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Have you managed to loosen the fill plug OK? Best not to drain the box before making sure you can...

Yeah! Make it have it! Show it who is the boss!

Selfishness seems to be a major problem with public charging, exacerbating lack of infrastructure. Is 2030 really far enough off, I wonder?

Unless the fail is marked as dangerous on the MOT test sheet, you can drive it away and the old MOT is valid until it expires. https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test In the case of a leaking shock absorber no matter how bad, it is classed as a major fail, not dangerous. see section 5.3.2. Shock absorbers https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles/5-axles-wheels-tyres-and-suspension#section-5-3-2 I recently had both rear shock absorbers and bump stops changed on our Octavia Estate with Bilstein branded shocks at our local independent specialist. £180 inc vat Car was 10 years and 150k hard miles, shocks were still ok no leaks but rusty, bump stops almost none existing and dust covers stuck down so the rods were exposed. For the labour involved I thought might as well change them. Many Skoda dealers will exaggerate misting as a leak. Misting is not an MOT fail.

Hi Ryan... I should have 2001 Fabia and accessories brochures from when we bought our estate in 2001 on a shelf in the spare room and also have some stuff on my laptop so I'll try and dig it out / scan it in for you next week.

Attempting it after a longish drive or after a hair dryer is applied to the general area for several minutes ought to help prior to any chiselling or similar. The alloy of the gearbox should expand quite a lot more than the steel plug.

I've got these if you want them,Ryan? Both from 2003 Skoda range price list. The full THREE models available!! And a Fabia brochure Not found the PDF's on one hard drive so far. Before I go digging the others out, the ones you have aren't the ones I uploaded on here some time ago are they? If so that's all I have I'm afraid.

Just as an update, this is what I've mocked up with MS FrontPage. Of course, my HTML skills aren't fabby but this is very accessible first and foremost. Find it here.

Once that was put back on I then removed the front passenger coilover out to change the top mount bearing and bush. The old one fell apart on removal Old and new together for the only time 😝 I also ended up changing the bottom ball joint as the dust cover had opened up during removal, which I had expected as I could see it was very cracked when I serviced my car last and had one ready to go on. I knew my rear discs had been an MOT advisory for the last couple of years, and after a full tank of diesel gave me the lowest miles by a long way (just about 300 miles by the time I needed to fuel up), I decided to change them one evening, along with the drivers side top mount bearing and bush Before the strip-down, I messed around with the handbrake mech on the back of the callipers, and wouldn’t you know it, one was sticking. After a quick clean, lube it was all free. The mechanic who installed the 256 rear brakes rounded the first Allen bolt of the carrier had to find another way, which meant removing the bolt from the bottom of the rear shock so I could smack on a damaged head removal socket I still have the original rear stone guards that protect / restrict viewing of the inner face of the disc that were removed and reformed to accept the larger disc, but I’m still ashamed that I let these get in that condition! Not too bad from the front ….. but the inside face was somewhat worse Finally, once I installed the new Apec discs and pads, who claim their disc to be the best at reducing rusting, I put back on the calliper-return springs taken from a VW Sharan. I’ve noticed an immediate and obvious improvement in the fuel economy shown on the dash, but will wait and see what is shown on the proper calculations after the next full tank has been used.

Perches in short supply!

Been a rubbish start to 2022 and haven’t had the enthusiasm to work on my own car. However, have now found some and had a Saturday in the garage, plus a couple of hours after work to make a start on the long list of things that need to be done. First up was to get a better look at the crack I found in my down-pipe when I serviced my car last, which wasn’t a surprise as I remember the moment it properly opened up …….. Getting the down-pipe off the turbo was interesting….. two of the three Allen bolts were accessible from the top; one was well out of sight but easy access, and the other had restricted access and was impossible to get a regular Allen-socket on it. In the end I cracked it with a Allen-ball head socket from above, which wrecked the inner part of the head, then grabbed the head with a pair of vide-grips and painstakingly unscrewed the bolt from below. The final bolt was easily removed, then just a case of removing the clamp on the join to the middle section of the exhaust system, which of course broken trying to undo the nuts, pulling down pipe off the two rubber hanger bushes and wriggling the two sections of the exhaust free from one another. The crack in the down pipe was actually a lot worse than I could see when it was on the car. If I knew it was this bad I would have seen to this much sooner ☺️ All cleaned up and ready for welding ….. I reckon the cracked happened as a result of the original welder who made this exhaust not fully welding on the flange in fear of interfering with the bolt holes, but with a bit of care it can be done 😛

