PToledo

Little update.. Got some occasional misfiring at cylinder 4. After much testing with a voltmeter turned out to be the 4th ignition lead had an internal crack so it failed when installed in some specific position and specially on low revs. A new set of black NGK ignition leads solved the missfire and the car now feels much more smooth and revvy. Moral is check your ignition leads if your car is misfiring.

@tuscan440 : Try cleaning the sensor first, and then replace if that does not work. I found cleaning it makes a great difference, although I only sprayed the whole intake manifold as I couldn't figure out how to remove the sensor without removing the back guard of the timing belt. This is funny because bank 2 errors only apply to engines with 6 or more cylinders, this ECU tends to throw some funny errors now and then. Mine throwed some unusual O2 sensor voltage errors that turned out to be a leak in the air filter box.

Hi everybody, Long time since I don't post here. I own a Fabia 1.4 16v 100HP AUB engine and I must say it is a picky engine, any small abnormal data from the sensors and the ECU will trigger some CEL errors. I believe problem is VW tried to make an early Euro IV engine from an old design just adding a lot of electronics and tighting too far the antipolution margins. From some years now I took a lot of knowledge from this website trying to solve my own problems with this car and I think is fair to share my own experiences, hope this will be useful for anyone who owns this this engine (or similar): *Air intake* - Clean regularly all the carbon and gunk residues from throttle body, the intake manifold and the EGR end. I do it every service/oil change (about 15K km.) with some carb cleaner spray and the engine off. It is a very easy job and will solve a lot of problems. I tried to take the MAP sensor out and have it cleaned it but it seems a bit difficult as the timing belt guards prevent access to the second bolt. Anyway it looks like spraying the carb cleaner inside the intake manifold will somewhat clean it. Now I have a rock solid idle. - Check for air leaks at the filter airbox (check the silicon gasket is in place), the exhaust, the rubber PCV hose from the crankcase ventilation box to the filter box, the rubber hose from the carbon filter and the rubber gasket under the throttle body that may be deteriorated and let unmetered air in. - Check the hot air flap at the filter airbox. In my case the thermostat that closes the flap didn't work so my engine always ran on hot air, this caused me some annoying knocking. I just removed the flap and blocked the hot air intake to the engine. - Check and clean blockings in the rubber hose from the carbon filter and the valve (makes a clicking sound on idle). In my engine it was connected to the intake manifold on a metal L that was blocked with gunk coming from the EGR, this is used mainly when the car idles so cleaning it will smooth your revs at idle. Also check and clean blockings in the PCV rubber hose from the crankcase ventilation box behind the engine (I just spray some carb cleaner down this hose just before oil change). - Check the rubber gaskets at the oil filler cap and below the "oil funnel" in the overhead cover the cap is closing (the part # is the same for them both). Mine where almost disintegrated, I think they can cause oil and pressure losses from the crankcase. *Ingition System* - Check the ignition coils for cracks. Mine had a severe crack in the middle, I read some people are repairing them with epoxy resin but I just replaced it with a Bosch aftermarket part (about 70€). - Check the connections at ignition coils (just one in my engine) and at the ignition leads for oxidation. Mine had some kind of light green oxidation, so I did a light sanding and cleaning of the terminals with an electrical contact cleaner product. Testing the resistance of the coil and the leads with a multimeter is advisable too. - Check the spark plugs are tight in place, mine get a bit loose after 20000 km , that is when I get them out and check their condition (they must light grey/brown with no oil). Replace them every 50000km/60000km. *Oil Tips* - Oil consumption in this engine is a bit high compared with other engines, it can be caused by PCV blocking, the engine running too hot or lean. In my case I got an acceptable consumption (about 200 ml. each 2000 km) and don't think it will ever be lower than that so I will have to live with it. - Always get a GOOD SYNTHETIC oil, 5w40 grade it's fine with me, 10w40 did not make a difference for me in consumption and left far more residues, 5w30 and 0w40 increased the oil consumption. Get an oil with at least VW502.00 homologation, after some testing I prefer to use mid-saps oils (ACEA C3 alongside with the VW502.00, Total Quartz Ineo MC3 5W40 right now), as they leave less residue in the EGR and in the intake and it is easier to remove. I also believe they allow a longer life for the catalytic converter and the O2 sensor, but this is just an speculation. - If you do a lot of short trips (like I do) with the engine cold then oil consumption will be high, no matter what you do. In this situation is advisable to shorten oil change intervals to 10000km. - If you have been using mineral oil or it is a second hand car and not correctly serviced (this was my own case) as this engine is prone to carbon build up and some consecutive quality oil changes can clean some carbon out, this may mitigate oil consumption. I read engine flushes may work too but I can not recommend flush additives as I did not try them myself. *Clutch and Gearbox* - Got some problems with the clutch bitting point being too low. Changing the brake fluid and bleeding the slave cylinder helped a bit but this did not fully solved the problem, real problem was the hose taking the fluid from the reservoir to the master cylinder was loose and let the air enter in the circuit. A simple plastic zip tie tightening the hose to the reservoir solved the problem. - Also the clutch made some rattling noise when cold, pressing the pedal made the the noise dissapear. Though it was some clutch bearing, surprisingly a gearbox oil change solved this and made gear handling a lot smoother. *General Tips* - Always go for the easiest solution first: Air/fuel filters, clogged intake, spark plugs, loose electrical connections, faulty battery ...etc. Basically many of the faults have an electrical/electronic cause. - Make sure the part you are replacing is really faulty and in doubt ask first for a second opinion: Damaged ECUs are not usual no matter how much dealers insist and replace a faulty O2 sensor is half a hour. In my case I got some EGR errors but the problem was the EGR end was clogged up, I am sure the workshop would have it changed. - Go for OEM parts or high quality aftermarket parts (Bosch, Mann, NGK..etc). I got my new O2 Sensor from a NGK seller in eBay, plug and play and half price (120€ vs 250€ at dealers). - Get a (cheap) VAG cable and use it, not only for resetting errors but for adapting and monitoring. I hunted some sporadic misfire faults at Cylinder 4 monitoring the engine while driving. - Get the workshop manuals in PDF for your engine. Google is your friend. - When in doubt and just for peace of mind, clean the electrical connections with electrical contact cleaner spray and let dry before reconnecting. - The 1.4 16v is a very easy engine to maintain, plenty of room to work and almost everything is reachable from above. Making the repairs yourself can save you a lot of money and will give you great satisfaction. *Things To Do* Some thing I would like to do sometime. - Visit the dealers Workshop and ask for a ECU software update (if exists and not too expesive). - Undo the starter and clean it to get rid of the starting grinding noise. It seems is a common problem with VAG cars and starters. Well, I think this is all, hope this will be useful for someone.

