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Hi Casual Beard Grower, Thanks for your reply. Local Motor factors NBG might as well go to Tesco, how they stay in business (Romsey) I don't know.. Tried Halfords "on line" but again no luck there either! I eventually managed to purchase a set 5mm to 12mm from "Toolsinstock.com" (Googled "Spline sockets") for a reasonable price ( they do a good range of other Auto tools) so will have a go next week which means that I can take out the piece(s) of wood propping the passenger side window shut. Not too enthusiastic on some of e-bay products as sometimes not very good quality, My opinion only. A word on the Regulator, the holes in the door for the rivets are 1/4 inch (as are the 3 in the centre of the regulator plate) but the peripheral holes are 5/16 inch. An M6 bolt would need a washer under the head for a decent purchase. Adequate clearance wouldn't you think. As an ex-aircraft fitter i'll say no more. Yesterday I visited a scrapyard with my eldest who was after some parts for his Volvo, there were three Fabias within spitting distance of the car he was looking at and believe it or not there was not a single Window regulator among them. Seems like it's a component that's always going wrong. I probably have enough kit and experience for when the next regulator goes belly-up. About the rivets:- OK I can understand that rivets are much cheaper than captive nuts and bolts and no doubt Skoda saved a few pennies on each car but as far as maintenance goes not a really good idea.

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately the rivet holes in both the regulator are already 6.4mm (one quarter inch) so I cannot do that! I had considered using captive nuts which involves drilling out the holes in the door to 3/8 inches or 9.8 mm which would accomodate a 5mm bolt. Still considering this. Regarding the door lock bolts which are "Bi-Hexagon" headed, i.e. 12-point star splined, in spite of contacting my local Skoda dealer (bloody useless) and most of the local auto-factors in the town I still do not know where to obtain a tool to remove these bolts! Please can anyone help?

Hi Guys, I need to replace the passenger side window regulator on my '54 reg Fabia 1. One of the plastic clamps broke and would the cable around the pulley. Can I use a TorX wrench to remove the door lock as none of my Torx's fit! The older models had screws to hold the regulator in place but Skoda seem to have replaced these by quarter inch ally rivets. Where can I obtain them, please? I have searched the Net without a lot of success, most of what I can find are too long! Has anyone had experience with these rivets and if so what tool did you use? I cannot see an ordinary pop rivet plier doing the job unless you are Superman. Is there any way that I can perform some "reverse engineering" and use captive nuts and screws? Regards, Alan.

Many thanks for all of your replies. Yes, it would appear to be the rust that is the big enemy. I can obtain most of the running gear such as brakes and suspension from German and Swedish (and Foreign) also engine parts, and the drive belt for the Felicia is the same as one for a Land Rover all but 6mm in length. I am of the opinion that I am going to have to replace the front wings next year but will see how it goes. Meanwhile once again many thanks for all your replies.

Hi Guys, My wife and I run a 1998 1.3 Felicia Hatchback which is now coming up to its' 15th birthday. I was informed recently by a local garage that spares for this car are now in short supply and I may have to resort to breakers yards to obtain them. As I am in my mid seventies and wife is in late sixties we wish to keep the old Felicia running as long as possible because of Hospital visits etc.. Can anyone advise of a good spares supplier in the South of England? Hopefully, Alan.

There have been so many problems with this unit, i.e. the voltage regulator that I am surprised that Skoda have not come up with some sort of compensation scheme for sufferers. My ten-year-old VW Jetta was recalled as there was a fault with the heater radiator. There was no charge for this. I do not understand why it was necessary to fit a 90 ampere alternator to a 1.3 litre engine. The 1.8 VW had merely a 55 amp. A colleague in the trade suggested that Skoda's got hold of an 'end of line' batch. Comments please. Perplexed.:confused:

