Sorry been away so didn't see this.

I didn't notice any symptoms with mine until the light came on one day. Apart from using more oil than I would have expected which i did put down to being a vw engine as a couple of vw owners had told me they had to top up regular, although they were diesel. I was used to virtually never having to top up between services.

I did notice that when fully loaded I had problems pulling away and driving slowly in traffic again this wasn't enough to cause me any concern and I put it down to the euro 4 throttle delay. Previous cars I always hated the clutch, this one has a really forgiving clutch but crap throttle.

I didn't have smoky exhaust. Car was fine at higher revs, like i say just poor really low down, I did notice a difference once they did the rings, but it's not great low down, but no worries on a hill start etc.

The oil consumption I have heard can be caused by a blocked pipe, someone on here can probably explain where to look, I think they can get gunked up.

Pull the front of the engine cover up, you have to be very firm with it. Don't worry it goes back easy enough. Once the front is off there are 2 points at the back to pull up and off and a rubber pipe that goes into the back of the cover that pulls out. Have a look at the throttle body once it's off see how gunky it is. The mechanic told me to stick your finger in the pipe that goes into the airbox, i don't know if he was refering to oil overfil or rings to be honest, there was no oil and only the smallest bit of soot/grime in it. The throttle body had a film of oil in it. I was told that the ones they normally see are gunked up and oily. I had a look again a few weeks ago nothing much there, tiny bit of gluey gunk on the throttle flap thing, though a little oil in the engine cover. Be careful if you clean it, I think someone on here screwed theres up after spraying too much carb cleaner in it.

my revs used to occassionally go up and down at the lights or whatever and still does every now and again a dab on the throttle seems to stop it.

The check engine light was the first I knew of a problem and I was told if i couldn't afford to get it fixed I could drive it like that and it would be alright. I wasn't convinced.

I don't know what causes them to wear. Overfueling on startup? wrong material? preignition damage (i use only super unleaded now, I actually used it mostly anyway)? Is the oil consumption a symptom even, although mine now seems to use very little. Perhaps they use a lot of oil and with such a low capacity the previous owner let it run too low?

We had SWMBO's Fabia 1.4 16v (X reg), piston rings done in March. Had bought it with a Skoda Elite waranty which had about a month left on. Symptoms were no guts & increase oil usage. They had replaced the EGR to start with & that didn't fix the problem.

Dealer had it for a couple of days & cutting a long story short, decided on the piston rings being at fault. Warenty covered it fully (was stunned as it was 7 years old). Took 2 weeks to get fixed mind you!!

Anyway, it's a different car now, power much better and back to the normal oil usage. It might be old, but we only put about 6k on it a year & only use 98 RON fuel, it's well looked after, so it's still a car she likes. Glad they agreed to fix it as at that age it would have probably been almost none economic to repair!