Cheer for comments all :), got a few more bits on order and a list of bits to change next week. Interior stuff left is, All dashboard stuff back in, Swap throttle pedal Swap clutch pedal (can’t use original as different for stop start, the connector is built into master cylinder) Fit Fuel Pump and Fuel Pump Ecu (new gasket on order for pump) Stop start module under pass seat to fit Beats amplifier under drivers seat to mount Aerial base to fit (oem dab from donor) Black headlining from donor. Then engine bay wise Abs module to change, donors a much later revision number on pump then original so going to change to save any coding issues) Clutch slave cylinder swap and bleed Gear-selector linkage to swap, so heat shield needs dropping over exhaust. Going to heat proof the back of engine bay as obviously that’s where the turbo/exhaust is and there’s no shielding there on mine. I’ve got some fancy gold forge motorsport heat tape coming. New radiator on order as it’s got the extra connector for cooler on inlet manifold. From research it’s the same size as normal up so hopefully my rad fan will fit nicely Then engine Ecu to mount in wing as oem Fit engine New Engine oil/filter and gearbox oil Fit driveshafts And door lock and locking fuel cap to swap over at some point too to fit donor key Jobs a gooden lol

Update good news my car passed its mot and it was the catalytic converter not the 02 sensor. And had to replace the exhaust sleeve as it was 100% rust lol Thanks for every one's help 👍👍👍👍

some garages have been known to spray the shocker with wd40 etc then have you believe that it's leaking 😑 they'll then tell you better to replace as a pair, so one spray = plenty ££££ for them bit late this time, but in the future, take your car to the local council mot place where they dont do repairs, so no incentive for them to fail the car

Loom swap today old one out swapped the steering column over too to save any coding issues. Added some closed cell foam under the carpet. New one in just dash and all panels to put back in. Stop start module and beats amp to mount under seats, abs sensors to connect up. Aerial to swap and headlining to refit. I’ve got next week off so no more progress till then

Managed to source 08/2003 (which, weirdly, is the one that came with my 2006 Fabia), 08/2004, 05/2005, 05/2007 as well. Adding them to the site now.

^ OK bud I don't think for the Mk1 but I could be wrong.

Ok, smash was perhaps the wrong word. Maybe encourage would have been more apt 🤔🙃

The ones I've uploaded aren't any of those ones you've put the photographs up of. They're later facelift ones from 2004 and 2005/2006ish. Oh I'd like those if you don't mind!

That would be class. Thanks Lee! I've got snippets from an earlier brochure with the likes of interior colours, but that's about it.

Managed to fix everything! The drivers window regulator panel was one hell of a b*. Couldn't find a M8 torx for taking out the doorlock in all of the 4 shops in my area, so I had to work around that. It's possible! Just quite tricky to get the old panel off and the new one on. Then I also didn't have the right size rivets, I only managed to get my hands on 5mm x 12mm rivets, which pulled straight through, So I ended up fastening some steel washers behind the tabs to create a smaller diameter hole, and riveted into those and that did the trick. It's not a perfect solution but it ain't going anywhere. Luckily the motor still works, next step tomorrow is to fit the window into the clamps and rebuild the door. Doubt I'll have many troubles, this was the hardest part. Greetingsss

Sorted it, cheers fella 🤙🏻

Try smashing in the next size up Allen, or even a torx bit with a hammer

An old school drain plug wrench has tapered male hexagons and can be hammered and rotated at the same time, the hex socket probably does not have parallel sides so old school may win over on this one, failing that a chisel.

Well, done the SAI delete, wasnt planning on doing the N249 and N112 yet but was chopping pipes to remove SAI and chopped the pipes for those 2 so ended up removing them anyway. Accidentally cut the pipe coming off the TIP for the EVAP system though (the other end of the pipe my fingers are holding) wasnt entirely sure if i could still drive the car but tried it and seems to run OK so will finish the evap simplification another day now. One thing however, its weird to explain bit its like the clutch has got.. grippier? Basically cant pull off how i used to pull off as itd stall the car, any reason for this? Car does feel loads more responsive though now. P.s, it wont let me upload pictures, only giving me an upload size of 261kb... Why?

