Hello!

I wonder if you can help! Feel like I'm going mad, trying to get my dealer to take my issues seriously rather than fobbing me off with "it's what these cars' engines do":mad:. I've never bought a car from a dealer before and thought it would be "safer" than buying privately but now I'm a bit unsure and wonder if I've been ripped off? It is under warrenty for 3 months.

Anyway, I bought a Skoda 1.4 MPI Classic 2001 a month or so ago and it has an engine wobble when idle, sometimes when accelerating, sometimes when cruising and also when slowing down. It happens whether the engine is cold or warm (I've done about 1500 miles in it already - it has about 70k).

They replaced the sensor in the thermostat (which solved the lack of power that it had when I bought it) but it didn't stop the wobble. They said there's nothing else they can do, but I'm not happy about that really! Is it something that just happens in this car or should I be more demanding for more work to solve the issue?

The main concern is that if it is a problem the dealer won't fix before the warranty runs out, it is going to cause serious problems later on and effect saleability.

The 'idle engine wobble' seems to be quite common on here but does anyone know of serious problems arising from an engine wobble if it is not fixed?

Thanks:thumbup:

Skodough

Welcome to briskoda

Davy

Hiya.

I'd post the engine query in Skoda Support Fabia 1 (to 2007). Since you've raised in within warranty, the dealer's stuck with fixing it unless it really is normal, though.

My wife's 1.4MPi had a 'lumpy idle' both before and after replacing the sensor that's been done on your car (linky if you're interested.) I gather it happens because the 1.4MPi unit is such an old design that some serious compromises had to be made to meet emissions regulations, includig reducing the idle speed virtually to the point of stalling.

Then again, I've not noticed it at any engine speed other than idle - it could possibly be that the throttle body needs cleaning and/or resetting. You can find instructions for cleaning the throttle body if you do a search on here, and although resetting it is really a job for someone with diagnostics software (i.e. a garage or a friendly VAG-COM enabled Briskodia), I have heard tell that putting the keys in the ignition and turning two clicks (i.e. lights on on dash, but engine not started) and leaving it like that for a couple of minutes will reset various settings (including throttle position) to default settings. I don't know if that's true though...

Hope this helps!

Welcome to Briskoda mate.

Thanks for all the welcome messages - this a cool site!

Thanks also for all your ideas and tips. It's reassuring to hear that the engine idle issue is not unheard of and also that we really should not feel bad about using the warranty! It's just the dealer is 40 miles away so don't want to keep taking it back if the problem is just something that this model does and we have to learn to live with. I heard the engine idle issue might be due to reducing emissions from someone else too. When you know nothing about cars it's tricky to tell when something is serious or not and how much is reasonable to demand of the dealer and for how long.

I've called the dealer today and he said to take it in and they will get on the case with the wobble that happens when driving, so we'll see what happens next!

We tried the two ignition click thing but didn't seem to make a difference, but only did it for one minute (read that tip somewhere else on here - thanks!) so will try it for longer next time. We'll let you know how we get on. Thanks for signposts to find more info on this site.

Thanks so much again, folks

Skodough

... the dealer is 40 miles away ....

Ouch! Is there not one nearer? Any dealer should honour the warranty.