I tried to cover it in the title as I actually found this useful site by Googling the issue at hand and figured this tread would be of use for others in the same position!

I've just collected a nice X reg Skoda Fabia 1.4 MPI Classic for £500 due to the driver loosing his licence! - Ok it's missing all the bells and whistles! But it's in great condition (apart from the fact the front windows were held up by some timber and the winder mechanisms removed!) and I can't fault the MPG you get out of these little cars! I think they also look great!

My only problem with the car is oil blowing out of the filler cap and dipstick tube when the engines running with the dipstick removed and filler cap undone. I noticed when I checked the oil level that the dipstick was coated all the way to the top seal- thought that was a bit odd! Then removed the cover as it rattles at idle and realised that the cover is also part of the oil filler seal so I couldnt refit the oil filler cap. Anyway, ran the engine for a while checking the car over and noticed a very slight spray of oil coming from the dipstick, only light mind. Decided to see what's going on through the filler hole and it was blowing air- quite a lot of it! If I can try to describe, it was like a fairly lame hand dryer. Also a small amount of oil was spraying out of the top.

Do I have major issues? I had an old landy once that did this and it was the piston rings allowing blowback from the cylinders which was increasing crank case pressure dramatically!

After cleaning everything up, I checked the oil level once I'd left it for about 20 minutes for any excess oil to run back to the sump and it was on the MAX mark, but not above it.

Any ideas?

Thank you!

Why would you run the car with the filler cap and dipstick not firmly seated???

I think it would be faily obvious that oil would spray out if you ran the engine with either of these not correctly placed.

I'm not a mechanic, but I doubt this is an issue.

Martin

P.S. a colleague of mine suggested I told you to run it without a sump plug to see if oil came out ;-)

It does sound like the previous owner was not hot on car maintainance so the sump may have been overfilled with oil by the previous owner. To be be on the safe side I would change the oil to correct grade as these 1.4's are prone to worn rings and head gasket failures. For a £500 car think of it as a little project and sort out it's little problems before they become major.

Just thought about yer windows, the usual problem is the plastic clips that hold the window glass in, happens on all VAG cars.

To be be on the safe side I would change the oil to correct grade as these 1.4's are prone to worn rings and head gasket failures.

Worn rings is 16v, headgasket is 8v (mpi).

Oil does tend to splash a little from the oil filler cap, but can't say I have run the engine with the dipstick out. I believe there is a plate under the rocker cover designed to reduce this splashing. Air flow also seems normal on all engines from the oil filler cap. There should be a spare oil cap underneath the cover which is a push on type, if this blows off then there is a problem with the engine. But IMO what you describe sounds like normal operation. If i was looking at it I would plug VCDS into it with a laptop, and any misfire warnings would be of concern to me.

As well as changing the oil I would give the cooling system a good going over. It is common for the thermostats and temp senders to fail, and if blue coolant has been added to the pink you will have brown sludge in the coolant system which isn't good.

The MPG is horrendous IMO (see below). You could get easily get the same mpg with double the performance.

For £500 though I would definitely give it a go.

Edited 2 September, 201015 yr by anewman

I did have concerns about the hg as there was some milk on the oil cap but only a touch, considering the car hadn't been run for long and was left standing for months I have put this down to condensation only. The water is perfect, bright pink... The connector on the top of the res has been 'hotwired' mind so I'm assuming that sensors knackered.

It's running a little lumpy at idle imo (hence running it without oil cap on as I needed the engine cover off to investigate further) just done sparks, doing fuel filter next then oil.

The MPG is great imo but then again I've not bothered with smaller engined cars for quite some time (at least since the fuel prices shot through the roof!) and compared to my v6's it's pretty damn good! lol

If the trip is anything to go by (and I doubt it is!) then I was getting 40s driving carefully on the country lanes.

Are the window mechs the same on all doors? As I've found a local one being broken with two rear doors in good order for a few quid each.

I did have concerns about the hg as there was some milk on the oil cap but only a touch, considering the car hadn't been run for long and was left standing for months I have put this down to condensation only. The water is perfect, bright pink... The connector on the top of the res has been 'hotwired' mind so I'm assuming that sensors knackered.

It's running a little lumpy at idle imo (hence running it without oil cap on as I needed the engine cover off to investigate further) just done sparks, doing fuel filter next then oil.

Lumpy idle is quite normal for this engine. It runs close to stalling for emissions reasons. Don't worry about it as they all do it and you can't fix it

Coolant level sender just requires the bottle replacing, costs under £10 from a dealers.

I had "mayo" on oil filler cap and was worried about it. I later found out the thermostat was knackered as the clips had broken inside, this plus the previous owners short trips meant it probably never got up to temperature so I put it down to that.

Edited 2 September, 201015 yr by anewman

If the oil is max or just over it some cars tend to 'spit' a bit of oil out of the crankcase breather. So my rally mechanic was telling me lol

I won't worry too much about it then, I'll get a new header tank, fit that, finish the service, fix the windows and get a PDR fella out to sort a few dents- job done!

As I'm having to sort the front windows- is it an easy retrofit for electric ones, original ones rather than kits that is?

Cheers, James.

As I'm having to sort the front windows- is it an easy retrofit for electric ones, original ones rather than kits that is?

You'd probably be missing the Comfort ECU (controls central locking and electric windows) so would need to improvise some sort of control system, and also the wiring. Easiest way to see if you have a comfort ECU is to scan the car with VCDS.

James, On this forum you should be keeping us up to date on what you have done to your Fabia with photos and "How To's" It's expected Don't you know.

This car will be for the wife so it'll stay reasonably stock, I would have liked to have got the estate version though so after sorting this out I may sell it to get one of them instead... While I was warming the engine prior to draining, I noticed after start the revs were jumping between idle and near to stalling out before settling and even then it was constantly twitching... Is this really normal? First car I've experienced this from if it is 'normal'!

Really near to stalling out or just a variation of about 60 rpm and what feels like a misfire? A video on youtube might help, will see if I can get one up of mine in idle running.

Really near to stalling out then gets smoother and twitches about 60rpm as you suggest.

If you've had to re fit the engine cover cause of the oil cap thing, take the engine cover back off and turn it over, there should be a second oil cap that is for when the engine cover is off. It seems the nice people at skoda were expecting the rattling and the oil coming out.