Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving -

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Wed 20 Jun 2012 10:47
Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving - - Calvus

Hi All,

My 2006 Skoda Fabia seems to have developed an intermittent technical fault that I hope someone might be able to advise on:

On a couple of occasions over the past month or so, the car has spontaneously (and completely) cut out whilst driving (approx 30-40mph) - when this happens my power steering and brakes fail. On both occasions, I managed to slow the car using the handbrake and quickly turned the ignition key (whilst still driving) to get the car back into life again - luckily on both occasions I managed not to have an accident......

I took the car in for a diagnosis check yesterday - but they were unable to find or suggest anything. The car has driven fine since, but obviously I really want to get to the bottom of this before it happens again.....

The car is in good condition otherwise (75000 miles), has been regularly serviced (last service in February). The only (possible) clue is that the car failed to start in January - the repair man couldn't identify the reason behind this, but then found that a slight manipulation of the engine-cover somehow solved the issue(!) Could it be related to this?

Many thanks for any help that you are able to provide - I'm really keen to solve this before anyones health and safety are put at risk.....

Cheers,

Calvus

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Wed 20 Jun 2012 11:45
Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving - - TeeCee

How much stops working? Is it just the engine? Do you get a warning lamp lit (e.g. engine management)?

If it's just the engine dying, then there are a variety of things that could be responsible (crank position sensor, cam position sensor, fuel injector cutoff.....). It should have a fault code logged, get it on a garage's diagnostic computer which should provide the answer. The fact that fiddling with the engine cover seems to get it going suggests that it may well be an intermittant connection fault to a sensor somewhere, rather than the sensor itself failing and "wiggling the wires" is getting it going.

Incidently, when it happens the brakes will still work. You just need to shove the pedal harder to compensate for the loss of the servo assistance. No need to resort to the handbrake. Back in the day, before brake servos became common, all brakes were like that anyway.

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Wed 20 Jun 2012 11:56
Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving - - Calvus

Hi TeeCee,

Many thanks for your help.

Unfortunately, I went to a garage yesterday and had the diagnostic check - no faults logged on the computer....... :-(

From what I remember, it was just the engine that went (and associated loss of power steering and braking) - the air con and radio seemed fine (I think).

Thanks for the heads-up regarding the brakes - it all happens so quickly that I wasn't sure whether the brakes had gone entirely, but I'll bear that in mind if it happens again. From what I remember, the battery light came on (as per a normal "stall"), but no other lights came on - having said that, all this happened in a few frantic seconds, so I might be wrong about that.

Am taking it into another garage on Friday for a second opinion and a further look - but will certainly point them in the direction of connections to the sensors etc.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply,

Calvus

Edited by Calvus on 20/06/2012 at 11:58

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Mon 25 Jun 2012 09:59
Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving - - Calvus

Hi All,

A further update:

Took the car to my local garage, who (again) couldn't get a fault on the diagnosis check. However, they did notice that the vacuum hose to the brake servo was cracked in a number of places. On the strength of that, have agreed to get the hose replaced as well as trying a replacement Crankshaft sensor.

However, over the weekend, the engine warning light finally came on and it began to stall when idling (EPC warning light would come on when stalling).

This morning the local garage got a P2101 fault code (Throttle Actuator Position). He taped up the leaks in the vacuum hose ("I would take the code with a pinch of salt"). Since then, the 5 min journey home seemed fine with no engine warning light appearing.

Am due to get a replacement hose and Crankshaft sensor on Wednesday. Could my original problem (intermittent cutting out whilst driving (not idling)) be caused by something as simple as a cracked vaccum hose to the brake servo? Or is this more likely to be a seperate issue? And could the P2101 fault be related to my original issue - perhaps a dirty throttle body?

NB: It has struck me that whilst I couldn't swear that the engine cutting out was triggered by braking, it is certainly true that in each occurence, I think I was braking at the time........

Many thanks for any help that you can provide,

Cheers,

Calvus

Edited by Calvus on 25/06/2012 at 10:04

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Thu 7 Feb 2013 17:40
Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving - - Rebecca2013

Hi Calvus,

Did you ever get this problem resolved? My 3 months old Fabia has just had exactly the same problem. The car is currently at the garage but (as with your garage) they can't find any fault codes on the diagnostic test either and can't work out what is causing the power loss.

Any thoughts/help would be appreciated.

Rebecca.

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Fri 22 Feb 2013 17:23
Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V (2006) - Intermittent cutting out whilst driving - - Crasher

Rebecca, is you Fabia 3 months old from new?

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