Hi Guys, I recently took my ten-year-old Felicia in for an MoT to my local garage and apparently it failed on emissions - the lamda reading was out-of-spec as well as the CO2 reading. The MoT tester told me to take the car back to the Main Agent (15 miles away) who could fix it for me. OK I did this and the Main Agent put the car on the Krypton and apparently all readings were spot-on, no problems there and gave me a print-out from the Krypton. Well I took the car back to the MoT Garage who then proceeded to do another emissions check in spite of seeing the print-out from the day before. Guess what - the car failed the emissions test again. The MoT tester would not accept the reading from the Main Agent telling me that the test had to be done 'On the day'. Being rather p***ed off I took the car back to the main agent explaining what had happened and requested an MoT from them. The car passed but needed a couple of minor jobs such as bulb changes. I get the impression that the original MoT tester was taking the wee-wee. Never before have I heard that the emissions test had to be done 'On the day'. In any case there was nothing my local garage could have done unless they wanted to sell me a new exhaust (or engine!!!) or even a new Cat. Incidentally I suspect that their Sun tester is not accurate, do these machines have to be tested regularly and if so how is it done? Any information on this subject would be helpful. Thanks, Alan.

Well I managed to remove all of the screws one way or another, but the problem that I have now is that I cannot get the inner and outer trims apart. It would appear that some clown has used something like 'Superglue' to stick the trims together I am afraid to use force to attempt to separate the trims for fear of damaging the roof. It looks like it will have to be 'Plan B' the Silicon rubber treatment. My wife's old Fiesta had a much better sunroof in that it had a built-in gutter with drain pipes running down the door pillars. Why Skoda could not come up with somthing similar beats me, talk about 'Spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar'. But in my opinion that just about sums up my Felicia.

I spent a couple of days cleaning the rubber seal with some Silicone rubber cleaner as the seal appeared to be in good condition - I could not get a 5 thous feeler between the seal and glass anywhere so I reseated the seal with some fresh Silicone rubber and initially it appeared OK. Well the seal/glass interface was OK but the leak is coming from between the plastic trim and the roof. I do not know what sort of a job this is to do as for a start most of the screws holding the inner and outer trims together have corroded (Plus-Gas not successful) in and I am reluctant to go any further because of the danger of snapping them off. Has anyone else had experience of this problem, and if so how did they go about solving it? As the car is now over nine years old and I am unlikely to trade it in (short of winning the Lottery) I am now considering running a fine bead of Silicone rubber around the affected area and leaving it at that.

I've tried Butts, in fact I downloaded their catalogue (Adobe) but I can't find the relevant part there. Am I missing something? All I can find is 'sunroof and blind for

Hi, My 1998 Felicia suffers from a leaky sunroof, but only when the car is moving. (Yes, I do know about closing the roof!) This is the third time that this situation has occured thr first time being 'fixed' under warranty by Wrynhams of Salisbury while they were Skoda dealers and the second time by a local non-Skoda firm. The roof is a non-sliding type fitted to standard 1.3 Felicias. It would appear that the rubber seal around the plastic landing had perished in places and although the seal is good enough to keep the rain out when running there is enough vibration to cause it to leak. Does anyone know where I can get a new rubber seal - I have tried sevaral Skoda dealers on the internet but do not seem to having a lot of luck in that direction? Yours hopefully, Alan.

I took my 1998 Felicia in for an MoT and service after another local Skoda dealer failed the car on the 'Headlamp Adjusters'. Although it passed following a few adjustments I thought they were were a bit 'nit-picky'. One 'advise' was that the service schedule was missing, the last guy that serviced the car having 'lost' it!!!! My main criticism was that they seemed to know less about the Felicia than I did which did not give me a lot of confidence. On the positive side at least the car runs better now and the air bag light is finally off so they must have tweaked up the ECU. On the negative side they do not appear to be very interested in the older Skodas like the Felicia, wonder how I'd get on if I took a Favorit in? Total cost for MoT and 10K service plus odds and ends was £230, prbably a bit steep bvut I feel that I had my money's worth.

