Hi, just bought a 2003 fabia 1.2 classic 54 bhp. Lovely car but a few concerns.

Driving like a saint at a steady 55 mph on the motorway mixed with a bit of town and local driving but I can't top 40mpg, is this the best I can get?I had expected 45 to 50 mpg.

Also the engine sometimes feels lumpy whilst idling, not exactly missing but just hesitant and out of balance? Is this normal as its 3 cylinder,

Any help much appreciated.

I've got a 3 cylinder 1.2, I tend to get around 35 mpg in the city on short trips and a little over 50 mpg on long runs so yours does sound a little low. I personally found the tick over of these 1.2 engines very rough, especially when idling. However I'm fairly sure it's not unusual as I had the cylinder head rebuilt not to long ago by a skoda specialist and they said it was fairly normal for this engine, even with new valves and a rebuild its still rough when cold and idling.

Thanks, mine has had a rebuild and new valves too, so thanks for the advice on that. Ecomomy still a worry though, but i have just changed the air filter which was filthy, and the engine cover/filter holder wasnt fitted properly (nor sealed correctly on the engine air intake) does anybody know if this would effect economy? Other than this, I hope an oil/filter change will help?

When's it due an oil service? Is it burning oil? Are you running it on 98 RON fuel as I believe it's spec'd for?

I was told it was serviced 8 months ago ( i bought it two months ago) but the state of the air filter showed it may not have been seviced properly, so maybe the oil wasnt changed either. So i will be servicing it fully in the next two months or asap. Cant see any signs of oil burning. Dont know about fuel type, i will check this as i normally fill up at morrisons.

Cheers

From what I understood when I had my valves done, it's common for the valves on these engines to be damaged by prolonged running on cheap supermarket fuel. That was the suspected cause on the damage to my engine any way. Mine did run much better on better fuel too. Out of interest do you have a picture of your engine/engine cover? mine doesn't have one and I'm interested in what they look like!

From what I understood when I had my valves done, it's common for the valves on these engines to be damaged by prolonged running on cheap supermarket fuel. That was the suspected cause on the damage to my engine any way. Mine did run much better on better fuel too. Out of interest do you have a picture of your engine/engine cover? mine doesn't have one and I'm interested in what they look like!

On that topic, the father of one of my daughter's friends (who was a workshop manager) did say, that after Sainsburys opened a fuel station nearby, decoking etc type of work increased by quite a large ammount! While the base "spirit" is the same for all (except TESCO), the essential additives are not - and that is what turns refined "spirit" into proper fuel for cars etc. I think that you gave good advice there, I'd only use supermarket fuel if I was in extreme difficulties - could cost more in the long term!

Edited 27 April, 201214 yr by rum4mo

A friend of mine is a trading standards officer, she has recently been on a course on fuel, she told me that shell is the best by far as it has the most additives when it comes out of the refinery, then texaco which has a couple less additives then esso and bp are around the same. She said that tesco and morrisons are basic diesel and is really bad for tour car, So I use shell diesel without fail now,

thanks everyone for the replies, certainly sounds like the petrol quality problem could be an issue, I will look at switching - just hope the engine isnt already buggered again! I have been adding fuel additive so hopefully its helped, although i think its just an injector cleaner.To Freedom: yes I will sort out the picture asap, cheers. Full service next week so I hope the oil and filter change will help.

Edited 2 May, 201214 yr by Bombbombskoda