I recently bought a second hand SKoda fabia,  with 90k on the clock. At the beginning, the car struggled to get uphill but drove fine.  I approached a junction and put it into first gear to move off, but it cut out of me and tried to turn the key over again but will not turn the engine over and was making a wizzing sound, i kept trying but no joy.  I try jump starting but no luck. The key now is not turning over and the engines seems like its locked up. 

 

Any advice about what it may be, its my first car.

Possibly a silly question but it has to be asked. Have you got oil in the engine? 

Yes oil is in the engine..good level

You need to establish if the engine is seized, or whether its a battery issue. Can the engine be made to physically turn, say pop it in 3rd or 4th gear and push the car and see if the engine rotates.

 

If the battery has died, its feasible that even using jump leads wont help. Test the battery voltage. Needs to be at least 12.0 volts.

 

If engine is seized, which sounds like it is, probably terminal, could have been camchain failure, or some lubrication issue, which would explain why it struggled to get up a hill.

 

If you've bought it from a garage or trader within the last 6 months you may have recourse for faulty goods. If you bought it privately, you have no legal recourse unless the buyer has falsely described it to you, (service records or gave false answers to your questions), but some private sellers may be willing to help out, although highly unlikely.

 

If you are not mechanically/electrically savvy you need to have the car assessed by someone who is.

 

 

Some justed it could be can chain but a machanc without opening it up suggested he be really suprised if it is the cam chain. As it suppouse to last a long time. I have a booking for a check up on Wednesday and will find out..just wanted get a little idea beforehand. 

 

Just hoping its somthing minor and not expensive 

 

 

Camchain failure is rare on the htp, but has been known, its a sudden event however.

 

Struggling up a hill (not sure what that means) could have been engine starting to seize due to lack of lubrication. Or maybe an electrical problem.

 

Fingers crossed you get it sorted. Hope someone hasn't knowingly dumped a pup on you.

 

If you bought it from a garage or trader within the last 6 months, you should contact them first and tell them what has happened. Under consumer law its their responsibility to find out what the matter is, and they may have responsibility to repair it or give you a refund. If you involve a third party such as another garage then you may be throwing your consumer rights away.

 

I'm no expert on this so do some research first.

Edited 24 September, 20187 yr by xman

I boughylt it privately from an old lady who had since new. 

 

Told me it needed a service and couldnt find the service history. 

 

 

Sorry to hear about your spot of bad luck.

I agree with the comments above it could be a lubrication issue due to use of the wrong oil or more likely not changing the oil soon enough.

Sounds like my mums cars, little old lady, owned from new, driven by me, she would not be able to find the service history either, i would have it. Never raced or rallied, only Autotests..

Sounds like maybe you were taken.

Edited 24 September, 20187 yr by Offski

You're on your own then.

 

Check if the old lady was really the previous owner, or whether she was fronting for someone else. (Check the V5) unfortunately now only limited information about previous owners is given.

 

Old lady, needs a service....sounds it might be a classic scam how to get rid of a dud.

 

Or it may be just a dead battery.

The alternator could be faulty as this would cause a drop in power and then eventually cause the car to stall due to a dead battery.

Or the old lady never had serviced in the last 5 years....seen that before....

Edited 24 September, 20187 yr by xman

They was a engine management light on when i bought the car but it had been checked over by skoda and said they were no issues 

If the engine isnt seized it'll probably be an electrical problem, such as a sensor.

 

Let us know how you get on.

?

Did you ask the Skoda dealership service desk staff if there was a service record on the system 2010-2013  or anything since?

http://skoda.co.uk/about-us/contact-us

 

She got around ok over the 8 years she had the car.

Last serviced with skoda at 32k miles now 90k..after her warranty she had service at local garages 

Hmm....

Lesson learned, avoid one owner cars from Mrs Hertz, Mrs Eurocars, Mrs Easy Hire Holiday Autos.

Let the garage give its verdict. Might be something trivial 

 

Will keep you posted. Wednesda..fingers crossed

18 hours ago, Baz187 said:

They was a engine management light on when i bought the car but it had been checked over by skoda and said they were no issues 

 

You say Skoda say no issues, I assume YOU got that verdict? You are not taking the "Little old lady'"s word for it being checked out? If you PAID Skoda to check the car and they said "Nothing to worry about", (No issues), THEY THEMSELVES might just be guilty of something. 

If they allowed you to think the car was safe to buy/drive, they could be failing in their care to see you are safe and the vehicle they inspected was fit for purpose. This is, of corse, speculation as you may just have said to a techie, is this an issue and they said nah!  If you paid them for a diagnosis, however and they said the car was fine to drive...

Had it checked by a mobile machanic..he tried moving the belt with  spanner but was stuck. Only moved slightly backwards. Said high possibility of cam chain slipped or snapped. 

Edited 27 September, 20187 yr by Baz187

If it's a camchain fail, then struggling up the hill was that chain had already jumped a notch. 

 

Little old lady or her friend who runs  dodgy motors ltd., never seen fresh oil for five years so that's why she can't find the service records, they don't exist. They knew the car was cobbled when they sold it.

 

Possibly the 10th car she's sold this year.

Its funny i just checked the last service she had. It was last year and had a full service. And last month she took the car to skoda to find issue with eml,  misfire and consuming too much petrol,  It was diagnosed with camshaft sensor fault which was damaged and this was repaired. 

Ok, ok so its not the old lady's fault at all.

 

Oh dear.

 

So if its the cam chain then its either very bad luck and/or Skoda missed the cam chain was stretched and had a problem when they changed the sensor. I have my suspicions where the blame lies...

 

But you have no comeback and it leaves you with a crippling big bill. Engine could be a write off and its a question of whether its worth fixing.

 

Next time don't ignore things like a car struggling to get up a hill. If you had bought from a garage or trader rather than buy privately then you would have had warranty under legal rights for 6 months at the very minimum.

 

First car, I feel for you, a very hard lesson. How much was the car?