CapstanPlug

Did you mean to post in the Fabia II section ? Your post was at : Looks like could be of interest to the guys'n'gals over there.

Certainly with the Bosch comments above. Used them almost exclusively on previous cars. But - I bought Skoda replacements for the Fabia a year ago - from Superskoda. Going just fine on the front - but the rear hatch wiper starts the juddering after about 6 months in. The new, original ones did the same. Which is why I replaced them - not worn appreciably. Just the durn judder. So I just "weathered" the noise and limited my use of rear wiper. Always use the washer to trigger the rear wiper. Always judders. Historically - just a quick bendy of the arm was enough to stop this - but the plastic arms don't seem amenable to coaxing ! Back seat passengers always jump when the rear wiper comes on! So - just splashed out on a some new ones - Bosch of course this time - from Wiperblades.co.uk (excellent experience dealing with them - the very helpful Oliver sorted out a mush that I made with the order - got the Hatch ones by mistake and re-ordered the Combi ones - anyway, Oliver sorted it ! All good.) So - the timer is running on this Bosch blade. MTBJ - Mean Time Before Judder. But expect them to stay flexible/pliable for longer. We'll see. The old ("Skoda") blade has a "set" on the rubber which points into the direction of travel from park position. (Pic 1) Maybe it's the cold weather, that the rubber is not as flexible, and holds that "set". But both Skoda sets have been like this at any time of the year. Also, there's a lot of wear at the point where the blade connects onto the arm, (Pic 2) which is understandable - but it means that the blade really digs into the screen on the up-sweep (Pic 3 shows the opposite side ).

Hi .. my car also has those 215/45/16 tyres and the spare that came with the car is a 14. The tyre on it is a 175/70 R14. The 14" rim is a 5J , ET35. Over here, those 215/45 x16 tyres are not that mainstream, either. Very few cars seem to use them. I had to make do with a very poor choice recently when getting replacement tyres.

Well, mine certainly has full Kessy - door handles and keyless Ignition. Like zoharin: replaced both fob batteries. No re-programming. Sounds like they just don't want to rub their brain cells together and work out what's wrong.

Problem with that is ... there's other keys attached to my key .... and phone needs to be upside down to charge - so antenna not getting much of a chance to gather up signals (!) and charge cable will be sticking up, and messy looking. I have one of the older ones, that came with the car - and it's now a pen holder in my kitchen !! Hopeless in the car ! p.s. the Fabia could do with some extra, proper, cupholder capacity. Wonder will that be addressed in the Facelift. Doubt it though.

Nope .. not right. Have never had to pair the remotes. Frequently leave the car unused for 2 days. No probs. They need to sort what needs to be sorted. How could Skoda have told them such tosh !

Sorry, Joe - there was a "somebody" who dragged in Leprechauns, out of nowhere !! ! () So, I'll go sit on the bold step for a while !! Ok .. that's enough () - Anyway - had my first " Front Assist not Available " warning earlier. It was snowing here a few hours ago. It seemed to clear itself after about 10 minutes.

Hey Joe - @rum4mo said "short sleeved shirts" - he never mentioned ... short skirts. But ... you could never trust those leprechauns. They probably had short sleeved shirt skirts. How did we get here from frosty reversing sensors ?

And, watch out, Joe - because they don't just confine themselves to Irish bars ... they're really not that choosy !!! The feckers.

Don't know if you have a Fabia - but certainly the ones with the Projector lamps with H7s are not up to muster. They only "vaguely" illuminate the road and left margins. The Nightbreakers bring the lamps up to where my 20 year old Passat was - which also had H7s. I felt very confident on either dark, or poorly lit roads. The problem seems more noticeable in twilight and where there is poor, or sporadic street lighting. With the original Fabia bulbs, the eyes have to do a lot more adjusting and compensating for low-light areas. The new bulbs illuminate the darker patches much, much better. They will certainly NEVER be up to Range Rover, or any other, HID brightness levels !! I'm guessing that the projector glass in the Fabia is probably low quality (i.e. cheap!) glass and is absorbing light trying to pass through them. I doubt it's Leica or even Nikon glass !!

The Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs, fitted to dip (projector) headlamps in September 2016, finally died last week - Week 2, Jan 2018. They both died within 3 days of each other ! Got replacements - this time Osram Nightbreaker Laser. From Amazon. £18-ish for these. (£14 or so for the Unlimited.) Just fitted them this afternoon. Good news, is that I'm getting the hang of changing these things now ! Got the knack. Battery still has to come out for the NS lamp, but it's easy. These bulbs are appreciably brighter than the Nightbreaker Unlimited - which were a good improvement over standard. Still 55W, but Osram are claiming "up to +130%" increased brightness over standard, for the Nightbreaker Laser. ( guessing that the original Skoda ones were 80% less than standard brightness !) Osram claimed +110% for the Nightbreaker Unlimited. Being brighter, I imagine these won't last as long (!) as the last ones. But they are brighter. Not LED white, but a lot whiter. Took car for a drive in twilight, and then in darkness - on country roads. Nice extra brightness along the left margin - to pick out those dark-clothed pedestrians. These give a noticeable amount of extra light - and confidence. Will report back on longevity! (Or shortevity, most likely)

@vgnils Yep, with the Pano roof, the antennas are definitely incorporated into the windows. In regular roof cars, that have factory-fit DAB - the roof antenna base has the DAB circuitry in it. My car has regular roof antenna, no DAB, but the rear window seems to have all the radio antenna stuff already there. Indeed, on the right-most vertical element - the one with 3 gaps in it, if you follow it to the top of the screen - there is a separate 300 mm horizontal bar, that looks very like a dipole arrangement (though it's not a dipole). It may just be coincidental, but that 300 mm multiples nicely up to 1.5 metres - which is the VHF band that current DAB is on ( 200MHz +/- ( a.k.a. the "1.5metre band" ). ( somebody mention "Amateurs" above ?? ) That Volvo thread above, mentions grounding - and that is the most common reason for that kind of problem. If the dealer has good tech people, they should be able to find the Ground connection(s) for the rear hatch. The hatch should have electrical ground with the rest of the car. The antennas may have a separate ground. As your DAB problem has just started, it may be that grounding connections have come loose, or maybe have some corrosion ( electrolytic ) that's stopping ground at Radio Frequencies (RF). It may be fine at 12V DC, but not at RF. But, that's all just guessing !

