they had in were around 50K miles. He also felt that the cars that suffered from this problem had been used for relatively short trips.

took our fabia to a local garage with an engine management issue, the car has done 20K miles and is just out of warranty. it was a failed spark plug - a great relief as i was expecting a huge bill. i conveyed my relief to the mechanic who raised an eyebrow and said the engine was prone to the above, ie the middle cylinder overheating so i might expect a £1K bill on that in the future, he said it was a design fault on the cooling arrangement. has anybody else hear this please?