briscaF1

Does anyone know how to remove these semi-transparent inserts without breaking them? I spent some time last night trying to get them out, complete, without success.

Excellent - thanks :-) I think it's actually the rear hatch harness but it is all good info.

Our sounds like this and I think is has for some amount of time (like, years). It's done 80k miles. There's an occasional noise on startup / after an oil change on ours, too.

Hi, For the ongoing saga, it seems that we've found the root cause. The car had a new battery on last week and had been fine until Saturday when the boot was opened for the first time since the battery was replaced and lights came up on the dash again. I took the rubber boot off and saw a few wires were broken then undid some of the friction tape and saw that some more were! I think the brown wire, light blue/red, black/red and a couple of others. At this point, the engine would not turn off again, car would not lock etc, just as it had originally.I had to cut the boot to get access to the wiring & soldered the brown wire first and that seemed to help a great deal with engine start/stop. I then soldered the remaining wires and all seemed to be back to normal. The problem is now that the boot is cut in half, lengthways, and I suspect rain can ingress into the roof space. I'll try to glue the boot but I think it needs a new wiring harness anyway as I don't trust the soldered wires as they were cracked in other places and won't withstand many more open/close cycles. I believe there's a connector in the rear pillar or thereabouts for this boot hatch section? Does anyone have a guide for replacing this section of harness, an idea of how much of a pig it is to do/special tools required and part numbers for the rubber boot and wiring harness? I'll need to get onto the Skoda dealer to order the bits. Thanks in advance.

Hi, No, I've not been to the garage with it yet. If we're talking about the same noise, I do not think it is the starter on our car as it sounds like it is from the top of the engine and it always does it when I've just changed the oil; I don't see the link between an oil change and the starter motor. I don't know if the chain tensioner is hydraulic (I would have thought not), though. I'm not sure what a throttle valve that is faulty sounds like - are you talking about the air valve (butterfly) ? Just out of interest, do you also hear a slight, short "whoop whoop" when increasing the throttle slightly from idle? I wonder if the noises are related to some wear. Can you get a recording of the noise? I will try to do the same.

It only does it occasionally, mostly after standing for a few days / oil changes so I imagined it was related to a tensioner and/or something draining of oil. There's about 80k miles on the engine and it has been doing it for about 6 months. Is yours making the noise every time? How many miles on it? It's worrying because, if the chain is not tensioned properly, it can skip teeth and cause engine damage. How much did they quote to change the chain and why do you think it could be the throttle valve?

The car does about 8000 miles a year at most but I change the oil myself about every 6 months cos I can change the oil in 2 cars, every 6 months, for about the same money as 1 car every 12 months at the dealer. Plus, this car does lots of short journeys.

How do I get hold of VCDS? I checked again last night on the drive home. At idle, just after engine start, the battery voltage (at CM) was 13.9/14.0V. When driving home, at 1500-2500 RPM, the voltage was generally around 14.1-14.4V so I wondered if it had been elevated before because the battery was brand new, not very charged and still charging to capacity. There didn't seem to be any increase in voltage in engine overrun, like there is on my Mk3. Anyhow, with the engine running at about 1100RPM, and the battery voltage at about 14.1V, if I put the radio/heater fan/rear demister on sequentially, the voltage dropped to 14.0V so I think it is handling load OK. I'm less worried about it now since it isn't sitting around 14.5V all the time.

I do! Is 70k miles a bit low for the alternator brushes being worn? My OBD2 can measure in real time but there is no alternator load % unfortunately.

I did find this, which supports what I measured : Expected battery voltage (for lead acid) Idle (~800 RPM): Voltage starts around 13.5V, which may be just enough to maintain the battery. Cruising (~2500 RPM): Voltage rises to 14.3–14.4V, ideal for charging. High RPM (>3000 RPM): Voltage is capped at 14.4V by the voltage regulator to prevent overcharging.

About 70,000 miles. CM = Control module (OBD2 terminology) = ECU.

Quick update. I just checked with a calibrated multimeter. The OBD2 CM voltage is ~0.1V lower than the meter reading at the battery terminals (which I guess is the best point seeing as this is what the battery is being charged at). So, at least I can trust the OBD2 CM reading. With the engine first started and "on choke" (elevated RPM), the meter reads 14.4 or 14.5 and the CM reads 14.3V or 14.4V. After 30s or so, the engine idles at normal speed and the meter reads 13.9/CM reads 13.8V. if I rev it up, it raises to the ~14.5V (meter/CM). if the alternator setpoint is 14.5V, this all sounds correct, if maybe a couple of 0.1 or 0.2V too high at the battery.

I have the same noise on a 2014 1.2TSI despite VERY frequent oil changes (like, every 4000 miles). I'd be interested in finding out what is advised here.

