I bought my present Fabia 1.9 Tdi Estate in March as a replacement for an identical model which I had owned from new for 4 years. I was so pleased with the previous car, no problems and very economical, that I passed it on to my eldest son and bought an Octavia 1.9Tdi for my other son.

The stutter and hesitant accelerator operation became apparent shortly after taking delivery of the new Fabia and despite several periods in the workshop and after 3000 miles the problems have worsened to the point where the car is now extremely unpleasant to drive.

The dealer is unable to offer any solution and fobs me off with explanations that Skoda are working on the problem but sadly I have been converted from a Skoda enthusiast to complete sceptic within 3 months.

These are the symptoms if you are thinking about a new motoring experience:

Accelerator it is initially very hesitant and then surges dramatically. This can easily be demonstrated with the car stationary (out of gear), opening the accelerator in very small increments produces several dead spots and then around 2000 rpm the engines surges by 800 rpm. The reverse happens when gently decelerating.

Unfortunately these dead spots and surges occur all the time whether driving in town or on the motor way but are more noticeable when at lower speeds and in lower gears. This is a safety issue as I discovered when the hesitation (stutter) caused the engine to suddenly stall when negotiating a corner in a busy town.

Urban driving especially is a very jerky experience and cruise control is virtually unusable, similar to riding a donkey. Fuel consumption has never matched my previous car since I am unable to make optimum use of the accelerator (with a light foot).

Boy racers have no fear, top end performance is as good as ever.

From your description, i don't think ithis is the same as the vrs stutter that a lot of people seem to be suffering from. Your car sounds a lot worse tbh!

Hope you get it sorted though.

Personally I would be demanding a replacement, out of interest what brand of fuel are you using?

electronic throttle pedal problem ? but if this was faulty it would probably put a code up that the diagnostic tester would find

Thanks to sotonjoe, andy ellis and ric04vrs for your interest and comments.

I have now contacted Skoda direct and had a quick and positive response advising the factory is now testing a modification which they hope will cure the VRS stutter problem.

As suggested by sotonjoe I suspect that my car has some other problem. We will only know for sure when the mod has been applied. My dealer is sympathetic and keen to resolve the problem but by the very nature of the fault I have never been able to reproduce it on a test run.

The poor accelerator response and hesitation etc. occurs only on the point of transition from over-run to light acceleration or visa versa and is seems to be very dependent on driving style and not very apparent to a passenger.

The misfire, when it occurs, is very obvious but being an occasional event is impossible to demonstrate to order but also happens when gently applying accelerator typically after changing from first to second gear.

The comment by ric04vrs about the electronic throttle seems to be relevant since it once showed up as a code fault after a flat battery (my fault). This was re-set by the AA engineer and my dealer is aware of the incident.

I

Tesco diesal known for being **** and causing cars to run rough, Try either shell diesel extra or bp ultimate

Tesco diesal known for being **** and causing cars to run rough, Try either shell diesel extra or bp ultimate

Known for being ****? I've been running my past 3 cars on it with no problems and no noticeable difference in power, economy or smoke from branded fuels (plus it costs me a lot less in the long run ))....

Chris

It may well be unrelated But I had a 100PD at my last workplace that had a random missfire. It did however store injector faults. Turned out there was a broken wire on the engine ECU where the loom turns quite tightly onto the ECU.

Thanks everyone for your advice and comments.

Certainly worth giving the alternative fuel a try. I'll let you know what happens but could be a week or more before I know the result.

I would hope there are now broken wires at 3000 miles but will mention to garage. Anything is worth a try.

Have now tried a tankful of Shell diesel instead of Tesco City diesel with no

apparent effect. Still hesitating, surging and misfiring if that’s possible with a diesel.

Having happily driven an identical model for 4 years I now have a problem

with the latest 1.9TDI Fabia (06), can’t even get the fuel economy I have been

used to, the throttle has a mind of it’s own at the lowest setting, just when I ease back to maintain chosen speed, engine revs drop off unpredictably. Add a touch of throttle and the revs surge.

