Hi, hope this is the right part of the forum for this request for help.

We bought a 2000 W Reg Skoda Fabia 1.4 16v about 4 weeks ago with 101000 miles on the clock.

According to the seller there had been issues with the water pump which had been replaced along with the cambelt and that the problem had been fixed however the bottles of the water in the boot suggested the problem hadnt gone away.

The car had done a little over 50 miles before the temprature light came on due to overheating and when checked there was no coolant in the system and the head gasket had gone. We had the head gasket repalced however when the vehicles was collected the heating was working on and off, mostly off but on at high revs.

We then took the car back to the garage to have a look at the heating problems and they flushed the system and couldnt get it working, this was over christmas so we didnt use it but after 3 - 4 days we tried to start it and it started but it was a struggle, when we checked the car there was no oil and there wasnt much coolant left in the system.

We took it to a VAG specialist and they informed us that the head gasket had gone, so back to the original garage who had a look at the gasket and said it was okay however agreed to change the head gasket (AGAIN). When I spoke to the garage they told me it was the block, they couldnt test it but they were sure it was the block and started talking about an engine change.

We got it back and everything seemed okay and we took it back to the VAG specialist who checked it all out (possibly just a compression test) and said the car was okay, however after collecting the car the yellow engine light came on, back to the VAG specialist who have now told us that the EGR Value and Cat needs replacing, there was an EGR fault, something to do with too much flow and something being too long which is normally too short?!?!

So, where are we, okay in a nutshell this is where we are:

£1150 for the car - paid

£570 for the head gasket change - paid

£530 to replace the EGR valve and Cat - need to decided on paying it

So if we repalce the EGR valve and Cat then that makes it £2250 for a car that is worth £1300 in excellent condition.

The question I has, do we risk replacing the EGR valve and Cat and then the head gasket goes/or the block has gone or we do we cut our loses at £1720 and get a new car........or do we just live with the yellow light?

Sellers response to all this - "sold as seen" dont you just love private sales.

Thanks in advance

Scott

With the EGR valve, you can run with a dodgy one for ages with no real negative side effects. I have the same car as you, and had mine on for months with no issues. Assuming the car is running well, it could be worth keeping it up until just before the MoT (or try and get the emissions tested somewhere) - if it's within MoT pass range then keep the car, otherwise it might be worth looking out for a cheap Cat somewhere (eBay?) then selling it on, or at least removing the fault codes/lights, but it's a catch 22 situation unfortunatly. I'm in roughly the same position as you, only with suspension, not engine.

Now if we could combine cars. . .

Also, posting this in the Fabia forum (http://briskoda.net/forums/forum/26-fabia-i/) may yeild more results.