Got a call this afternoon from stranded partner. 05 Fabia (1.2 12V HTP, very low miles 2nd engine), won't start.

Got her to check ignition coils' fuse, but that seemed OK. Has fuel in tank, tries to catch sometimes but never quite does.

Handheld OBD scanner says no fault codes, she told me.

Rush hour rescue drive...

VCDS also sees no fault codes in engine ECU. Shows rpm when cranking, on tacho and vcds.

Thought there was at least one spare coilpack in car, but no, a coilpack box with other spare sensors in. 🙁

Jumping around on its mounts when cranking, not looking good.

About half a mile from a GSF, but bang on closing time when I decided to buy a coilpack, so a little further to ECP who did have one 10 mins before their closing.

Tried in all 3 cylinders with no change. ☹️

Coolant level spot on, oil at minimum; that's unusual, dunno when last checked.

Fearing a chain issue here, will take compression tester to it first thing, and tools to examine chain timing via cam end covers.

Anyone got any suggestions of other things to try, please?

I'll look at the plugs prior to comp test.

Probably not the issue and a bit like asking Grandma to suck eggs but - but is petrol being injected? Plug should smell of petrol, or even the exhaust tailpipe after a few attempted starts.

Edited 23 April, 20251 yr by bigjohn

I'll try cranking a bit before removing plugs to check compression. Ta.

Had to revert to first principals recently to help out a friend with an old classic early 70's Daimler fitted with the fab xk engine. It had ground to a halt and he had been recovered , but since then he'd been "fettling" unfortunately. Live battery feeds disturbed and left loose, centre carbon missing in new distributor cap and he's scrambled the lead firing order (oh is that important!).

Reverted to plugs out to feel the hiss of compression for each cylinder and note rotor arm position. Fit old but ok distributor cap, re fit points, replace condenser (knackered) and fix live battery lead trying to avoid welding socket set. Smell exhaust for petrol(it did!) etc........ It was like therapy , old style!

After 30 mins ish it fired into life, probably the original fault was the condenser.

Edited 23 April, 20251 yr by bigjohn

1 hour ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Jumping around on its mounts when cranking, not looking good.

Even if it's the worst case scenario of the cam chain / low compression on a cylinder or two I can't imagine it jumping around on its mounts?? Mounts ok?

Edited 23 April, 20251 yr by bigjohn

Will attempt to video it shortly.

Tentative good news.

Chain timing all OK as far as I can tell.

Compression good across all three.

All plugs look OK, but barely smell of any fuel.

Something appears to have nested above the fuel pump...

...but I have volts at the connector when cranking.

No sound of whirry fuel pumpingness though when cranking. And tellingly (thanks @bigjohn for reminding me to check basics) no fuel comes out of the schrader valve on the end of the fuel rail when I push the pin in.

Fuel lack appears to be the problem.

Car is parked about 500 metres from a GSF where they have a choice of pump brands in stock.

Might not be game over for the Fabia after all. 😁

Edit.

Note to self; take handheld vacuum cleaner with me when I go back to change pump!

Edited 24 April, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete

Forgot the vacuum cleaner, but took along a pal to help with unscrewing the lock ring that holds the pump in (two hammers opposite sides of the ring 'turrets'). Wouldn't have got it off on my own, I think. Also wouldn't have got the fuel hoses off, cos I hadn't brought my glasses and couldn't see how the latch worked. He did.

Anyway, having ordered the business part of the pump from GSF, but not yet collected, we went to the car to eyeball the pump, to see how easy it would be to fit just the above 'fuel pump swirl pot' section as opposed to an entire pump assembly (half the price for just the pump).

Just before we left, it occurred to me that another thing to check whilst in there would be the connections to the pump motor itself (not the external 4-way loom connector, but internal spade connections. Pic of similar connections stolen from an ebay ad for an aftermarket pump:

One was nice and tight, just a plain male/female 1/4" spade, the other was one of the flag type connectors with a latch so it can't come off. It hadn't come off, but it was as loose as a goose, and there was no sign of the usual 'fresh metal scrape' you get when you disconnect a good one; all dull metal.

