Amt0571

Thank you. The last 2 years, when I serviced the car, they've been telling me the battery was in bad shape, so I still hope it's just a battery failure. I've looked at the wiring looms and all of them seem clean to me except the wiring that goes into the oil sump sensor which has some oil splashes, but this isn't connected to the alternator or battery. I'm currently worried about the oil I found yesterday, as it didn't came from the variator and I couldn't track the origin. I'm still hoping it's residue from the first leak that I didn't manage to clean and just dripped down, but I think there was too much of it to be honest. I tried to find the origin with a flashlight and a mirror on a pole, but was unable to find anything. I don't think I can do anything else without lifting the car. At the moment I just want to repair the car and sell it. I no longer trust it. I don't trust ŠKODA either, since after talking to them about the leak it's clear they don't want to help not care about their customers. So I'm going to look for a mechanic that knows VW cars like you said.

Today the car is parked in the street as the battery doesn't work. I'm going to replace it on saturday. However, I found a single fresh drop of oil in the garage that I had just cleaned after the leak. I opened the engine and looked on the engine plastic tray and everything seemed dry, until I looked at the bottom and... Surprise: more oil. I removed the tray and the sump drain plug had an oil drip about to fall. The timing belt seemed dry. I cleaned everything and now I'm not sure if the engine is leaking somewhere else which I'm not able to see, or this is just residual oil from the variator pulley leak that splashed on the engine in some bump and now has been collecting there. I checked the oil level and it hasn't visibly diminished since Monday, when I topped it up after the leak.

What was the failure like? My wife just called me that the car won't start. It says the battery is discharged. Start and stop has been failing for 3 days... I checked voltage and it was 14.6 when on and 12.3 when off. I suppose it's the battery as it's 6 years old, but your message has me wondering if your symptoms were the same.

I looked at the wiring loom today. It was clean, so I suppose it will be fine.

No. They didn't tell me that, but I reminded them that they had a recall on 1.2 engines because of this same issue, which at least they didn't deny. I'm just going to keep an eye on the bolts and the timing belt and will replace it if I see wear signs. I'm also going to explore the option of selling the car and getting a used Yaris Hybrid, as so far the Auris has been absolutely flawless, which I can't say about the Fabia whose issues are piling up (some are important, like this and the AC issues, others not so much, but shouldn't be there anyway). I don't really trust this car, and having driven a brand new rental Polo 1.0 TSI DSG this summer, whose clutches squealed like a pig among other issues, I think they don't learn anything and definitely didn't improve my conficende in VW group. In case it doesn't work out or I feel it's not worth it to sell the car, I'm definitely not going to bring the car to the Skoda Service again.

Well, Skoda called me back today. They told me that since the bolts were tightened outside of Skoda Service, they couldn't do anything despite me having sent a picture of the loose bolts and links to this forums and others with the same issue. I then asked what would happen if they magically loosened again and I brought it to Skoda Service, and he told me that they couldn't guarantee me that they could help me with repairs but that they'll try. Frankly, since the car also loses A/C gas and they can't find where, I'm thinking about selling the car and getting a Yaris, which I think I should have done since day one. There's also an Auris Hybrid at home and it has been flawless and way cheaper to maintain than the Fabia.

Is there anything I should look for to avoid this? do you know which wiring loom was affected? After tightening the bolts I removed the bottom tray and cleaned everything I could reach on the bottom of the car with a degreaser, but I didn't see or couldn't reach any wire there as I don't have the appropiate means to lift the car. It's difficult to clean what you can't see. In my case the oil went past the lower suspension arms, as I suspect that the accumulated oil on the tray flew away with the wind and bumps. I also tried to clean the side of the engine, but it's too cramped to reach some parts, especially on the lowest part, from the top. I still have to refill the oil. Although it's still above the low mark, it's too close for comfort IMHO. Do you know which oil do I have to use? Thanks

I've thought about using a sharpie to mark the bolts to be able to tell if they're getting loose just by removing the cover. I'm more worried about the possible oil contamination of the belt though. I'm going to inspect it regularly until I manage to trust the engine again.

Well, I've contacted ŠKODA Spain, as it where I live. I presume you contacted ŠKODA UK? I hope I'll have better luck.

Exactly this happened to my wife's Fabia on tuesday. Found out because there was oil on the garage floor. Thanks to this forum I managed to solve the leak myself. After removing the timing belt cover, I found one screw was halfway out, and three others could be turned with my fingers. I checked the torque on the only bolt that seemed tight, which was at 17Nm, and torqued the other bolts to the same spec after adding thread locker. I later found out that the correct torque is 8Nm + 45deg, so I hope it will be OK anyway. Finally I disassembled and cleaned the plastic at the bottom of the engine bay and after 100km it seems there are no leaks. It seems it lost less than 0.5l of oil, and oil level is still in the correct range. I checked the timing belt and it seemed to be mostly clean of oil, so I think I will be able to save it. I sprayed a rubber compatible degreaser to the belt and after revving the engine, a bit of oil splashed on the cover. After everything dried up I tried it again and there were no further splashes, so I assume the belt is dry and fine. It seems to me that VW engineering is not up to par, especially considering they had a recall on 1.2 engines because of this same issue. I've written to skoda and I'm waiting for a response.