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Please help me love my fabia


serafumi

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Morning all .. I've had mr fabia Vrs for best part of 3 months and done 3000miles in it . I really wanna love the car but its hard too ...

Since I've had it I have done clutch and dmf .. Poly consul bushes , drop links ., dogbone poly bush .

The thing that bugs me is the handling . It's terrible .. I've had 2 garages try to do wheel alignment .. 1st one was useless , 2nd one says its hard to set up because of the poly Bushes .. Hmmmmm , they also said rear beam bushes have a little bit of play ..

The suspension is stock and poss very tired . I'm going to buy ap fixed kit . Does that make a big difference to the handling ??

One thing I did when I brought it , was to jack it up and check it over . If I grabbed the passenger wheel at 9 and 3 o clock I got some movement .. I changed the ball joint , but wasn't that . I then changed the track rod . That seemed to cure it .. However today I go out and jack it up . And if I do the sane test there seems to be play again . No where near as bad .also the steering wheel moves left to right at the same time . So I tried the sane test on drivers side and no movement . I'm kinda confused . Hope I don't need a rack ;( ..

And the other thing that's bugging is cabin noise on anything but a smooth road . No play in wheel bearings . Or grumbling if the shock is held ! Any ideas ?? Sorry to go on chaps

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Have you thought about the wheel bearing?

As for handling, it's terrible because (I assume) you're on stock springs and shocks. You've changed some bushes which will help but you'll need to lower it.

That said, it's a heavy diesel lump under the bonnet so it will never handle like a race car.

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Have you thought about the wheel bearing?

As for handling, it's terrible because (I assume) you're on stock springs and shocks. You've changed some bushes which will help but you'll need to lower it.

That said, it's a heavy diesel lump under the bonnet so it will never handle like a race car.

Thanks for the fast reply , I can't believe its a wheel bearing , because if you grab the wheel at 12 and 6 there's no movement ,, does lowering them make them much better . I've come from a mk2 golf gtd . That handled much better . Tempted to get back in it ....
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Movement at 9 and 3 will be the track rod itself, if you've already done track rod end :)

Track rods are screwed into end of rack, and have a ball joint on the end that wears out ;)

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Movement at 9 and 3 will be the track rod itself, if you've already done track rod end :)

Track rods are screwed into end of rack, and have a ball joint on the end that wears out ;)

That's what I thought , it's had a lemforder complete rod and end 900 miles ago .. When you pull the wheel about you can see the steering wheel move . No where near as bad as it was before I changed the rod .. Any pointers ??
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That's what I thought , it's had a lemforder complete rod and end 900 miles ago .. When you pull the wheel about you can see the steering wheel move . No where near as bad as it was before I changed the rod .. Any pointers ??

 

I don't understand, of course the steering wheel will move if you're tugging the wheel about, it's directly tied to the wheel by the rack and track rods, unless you mean at 12 and 6 o'clock in which case the wheel bearing has failed.

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I don't understand, of course the steering wheel will move if you're tugging the wheel about, it's directly tied to the wheel by the rack and track rods, unless you mean at 12 and 6 o'clock in which case the wheel bearing has failed.

:D I thought the same, surely nobody is that silly?

I'd be concerned if I was moving the wheek and the steering wheel WASNT moving :D

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I don't understand, of course the steering wheel will move if you're tugging the wheel about, it's directly tied to the wheel by the rack and track rods, unless you mean at 12 and 6 o'clock in which case the wheel bearing has failed.

I'm confused ... Sorry the steering lock was on , forgot to mention that .. Only jacked up one side at a time .. So drivers side wheel was on the floor , whilst I grabbed the passenger wheel at 9 and 3 ... Prob only moves a few mm ... However when I check the drivers side . It's solid .. No movement ...

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Why would one side have movement and the other side not ?? Hope I'm not being thick here ;(

 

Because you only changed the passenger side track rod end, what your're feeling is the play in the drivers side when that wheel is on the ground, the steering lock will of course allow the steering wheel to move a few millimetres.

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Because you only changed the passenger side track rod end, what your're feeling is the play in the drivers side when that wheel is on the ground, the steering lock will of course allow the steering wheel to move a few millimetres.[/quote

I changed the whole tie rod and end . Now I'm really lost . Why can I feel no play when I jack up the drivers side then ?? I have no prob changing the drivers side one .. Just don't want to waste time and money ...

Edited by serafumi
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Jack up both sides.

steering lock off and move the wheel at 9 and 3 gently, if there is play the steering wheel won't move, if the steering wheel moves all is good with your steering.

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Right then

Cabin noise, almost certainly poor tyre choice if all else is right. I had this with Kumho so tend to avoid those now. I have RS3 now and they are amazing for the money.

Doesn't matter what car it is, it can be crap and noisy with poor tyres, so check it out.

