Hello

I would be grateful if anyone could help me to diagnose the problem I am having with my 02 Fabia 16v 1390cc.

Firstly, the car struggles to start when cold. It turns over fine but it will take 10-15 seconds for the engine to start. It will start straight away when the engine is warm however. Secondly, when starting cold the exhaust leaks a small quantity of what I think is oil. There is also a problem with the temperature gauge in that it does not start to move until I have been driving for at least 20 minutes.

I have had the car seen by two garages and neither is sure about what is causing these problems. I have had a diagnostic test and the results indicated a 'maf sensor fault' 'idle by pass' and 'inlet leak'. One of the mechanics also said that the air manifold was doing the reverse of what it should be doing.

In the last year I have had a lambda and temperature sensors replaced. There are currently no fault lights appearing either. There is a yellow substance in the oil cap. The car runs fine when warm apart from the rev counter occasionally behaving erratically when stopping at trafic lights etc.

The last garage I went to said if I was prepared to leave the car with them a couple of days, they would have a look at it to see what was causing the problems. Apart from being costly and inconvenient, I was hoping that someone with experience of Fabia's might be able to pinpoint the cause much more easily.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Sounds like engine speed sensor is playing up if the rev counter is acting strange. Should have codes logged though. Other symptoms point to cracked cylinder head between valve seats, or head gasket.

Probably your crankcase breather, oil separator need to be cleaned, it might be completely blocked with yellow mayo like the one in the oil cap. Is it consuming oil? Could be also a MAP sensor giving wrong readings, contaminated with oil and temperature sensor gone.

Thermostat stuck open ( not heating up for 20mins )

Thanks for your feedback. I will be taking my car into a garage in a few days, so this has given me some info to take with me. This will be the third different garage to have seen my car and with the other two garages not being able to locate the fault, I was worried about the same thing happening again. It is a bit frustrating paying for diagnostic checks and then being told that they can't find out what's causing the problem!

Re hap123ciu, the car is consuming more oil than it should. The temperature sensor was only replaced in December so it should hopefully be OK. The first garage I went to also suspected it was faulty and they tried two brand new sensors but the fault remained.

Thanks again everyone.