Well, for the past two months I've noticed that my Mk2 petrol vRS has been having an intermittent hesitation / trouble starting / uneven acceleration issue. The local garage couldnt identify any fault codes. I scoured the threads on the forum and today followed the excellent tutorial for removing the engine cover.

Turns out the issue was very badly worn plugs. Ive covered 22000 miles in just under 4 years and the car is lightly remapped. The original plugs that were taken out had lost most of the terminal and it resembled more a spike.

Replaced with Bosch four point style plugs and the usual performance is back. Having checked this out myself, saved myself a load of trouble and possible expense by using the wealth of information on here, so cheers for all the help...

Nick

Thanks for the heada up

No probs, I tried the STP double pack, which cleaned up the performance a bit. The sparks were obviously OE kit, and had never been changed. When they came out, the electrode? ie the shiny bit that the spark hits was a tiny spike, rather than a cylinder shape.

22000 miles isnt that far, but maybe the autobahn and the ring (10.05) did for them in June. As it turned out, a simple fix, which was easy to remedy. Have seen plenty of other threads about this type of performance issue, so thought I'd post up with one easy fix. Helped that my garage slightly damaged the mounting points of the engine cover - helps loads when trying to remove it!

Nick

They are supposed to have a tiny spike on the plug. They are platinum plugs and should last 40k, your current ones won't.

u must have a timing issue if your engine has eaten plugs that quick.

Thanks for the responses. My ownership of the car wont last 40k miles, that would be another 4 years or so, but I will get it checked the next time I go to the garage. btw, how much is it likely to cost to get it resolved? As the car is a toy and an indulgence, I dont mind replacing sparks often, seeing as I have the tools. Are we talking pre ignition?

p.s., Ive looked and yes google images shows a little spike, so I guess mine were just feeling unwell - changing the plugs has totally solved the issue, the car is back to normal... curious.

Cheers

Billy

What year is your car? You maybe due a free set of coil packs with the recent service bulletin.

What year is your car? You maybe due a free set of coil packs with the recent service bulletin.

Tried that, my car's not listed on the recall, even contacted Skoda UK when the local dealers responded in the negative. They confirmed mine were ok... :S