That was the Leprechauns, Joe ! I know that a few of them escaped to Newcastle I'm quite certain there's no sensor on the fuel flap. Guessing that you're probably nearest the answer with the layer of frost.

@bloodycat The range thing varies widely - it seems to predict future performance based on the most recent fuel consumption. So, if that was a longish and maybe, motorway, trip, your mpg was probably much higher than previous trips. So - it'll do a prediction on that basis. Otherwise, I find the average mpg readout to be very accurate on mine. I just don't rely at all on the Range predictor, or even worse, the Litres to Fill readout. That one is total crazy !

My car's an estate, and there are 4 vertical element tracks - two left and two right. The two on the right (RHD drivers side) each, have several 2mm gaps - the outer vertical has 3 gaps, and the inner vertical has 4 gaps. The left side pair of verticals don't have any gap. It's not damage. They're meant to be there. When you look closely, as I've just done (yes, in the cold ! what we briskodians do !! ), you'll likely see (if your track problem is what I think it is), that the "break" is square and regular. This was actually printed on that way at manufacture. I'll see if I can upload a piccie later. I'm guessing that it's to do with, either, radio interference particularly on cars that double up the elements for antenna duty, or if not that - just for general RF interference purposes. Or, to do with electrical impedance within the heater circuit itself. Or all of the above ! Is yours a hatch or an estate? They may be different. ..... OK - pic attached -

Well, while you were gorging on the Irishman ( !? ), @mac11irl , I've been very discreetly tippling and sipping on this rare one .. Seems to be discontinued now. It's a blend and it's very, very smooth. As in, dangerously smooth ! .... ummm ... think I need a reminder now ... just a teeny, teeny, little one ... Mmmm ... Cordial ? Heinous sacrilege ! Not cordial to cordial !

... Or the movies where the artic truck (petrol tankers usually) can catch up with white sports cars and run them off the road. A windy road. Where the sports car is just about able to hold on. Can't remember name of any specific movie - they've all congealed into one blobby tv-mini-series-movie in my noggin. A Quinn Martin Production.

A tip for next year ( 363 days, I gather !! ) - rough chop an onion [ even half an onion ] into the sprouts. No more smell. Works for any of the cabbagey, turnipey, cauliflowery, kaley types. I do hate that smell. Onions are your new best friend!! (if you're caught short, without an onion in the gaff ... then a teaspoon of sugar does the same trick. ) Oh - and the taste is even more improved too ! Happy New Year Lads and Lassies !

I've had similar happen occasionally ( with mk3 Fabia - but similar system) - and I've put it down to the keys in my pocket - and the "open boot" button getting a squeeze as I sit in. It depends on what I'm wearing, and how much of a rush I'm in ! @toni8b

Well - as it's Carlow -- the flavour might be affected by the ... ehh .. Barrow Water Well - at least you didn't suggest blackcurrant cordial . Unless of course, you're combining it with another ... umm... joint... effort. A lot of new brands and varieties out there now -- looking forward to a bit of tasting over the Chrimmie ! Cheers !

Yep - it's a mystery ! It was a reasonable summer alright - but then previous two summers were OK enough too. I leave aircon on all of the time, so car should be dry enough inside. Your Anglia story reminds me of a Mk2 Cortina I had, that had a "weepy" heater rad - as it got worse, it was often like a sauna in the car !! Great gushes of steam coming out the windscreen vents ! I couldn't see the windscreen - let alone see through the windscreen. The Fabia wasn't quite that bad!

Mine is nowhere as bad this winter - the car's 3rd winter. Not sure exactly why it's improved. Gave windscreen a deep clean about 2 months ago, and also gave it a wipe of an anti-mist sponge thing that I happened across during the summer. And have given it a quick wipe again with a micro-fibre cloth, about two weeks ago. The last two winters, I had to either, stay stopped to let it clear, or pull in and stop for a little while and let full-speed fan do it's thing. Could it be that the plastics have done most of their de-gassing, or whatever it is they do ? Were the mist-forming droplets attaching to a film of dust/dirt/chemicals on the screen? Odd that it's so much improved - it's like a "normal" car now !

From Carlow - which is a surprise - but, at least the barley didn't have to travel far ! Look forward to your report...

@mac11irl Were those Turkey Capris a special model out of the Cork plant ? Like the Corrib Cortina !!! ( Is saghas specialta iad, na Caprí Turcai sin ? Gabh mo leath scéil, for me weak attempt lads!) Nollaig Shona!

Some of the VCDS guys can answer the VCDS question - but Carista diagnostics throws a "Front Assist not available" message when it's doing the scan. But then Front Assist is available after the scan. If you look for the menu option, or press the F.A. button on the steering wheel, you'll see the FA Enabled box is ticked again. Does your VCDS documentation mention that it throws error messages during scan?