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martinch

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    Mk I Fabia 1.9TDI (PD100)

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  1. Hi all, Just a quick update to say that I gave the battery a long trickle charge over the weekend (1st/2nd Feb), and it's been behaving since, so I guess chalk it up to a combination of time of the year (cold starting temperatures), short journeys with the headlights and AC on, and an ageing battery. Thanks for the help!
  2. @sepulchrave & @peter3197: cheers. My job for (hopefully) tomorrow evening or failing that the weekend is to check the charging voltage & have the battery checked (I've been meaning to do it one evening after work, but things keep getting in the way - doh). Thanks again
  3. @peter3197 To be honest, not really. It might have been a little warmer today and earlier in the week, but I hard a nice thick crust of ice on the windscreen yesterday morning (2C). It has been lighter on the way home, so I've not been having the lights on when coming home from work - I'm wondering if giving the battery a charge combined with less than 100% of my driving being with the lights on might have tipped it back over the edge?
  4. Thanks for the super-speedy replies, guys! @TMB Thanks for the pic - very helpful! @sepulchrave - that's the line I was thinking (or perhaps hoping given the cost of the other options!). I'll see if I can get the battery tested properly later in the week. Interestingly, the PAS light was going out normally today...
  5. Hi all, Over the last couple of days, the yellow power steering light has begun to remain illuminated when the ignition is engaged (rather than going out after a few seconds like the glow-plug light), although once the engine has been started, it tends to go out after a few seconds, or when the vehicle starts moving. If I cycle the ignition at the end of a journey (i.e. switch the car off, take the key out, count to 20, and engage the ignition but don’t start the car), so far, the light goes off when it should. I’ve done a fault scan with a hand-held scanner, and it’s coming up with “01309 - Power Steering Control Module (J500): No Communication” (unfortunately, I don’t have VCDS, so I can’t get any more detailed information). Ross-Tech’s wiki points the finger at either a bad connection, the pump, or steering rack, although Tech1e’s post also points towards battery issues. I’ve done the following preliminary checking (this was cut short by the weather over the weekend): Charged the battery for ~4 hours (it’s mostly used for a ~10-mile commute, so obviously the battery is taking a bit of a hammering at this time of year) - this has made no difference. The battery is the car’s second battery (>5 years old, although I can’t remember exactly), but seems in good health – no problems starting in cold weather, no flickering lights when steering, etc. The PAS fluid reservoir has enough fluid (in the middle of the acceptable range). I did a visual inspection of the wiring loom under the battery – there’s no obvious signs of breaks, rubbing, or pooling of water. Checked fuse 7, and the fuses on top of the battery Checked that the battery light comes on and goes off when engaging the ignition Does anyone have any ideas on anything I should check to come to a diagnosis? From reading other threads, I should probably check: Alternator charge lead (specifically the plug above the gearbox) Battery charging voltage should be 14-14.5v Battery earth leads Connections on the PAS pump (is there an easy way to do this, as I don’t really want to take the bumper off? I have front fog lights ...) Connections to PAS angle sensor (not 100% sure where to find it – I think it’s a “car on ramps job”?) See if I can swap the battery with one from another car Any input gratefully received! :)
  6. When I bought it in 2009, mine had a little rust on either end of the sill, due to stone impacts (no mudflaps when I got it). I cleaned the ends up with a wire brush to get the worst off, then applied Clarke Rust Remover (phosphoric acid), sprayed it with high-zinc primer through a mask, followed by paint (metallic stone grey) and a good dose of lacquer. Since then, it's been absolutely fine (except for one stone impact on the rear end of one of the sills that went straight through to the metal - doh). If I were doing it now, I'd use Bilt Hamber's Deox Gel, followed by their Electrox spray primer (90% zinc content), and then paint and clearcoat as normal.
  7. The Tesla Semi's supposed to have a 500 miles range (400 mile on 80% charge)..? Pretty-much everything that comes out of the back of a car is harmful, unfortunately. CO2 isn't absorbed by plants at anywhere near the rate some will claim, and turns into carbonic acid when in contact with water which poses a hazard to marine life, amongst other things. It's somewhat a question of where you draw the balancing point (and in my opinion, the government got it wrong - yet another instance of the government taking a complex issue and simplifying it to a single-issue problem, to the detriment of pretty-much everyone).
