Gonzini

Given it a charge today, its come up to full and left it on a maintenance cycle. It didn't take very long as it goes. I'll let it recover and measure the terminal voltage again and see where's it at. Probably get the charger back on there end of next week before traveling back. I managed to bend the bonnet arm whilst closing the garage door, it just clipped the front edge of open bonnet..,. Then while trying to keep the bonnet up with my head and attempting to straighten the arm out i put my back out ffs. Its all very silly but guess it is xmas and I'm not even ****ed yet... I got the arm out in the end and straighten it in the old workmate.. can't say the same for the back.... Yeah, that auto switching of the aircon is a battle. It thinks it knows best.

Its microprocessor controlled, it will do a maintenance charge once its completed main charge. Its not a fast charger dumping lots of amps into it. 12V SMPS, they're regulated so 12V means 12V not 15V off load etc Just the cabin recycling setting were it shuts off the external air intake and just recycles the cabin air. Its just a motor driven diverter flap. Don't think there's a leak, coolant level has remained unchanged in 4 years. Door seals seem OK. Its just were it builds up over time and i did take a number of plastic bags full of wet leaves up the dump a few weeks back... With mine water will run off the roof straight into the car when i open the door.

I'm going to see if my charger still works in the morning, not used it in ages. I did fix it up some time back. Its an 'intelligent' job. I did check the meter out earlier against some 12V regulated wall warts. It just reads a tad low on the scale I'd have to use for 12V. Also remembered i had a battery / alternator tester which luckily was in the boot. The folks had one as well which seems more accurate than the one i have. It just a very sensitive restricted ranged voltmeter that covers from 5v to 15v with an LED at the main voltages of interest. So 12V 12.5V 13.0V 13.5V 14V. I find the Fabia does mist up very easily, it drive's me mad trying to clear it. Even when engaging the cabin recycling over night. I use a window vac which makes quick work of clearing the glass, but then have to blast it with hot air when i get moving then reduce fan speed heat as it clears when driving. I try to leave the windows cracked open if it a dry sunny day to try and clear the damper air. I used to have a VW Bora that was bad for misting up as well. Annoying design thing with the mk3 Fabia is rain running off the roof straight into the cabin when you open a door.

Well it started OK and EPC isn't lit at present. Bit limited on meters here being at the folks so only option is a small cheapo Altai analogue mult tester. I can't be sure on its accuracy and have no way of comparing it to a 100% known voltage. Anyway it measured 12V which is low in my mind but i can't 100% trust the meter so it could be reading slightly low. A fully charged battery should be in the region of around 12.8V open terminal. On starting and getting the rev's up a bit it got up to just under 13V so alternator is doing 'something' I don't know what's normal on these but used to seeing 13.8V under charge on all the other cars I've owned. I'll give the battery a charge later and keep an eye on it, but I'm starting think its just got run down over the past month or so with early morning cold starts with the heater fan going full chat until windscreen cleared and aircon on. Also lights on that time of morning, same on the way home as well. I'm only doing like a 20 / 30 min drive there and back at low revs really, its an 18 mile journey week days. Its not going to be enough to get it back up again. Thinking back i did turn on the lights at one point on the A1 so maybe that was enough to trigger it down the road, it was only doing like 2000rpm in 6th gear so probably not enough of a charge going on even after 160 odd miles at that point.

Hi Yeah for sure. All the previous VAG cars I've owned I've always been able to check for fault codes. I brought this one new back in 2019 so i never updated the OBD interface or software. The one i have might actually work with it, not needed to use it in years. I don't even know where the OBD socket is on this one! I'm going to check the battery voltage in a bit then attempt to start it and check to see if the alternator looks like its charging. Cheers

Thanks for the reply. I guess its a fairly generic error having looked a bit more into it. Only way is to scan for fault codes. I'm in Sleaford, i see there's a maybe a VCDS user in Cranwell which is just up the road. I did think battery as aware it can cause problems. The whole journey is pretty much motorway then up the A1 for a bit. It normally sorts the car out giving it a good run up here and back. Going to swop cars around tomorrow and stick it in the garage for the week, I'll measure the battery terminal voltage tomorrow i think and see where its at. It obviously the wrong time of year for getting in at a dealers, I'm not even sure where the nearest Skoda place is, maybe Lincoln which is around 20 miles away. Luckily i extended the Skoda recovery a few days ago if things go really south...

