Hi,

This is my first post, although I am visiting this forum for almost a year.

Here is the problem I faced twice in a week, with my Fabia 1.4 Elegance, year 2000 model. I have about 57,000 Km.

Suddenly, while I drive the engine stops (dies - for those searching dies as I did).

Without any warning or any clue. Engine just stops.

All indicators go dead. Tachometer and RPM indicator goes dead.

First Incident

After 10 Km suddenly the engine dies.

All indications are off, except battery and engine light.

I pull over.

Try to start the engine. No luck.

After a couple of minutes the engine starts again as nothing has happened.

I drive to my home (about 10 more Km) and park with no problem.

Meanwhile I am driving about 50Km without any problem.

Second Incident

After 20 Km suddenly the engine dies.

All indications are off, except only battery this time.

I pull over.

Try to start the engine. It starts immediately and continue for about 10 Km with no problem.

Do you have any suggestions on what is the cause of these incidents.

Thank you in advance,

ilias

Edited 27 July, 200916 yr by eliasan

I had the same thing once on my last car (same spec as yours)..it did it on a country road completely out of the blue and it never did it again.

Never worked out what it was but later on while owning it the fuel pump relay failed... could have been linked but don't know for sure. The relay made the car a non started until it was changed.

Hi reflex88,

Thanks for your reply,

Please note that the fuel filter was changed a year ago.

Also the car has been passed a thorough check from an officially authorized service agency a year ago.

The problem appeared out of the sudden. It is asymptotic.

I am writing in this forum and I am continuing the discussion, because in the past, posts here helped me assist service people find a problem in my Fabia.

I am hopping that others will benefit also from this thread.

Mine sailed though all checks and was regularly serviced but like you this problem still happened once..

Was so out of the blue I didn't realize the engine had shut down until I tried to accelerate, I had music on. I got the battery light and the EPC light and, for a brief second the traction control light.

In my case I do believe it was the fuel pump relay causing the pump to shut down. When it started to have trouble starting months later it was strange.. sometimes it'd start no trouble, other times it'd just turn on the starter motor.. then, after a wait.. would fire up like there was no problem.

I would suspect the fuel pump relay, which shouldn't cost too much to replace.

Thank you, reflex88 and fordfan,

It is "good" to know that I am not the only one facing this kind of problem and meeting people whiling to share their knowledge.

Tomorrow I will talk to service people about "fuel pump relay", although I am not sure how it is translated in Greek. I hope that they will understand. I know that some of them are visiting this forum.

For people visiting this thread: my battery shows no problems. It is relative new and well serviced.

Just to throw another idea into the melting pot (or a spanner in the works?), the Furby belonging to the mother of a friend of mine had these types of symptoms and after many trips to the garage and a heated conversation with Skoda head office it was determined that it was a water leak which had shorted some of the wiring.

Hi Leah,

Problems in electrical circuit could also have such symptoms.

The fact that RPM indicator wend down, was in favor of that.

But how you can explain the fact that the battery indicator was on in both incidents?

Is it driven from a separated electrical circuit?

I don't know I'm afraid - just recounting the experience of my friend's mum

My rev counter (and speedo) also fell to zero.

OK...

Lets rephrase the question.

"What would be the cause for a car engine to stop, while the car is moving, and then start again like nothing has happened?"

Thank you in advance!

ilias

Fuel pump relay...

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Basically.. If the relay stops the fuel pump, the engine will shut down. If the engine shuts down it'll probably take the ignition with it... like when you stall. So power to things like rev counters would shut off too.

Pulling over and turning the key back to off.. and then to on again would reset the relay and if it's an intermittent failure it may all come back as if nothing happened.... or refuse to start.. could do either depending on if the relay is working or not t the moment in time.

It could be something else completely, but I would start with this relay as it's a low cost part to replace...

Sometimes, when the fault was occurring you could get the faults out of the ECU that the injectors were at fault.. but this was simply a side effect of having no fuel to inject. So when you manage to re-create the fault at a diagnostics facility look out for this read out

Edited 27 July, 200916 yr by reflex88

Cool!!!

Fuel pump relay...

