Smogzilla

I would if he hadn't gone to the match.

My 2013 fabia vrs estate is running a little off at the moment. Slightly erratic idle, seems a bit hesitant on pick up, gearbox seems a bit slow to react, so I suspected a possible vacuum leak. When I've connected my gauge up to the engine I am getting absolutely zero movement on the needle unless I blip the throttle and then it moves slightly into positive pressure. Do any of you fine chaps have any idea where to start looking first?

I mentioned the levelling but I was just parrot fashioning from previous comments about washers and levelling tbh. They work great, I feel safer in the car driving in the dark and I didn't get flashed once by oncoming traffic. Result.

If it fails a mot I'll just pop the old bulbs back in, it's a 5 minute job. If the car has washers and levelers then they have to still work, they don't necessarily have to have washers with hid lights. But you are correct, they are not legal but plenty of posters in here have them fit and haven't had an issue at mot time.

Update. I decided to just replace the map sensor myself after I got my mechanic mate to test it. All problems are now consigned to history and the car is running like a dream now.

After reading this thread I decided to take the plunge and get a set of these. They were delivered this morning and I've just finished fitting them, took about 2 hours all in. The bulbs came with a set of new holders but, as was pointed out earlier in the thread, they are useless as they don't fit. I'm just waiting for the dark now so I can test them.

I thought I'd update this thread as to the current situation. After Skoda had had the car for over a week they did the oil weight test, which it passed comfortably. The compression test came back fine (140 ISH on all 4) and they checked the timing chain which, again, was fine. They flashed yet another ECU update on it and said it was good to go. I've been driving it for 3 weeks now and I'm sure it's still misfiring although I've not yet had the engine warning light flashing again. Yesterday I had a few instances where it seemed very flat and reluctant to change gear and tonight on my drive home from work it was as lumpy as hell. I took it to the garage near home and he plugged it in to his scanner and it had a "pending" P0106 code which is the map sensor or something related to the pressure/vacuum hoses. After a bit of a Google it looks like this could be causing my headaches as most of the symptoms are intermittently evident in my car. So, it looks like it's going to have to go back to Skoda for them to investigate. Or I could just spend the £30 and replace the sensor....

Thanks dude. Appreciate it 👍

Thanks. I just want know what to say when/if they say the chain needs replacing and if it would have a knock on effect on the water pump or supercharger clutch. As I say, everything is quiet under the bonnet and no unpleasant rumbling or rattling from ruined bearings etc.

Is the magnetic clutch part of the supercharger or a separate item? If the timing chain is stretched then would I be expecting too much for them to change those components as well? I suspect I would be but I know fine well they'll both go about 2 days after my warranty runs out 🙄 I really do appreciate you taking time to reply, I thought I'd researched these cars pretty well before I bought one but it's quite obvious I was as green as my car when I handed over the money.

I must say that 2nd link you posted is the closest to what I am experiencing and it does sound like the timing chain is the prime suspect. I shall call them tomorrow and ask them if they intend to check it since it's a tpi. At least they upgraded me from a citigo to another Fabia estate but only a 1.4 diesel with a manual box. Not quite the same but a vast improvement over the citigo.

To my knowledge all they have done so far is the ECU update, looked at the plugs, did a compression test and now they have started this oil weight test. Forme only one of the plugs looked right, the other 3 were sooty. So does that indicate a fault on 3 cylinders? When I next go there I'm going to ask to see all the reports from the various tests they are performing to make sure they haven't done anything as daft as what you posted earlier. As I said in the OP I'm struggling to find anyone who has had similar issues under similar circumstances. I guess I was just hoping someone would post saying they had the same issue and it needed X replacing. The dealership is Derek Slack in Middlesbrough. They've been around forever and have a pretty good reputation.

Thanks for replying. I've put approx 0.5l in the car since I got it and done about 2500 miles in that time. I didn't know the full extent of an oil weight test (but I do now) but I'd hope they know what to do. To be honest I don't think they know what is the problem with it and they are running through a sort of "check this, check that routine" hoping to find the problem. It's quite obviously got a misfire on 3 of the 4 pistons by the look of the plugs but what is causing them I don't know. It appears that they don't either.

Small update. So the tech at the dealership managed to get the car to fault as I have been getting. Still no error code being produced and plenty of misfires registered. They pulled the plugs, inspected them and did a compression test which all came back fine. Now they want to do an oil weight test. I've decided to let them keep it and do the test themselves so I'm not lumbered going back and forth to the garage. It also means they have to put the fuel in it and I won't get stuck if it goes into limp mode.