  8. If you talk to Bilt Hamber, they'll tell you it should be renewed every 3-5 due to body flex manipulating the seams. I know it's in their interests to say that to move more products, but they seem pretty honest (e.g. they've told me when I wouldn't benefit from buying one of their products...). I can't say I've seen many rusty Mercedes (not really looking to be honest), but the Mk 1 Ford Ka's ... A pillar and filler cap, it seems.
  9. Yeah, my parents and grandparents used WaxOyl a lot. From what I've seen, Bilt Hamber's product seems to out-perform it (if you have a look at the tests on their product page), and also isn't a dirt-magnet. In terms of application, it comes in a 750ml aerosol (high-pressure, designed to work upside down) that you just spray on in thin coats. I probably used about 20% of a can doing the undersides of the sills on my Fabia (from the flange to the vertical fold at the exterior - you may want to apply some masking!). Note - they do 3 versions - S50 (brown, very runny - for cavities), UC (clear, hard, for visible areas - e.g. sills & wheels), and UB ("black", for underbodies) (FYI, if you've not heard of Bilt Hamber, their products are normally for marine/oil applications, and are ... umm ... "industrial strength")
  10. If you don't already have the waxoyl, I highly recommend Bilt Hamber's Dynax UC - dries clear, as hard as candle wax, and contains corrosion inhibitors.
  11. No worries - it's a good time of the year to do that! Yeah, I know the feeling. I've just given mine a go-over for the winter (clean, check for stone chips & spray the underside of the sills with Bilt Hamber Dynax UC to protect against chips during the winter, and seal any really small holes) ... I originally meant to get it done over the August bank holiday! If you do use the Deox Gel, I would say to have a look at the instructions on their site, and follow them (they're different to the ones on the bottle, for some reason, and seem to give better results).
  12. I'm genuinely surprised to read that. One of my colleagues has a 1.2TSI, and it's nearly inaudible when moving around the car park. I had one as a courtesy car for a few days, and the same was true of that (it was quite noisy when being revved, but I don't know if it was "noisy as an absolute" or "noisy relative to quiet low rev noise", if that makes sense). Of course, my experience is brief and limited to two engines ... In contrast, two people I know have BMW 2 series petrols (a 218 and 220), and another has a Mercedes B-class (B180, I think) - in terms of exterior noise, they are getting on for as loud as my PD on start up (I was genuinely surprised and thought they were CR diesels!), and sound considerably noisier than my dad's SAAB 9-3 Aero. Well, a warranty is a contract, and you can't retrospectively modify it without the consent of the other parties, unless it's to their advantage. Have you tried taking it to another dealer? I had the silvering fail in a replacement fog light 18 months into its' 2 year guarantee - one dealer refused to replace it calling it "fair wear and tear", whilst another replaced it without question and effectively called the other dealers idiots (paraphrasing, "they get paid by VW for warranty work, so it's in their interests to do it"). Sadly, I fear that attitude is becoming more prevalent within the industry. One of the BMWs I mentioned above had been spotted using coolant twice - the dealers stopped investigating when the pressure test came back OK. It also plumed blue smoke when being started after being left sitting for a week - from what I was told, the dealers weren't interested.
  13. Dunno if you found something in the end, but Bilt Hamber's Deox Gel is very effective - more so than phosphoric acid (somewhat unsurprising, if you look at Bilt Hamber's company history - it involves marine products...). It also has the advantage of not reacting with pain (from my understanding, it uses a chemical reaction to break the molecular bonds through electron exchange on the rust to remove it). Just make sure to apply it thick, cover it with cling film, and leave it in place for as long as possible before removing it. One overnight application left the suspension strut from my dad's 11 year old SAAB completely clean, in terms of rust. P.S. The item Penguin17 linked you to was a "paint over the top" variant, which forms a hard crust that can be painted over, rather than a remover per se.
  14. @DC2990 indeed, that's what it says. However, the testing manual says that any vehicle with a "plate number" will be tested to that value, otherwise they'll use the default of 3.0 (or whatever, based on the age of the vehicle...). Yes, the government's documents are contradictory on this! Full manual: https://www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/documents/manuals/class3457/Section-8-Nuisance.html#section_8.2.2.2 Summary: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mot-special-notice-07-17-replacement-documents-and-smoke-test-limits/mot-special-notice-07-17-replacement-documents-smoke-test-limits-and-annual-assessments#diesel-smoke-tester-limits
  15. The smoke opacity has to be no more than that number. Basically, before the 20 May 2018, you needed to have a reading of 3.0 or below for your car to pass. Now, it's 0.6 or below (for a 1.9 TDI "PD100" - other engines will vary).
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