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Basically.. If the relay stops the fuel pump, the engine will shut down. If the engine shuts down it'll probably take the ignition with it... like when you stall. So power to things like rev counters would shut off too.

Pulling over and turning the key back to off.. and then to on again would reset the relay and if it's an intermittent failure it may all come back as if nothing happened.... or refuse to start.. could do either depending on if the relay is working or not t the moment in time.

It could be something else completely, but I would start with this relay as it's a low cost part to replace...

Sometimes, when the fault was occurring you could get the faults out of the ECU that the injectors were at fault.. but this was simply a side effect of having no fuel to inject. So when you manage to re-create the fault at a diagnostics facility look out for this read out

My 2001 1.4 auto does this about once every 2 or 3 months and restarts on its own while it is still moving, and its an auto !?? then is normal again.

Hi,

Today I will go to the service.

I will keep you updated about the findings.

My 2001 1.4 auto does this about once every 2 or 3 months and restarts on its own while it is still moving, and its an auto !?? then is normal again.

That's really bad - you shouldn't coast an AUTO at all, you can damage the Torque Convertor. You need to get that looked at ASAP or it could get VERY expensive.

Hi again,

The problem is indeed caused due to faulty FUEL PUMP RELAY.

And as reflex88 said, "Sometimes, when the fault was occurring you could get the faults out of the ECU that the injectors were at fault.. but this was simply a side effect of having no fuel to inject. So when you manage to re-create the fault at a diagnostics facility look out for this read out", there where recorded faults about injectors.

Edited 29 July, 200916 yr by eliasan

That's good then.. nice'n'cheap to fix!

Also answers my question of if my non starting and the time it dies for no reason were linked.. sounds like they were!

Edited 29 July, 200916 yr by reflex88

Hi reflex88,

First of all, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with me/us.

Yes the change of fuel pump relay is relative cheap, but the overall bill will not be.

Why? The answer is interesting and annoying in the same time.

I own this car since 2000. Ever since, I was going only to a specific official service.

This time, I went to a local service shop (Antonis Kanellopoulos (2109237305) in Kallithea, Athens, Greece), specialized in Skoda only. A very friendly fellow. Please forgive me for mentioning his name and phone. The following paragraphs will explain why.

He showed me a number of interventions and misspractices that official service did to the car and I was really frustrated and worried!

For example, the official service destroyed part of the original fuel line that connects the fuel filter with the gas tank and they had replace it with a hanging piece of pipe!!

I could also mention a number of other points and parts, but unfortunately I do not know their names in English...

I asked him to make everything that is necessary to fix my Fabia. That will cost more than just replacing the fuel pump relay.

Just a question. Do you have such incidents with official services in your countries?

Hi there. I have had the same problems as Eliasan with my diesel X reg Fabia 1.9 just 'fading away'. The first time was approx 7 months ago and was very erratic; fading once, restarting with the ignition and then running fine for several weeks with only the odd cut out. Finally, the cut outs were so frequent I took it to a garage who replaced the fuel relay. It ran well for 2 months and then started doing the same thing again. Another garage later and another fuel relay and it ran like a dream for 2 months. It is now right back at the same place. So frustrating and annoying and so very very scarey as it is so unpredictable. Although going over bumps is not the sole times it cuts out, it is noticeably frequent each time I do (not every bump tho). It can sit and run without cutting but certainly cuts on de-excelleration. I've read a lot about this on this forum but it still seems a mystery.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even the garages don't seem to have an answer even with the plug in diagnostic machine.

Sounds like you need a new fuel sensor. They cost about £100 to sort out.

I had same issue on my skoda laura diesel. When car starts it runs for 10 km and engine stops. Then after 10 minutes if we start the vehicle it starts on long shelf again and runs for 4 km and again engine stops. Then I took the vehicle to Skoda authorized service centre ( vinayak Skoda service centre, mahadevapura, Bangalore) and issue was found that petrol was mistakenly filled on fuel tank since my car is diesel version. Hence this was the issue. Finally tank was cleaned and refilled with diesel now my car runs without any problems. All it cost me around rs. 4500

I am happy now.