My mother's previously faultless (apart from steering angle sensor) 2000 Fabia 1.4 has started cutting out occasionally. I'm finding it hard to get an exact description of the fault but it appears that just after a successful start up, presuming from cold, it has cut out a few times. On one occasion it cut out three times before finally staying running.

Anyone heard of this before? Any known issues / solutions?

Still happening. Apparently there's no revving or unusual noises associated with the cutting out, no warning lights - just cuts out. Happens when starting from cold but hasn't yet arisen when starting from warm. Restarts no problem afterwards. Any ideas? Anyone?

the wifes auto cuts out radomnly usually when it has been repeatedly slowing or been sitting in traffic with the brakes on. Im guessing its because it leans down the engine too much to cope with the vacuum drawn by the brakes but thats only a theory..................

I had a something happen to me but only once, I was slowing down to enter a roundabout and I noticed a big power loss, a warning light came on but I applied more power. I just caught it before it stalled, my car was also cold. This only happened once so Im just taking it as a freak occurance.

Throttle body needs cleaning, or faulty coolant temperature sensor?

Great links, thanks - my bet is on the coolant temp sensor - I've noticed it staying a rest a few times, only starting to work again when the engine is restarted. Must sort it out.