Hi all.

Having just purchased an auto 1.4 16 v Fabia I'm hearing of premature cylinder wear, cambelt issues etc. I've years of experience working on HGVs but also in roadside recovery and TBH this is pretty much the first Ive heard of this. Any validity to these views?

PS; sorry, engine is 75 HP model, BKY engine code

Hello and welcome, yes it's true, the aluminium block 16v engines (both 75bhp and 100bhp variants) are a pig for piston ring failures, it's normally just the oil control ring that gets stuck in the bottom ring land in the piston which leads to massive oil consumption whereas the 2 top compression rings will be ok. They also suffer badly from the roller rockers wearing badly with infrequent oil changes/starvation. Also the other fairly common fault is the valve guides wearing oval even on low mileage engines..

The crankshaft main bearing bolts should not be undone becuase it distorts the block, if you do you need to get the block line bored to correct it. Also the valve guides cannot be bought as a spare part from vw either.

The block itself is a cast magnesium/ aluminium alloy open deck type with non replaceable steel liners. They are actually quite reliable in use so long as they are serviced regularly.

Thanks for that. I guess I'll start with a compression test after monitoring oil consumption for a month or so. Seems a typically well maintained one owner example(straight to auction ex-trade in)and I can't imagine the rather sluggish auto box facilitated any tyre shredding starts off the lights so we'll see. Also be interested to know how difficult a cambelt change is on the same model, I've plenty of experience but it would be on a driveway rather than in a workshop which always complicates proceedings.

There are 2 timing belts, 2 tensioners, and 2 idlers on those engines, plus it's best to change the water pump at the same time, it's quite an expensive timing belt kit circa £120, plus you need a special tool that has 2 prongs to lock the cams in the tdc position. It's not an overly difficult one but it is worth checking out the Haynes manual or a vw workshop manual if you are unfamiliar with them.

Got it, thanks for the information. Do you personally have any experience of how main agent parts measure up against generic equivalents in terms of both price and quality? With HGV's you'll often find a dealer simply supplies components manufactured by a 3rd party, usually with an added premium!

A genuine timing belt kit for that car from vw/skoda is around £300 not including the water pump, I tend to use pattern parts from a reputable brand like gates automaster, and like I said before its around £120 for those from my local motor factors but I'd have to dig out an invoice to check for certain, those kits are pretty much the best aftermarket pattern parts money can buy, I've never had a problem using gates stuff except on a few Renaults where the belt was the wrong width.. Also I would say avoid using pattern part water pumps, always use a genuine pump, I seem to remember that vw only sell them on exhchange basis with a surcharge for your old pump but they will only return the surcharge for a genuine vw pump.

It's easy to replace the timing belts but one problem on the driveway is undoing the crank pulley bolt. .. you need to insert the locking tool into the crank pulley undo the center bolt remove the pulley but put the bolt back in finger tight as the crank gear will be lose with the pulley off also very tight for room on the driveway . I done a few on the driveway so definitely doable.

I normally pop the inspection cover off the top of the gearbox bellhousing and get a hench assistant to put a lever bar in the flywheel ring gear to counter hold the crankshaft, or sometimes pop the starter motor out and do the same. You don't need a locking tool on the crank on the 16v engine, but there is a propietary aftermarker counter holding tool which engages with the slots in the aux belt pulley but I bent mine the first time I tried to use it! For timing there is a chamfered tooth on the crankshaft pulley sprocket that lines up with a fin on the oil pump casting with '4V' next to it. Ignore the notch and mark on the outer belt cover, they are legacy igniton timing reference markings which are no longer used on these later generation engines.