totoro

Visible smoke is a failure for MOT, plod could pull you over and make you provide a new MOT. This forum is for making Skodas better, not worse and illegal to drive on the road. Try one that isn't full of grown ups.

The white bit just allows the light from elsewhere to show, if you pull the tray out of the holder there is just a rectangular hole behind that,

Mine occasionally shows a warning, a cheap code reader reports 'P1071' P0171 is a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) for "System Too Lean (Bank 1)". I clear the code and it's fine for many months. I think it is related to me trying to eke out the fuel and driving with a light foot. As the mechanic says, just drive it or pay £15 or so on a code reader for peace of mind.

I have a 1.4 16v Estate, Comfort trim, it has remote locking and, surprisingly for anything electric/electronic on a Fabia, it works.

I have a factory fitted towbar on my 1.4 16V estate, it looks just about the same as those pics except that mine has more layers of dirt. There is no cutting of the bumper involved.

When I bought my car I thought the lighting had failed but then I found the thumb-wheel mentioned above.

I used a soft cloth and some old T-Cut I found in the shed, a five minute job. OK, it won't last so that's another 5 mins next year

I had a woo woo sound that defied all reason, it was checked by two garages who could find no fault. At the last MoT the techie noted an advisory "Nearside Rear Road wheel slightly distorted" That one was taken off, the spare put on and the noise disappeared

Having owned a succesion of Lancia Betas in various flavours, coupes and an HPE, I would not be too worried about a patch over that rust. Any Lancia fan would consider that a mere blemish.

I've just checked my oil, pic of dipstick as first pulled out. X marks the level of oil cover. The actual level was on the lower limit mark. It gives such an obvious false reading after standing a while that you wipe the stick and dip it again. It doesn't show the level, it is picking up the oil from somewhere

I have to wipe the dipstick and 're-dip' with my 1.4 16V BBZ to get a correct reading. What would be useful would for the manufacturer to provide a note of how much oil is needed, say, per 5 mm of dipstick.

When I got my 1.4 16v it had the cap fitted straight onto the cam cover, that made refilling the oil a bit of a chore with pulling the engine cover off. I bought an extension on eBay from Latvia of all places to make the job easier. It's just push and twist like the cap.

One thing that I forgot to mention, the noise I thought was from a front wheel bearing turned out to be a distorted wheel on the rear. Can you not put the spare on each corner in turn to check if one particular wheel is the problem ?

It was the 'woo woo' noise that made me think it was a bearing problem, it wasn't.

Yes, it was not that visible but enough to cause the noise. wheel balancing checks radial balance not 'side to side' so doesn't pick it up.

I had a noise that I thought was a wheel bearing, I had a check done but the garage said that they could detect no fault in the wheel bearings. I also had the wheel balance checked, nothing wrong. At the last MOT I had an advisory; Nearside Rear Road wheel slightly distorted (5.2.2 (c) (i)) I ditched that wheel and replaced it and since there has been silence, problem solved.

You mean the errrr eeee errrr every time you go over a speed bump ? Mines been doing that for 30,000 miles plus and three MOTs, it's one of my 'Fabia Mk 1 things not to worry about'

My heater control is dodgy, sometimes max heat, sometimes freezing, a vigorous turning the knob back and forth will sometimes make it settle on a set temperature; sometimes going over a bump will reset it. I suspect it requires demolition of the dash to fix it so I resign myself to the fact that I bought a mark 1 Fabia and should learn to live with such faults.

I use the same rubber pad for that purpose too, quick wheel change, use on sill, longer job trolley jack elsewhere and axle stands. The pad I use has a square bottomed groove but the v shape should work effectively.

If you mean to jack the car using the one supplied with the car, there are dents in the sill to indicate where to put the jack. If I use a hydraulic jack I have a hard rubber pad which is grooved to span the seam so that it isn't crushed.

I had the same 'oil leak' advisory. As they don't remove the under tray thing they can't see where the oil is coming from. In my case it was probably from an unexpected 'gloop' when I was adding oil that had run down the engine. I did nothing and there was no oil leak the next year.

I used to get that, cleared it but it would come back again weeks/ months later. The car ran just as well with the error as without it so it didn't bother me. I had a coil pack go down and a new one fitted and I've not had an error since.

I use fuelly.com to record fuel purchases. Best recorded was a full tank through on motorways travelling at 'lorry speed' with wind behind

thank you. I'll have a look in the light tomorrow, seems a cheap and easy fix if it's the switch.

Where is it located ? I'm having intermittent faults when selecting reverse, sometimes I get a beep, sometimes not. Sometimes the lights come on sometimes not. I have reversing sensors that were there from new which now don't work.