Get the car into the Garage right away. The voltage regulator has gone. If you don't do something Pretty Damned Quick you'll end up blowing up the battery like I did and probably the ECU the Radio and other bits of electrical equipment. Mine cost me nearly 2K Euros to fix in France, and you could be looking at

Hi, I recently had my 1.3 Felicia (1998) fail its MoT as the Headlamp Adjuster was found to not be working. As a matter of fact it hasn't worked for at least 2 years as the fluid had leaked away. The Garage in question asked ninety odd quid for a new unit and then wanted another hundred for fitting. "(Not a job for the average owner, Sir)." I got over it by using another garage, no problems here. I can get hold of another unit but I don't know if the Adjuster is worth the trouble of fitting - its not a difficult job to do, about a couple of hours I reckon. I see there are two types, listed as 'HLA2 Felicia RB' and 'HLA3 Felicia Non-RB' Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference. Thanks, Alan.

Hi, Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I cannot find any bits of the clip as it seem to have broken up completely. As the water pump is situated fairly high up I don't see any problem with the broken parts going through the pump, but will drop the bottom hose to see if they have ended up there. Alan.

Hi Guys, The thermostat on my 1998 Felicia 1.3 stopped working. On inspection what had happened was that the clip that holds the thermostat in place had 'disapeared' leaving the thermostat proper to move about in the housing. The local motor factors cannot supply a replacement as the item is one of the later types of thermostat and not an improvement to my mind on the old bog-stadard model. My local Skoda dealer reckons about a week for delivery!!!!! Does anyone know where I can get a replacement in a hurry as I'm due to go on holiday at the end of this week? Hopefully, Alan.

Hi Guys, My 1.3 1998 Felicia must have been one of if not the first to suffer from this problem. I had the airbag warning light come in heading south from St Lo in France in 2003. As I had holiday insurance the AA was contacted as advised me to 'Carry on as it cannot be anything serious'. The consequences were disastrous as the overvoltage blew the ECU and also the radio. The French garage changed the ECU but not the alternator or voltage reg. The AA informed me that the car was OK to drive but I was not happy as the alternator was pushing out 17V on tickover and 24 at 2000rpm. I got home from La Rochelle on 3 batteries after disconnecting the alternator. The replacement alternator from Skodas wouldn't fit!!!!! Cost me £240 for repairs and another £600 from a Skoda dealer in Southampton (no names please) to try and sort out the problem which they did by taking out the indicator bulb. I've been running around like this for the last 4 years, as even Skoda at headquarters would not give me any advice. This is the only time that I've ever felt like torching a car.

What a horrible design, a bit of plastic on top of the gearbox. Done for cheapness no doubt. I had a hell of a job getting the bloody plastic to move where it had rusted in, even with the clutch pedal fully depressed (jammed it down with a piece of wood) and using 'PlusGas'. Unfortunately the damned plug had rusted in and broke off. Solution was a piece of 8mm copper tube (fitted exactly) 'cut and shut' in a right angle and soldered, the short leg 20mm the long leg 80mm and locktighted into the breather tube. Makes a better job than Skoda's original. The plastic plug came out when I changed the gearbox oil, so all's well.

Hi Guys, I run a 1998 petrol 'Felicia' 1.3 litre, low mileage, less than 45000 miles. Having arrived home one day I noticed oil in the centre consul. Thinking that it was the headlamp adjustment leaking I removed the instrument panel and discovered that the oil was in fact coming up the speedo cable. It has made rather a mess in the instrument panel and inside the car. A new cable was fitted but it has made no difference. The gearbox/transmission oil level is OK. A bit low if anything. Having been in Engineering for nearly fifty years I started to look for a breather on the transmission unit thinking that this might have become blocked. However I cannot find one. Is there a breather on the transmission, and if so where is it? Thanks, hopefully.

