DC2990

As you know with any old car you will have good and bad years in terms of how much you spend on them. As said if the timing belt is on time but not mileage if it was me i wouldn't get it done next year or probably even the year after that. Every year i keep thinking that my clutch might need replacing but it's still ok and mines on the original at 191k so i wouldn't worry about that.

If it's the same stuff as on the lower sill area then it will be the factory under seal I know that the damage on yours isn't on the sills but when i started having a closer look at my sills i found that where the factory under seal must have been slightly damaged that water had got between the sill and under seal so that you could pull quite big chunks of it off. These areas looked solid but were rusting away unseen if that makes sence I'm guessing for you make sure that ALL the loose under seal is removed and then under seal it although i ended up painting my lower sill areas because i like to see what's going on I've had a tyre place wanting to jack my range rover classic up under the sill which would have ended very badly if i hadn't been there to stop them.

Mines standard owned for 11 years now on 191k

667 50k miles one has been for sale for a long time was at £9990 i think so they must have just reduced it a bit The one on 18k miles has a terrible mot history in my opinion for such a low mileage.

I would put a new thermostat in for how much one costs and they are easy to fit other than you will loose a bit of coolant.

I don't know if this is your problem but years ago so i can't remember exactly i went over a big pothole and my drivers side xenon started pointing down and it had popped off the locating lugs or whatever they are. I ended up splitting the headlight so that i could push the reflector unit back on it's lugs

Number 010 on ebay only 18000 miles.

With a front wheel drive car fitted with a diesel engine having stiffer sidewalls can only be a good thing.

A previous owner might have been one of the i will sit at traffic lights on red in 1st gear with the clutch pedal pushed down for ages crew

Not a lot of help to you but just to show how prices have gone up i had mine changed 7 years ago new radiator antifreeze and labour £186 it took them alot less than half a day.

The first time i did mine they soon faded again so after the 2nd time i applied clear headlamp/uv protection film and over 3 years later they are still fine.

In my experience with the sill rust with the cars age now the factory applied stone chip is a problem. Where the stone chip ends you can have surface rust and what i found was that this had spread under quite large areas of the stone chip. Water gets in between the sill and stone chip and is rusting away unnoticed The stone chip can look fine but when in my case having a scrape of the surface rust next to the stone chip quite large areas of the stone chip could be peeled off showing at this stage as surface rust. Basically there must be alot of cars where the sills look good which are rusting away under the stone chip which you will only find out about when it's too late.

It would be a waste to take them to the tip but they don't seem to make good money when trying to sell them. I would probably put them on ebay with a low starting price.

As above I got sick of getting MOT advisories for my outer casing on the backbox so got rid of what was left of it to show the stainless steel inner.

I cleaned mine up but they went yellow again so after cleaning them up the 2nd time i got some clear headlamp uv protection film.

5w/40 is the correct oil for a pd130. 5w/30 is thinner when hot.

I weigh my old batteries in at a local scrap recycling company and get some money instead of just taking them to the tip.

it sounds like you have managed to reset them,they should be fine now unless you disconnect the battery again.

Probably wont help you but when i have had the battery disconnected they wont do the one touch automatic,you have to hold the button. You can reset them to do the automatic but im not sure how(think its holding the button for a set time when the drivers window is fully up or down)

Mine has always had a full size alloy spare wheel. The previous owner must have done it.(probably didn't like space savers)

5w/40 is the correct oil

They are off a older model skoda than a mk2 Fabia so imo no.

Good work. The arches look very clean. I put some stone/UV protection clear film covers on my headlights 18 month's ago after polishing them up for a 2nd time and so far they are still good.

I got to it from underneath Engine undertray off o/s wheel off and plastic arch liner off.

As above. When i changed mine 1 of the 2 lugs broke off. I could have used the old housing but had already bought a new one so fitted that. I also used a new o ring.