Skoda Fabia - is the timing chain reliable? | Ask Honest John

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Skoda Fabia - is the timing chain reliable?

We are looking at a Fabia Estate as a future replacement for our 2010 Honda Jazz, which lacks boot space. I've heard too many horror stories to buy another car with a cam belt, and a dealer tells me the Fabia 1.2 TSI petrol engine has a timing chain, but apparently there's a history of even these breaking on Volkswagen group engines. Is timing chain breakage still an issue on Fabia models of recent build, say 2015 on?

Asked on 8 August 2016 by Allan Stead

Answered by Honest John

From around 2013 they switched all engines to timing belts, which are a maintenance item requiring replacement every 4 years. Before that the EA211 1.2 and 1.4 engines were chain and they had some problems with the quality of the chains that led to various disasters. See the entries in www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/ All current model Fabias are belt.

Tags: buying new cars reliability timing chain

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