My girlfriends (previously my) Fabia is sounding increasingly ill. It has 77k miles on the clock, (35k were done in one year by me). The car has previously been fine, serviced every 10k religiously by my brother a Ford spanner monkey. Unfortunately i know live at the other end of the country so he cant cast his eye, so im stuck (i have very little experience besides helping my brother and dad). The car is very lumpy at idle, almost stalling, then its very erratic when driving, sometimes a lack of acceleration and engine just cutting out when at traffic lights etc, aswell as just not sounding well at all, this engine was normally as smooth as anything. It was serviced a couple of months ago and my bro mentioned it could possibly the ignition coil? (How much would one be)

Ive been reading up on here that it may be a temp sensor, though ive not noticed any problems with the temp sensor, it works fine as far as i can tell, in the rare occasions that i go in that car. So i was wondering if anyone knew what it could possibly be? Im in the process of buying a VAGcom connector so i can see if theres any error codes on the system.

Any help would be appreciated.

P.S. Where is the connector for VAGcom, in the passenger footwell?

P.S. Where is the connector for VAGcom, in the passenger footwell?

The temp sensor is the first port of call for lumpy running, but it sounds like you have that covered already. The OBDII port is behind the can holder to the right of the steering wheel, on the bottom side of the dash. Pull it down to open it and then pull it again to reveal the connector.

Hope this helps!

The temp sensor seems to be functioning ok, but im happy to admit ive been wrong before lol, i suppose ill have a better idea when i have vagcom up and running. Think i might try finding a VAG specialist locally (theres a dealer about a minute away but dont want to pay their prices)

VAG-COM will tell you for certain on that score - and if it is, this should help you!

I think for the cost i might just do it anyway, only £30, and from what ive read its helped people with similar symptoms regardless of how the temp gauge was behaving. And from the looks of the job there isnt too much that even i can mess up. Is there a specific temp sensor fault code i should be looking for? There seems to be 8 or 9 mentioning coolant temp that i can see.

Is there a specific temp sensor fault code i should be looking for? There seems to be 8 or 9 mentioning coolant temp that i can see.

It's probably easier just to look through this thread. If you're in a preventive maintenance frame of mind, some people have advised that it's a good idea to change the thermostat housing at the same time as the sensor. You can buy it and the sensor as a pack AFAIK, and apart from losing a little coolant it's not all that much more difficult...

Im going to assume that the thermostat housing is the thing that the sensor sits in? I remember reading about changing them both on the associated thread, ill have a look at what it entails, dont want to attempt anything im unsure about and cause more problems, ill have a ring and see how much the pack is.

Im going to assume that the thermostat housing is the thing that the sensor sits in?

Yep!

Cheers for help ap0gee, ive ordered the part and dug out my Haynes manual. So ill be reading that while camping this weekend (judging by the weather there wont be much else to do) in preperation of hopefully not ruining her car next week.

A throttle body clean wouldn't go amiss. I've encountered Fabias with starting problems, no faults stored, but upon taking readings from the temperature sensor noticed that they weren't what they should have been.

Yes, although there aren't any pictorials on here, I believe there is one on the ukmkivs site. It can be done with carburettor cleaner in situ (which avoids the need to reset it afterwards), just beware not to drop anything into the inlet manifold!

Think I would go with your brother on this one - ignition coil - check out the leads for security and damage before replacing it though.

Had very similar symptoms appear very suddenly on a Fiat Punto - new coil fixed it - IIRC cost about 35 quid and took 10mins to change.