I have a Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI - starts okay, drives ok for about a mile then power loss, does not cut out but goes again within seconds - puff of black smoke from exhaust - previously it was white smoke - just had an oil change and service and asked the garage to diagnose problem - they also put an engine cleaner through it but could not find any fault codes and when they drove it no problem - tonight was worse as the power dropped considerably and I heard what I can only describe as the noise you get when you put a piece of card on a spinning bicycle wheel - sort of clicking - did not notice any lights on dashboard - will look for lights tomorrow if it does it again. There are 121.5K miles on the clock. New MAF six months ago and new battery. what's the problem?

The clicking you describe could be a relay cycling rapidly of and on. They don't often do it when faulty, rather they tend to do it when the available power is low and the item the relay is are switching sucks up so much power that there isn't enough left to keep the relay switched so it clicks off but that also restores switching power so it clicks on and so on. This produces a noise like the one you describe. Unfortunately this doesn't get you much further with your problem as I have no idea which relay it might be or the state of power in your car. A scan for fault codes would probably provide this info.

Thanks for your thoughts. Trouble is when I put the car into a local independent garage for a service, they said they did a diagnostic and no fault codes were showing. They had the car overnight as I said that the problem usually occurs when it has been standing overnight. They drove it several times to see if the problem occurred again and as usually happens with anything like this, the car decided to behave. It did not lose power when I drove to the station this morning so I could not check if any lights were coming up. I am not a mechanic so am totally at a loss. It was even suggested that it might be something to do with the way I was driving!! I might be a woman but I know when the car is not right and am not imagining it!!! I will probably be putting it into Skoda for a check but they want to charge £99 to look at it. I just wondered if anyone on this forum could point me in the right direction - it has worked before. The last time the battery kept dying and this forum pointed to a small blue wire which had broken so it saved many hours and loads of money in diagnostics! Thank God for Briskoda!!

As said above the noise you described above sounds like a relay clicking on and off.

Might be worth checking that all the relays are seated properly. I think if you remove the little cubby hole under the headlight switch you can get to them there.

The loss of power could be sticking turbo veins.

Phil

This is quite old...but oddly, I have encountered this problem recently and cannot for the life of me figure it out on my vrs.   It is very odd - have cleaned the turbo, replaced the vacuum solenoid (even though unlikely) and the MAF.   Just oddly down on power occassionally, usually after a period of time idling, or having sat for a few days unused.   No error codes either.   If idling (normally when sitting in traffic_, then boot it, and power is down, turbo is not spooling properly, and there is an odd clicking noise coming from in front of me somewhere.  Lift off, and hit the accelerator again, and all is well - power restored. 

Edited 9 October, 201510 yr by Pete

Well, my car threw an engine light - quick scan - 18009 Relay for Supply Voltage Terminal 30 J317 (Implasible Signal) - anyone with experience of a fix?   A quick search revealled a few others with this, but no clear indication of what was done to repair (other than replace the relay, of course - if this is a relay fault?  Which one?) - certainly explains the clicking noise. 

Edited 11 October, 201510 yr by Pete

isn't this the famous relay 109 ?  a common complaint from way back

Could very well be - any other symptoms that are associated with it? I thought non starting/stalling was caused by this, and I have had neither.

Edited 11 October, 201510 yr by Pete

Just to update this thread with my solution - loose MAF connector - DOH!  Ages ago, I broke the little clip with too hard a tug when I hadn't released it properly, but as it appeared snug on the MAF when put back in place, never really worried about it - looks like at idle (with the increased vibration caused by my gearbox mounts), the plug was moving about a little - using cable ties to secure the plug firmly has solved the problem.   

thanks for the update :sun: