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All fixed! Got a new cable from skospares.co.uk (next day delivery and good price too ) and have just returned from a short test drive with the new cable fitted. It's smooth and the clutch doesn't slip - what more could i want? I applied a liberal amount of CarLube Copper Grease to the exposed inner cable at each end. Working as much grease as i could down into the outer cable. Tried two or three paths for the cable from pedal end to clutch end and finally found a perfect route with the cable taking as smooth a path as possible. Also arranged the heat protective sleeve exactly where if needs to be to protect the cable from exhaust manifold heat. I'll be checking the cable frequently over the next few weeks and hope that finally this cable is well fitted and will last a good while. Martin.

Well i invested in some high melting point copper grease and have just finished removing the clutch cable, lubricating it and re-installing it. A short test drive and it is again smooth in action with no clutch slip. Upon inspection i saw that the cable was slightly damaged on the end that connects to the clutch arm - opposite end from pedal. A few strands of the inner cable have snapped - maybe 5 strands or so, not many. And the engine oil that i'd used to lubricate the cable had all accumalated on the lowest end - the damaged end near the clutch arm. The accumulated oil didn't stop it getting damaged on that end though. When fitting the cable from new i'd painstakingly ensured that the cable coming from the pedal was taking as smooth a path as possible. But after getting both ends connected i clipped it to the various other cables around the exhaust manifold area and that pulled the cable slightly from it's optimal path to make the end nearest the clutch arm a tighter bend than it would have been without the clips. I'll get a new cable ordered tomorrow, copper grease it and fit it so that it takes the best path possible from pedal to clutch arm. Looks like i can get a new cable for just £4.00 plus vat and postage so not too expensive: New and salvaged cars spares for sale and special parts deals Martin.

Thanks for the reply. The clutch cable - inner and outer - is a sealed unit (is that the right term?). There's no way to remove the inner cable and apply any lubricant to it's entire length. All i could try would be to apply grease to the exposed inner cable on the end that attaches to the pedal. I'll visit a local motorbike shop later or tomorrow and ask about non-melting grease. Martin.

Hi forum. Got a question to ask about my Favorit (1995 LXiE) and it's clutch cable. It's been a problem before - the protective sleeve that protects the clutch cable from the exhaust manifold heat slipped to the end of the cable leaving the cable to get badly damaged by the exhaust manifold heat. See http://briskoda.net/forums/rwd-skodas-others/favorit-clutch-slipping/64674/ for a thread i started at the time. I replaced the cable and a year later it snapped on me - that was new years eve 2007. The cable had been snapping strand by strand for some time it seems and finally the remaining strands weren't strong enough and snapped. Snapping on the short length of exposed cable that connects to the clutch pedal. The rubber bush that protects the cable as it goes into the car was still in place by the way - the cable hadn't been rubbing again the car chassis. I replaced the cable with a genuine part... Had problems getting the remains of the old cable off the pedal but succeeded after an hour and a bit. Got the new cable located on the pedal and quickly finished the job off by connecting it to the arm that engages the clutch. The clutch worked but had an awful action. Slipping frequently and requiring me to put my foot under the clutch pedal and manually raise it to dis-engage the clutch. I'd routed the cable too tighly from where it enters the engine compartment to where it attaches to the clutch arm. So while doing some other work on the car the garage re-routed the cable and it worked perfectly again. No slipping and no need to manually raise the clutch pedal. Then about 4 weeks ago as i pulled up to park i felt the cable snap again. Being just a mile from home i walked home and had my tea, planning to return to the car with my dad and start it rolling then drive home mid-evening when the roads are clearer. So a bit later i returned to my car and had a look under the bonnet. Tugged the cable where it goes from the engine compartment into the car and pedal - expecting it to come off (snapped) in my hand. But it was still connected! Many of the cable's strands had bust but there was about 1mm diameter of strands remaining intact. I adjusted the clutch to take up any slack and tested it. It worked, so i drove home. Careful not to change gear more than was essential. What had happened i think was that some of the cable's strands had snapped and the remaining strands stretched. So i again replaced the cluctch cable - genuine part again off ebay, cost me £20. I'm now a bit of a dab hand at Favorit cluctch cable fitting and soon got the new one fitted. Prior to fitting it i hung it up and poured clean engine oil into the rubber washer/bush that sits on one end. The bush acted as a funnel and slowly the oil drained into the outer cable and emerged at the bottom - the cable now well lubricated. I took maximum care to route the cable correctly through the engine compartment of course - making as gentle a bend as possible in it to connect to the clutch arm. Once again the clutch seemed to be working perfectly. Nice smooth action and no trace of slipping. Now after 4 weeks or so (maybe done 400 miles) i suspect the inner cable is experiencing resistance from the outer cable. I got a mate (the Fav's previous owner) to slowly engage and release the clutch and i felt the cable as it comes into the car from the engine compartment. The cable that i could feel was ok - no signs of any broken strands. But my mate noticed same as me - the clutch cable just didn't seem to be moving freely within the outer cable. So now i'm wondering what to do. I'll probably remove the cable, examine it, lubricate it and finally refit it. There's no better way to route the cable from pedal to clutch i'm sure - the required bend to connect both ends is as smooth as possible. Can anyone suggest why i'm having these problems with the cable? Is clean engine oil a suitable lubricant or should i be using something more suitable? Thanks. Martin.

