Hi,

I have a Mk1 1.4 16V 100bhp Fabia Elegance with only 38,000 on the clock.

Over the last 12-18 months, my car has been back and forth into the garage for testing both at independant garages and at a Skoda dealer and still the fault symptoms persist.

The faults being rough idling, engine cutting out, lack of power and hesitation whilst driving. More recently I have found that sometimes it stuggles to start, the engine turns over but the car doesn't start. When this happens the Imobiliser light illuminates. If I leave the car for a few minutes then try starting the engine again it starts up first time.

I payed just over £400 to get the car through it's MOT and Yearly service, the car has been into Skoda for engine management investigation. I was told there was no problem with the ECU, they put the rough idling and engine cutting out down to a dirty Throttle Assembly and charged just under £100. After a week of running reasonably well the symptoms returned, Skoda did say that if the symptoms returned then I would need a Throttle Assembly (costing about £450 plus laboour). I phoned the independant garage for there opinion and they disagreed with the Skoda diagnosis. They asked if I could return the car to them so that they could do further testing to see if anything was a miss. They had the car for a day and run tests on the engine management system, ignition and throttle assembly and all tests were inconclusive as to the cause of the problem.

The mechanic said that he could not justify spending £450 on a Throttle Assembly 'just to see if it cured the fault'. Because during his testing there was no indication of anything wrong. All signals, voltages etc were correct.

So should I trade in for another Skoda, buy another car or take a chance and pay the money to Skoda and see what happens?

£450?

Are you sure?

Ebay

Also, if the immobiliser light lights up then it is probably a faulty key or a faulty pickup coil for the key reader. Try another key, if you have one.

Contact a member near you with VCDS and get the car scanned for faults as well.

Edited 26 August, 200916 yr by cjb

With those symptoms I'd suspect the common fault of an intermittently misreading coolant temperature sensor.

The other common, but not as much so, fault that can cause turning over but no starting, as well as cutting out for no reason, is a bad fuel pump relay.

I had both of these on my 2001 1.4 16v Elegance.. they cause many of the faults you list and can be tricky to trace when intermittent. I remember a couple of times I had my foot on the floor just trying to get up to 30.. and then other times the tick over being at 2000rpm and launching the car when I set off.

The relay causes injector fault codes to log.. the coolant sensor logs nothing.. my mechanic caught it by literally watching the read out from it for stability. It would be ok for a few moments and then jump up or down to silly read outs causing the car to fuel in all kinds of rich and lean ways..

As for the immobiliser light? I seem to remember that popping up once or twice when it was at it's worse due to the power dropping so low through cranking that the ignition would just flick off and then back on in a split second.

I also used to get the engine light every so often from to much cranking with out starting.

when I replaced these two items all problems went away.. the only one to remain was a very slight up and down blipping on idle.. it'd bounce between 900 -1100rpm.. but these never effected driving and seem like a very common fault that may even be a design fault somewhere.. but it doesn't cause any problems oince you use the accelerator.

Edited 26 August, 200916 yr by reflex88

Should say.. relay is about £30.. temp sensor is about £8... and it sounds most like the temp sensor to be honest.. is your car pre 2002?

Thanks for your responces so far.

My car was first registered in November 2001, and had 1 previous owner. I bought it three years ago from Horners in Manchester (which has since ceased trading). As stated the car has only done around 38,000 miles and is in otherwise perfect condition.

CJB - I asked the mechanic at the local independant garage that I trust about the cost of obtaining a Throttle Body Assembly. He contacted a parts provider (possibly Skoda) and was quoted £450 for the part alone. He said that he couldn't justify spending that much on the part, as his testing was inconclusive at the time.

Reflex88 - Thanks for the suggestion of the Coolant Sensor and the Relay.

When I took the car back to the independant garage this week he tested the ECU again and said that no fault codes were listed. He attached his scope to the different connections and tested the voltages with the ignition off, on, at idling speed and at full revs recording all variables.

When I arrived to pick up the car, he was still testing it and shown me the results on his computer system. I could see that as he turned the ignition on / off and reved the car the signal from the throttle body assembly was changing as it should. He gave me the completed check list with the typical value from his data sheet and the voltages he recorded.

Regarding the Coolant temp Sensor the results are listed below:

Ignition on - coolant temp 80 deg - Data sheet = 0.5V, recorded = 0.631V

Regarding the Throttle motor position sensor:

Ignition on - Data sheet = 5V, recorded = 4.949V

Ignition on pedal released - Data sheet = 4.3V, recoded = 4.116V

Ignition on pedal depressed - Data sheet = 0.7V, recorded = 0.581V

Unfortunatly during his day of investigation the fault symptoms did not show...

