Timewarp

Hi, yes it was done at a local garage. Hmm... I wonder now if they did change the fuel filter?

Happened again this morning: Seems like it's every time it hasn't been driven the day before at the moment. Time to book in the garage methinks!

Thanks for the replies - cleaning and re-oiling the air filter was done after I had the recent problems. I'll have to wait until the next time I leave the car a day to see if this has made any difference. No plans to trade it in just yet. It runs like a dream once going even though there's 100K on clock and it's coming up to 8 years old.

Yeh, sod's law! When it was tricky to start it has always been fine once running. Battery still seems OK too. It does seem more responsive now that the air filter has been cleaned and re-oiled. Yes it could be down to glow plugs. The common factor in all cases is when it hasn't been driven the day before, not sure the affect this would have on glow plugs. Cheers for your reply.

Scrap that theory - I suddenly had starting problems again last Thursday, when it wasn't that cold, and with BP Ultimate in the tank. I've cleaned my K&N air filter over the weekend, but I can't imagine a dirty filter causing problems when starting?

Interesting you should say that. Anecdotally, when I started this thread I lived next to an Esso garage, and me being lazy as I am used to fill up with diesel there every time, even though I thought the vRS ran better on Shell Optimax or BP Ultimate. I have since moved house, and my nearest garage is a BP. This winter I have had no problems starting the car, even when left overnight for a few days. I wonder if the fuel filter was clogged as suggested by @SkodaFabiaOwner above, and the cleaning power of BP Ultimate's additives are doing the trick? My vRS has the same issue when experiencing near freezing temperatures. I usually let the car run for about 30 seconds then restart it to clear the warning. I believe it's something to do with the sensor in the coolant reservoir misbehaving when cold.

The scan came back OK with no fault codes. The only warning was to do with the battery level strangely. Battery is only two years old, and it was cranking OK, wonder if this is a red herring?

Hi This Christmas I received a Brodit car mount for my Samsung Galaxy S2 so I can use Google Navigation and Spotify in my Fabia vRS. Trouble is, the car mount has a power lead that connects to the lighter socket in order to charge the phone and this in turn creates a humming noise with a pitch that matches engine revs coming through the car speakers via aux in of my stereo. I was thinking about the best way to eliminate this noise. Of course, the easy answer is to disconnect the mount from the 12v socket, but as the device is running GPS, this would run down the battery pretty quick (Android phones are not the best for battery life as is). I did a bit of digging about on the net and it seems that if I purchased one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-NS12-InLine-Noise-Suppressor/dp/B0007V5X4U and also a lighter socket extension lead, I could wire in the noise suppressor into the extension lead to save messing with the vehicle wiring itself. Then simply plug the car mount into the extension. Of course I'd need a suitable earth location as well, but not sure where best to do this? Before I start, I wondered if anyone had any thoughts or better suggestions? Thanks in advance.

It was cold again this morning, but this time it started fine. I suppose the difference was that it wasn't sat there over the weekend not being used, I wonder if it was frozen fuel in the filter as suggested above?

Thanks, yes the battery is fine it was cranking OK and it's only a couple of years old. Ta, I'll get a diagnostic done. There's no dashboard warning or anything (e.g. no flashing glow plug sign when driving, etc).

Yes I did.

Hi Just wondered if anyone had experienced any issues starting their vRS in freezing weather? It's normally fine in mild to warm temperatures, but my Fabia vRS took a few goes this morning to get running. Outside temperature gauge read -2 degrees and it was turning over but not properly starting. I managed to get it started simply by persisting with it and cranking the starter until it worked. Once the engine had started, it was fine with no signs of stalling. It's a 2005 model with 92k on the clock. Is there anything I can check? Thanks in advance.

Does them using the long life oil mean that you can drive further before your next service, or should you still change the oil after the next 10K?

Just got it reoiled and recharged and this has sorted it - it's now an excellent air con system once again.

Thanks for the replies. Yes it definitely used to be a lot colder, to the point you could condensate the bottom of the windscreen if you directed it up for 10 minutes. Yes the hot weather will have an effect on this, but even on cooler mornings it seems incapable of doing that.