I have owned my fabia for just over a year now, and really enjoyed having it when i bought it. It is the little 1.4 16v car so can be fun. After having owned the car for a little over 3 months the EML came on (as the car had full skoda service history) i took it into the local skoda dealership garage.

The car was connected up to the computer at an inital cost of £70 or something, and i was told almost instantly that the car was miss firing and the problme was caused by faulty ignition leads. I was then told that they didnt have them in stock but could order them. I ended up getting the leads elsewhere and swapping them over myself. The problem went away for a little less than 2 weeks.

Then it was back on again, so again i went along to the dealer, and had it hocked up to the machine again, to be told there was still a fault and it was the spark plugs. So i went away and replaced them. Again this worked for a little less than 2 weeks. When the light came on the car was ratteling around and very under powered.

So agian i went back to the dealer, to be hocked up, and surprise surprise i was told that the leads and the spark plugs had a fault in them. At this point i told them that the leads were coming up to 4 weeks old and the plugs were 2 weeks. They assured me again that this would fix the problem. And surprise surprise it didnt.

I again headed back to this site and other website to see if i could find out what the problem could possibly be. I found that alot of 1.4 16v cars had issues with the coil pack. So i reluctantly trundled back to the Skoda dealership. I mentioned that i heard they were problems with this engine and they hocked it up to the machine. They then came back instantly to me saying that the cars fault was the coil pack. They then proceeded to change this at a cost of almost £200. I finially thought that the problem was solved until i drove off and it beat all previous times by the light coming on within a minute.

What i am really frustrated at is this car was built by Skoda and surely they know how they are built. Skoda seem to be just fitting any part they think may help (at my cost), surely they should be able to identify the fault (isnt that the point of the computer). This car has full service history at main Skoda dealerships all its life, and they still cant tell me whats wrong with it!

Its obvious that the dealer is the problem here, try another dealer and see how you get on. My now ex skoda dealer does not charge for diagnostic work, to get fault codes etc. They have a good reputation and I always take my car there as a result.

Well thats what i thought, i have been to 3 different dealers and had the same answer from each one.

They have all been told about the previous work on the car and have brought in receipts to prove it. It is as if they are just singing off the hymn sheet.

Built by Skoad, yes, but you are dealing with a dealer, not Skoda themselves, and a poor dealer by the sound of it.

For future reference, people on here will often scan your car for beer money or for free, and recommend a good dealer or a recognised independent. If it's not too far, try Unit 18 (a site sponsor) as it's run by 2 guys that know what they are doing.

Where are you?

Well i am at uni in birmingham but am often back in Reading.

The real thing is it isnt a poor dealer, its poor dealers. Well they have the car for the weekend, just hope they can find out what it is.

Got to see if they gonna give me a refund on the coil as it wasnt needed.

Which dealers you used? Are they in Brum or Reading?

Well i am at uni in birmingham but am often back in Reading.

There's a few people around Birmingham with VAG-COM that may be able to help with diagnostics (I'm not that far away, depending on which uni you're at), and there's a couple of good independant specialists not too far away. If you're being charged £70 just for a code scan, there's a saving to be made there.

well apparently thats the really wierd thing as there is nothing coming up on the scan anymore. But the light re3fuses to turn off and its running really rough.

The car is currently with Skoda central in Birmingham, but has been to the electric skoda (in birmingham), the one in Reading and one out Aldershot way (from Reading)

Personally, I would take it to Unit 18 - it's not a massive deviation from your route home. The guys that operate it are both fully qualified Mastertechs (there's usually only one per dealership due to the training costs in money and time) and there's very little they haven't seen.

I have had good experiences with Inde-Tech and VAG-Tech too, Both are independent repairers in the Milton Keynes area. Inde-Tech even have VAS (the same machine as the official dealers) whereas most of the other independents are using VCDS from Ross Tech, which can do most of the stuff that VAS can, but not quite everything.

Well the car is in central till monday, and they have promised a call at 12 on monday with the diganosis. If they cant find out what is wrong with the car i will take it elsewhere.

It's not unknown for new plugs and leads to be faulty.

Dealing with dealers can be quite tricky as their mechanics rely on the computer telling them what is wrong.

When was the oil last changed? and air filter?

