Please can I pick the brains of the assembled collective?

Over the last week I have been using my wife's 2005 Skoda Fabia 1.4 100PS to get around rather than my usual tank (front wheel drive and snow tyres in the boot if needed).

After about 100 miles of 75-80ish on the motorway the engine appears to kick and the engine management light came on flashing and the engine appears to go into limp home mode.

Pulled into the next motorway services switch off and left it for a while (10-15 mins).

Started the engine and got a solid engine management light and power restored. Continued the journey with the intention of calling into the local Skoda dealer near journey’s end.

Travelled another 80 miles and then the same kick and this time the engine appeared to be running on 3 or 2 cylinders and the engine management light back flashing. (Oh bum I thought)

The next 8 miles took over 4 hours (A13/M25 junction to Hotel @ Bluewater; late Tuesday when the snow fell) with the engine running on 3/2 cylinders or switched off, where possible, and with the engine management light toggling from flashing to solid. Got to the hotel and decided to deal with in the morning.

Next morning started the car and all running fine just with a solid engine management light. Quick trip to ASDA to collect lunch on the way to the Skoda garage. When I started the engine to leave ASDA no engine management light!

Called in at the Skoda garage and they claim that there is no evidence of any issues in the engine management unit (the computer says) and they haven't got a clue. Ushered out of the service department without a bill!!

Got home last night and reported to the wife that I had broken her car to be told that it has happened twice before and the AA man and the dealership in the North East both couldn't find the reason they just reset the engine management light.

The difference between the drip down and the trip back was that the drip back was on the snow tyres at 55-60.

Thoughts please (except for the obvious ones about what speed to drive and what tyres to keep on the car from on onwards).

Cheers

Charles

If the light is on, there should be a code stored. If the light comes on and goes out there should still be a code stored. Either way there should be codes stored which the dealer should be able to read. My guess would be a failing coil pack or two, if you remove them you may be able to see evidence of burning on the insulator. What's the mileage?, as the spark plugs should be changed every 40,000 miles.

5-years old but only 19K miles.

Borrowed a ScanGuage from a friend and P0302 code so missfire on cylinder 2. (Letter being sent to the garage that said no code!)

Managed to extract some more info from the wife and it appears the coil-pack on cylinder 2 was changes last time it happened (its worse than pulling teath getting info)!

I plan to check the condition of the spark plugs and swap the coil packs around and see if the fault moved. If any obviouse reason for the missfire when i remove cylinder-2 then i'll replace the plugs and/or coil-pack again.

How can i tell if the cat has been damaged becaulse of the extended running on 2/3 cylinders?

Cheers for the help

Charles