 

I can only concur with all the other sentiments about the stock handling being poor due to the suspension. That said your comments about why its crap are extremely vague, I would recommend elaborating to describe your problem in clearer detail.

I can only vouch that I found the car extremely roly and slidy with the standard suspension but with lowered (H&R) it definitely feels safer and tends to "dig in" better to corners and get the power down, due to less body roll.

 

Another thing that could be useful is some kind of comparison point, e.g. a members meet with some cars in lowered and also std suspension ? The next ones only in May isn't it ? Could arrange to compare with some other cars ?

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As said above: The car is never going to handle like an integra type R.
Mine is completely standard and the handling is a bit edgy when trying to throw it around round a bouts at speed.
Lowering the car lowers the centre of gravity, which will of course improve handling, with a slight cost of the ride quality worsening being the only downside.
Lots of threads on lowering tips/products/brands etc if you have a search.

Movement in a wheel, I was always told, is a failed or failing wheel bearing, at least from my experience.

JRJG

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Movement in a wheel, I was always told, is a failed or failing wheel bearing, at least from my experience.

JRJG

It can be a bearing, but a bearing will give you play where ever you hold the wheel and rock it, and usaully is accompanied by a droning noise.

If you hold the wheel at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and can feel play its usaully track rod or track rod end, and no play if you hold the wheel at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock.

If its the opposite of the above its usaully lower balljoint :)

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Personally if you not going for something like kW v1's or above I would just refresh the standard suspension. I think it's under damped especially at low damper speed. You could add something like hr or eibach springs. Lower height will help and their not that much stiffer then stock so dont really change the damping ratios much.

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  • 2 weeks later...
 

It can be a bearing, but a bearing will give you play where ever you hold the wheel and rock it, and usaully is accompanied by a droning noise.
If you hold the wheel at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and can feel play its usaully track rod or track rod end, and no play if you hold the wheel at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock.
If its the opposite of the above its usaully lower balljoint  :)

 

 

I've learnt something new today. Cheers  :)

 

 

 

And me. Love this forum malarky.

 

 

Hope you find the solution Serafumi - do post on here if/when you do find it. To be honest, you may think you're wasting money changing bits but for the relatively low expense of these bits, they could probably do with renewing anyway given the relative age/mileage. Best of luck!

Edited by travs
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  • 1 month later...

Hi all , sorry it's taken so long to post a reply .. Been mega busy .. I've since changed the suspension for a supersport 55mm kit , car handles better but maybe it's a tad too low and a little bouncy , so it will prob come off , I've had the tracking done by a good friend of mine using super tracker equipment .. Toe is set straight ahead however still pulls left .. We checked all bushes and wheel bearings , all seem fine .. No play in ball joints or track rods , a tiny bit of play in the !! And as for the noise in the cabin . Well unless your or beautiful Tarmac roads it's not overly nice .. It's running 4 hankook evo 12s. Anyone know of quiet tyres ??? And any idea on pulling to left ? Can you track it to pull slightly right ? That way it may drive straight ??

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It seems like what we have here is a failure of expectation, the Fabia is never going to be a good handling car because it doesn't have the right type of suspension for the job and the steering is too light.

 

You've fitted a suspension kit which has probably lowered it too much and will certainly have increased the noise transmission, all the polybushes will also contribute to yet more noise.

I too have Hankook Ventus Evo's and I don't think they're noisy at all, they seem to be a pretty good all-round tyre to be perfectly honest.

 

Every UK Fabia owner since time immemorial has complained about the car pulling left, indeed mine does it on some roads as well although by no means all, it was definitely worse when I had VRS 16" alloys fitted, now I'm on 15's with 195 tyres and it's better in every way.

It's exacerbated by the 'steamroller' effect of big tyres on cambered road surfaces but I bet it would pull to the right if you took the car to France.

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Maybe I will try some 15 inch pepperpots I have from an old car .. Wheels make that much difference ?? As for the handling . It's much better now it's lowered . Just want it to drive in a straight line .. I originally came from a mk2 golf and I thought this would be more refined .. I'm thinking I was wrong . Thanks for the advise thou

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With all due respect, the only way you're going to get a Fabia to handle well is by spending some serious money. The car is essentially a suped up shopping machine. I had the same problem when I had one, I wanted to like it, but I just never had any confidence in making it around corners alive. Eventually I got that annoyed with it, I sold the thing in pieces and bought another Octavia.

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Mine is standard and i think its alright tbh, i test drove a few other quick diesels and its on par, and certainly feels better than the 16v alfa 147 on a 2008 plate i drove. 

I can let go of the wheel and it drives straight, other than the normal turbo torque and the steering wheel goes a bit wild, specially if you do i little wheel spin :P

 

Im sceptical about lowing it, and if i did it for any other reason than looks i would have to go for eibachs, but 25mm doesn't seem much, so is the investment really going to dramatically change from the standard setup?

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