Hi all. On the run up to the midlands today about 160miles into the journey, noticed the EPC warning light on. I was on the motorway just cruising along in 6th gear. Didn't notice any change in engine performance or anything bad happening so kept going. When i got to folks place kept the engine running and had a look in the car menu. There were no alerts but there's a message about start stop error. I always (if i remember..) disable the start stop as it drives mad so i never use it anyway. When i enabled the start stop feature the start stop error flashed up on the cluster info LCD. No means to read any faults codes either. Parked up now, hopefully it will start OK when i need to move it. I did search previous posts and only one mention of what sounds like the same issue. The fault code they pulled said about an air intake temperature sensor. But then it seemed the problem went away and nothing more said, so no leads there. User manual isn't much help, just says emergency driving is possible with caution and seek professional help. Any ideas?

Used to be 3 which felt right, there's a bit of movement before the ratchet kicks in anyway. Just feels like the lever is getting a bit high. I'll see what i can get access to without trashing anything! Cheers

😆 No worries, thought you might of been there before!

Ok, when i get a chance I'll get under there and have a look. Going to be the weekend now. I've tried working the handbrake lever a bit more, i don't think anything has adjusted / freed up yet. Noticed with the brake pedal held depressed hand brake lever does feel a little bit stiff and creaks a bit at the top end of its travel. I take it the handbrake compensator bracket is just behind the hand brake lever assembly hidden under the trim? Is it easy to get the trim off around that area? I'll have a bit of a google / YT trawl. Cheers

I think its about 4 or 5 to be hard on. It always used to be like 2 from memory. Just feels like its getting a bit high in use. Didn't realise it was supposed to be self adjusting or how it goes about doing that. Mines discs all round, all the pads are good with plenty of life left in them. They didn't mention anything during the service / MOT, everything was green ticks. So you mean hard on brake pedal and whilst depressed release and engage the hand brake lever a few times? Can't say I've tried that yet. Cheers

Hi guys. Need to adjust the hand brake lever travel, is that a fairly easy thing to do without a visit to the garage? Its just were the cable has stretched i guess, never been adjusted since new 4 years ago. Can i do it front inside the cabin with some trim removed? I should of got them to do it a few weeks back when it went in for the service / MOT. Cheers

😆

I might have some PTFE spray or some of that bumper & trim gel. I'll have a rummage in the shed...

I might have some tyre dressing left in the sprayer, didn't think about using that. Not heard of the Gummi stuff before. Just had a quick search there's loads of it out there. Guess just have to get in the habit of doing it regularly.

Hi all. This has been bugging me for a while but never got around to asking. The front window glass sticks to the rubber seals when closed so i always have to bump the electric windows down to un-stick them before fully engaging the motor. Is there anything i can put on the rubber to stop it happening, like something silicon based? Just feels like its going to trash the window mech if i keep doing it. Seems like a bit of a **** design on these cars along with the body shape where water from the roof just goes straight into the car when you open the door! My drivers door has water marks all down the trim, I've given up cleaning it off this time of year. Cheers

Good info there, cheers. When I'm next filling up I'll try some good stuff in there, probably next month now. I would of done this time but pumps were dry on the 97.

Probably start seeing more of it soon i guess. If my 60 mile blip up the motorway and back the other day really has cleared the problem then the 200 mile lincolnshire trips i do say 3 times a year most of been enough. Its pretty much all motorway until i get to near Grantham on the A1 then take the back roads to Sleaford. Car always sounds much smoother and usually can't hear the engine running when i stop to park up. All being well will be doing that journey middle of next month. I'm doing 18 miles a day through the week on the work run. Its all country B roads with a about 5 mile 50mph section. its like a 20/25min journey with a clear run, i can get home in 15mins if the roads are empty. Obviously not enough run time at higher speeds. I can get on the motorway but its the M27 and its crap where i am so never use it on the work run. I'll just have to work the engine a bit harder to try and get the exhaust temps up and go and visit the family more often!

Oh yes, usually a fault code is a side effect of another fault, I've done a bit in the past but tend to not want to too involved under the bonnet these days. We did fix one of the guys at work Ford Focus Sport dash the other day though. Resoldered the main connector on the cluster, sometimes wouldn't start and just doing weird ****. If you bumped the dash it would get it going again, until it didn't Its just handy to have a look at any fault codes that do appear for some feedback that there is something amiss.

