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Spotting the Kingfisher is (almost) becoming a daily occurrence!

Help pls!

Hi, looking for some advice before admitting complete defeat. I have a MK1 Skoda Fabia VRS. A few weeks ago, I noticed the OSR brake pads were wearing much quicker compared to the others. The rear caliper, disc and wheel were also getting very hot - even after short-ish journeys under normal braking conditions. Thinking the caliper must be sticky (although it was only 18 months old), I went ahead and replaced the caliper, discs and pads along with replacing sliding pins and greasing everything but the problem remained. Fast forward to today: I’ve replaced flexi hoses, tested the handbrake (it’s not that), plugged into VCDS (no faults) and even tried removing the fuse to the ABS pump to see if that makes any difference (assuming it may be pushing too much pressure to the OSR). I’ve seen similar issues on here but no posts about how or if they’ve been resolved. We had the car for 15 years and she is the best, most reliable vehicle I’ve owned. I don’t want to get rid of her but running out of options. Any advice will be grateful received.

Thanks to all for helpful replies. Much appreciated. I trust we are doing no harm driving around an empty carpark letting my wife practice the creep behaviour. Sometimes the creep is a little too fast. Still learning; only had the car a few days.

Did you ever buy and fit this new pressure sensor - I'm just curious! Probably missed the boat for this year's hot weather in Kirby though - AC is good to have at any time of year.

Door cards are different and manual window winder mounting is as well (different location) so check there are mountings in your door for electric motor etc. Sons is a mk1 55 plate with electric front windows and central locking. It may be easier/cheaper to swap doors? Alasdair

@Stewart2 Did you manage to work out what happened to cause your vehicles unintended movement?

I haven't had much experience of the earlier, CAN-based set-up, but I can try to help. Not sure if manual window cars will have the CAN wiring pair going to each car-side A-pillar connector, presence/absence of the pins may be visible by phone camera if not by eye. I'm on the road today, but may have some time to look at wiring info later, or you could download it yourself from the available list here: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/files/file/76-mk1-fabia-workshop-manuals/

Hi all, been bugged by a persistent rattle within the cabin at ~1200-1400 RPM. I think the noise comes from the central vent/speaker at the front (top?) of the dashboard, as I can stop the noise if I put my hand on the plastic speaker grate there. Anybody have ideas for how to remove the rattle? I've tried wedging something into the edge of the plastic vent to hold it, but I couldn't find anything small enough.

Yeah they’re the brackets I got that didn’t fit! It’s not claiming to be an OEM copy. It’s very much an aftermarket universal kit. But I bought OEM brackets in the hope of using them as a mounting point for the aftermarket sensors so I could drill into the plastic of the bracket rather than the metal of the car. Managed to drill out the bracket from the kit to mount on one of the studs on the car so no drilling of car required.

Ours did a spurious alarm recently, that we think was actually probably a genuine trigger of the internal monitoring system by one of the roof blinds 'opening itself'. If yours have a tendency to not always stay shut, the same event may have caused yours. Steeply sloping driveway might increase chances of a blind overcoming the little magnetic latches? To disable alarm, I believe the best way may be to remove it from the 'installation list' of modules fitted, using VCDS. No physical changes would then be required. Haven't tried this myself though.

Ok figured it out myself. Have to pull the whole metal strip off the rubber entirely, all the way down to the wing mirror, being careful not to bend the metal any more. Then put it back on from the top right (in my case for the left hand front window), where the metal hooks in to the rubber. Then slowly bit by bit I pushed the metal back onto the rubber with the palms of my hands, starting from the top right and all the way down to the wing mirror. I’m not sure if it made any difference, but I was pushing up from the bottom edge of the metal first, then pushing the pressure up and over the top. Snapped back on fine, looks normal again. Hope this helps anyone in similar situation!

Oh the old 5Q0 Interface... 😜

That looks very different to what is OEM for the liftback/sedan. Nonetheless, good luck with the project. This is how they look.....

Galano has a TCU tune specifically for FWD, which uses Boost-by-Gear to get the power down. It does a pretty good job at it. I was getting more axle tramps back in the days with my APR Stage 1 !!! This Galano setup does an amazing job, despite pushing way way more power through the front wheels now.

My alarm sounded one afternoon and I unlocked and locked the car. As a precaution I used a vacuum cleaner and used the brush tool and sucked the vents near the interior light switches. Might have sucked out an insect as no more alarm sounding since

@riby Did the dealer provide a second key FOC?

hi can anyone help me with my skoda rapid spaceback 2017 1.4tdi diesel . showing code PO2990Turbo underboost. Ive done a smoke test all clear, dpf checked, regenerated in the last 30 days. no power in the car. Any advice would be grateful

There's a helpful chap goes by the name of Pete who might know a thing or two about it. @Breezy_Pete

Yes. If it works mine will look the same.

