Hi Guys. My wife and I are having some "issues" with our first car - a 2002 Fabia Comfort 1.4MPi.

The car has had one owner from new, and has done just under 80k miles. Mostly, we're really happy with it, except for one recurring problem.

After driving the car for about 50 miles, the engine management light came on one morning. A friend of ours reset the system, and told us to keep an eye on it and note how the car drives in the meantime.

Another 50 miles later, the light came on again. We took the car to a local garage to see what the problem was (the dealer we bought it from is about 45 minutes away, and we wanted an independent check).

The computer read out showed that both of the lambda sensors had failed. We took the car back to the dealer, who replaced the sensors under the warranty.

50 miles later, the light came on again. We returned the car to the dealer again, who replaced the sensors again.

When wee went to collect the car, he told us that they'd checked the emissions before and after changing the sensors, and the reading did not change. They also drove the car for about 50 miles, just to make sure that it didn't light up again.

We drove away from the dealer, smiling and happy. About 500 yards down the road, the £**@ing light came on again! We drove straight back to the dealer, who took us round to the garage that did the work. They checked the emissions (fine), and then the sensors (failed).

As I know far more about the internet than I do about our car, I decided to have a rummage, as it has the mechanics at the garage stumped.

So far, I've seen people on here and other forums with the same or similar problem.

They have tried various things, such as:-

Replacing the engine management system

Upgrading the firmware in the engine management system

Spending hundreds of punds replacing various electronic components

Ignoring it

The dealer seems to think that the last option is best, as it doesn't seem to be affecting the way the car drives (no loss of power / sudden switching off etc.) They have offered (in writing) to cover the costs of any repairs that may be required due to faults or MOT failures caused by the emissions / sensors up to the first MOT since purchase (April next year).

At first, we thought this was fine, but we're now having second thoughts, and are particularly concerned about what this will do to the resale value of the car. In the letter that I've just received from the dealer, they say that they think the problem is most likely to be a fault in the EML display.

Even though I've seen plenty of posts with people asking about this problem, I haven't been able to find any that state how it was resolved, so my questions are:-

Has anyone had this problem with their Fabia? If so, how did you fix it?

And; Any general advice on how to deal with the dealer? We're starting to get a bit suspicious about whether or nor they're doing everything that they say they are.

Thanks in advance

Hi,

I dont believe ignoring the issue solves anything.come next MOT and it should fail with the warning light on.

Did you buy the car from a skoda dealer?

You really need the car scanning with VCDS and the results posted on here to get some answers to your problem or taking into skoda dealer.

Tony

Edited 20 September, 201114 yr by freelanderman

Need a fault codes as said, has the cat been replaced? Does it pass a readiness code check?