Yeah, i get that. There's no predicting what antics people will get up to with this sort of thing. I use the local Sainsburys just out of convenience and its the only local fuel that's not a complete rip off. Did try to fill up today with some of their 97 but all the pumps where shut off. Next time I'll hunt some down. I'll keep an eye on the prices meanwhile at the other stations i pass. There's 3 others on the work run, Shell is just taking the **** though i noticed so stopped filling up there for now. There is an Esso & BP i also pass though. Prices seem to vary a lot on location. Up in Sleaford, Lincolnshire there used to be a cartel operation going on with fuel prices. But now its cheaper than down south by about 10p a L having spoke to the folks yesterday.

Try changing up at higher revs, more than at the point when the display tells you to change. They're quite lively little engines so no harm exploring the upper rev range once things are at temperature. Don't do it when first started and cold though! When the oil temp is around 70+ your kinda there. Good luck, I'm sure it fine :)

On the mk2 it was behind a removable panel in the area you suggest. I'll have a rummage for it at some point. The jury's out still whether the 'feature' has done it thing for me. I'll definitely drive it a bit different moving on, i just poodle along trying to save fuel and the revs never get that high. I forget on a smaller engine that they generally like a bit more of a work out. I think the idle is back to where it was, probably around 900 / 950rpm. It definitely sounds back in the area were it should be. The rev counter needle behaviour was weird as well while this was going on. It would sit just above 1000 at idle while moving but when the speed dropped to say 10mph or stopped it would suddenly jump up to just under 1500 with no discernible change in engine note. I used to use the free VCDS just to read fault codes on the VW Bora. Had to buy another interface with the mk2 Fabia which was bluetooth and used Torque on the android tablet. Worked well enough for some basic home diagnostics. Actually the first one i brought was for a VW Golf mk3 GTI. It was running like **** one time and found the wires were broken on the lambda sensor from a previous half arsed repair. Total cost was £20 at the time for the OBD2 adapter. Total guessing game without being able to look at fault codes and live readouts.

Could well be, i think they all have their own character as such even though mass produced. I always do foot to floor with the clutch, would never have it near to being engaged while changing gears but maybe you don't mean that when you say changing at a lower biting point. I take it yours is a normal manual clutch not DSG? Guess the clutch feel can change over time as it wears so just have to adapt to get the smoothest changes. I do get the impression with these cheaper (still expensive when new) models that things like road noise / transmission aren't top of the list. When i first had mine the rattling noises from the interior trim / doors was ****ing terrible. It went back 3 times to sort rattles out. I think they found a floating screw rattling about one time in the front heater ducting FFS. I'm not impressed with Skoda on this car for that. It still rattles now with the door rims. Don't know what revs you get to changing up through the gears but I've started to get around 2.5 / 3k from 1st up to 3rd once its warmed up and oil temps are nominal. Seems to give a smoother gear change, but i think its always been like that for me from new as sure mentioned this before on here a few years back. If your not sure / convinced take the car back and get them to check it out and explain why it happens.

I know, bit out of order i think when its just a 'normal' cycle the car goes through. Guess it depends who you talk to. If I'd of gone in there in person and spoke directly to someone other than the front desk might of got a different answer to some degree. I might have to look into getting a newer OBDII adapter / software so can look myself. I used to on the old mk2 Fabia, got a cheapo bluetooth one kicking about somewhere that used to work fine for checking fault codes with that. Don't know where the port is on this one, not looked into it. Oh, having looked a number of times at the dash warning lights mine doesn't have the Particulate filter warning lamp K331. Just EPC & Exhaust emissions warning lamp K83 (looks like an engine?)

My 2019 1L 110 TSI seems pretty noisey {to me} gearbox wise. Some days working up through the gearbox up to 3rd is a clunky affair. I seem to of noticed it more recently over the past few weeks, i was struggling to get a smooth gear change when releasing the clutch. Changing at higher revs and slightly slower pedal release at the biting point of releasing the clutch has helped mine. Even just idling / coasting in 2nd gear just as your coming to a stop sometimes isn't a smooth experience. I usually just drop the clutch at that point. Mines always been like that from new.