Hi there,

Looking for some advice about my fabia 1.4 8v, 52 plate bought about 6months ago. Apologies for the long message, I am rather confused what’s wrong with it and as I’m not the best with cars I’d really appreciate some advice! 

The last couple of months I have noticed a juddering when I am driving, mostly between 50-60mph and only when I press the accelerator. It seems like a judder/vibration coming from the floor of the car, feels as if it is coming from the engine. 

It got quite bad one evening, a lot of judder even at 70mph so I decided not to drive it on the motorway and called RAC. 

The RAC man said he thought it was my head gasket as there’s what looks like a small oil leak on the engine and he said it sounded like it was misfiring. 

I then took it to a mechanic, would had a look at it, took it for a drive and said it was driving very well, he couldn’t find anything wrong with it apart from I had overfilled the oil (which he removed) and said this may be why there’s a small oil leak. 

I have since taken it to another mechanic closer to home who has changed the front tires and discs and pads as he thought this would solve the juddering and it hasn’t 😭. 

I’ve had a look online about head gasket and it’s not displaying any of the obvious signs of a head gasket problem. The car has never overheated, there are no engine warning lights on the dash and the RAC man also ran another check on an iPad connected via a wire to the car under the steering wheel (sorry I don’t know what this is called) and there were no engine faults. 

It also doesn’t seem like it is misfiring as there is no loss of engine power. 

Also worth mentioning I have noticed some gunk in the coolant reserviour, my coolant is red and there is a dark green sludge (looks like snot) around the sides a bit and floating on the top. Could this mean oil has got into the system, meaning head gasket? I have attached a photo but its hard to see

So I am rather confused as I’m getting some conflicting advice 😂 there seems to be so many different things that could cause juddering. Sometimes the car feels like it’s driving fine, other days it’s really juddery. Does anyone have any ideas? Does it sound likely it’s the head gasket or could it be something else? 

Thank you! 

It does sound like head gasket, the gunk in the expansion tank makes it almost certain.

1 hour ago, AK555 said:

another mechanic closer to home who has changed the front tires and discs and pads as he thought this would solve the juddering

Never go to this guy again!!