fabia88

Hello Everyone, currently on holiday I find myself with a little free time so I thought I would try to summarize my ownership experience of my (now my brothers but I still use it regularly) mkII skoda fabia. I plan to structure this more as a timeline of the 7 plus years it has been in the family for rather than a review going over the experiences I have personally had with it, also any maintenance and repairs that have been done over time. Then I will conclude with my parting opinions of the car. Please forgive me if my writing is a little clumsy, I am not a very good story teller/writer. Also I may end up missing the odd bit which I will add later should I remember. On that note, let us begin... 2016 I am in my first year of sixth form, taking driving lessons, in doing so, unearthing my passion for cars. During my lessons I realize that a car is something I would very much like to have so I set out looking for one, being a 17 year old I go through all the usual suspects for example vauxhall corsa, ford fiesta, vw polo, fiat grande punto, all around the 2007 model year as my budget was £2000 and I wanted a low milage example. After sitting in these cars I was left disappointed, being 6 foot 5 in height, many of them were simply too cramped to fit in comfortably. With that I decided to widen my search and came across the skoda fabia, which in terms of driver space wipes the floor with most of the competition, even the vw polo on which it is based strangely. After doing some research on the different models I decided that the Fabia was the car for me and that the best engine to go for was the 1.4 16v petrol due to its reliability. Fast forward 6 months, I am the proud new owner of a 57 plate 1.4 skoda fabia MkII with 60k miles and FSH for the sum of £2000 (which I realise now in hindsight was a bargin). One of the first things I decided to do with the car was change the oil and filters (oil, air and cabin), under the supervision of my father who is an engineer, using MANN filters and shell helix ultra 5w40 the cost came to about £55 and it took about 2 hours start to finish. One thing I would like to say is that this car is very easy to service, if you have long arms you can even reach the drain plug without jacking up the car making oil changes a doddle. Another very important lesson I learn is that cheep tyres are definitely a false economy and nearly landed me in serious trouble when going round a roundabout and the car nearly understeered off the road at a very surprisingly low speed. After this experience I decided some new tyres were in order. At the time Costco had an amazing deal which allowed me to get 4 michelin pilot sport 3 tyres fitted and balanced for just £180. I cannot recommend these tyres enough for outright grip and I believe they did save my bacon one one or two occasions, however be warned they do make more noise and the ride also became for fidgety and even crashy at times. 2017 it is at the start of of 2017 (i think) that I experience the first malfunction, which is of the electric boot latch. Initially I was worried that it would be and expensive fix however a replacement was only £30 and it took me about 30mins to replace so really not a big deal. I also managed to bottom the car out in the sixth form car park, which resembled a swamp more than an actual car park. This managed to punch a hole through the central exhaust silencer (it was also quite stony unfortunately), the fix for this was about £50 and a few hours of time due to the more involved nature. I also noted, strangely that the wing mirror heating had stopped working but this did not bother me at the time (see year 2020 to find out why). For the rest of the year the car proved to be reliable, not suffering any issues. In September 2017 I headed off to Warwick university to study physics and to my annoyance there was not car parking for students, however there is a solution. I managed to find a farm about 20 mins from the uni whom I payed about £80 a term ( there are 3 terms per year) to park my car. It is in December that I have the first major incident with the car, I was driving to uni when about 2 miles from my parents house on a country road I see a deer. Before I have time to react I hit it, doing about 40 to 50 mph, making a loud bang as it slams into the front of the car and clattering sound as hits components under the car. I pull over in the next village and phone my parents who meet me to check I am not too shaken up, amazingly the only damage to the car is a cracked front bumper and I can continue my journey, my experience is that this is a very tough little car. My parents actually recovered the deer and cooked it the week after when I came home for Christmas it was very tasty, they estimate it weighed about 35kg so not completely insubstantial. 2018 The first half of 2018 passes without any issues, the car serves me reliably, the only thing to note is when leaving the car for longer periods is to leave the handbrake off (if safe) as it can seize on. After finishing my exams I return home and give the car an oil change which again is very cheap, the anti roll bar drop links are also replaced with Meyle HD units at a cost of £30. I also decide to repair the bumper, since I am keeping the car for a long time my concern is with mechanical integrity rather than cosmetics so I use thick pieces of abs plastic, gorilla grab adhesive and bolts to repair the bumper as seen in the photo ( note I do coat the bolts in touch up paint in the end). Also removing the front bumper confirms no further damage was done in hitting the deer. The rest of 2018 passes and the functions without any issues. 