DavidY

My car had to have a new sump (under warranty) because the thread on the drain hole wore out after a few oil changes. I believe they suck oil out through the dipstick now...

Do Weights and Measures regulate over-reading pumps as well as under-reading ones? If it says 30 litres on the pump but it only actually delivered 28 I imagine they'd be concerned. If it says 30 litres on the pump but it delivers 32 then the consumer wins - do Weights & Measures catch that case as well?

:rofl: Got to admit I had the same thought. Small cars used to be things like the Mini - I expect you can probably park an original Mini in the back of the latest Octy... I read somewhere that the current Polo (and presumably therefore the Fabia) is bigger than the Mk1 Golf.

I've found my car's computer pretty much agrees with mpg calculated by looking at fuel receipts and mileage on the odometer.However I do usually fill up at the same petrol station (?diesel station?) - so my "actual mpg" calculation is reliant on the accuracy of the pumps measuring how much fuel I put in.

I was impressed by the figures for the 1.6 diesel engine in the Focus - 108bhp & 177 lbft, but it still does has a quoted official combined mpg of 58.9. Makes the 1.9 TDI in my smaller Furby look a bit inefficient.

I've been using the Halfords stuff (with the fluorescent green/yellow colour) for ages in my Fabia Comfort. Also add a squirt of Rain-X washer additive which seems to help repel rain a bit. Not had any problems so far in 3 years - but I just read the stuff above about "fan" washers. Do I have these on a Fabia Comfort? Should I stop using the Halfords + Rain X combination?

My Fabia's not a vRS, but reploacing bulbs on the passenger side is also very tight on my PD100 engine. One top tip I found (think it may even be mentioned in the manual)- on mine there's a rectangular (?) plastic cover on the side of the battery nearest the headlight. This cover is easy to remove and gives you some valuable extra mm (without needing to do anything complex like remove the battery itself). It's only a thin plastic cover but surprising how much easier it makes the job.

Looks like a good plan to gather all this info and analyse it. I'm interested to know how you arrived at the 2-3mpg figure? I don't claim to know much about statistics, but I had a look at the graph and it looks very "scattered" to me - how did you get to your answer from the data? I'm also a tad suspicious of the "Poly" lines - my gut feeling is that they should both be (more or less) the same shape as each other, maybe with one a bit higher or lower than the other. Also they look the wrong shapes for a mpg vs mph curve (especially the "standard" one). Did you have other info on mpg as well (eg. average consumption from the trip computer)?

Have they stopped doing heated seats in the Fabia Elegance then? I thought (in the UK anyway) they were still standard (and optional on vRS)??

It's not the same situation as yours, but I've noticed that when I swap worn tyres for new ones then the trip computer mpg drops by 2 or 3 mpg with the new ones, even when they're an identical make, type and size to the old ones. I think it's because the new tyres, with more tread, have a diameter that's a few mm bigger than worn ones of the same type. This means every mile is measured by the car differently and gives errors in mpg and also speed (with worn tyres you're going slower than you think - which may also mean you use less fuel).

OK I admit it - I don't take special care of my turbo (in bog-standard PD100). I probably naturally take it easy if I'm coming home (near my house I usually just potter at 30 in a high-ish gear). If I'm going somewhere else, I don't specifically have a cool-down. I also don't wait before setting off - I'm usually in motion about 2 seconds after turning the key. Result = blown turbo at 114K miles. :eek: :eek: :eek: So maybe I need to change my strategy somewhat...

Apologies if this is old news - had a quick look but couldn't find it posted previously - but has anyone else noticed the latest price list and offers on Fabias? The Price List download on the brochure page on the skoda.co.uk website has a column showing savings and extras of

I don't do as many miles as scrutineer, but my Fabia TDI (not a vRS) has done 116,900 miles in 3 years. Lots of these are on a long commute (100 miles round trip), but it seems to have no trouble with long journeys - I can drive for hours and I'm still comfortable (which can't be said for every car) so the driving position/seats work for me (although I guess the vRS may have different seats?) The 100 bhp engine in mine easily keeps up with traffic - but that's hardly going to be a problem in a vRS anyway. Used to get 56-57 mpg when new, probably nearer 53-54 now, but still pretty respectable. I've needed rescuing twice in the last month by those nice AA people though, so it's not faultless.

It's not just the vRS - several models are duplicated on the list. For instance: Classic 1.9 SDI 64bhp

Probably another dumb question :sorry: - but if cooler air is better, what difference does the ambient temperature make to power output? Suppose you measure your car's output in summer when it's 25 degrees C, then measure it again (without changing the car) at this time of year when it's nearer 5 degrees. Would you get a noticeable increase in power?

I would have said exactly the same thing until my battery died on Christmas Eve. :( I'd done over 100 miles every day from Monday to Thursday that week and battery was still very flat on the Friday.Like you I don't really do short journeys. Only sign of impending flat battery was slightly sluggish starting for the weeks beforehand. Battery might still be worth checking out...

Sorry if this is a dumb question, :sorry: but why is warmer air unsafe? :eek:

Like the new forum look myself. However for the benefit of folk who liked the old way - would it be possible to manually add a shortcut to Favourites that reproduced the old search. If so, what URL would it be? I don't claim to understand much about how searches work - but for instance I know (from using other vbulletin forums) that if I have a shortcut http://www.briskoda.net/forums/search.php?&do=getdaily&days=2 then I can see 48 Hrs worth of posts rather than the default 24 hrs, and I've experimented with adding this to Favourites in my browser - seems to work OK... Would it be possible to show us the URL you'd need to reproduce the "10 most recent" feature? That way people could manually add it to their favourites and use that as a "way in" to the forum with the old search?

So what happens to existing 1.9 pd models at the end of 2005? Are they likely to replace these with a completely different engine? Or can the 1.9pd be "tweaked" to make it EU IV? (And if so will it be good or bad for mpg/performance etc.?)

Not just you - I had a problem with an order a few months back (item was in stock when I ordered but somehow got withdrawn before they sent it to me). Sent them a e-note which got lost in their system somehow, and the phone number is impossible to get through on. When I finally managed to make contact with a human being though, they were quite helpful and did sort it out in the end.