Squeezed each side of the receptacle with some little pliers, reassembled everything.

Fixed. 😁

Great news re compression!

8 hours ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Fixed. 😁

Missed the "Fixed" bit - nice one.

Good news plus get some mouse traps. Folks old fabia 1.9tdi had a major diesel leak under waranty. Skoda garage said very unusual but maaybe rubber seal to tank gone hard. When they removed tank it was mice nest on top of tank and in there boredom had eaten one of the stub return pipes. No surprise that waranty didn;t cover it. Expensive repair as tank had to be replaced. I now have mouse traps set around where I park up the cars.

Alasdair

Thanks Alasdair.

Old house was very rural and parking area had big sycamores all around, so these seeds no doubt date back to then.

We're a bit more suburban now, sadly.

Since getting the (1.2 TSI) Roomster, the little 3-pot Fabia seems very noisy, so just splashed out on the under-bonnet noise insulation sheet.

Wonder if it'll make much difference.

I know the problem re mice. We are out in country at an old farm. Advantage is I get to keep my old cars for spares or repair if I ever get the time. I have over the years saved a fortune in paarts but under pressure now to reduce the number. Have nine at the last count plus two on the road. Bad point is the number of mice. They can destroy a car if they get into it. Got loads of traps permanently set in and around them. Numbers seem to be reducing now its got warmer but over winter I caught dozens. Hope the sound proofing helps.

Alasdair

On 24/04/2025 at 14:36, Breezy_Pete said:

Fixed.

This turns out to have been premature.

Had three rather odd fault codes pop up this morning on my commute to work. About 10 miles in, EML comes on, no perceptible difference to how it was driving, nor any odd readings on gauges. Found a layby off the A420 and scanned with a handheld I keep in the glovebox:

17nnn (I forget) which was throttle actuator fault,

18088 something to do with unrecoverable limp mode, and

16500 coolant temperature sender implausible reading.

Couldn't see anything wrong under the bonnet, and it still started and ran fine, so off I went again.

The handheld thing wasn't able to clear the faults, and although I had a VCDS cable with me, no laptop.

Got to work no bother.

Scanned it again on arrival, and cleared codes with a different handheld that was on my bench. Still starting and running fine codes didn't instantly return.

Went to give a workmate a lift to pick up his car from MOT and it wouldn't start 😆.

Same kind of juddering and trying to but not catching as per 23rd/24th April above ^.

This time I was a lot quicker to blame the fuel pump. No sounds when opening door or switching on ignition. Checked electric feed to it: present.

Luckily GSF down the road had a Bosch pump that fitted. And car now runs again.

Fixed?

Bloody hope so! 🙂

Ran a post mortem on the old fuel pump this afternoon.

Quite nicely engineered bit of kit, but suffered the fate of all dc brushed motors given enough running.

Worn out/short brushes.

Can't really blame it after 20 years and a shade under 210k miles.

I suspect the loose contact improved during the previous repair was caused by uneven running and vibration as the motor struggled with inadequate reliable current supply due to sporadic brush contact.

Just a theory.

Breezy_Pete, for future reference, would you say brush replacement could be a DIY job?

6 minutes ago, Doily said:

Breezy_Pete, for future reference, would you say brush replacement could be a DIY job?

Oh, no. It was a very destructive, hacksaw job to get in deep enough to even see what type of motor was in there.

One of the options offered by GSF was just the pump part of the overall assembly - described as 'fuel pump swirlpot', but even that would be too much hassle for me to get involved with while there was an open petrol fuel tank, something you need to be very careful of and get closed again as fast as possible.

Full, drop-in, pump plus sender was about £90 after discount.

Various, unbranded aftermarket ones are on ebay for around half that. I needed a same day solution though.

ECP had one at £214 which didn't tempt me at all! 😆

Edited 14 May, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete