Hello and welcome to A2OC!
Umm... yeah!
The FSI isn't really the best A2 for stress-free motoring. FSI stands for Faulty Since Introduction, or Full Savings Invested, or (if you're feeling uncouth) F#cking Sh!t Idea.
The 1.6 FSI is by far the least reliable of all the engines available in the A2. Whilst some have been lucky, I think even its biggest fans have to concede this to be true. Along with the 1.4-litre FSI introduced in the Lupo, it was VAG's first attempt at a direct injection petrol engine and therefore features the inevitable teething troubles of a new system. They are relatively rare, don't feature widely in other cars and are very poorly understood by a vast majority of garages. People have spent huge amounts of money just trying to get the engine management light in the instrument cluster to switch off (which is now an MOT requirement). When you then take into account the troubles with fuel injectors, coolant loss, swirl flap actuators, coil packs, etc, you can understand why some owners keep an emergency fund. I'd suggest that a large majority of threads started here about engine difficulties relate to the FSI.
It's a great shame, because they're cracking engines when they work properly and there's no direct alternative; it's the only 'fast' petrol A2 available. I know of a handful of really well-kept FSIs and they are to be treasured (at the time of release, the FSI engine was every bit as pioneering as the rest of the A2's engineering), but a majority of FSIs out there on the open market will need a considerable investment to get them 'right'. I work with A2 electronics all the time and, of the last 15 FSI instrument clusters that've passed through my hands, 12 have had their engine management light taped over or removed altogether. That is, I think, an indication of the scale of their reliability problems.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In much the same way, interest is the mother of knowledge. I know comparatively little about how to fix FSI engines because they're too unreliable for me to find them interesting. There are, however, many hardened FSI fans in this club who'll do their best to advise you ...and who are probably glaring at their screens in anger as I tear their beloved cars to bits! If you're new to A2s and want to have an all-round positive experience of them, where they just work and don't raid your piggy bank all the time, don't drive an FSI. However, if you're a loyal soul and wish to give the beastie the benefit of doubt (especially given all the work that's been done on it recently), I can only echo the advice from above: only put 98RON fuel in the tank. Hopefully it'll reward you with dependability.
Cheers,
Tom
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welcome!