Couple of week ago, my 1.4 16v had been sound un-healthy after a blast to Heathrow airport to catch SWMBO's morning flight. Since then the engine sound shaper than it was, making "eekkkk..." sound when revving from 2.5->4K rpm. It makes "puffing" sound (not loud tho) at idle, even more noticeable when cruising at 40mph at 4th. I did find hard to cruise the car using 4th or 5th gear. Anyhow, the car still pull quite strongly, notice no drop of mpg.

Fortunately is about time for annual inspection, so took the car to the Skoda dealer that near me. Forgot to book a courtesy car, so prepared to wait 4-5 hour.

While I was checking out the stunning new Octavia Vrs, workshop adviser brought me a thing that look like a bracelet to me, said that is the roller holds the cam belt in place and it is COMPLETELY BROKEN. I was in shock :eek: , obviously. Because of this, cam belt should better be changed as well. 30mins later, they found another roller is not in great shape either (got 2 holes on it), but they don't have this part in stock, they ordered one but have to wait til next morning when delivery arrived before work can continuous.

Friendly dealer manage to find me a car to drive away, thought it must be a old car. Turns out is a 55 plate 1.2 Fabia in metallic Stonegrey has 450 miles on the clock only

Anyway, I have collected the car. Cost 318 pounds in total (believe it is a fair price if not the cheapest), thats include:

Annual Service for a 53k miles Fabia

Oil Change Service+oil filter

Brake Fluid change

Replace cam belt, and 2 rollers (parts no. are: 036109119Q (belt), 036109243AD (roller 1) and 036109244J (roller 2))

Windscreen wiper and rear wiper blades change

Have sorted out the very loud & annoying dashboard creak

Either happy nor unhappy. Glad that the car hasn't broken while on road. On the other hand, my plan to replace the Tempature sensor and Steering Angle sensor seems impossible in near future (i.e. I still have to suffer funny steering for a while:( ).

Still wondering why those rollers could break. Forgot to ask dealer how many roller in total in the engine bay, fearing some other roller might break in near future......Must drive slower from now on :(

P.S. very suprise with that 1.2, engine response is quick, its mid range pull is fast and exciting. Much easy to drive than my 1.4 16v, propbably faster than my 1.4 in 0-60 run. Only let down by its plastics steering wheel, has no confidence in cornering with those standard 14' steel wheel and tyres, and rubbish brake.

Rollers breaking up is fairly common on the 16v, to the point that VW did a recall on it.

My Polo GTi (1.6 16v) had to have a new set of cam belt tensioners (rollers) as they'd fallen to bits.