RJVB

Found this thread looking for how to remove the headlight unit. Look at the photos in the OP, in particular the 2 underneath "Only 3 screws hold the headlight in place:". As far as I can tell there are 2 screws that can be accessed from the top, but the one on the side is hidden by the upper/front grille: Access via the grille slots to that hidden screw on left is blocked by a plastic piece that seems to be there exactly for that purpose. I suppose one could make a hole to render that screw accessible but even for that you'll probably want to remove the grille in order to make that hole not larger than required. The grille does have a couple of squarish holes though that just might be designed to access those hidden screws: but it will be quite tricky not dropping them when you pull them out or try to reinstall them. Maybe the front grille can be tilted forward sufficiently when you undo the four bolts labelled in the above picture? All that without knowing if there is enough room to take the unit out with bumber and/or grille in place!! IMHO this sort of design should be outlawed. I don't know about the UK, but here on the mainland we're required to carry replacement bulbs which also implies that you should be able to install them under reasonable climate conditions rather than have to hope you can get the work done without having to take an appointment in an over-booked dealership!

Making a little pun here on the ubiquitous "best XXX in 20xy" videos out there, since the most recent relevant thread I found is already 5 years old. For the past couple of years I've been driving around with a pair of "no canbus error" T10 W5W led equivalents (branded "Oushi") as positional/side lights that consistently caused a bulb-out warning for the right side. Unless I turned on those lights before turning on the car. Usually I just left them on as ersatz DRLs and each time I went for the controle technique I explained the trick to prevent the warning light. Didn't want to have to do that this year, plus I noticed some nice chequering of the optical array cover that's probably due to the fact these bulbs heat and are long enough to touch the plexiglass (or whatever substance it's made of). Long story short, I got a pair of Hella T10 W5W retrofits which came out on top of a big comparison video on YT (done by some Russian guy IIRC). And these clearly don't even try to prevent errors and will also do so with the turn-on-first trick. So I'm back to regular tungsten bulbs (W3Ws I'm afraid, for now) but I'd be interested to hear about equivalent retrofit leds that are compact, don't heat AND don't cause errors. (The Hellas found a use in the front roof light; maybe the Oushis can go in the door lights if I can figure out how to remove their covers...)

5 years later I happened to come across the Ultinon "bulbs" when shopping for some spare bulbs on my usual spare parts site (Oscaro). I wouldn't dream of using LED for my low beams but I almost bought a set of the H1 version to put in my high beam projectors. Fortunately I had the bright idea to check prices and the negative evaluations on a'zon. One aspect that enough buyers mentioned is the lack of focus that is also apparent in the video above. One or two even observed that these bulbs turn your headlights into fog lights... You might think this would make them suitable for use in actual fog lights, but I'm not so sure about that either. The other common complaint is that the fans are noisy and can be heard inside the car interior. I don't know if those came from luxury car owners with very silent petrol engines but I wasn't about to find out. The remark above about the brighter near field interfering with your dark adaptation (night vision) is very relevant, but if you're really concerned with that you shouldn't be using any "white" bulb nor blueish interior lighting. Cold white light has a much higher content of short wave lenghts, and those interfere with the switch to night vision (another reason why sodium lamps are so suitable for road illumination, and why the old French yellow headlights weren't such a bad idea after all).

Each country is different of course, but there are options that are too "cheap" not to offer yourself. My insurance agent convinced me that the "fire & theft" option would be one of those ("if you can pay this option, how can you afford to replace your car if needed?") but sadly didn't for the 0-km road-side assistance option. I didn't even know that I could only get assistance beyond 50km from home until I burst a big cooling hose at about 30km and had to pay for the tow truck. Getting a next-day, "free" replacement of a side-window in a previous car in the middle of a real winter was nice too, as was a 2nd windshield replacement when the one we just had replaced was adorned with a beautiful crack thanks to a maniac overtaking us on a road that had just been gravelled. BTW, the glass insurance isn't so much an option here as a separate insurance, just like the road-side assistance.

