Hi,

driving along last night, suddenly as i pressed the accelerator in third gear the car jittered. Then the engine light came on flashing on and off repeatedly. I drove slow then turned the car off. When i turned it back on to drive home the engine had gone. I went to car settings and it mentioned stop/start error. Now a few days ago i turned off the stop/start function as i heard it can caused wear. I don't know if thats related or whether i have a spark plug, injector and catalytic convertor problem or none of the above.

any suggestions welcome. I will take it to garage soon to go on the diagnostic machine

Best you say what engine it is and how many miles done. I see it is a 2020 car, so when where the spark plugs replaced, where they done at 4 years / 40,000 miles. When was the air filter looked at for condition? Getting any fault codes that are logged would be a good idea. As far as stop / start & wear, there are cars / vans doing many thousands of miles over many years and the starter or engine are not wearing out. PS. Did you refuel recently and is it E10 / 95 ron? As the Winter fuel changed to Summer formula in the past weeks there seems to be lots of reports of Engine / Exhaust emissions lights showing.

Edited 25 April25 Apr by Evolution13

On 25/04/2026 at 15:14, Evolution13 said:

Best you say what engine it is and how many miles done. I see it is a 2020 car, so when where the spark plugs replaced, where they done at 4 years / 40,000 miles. When was the air filter looked at for condition? Getting any fault codes that are logged would be a good idea. As far as stop / start & wear, there are cars / vans doing many thousands of miles over many years and the starter or engine are not wearing out. PS. Did you refuel recently and is it E10 / 95 ron? As the Winter fuel changed to Summer formula in the past weeks there seems to be lots of reports of Engine / Exhaust emissions lights showing.

Thanks for replying, it's a 71 plate. A 1.6 petrol i believe. Hopefully the change in petrol like you suggest. I bought the car last July and had it serviced by the garage I've used for years. I'll check if they did the air filter. Also good idea about the spark plugs, i'll try and find out if the last owner had them done. From memory the car is approaching 40k. Perhaps just best to get them replaced rather than wait to breakdown

On 25/04/2026 at 15:14, Evolution13 said:

Best you say what engine it is and how many miles done. I see it is a 2020 car, so when where the spark plugs replaced, where they done at 4 years / 40,000 miles. When was the air filter looked at for condition? Getting any fault codes that are logged would be a good idea. As far as stop / start & wear, there are cars / vans doing many thousands of miles over many years and the starter or engine are not wearing out. PS. Did you refuel recently and is it E10 / 95 ron? As the Winter fuel changed to Summer formula in the past weeks there seems to be lots of reports of Engine / Exhaust emissions lights showing.

@scott4315 Could it be a 1.5 TSI ACT Petrol ? there are no 1.6 Petrol,s in Skoda,s sold from that age in the UK to my knowledge.

5 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

@scott4315 Could it be a 1.5 TSI ACT Petrol ? there are no 1.6 Petrol,s in Skoda,s sold from that age in the UK to my knowledge.

yes that sounds correct

Spark plug change time. They might be perfect but please ask the mechanic for them as it would be interesting at least to me to see how all 4 look, and if there are 2 different.

2 hours ago, Evolution13 said:

Spark plug change time. They might be perfect but please ask the mechanic for them as it would be interesting at least to me to see how all 4 look, and if there are 2 different.

so just checked, milage is just under 35k. Service last October was interim smaller service so this year it's due the full service, spark plug change.

So was the Pollen filter changed in October? Has the brake fluid been replaced anytime? Interim / Minor & Major services were a thing of the past. Skoda UK went to Oil & Inspection Service & Extended scope at 3 years then each 2 years in 2019/20. Spark Plugs were at Major Services on the 2nd one years back. They should still be at 4 years / 40,000 miles, but only if the owners asks and pays and Spark Plugs at Main Dealers Services are a ridiculous price. They have air filters at 60,000 ,miles / 6 years which is nuts. They should be inspected annually, or at a service.

Edited 27 April27 Apr by Evolution13

1 hour ago, Evolution13 said:

So was the Pollen filter changed in October? Has the brake fluid been replaced anytime? Interim / Minor & Major services were a thing of the past. Skoda UK went to Oil & Inspection Service & Extended scope at 3 years then each 2 years in 2019/20. Spark Plugs were at Major Services on the 2nd one years back. They should still be at 4 years / 40,000 miles, but only if the owners asks and pays and Spark Plugs at Main Dealers Services are a ridiculous price. They have air filters at 60,000 ,miles / 6 years which is nuts. They should be inspected annually, or at a service.

i'll check the things you mentioned, thank you

Nothing to do with stop start and no it doesn’t wear anything out

On 27/04/2026 at 15:53, Evolution13 said:

Spark plug change time. They might be perfect but please ask the mechanic for them as it would be interesting at least to me to see how all 4 look, and if there are 2 different.

Jumping in on this discussion as I have just had the spark plus changed in my 1.5TSI ACT, been in situ for 39k miles; and yes, they're a ridiculous price! At least we don't have to change them every 6k miles as we did when I started driving.

Anyway, to the point, remembering this thread I asked to technician to keep the plugs for me so I could have a look and upload some photos. It's probably worth adding here that the majority of my mileage is on runs in excess of 50 miles, often nearer 300, and a high proportion of that on motorways and dual carriageways - so a fairly high proportion in 2-cylinder mode compared to a car driven on shorter or urban roads.

A trained eye may well see something significant but from what I can see, there is very little or no difference in the state of the plugs (other than the effects of grubby fingers). Makes me wonder if swapping them around would give another 10-15k miles - but that'd probably cost an arm & a leg in labour 😂.

Some pics...

I would be checking what the gap is now.

31 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

I would be checking what the gap is now.

I no longer have any feeler gauges so I can't do it - but I know a man that can...

Will report back on anything significant.