Whats this film "Team America" all about then? Not being a film buff I wouldn't know , and it's probably a Generation thing? No, haven't tried Freeborn down by the Stadium, but I' ve heard some good things about them. As I've a high-ish Lamda reading (still passed the MoT last month I will give them a try next Spring. Incidentally, we're off to France again next week, so I still have faith in the car!!! LAH.

Hi guys and Gals, Thanks for the various suggestions regarding all my Skoda problems. The Felicia is a 1.3 MPI so the water pump should in my opinion have been no problem to the dealer who were Anglesea Motors at Nursling, now defunct which comes as no surprise to me. Another dealer was Wrynams of salisbury who also went down the pan and were taken over by Mercs ('We don't service Skodas, Sir') Derek Warwick of Southampton were as useless as the other two but likewise do not service Skodas any more. I would have liked, as suggested, to have driven the car down to Anglesea Motors but when the Felecia went in after making spaghetti out of the drive belt it came back minus the radio aerial and a busted wing mirror. Answer 'We are not responsible for vehicles left on our premises. Sir. You can take us to court but you won't get anywhere.' Another garage to avoid is tha VW garage at Rocheforte in France, south of la Rochelle. They knew that the Alternator was Kaput but did nothing about replacing it although the car was in there for three weeks. I took an AVO down when I collected the car and checked the voltage. Phone call to AA foreign breakdown in Lyon. The AA "The (French) mechanic says that the alternator is OK" Me " So why are the voltages so high, the output should be 14.1 volts" The AA "The mechanic says that it wont hurt, if you are really worried about it then switch all of the electrics on and drive home like that." Hangs up. Incidentally the EMU fuse didn't blow and some idiot had put a 35 amp fuse in the radio. Phoned Skoda up at Milton Keynes when I got home and the replacement alternator didn't fit. Skoda. "All our dealers carry a stock of replacement alternators for that car, if it doesn't fit then someone must have fitted a different one." Me " But I've had the car from new, and I've not altered it!" Skoda " Well, there is nothing we can do about it." End of call. Guess why I was so p*****d off with the car, I almost torched it at that time. My personla circumstances then were such that I could not afford to trade the Felicia in especially as most dealers were offering me a rubbish trade-in value. Sorry to keep on whingeing, on the bright side at least with a bit of TLC from myself it has probably redeemed itself over the past two years. Also, I know now where to come for more technical advice. Thanks, LAH

Hi Guys (and gals), I joined the Forum to discover if any of you other Skoda owners has had any of the same proms that I've had with my 'S'Reg 'Felicia'. I purchased my

Hi, My Haynes manual is 1999, so it looks like the early versions failed to include the valve clearance info. What bugs me with Haynes is that the manual suggests that a gearbox rebuild on this car is beyond the capability of the D-I-Y er. Having rebuild gearboxes from Sunbeam Talbot, Mazda (929), and Ford I do not agree with this. After all Skoda probably uses semi-skilled labour to assemble the box originally. Some of the other methods in the Skoda manual are rather long-winded and anyone used to a bit of auto D-I-Y can find shortcuts which are perfectly legal safety-wise and a damned site quicker! LAH.

Hi Denis, Thanks for the information, the clearances are about what I would have guessed. However, regarding the Haynes Manual, I have the manual open in front of me at page 1A-2 and nowhere on this page are the valve clearances noted which is why I posted the thread. Much obliged to you for the information.

Hi Guys, I wonder if someone could tell me what the valve clearances should be on my Felicia 1.3 multi-point injection engine. Up until recently I've always had the vehicle serviced by my Skoda agent but since retiring I have the time to do the maintenance myself. According to the Haynes Manual the info is under 'General Specifications' which it isn't or come to that, anywhere else in the Manual. Personally I think that the new Haynes manuals are rubbish, after a lifetime of DiY servicing, they tell you very little. My Golf and Passat Haynes were much better and could be relied on most of the time. Thanks.