KenONeill

Those last 2, and sufficiently unhelpful that normal "hot running" for a specific car could be almost anywhere in the black sector.

Also @vonweiser Nta has the right general idea. My point about modern VAG gauges is that, by design, they don't show a "true reading" unless the engine is still cold or is very hot. A couple of my mates' girlfriends ran BL cars with "temperature gauges" back in the early 1980s, and the usual conversation after working on them was "$mate, where does the temperature gauge on your GF's car usually read when it's up to hot?", and the answer could be anything from "just outside cold" to "just short of the red".

AIUI it means that this vehicle is not subject to the "emissions fix".

In which case a coolant gauge reading of 90C means that the water jacket (or at least the temperature sensor) is somewhere in the range of 70C to 110C.

OTOH last Saturday ( Dec 11th) the air temperature was ~13C at 19:00 hours.

High beam assist was not a factory item (standard or option) on this model (Fabia 2).

@AOwen I was thinking the exact same thing as @AnnoyingPentium .

OK, it's not the steering lock then, as I had sort of hoped. As for the handbrake, like @MicMac I'd say a mechanical lever handbrake will work (BTW so will the footbrake if you push the pedal really hard), but we'd be uncertain about a pushbutton parking brake. Also, the steering will work, but will feel like you have arm failure (been there, done that, but engine still ran and I was only about a mile from a garage).

You seem to have covered the usual suspects. Are the suspension arms and subframe mounts also good? Is the exhaust system catching on the chassis or cross links?

OK, serious question. How far can the steering wheel be moved atm (guess is good enough, but answer in degrees or radians (or milliradians) not cm or inches). This will help me tell which part(s) are jammed.

Ahh, you're replacing the lock cylinder, not the barrel. This is a case where getting the terminology exact honestly does help. Well, at that rate you either need to get a new ignition cylinder made to match your existing key blades, or get the door locks to go with the other parts you've ordered, or you finish up needing different key blades for the doors and ignition.

Yes, so the existing blade, which matches the door and lock barrels, gets the old plip, which matches the 2 parts of the immobiliser. Or did you mean that you're replacing the barrel with the keyway in it rather than the cylinder and ignition switch?

Yes, because the immobiliser will check that the key is the right one for that car. There is a work around when you have 2 sets of barrels and keys, and that's to swap the blades from the existing barrels into the new plips before putting them into the new barrels for the first time.

Dude, the post you're replying to was 13 years ago.

Ok, so the problem isn't the washer pump itself (if it were the front wash would be intermittent too). The most likely issue is a water leak as @AnnoyingPentium suggested upthread. From your other symptoms I'd start with the connection at the rear wiper and work forwards.

Well, it could still be the inhibitor switch. I'm less certain with DSG, except that I'd start with the inhibitor and immobiliser rather than the starter motor.

It may sound like an odd question, but do the front washers work normally all the time?

I presume a conventional torque converter automatic, not a DSG?

In which context, when does high beam "assist" dip the headlights?

Yes; wet fallen leaves are about as slippery as ice.

Also @Eddie5768 There are some faults that can be at least temporarily reset by opening the bonnet. For example, the low oil level light.

You may have some wait; the previous post in this thread was 5 years ago.

Yes. There was one old lady lived near me who's driving technique was to rev the engine to ~4_000 rpm and let the clutch in slowly so that it took maybe 1/4 miles to accelerate from 0 to 20 mph. She'd then change into second and repeat. Her car was a 3 tone Renault 9; silver paint, red rust and blue smoke.

You didn't think to mention this before!!

That's most unusual. Having the exhaust system start blowing is much more likely.