2019 Again the car remains reliable even when used off road, travelling down rutted tracks, its higher an average ground clearance for this class of car proving useful. I also took the car on a road trip to Edinburgh and back from coventry where is performed flawlessly. Now at a milage of about 83k, what I believe to be the original front discs and second set of pads are now shot, they are replaced with padgid units at a total cost of about £70. This time I perform a much more involved service at about 85k miles, I changed the gearbox oil (£17) power steering fluid (£11) and spark plugs (£14) as well as the usual oil and filter. Please note that whilst some say you dont need to change the gearbox oil and power steering fluid I would disagree, both were quite dark and dirty (please see the photo below), also its much easier and cheaper to replace these fluids instead of a gearbox. A few months later in september the passenger side window regulator failed, an aftermarket replacement from gsf car parts was £45 and took about 2 hours to fit. 2020 During 2020 the car did not suffer from any issues. In june a towbar was fitted at a cost of £300 and serviced it for about £40. also duing my holiday I found out why the heated mirrors didn't work, some wires in the drivers door loom had failed, so I replaced it at a cost of about £110. The car was then used to tow a 500kg unbraked and then 1000kg braked trailer for about 1500 miles as my parents had various DIY projects on the go. I would be lying if I said it towed the 1000kg trailer with ease but it can do it, you just have to exercise patience. 2021 During 2021, the Battery was replaced for £70 with a Bosch unit from costco, aside from an obligatory oil change. This was also when I noticed the new feature in my car which was a small swimming pool about 6 inches deep in the spare wheel well. this of course was the well known vent gaskets failing behind the front bumper. The repair cost about £5 in gorilla glue and lead sheet sealant, as well as a few hours of time, the problem has not re-occured. right after that the electric windows started playing up, which was found to be a result of the electric window module failing. This was repaired by @Breezy_Pete for £50 if i remember correctly. I was at this point, ownership of the car was passed to my Brother (however I still used the car hear and there as well as do all maintenance and repairs). 2022 The car performed flawlessly for the first 7 months, the aircon was regassed for £50. However in july it failed it MOT for the first time in the family's ownership, also it was overdue for a cambelt and w/pump change. So I set to work repairing the MOT fail Items (tie rod ends, drivers side driveshaft boots) as well as replacing the front brake disc splash shields for a total cost of about £60. An interesting point to note is how well made these components are, even at 15 years and 100k miles there was no play in any of the joints and not a speck of rust on the driveshaft, even the original sticker was still on showing the date of manufacture (2007). After doing this I replaced the Cambelt and w/pump (£130) and auxilery belt (£10) with quality Gates parts, alongside the coolant (£20) and obligatory oil change (£40). Note going 7 years between cambelt changes is pushing it I was lucky to not loose the engine, one of the belts had lost tension and the w/pump was on its way out (see below). Also note you dont need the specialist vw cam locking tool, a pair of m8 bolts work in a pinch. Also the car suffered an engine malfunction for the first time, whilst towing a trailer down to Southampton it started misfiring. When I got to southampton I made a bet that since the spark plugs dont have many miles it was probably a coil pack, so I got one from a parts store (£30) and fitted it on cylinder 1 (wild guess) and hey presto missfire gone. the rest of 2022 passes without incident. 2023 Again for the first 7 months the car performs fine but steadily getting louder due to an exhaust leak. My brother had a frightening incedent where an oncoming car hit a deer which was then thrown into the path of my brothers car (the fabia), unable to swerve as this would be dangerous my brother went over the dear making a lout bang as he hit it and clattering as it went under the car. Amazingly the car escaped with only minor cosmetic scuffs and a small scratch, whilst the slammed bmw which was oncoming had its front bumper wrecked plus other damage. Unfortunately the car failed its MOT again due to a major exhaust leak driveshaft boots and lights. Looking underneeth the car I saw the entire exhasust was badly corroded so replaced the entire system excluding manifold and cats for about (£110) I also replaced the ball joints as the boots were failing (£15 each) and both passenger side driveshaft boots (as well as cleaning and repacking with new grease). To my great irritation one of the drivers side shaft boots had already failed at just 1 year old, note do not use Shaftec boots they appear to be crap. Then again the car had another oil change (£40) That brings us to the present day. To conclude, would I recommend this as a first car? Yes definitely, whilst it has had issues, none have left me stranded or been difficult/expensive to fix. The car has proven itself to be exceptionally durable surviving many an offroad/deer related escapade as well as towing heavy (relatively speaking) load. Yes it is not as involving to drive as a fiesta but knowing people who have owned them it is probably much better made. Finally, even at 16 years old, everything still works! air con is amazing even in heat waves it can turn the car into a fridge, electric heated mirrors, radio, aux input etc, which is mor than can be said for many a vauxhall/ford/fiat, at least from what I have seen.

