I'm looking to buy a used Fabia circa £4,500. I'm wondering how reliable the 1.2 TSI engines are... Would an HTP be a safer bet?

Edited 27 January, 20197 yr by cosmicjazzer

I haven't owned one personally, I have the RS with 1,4 in so dont "really" know, but I did convince my mum to get out of her citigo into a fabia which is a 1.2 and for the size of the engine I think it's great!! ........but they do seem to have issues.................but also

 

Remember people only ever join / write about the "problems" they have with cars, know one ever creates a message board to celebrate how good their car is and that goes for any car by any manufacturer,

 

^^^ Nonsense. 

 Read the 'Positive Mk2 Fabia vRS threads'.  

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/345222-positive-vrs-thread-no-off-topic

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/394621-skoda-fabia-mk2-vrs-positive-thread-part-2-part-1-was-locked

 

Plenty in this section have been pleased with 1.2 TSI Fabia.

Some get very disappointed when landed with an early one with a duff timing chain tensioner just as 1.4TSI owners do with a Oil User.

Or a failing DSG.

 

Edited 27 January, 20197 yr by Skoffski

I would avoid any built  before mid 2012. The engines were very heavily revised from mid 2012, larger oil galleries/capacities, better lubrication and new and finally reasonably reliable camchain/tensioner design. Also better ignition leads with protection, pcv valves etc. Of course cars prior to this could be retrofitted with new camchains, but you have to be very careful the correct kit has been used and not just the old style (of which there were at least two variants).

On the other hand, turbo actuators and sometimes turbos fail out of the blue (just go into limp mode). Something I tend to think affects later models more than earlier, but that is just my opinion not based on much evidence.

 

Be very wary of DSG, they are risky and staggeringly expensive to repair, which many people have found out. Search DQ200

 

 

I have two 1.2tsi engined cars, great when running nice. I needed a new camchain (no contribution from Skoda despite complaining several times from 18 months on, well within warranty- its normal sir, the rattle is nothing to worry about, standard Skoda FOB off. The other recently had a turbo fail, over £1300 to replace.

 

Both now on 105k/120k. I never feel comfortable to make a comment on how good or bad they are, as the problems always hit me out of the blue.

 

Make sure OIL is changed at LEAST every 10,000 miles/1year, vital to preserve the chain. Ours are changed at 8000-9000miles/4-8months now. The older the car the more frequent it should be.

 

 

 

Edited 27 January, 20197 yr by xman

1 hour ago, UrbanPanzer said:

I haven't owned one personally, I have the RS with 1,4 in so dont "really" know, but I did convince my mum to get out of her citigo into a fabia which is a 1.2 and for the size of the engine I think it's great!! ........but they do seem to have issues.................but also

 

Remember people only ever join / write about the "problems" they have with cars, know one ever creates a message board to celebrate how good their car is and that goes for any car by any manufacturer,

 

Well, there is always an exception to that, there is a member in the Polo forum who opened a new thread to talk about the good points of a new Polo 1.0TSI SEL, currently his car is stuck in his VW dealership as after they sorted a rain water leaking into the car issue - they can not get the central locking to work, oh joy!

1 hour ago, Skoffski said:

^^^ Nonsense. 

 Read the 'Positive Mk2 Fabia vRS threads'.  

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/345222-positive-vrs-thread-no-off-topic

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/394621-skoda-fabia-mk2-vrs-positive-thread-part-2-part-1-was-locked

 

Plenty in this section have been pleased with 1.2 TSI Fabia.

Some get very disappointed when landed with an early one with a duff timing chain tensioner just as 1.4TSI owners do with a Oil User.

Or a failing DSG.

 

 

Whats nonsense ?

 

Or am I missing something.......Offcourse there are positive things, thats a given, but most join to fix problems not to shout how good their car is.

 

If you read and digest all the "bad points" on each car made by whoever, most of us would avoid buying one at all.

 

 

Edited 27 January, 20197 yr by UrbanPanzer
text

^^^

I just read what you posted "Remember people only ever join /write about "problems" they have with cars,...."   Which might be generally true, but some try to help others with their problems and never have car problems theirselves to complain or write about.

 

Hang around long enough and there are plenty Happy Clappys' about.

