My wife and I have an '02 Fabia with a 1.4 litre 4-cylinder 16 valve DOHC engine from the AUB series.

It has 45,000 miles on the clock, and it has had all of the annual servicings recommended by Skoda, carried out at our local dealership.

My wife uses the car for running about town and for taking me to work, a 35-mile round trip each day, mostly along the motorway.

Up until this time last year, the oil consumption had not given us any cause for alarm, but in February 2007, with 37,000 miles on the clock, we got an oil warning alarm, and discovered that the oil level was below the minimum mark on the dipstick. It took two litres of oil to restore the level to just below the maximum mark.

At its annual service the following month, the engineer at our local Skoda dealership said that this was a known problem with this series of engine, and that a new engine would probably be cheaper than any repair, due to the engine design.

During the summer and autumn of 2007, we kept a careful eye on the oil consumption. We added a litre of oil in early November (3975 miles after the March servicing), and another litre in early January this year (1648 miles since November), and a further half litre at the start of February (1205 miles since January).

There is no evidence of oil leaks beneath the car, nor could we see smoke in the exhaust.

We found a thread on the BRISKODA web site which indicated that faulty piston rings may be the cause.

Yesterday evening, a local car mechanic took a look at the engine. When it was revved up from cold, he did find oil residue in the exhaust fumes, but after the engine had warmed up, he told us that the exhaust fumes were now free of oil.

He suggested that the valve seals were to blame. When the engine was cold, he said, the seals were not flexible enough to provide a proper seal. Once they warmed up, they began to do their job properly.

He estimated that it would cost around £700 to replace the valve seals.

Does this sound likea plausible diagnosis? And is that a reasonable price for that kind of job?

£700 sounds expensive for just valve seal replacement, i would agree with what the technician said , piston ring problems , known concern

£700 sounds expensive for just valve seal replacement, i would agree with what the technician said , piston ring problems , known concern

I think that the writing is on the wall, unfortunately this has been reported on Briskoda a few times now, ric0vrs's comments maybe should be taken as the first and final answer on this topic, sorry. I've only posted this to let you know that there will probably be no easy other answers - that is probably why no one else has posted, you are not being ignored. When this problem suddenly appeared I was more than just a bit concerned as my wife has a 2003 MY 1.4 16V Polo, but it seems that the "B" coded engines escaped this problem. Good luck with your repairs.

Might be worthwhile checking if the breather in the air filter is blocked. I had to top up the oil in my AUB engined Fabia last weekend and noticed some mayonaise (congealed oil and water vapour) on the inside of the filler cap. I pulled the rubber breather hose off the side of the air filter and found that whilst the hose appeared to be clean inside, the air filter end was also full of the same mayonaise. I removed the air filter assembly and filter element and washed out the breather in the air filter housing.

Since doing this the engine seems to run smoother and more quietly, but I don't know yet if the oil consumption has altered. Mine doesn't usually use that much oil anyway. I check the oil weekly and most of the time it uses none, but sometimes it is halfway down the dipstick, but it does not consistently do this.

The cold weather can cause this condensed oil and water mixture to form and if you have noticed this problem only since the weather has been cold, it is probably worthwhile checking the breather as it is far cheaper than a £700 engine re-build.