Hi all, hope you can offer some advice on this problem...

My car: Octavia Classic Saloon 1.6i, 2002 (I am guessing this is a Mark 1).

I recently bought the car from a Skoda dealer and apart from the problem I will detail, it is a lovely car, clean, drives really well and on the whole I think I got a good deal.

The problem: When I start the engine the Rev counter shoots up (as you would expect), the engine turns over fine but when you take you foot off the accelerator the rev counter drops down to zero and the engine cuts out. It’s as if the choke does not cut-in quick enough and the engine simply cuts out. To keep the engine running and to allow the choke to work I need to keep my foot on the accelerator for a few seconds, keeping at around 20~30 (ths?) revs, I then take my foot off and the engine ticks over fine. If I don’t hold my foot on the accelerator the engine will cut out, even if I start it several times or more.

Although the problem is worse in the cold it also cuts out (from starting) when the engine is warm, I could drive to work, turn off the engine, start it again, give it one rev, take my foot off the accelerator and the engine will cut out.

The problem can be intermittent, occasionally it will start fine, some times it will struggle to keep going almost cutting out and then the choke will cut in and the revs will increase. Once the engine is running the car drives very well with no problem.

The problem was there from day one, the car has a three month warranty so I advised the dealer. I returned the car, they kept it for a day, said the problem was a faulty sensor which had been changed. This did not fix the fault. I returned it a second time, they changed another 'sensor', the fault remained. I returned it a third time, they said they had found and replaced a 'split pipe'. This has not fixed the problem.

I am about to call them for the fourth time and tell them the fault remains, whatever they have done to date has not made one bit of difference. Before I do call them I was hoping someone could offer me some advice-

Is this a common fault on Octavia's?

Has anyone experienced the same fault?

What do you think the problem could be?

I would like to gather a little info before I go back to the dealer again, perhaps I could point them in the right direction?

Apologies for the long post, I thought it best to get all the details in. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Graham.

I would ask them to check the throttle body as I suspect this may be the problem (I assume they have already checked for vacuum leaks and faulty temperature sensors).

It's an unusual fault.

I'd want to see the fault codes being generated before messing about with changing sensors.