Hi all,

I am on my second mk1 Fabia which I have had for 18 months and approximately 30k miles. The mileage has just turned 90k.

Its a 1.4 16v 100bhp estate version in Comfort trim.

 

All is good except after about 6 months the engine management light came on, off, on, off and then stayed on until now although it very occasionally goes off for about 20 miles then comes back on. The car has been serviced regularly and I have had the engine management light reset a couple of times then just gave up. It still runs great and I'm getting between 40 and 48 to the gallon in my daily commute.

 

However.... About 2 months ago I got in and the engine turned but would not fire. After about 5 or 6 goes it caught but was lumpy on idle for about 5 seconds then righted itself and drove great again.

This has now happened about 6 times, it can take between 1 and 10 goes to get it going but it always goes ok after that.

 

I looked at the forum and found threads on warn start problems being quite common and linked to temperature sensors and / or lambda sensors.

I then borrowed a VAG code reader and up popped the following codes - 532, 16804 and 17584.

The first one seems to be related to a low voltage supply (B+) so I guess a new battery is required???

The other two are both related to bank 1 cat converter - efficiency below threshold and intake leak / lambda converter after the catalyst. Does this mean I need a new cat or just some leak issues???

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

in one mind I'm happy just to live with it as the car was only £600 (well spent) or if its doing serious damage.

I plan to keep the car until it dies as its a great workhorse and very cheap to run / insure and I can get three bikes in the back with the seats down!

 

Im a reasonable DIY mechanic so if its not too difficult to sort either the warm start issue or the fault codes then I'll have a go.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike.

 

These may be of some help to you...

 

Fault code 00532 http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/00532

 

Fault code 16804 http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/16804/P0420/001056

 

Fault code 17584 http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/16804/P0420/001056

Replace the ECT sensor to resolve the poor starting and lumpy running.

Thanks for the replies.

 

I cleared the codes last night and have done my daily commute clocking up 75 trouble free miles with no engine management light.

The car runs perfectly and so far no trouble starting up.

 

I'll be changing the ECT this weekend once I've checked which one it is, 2 pin / 4 pin etc and hopefully that will solve the warm start issues.

 

Ill let you know how it goes