LOL, PTFE ... it's clear we're post-Brexit and you're "on the other side" :) Much as I agree about the miracle qualities of the final product I'll stick with the (hopefully) lesser evil of a silicone-based spray (which doesn't smell bad at all either). Will update if I find anything ... if I even get a green light to try to go in ;)

Stupid question maybe, but don't you have an insurance on your windows, and isn't there something like CarGlass in Malta? I've seen my own windshield being replaced and it's not an operation I'd like to try myself. It didn't even look that easy when done with all the right tools...

Hmmm, if I understand this correctly I would have to uncover the mechanism and then give it a good dose of silicon lubricant? I could try that of course (and that might also uncover some dirt or whatever (that car serves as a storage space for all kinds of smelly equestrian stuff I can't stand inside the house) but that thread suggests that the thermal problem is reversible. We've had enough cool nights that you'd expect the belt to have retracted; the rear ones are hardly ever used so they should still have that retracting enthusiasm that can really whack you with the buckle :) FWIW, the replacement was out of stock and will only be in on the 21st or so, so if we find a solution before that it'll just go right back to the supplier.

Yes, it would be a failure on the French equivalent of the MOT too, I've seen them pulling like mad on the belts to see if they can break them, I mean, oops, if they work properly.

Some time ago we transported a piece of furniture in the rear of our Fabia Combi which I secured as I'm used to with one of the rear passenger seatbelts. I probably didn't unload the object because it's only last week that I heard that the seatbelt had remained blocked. I couldn't unblock it via the easy manoeuvres I found online and since the car was to go in for yearly maintenance (today) I didn't try to access the roll-up mechanism. I'm a bit late in asking but the workshop is going to replace the entire thing, which could mean the thing is defective, they're legally obliged or it's actually going to be cheaper. I found lots of questions about blocked seatbelts that would no longer retract but nothing that would suggest this is a known problem on a 2018 Fabia Mk3 or one of its VAG equivalents. Is it, and is there any interest in asking for the replaced part to see if I can unblock it myself? Oh, and of course my partner blames me for having provoked this ... I could have accepted that if the belt had been extended all the way but as far as I can tell that is not the case ... I'm pretty certain there was no emergency braking either during the transport in question, so what might have caused this problem? Thanks!

Re: the cambelt: I just asked my mechanic about his opinion on changing it on my partner's 1.0TSI Fabia. He looked up the official interval, which is apparently set at 120000km and he wouldn't say "yeah, sure" when I asked if we could postpone it until the easter holidays with the car already at 129k. Another one was present when I asked, and both confirmed that the cambelt doesn't give (much) advance warning when it's failing, and apparently you really don't want that to happen. I guess the question here is what drives the fuel pump. If that's got its own electric power and doesn't maintain a steady 200 bar or so which I've heard cited for the pressure at the injector input, then that could well be the source of your troubles too. There are others here who are much better informed on this sort of thing than I am. I just learn this sort of stuff when something goes wrong

Got her back tonight, after almost 3 weeks.... Almost 2450€ because of 1 broken injector clamp bolt which required boring out the cam cover in order to remove it, but also to replace the cam and accessory belts. And have the last remaining original injector replaced too, while we were at it. 10 billable hours in the end...

The only thing I can relatively reliably link to a failing injector is a loss of power (e.g. when accelerating up-hill in a low-speed area) - in my case it was the mechanical part that was about to fail for the 1 injector for which I have this analysis. With the last injector I could also invoke an apparent lack of power - accelerating from 60kph in 4th shouldn't have felt as impossible as it felt. Only this time the failure occurred before I could even downshift. How can you notice no loss of power without driving the car? Your car is about 13 yo - do you know if the cam belt has ever been replaced already? And what about the clutch? Those could definitely explain rough running and knocking AFAIK. An injector failing intermittently so not all cylinders are firing all the time could too, but that ought to register as a fault somewhere if it happens as often as you seem to imply.

Hi, To owners of a Fabia (Combi) with the 1.0TSI engine, at what age/mileage did you have the cambelt/distribution replaced? Ours (from 2018) has around 120k kilometres on the odo and my partner was planning on having it done this spring but with the hefty repair bill on my Octavia it would be nice to know if we can postpone it safely for a bit longer.

