Hi

Got problems with my Skoda, which I if I can't get sorted out means I will have to scrap it.

1) The main one is that when driving the car, intermittently, it will suddenly die. If I floor it usually, although not always, the engine will die completely but will restart easily. If it happens if I lift my foot and then straight away put my foot down again the engine will pick up and go as normal. When it goes there is usually no misfire and it feels as if it dies on all 4 pots. My mechanic mate has taken it out and had the fault but as it is intermittent and it also fires up straight away he can't find it, neither has it shown anything on his diagnostic kit.

2) Going along and the engine misfires, this happens very rarely but I am assuming it is something to do with point 1) but as I said the engine usually just dies.

3) Hard to turn over in the morning but once started then is fine for the rest of the day, again possibly unrelated to the above and it never fails to start just first thing it takes a while and turns over very slowly. I have replaced the battery but to no avail.

My mate reckons dizzie might be the problem but he is loath to recommend me getting a new one in case the expense doesn't solve it.

He also said try non-supermarket fuel, however the car has done 83K, is regularly serviced and has never had a problem with fuel before. In addition the problem has been happening now for some months so I can't see fuel being an issue?

Cheers in advance

First welcome.

to question 3 i'd say could be a sticky starter motor, or the brushes are worn out.

Best thing to do is to take it off, and open it up and have a look. actually before you open it take it out, then attach a negative battery lead to the shell of the starter motor.

Then apply a possititve battery lead to the solenoid.

See if it turns over nicely.

In answer to 1 & 2.

Possibly clean the throttle bodies, and new set of plugs.

I think it may be the distributor although i wouldn't rule it out being a fuel fault.

A clogged fuel filter or faulty fuel pump could do this and would explain the sluggish starting. Other things mentioned by others for problems like this is a duff temprenture sensor as it also controls the fuel temp.

How does it run when it doesnt misfire as these units should be a lot smoother than the 1.3?

Hi

Cheers for the advice so far.

I forgot to give all the info...the fault seems to be worst when the car is cold, however, it also manifests itself when the car is hot. It also seems to happen when I put my foot down and between 3.5 and 4k revs.

Temp sensor - I have noticed that the temp gauge doesn't go up anywhere like it used to. It used to sit just below middle, but now it only sits a bit of zero...I just thought that it was because it was colder being winter.

How does it run when its not suddenly slowing up? it goes well, we went to EuroDisney, a family of 5 and luggage just before Christmas and it sat happily at 80-85 all the way there and back. The problem was there before the holiday and after but not during...I reckon the car knew it was going on a foreign holiday :>) It drinks a little bit of oil but nothing major and has generally been hammered as a family hack for a while now, although as I said I get garage serviced regularly.

I would say it is the coil pack failing causing the cutting out. the part number is 6n0905104, available for about £35

My old Felicia used to do this and the dealer at the time reckoned it could have been the lambda sensor (from memory, this was 8 years ago!) but I never got to find out for sure as I part ex'ed it for an Octavia.

Temp sensor - I have noticed that the temp gauge doesn't go up anywhere like it used to. It used to sit just below middle, but now it only sits a bit of zero...I just thought that it was because it was colder being winter.

The classic broken thermostat symptom - easy to fix but remember to get a new stat housing as well (could be broken too, plastic cr@p).

Since this means that the engine is "over-cooled" (coolant circulating through the radiator all the time) this could at least partly explain your other symptoms (but probably not the misfirings).

I would fit a new temp sender too, after fitting one to my fun , my intermitent cutting out problem stopped