Don't be tempted by thier good looks and attractive price. BE WARNED !!

 

57 plate (2008 fabia 2 with 47k on the clock big ends fail on motorway !! Now have a pretty red and white Elephant on the Drive.

What engine?

Is this the 1.2htp that you were hearing noises from? Or was that somebody else?

Edited 4 June, 201412 yr by Otaylor38

Have you owned it from new and followed the reccommended service intervals?

Hmmm, big ends don't just fail, they would offer plenty of warning with regard to knocking noises etc, poor servicing, or lack of oil......

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/316724-clicking-noise/

Same car?

At any point did you check the oil level? usually no oil = knocking and eventually BANG

Who has diagnosed the big ends gone,  was that the Recovery Company

or is the engine now striped and checked.?

Yeah same car . yep changed oil every year. recommended oil 5 w30 from skoda dealer. owned it 3 years. yes big end can suddenly fail, as witnessed by my wife. No warning just the tapping noise. green flagged recovery home.

 

Needless to say the next car will not be a skoda.

 

Oh big ends gone diagnosed by a German motor engineering company of good standing. Towed the car round to him and he said with out doubt. big ends., Also said these 3 cylinder cars are basically a self destruct button ready to go off.

 

Just wish i knew this before i parted with hard earned. :(

 

Ps. yes i checked oil every month

Edited 4 June, 201412 yr by saskia7

It depends every engine is going to have a few failures through the model range! I've no doubt this happened but then again there are a lot of happy HTP owners like me! I've owned 2 however they were MK1 Fabias

I dont think 'self destruct button ready to go off' is a fair statement.

Theres many that have done 100,000 miles, theres a guy on here (cant remember his name, sorry) with one thats done 125,000 miles.

We've had 2 in the family on an 05 plate and 54 plate that have done 80,000 or so miles fault free so far, and still going nicely.

And toxicvrs, your mk1 engines will be the same as his 2007 mk2 i think mate. They werent revised until 2010.

I dont think 'self destruct button ready to go off' is a fair statement.

Theres many that have done 100,000 miles, theres a guy on here (cant remember his name, sorry) with one thats done 125,000 miles.

We've had 2 in the family on an 05 plate and 54 plate that have done 80,000 or so miles fault free so far, and still going nicely.

And toxicvrs, your mk1 engines will be the same as his 2007 mk2 i think mate. They werent revised until 2010.

Well at the moment mine is on about 105000 I think and still perfect

Glad to hear it .

My 3 cylinders not that high (50k+ and rising) but it's going great, only failed one mot in it's whole life (suspension).

I guess you get one off early failures with any engine, or car.

Saying its a 'self destruct button ready to go off' just simply isnt true though. Theres thousands of high mileage ones still going strong. Its no diesel longevity, but it certainly doesnt seem a short life span engine, on average.

Id be interested to hear what evidence he has to back that comment up, but i guess ill never know.

I guess you get one off early failures with any engine, or car.

Saying its a 'self destruct button ready to go off' just simply isnt true though. Theres thousands of high mileage ones still going strong. Its no diesel longevity,

You've just gone and given me and the Fabia a challenge now to see what kind of mileage it will rack up : D

Good plan .

I'll certainly be keeping mine until the end. However its only on 11,000 miles, so iv got abit of work to do yet, im hoping haha.

Yeah this one will be kept till it is beyond the end

04 Mk1 Fabia 1.2htp 64bhp has done over 132k, is not pampered, indeed its positively been abused in the last 3 or 4 years and oil only changed (DIY) every 12k, sometimes went as long as 18k!! (not my fault!) Engine is as sweet as ever.

 

I suspect your failure has something to do with the work you carried out yourself yesterday http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/316724-clicking-noise/?view=findpost&p=3804638

 

The comments from your German motor engineering company sound like they are a back street garage.

Edited 5 June, 201412 yr by xman

Most opinion is that the 3 cylinder engines are robust. My son's Fabia1 HTP 1.2 has over 140,000 miles on it, bought with 9,000 miles from main dealer. No engine work except REGULAR oil & filter changes, one coil pack and routine maintenance. Changed front discs and console bushes at around 70,000 miles, that's all....

I think he's living on borrowed time so am looking for an Octavia estate with less than half that mileage, for him.

Sorry to hear about your car.

Probably not the best idea to condemn all skodas (plus other vag group motors) due to an isolated incident. Especially not on a Skoda forum.

I'm in no way trying to censor you just don't expect a good response.

My first thought to reading this is that it sounds like you've been tinkering with it yourself to try and diagnose the problem...then asking questions that you should already know the answer to if you were competent enough to be doing that work. I am open to being corrected on this. I certainly wouldn't have been thinking about putting petrol anywhere near my oil system in order to free parts up.

Without oil pressure problems I suspect that IF your crank/conrod bearings have failed it's due to contamination of some description.

Edited 5 June, 201412 yr by MattGreen

Shame you have had a bad experience, from the comments above and my own experience I feel it is not typical.

 

I have an 03 plate 1.2 HTP with 131k miles that's running really well.  Other than changing the oil at the service interval and fixing a minor oil leak from the timing case the engine has been bullet proof.  As well as normal road driving, my lads have done ~150 track laps in the car over the last 18 months, so we don't treat it gently as evidenced by the regular front bush replacements.

 

It's far from powerful, not particularly economical and I'm sure it won't go on forever but these cars have appeal: generally they are reliable and they fall into a low insurance group.  That earns the 1.2 HTP engine a recommendation from me.

04 Mk1 Fabia 1.2htp 64bhp has done over 132k, is not pampered, indeed its positively been abused in the last 3 or 4 years and oil only changed (DIY) every 12k, sometimes went as long as 18k!! (not my fault!) Engine is as sweet as ever.

 

I suspect your failure has something to do with the work you carried out yourself yesterday http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/316724-clicking-noise/?view=findpost&p=3804638

 

The comments from your German motor engineering company sound like they are a back street garage.

 

+1.    Fabulous engines, don't normally give any trouble. Something untoward has happened to cause your problems, sorry to hear that. 

I dont wana sound harsh here, and i apologise if i do.

But isnt it abit strange that theres plenty of good experiences with these engines, yet the 1 that messes with the internals and posts on here asking questions is the one that fails early.

Hmm.

This might be an interesting read for anyone interested in the 3 pot HTP engine - lots of nice drawings of the internals with good explanations - Looking at the camshaft cover - its also the upper bearing bridge for the camshafts! - so removing this without the correct tools and knowledge sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

and other warnings too...

 

Please note that you must not remove either the crankshaft or the balancer shaft.

 

The top part of the cylinder block and the bottom part of the cylinder block must not be separated. If this is done, it will cause stress in the crankshaft bearings and will result in engine damage during operation.

 

 

 

SSP 260_THE 1.2LTR 3 CYLINDER PETROL ENGINE S.pdf

Edited 5 June, 201412 yr by xman

Could be a one off.

 

My 1.2htp is about 6 years old, used every day, all year round, still sounds sweet and never had anything done apart from the usual service.

 

It's not a hot hatch but it never struggles, feels more powerful than what it is on paper.