Well, I finally got my quote yesterday... 😱 - 1 blown injector - 1 dubious injector (the remaining probably-stock), because requested - 1 cam cover (or whatever the cover is called that was removed to take the pics above) - 1 distribution kit Not to mention undoubtedly a bunch of seals and lots of working hours. Total cost over 2.3k€ ... OUCH Cheaper than a new car but still. EGR valve is doing fine apparently (whew, changed July 2015) but the distribution didn't survive being removed of course (changed Nov. 2015, only 45k km ago). Why can't they make these things so they can withstand at least a small number of removals?? The big belt is clearly toothed ... Apparently the broken bolt did also thread into the cam cover because that part has had to be usiné (bored/drilled/sawed, no idea), presumably in order to get it off.

So it was indeed a screw or bolt, and from the looks of it: - it couldn't really have fallen anywhere - we dodged a bullet if the hole in the cam cover (?) had been threaded too!

If it wasn't clear: it was mentioned in the general context of why it would take a certain time. I have no idea. I was hoping someone here knows this engine well enough for that. But yeah, if it fell into the sump or the crankcase (in case those are different things) they'd need access from below. Would putting the vehicle on a lift be easier in that case? I simply have no idea about how accessible the engine is.

From what I understand it's a screwed-in part that held the injector in place. Rather than just coming out relatively easily thing was blocked (grippé); the theory is that it may have been tightened too much. I was indeed hoping for a bit of an explanation where the part could have falling. This is a rather traditional workshop with a very close to 5/5 rating so I have to assume he wouldn't make the error of disassembling a good part of the engine only to find the fallen part on the undertray He did mention that it would be searching for a bit of aluminium against/amidst aluminium. I didn't really get why that would make it particularly more difficult except that you can't just go fishing with a magnet. Berceau clearly can't have been used as birthplace here. I think the problem was that it wouldn't lift which is what made me think of a tool for lifting out the engine but just lifting the cradle e.g. to replace the silent blocks would make more sense. If the engine has to be lifted they'll probably use a palan (block and tackle).

No one got anything to say about that "something falling into the engine mishap"? I spoke to the shop owner today, who assured me not to worry, that even if this is not a trivial problem it's still something he has handled often enough before , and that's just going to take him time during a quiet period when there are no clients or employees distracting him.

Continued from here. Well, inevitably I was just wishfully thinking and you guys were right, on that thread. This time it was injector #3 that blew (for a while I feared it was the one I'd changed in Italy in 2016 but that was #4) and apparently there was no indication of other errors that could explain why I got the limp mode that I got - or why I didn't get it the last time. Except that this time part of a screw or bolt holding the injector in place (or the threaded part of the thing itself?) broke off during removal and fell into the engine. The way it was presented it was (of course...) an unhappy accident, not an error on their part, but now they'll have to find the time to disassemble the upper part of the engine to go fishing for a loose aluminium (?!) bit inside an aluminium case. I didn't dare to ask what the chances are of a successful repair though he seemed confident enough, just not willing to make an estimate about the number of hours this would take. I suppose I have to hope that he'd have preferred admitting small chances of success rather than wasting hours that he could also spend to make other clients happy. He was also certain that it couldn't have falling into the combustion chamber (where it should be a whole lot easier to find). And that I don't understand. The injector injects into the combustion chamber, just like a plug fires (or glows) into that compartment. Is there a sort of double wall, and what else is inside that space into which the broken bit could have fallen? Apparently not the crank case because there were no plans to put the vehicle on a lift - but maybe they plan to lift the engine out?! (He did talk about a berceau but from what google tells me that's probably the engine cradle of another car they had on a lift that he was working on when I walked in.) Really the sort of thing to please an anxious mind with ... do I still have a car, will it still run like before, etc etc.