If you want to stay current with petrol and diesel prices locally then register with Free UK fuel prices. 9,762 petrol stations covered - PetrolPrices.com. Register, give them your postcode and they send you regular emails telling you the nearest cheapest fuel available to you. I get a weekly email on Mondays and generally find my local Morrisons is the cheapest, but not always. Shell are sometimes cheaper by a penny or less! Martin.

How's about this for a Favorit... Starsky & Hutch style of course. It was on Ebay a few months back - can't remember the details, just saved the pic. Martin.

My 1995 Favorit LXiE has a rev counter! No centre console though - and steel wheels instead of alloys. Martin.

Here's a mod for you Favorit owners out there. The Favorit duck pond. First step - you need a small leak in your Favorit. My leak was rear passenger side right where the rainwater collects in the hatch gutter when i park on uneven ground (that's most of the time!). This slowly leaks water from outside into the hatch floor - soaking the carpet and more importantly it collects in the well that holds your spare wheel. Step two - now forget about the leak for a while. That leak of mine has been with me since i bought my Favorit just over a year ago. Step three - puzzle at why you can hear spalsh sounds when breaking sharp or accelerating fast... It's not the petrol tank - can't afford to keep that more than 1/4 full mostly. Step four - happen to need to use the hatch and give it a clear up - carpet's a bit damp in small places so investigating i look underneath the carpet and at the spare wheel... There's the spare wheel sitting there in my new Favorit duck pond. I had about an inch of water in my pond - it would have been more if i'd not discovered it!! In fact with the wheel in the water the water level looked much more than an inch. Had to bale it out with a plastic beaker and then an old towel to soak up the last of the water. The drain plugs in the wheel well were both unmoveable in their holes so i couldn't drain the pond from underneath - had no tools with me. Shame i didn't have my camera with me too. Martin.

On the Windows platform the mrouter utility works well. I just had a search for more info on mrouter and it seems that their homepage is gone: Domain Name Renewal and web hosting from Network Solutions As always - google is your friend! Take a look at Sony Ericsson K810i mrouter - Google Search It's a common question - someone's bound to have posted an answer somewhere! Can you run any virtual os type software on your Mac? If so, you could run the Windows version of mrouter... First you need to establish whether or not the K810i supports the necessary bluetooth profile to enable mrouter to work. Martin.

Hi all i'm back with another 'little problem' on my 1995 Favorit LXiE. A few days back i wound the driver door window up and the window failed to rise and close - it dropped at the front and i needed to manually support the window as i wound it up to closed position. Today me and my mate took a look at it and it looked like the front regulator channel had simply lost it's grip on the window and dropped to the botton of the regulator rail. We spent a little while forcing the window back into position but then trying to open and close the window just pulled the front regulator channel free of the window again. After a bit of inspection we came to the conclusion that the regulator channel should be fixed to the end of a cable that is enclosed in the rail that holds it. The winder mechanism simply winds the cable one way or the other and that causes the window to open or close. (We originally thought the rear regulator did all the push and pull and the front channel was a guide only). Here's a few pics to show the problem: Rear regulator guide - in place but a little dis-lodged due to my fiddling today. No front regulator guide! My wonky window! I have to manually pull the window up from inside and outside to properly close it. The front regulator guide - that's my finger at the bottom of the pic holding it up - else it just drops to the bottom of the rail it's attached to. Am i right in thinking that the front regulator guide is supposed to be attached to a cable inside the rail it's attached to and it's now broken from that cable and needs replacement? Or is the front guide simply in need of being firmly re-attached to the window? Hope that's all clear!! Martin.

Try setting a password for the Guest account - same password on both machines. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Expand Local Users and Groups - select Users. Right-click Guest and select Set Password. Go through the next two or three prompts and set an identical password on both machines. Might be worth rebooting both machines after setting the Guest account password but i don't think that's necessary. Martin.

TDK Outloud are excellent! Available in mono or stereo versions - lovely sound and good value for money. I ripped the CD wallets out of my (mono) Outloud and it leaves a bit of storage space for other essentials - spare battery for my mobile, spare batteries for my digital camera, a set of headphones and a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor. Mono version requires 2 AA batteries and the stereo version requires 3 AA batteries. tdk outloud - Google Image Search Martin.

Good news to report - all fixed!! (Barring acts of god) New driver side front wheel bearing and a recon cv joint on the passenger side. The garage did a pre-mot check too and founds a few other minor jobs to do. All ready for an MOT on 3rd March - hope it passes..! Martin.

Well diagnosing the noise was no problem for the garage... They soon found the cause. Passenger side CV joint and driver side front wheel bearing both in need of replacement. Not a cheap job but at least it'll be money well spent once it's all done. Martin.