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!