On the way to work this morning in the outside lane of the m27 just at the top of a hill my rev counter fell to 0 and my accelator stopped working, while having a small panic attack and dodging across the other two lanes of traffic the engine oil light popped on. I turned the engine off on the hard shoulder and checked the oil which was still easily in the right range.

When I turned the engine on again the light wasn't there anymore and clever or not - most likely the not - I drove the rest of the way to work.

Am going to check the oil again at lunch when the engine is cold and where it is on a nice level car park.

Glad you ok, not sure what this can be through.

Wow, scary! Never heard of anything like that before, but glad you're OK!

On a focus if the rev counter dropped to Zero or speedo dropped to zero it was known as the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) Failing, not sure if it's through.

not a good sensation when that happends!!:(....it happend to mine when i forgot about the blakjax!!....no drive or anything!!!.....lucky i wasnt on a really busy road!!.....hope you werent too shook up by it....

k

On the way to work this morning in the outside lane of the m27 just at the top of a hill my rev counter fell to 0 and my accelator stopped working, while having a small panic attack and dodging across the other two lanes of traffic the engine oil light popped on. I turned the engine off on the hard shoulder and checked the oil which was still easily in the right range.

When I turned the engine on again the light wasn't there anymore and clever or not - most likely the not - I drove the rest of the way to work.

Am going to check the oil again at lunch when the engine is cold and where it is on a nice level car park.

I had this on an older car - a 1982 Vauxhall Cavalier. Shame really, as the lorry and bus I'd just passed, wombled on by @ about 25mph as I raised the bonnet to see what went wrong.

It was down to corrosion in the connectors of the wiring loom under the bonnet in my case. I pulled apart and re-made any connections I could see where there was a hint of green gunge/verdigris lying around. 2 minutes later I was on my way again.

On a Fabia, I guess I'd start with checking the connections to the distribution block on top of the battery and then the earths. Also make sure that the battery clamps are on tight.

HTH

J.

My 1.6 Seat Leon died at 70mph in the outside lane of the M5 one Monday morning rush-hour. Tried to restart: nothing. AA turned up 15 minutes later and the barsteward started and the bloke could find no fault codes. Dealer reckoned a dirty throttle potentiometer.

Never did trust it after that.

I checked the oil levels at lunch and it is def. well within the right range.

Thank you for the help and nice msgs. Going to drive it the 30 miles back to Portsmouth tonight - and then it's staying there till it goes to the garage on saturday - I'm starting to become quite a regular customer there

I'd make sure the battery connections are both tight.

Bloody hell!!! That musta been a "new pants please" moment.

Glad your ok tho, Jenny.

It def was! It drove back from work fine - battery connections look ok but I know f all about cars so I'll wait and see what the garage says on Sat.

As said before get it checked for a fault code - its supposed to store any in its memory so there should be something there - sounds like a sensor had a hiccup!

Wow thats some story.

What engine is it?

I would replace the engine speed sensor (G-28).

If this stops telling the engine control unit how fast the crankshaft spinns the rev counter goes to zero, and it will trigger the oilpressure warning system..

Hope you get it sorted!

Jon A

It's a 1.4 - I think.

I took it to the garage - they can't find anything wrong with it. I don't really know where to go from here now - I've been driving around all morning (trying to sort my car radio out - I know pointless if the car doesnt actually go.) and I've got no lights appearing and it drives.

From the explanation it seems to me that the engine just cut out and stopped. If this were the case the warning lights would come on with the oil pressure light as well, as the engine is stopped the oil pump is stopped and the pressure will drop off.

Had this problem before on a petrol Fabia, complete with no fault codes showing. The fuel pump relay was the cause, replaced this and have not heard from the customer since.

If the above is wrong and the engine was still running, I would guess at an X relay fault, this supplies power to the engine contol unit.

it might be a one off, did you have your radio on when you lost power? if so did it turn off as well?

The radio didnt turn off.

I am hoping it was a one off as it's got to get me to Oxford tomorrow evening so I can go home and see my parents.

The only time that happened to me was me old Felly, which didn't come back on. Just needed a new coil, dunno about the new electrics but it sounds like a failing coil to me, total shut-off.

1.4 8v or the 16v?

I would guess at an X relay fault, this supplies power to the engine contol unit.

Is this the famous relay 109? Notorious on Mk3 Golfs?

golf relay 109 - Google Search

That was my first thought. It's cheap too

It's the 16v

May sound like a stupid questions but here goes anyway...........

Have you got a lot of keys attached to the key fob?

If it happens again try twitching the ignition key and see if the rev counter, speedo bursts into life.

Had similar experience in Octavia vRS a while ago. Remove all other keys from key fob. May be worth a try.

http://briskoda.net/forums/octavia-i/octavia-vrs-cutting-out/71076/