It will work on moving objects as well as stationary objects no problem. the thing you are talking about is front assist, not manoeuvre braking

Then he obviously did not read the fault codes, just changed what he thought it may be, you've been taken for a ride. Ask him what fault coded were cleared and what the Ohm readings were for the glow-plugs he took out.

Still free from Perth and south at several council areas that were supposed to have started imposing tariffs. Many including me would prefer to pay and have better maintenance and chargers working and with overstay charges. Free is lovely if you are able to just pop past and charge but the ignorance of some really does give a sour taste.

Thanks for the help gents i’ve changed the brown pressure switch earlier and seem to have sorted the issue as far as i can tell under the conditions i was experiencing it. Hopefully its sorted..

Chademo on Leaf/Outlander will auto-unlock when finished charging. Unfortunately the now widely adopted CCS is controlled by the car, despite the plug belongs to the charge operator. I agree, we need: 1 - Many many rapid chargers at single location (single chargers are useless, source of charger anxiety) 2 - 7kW AC chargers nearby 3 - Rapid charger plugs unlock and rapid charger becomes available for new customer when charge rate drops below 10kW 4 - At below 5kW (for example), per-kWh unit price doubles to encourage people to move on But of course this is when over 70%, let's say. Don't want people being charged double when cold-gating...... or do we? This way would make those cars undesirable and we get better EV's.

Perfect - thats the bit that has broken. Didn't know that you could buy just that bit.

Even if they did (and it’s not broken down so unlikely) you would probably need to be there to give them the car key, so if you have to be there, may as well drive it a short distance yourself to another repairer. The shock absorber fault means handling is limited, so you don’t want to be whizzing down winding roads in bad weather. But you drove it there in current state, so driving it a few more miles is no worse than when you took it for MOT

Maybe this would be the way to go, rather than secondhand where the plastics will be old and possibly about to break?: SKODA FABIA WINDOW REGULATOR REPAIR KIT REAR LEFT N/S | eBay New genuine via @vindaloo's first part number will be around £70 from a dealer, I believe. New aftermarket of whole panel is probably another good solution if you can find one.

The hose beneath the aluminium heat tape is this https://www.skoda-parts.com/data/items/56/50741382eef1c.jpg The long hose is factory (is for A/C) and the hose attached to the oil cap is reinforced and can stand temperatures up to 120 'C (it's for the after gas, the factory sends them back to the throttle for lubrication but i didn't like the idea).

Why have it picked up by the AA (not that they do that), the OP drove it there and he can drive it away, his old MOT is still valid and the failure was not marked as dangerous.

I am away from the car but only 1/2 a mile and was checking the charge via my phone. It took 30 minutes until it got to 43%. I was going to head back but the speed charging just doubled as the Jag must of come off. I will give it another 20 minutes and free up the charger.

Retrieve your car, then find an independent that will change the rear shocks (and get bump stops done at same time). I would think it should be nearer £200 tops. Might be easier to let place fixing it do new MOT (will cost more than retest at original place, but might be less hassle). Actually might be better seeking out someone with good price and just booking it for repair and MOT. This has the advantage of a clause that allows you to drive a car to a pre booked MOT, so could just drive it direct from where it is now. Not unreasonable to need new shocks at 93,000 miles. But mileage is bad indicator, the quality of road surfaces you use will affect deterioration rate.

Totally agree. Enjoying every update 😉

Combien de kWs ? Typical Audi driver maybe ? Long live powerful AC, 22 kws please and several times more DC. AC/DC more please. Some kind of cool filming angles here......

i ordered my car 21 may and was told 24 september for delivery.dont believe anything what skoda say nothing but a bunch of lying b><ST:S.

I got a full set of (arguably rarer) Mk1 fabia sport seats, in decent nick for 100 euro. Its hard to find decent vRS seats but would be even harder finding someone to buy them. I see a fair few rough sets of vRS seats up around the £80-100 mark but I don't see them sell. I'd say clean vRS' are hard found already, especially in the south.

