Hi guys,

Having an odd problem with my 2000 (W-reg) Fabia 1.4 Petrol. I'm getting what feels like a hesitation now and again - a loss of power, with the car not feeling like it's responding to the accelerator at all.

It doesn't seem confined to a particular gear or rev band - I've had problems idling (sometimes with the revs falling to about 6-700, and stalling on occasion), 1st and reverse (more stalling), and on main-road driving. Usually the problem clears itself after a while, although changing gear a couple of times sometimes helps, and revving the engine for a few seconds seems to settle the idling problem.

The car's been through a service cycle with this problem, and the dealership didn't pick anything up; it's just had another service with an independent garage, but they couldn't reproduce it either. Any ideas?

Check your air filter and pipe work incase they are blocked or damaged.

Aye give your air filter a clean and check for blockage.

Might be worth cleaning out the throttle body as well, could also be a MAF failure.

Yep. Most likely something to do with the induction. There are guides for all of the above if you do a search. A faulty coolant temp sensor can also cause poor running, but this is usually shown up by the temp gauge not working as well. There's a guide on here to fix that too! (By me )

Checked the air-lines, everything's nice and clean. I'll see what I (well, my dad - he's the mechanic around here!) can see with regards the rest.

Hang on, isn't the Fabia fly-by-wire, so won't have a MAF? I see the throttle needs to be VAG-COM recalibrated once it's been out, so I won't be trying that one!

Guess I'll just have to take it to a dealership if it gets worse.

Hang on, isn't the Fabia fly-by-wire, so won't have a MAF? I see the throttle needs to be VAG-COM recalibrated once it's been out, so I won't be trying that one!

Guess I'll just have to take it to a dealership if it gets worse.

Turbo Fabias do, but not N/A ones, I think. You can clean the throttle body fairly thoroughly in situ (discussed often on here) - just make sure you don't drop anything into the manfold or leave any lint on the surfaces!

Hold the phone, it looks like it's the temp sensor after all. Just driven 100 miles down the A1 at a steady 70 MPH in 12 Celcius weather - and the gauge didn't get much off the zero line. Further evidence provided by the fact that I stopped for a brief break, then when I restarted the gauge jumped straight to half-way - intermittent fault, methinks!

Only odd thing is that I still get the hesitation at times when the sensor looks to be reading correctly - would I expect that?

(Off topic: grumble about the computer still reminding me I need to service the car, because of course the independent garage didn't clear the reminder. I take it that needs a VAG-COM?)

(Off topic: grumble about the computer still reminding me I need to service the car, because of course the independent garage didn't clear the reminder. I take it that needs a VAG-COM?)

Have a look in the owners manual, tells you how to reset.

Ooh, nice and easy.