Thanks for all the responses. It is a 2014 CBZA without stop/start (no AGM/EFB) and I would, also, have expected the voltage to be ~13.8V, hence my raising the question. I know the Mk3 raises voltage to "load the alternator" under engine braking/overrun scenarios, maybe to reduce fuel consumption and add engine braking but I've not seen the Mk2 doing this. I had seen other posters saying they had ~14.5V so I wasn't immediately panicked about it. I should have said but the voltage was read via OBD2, from the ECU (CM) and also from the OBD2 device (they both agreed, voltage wise). Since the ECU is connected to the battery, I thought that what it sees is maybe a bit lower than what the alternator is putting out (but same as the battery voltage) because of the voltage drop between alt and battery. I've read that the maximum charging voltage for a lead acid battery is 14.7V so it is within that but I don't remember it being this high previously although I might be getting it mixed up with my Mk3. If anyone else can confirm that the charge voltage is this high on their Mk2, that'd be appreciated, especially given that the car had a new battery yesterday after the problems with it not turning off with the ignition key (!) and I'd like to not be cooking the new battery.

Hi, Would I be correct in thinking that 14.2-14.5 is the nominal charging voltage? This is driving (engine speed ~1500RPM), no lights on, radio on, no particular electrical load (i.e. heater fan off, wipers off etc). Just idling, it sits around 14.0-14.2? Cheers, D

Hi, Just wondering if there's a guide for replacing the ignition switch on the Fabia Mk 2. I believe that this is the part number: Part number 4B0 905 849 and it is shown below. I presume there's no immo built into this/key coding required; this is just switch contacts for ignition on/off and crank? Thanks in advance.

Agreed. I suspect that the battery may have got flattened by the ignition being stuck on. Will see later when they have changed the battery.

Hi, Thanks for your response. When the car was taken to the garage, they said it was doing lots of weird things like the wipers running by themselves etc. I persuaded them to put a battery on it and, afterwards, it did start and drive and they managed to get the central locking operational from the keyfob although it wasn't 100% reliable. I did mention the door interconnect harness and they gave that a wiggle and said the drivers door seemed to lock better but that might just be incidental. They're putting a new battery on it today so, hopefully, it will be as simple as that. Thanks again, D

Hi all, Hopefully, someone can help... Mrs told me the other day that a dash yellow light had come on, possibly the traction control. She drove home but when I looked at it it was fine. This was a few days after she said the dashcam needed looking at because it was coming up with "low voltage." I tried to read fault codes via OBD2 and it was clear so I drove it around for 20 mins and it was OK. She rang me earlier to say that she had turned the ignition off/taken the key out and the engine was still running. She stalled it and rang for Green Flag to come to take a look. In the mean time, she said that the dashboard lights etc is all on and the door light went on/off with the door opening/closing. They thought it might be the ignition switch, which matched a bit of research I did on here where someone said, "Common problem with that switch since it came out in the 95 A4, test the concept by unplugging it. Part number 4B0 905 849" Anyway, the car was taken to a mate's garage and now it won't start and the central locking doesn't work. Does this sound like the battery? It had a Varta one on about 5 years ago so it is probably due to fail. I've not seen any "low voltage" warnings on the car (I seem to remember seeing this when the first battery went) but the Swing radio is stuck on AUX most of the time and I think the warning was on it. Or, perhaps the ignition switch is faulty AND the battery is knackered. Any ideas, please? Thanks in advance.

He reckons he's asked in the forums and the options all involve the rolling circumference changing such that the speedo reads significantly out over 50 mph. I thought he should be ok with 16", too, but I'm not sure what tyre options that leaves. Just wondered if anyone had any better information over here.

I thought he'd told me some rubbish and you've confirmed it. I had him check and they're 195/40R17

He says they're 165/65 R15 currently. He's got a spare, cos he was fed up of the foam, but it only fits on the rear apparently, so when he pops the front tyre, he has to put a rear on the front then the spare on the rear. He's not sure what size the spare is. Yes, he wants more sidewall so he pops fewer tyres but he also wants to keep the rolling circumference the same because he says it can't be changed.

Hi, Asking for a friend...! Mate has a Up GTI and I said he'd have problems with potholes when he had it and he does - he pops the tyres on a regular basis. He's tried sourcing some alternative wheels that have a larger profile but which retain the overall rolling circumference. Apparently, such wheels exist as they are sold with a winter tyre option in Germany but he reckons that they are not available in the UK. Has anyone tried putting larger wheels/tyres on their Citigo, that aren't Up GTI wheels/tyres, that would have taken it to somewhere that he could also go to with his Up? Or is the problem the front brake size? Cheers in advance.

Hi all, I've noticed this odd noise on the Mrs' car that is getting steadily louder. I first noticed it at the end of last summer and I'll try to get a recording off it but it varies with engine speed and sounds more like a "whup whup" noise than a "tap tap". At higher revs (above 1000?) the noise is not particularly evident. Not sure if it is a tappet or water pump, perhaps? The engine has done about 69k (1.2 TSI 86) and has had regular (6-10 month) oil changes due to it being used for short trips. Any ideas? Cheers.

I normally used Hankook (Ventus Prime) but went for Kumhos ES31s (I think) this time. It seemed that 195s were cheaper than 185s when I bought recently. I haven't noticed much difference in performance so far, except that the Kumhos are quieter.