Alasdair1

Cant hear the noise from your clip but my hearing is a bit shot. Wondering if its the brake servo vaccum unit itself thats leaking rather than the hoses. Its the only thing I can think of that would make a noise near pedals. Alasdair

Does sound like something is hiting something. wonder if the tensioner is failing and chain is becoming loose and hitting the inside of casing. Reckon it needs investigating as lat thing you want is it to jump a few teeth. Try a length of garden hose with one end to your ear and move the other around engine to see if you can pinpoint it. I used to have an old volvo that made that noise. It was the alternator that the bearings failed and the sound was the fan like bit hitting the alternator. Used to do it when accelerating. Alasdair

I fitted KYB HD springs to my mk2 1.9tdi estate. Made a big difference when fully loaded but found it a bit bumpy when empty. I then replaced the shocks as all though they looked ok I reckon they were weak. Car was excellent after that. There were two options one for sports suspension and the other for standard. Part numbers for mine were RH6789 for HD springs standard suspension. According to KYB cat its RA6162 for sport suspension. Alasdair

You could swap coil packs to see if the misfire moves with the coil pack. If it does it needs replacing. Had a quick look online and 11836 comes up as cylinder disabling. Think it happens when misfire/problem and stops fuel to the problem cylinder. If the swapping coil packs makes no difference then perhaps HT leads or sparkplug. If that doesnt cure it then it may be an injector fault or try a compression test? Alasdair

I agree with not driving it. It looks like its alloy and paint thats come off. If the other is fine I would leave it but monitor it unless they are fairly reasonably priced. I reckon it might be an idea to get in touch with the manufacturer. I dont think it should corode or break like that. I have had paint come off on all of my calipers with age but not alloy as well plus that does look like a crack. Alasdair

Problem here in Inverness is the good ones are always very busy with at least a week waiting time. Ok if its a planned service etc but if its a breakdown then your stuck with halfords/quickfit/etc. Have had good reports about a couple of mobile mechanics but they are limited in what they can do on the drive way and also very busy. One of the reasons I try and do it myself is to keep cost down and also I know whats been done to my car. Last breakdown was a failed clutch slave which a random garage fixed at a price as I was away from home but didn't tighten gearbox bolts afterwards. Noticed them loose when I was changing oil. At least they tightened the drive shafts. Alasdair

I agree with brakes. First pic is ok but the others are poor. Replacing discs and pads as said is easy and shouldnt cost a lot. Been using APEC discs and pads for a while now and no probs. Fairly reasonable price wise as well. If your fabia is like my sons the discs come off once the caliper is removed. No need to take carrier off. Last time took about an hour to do both fronts which included cleaning up carrier and calipers etc. Good luck with finding a decent garage. Might be worth puting a post up on here in case someone local to you can reccomend one. I found a new garage that can do MOT same/next day as I forgot. Was reccomended it by my local motor factors. Seemed pretty decent and not too fancy. Checked car over, put in for MOT, passed with no advisories and charged me £50. I left £20-00 for the coffee jar. Proper garage without carpets!! My go to garage when I dont have time to do it myself has retired. Its a bit of a mine field trying to find another decent honest one that doesnt cost a fortune. Alasdair

Sons got GT radial 4 seasons on his 1.2 fabia. They were £70-00 per tyre fitted and balanced. Excellent in winter with loads of grip and pretty good wet grip as well. I have GT radial fe2 summer on my octavia and find them excellent. Gt radial 4 seasons is B wet grip and Summer Fe2 is A wet grip. Alasdair

Before you go ahead and buy one worth checking contacts to starter and battery contacts are good as well as the condition of the battery. Sons fabia was slow to turn over. I removed cables from starter and the supply was a bit coroded. Gave it a clean up and its been fine since. Had failing battery in my old van and starter was down on speed as well.

