johnh510

Fabia MkIII has stop start and the battery management and use is not as you describe. I don't know the exact figures or processes the battery management uses, but usual charge is to 80% capacity, or thereabouts. As I understand it that is so you still have some capacity to charge up while braking if the battery is "full". The car runs about on battery if the charge is sufficient until a lower threshold is reached (when regenerative charging hasn't kept charge up enough). If the battery charge is really low the engine tick-over speed is increased to just shy of 1000 rpm and the alternator can then top up the battery a bit. Somewhere on this forum there are pictures of the voltages over several days (2 minute sample rate with a "BM2" monitor) which give some idea of what happens. Regards, John H

It may be worth mentioning which infotainment you have, and also the software versions. I suspect the majority here have a "Bolero", which doesn't do "nav mode", other than via Android auto, or Apple equivalent. ISTR on a Fabia2 that opening the drivers door is enough to let somebody else open the hatch while the engine is running - it's an anti-theft thing. Looking at the manual for our 2015 Fabia3 doesn't mention this "feature", and starting it with me in the drivers seat my wife can open the hatch. So I'm not sure what's going on with yours - perhaps a 2019 car is different, and maybe it has "kessy" as well??

to add to my comment above, as most of you know, our fabia had a new replacement battery earlier this this year. this battery is still providing "stop-start", and i haven't had the "BONG!!! battery voltage low, charge by driving" since the battery change. I take that warning to be the cars way of letting you know the battery isn't as good as it should be. the lack of start first try has happened at least once on the new battery

Was the clutch fully pressed down? - our fabia* sometimes does the briefest attempt at a start, then nothing, despite all displays and warning lamps being on as usual before, during, and after the attempted start. Driver and passenger look at one another, ignition off, foot fully down on clutch, try start again and off it goes. I'm presuming this is the microswitch(es) for the "clutch must be pressed for you to start the car" being not quite fully activated. Regards John H * this fabia is a similar age to yours - we've had it since it was 6 months old, and this issue has happened a few times over the years. Probably fewer than10 times in total, only when I'm driving.. AFAIK.

My experience with nearly new Skodas is that the Bolero/Swing logos were all there - the garage had done it. The last time I put some back, after the grandchildren had found a way of deleting them, I couldn't find a way of doing all logos at once. I did wonder if it would find them if the card with the logos was inserted before a first scan, but I just hadn't the inclination/curiosity/time to find out. I don't recall seeing it in the book, or it being mentioned elsewhere. The business of losing logos is normal IME. Regards, JohnH

I'm not sure if I'm ready for a house in France, but... I'm pretty sure none of the Fabia's we have had, including the current 2015 model SE, with a 5 speed gearbox has had synchromesh on reverse. Neither does the 6 speed in my Rapid sport. Anyone else care to venture an opinion?

If it's clutch drag causing the problem, what happens when you select reverse gear? Do the gears grind? Our Fabia, and my Rapid sport for that matter, can be a bit obstructive into first gear first thing after a cold start. The easy option, if it doesn't select easily first time, is to put the selector in a "neutral position" lift the clutch briefly then press the clutch down and select first as soon as the clutch pedal is to the floor. You are pressing the clutch pedal completely to the floor, aren't you?

Your grumbles are likely due to the programmer of the "computer", or lighting regulations the programmer was following. AIUI, the lamp failure is decided by "the computer" measuring the resistance of each lamp while it is not powered up, and comparing the values returned with a maximum and minimum value. Resistance too high - a lamp has failed if the value is huge because it is open circuit. That seems fair enough, but the regulations appear to specify a minimum light output of 4 Cd, and a maximum of 8.5 Cd for a composite stop/tail lamp. Hence a lamp which is "working" can fail for being too dim, or too bright. The regs I found (which may or may not be relevant) are here https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/wp29/wp29regs/2015/R007r6e.pdf Likely section 6.1.3.1 but I dozed off before reading/understanding it all.... ZZZzzzzzzz..... ZZZzzzzzzz..... zzzzz..... Candelas? ZZZzzzzzzz..... ZZZzzzzzzz..... zzzzz..... ZZZzzzzzzz..... zzzzz.....

Not my specialty, and I may have misunderstood the problem, but I suspect your "infotainment" is stuck because no phone is connected via USB. Attached are a couple of likely pages from a 2018 Fabia owners guide - both apple and android start with Connection set-up › Switch on the ignition. › Switch on the Infotainment system. › Switch on the external device. › Connect the external device to the USB input using a cable »

You can send the whole VIN using PM (private message on this site) to pab567 if you are unhappy about posting it on an open forum. AS I understand it the full build specification of the individual car can be obtained from the VIN. - including options and modules fitted.

FWIW there's a "Swing" infotainment in my Rapid, and it has all the display options our Fabia SE has, except they are sequenced with the button on the end of the indicator. Attached are some pix - it may be worth comparing with yours. A very long press on the top right "setup" hard button gets you to these menu options. From the Status of MU the only ones that returned a value gave 7080. The person most likely to know what is needed and how to do it is @pab567 Regards John H P.S. Also, it's possible the display area between the dials on the "S" is lacking - it certainly was with the MK2 Fabia

The photos with the advert I looked at earlier showed what I took to be a "Swing" - 3 buttons either side, SD card slot on the front, and a small screen. The "S" spec was always a bit minimal, but it seems worse now than it was years ago with the MK2 Fabia

However, a further search shows SFA on the end of the indicator stalk on a more recent Fabia...

