philmae

Okey, so I might simply got rekt... Good to make this mistake with an old car. Thank you for sharing. Now I just hope that it will not break prematurely, as it was exactly to avoid exploding everything on the highway that I paid the price of the car 👺

@TMB,1000 more kilometers now, and nothing changed 😔 Anyway, yeah, I will clearly avoid Dayco from now on, @rum4mo. The car shop guy told me it's one of the best, and did not want to replace it with a Gates kit when I asked for, as it would be the same pieces, just more expensive. It must just have been that he already knew he will not change the water pump while doing the job again, and flush everything again. And what do you think about the sound files I attached?

Hello, I wrote here a month ago about the really poor state of my timing belt of my Fabia Mk1 2000 1.9 TDI (ATD) and did not know if it was worth to pay for its replacement. I finally did it anyway, as I found a cheap but serious shop to do it, in order to get 1 or 2 years more from the car without breaking it on the highway. He did the job, and put in a brand new DAYCO kit and told me that indeed, my old belt was really loose. Then, when I rode the car, I heard a weird high pitched and regular noise coming straight from the timing belt. The sound looks like a turbo whistle, but it isn't, and it follows exactly the speed of the timing belt (no lag). Immediatly, it felt like it is "too tensed". I came back to the shop, had an argument. The guy saying he hears nothing, everything normal, but I did NOT have this weird sound before. He accepted anyway to do it again. He kept telling me that he could not adjust the tension anyway, as there is an automatic tensioner. Well. He did the job again, replacing everything but the water pump. He told me that it was the first time he saw this : the first timing belt was really difficult to put in, but the new one went it like a charm. Okey. I drove away, and still heard the noise, but lower volume. I attached the sounds to this post : could you tell me what you think? I did not have this sound before. Perhaps my old belt was really too loose, and with the news one, another part of the engine is making this noise? I thought about the "waffle" texture of the belt which have to be worn out a little bit, but after 2000 km, I do not notice any improvement. This morning, it was wet and cold, it made a little bit less noise for about 2 minutes, then again. Anyway, thank you for your attention. Regards, Philippe Fabia_2.m4a Fabia_1.m4a

Thanks for your replies... It exactly defines my dilemma If it was the only thing which could go wrong with this car, I would have already replaced it. I just had to replace the alternator, which pumped 3A of current while the car was off, and it was a pain in the ass (but I have good assistance contract). But the shock absorbers are worn out, the steering pump has been repaired a long time ago with a flood of WD40 in the circuit board, the rubbers on the suspension triangle start to make some noise on big accelerations (classic problem) and the clutch has 400 000 km... If I pay 600€ to get the timing belt changed and then the clutch fails in 3 months, what's the matter doing it 😢 I would end up paying 2k€+ for this old car. But yeah, a car that does not lose any value, by now! So I "win" 1k€+ per year keeping it... Really hard dilemma... I always thought I will keep it until it cracks, get the 8 days of rental vehicle from my insurance to get a new one, and done. But now I wonder. Anyway, you see the point. Classical one... That's why my only question is : Could this timing belt keep doing its job for one or 2 more years? Did you already replace belts which were much more worn out? Perhaps someone already left a belt in his 1.9 TDI for 300 000 km? Can I test it? I saw some guys saying to pinch it a little bit, and see how it reacts (should leave a little mark for a few seconds). It sure looks awful. The "gummy" look could indicate that it will not break apart, but perhaps loose some teeth first? Making huge noise, and then I would "just" have time to shut the engine down immediatly? Regards, philmae

Forgot to say : no weird noises or anything coming from the timing belt. Everything turns fine. It seems well aligned anyway, perhaps without tears, but this "gummy" condition makes me wonder.

Hello, I got an old Fabia Mk 1 - 1.9 TDI - 12/2000 - 401 000 km I changed the timing belt at around 240 000 or 260 000 km, 7 years ago. Yes, I know... Should have changed it a while ago! But I had some issues with the gearbox leaking and the steering pump, which I fixed, and thought it was only temporary and too expensive to repair... Until I would simply replace the car if it occured. But the car still rolls like a charm! So I did a visual inspection this weekend, to know if I should really replace it. And I really don't know... Could you tell me what you think about it? Is it clearly about to crack? It seems really "gummy" but no tears. Keep in mind that the car has a lot of weak points, like the clutch becoming a little weak, expensive to repair, that's why I did not do it, and won't if it could keep up for 2 years. Thank you :-)

Hello! I'm happy for you! How was the wire broken? Inside the connector? A few centimeters from it? Just at direct proximity? Because the connector is accessible by removing the front left fog light, but I didn't see something the last time I checked it.

Yeah, me too, as the car is old, rust and wires seems to be the number 1 fault cause But oops, it seems like the HVAC module is not so easy to get behind! It seems only possible to push him back, not out. How could I do to get to the connector? Do I need to get all the bottom front panel off by unscrewing everything I can?

Thank you very much for all this information! I will try to dissamble the HVAC unit from the inside, seems to be pretty easy if I'm not wrong, make the test and take a look at this FETs. I will post my results here, hope it can help anyone else. See you soon!

Hello, I finally went to the garage. We tried to shortcut the 2 speeds of the coolant fans by using a little cable on the fans' connector to the relay module, it did some sparkles but the two speeds are working! So the error must be relevant, and the problem seems to really be between the relay module and the climatronic. The wires near the "command' connector of the module seems OK and no rust. What do you think? Should I try to see behing the climatronic module, inside the vehicle?

Just another question : if the low speed of the two fans is dead, does that mean that I will have to change them or can I do something easy to fix the resistors? Like bypassing the low speed wire with a resistor to the high speed one?

Yes, you are probably right. I will check everything we mentionned and come back to give experience. Waiting that, thank you very much for your help!

Very clear after analysis, thank you! OK, so as the error is an "open or short to the ground" to the relay J279, it seems that the wire K1 (5) is clearly broken : the brown/blue. And if it was to the ground, the fan would turn on permanently at low speed. To test the low speed of the fans, I could also try to make the radiator hot enough to get to stage 1. If I only get the same level 2 high speed, it is that the fans have a problem. Does it sound right and how can I do this? Should I run the motor @ 2000 rpm for a while to get the radiator very hot, with A/C off? What do you think? Do I finally have no other choice, after tesing the fans are ok (or not) to go to the garage and check all the wires from the J293 to the Climatronic control module?

Oups, OK, I found it in the "Air conditionning" part of the current flux diagram, for the 2000 models :

Just edited my post