Have done several on Octavias, never paid more than £30 each, add on another £3 for the foam bump stop which is usually decomposed, 15 minutes a side for me to fit on a good day. £627 presumably is for just one, sounds about right for a main stealer. Your mistake was having an MOT done by someone with a very vested interest (AKA robbing lying barstewards), no MOT station would have told you that unless it had been flagged as such on the failure certificate. If the car was under warranty and you had it MOT'd elsewhere & it had failed on leaking shock absorbers the main stealer would have called it "slight misting" and said it was completely normal. I would ask to see the MOT failure certificate and inspect the dampers visually myself, if I had any doubt I would get a second opinion from an MOT test station that did not have a vested interest, one that only does tests & not repairs.

while you tarmac my drive?

Infotainment software information shows on screen is only for the radio control unit behind the dash, above the glovebox & for the touch screen.

Thanks Dave. we have replaced the Clio with Renault Capture, which is basically a Clio on stilts. we pick it up Saturday. The dealer took our Clio in p/ex we are satisfied with the deal we got

Trying out some HDR edits now I've got access to Photoshop

It probably just needs a good trickle charge till its full ,depends on how long cars has been stood in the cold ,can you not borrow a smart charger .

Fitted the mirror caps yesterday was too dark for pics so have a couple today, they don’t look too bad

Fitted the trims was getting a little dark, fit is pretty good but could probably do with some spray adhesive too, I added extra double sided tape to the stuff that was on it already I’ll see how well it holds. before after

(I'm the OP) My 2020 Scout has Off-road as a selectable mode (Eco, Normal/Drive, Eco, Off-road) on the infotainment panel screen which appears when I press the physical Mode button: I observe (see details below) that Off-road mode actually makes the car in some senses LESS "sensitive", as it explicitly allows a bit more wheel slip, in order to avoid the anti-whatever systems making the car completely unable to move in the case where lots of stuff is sliding all over the place under the wheels. I've driven my 2020 Scout up a moderately rutted snow, slush, and some ice covered mountain road, in normal drive mode, several times. I routinely drive on dirt roads (nothing too spectacular, though at times the 4x4 has given me the ability to pass where a front-wheel drive car might have had difficulty, and I appreciate those extra 3cm of ground clearance). I've not even bothered to turn on Off-road mode since the very first months after I got the car new and was playing with it. The manual says: The following functions are integrated into Offroad mode. ▶ Hill descent assistant ▶ ESC Offroad ▶ ASR Offroad ▶ EDS Offroad ▶ ABS Offroad Hill Descent Assist The hill descent assistant (hereinafter referred to as assist system), with its automatic braking action on all wheels, ensures a constant speed is maintained on a steep slope when driving forwards and reversing. During an intervention, the white warning light  in the instrument cluster lights up. The assist system is automatically engaged under the following conditions: * The engine is running. * For vehicles with Manual transmission the shift lever is in the neutral position and or the 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear, or reverse gear is engaged. * On vehicles with an automatic transmission, the selector lever is in the R, N, D/S position or in the Tiptronic position. * The downhill gradient is at least 10 % (when driving over sleepers, the limit can briefly drop to 8 %). * Neither the accelerator nor the brake pedal is pressed. Driving speed Initiate the downhill descent at a reasonable speed of approx. 2 - 30 km/h, the assist system constantly maintains this speed as you travel downhill. If a forwards or reverse gear is engaged on vehicles with a manual transmission, the speed must be high enough to avoid “stalling the engine”. The driving speed can be changed by pressing the brake or accelerator pedal. This is true even if the shift lever is in the neutral position and the selector lever in the N position. Engagement of the assist system is resumed after the pedal is released. ESC Offroad ESC Offroad makes driving on dirt roads easier, as no ESC interventions occur when the vehicle is slightly over or under steered. ASR Offroad TCS Offroad makes starting and driving on an unpaved surface easier as it partially allows wheel-spin. Note When disabled, TCS » page 211 Offroad mode works without the support of TCS Offroad. (The manual doesn't explain why the section is called "ASR" but the text of the section use "TCS". I suppose that TCS is Traction Control System. I guess that ASR is Anti-Skid somethingoranother. I guess they're equivalent?) EDS Offroad EDS Offroad supports the driver when driving on a surface with different grip under the drive wheels or when driving over bumps. A spinning wheel or wheels are braked earlier and with more force than with the intervention of the standard EDS system. ABS Offroad ABS Offroad supports the driver when braking on an unpaved surface (e.g. gravel, snow etc.). The system generated by a controlled locking of the wheels braked wheel before a “wedge” of piled material, which shortens the braking distance. Maximum system efficiency is achieved when the front wheels are in the straight ahead position.