Edited 27 January, 20197 yr by Skoffski

You have mis understood my point.........I'm a happy chappy...................LOVE my VRS......thinks its brilliant...........jeez I have had a Land Rover for 10 years, believe me that can put you off buying another, but I took a different route, created a webpage and now its been visited well over a million times with the help I provide to others.

 

I joined here because of an issue with my Mk1 VRS that I could not solve initially.....now if you check my posts recently, I'm offering help to others.

We had a Rapid for nearly 3 years bought new from 2015-2018 with the 1.2Tsi engine and 6 speed manual gearbox and it was very quiet, economical (upto 64mpg) and totally reliable apart from a small stop/start problem caused by a loose battery connection (probably caused by all the speed humps where we live).We did 28,000 miles in it before buying Skippy the Karoq a year ago.

1 hour ago, shyVRS245 said:

We had a Rapid for nearly 3 years bought new from 2015-2018 with the 1.2Tsi engine and 6 speed manual gearbox and it was very quiet, economical (upto 64mpg) and totally reliable apart from a small stop/start problem caused by a loose battery connection (probably caused by all the speed humps where we live).We did 28,000 miles in it before buying Skippy the Karoq a year ago.

'Hold on there, completely different engine to what the OP is asking about, you are talking about the EA211 belt driven 16V 1.2TSI, the OP is asking about the EA111 chain driven 6V 1.2TSI.

Oh bother I should have written 8V and not 6V!! Too late to edit now.

57 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Oh bother I should have written 8V and not 6V!! Too late to edit now.

Don't worry I won't give you a hard time over such a blatant and obvious mistake.

Actually, all the 1.2 TSIs I've seen advertised in my price range have 12 valves!!!

 

3 hours ago, cosmicjazzer said:

Actually, all the 1.2 TSIs I've seen advertised in my price range have 12 valves!!!

 

 

Would that be the 1.2 3cylinder cam chain engine that is NOT a tsi ie no turbo and no direct injection available with 6 or 12 valves?

9 minutes ago, bigjohn said:

 

Would that be the 1.2 3cylinder cam chain engine that is NOT a tsi ie no turbo and no direct injection available with 6 or 12 valves?

Many Fabia Mk2 1.2 TSIs in Autotrader are showing as 12v. eg. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901244245912?year-from=2011&sort=year-desc&price-from=4000&transmission=Manual&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&price-to=5500&make=SKODA&model=FABIA&exclude-writeoff-categories=on&postcode=cm159px&fuel-type=Petrol&radius=90&body-type=Hatchback&advertising-location=at_cars&seller-type=trade&page=1

 

Edited 28 January, 20197 yr by cosmicjazzer

12 minutes ago, cosmicjazzer said:

Many Fabia Mk2 1.2 TSIs in Autotrader are showing as 12v. eg. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901244245912?year-from=2011&sort=year-desc&price-from=4000&transmission=Manual&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&price-to=5500&make=SKODA&model=FABIA&exclude-writeoff-categories=on&postcode=cm159px&fuel-type=Petrol&radius=90&body-type=Hatchback&advertising-location=at_cars&seller-type=trade&page=1

 

 

That is a tsi but I can assure you the 85ps engine is a 4cylinder 8 valve engine so I think the 12v is mis quoted.

4 minutes ago, bigjohn said:

 

That is a tsi but I can assure you the 85ps engine is a 4cylinder 8 valve engine so I think the 12v is mis quoted.

I believe you! But Autotrader is showing the majority of the 85bhp TSIs as 12v! (Click on 'Economy and Performance' in the ad i linked to). Something wrong with Autotrader...

 

Edited 28 January, 20197 yr by cosmicjazzer

2 minutes ago, cosmicjazzer said:

I believe you! But Autotrader is showing the majority of the 85bhp TSIs as 12v! (Click on 'Economy and Performance' in the ad i linked to)

 

 

I did - but I'm pretty sure it's wrong - I'm sure someone else will confirm.