Well, inevitably I was just wishfully thinking and you guys were right. This time it's injector #3 - for a while I feared it was the one I'd changed in Italy in 2016 but that was #4. Except that this time part of a screw or bolt holding the thing in place broke off during removal and fell into the engine. The way it was presented it was (of course...) an unhappy accident, not an error on their part, but now they'll have to find the time to disassemble the upper part of the engine to go fishing for a loose aluminium (?!) bit inside an aluminium case. I didn't dare to ask what the chances are of a successful repair though he seemed confident enough, just not willing to make an estimate about the number of hours this would take. I suppose I have to hope that he'd have preferred admitting small chances of success rather than wasting hours that he could also spend to make other clients happy. He was also certain that it couldn't have falling into the combustion chamber (where it should be a whole lot easier to find). And that I don't understand. The injector injects into the combustion chamber, just like a plug fires (or glows) into that compartment. Is there a sort of double wall, and what else is inside that space into which the broken bit could have fallen? Apparently not the crank case because there were no plans to put the vehicle on a lift - but maybe they plan to lift the engine out?! (He did talk about a berceau but from what google tells me that's probably the engine cradle of another car they had on a lift that he was working on when I walked in.)

Interesting. I recall I did notice a loss of power when the 1st injector failed, but not with the second (maybe it was the electronics part the 2nd time, which could also explain why the failure was detected at once after turning on the ignition unlike the 1st time). The feeling sluggish at first sensation may just have been you trying to look for continued signs of trouble, and the better performance related to colder temperatures and thus air that's richer in oxygen? I know that was a definite effect on my (air-cooled) MC and I think it must exist for all types of IC engines. FWIW, I use spritmonitor to log my fuel consumption, expenses etc. (also gives me the nice gadget in my sig).

I don't know if the ECU "learns" beyond the on-the-fly adjustments that are always made to the injection but if it does it could also be that it had to "unlearn" the compensation it used to have to make for the old injectors. That seems more logical. Did you notice anything at in the instantaneous or average fuel consumption readings? I suppose those are directly related to how much fuel each injection consumes though we have to guess whether that's a theoretical/ballistic estimate or an actual measurement coming back from the injectors.

Apparently they're not simple unscrew-and-replace devices but you need to tell the computer it has new injectors or something like that. I suppose that was done?

As I said, it would make sense if you know that it'll prevent future nuisances that could even be dangerous. First one I blew was on the left lane of a very busy Italian freeway - losing power there isn't reassuring at all (esp. when you don't understand what just happened, your partner starts to scream and no one thought it'd be a good idea to activate the warning flashers as part of limp mode. But if those replacements can fail just as happily without much possibility to predict when you're just throwing money to replace 3 "perfectly good" injectors with 3 similarly good ones. You'd expect that all diesel injectors should be "very similar" because they all play the same role. But from what the mechanic in Italy told me is that they see a lot of the problem, my mechanic here of the time confirmed that (and that the 2.0 engine was affected too) and I think both claimed that both the mechanical and the electronics parts are known to fail. The latter one shouldn't (except as the exception that confirms the rule), not in a properly maintained vehicle where the engine never overheats etc). For the mechanical part you would indeed expect wear over time, but I'd say there's more than enough evidence that such mechanisms can last a lifetime. Hmmm, I filled her up with regular supermarket diesel after 2 tanks of Total Premium (for cleansing purposes!), but that was on the 13th. I made 5 of those short return trips since and I had only about 50km of range left on the reserve so it doesn't seem very likely that I put in gasoline by mistake 🤣

The manual does say something like that, but claims it will blink in that case. In my case the thing remains on. But sure, wouldn't it be fun if my attempt to accelerate in 4th gear had stuck the EGR valve in the wrong position and I'm in for a 2nd replacement of the thing... Talking about histories and track records: how many replaced injectors have been known to fail? Is there any indication that the underlying "bug" has been identified and corrected? I have 2 re-conditioned injectors that I know of, one done by the workshop combining the replacement mechanical part with the electronic component from the blown one that tested OK, the other one bought as such. The maintenance records show now indication of injector replacements before I got the car so I have to assume I still have 2 original ones. If replacing these things prophylactically is a guarantee against future failures then the cost is justified. If the replacements can fail just as happily I don't really see the point in anything other than having them tested at an appropriate interval.