Hello all,

 

Been reading these forums for a while but only just joined. I've tried to search for my problem on this forum but not found anything similar.

 

My Y reg Fabia 1.4 16v elegance with ~50k on the clock has started to have an odd problem usually under the same sort of circumstances as follows:

 

I'll be happily driving in the motorway at around 70mph in 5th then after about an hour of driving, sometimes slowing to around 60 then trying to get back to 70 the accelerator pedal will feel as though it has 'pinged' and the engine stops putting power into the wheels. I don't thing the engine is stopping, just not producing power. Naturally the car starts to slow, so I release then reapply the accelerator to get more speed but when the accelerator is pushed, the actually slows down.

 

When I pull over, the engine sits at idle and the revs jump around a little (usually they don't jump at all). If I turn off the engine, take the key out, then put it back on it usually works again.

 

If when I then try to give the engine some welly to get back up to speed for the motorway, the problem can happen again around the 60 mark.

 

I've done an ODB2 test and got P0170 and P0172 but I understand that these aren't related. There aren't any lights on the dash either, just this weird behaviour. I've had it serviced and MOTd after the problem and nothing was found.

 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Seems like a problem with the throttle pedal potentiometer or the throttle body.

OK, thanks sepulchrave I'm researching potential fixes now :-)

 

Would cleaning the throttle body be a good first start?

 

Also, is the potentiometer the same as a throttle position sensor? Couldn't seem to find much about potentiometers. If so, is this fixable or replacable?

 

Thanks again,

 

pete

Yes, yes and yes. Don't disconnect the throttle body multiplug though because it'll need re-adapting otherwise.

Yeah, might be your throttle pedal unit. http://www.skodaparts.com/product/fabia-accelerator-pedal-35406

Thanks to you both, will start investigating in the daylight tomorrow!

What about the MAF?

Hi jam,

 

I'm going to try and find where the MAP is (from what I've read my fabia has a MAP not a MAF) and see its condition - thanks for the tip :-)

UPDATE: Just came in from working on it. I took the engine cover off to get to throttle body. Sprayed some wynn carb and injector cleaner in it, gave it a wipe out with a rag, lots of black stuff came out. I couldn't figure out if/how to open the butterfly and if I even needed to in order to clean the whole thing - are suggestions here?

 

I couldn't see where the MAP would be - I really don't have much of a clue with cars (yet), so I left that for another day.

 

When I ran the engine after the clean it idled at lower revs - about 950 down from a touch over 1000. What was odd was that if I revved it up to about 2k, when it dropped down after taking my foot off the pedal, the revs decreased smoothly execpt between 1800 and 1600 when it seemed to drop vapidly. I doubt this is normal - could I have mesesed something up while fiddling?

 

Any and all further help is greatly appreciated!