A recent mk3 Fabia "S" specification for sale on Autotrader shows a steering wheel without rollers and rocker switches. The manual for our 65 plate shows the attached - a rocker on the end of the indicator stalk. I think you can choose/limit what to "step through" in the menus on the radio/infotainment system, even if it is the basic "Swing" version. Regards, John H

@rum4mo looks like your shaker "big power amps" volume goes to 11 - maybe a bit less on the Richter scale. Interesting stuff: https://hbkworld.com/app/uploads/2019/09/Vibration-Testing-for-Wide-Ranging-Applications.pdf

_The Way Things Were_ is an interesting topic. I used to quite like cross plies, driving was (almost) one long skid. What isn't generally mentioned is that the skid with cross plies was "progressive": it started gently enough - gave you lots of warning - and with rear wheel drive you could back off, or put your foot down a bit, add a bit of opposite lock, and continue steering with the throttle. Back end too far out - just lift the right foot a little. My earliest memories of radial ply tyres was that they "let go" quite abruptly, and a unscheduled departure from the road was likely. It's not that long ago (pre-"ESC") that I had the back try to overtake the front in a radial ply shod front wheel drive car - once caught with much steering wheel twirling, and once not (different car) which resulted in a wrecked tyre and a bent wheel, and that's why I prefer best grip on the back. Each to their own, I suppose. Regards, john H

Update to the previous post: this site - https://media.info/radio/stations/starting-with/s works well for finding and downloading individual, up to date, logos. Choose from the A to Z list, choose the station you want, then right click the logo top right of the newly opened page and "save image as" to your SD card. This way you end up with current versions of the ones you want, rather than wading through several hundred which are out of date.

You may get a better, or more up to date answer, soon - but here goes: The supplying dealer should have sorted out a _new_ car as part of the PDI. However, the little graphic files you need can be downloaded (as a zip compressed file) by you, decompressed and put onto a SD card, and then imported to your Bolero/Swing or whatever your car has. There are a number of posts on the forum if you search a bit, or failing that the "Infotainment" manual provided with the car will point you in the direction of: http://infotainment.skoda-auto.com and should give the details of how to do it on your specific "radio". Probably something like: Radio menu / function key / station logos. I have distant memories of getting a file from the VW website four and a bit years ago as I couldn't get the Skoda site to work for me, it's attached below. Some have had joy with this site: https://media.info/radio/discussions/radio-chatter/logos-for-your-volkswagen-or-skoda-car-radio Regards, John H GBR_20171123.zip

There was a comment on this (Fabia Mk iii) forum by @FabiaGonzaleswhich may help - topic 470966: Posted 30 August, 2019 "The DAB aerial seems to be the roof mounted thing. I say this as i recently went through a car-wash and forgot to re-attach the aerial, i had rubbish signal the entire journey home!"

I had never noticed this before, but had a look this morning and sure enough:

A Bosch 60Ah EFB battery (the closest specification I could find to the 59Ah "Moll" EFB originally fitted battery) weighs about 18Kg - as the saying goes, other makes are available. It's really quite heavy, and an awkward thing to maul about - it's not something you want to be doing regularly. Also note that if there is spillage from the battery onto clothing, the clothing will get holes in it. Take care, JohnH

No, it's what I remember that particular set to be called... and it is: see attached. As @rum4mo rightly says they were all bi-hex. It's all looking a bit sad - the replacement "hex" sockets are up with son-in-law, as is the other complete Elora set which was my father-in-laws. I'm tempted by the Facom set for £12 from toolstation, just to fill it up. Regards, John H

Oooh, nostalgia trip.. When I were a lad I bought an "Elora lczn*" socket set, sometime late '70's. Just the thing for Morris 1000, and 1100 come to that, with its mixture of standards. It was a considerable outlay, but the only things that suffered in the 40 odd years since then were the disintegrating blue plastic shaped tray that located everything, and the commonly used metric sizes got to the stage they were too worn to undo something really tight without fear of rounding the head off the nut. So I got some new "hex" metric sockets, but I found they just sheared bolts instead... and that's more or less when I stopped getting my hands really dirty: changing the battery is about my limit these days. @rum4mo Good tip with Toolstation and the Facom Expert Regards JohnH * lczn according to memory - Full mix of Whitworth, AF, and metric.

I think the "min 12.4v" is likely to be a guide for storage prior to sale, and/or a pre-sale tick box exercise*, judging by this extract from a Yuasa "technical/need to know": " 1. Batteries should be installed ideally within 15 months after manufacture. The voltage should be (worse case higher than 12.25V) ideally higher than 12.4V at the time of installation. 2. Batteries require recharging when the voltage has dropped below 12.4V due to extended warehouse storage. " * It was good when we sold it - we ticked the box. Regards, John H P.S. With that in mind, I think I'll put our old battery back on charge again....

The Ctek charger I have is a "CT5", it's their basic automatic, does what it does, no choices charger/conditioner for stop/start batteries. The failed battery is further away than you'd guess - I live in the midlands too, and it's nearly 240 miles drive from me. The old battery from our Fabia (the one with all the charts further up this thread) is a whisker under 12.4 volts this morning, after 5 weeks or so being ignored in my garage. If it was in the car it would be have been flat a while ago, as there is significant drain from the car. Regarding the older Rapid, a work colleague back in the late 70's had a new "Estelle" which was an interesting thing to be driven about in occasionally. Quieter than you'd expect, until you realised all the noisy stuff was in the back of the car. He was quite happy with it, but got a lot of stick/abuse as Skoda drivers did back then.