So, I bought myself a fabia MK1 from 2000 with 63,000 miles a few weeks ago and I now think that the head gasket has gone. I drove it about 270 miles on Friday then around 130 miles yesterday and another 140 miles today. Went to start it and it was struggling to turn over before it did start but noticed smoke coming out the exhaust so pulled over to have a look and noticed what looked like mayonnaise on the oil cap. 

As I was worried about it yesterday, I looked this morning and it was clear and was planning on taking it to a garage tomorrow when I was home. 

I've got a detailed service history for it and it seems well looked after. I'm wondering if it is likely to be the head gasket that has gone or something else and if so, what am I looking at in order to fix it?

Hi bekbok,  and welcome.

 

Is this a 1.4 MPI by any chance?

 

It's a 1.4 8V which I think is the MPI

Yep. Most common one for HG trouble in the mk1, but also the easiest and cheapest to fix.

 

Ensure that the replacement gasket used has Temac written on it.

 

I expect there are youtube videos that will show what's involved in the job.

I don't have mechanic skills so would be taking it to a garage, any idea what sort of price I'd be looking at to get it done? 

Varies a lot depending on location, and degree of 'backstreetness' versus 'maindealerness'. Not many hundred, I'd hope.  There's a fella on here who did one in his lunchbreak once, I seem to remember, though he is a Master Tech.

 

First thing to do though is to be more certain of the diagnosis.  Take it to your favoured local garage, describe the symptoms you're seeing, and let them do the diagnostics first. They'll almost certainly follow that up with a quote to fix it, which you could then compare with quotes for the same job from other garages if you don't like it.

Thanks for the help, getting it taken to the garage this afternoon and going to see what they have to say about it when they see it. 

If it is the gasket, don't let them fit a non-Skoda one. Very important.