Hunting/cutting out/erratic acceleration - 1.2 mk4

[mrftog]

Hi, first post and unfortunately looking for advice!

Purchased an 05 1.2 Ibiza a couple months ago - problems started about a month ago when it was having trouble cold starting. This seemed to fix it self (battery?) , then a few weeks ago upon starting up it was hunting between 500-1200 revs - rang a mechanic mate who told me to give it a good thrashing to clean out the air filter etc - this seemed to work and was ok for a while.

This was happening on and off and after its much due service (oil, filters, but didn't manage spark plugs as couldn't get coil pack off) it was fine for 2 weeks apart from occasionally cutting out when sitting at a traffic light or parking

Today it cut out at a traffic light again, and as I drove off the hunting started again and it seems a lot worse - acceleration was very erratic, I could have my foot down and it would hardly accelerate - I drove it home down back roads and I could not get it over 30mph.. Sitting idling it hunts, engine shakes with revs and there's an ill sounding tick coming from what i think is the timing belt

I have a video if it helps

After googling it could be a sensor, spark plugs, coil pack or timing belt??

Any help much appreciated! Cheers

 

[Arkaig]

Could be a whole load of things, but starting with the cheapest:

Loose/ split vacum hose. Getting a hissing/spitting noise? Check all vac hoses, spray ends with carb cleaner and if the revs change, you've found a leak.
Dirty throttle body
Spark plugs
Fuel filter
Coil packs
Fuel pump
Sensors (Coolant temp, lambda)
Timing chain- sometimes they jump teeth on the 1.2s and cause mayhem. This is likely.

Any dashboard lights on?

 

[mrftog]

I changed the spark plugs this morning which made no difference - was then taken for a drive and it sorted itself out again half way through the drive. It's now running fine!

I'm confident it's going to start again, so will clean the throttle body and change fuel filter, as that's what my mate thinks it is (or lines)

Cheers