My cousin has a Fabia 1.4 16v and theres a small pipe his Grandad blocked with his finger which caused the light to come on. It went off after a few hours though

Rough running - Have you tried sticking in fuel injector cleaner then going for a good run?

Lambda sensor?

It could even be the ecu itself? (an expert should be able offer a more experienced opinion though!) I think another member on here (Chrisw880 I think) had the EML on his Fabia they recoded the ECU and I duinno if that has cured it.

You could do a bit of fault finding yourself. To check that your plugs and leads are ok, take out one of your spark plugs and stick it back on the end of the HT lead that you just disconnected to get the plug out. Hold the spark plug near the engine block (a few mm) or something metal in the engine bay with some rubber handled pliers or something similar. Get someone to turn over the engine and you should see the plug arc against the block. If you see the spark, the lead and the plug is good. Repeat the process for the remaining leads and plugs and if one of them doesn't spark, change the plug for one of the known good ones. If it sparks, you know its the plug, if it doesn't you know its the lead. If this happens, change the HT lead with a known good one, if it still doesn't spark you know it's the coil pack.

Yeah that was exactly what i thought, luckily they replced the leads and plugs the 2nd time free of charge and it still continued to happen.

The last service on the car was at the begining of February. The oil was changed, the fuel filter was changed and the air filter was changed.

The car has had 2 lotd of injector cleaner through the system. The really strange thing is the light seems to be coming on at really random times and there doesnt seem to be anything consistant about it.

They talked about the lambda sensor being faulty, but while the after the car had been in the garage and they had replaced the coil pack (which didnt do anything) they hocked it up to the emmssions machine and the car at idle spped was putting out virtually clean air. The oxygen readings were well within the normal limits and so they cant be a hole in the exhaust. The mechanic mentioned that he hadnt seen a car produce as low emissions for a long time (even saying it was better than the brand new fabias)

In reponse to Fitz323 initially when they said there was a problem with the leads and the plugs we tried to see if they were faulty but couldnt find anything worng with either of them.

Oh and look at the time, 2h30 and in the end i had to phone skoda to find out whats happening. To be fair the mechanic who is working on it seems a decent guy but still cant find the problem.

A faulty lambda will throw fault codes.

Well just talk to the mechanic.

He has basically now said that the compreesion in one of the cyclinders is very low. And has asked for permission to remove the cylinder head to try and solve the problem, which is a 2 hour job (£160).

When they carried out the pressure tests of the cylinder it was found that the pressure in the cylinder was changing constantly. He thinks that there is a fault with the valve.

He also explained the lights behaviour, when the light is flashing the engine is realising that there is a fault with the cylinder. And the lambda reading would be high at this stage becasue unburnt fuel is going through this cylinder.

This is the problem i face as this is why it failed the MOT because of this high lambda reading.

I'd take his word for it on a low compression reading.

The next thing to do is a wet compression test on that cylinder to see if the compression comes back up. If it does, you've got a problem like worn, siezed or broken piston rings. If it doesn't then you've got an issue with a bent or burnt valve, or an iffy hydraulic tappet (if applicable).

Decided that i would make the decision over the weekend. I phoned Skoda this morning just before 10 to see if i could come and pick the car up. The technician i spoke to said he would just go and check and give me a call back. WEll surprise surprise this never happened. Just called them again and apparently the car is out on a road test, even though they havent done anything to it. So heopefully i should be able to get my car back some time over the next couple of days.

My mate had all sorts of problems with one of his cars, eventually wouldnt start, diagnostics machines threw up all different solutions. After spending about £500 on new bits including new ecu, he got a mobile mechanic round. Fixed the problem within a couple of hours, was faulty wiring or something. Anyway, just shows that diagnostics/computers dont always help. In the end you just need someone that is cheap, recommended, has experience and knows what they're doing.

Any news on this fault getting fixed? It's always interesting to read these stories, there's stuff to learn

although at the expense of others :rotz:

the ignition problems are well documented across the vw group of companies. they can access the history tracking by logging into the in house network and this should point them to likely causes. In 2004 it was a suggestion of mine which was adopted by VW to eliminate probable causes by swapping out easy replaceable parts to find the culprit then when the owner was happy fitting oem parts in place of the test pieces it appears Skoda has not gone down this route.