I’m having a issue on start-up from cold there is a noticeable lumpy idling.

This hasn’t caused any massifier codes when scanning via VCDS.

Last year as part of the service the sparkplugs were changes but the rough idol is getting more noticeable.

My Audi had the same issue that eventually resulted in constant misfire. That was diagnosed as having a carbon build-up.

I don’t want to have the same issue occurring with the Fabia. As the CTHE is direct injection and has done 41k miles I’m guessing the rough idol is most probably needs a carbon clean as well but haven’t seen any posts on the forum about having it done on a MK2 Fabia vRS.

I did ask the Škoda dealer for a quote and they said it would be around £800 with a head gasket change.

I could go for an hour diagnostic at £160. As there were no error codes, I’m a bit sceptical about paying that and they say there is no issue found.

Has anyone else been through diagnosing cold rough idol as I don’t want to go to the expense of a carbon clean if it could be something else.

 

As I’m sure you know these engines are not very good and prone to many faults, many of which can cause a rough idle. It might be carbon build up or could be PCV issues, leaky injectors, vacuum leak etc..