Afternoon ladies and gents.

Hoping someone can help me with my misfiring/juddery Fabia mk1 (1.4 16v, 05 plate, elegance trim) please.

I’ll start at the beginning… deep breath…

26^th October 2012 – In Asda, came out of the petrol station after filling up and the engine warning light started flashing and the car was pretty juddery trying to pull away. Being an AA member, I called them out and the guy plugged his diagnostics machine in and it came us as a misfire on cylinder 3. He changed the coil pak on cylinder 3 and made me have a drive round. It was ok for the drive round the car park, then the light came back on and it started juddering again. He switched the coil pak for another new one, cleared the fault codes and sent me on my way. Car seemed ok after this (no serious juddering) but still had a bit of a rough idle.

23^rd November 2012- Had the car serviced, including changing the spark plugs and engine oil. They said they had found a code stored for a misfire on cylinder 3.

25^th November 2012 - Was visiting a friend in Manchester. Went to start the car in the morning and the engine warning light/juddering started again. Called the AA again who were busy so sent a sub-contractor out called ‘the Mansfield group’. This guy checked the codes again and it was showing as cylinder 3 misfire. He checked the coil and said it looked like a cheap part (not VAG). Changed it for another and made me go for a little drive. He then - as he couldn’t change it under warranty (as he wasn’t AA) and due to the fact he wasn’t sure it was the coil pak that was the problem - put my old coil pak (the one fitted on the 26^th October) back on and I drove home (3 hour journey) with no further problems other than the continuing rough idle.

13^th December 2012 - Called AA Headquarters who agreed to write the last call out (the Mansfield group) off our number of allowed callouts and send someone out to look at the car by reopening the callout before that. The guy came to look at the car while I was at work and couldn’t find any fault codes stored. He said the engine was running fine.

14^th December 2012 - Went to Asda to get petrol as the 60 mile low fuel warning light came on. When I came out of the Asda shop, about to go to the petrol station it was juddery again but no warning light came on. I went to the petrol station across the way to fill up. It was juddering fairly badly on the way round and the instrument lights were flickering a bit. As soon as I filled up with petrol, the problem seemed to go away. Only a very slight rough idle on the way home.

21^st December 2012 - Again went to Asda with low fuel. Fuel light had just come on. As soon as I’d started the car after putting fuel in, the car was juddery and the engine warning light came on. Decided to drive home and this juddering continued for the entire journey, along with poor acceleration and the revs dropping down to 500/600rpm at times (for a second or two) when stopped at lights etc. The internal (stereo etc) lights would flicker a bit when it was doing this.

Some other details:

Revs – at idle, about 750rpm recently (after a couple of minutes of having the car running). Can’t remember what they used to be.

Rough idle - seems to have been present constantly since october when i had the initial problem with cylinder 3.

Fuel – usually Asda or BP low RON stuff

Cylinder 4 coil pak – Changed in October 2011 for a VAG coil pak (by the AA), not had a problem with this one since.

Mileage - on about 34,000 miles now

Right, over to you clever people. Hopefully someone can help! Last thing I want to be doing is taking it to a garage that will just throw money/parts at it willy-nilly hoping to make the problem go away.

Thanks for reading (and sorry for the lengthy post).

You don't specifiy the bhp or if it is an autobox......

Althou by the sounds of it it is the later version of my AUB engine..........they still require to run properly on 98ron fuel

If the coil packs are being swapped with new good ones it should sovle the problems..........unless it is a sensor that is causing additional faults.......

only other thing is to do the ecu reset a per my post here........

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/201016-how-to-reset-the-engine-ecu/

thanks for the reply!

it's a 100bhp manual.

i'll give the resetting ecu thing a go if you reckon it might help! if not, what would you recommend doing first? changing the coil for a VAG one or getting it into a garage for diagnostics?

From what i'v read/been told the coil paks going gives a constant problem, any ideas why mine would be intermittent (apart from the constant rough idle) if it was just the fault of the coil??

Had this earlier this year, tried two coil packs on it and a fuel injector. Found the cause of the problem by carrying out a cylinder leakage test, the exhaust valves on cylinder 3 weren't seating correctly.

cheers. reckon i'm going to have to take it to a garage and see how much they want to charge me to put it right :(

only other thing is to do the ecu reset a per my post here........

http://www.briskoda....the-engine-ecu/

just tried that, i assume it worked as the windows are no longer one touch....

the revs seemed more stable than they have been recently - bang on 750rpm (apart from one dip to about 600rpm after 30 minutes of running the engine), and the car seems a bit less juddery at idle.

however the engine warning light is still flashing, and was throughout the process... going to give it a run out after i'v eaten and see what happens.

I'm going with burnt exhaust valves.