This was my thought too, if the egr valve is coming off its getting replaced. It's just I want to be pretty sure first that it's actually the egr and not something else like a leaking vacuum line as it's a lot of time, effort and a fair bit of money to replace.

Hi everyone, I made a post a while back about egr valve issues with my car. It appeared the problem was a seized egr cooler flap, I freed it up and hoped the problem would not re occur but it has. Does anyone know a way to stop this happening or is the only proper fix new egr valve unit? The vcds readout seems to show a discrepancy between vacuum solenoid activation and actual value which also makes me think that is the issue. Other than this there is no other recurring codes. One final thing to note is that when I apply the accelerator, very occasionally there is a hesition for about a second then the car accelerates normally. Could that be symptom of the valve itself (not just the flap in the cooler) sticking too? By the way my car has the 2.0 tdi cffb engine and is a with 95k miles.

I'll probably do that, tbh I don't fancy removing the wheel bearings, also I assume the bolt which secures it is single use so it just adds expense.

Thanks again, on inspection at least, it does look like the wheel bearing has to come off.

Thanks for your response, my vin is:TMBBE73TXB9029366

Hi Everyone, Was driving home today and started to hear a very loud tinny rattling sound coming from the rear end of my car. Upon inspection I found one of the rear brake disk backing plates has come completely loose and is moving around. Does anyone know what the part number is for this component? My car is equipped with the 282mm rear disks.

May be worth checking when the cambelt and water pump was last changed though, its often overlooked. Just for reference the water pump on my brother's 57 reg fabia was completely worn out after 7 years and 45k ish miles. Regarding engine noises I do think these engines are quite unrefined, they make all sorts of strange ticking noises, especially when under load, well at least that's been my experience of the bxw engine, reliable but rough.

Wow, that's a lot of miles. I guess the engines are pretty solid then and not a cause for concern provided they are maintained properly. Just noticed a lot of the taxis I my area are diesel superb and octavias.

My understanding was that a diesel engine that is in good condition shouldn't really burn any oil though, maybe I am wrong

Thank you for all your replies. I appreciate that for a vehicle of this age and mileage, a huge factor is how well it was maintained and treated by its previous owner(s) and is something I will be checking in detail before buying any car. My main concern is that the vehicle does't have any catastrophic issues like the old pd engines with the oil pump drive shafts failing or clutches on later models which would fail and machine through the gearbox casing causing it to fail. I heard there are cases of oil burning in the 2.0tdi engines fitted the mk3 superb, does anyone know how common it is or which years are affected? also, is this the kind of vehicle a competent DIY'er can maintain? I understand people's points about 4wd being unnecessary in some cases, however I relatively often need to negotiate muddy tracks and fields and find 2wd cars to be pretty limited, even with good tyres (Michelin cross climates) also when towing and on wet/greasy roads I find fwd cars often struggle for grip, especially when pulling out of inclined junctions. Its just a nice feature to have and doesn't seem to impact the running costs too badly. When it comes to maintenance I also have adopted the same proactive strategy with my cars, changing oil regularly (every 5 to 9k miles) and changing other fluids such as manual gearbox oil and power steering fluid, it was quite surprising how dirty they were.

Hi everyone, I am considering upgrading my car to a Superb mk3 and am looking for advice as to their reliability and longevity, I'm considering a 2.0tdi 150 4x4 model with a manual gearbox as I do mainly motorway miles and appreciate the added security of 4wd, also its useful for muddy fields and snow of course. I am was looking at some with 90-100k miles, is this too high for it to still be reliable? Also, what are the main issues to. look out for?

I know this may not be a popular opinion, but maybe people should periodically check there own cars. when I service my car I take the time to go around underneath it and perform my own inspection to make sure there is nothing overtly wrong. I think this is something more people should do as the MOT is really an absolute bear minimum, where things are very often missed. My car had a fair bit of rust around the rear spring mounts which was not mentioned in the MOT for example. If you can't inspect the car yourself maybe pay a mechanic you trust to do it for you. Maybe this is a misconception but I feel like a some people don't take responsibility for the condition of their own cars, never even checking the basics like the oil, tyres screenwash.

If you want a new axle for a reasonable price, it may be worth checking these guys Skoda Fabia (6Y) 99-07 / (5J) 07-14 new rear axle complete with bushes (imaxle.co.uk)

Judging by the corrosion around the spring cup and the stub axle mounting, is it possible that the area in general I specified is structurally compromised? maybe a more experienced member could comment as to whether that could be the case. My concern would be that the corrosion is what weakened the area, which caused it to crack and inevitably fail, in which case who knows what could go next.