Repeated calls from Skoda advising they are working on the problem but 4 months is long enough for a complete re-design.

I wonder if this stuttering issue is affecting all new 1.9TDi units?

Seems that dealers prefer to deny all knowledge of the fault and to leave admission of a problem to Skoda. My experience is that it is very difficult to demonstrate the problems to order and they are mainly apparent to the driver , not the passenger, so test runs prove inconclusive particularly to someone who doesn't wish to acknowledge the problem.

Ideally the dealer needs to use the car for a day or two to experience the very unpleasant experience of driving an 06 Fabia 1.9TDi during typical urban conditions. I'm now planning to pay for an independant motor engineer to test the vehicle and provide a report.

Might I suggest a differenmt dealer? Not sure who you are using but it may be worth a trip to Irvines in Bridgwater (it's not that far). I found them to be very, very good. Iknow it is out of your way and probably not convenient but a fresh set of eyes, ears and bottoms could be beneficial.

I once worked in an industry using diesel for industrial engines for generators. The interesting thing about diesel is the relatively vast amount of water it will absorb which is why there is a tap at the bottom of your fuel filter. The idea is that every few 1000 miles put a jar under the tap and drain the water out. Don't wait for the service interval. Some chepa diesel has more water than the better quality fuels so it ain't cheap at all (you can't burn the moisture content). I expect watery disel will foul up the injectors quickly. I buy my diesel from wherever the local taxis and trucks fill up so I know the petrol station has a good turnover. Simple stuff ask anyone who has run commercial diesel engines for years... It won't be the answer to the stutter.. My advice.. buy the new Honda Civic diesel

My new 4x4 octi (October 2005) suffers fom the vrs stutter. I was hoping that they'd accidentally put a 130bhp unit instead of the 105bhp as it does go a lot better than I expected. Anyway will get the sutter sorted next service time.

PS the engine is the 105bhp 1.9PD engine

Thanks once again everyone for the advice.

Hopefully I don't have a water in fuel problem, I purchase diesel from a high throughput Tesco filling station and the problem has been present right from new car delivery in February2006 (if only I had rejected the vehicle within a week or so).

The suggestion about trying another dealer seems worth trying, I'll phone Irvines to see if they will check it over under the warranty. I'll let you know the outcome.

I think the (06) 1.9 TDi problem is very widespread and with dealers in denial and Skoda dragging their feet over the solution, it now needs some publicity in the motoring media to get things moving.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Can I ask if you are going to contact the press about this ? - if not I think I might, but unsure how to go about this.

I very nearly bought a Honda Civic Sport instead of the vRS but thought I would be better getting a brand new vRS for the same money as a nearly new Civic (old style) and that Skoda were now a brand of quality and customer service.

Why didnt I just buy the Civic !!!!

By the way is everyone aware that Skoda read this site and may have ready prepared answers for any problems that appear in it !

I have contacted WhatCar? using their advice line, to inform them of the 06 1.9TDi problems. To date I have had no response so I'll follow up early next week and if necessary will try another approach either to phone their editorial team or to contact another motoring mag.

I hate doing this because I have been such an enthusiast about Skoda, bought 2 Fabias and an Octavia in the past 4 years, but I have never before had a car which has caused so much aggravation as my present Fabia.

The worst aspect is that I have little confidence that Skoda are really trying to resolve the problem, seems they regularly phone numerous VRS and other 1.9TDi owners to assure them they are working on it but never any sign they are near to sorting it.

Yesterday I had yet another call from customer services ( fifth I think), usual platitudes but no glimmer of hope.

I will be contacting another dealer to see whether they are prepared to check over the car under warranty and I'm also trying to locate an independent motor engineer for a report which almost certainly will be needed if legal action proves necessary as a last resort

I'm on holiday from next weekend so it's a tight timescale to do much before then.