totoro

the dimensioned drawing gives a 611mm boot cill height which is easier to measure than the roof height.

You can get to the catch mechanism from inside

Passenger door.

My doors kept locking and unlocking, randomly, for a while and then the passenger door wouldn't open except on rare occasions. A replacement mechanism from Ebay cost £13.75* and works perfectly, no more random behaviour over the year since it was fitted. I see the price is now £19*

My service schedule booklet states that the belt should be 'inspected' at 90,000 km (60,000 miles), there is nothing at all stated about changing it. It suggests at least 75,000 without any worry and thousands of miles more after further inspections. My own opinion is that it's a money making opportunity for dealers and garages. I had a Fat Strada that did in excess of 250,000 miles without any attention, on the original belt..

Back in the sixties, in an aircraft factory, we'd drop a bearing into a bucket of freon to shrink it so that we'd get a good interference fit.

Another vote for T-cut, I've tried the wet and dry paper rigmarole that did nothing. I found an old tube of T-cut paste and did the job in minutes.

I bought mine, first reg Dec 03, two and a half years ago with 114,000 miles on it, it's now approaching 140,000 miles. I had a new clutch fitted a few months back, other than that no problems at all apart from electrical gremlins in a door switch. It's nice to get in a car and have it start first touch of the key. I take the back seats out completely to give more room for stuff. As far as I know it's still on the original timing belt. I don't drive it hard and my Fuelly records show 45.1 mpg. It's nice to have some power in reserve, the 100hp allows you to get on smartly if required. It's one of the nicest cars I've had, if it breaks I'd look for another. Depending on the price, it could be a really good buy. the engine on mine still runs sweetly. One thing to consider when buying a Skoda Fabia Mk1 is the superb technical advice you'll get here.

I just built up the door seal with gaffer tape, effective, cheap and can be done quickly. It stops the leaks and saves time, time you can then spend sorting out electrical gremlins.

I've just had a replacement clutch fitted to my BBZ engined Mk1 The parts were £60, 'Oh', people will cry, 'It won't last as long as the expensive ones.' The original clutch did 138,000 miles, if I get another 50,000 I'll be happy, it will outlast the rest of the car http://www.precisionclutch.co.uk/Categories/1/Clutches.html ask for a quote and they will check what you need. A local garage charged 3.5 hours labour.

I set mine to about 20, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it will start working randomly. Switching it backwards and forwards sometimes works. I am resigned to it, it's a Fabia and it is probably an electrical fault and it's only to be expected.

When I got my car, 24,000 miles ago I thought the front wheel bearing was noisy, 'wait until it gets worse and then bring it in'. It's still the same. Now at 139,000 and they've never been changed.

The fuel pump has become noticeably noisy, how long before failure do you reckon? When I bought the car I thought the wheel bearing was slightly noisy, garage said not to worry but carry on until it got really noisy, 25,000 miles later it's not got any worse. Should I change the pump, there are some cheap units on eBay or s/h ones locally, it doesn't look to be a difficult job? 1.4 16v

In the olden days we used to puff talcum powder onto surfaces around the suspected leak area, you can see where water tracks across. Cheaper and might improve the smell in the car

I'm guessing that the signal to the relay that there's a trailer on the back breaks the circuit to the sensors. The sensors don't see the ball hitch. Fixing the wiring should be a simple enough task , most aftermarket 'kits' would probably have an option.

My Estate has a factory fitted tow bar and has reversing sensors, no problem.

I've had a look at other posts here that mention the engine cover. 'Grasp firmly and lift off' seems to be the myth peddled by most owners. I'm not sure that mine is removable short of using a length of 4 x 2 to lever it off. You can see that the opening for the oil fill cap and the cap don't line up, is this a case similar to 'cross-threading' of bolts and that some measure of brute force is called for ? What will I break ? Is it the right cover for the model ? The identifying trim is missing from this cover what should it look like ? I've only had the car a couple of weeks and am in the process of getting to know it. The heater fan speed problem was sorted easily with help from this forum, I'm hoping for the same here.