My wee Fabia has had its share of problems over the past year or so (there are a few previous threads about these!).

I'm now at the point where I need to make a decision- do I spend any more time or money on it, or do I call it quits.

The car is a 2010 Elegance hatchback with about 100k on it. A bit too good to scrap, really. It's been off the road for a few months now and the MoT has expired.

 

The problems seem to relate to the dreaded DPF. I was getting various warning lights and it was having to regen quite a lot, when I discovered a hole in the exhaust just in front of the cylindrical unit in the middle of the exhaust. Some sources call this the DPF (and it has tubes connecting it to the DPF differential pressure sensor) but others say it's actually the cat. The loss of exhaust pressure due to this hole seems to have thrown out the sensors and put the car in to limp mode. When I got this hole welded up and the faults cleared, the car worked perfectly for a few months.

When the problem cropped up again, with the exhaust leaking in the same place, I decided a better repair was required, so I bit the bullet and cut the DPF (or is it a cat!?) off so that a better job could be made of welding it up. I also took the opportunity to clean it up a fair bit with compressed air and some heat, as it was full of carbon.

I reassembled the exhaust, and the car ran OK for literally just a few minutes before massive back pressure built up in the exhaust and it stalled out.

Thinking that some component in the exhaust must still be clogged, I disconnected it at the turbo outlet and tried running the car again. It started happily enough, but exhibited exactly the same symptoms of no power and stalling out.

 

Do these symptoms point towards anything obvious- and anything economically repairable? I'd be quite happy to buy a replacement exhaust section for around £450 that includes the suspect components- but that's quite an expensive gamble if there are other problems as well.

 

I could do with getting my driveway back, so if I can't get the car up and running again it's just going to have to go. Maybe I should strip it for parts, but it seems a sad end for a nice wee car 😞

I wonder if the EGR is causing this issue ?

 

You would have to totally block the exhaust for it to not run / stall

 

With the exhaust disconnected at the turbo, thats "removes" the entire exhaust as a potential issue, it may run poorly, but should still run.

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 January, 20206 yr by UrbanPanzer

I think you need to consider, do you have the money to buy another car? is the £450 you save can add up to contribute to a decent car?

 

Also, I use the skoda for literally 99% motorway with 30mi minimum distance travel. It works like a treat, but if you will use it to go to the shops and back and the occasional motorway drive it will create more problems (in my experience).

 

2 years ago when it had 60k miles i used to do 50/50 motorway city driving and it didn't like it  at all. DPF light every 150-200mi, regens were frequent and then EGR fail.

 

Since i changed jobs and my other half uses the car as well for motorway journeys, it has changed completely. I had virtually 0 issues over the additional 33k miles I've done. Regens are done around 300mi

Edited 9 January, 20206 yr by Bertie90

@Baxter The TDI CR engines on the mk2, (particularly the 1.6) seem more sensitive than the PD’s. 

The things that are known to go wrong are the EGR, (problems with coolers, or clogging up completely), the DPF which clogs with short journeys, and sometimes the injectors. 

 

The things that that they seem to go wrong with is cheap fuel and short journeys. 

 

Also, the 1.6tdi was known for taking the emissions ‘fix’ worse than the 1.2tdi or 2.0tdi, and it caused issues such as stalling, nasty cold starts, and egr valves that would either fail or kill the dpf and then fail. Have you had the fix done? If so you could possibly be eligible for the trust building measure.

Edited 9 January, 20206 yr by CS45

More than 1/2 the Diesel cars in the UK are running on the Less Expensive fuel from Supermarket Filling stations. 

That is not cheap or sub standard just not as Expensive as what is also Derv sold where there is a Shell, BP, Esso, Gulf, Texaco type sign.

Edited 9 January, 20206 yr by Roottootemblowinootsoot

Thanks for the replies.

I got a letter a few months back inviting me to have 'the fix' but after a quick bit of reseach on Briskoda, decided against it.

 

I've already bought a more suitable (petrol!) replacement car, so I'm just looking for the best to extricate myself from the Skoda situation.

Ideally I would sell it on to someone who felt confident fixing it, but so far haven't found anybody. I'm hesitant to hand it over to a garage because I think there's a real risk of spending hundreds, if not thousands, on it, and ending up out of pocket when I come to sell.

 

If it's running poorly even without the exhaust attached, might that mean a problem with the injectors? Someone suggested to me that the back pressure could have affected the valves, but I haven't heard that from anybody else.

I was in exactly the same poison last year. 2010 Fabia, 1.6 TDI Elegance, 100k miles. All servicing after I purchased it was done by myself after 30k miles. Bodywork, interior and wheels were mint (even had tailgate replaced and painted under warranty), replaced front wishbones, etc.

 

Over the years I'd had a few faults with glow plug light, limp mode, etc. These were traced to damaged wiring glow plug wiring, air intake sensor, etc. Did forced regeneration, cleared with VCDS, etc.

 

The exhaust failed at the flexi joint last year where it meets the catalytic convertor. I did a few repairs, but opted to cut my losses and shift it on, knowing it needed completely replaced.

 

Replaced it with what will probably be my last diesel, 15 plate Polo 1.4TDI. Very frugal, hill assist, LED headlights, usual bells and whistles, and importantly has timing chain.

 

 

On 09/01/2020 at 19:22, Baxter said:

Thanks for the replies.

I got a letter a few months back inviting me to have 'the fix' but after a quick bit of reseach on Briskoda, decided against it.

 

I've already bought a more suitable (petrol!) replacement car, so I'm just looking for the best to extricate myself from the Skoda situation.

Ideally I would sell it on to someone who felt confident fixing it, but so far haven't found anybody. I'm hesitant to hand it over to a garage because I think there's a real risk of spending hundreds, if not thousands, on it, and ending up out of pocket when I come to sell.

 

If it's running poorly even without the exhaust attached, might that mean a problem with the injectors? Someone suggested to me that the back pressure could have affected the valves, but I haven't heard that from anybody else.

 

best option is probably just to punt it to wbac and hope they don’t notice to much.