Hi everyone, I have a 2001 Skoda Fabia Mk1 1.9 SDI Classic with A/C. It is a very basic model, currently equipped with manual front windows and manual mirrors. I'm looking into retrofitting the OEM electric front windows and electric mirrors using parts from a suitable donor Fabia, preferably an early Mk1 with the same generation of Comfort system as my 2001 car. So far, my plan is to source from a donor: front left and right electric window regulators + motors the corresponding door control modules (J386/J387, if applicable) front door wiring looms window switches / switch panels electric mirrors mirror adjustment switch the relevant body-side wiring between the A-pillars and the Comfort module the donor's J393 Comfort/Convenience module, if required I have been studying the wiring diagrams, but I have a few things I would really like to confirm before buying and dismantling a donor. 1. Body-side wiringThis is probably my biggest question. I understand that the door wiring harness itself is relatively straightforward: the door loom connects through the A-pillar to the vehicle-side wiring. However, I'm trying to understand what happens on the vehicle side of the A-pillar connector. Does the wiring from the A-pillar to the J393 form a separate branch of the body/interior harness, or is it integrated into the main dashboard/body wiring harness? In other words, if I find a suitable donor, can I remove: J393 → relevant body wiring → left/right A-pillar connectors without having to remove the entire dashboard wiring harness? Or are the wires for the electric windows/door modules integrated into a larger common harness with other vehicle systems? If anyone has pictures of the body-side wiring / A-pillar connectors from a factory electric-window Fabia, that would be extremely helpful. 2. Comfort moduleMy current understanding is that the early Fabia uses the J393 Comfort module together with the front door control modules. My current car obviously has a Comfort module already, since it has central locking, but I'm not sure whether the module fitted to a basic Classic is capable of supporting electric windows/mirrors. Would I need to replace my J393 with the module from the donor? Or does the existing module already support the necessary functions and only the additional wiring/door modules are missing? If a replacement J393 is required, are there specific part numbers/revisions I should look for? 3. Electric window systemFrom the wiring diagrams it looks like the electric window motors are associated with the door control modules, rather than being controlled directly by the J393. So am I correct in thinking that if I take the complete electric-window hardware from the donor — including the motor/regulator, door control module and door loom — I don't need any additional window controller elsewhere in the car? 4. Electric mirrorsIs the electric mirror adjustment controlled by the relevant door control module, or is there another separate mirror control module? My assumption at the moment is that I can take the complete electric mirrors, mirror switch and the necessary wiring from the donor and connect them to the appropriate door module/loom. 5. Compatibility / donor yearMy car is from 2001, so I understand that there was a change in the Fabia Comfort system around 2004. I have seen references to the earlier Comfort CAN system and later LIN-based systems. Therefore, should I specifically look for a pre-08/2004 donor to avoid mixing the two generations? Would a 2002/2003/early-2004 electric-window Fabia be the safest donor for my 2001 car? 6. Remote central lockingMy current key is only a normal mechanical key — I don't have a remote-control key. If I install a donor J393 that supports remote central locking, would I later be able to have a genuine OEM remote key programmed/adapted to the car? I'm not particularly interested in the remote key at the moment, but if the correct Comfort module is already being installed, I'd like to retain the possibility of adding it later. Also, does changing the J393 have any effect on the immobiliser, or are the immobiliser and remote-locking functions separate? My current ideaMy ideal retrofit would basically be: Donor: J393 relevant body-side wiring both front door looms J386/J387 electric window regulators + motors window switches electric mirrors mirror switch Then transfer these to my 2001 Classic and connect everything using the factory connectors/wiring. I'm hoping this can be done mostly OEM / plug-and-play, rather than running completely new wiring from scratch. If anyone has actually done this retrofit on a Fabia Mk1 that originally had manual windows, I'd really appreciate hearing exactly what you had to change. Especially interested in: exact parts required J393 part numbers J386/J387 part numbers wiring diagrams A-pillar/body-side wiring donor year/spec VCDS coding/adaptation anything that turned out to be unexpectedly different between manual and electric-window cars Thanks in advance! Any information, photos or part numbers would be hugely appreciated.

And the winner was the older car, for the simple reason, the other one was sold before I could make my mind up. I just need to sell my 2014 Focus Zetec diesel, anyone interested? Thanks for all your input.

It depends on the LED. But 5V works—that's correct OEM is just a neat solution, I think.

Yes of course. Difficult to judge tone through text. 😃 I took a judgement on cost and hassle vs reward and chose to try out a cheap option. If the brackets had fit, it would have meant I ended up with OEM brackets and lights and if I wanted to upgrade to OEM I would add radars and wiring loom. Chatted it through with @Cairus and seeing others who have done it I think the coding for OEM is beyond my remit. Next project is all OEM! 😉

OEM led are 5v 2 wire. Ali express kit is 5v 2 wire. I’ve bought a spare set of plugs and will plug them in and see how it goes.