Fix the brakes and wait till the next MOT. You can book it in early to give you time to repair anything that fails. Discs and pads all round is a fairly straight forward job and shouldn't cost that much. If the caliper is seizing then it will need replaced but it could be as simple as pads rusted/sticking in place or slider pins on caliper requiring cleaned and regreases with silicone. As said labour charge seems excessive but hourly rate is similar to most specialist garages and a lot cheaper than the dealer. Parts seem about right. You could mention the labour charges that should really be combined and see what they say. My old garage used to quote similar but that was to cover themselves in case it took a long time. If I got a quote they said that that would be the maximum but depending on how things came apart would probably be less and it usually was. Alasdair

Had a few bad front wheel bearings and no vibration through steering wheel. Reckon they would have to be really bad to cause any vibration. Try turning left or right when you notice the hum. In my case it got less if I steered slightly left or right. Bearings didn't feel bad at all when I spun them by hand. Were pretty smooth but maybe slightly tight in comparison to new ones. New bearings and no annoying hum. 0.4mm isnt too bad on tyres at all. Mine were at least 1mm but I put it down to me constantly turning slightly left/right without realising to silence the hum. Got the alignment checked when I got new tyres and it was spot on. Alasdair

Put a post up on here for reccomendations. As said I'm sure theres someone on here that can point you in the direction of someone good and reliable at a reasonable price. Alasdair

I did the timing belt and pump on my octy and no drain plug either. Couldn't find a drain on the engine block either so drained via the bottom rad hose but got soaked when I removed pump as there was a fair bit still in the block. Most of my old cars had block drain and rad drain points. Either I missed them or they don't bother fitting anymore. Alasdair

Lucky here as I have presicion engine services in town that are excellent at checking and refurb injectors. Last lot was for an old toyota people carrier. Charged me £40 per injector to clean and test plus new nozzles. If your getting them refurbed then someone on here will know where to send them and also a reputable company . A lot of them say refurb but could have just been cleaned???. Try a couple of bottles of injector cleaner through the fuel to see if it helps. Alasdair

I did it on a combination of axle stands and car ramps. I cut the pipe back to good pipe roughly and managed to bend it enough to get a small pipe cutter on it. Mine had gone at both rear wheels and also down I think left hand side. I filled brake reservoir to top and sealed with some thin plastic under cap to try and reduce the amount of fluid coming out before cutting and made up a small rubber pipe that push fitted over old pipe with sealed end to give me time to make new pipe and fit it without losing too much fluid but still got covered in brake fluid. Managed to bleed the rear althouh it took a fair bit to get the last bit of air out. Think I eventually used a pressure bleed kit. Alasdair

I had same on mine in a few locations. I just cut pipe back to good and fabricated a new copper length with a joiner using a brake flaring tool. Getting the end out of caliper was tricky but if you cut the pipe flush you can get a six sided socket on it. Less likely to round it off. I sprayed with wd 40 and then used a bit of heat and then penetrating oil. Eventually managed to get it undone. Main problem is the nut was seized to the pipe. Have joined loads of brake pipes in the past and replaced with copper and never a problem with MOT. Make sure there is no corosion showing where the pipe clips to the car. They will fail it as they can see corosion but cant see behind the clips. Alasdair

I had probems with my sons fabia clutch kit. There are two sizes available but emailed LUK (Schaeffler) with detais etc and they came back within a few hours to confirm fitment. They were very helpfull and very quick at getting back to me. Alasdair

If the bush is 72mm then I would reckon the hole should be just very slightly smaller (fraction of mm) to get a tight fit. 4mm I reckon is way too much difference unless they are rubber. What fabia have you got. engine plus age and is it an estate? Alasdair

Not sure if it will work but might be worth changing ECU relay/fuse. If its failing it would explain why it happens when hot. Think its in the unit near battery but not exactly sure which one it is. Alasdair

Might be a break in wire but I assume it would throw up an error code as before if the wiring was faulty. Try disconnecting battery for a while and reconnecting. It should reset the car. Also check the strip fuses in front of battery for hairline cracks. They are sometimes almost impossible to see. Alasdair

I know. My son ended up taking the old filter into our local motorfactors to get the right one. The original one he got was square but the one fitted is a different shape. Alasdair

My sons fabia has a choice of two different ones. Best option is to remove yours and match up with whats available. There may even be a part number on the old one for cross ref. Alasdair

Have a look at GT radial FE2. Have summer on my Octavia and there excellent. (second set) plus also on my old Seat. Son has all season on his fabia and they are excellent as well. Good in the wet and loads of grip. They are around £75-00 per tyre fitted and if you order online my tyre service gives you discount. £15 off two and £40 of four. Alasdair

It could also be the antenna thats failing. Not DAB radio but my octavia stopped receiving certain stations. It was the amplifier in roof ariel that had water ingress. Alasdair

I got away with just lubricating the actuator as it was sticking at a certain point and causing overboost. I hope yours is the same and its not the turbo fins that are stuck. I had to manually operate actuator for a good while before it became free again. Hope the new sensor curres the problem. Alasdair