 

"1.2 R4 TSI/TFSI (EA111) [edit]

This engine is manufactured at the Škoda Auto plant in Mladá Boleslav

identification

parts code prefix: 03F, ID codes: CBZA, CBZB, CBZC

engine displacement & engine configuration

1,197 cubic centimetres (73.0 cu in) inline-four engine (R4/I4); bore x stroke: 71.0 by 75.6 millimetres (2.80 in × 2.98 in), stroke ratio: 0.94:1 - undersquare/long-stroke, 299.3 cc per cylinder, compression ratio: 10.5:1, 130 bars (1,890 psi) peak pressures

cylinder block & crankcase

cast aluminium alloy, five main bearings, die-forged steel crankshaft

cylinder head & valvetrain

cast aluminium alloy; low-friction roller finger cam followers with automatic hydraulic valve clearance compensation

two valves per cylinder, 8 valves total, roller chain-driven single overhead camshaft (SOHC)

aspiration

hot-film air mass meter, cast alloy throttle body with electronically controlled Bosch "E-Gas" throttle valve; turbocharger with maximum pressure 1.6 bars (23.2 psi), water-cooled intercooler integrated into intake manifold

fuel system

fully demand-controlled and returnless; - fuel tank–mounted low-pressure fuel pump; Fuel Stratified Injection (FSI): camshaft-driven single-piston high-pressure injection pump supplying up to 150 bars (2,180 psi) fuel pressure in common rail fuel rail, four combustion chamber sited direct injection sequential fuel injectors, mounted on the intake side between the intake port and cylinder head gasket level, homogeneous mixing, stratified lean-burn operation with excess air at part load; 95 RON ultra-low sulphur unleaded petrol (ULSP)

ignition system & engine management

centrally positioned longlife spark plugs, mapped direct ignition with four individual direct-acting single spark coils; electronic engine control unit (ECU), knockcontrol via a single knock sensor, permanent lambda control, EU5 compliant

DIN-rated motive power & torque outputs

63 kilowatts (86 PS; 84 bhp) at 4,800 rpm; 160 newton metres (118 lbf⋅ft) at 1,500-3,500 rpm — CBZA; Volkswagen Golf Mk6 (05/10->), Audi A1

66 kilowatts (90 PS; 89 bhp) at 4,500 rpm; 160 newton metres (118 lbf⋅ft) at 1,500-3,500 rpm — CBZC; Volkswagen Polo (05/11->)

77 kilowatts (105 PS; 103 bhp) at 5,000 rpm; 175 newton metres (129 lbf⋅ft) at 1,550-4,100 rpm — CBZB; SEAT Ibiza

applications

Volkswagen Beetle (A5), Volkswagen Polo Mk5, Volkswagen Golf Mk6, Volkswagen Caddy (05/09->), SEAT Ibiza, SEAT León (1P), SEAT Altea, SEAT Altea XL, SEAT Toledo (2012) (KG) Škoda Octavia (02/10->), Škoda Yeti, Škoda Fabia (02/10->), Audi A1, Škoda Rapid (2012) (NH)"

 

 

That advert is all over the place including showing the ''Performance / Economy and 3 cylinder 85 bhp & C02  g/km 121

 

the 3 cylynder 1.2 12v 69ps is 1,198cc & 128 g/km 

 & the 4 cylinder 1.2TSI  1,197cc 86ps is 121 g/km & 0-62 is 11.7 seconds.

Edited 29 January, 20197 yr by Skoffski

Car adverts, especially in Auto Trader, I was looking for an Audi S4 years ago, and when it was a Land Rover dealer's website, they mainly had a bonnet mounting for the spare wheel, kind of spoils the image of an S4 as well as making lifting the bonnet a bit tricky.

There are exactly ZERO mk2 Fabias with a 3 cylinder TSI engine.

 

Plenty with a 3 cylinder HTP engine.

 

Buyer beware, use DVLA checker

The car in the linked advert has a TSI badge on it,  but that means nothing, always worth opening the bonnet and count how many cylinders / spark plugs.

 

Then after shaking the salespersons hand count how many fingers you have and your watch is still on your wrist.

36 minutes ago, xman said:

There are exactly ZERO mk2 Fabias with a 3 cylinder TSI engine.

 

Plenty with a 3 cylinder HTP engine.

 

Buyer beware, use DVLA checker

Thanks for the clarification. Autotrader must have a wire crossed - a great many of the ads for TSIs are showing 3 cylinder and 12v in the 'Economy and Performance' section.

Autotrader  just has the info that comes to hand, comes from a Skoda site etc.

 

For 9 years a MK2 Fabia vRS has Front Fog lights as shown in that part of adverts.(Samples of what a spec might be, even though never standard or an option.)

Some sales people even argue that they have Front Fog lights.