Best regards,

PAO72

Edited 27 August, 200916 yr by PAO72

Yeah, the coolant temp sensors on both our Fabias have gone in the past. On my wife's, the only indication that something was up was that the temperature gauge didn't always rise off the stop. On mine, I had a random CEL, but there would only be a 'pending' (i.e. incipent) fault code recorded whenever the CEL wasn't on!

FWIW, the sensor will need replacing at some point soon anyway so I'd just swap it out and see what happens! I did a guide on it here, but it only really covers the 1.4MPi on detail. The fundamentals are the same, but the sensor is on the battery side of the block, under the ignition coil AFAIK. If you put newspaper down, you can probably whip the old sensor out and jam the new one in without losing too much coolant (actually what's suggested in Haynes!) Otherwise, you'll probably need to drain the system...

Hope you get to the bottom of it...

Regarding the Coolant temp Sensor the results are listed below:

Ignition on - coolant temp 80 deg - Data sheet = 0.5V, recorded = 0.631V

But if the car was behaving when you looked at this it will have read as it should.. the sensors go gradually and get worse..but will still behave sometimes.

Honestly, for a part that costs less than a tenner it's worth a punt as this is a very common fault on Fabias, even more so on the 1.4 16v, and even more so again on pre 2002 cars!

Edited 27 August, 200916 yr by reflex88

Regarding the code read, did your independent garage use a generic scanner or VCDS? A generic scanner won't read all faults.

Thanks again for the quick responses.

CJB - The independant garage use a generic reader with plug in adapters to read the ECU. They reported no fault codes. When I took it to Skoda they checked the ECU and also said there were no fault codes registered either!

Reflex88 - I know what you mean about the readings not showing it to be faulty. Because the fault is intermittent and did not show itself during the test proceedure the results are not 100% accurate.

Since you had similar symptoms I thought I would obtain the Coolant temperature sensor and try fitting it myself this weekend or get the local independant garage to obtain one and fit it for me. But so far I don't seem to be having much luck!

I can't get in touch with the usual local independant garage to ask them to order the part, as they are not anserwing the phone. I've phoned VW (as they are closer than the Skoda dealer) and since most parts are VW but they say they can't help beacuse it's a Skoda! I've even tried phoning another local garage and was advised that they will do the job, so long as I buy the right part first!

During my lunch break I had the intention of removing the engine cover so I could see if there was a VW or Skoda Part number or any other part ID on the Coolant Temp Sensor but I couldn't work out how to remove the engine cover!

I followed the instructions in the Haynes Manual, I removed Skoda logo cover but found no bolts to remove. I felt around the front and rear of the engine cover and found what felt to be screws about five under the front and four under the rear of the cover. They were actually T20 torx / hex bolts. I managed to remove the ones from the front but couldn't get acces to the rear ones. Anyway I tried to lift up the cover at the front but it would not lift up. My lunch break was nearly over so I ended up replacing the Torx / hex bolts and came back in to work!

I'll try phoning the garage again and see if I get an answer!

But so far I don't seem to be having much luck!

don't loose heart mate

I maybe wrong.. but I thought that on the 1.4 16v engines the cover just yanked upwards and off, no screws securing it,.. just the air pipe at the back left to watch out for..

Reflex88

I'll try what you say later and see if it comes off with some upwards tugs!

I will let you know how I get on regarding the removal of the cover and the sensor.

Yeah, I think it's only the 1.4MPi (8v, not 16v) where the engine cover's screwed on... The part number is 06A919501A, although you'll see from one of the last posts in my guide which I linked to before, that one of our Site Partners sells OEM ones for less than dealer prices...

Thanks to all of those individuals who replied to my enquiry.

I obtained a replacement Coolant Temp sensor from Claybank Skoda in Greater Manchester and took the car to the local independant garage near where I live to have it fitted FOC last week.

The car has run fine now for over a week, so it looks like it has resolved the problem.

Once again Thanks to all who responded to my enquiry.

Sooooooooooooo many of these fail! They must have had a complete shipment of dodgy ones in 99/01 cuz they're always Y and 51 plate cars!

Glad your motors all up and running again!

Sooooooooooooo many of these fail! They must have had a complete shipment of dodgy ones in 99/01 cuz they're always Y and 51 plate cars!

Glad your motors all up and running again!

My Fabia's early 01 and I'm suspecting that it has the same problem. The temperature gauge is shooting straight to the red on a chilly day, and the car won't start at all. Fingers crossed it's just this. Must say, Briskoda helps me sound less like a complete idiot when I'm talking to the AA & my mechanic.

Edited 2 April, 201016 yr by Noeni