I would not recomend changing to a mineral 15w40 if you are having good results with the 5w40. Currently I am using fully synthetic 5w40 Shell Helix with little oil consumption, very happy with it. Also noticed the engine a little more tappy as oil gets dirtier and near its change time, I suppose it has to do with hydraulic lifters. Cheers..

I have been using 2T oil mix in my 1.4 16V 100bhp petrol fabia for almost two years now (almost 20000 km) and I will continue using it in every fill. Never a single problem, no lights on the dash or any other type of problems. It cured some pinking it used to suffer, the engine is much quieter at idle now, it starts better from cold and it revs up really faster than before ... I can't describe but it feels a bit more punchy than before. I use a lower mix with petrol (400:1) to avoid getting greasy spark plugs, always use Castrol 2T fully synthetic (Jaso FD / ISO EGD are the highest grades and they are smokeless). Avoid API TC only oils as this american standard is very old and is not recommended nowadays. Just my experiences with 2T oil on my fabia, I also use it on my Peugeot 307 HDI but that is another story. Cheers.

My Symphony did the same a couple of times, the solution is to go to the last track in the CD and then press the "next" or "forward" button (I can't remember) then try to eject, try several times if it doesn't work the first time. Do a search for more details, I learned this from an old thread in this forum. Greetings Edit: This is the thread http://briskoda.net/fabia-i/stuck-cd/116317/

Thank you very much for your answer, I had simmilar problem as yours with the exhaust pipe but it was a lot cheaper for me! Maybe your coolant sensor is faulty, this can be cause of the high revs at idle and it is a very common fault but luckily not a very expensive one to fix. Cheers!

I am not sure the reason why, but my fabia burns much less oil than it used to do with the Motul Semisynth 10w40 I used in the last oil change, I think the Shell Helix has a NOACK value lower than the motul. And as somebody said, this engine burns oil in fast short runs before reaching its uptimum working temperature.. Cheers...

Hi SoundMixer, I was planning to do an EGR cleaning in my 1.4 16v but I am not sure if it is worth the effort as petrol EGRs get less dirtier than diesel ones. It was yours very dirty? Thank you in advance for your answer ;-D Cheers.

I used to have severe oil consumption problems with my 1.4 16v too but since I changed to a 5w40 Shell Helix Ultra, oil consumption is normal. Look for oils with high flash point and low NOACK values.

I believe all the fabias have an hydraulic cluch. Thank you very much for your experiences Danielon, I bought my fabia second-hand so I don't really know how EGR may be. I cleaned the throttle body and the butterfly of my fabia some time ago, but I am trying to find some information about cleaning the EGR on petrol engines and if it's worth the time and the efford. PD: Are you from Spain?

Hi Danielon, I would like to know if you cleaned the EGR valve, my fabia 1.4 16v is now 90000 km and I'm thinking about doing it. Any experiences out there about this in a petrol fabia? Thanks in advance.

Hi all!: I used to have this problem too in the rear door, but it is easy to fix with the guide at Fabia-vrs.com - Home Page It didn't take me more than 20 min. to fix it and no more water ingress.... Two great sites www.briskoda.net and Fabia-vrs.com - Home Page Greets!!