abaxas

Last time it turned out to be a exhaust leak. This time, who knows. It confused the AA man's scanner but we think it's a dodgy injector. Still mad you can rev the engine without the revs rising and the rev counter doesn't actually count revs.

Hi all, Bit of a weird one and a paniced wife. Car is a Fabia '16 1.4 tdi. Engine warning light has come on and when you rev the engine the rev counter goes up/down as normal but the engine remains idling (slighly rough). Any ideas? Car can't be driven.

Sadly the wife was driving when it came on, so no idea on other things that may have occured at the time.

Hi, just a quick question. Engine warning light came on out 1.4tdi Fabia (mkIII). Then at next start it came on again, then at next start it no longer comes on. Any ideas? Or is this just a waiting game to see if it come back?

Three cat traps! Oi local feral cats, stop shagging!

Hi all, It's really cold today (car says -5) and the boot opened but not will not latch when closed . A quick "twiddle with a screwdriver" shows the mech is working but it appears something is stuck 'open' or similar. Any ideas on simple things to try? Thanks

To answer the question : 32gb is fine.

The 1.4 tdi takes less oil than the 1.6/2.0 engines so the servicing intervals on long life is shorter. ~12-14k. Noting that the car may need inspection services as well as just oil changes. My 4 year old fabia S 75 TDI gets serviced 12 months in sync with the MOT but I ask for a long life service. This means that it won't torment you if you do 11k one year or 8k the next. If however you are doing more than 12-14k a year you cant sync up with your MOT.

One of my DRL bulbs has just popped so I might as well go for a bit of an upgrade Also.... Do you need the hands of a 6 year old to install them? Fabia 2016 S 1.4 TDI (75) estate. Thanks

My wife has too many feeling for her car... Sadly it's all hate.

Just to add. The only ways you'll get less than 50mpg from the diesel is to drive like a tit or only ever do very short start stop journeys. If I was doing more town start stop I'd buy the petrol, more longer journeys the diesel.

No estate, no deal.

I wonder if a broken 'massive control everything screen' would be an instant MOT fail? Maybe not now, but will be in the future.

Or central locking life support unit?

They are crap in terms of charging batteries but they are excellent at topping up and slowing the discharge rate. Ie it's not about keeping the battery at full charge, their use is to keep the battery for killing itself due to being over discharged.

Just remember that solar chargers don't work in garages 😛

Even a 0.5A trickle charger is fine. It just takes longer to charge. Just stick it on when it's not raining for as long as you can. Then do the same next week.

I think that probably used to be true but I'm not 100% sure these days due to the increase in ethanol in petrol. Noting that ethanol is hydroscopic. The advantage of a having a low amount of 'old' petrol in the tank and then adding in fresh means that your final mixture is closer to fresh petrol. Also my understanding is that this winter/summer petrol thing doesn't happen in the UK as we don't get cold enough. Diesel is definitely different.

Braindump Leave the car in gear if you can with the handbrake off. Just incase the rear brakes bind on. Don't worry about the battery for 2-3 weeks but me mindful of short journies. If the car s going to be left for more than a month it's going to need live support on a battery charger once every few weeks. If the car is going to be left for more than a month. Over inflate your tyres to protect them, don't forget to return to normal before driving. If your car is going to not be used for 6+ months. Run down the fuel to near empty if petrol then boost with fresh petrol (jerry can) before driving. No need to do anything if diesel unless you have filled up in the summer and it's now winter. If the car is in a garage for a long period. Leave it unlocked unalarmed if you can. Cars do weird things when the battery is low.

Lots of people had polos/fabias/etc with the old 55hp 1.2 engine which has 10% more torque than the current 1.0 MPI 60 has. If most of your journeys were start stop town based, you'd notice no difference to a TSI unless you drive like a tit. Motorways, fine but will take much more time to get up to speed.

Manual says up to 32gb but larger may work. For the price just buy a good quality branded one. Sandisk etc.

Another thing to consider is that over the years companies have fitted smaller batteries to their vehicles. Hence lifespan is reduced.

More like the colour the car was when it came out of the factory 😛

I did some testing in my old A3 with it's climate control. It would get you cold really quickly but took longer to get you warm than setting manually on 'hi'.

One thing to think about when testing battery 'capacity' is that it goes down with temperature. 0C means somewhere between 80-85% of normal capacity.