I have an X reg Fabia with the 1.4 8v Skoda engine. Other than the usual Fabia faults - power steering sensor and loses coolant the car has been pretty reliable. It has done 37k miles with quite an average drive although the first "owner" was Europcar (for about a year) so it may have been caned then.

The car is now making very heavy weather of starting. You turn the key, the engine judders as usual etc but fails to start. At the moment, if you try a few times, or at worst wait 10 minutes and try again it does eventually start (accompanied with lovely thick unleaded fumes). Interestingly, half of the time it starts absolutely fine - so unfortunately big potential for egg on face if breakdown were called out.

Any ideas?

Coolant temp sensor