Alasdair1

Yep thats the same as mine just in blue. Your right absolute godsend. Used both chains so I could raise and lower engine plus having gearbox suspended makes it a bit easier to wiggle into place and no chance of dropping it. Previous cars have had to use trolley jacks. Nightmare to get it right by yourself and to stop the gearbox falling off plus you need two to drop engine and support gearbox. This is the first FWD I have done myself. I do miss my rear wheel drive cars. 4 bolts propshaft off then a few more and gearbox out with loads of space. FWD are a nightmare especially the drive shafts and lack of space. Looking for a 4 post lift. There not that expensive second hand and reckon it would pay for itself in no time plus it means you can get to the underside for rust protection etc which up in Inverness kills cars very quickly. Have a project I need to start as I got given a MK1 Mazda Eunos 1.8 auto (MX5 import) which is in pretty good condition. Alasdair

This is the one I got. Worked a treat and for £50-00 it saved me a lot of hassle. Says it will support 500kg. Hopefully wont be using it mucch but its brilliant for changing engine support brackets etcc.

I ended up adding every 3/8 extension bar I haave and just made it. Problem now is getting flange to match up with shaft. Alasdair

Didn't faancy the angle grinder under car. Its petrol and the amount of releasol I was spraying reckon it wasnt a good idea. I had a thought that if I pop the alignment dowels out of engine and put them in gearbox. That allowed me to drop metal plate enough to get flange in then had to fiddle with the plate while I aligned box and pop in it went eventually. I got a cross beam support that fits accross wings to raise engine plus used it to support gearbox so I could move it up and down. I would reccomend one. Got it of ebay for about £50-00. It looks the same as the sealey one but a lot cheaper.

My old octavia had a 3.5mm jack socket marked aux which was for adding MP3 player etc. My latest one has a USB style socket and on my sons 06 Fabis theres nothing. You change the radio setting to Aux and you can listen through the cars sound system. I assume this was before bluetooth/wifi etc. I also found a multi cd changer in boot in left hand side pocket which I didn't know I had. Alasdair

Will double check. Think I left them in or marked them but will check. Recckon I might trim the plate between the box and the engine to clear the flange. It seems to be slightly proud at that point. Don't think I could get the flange off and then back on again once the box is in place. Its bad enough getting to the drive shaft/flange bolts. Alasdair

Hi there Managed to get gearbox out, well half way out and suspended so I could get to the clutch. Couple of problems like flange hitting metal plate between gearbox and engine. plus a few other bits catching on just about everything so decided to leave it half in car. should be able to change fork etc and give it a good clean. Good news is its dry with no contamination. Old clutch disc was very worn on gearbox side but didnt look like it was slipping. Once removed the reason the clutch failed instantly was obvious, flywheel side of disk had totalled itself and disintegrated . Bottom of bell housing was full of shredded disc. All that was left was metal and a few slightly polished rivets. Dont see any damage to flywheel so think it should be ok. At least it wasn't the gearbox. Going to fit new clutch tomorrow and see if I can get the box back in again which doesn't look easy but it came out so should go back in. Thanks for all the help with this one. Will post a pic of the old clutch if I can. Alasdair

Many thaanks Pete, I reckon I'm good. Have axle stands under car on square chassis looking lengths plus also sills and built up wheels under sills as well.

I have been using them as well but wasn't sure if they were suitable. Been ok so far but got a bit worried as Skoda say the only approved points are the sills. Probably just covering themselves. I tend to put axle stands under sills and also under the box section running along the underside. Alasdair

Hi there appologies if this has already been covered but I need to jack up my Fabia mk1 a fair height to remove gearbox. Where is the best place to put a trolley jack apart from the sill as I need to put axle stands there. I Can't jack near to the mark on the sill cause the axle stands base are too big. Was thinking of using the end of the front suspension swing arm mount where it meets the car/chassis . Wondered if there is a prefered solid spot for a trolley jack. Really Don't like using sills, My current Octavia has a slightly crimped sill due to I assume a previous owner missing the jacking point or perhaps its a weak point as both octavias I have have similar damage in the same place.

Well done. Mine dropped completely and had to drive 30 miles in subzero with slush all the way home. They never fail in the summer. Alasdair

My Sons fabia lighter socket is the same. It works with one charger and also works his bluetooth/wifi adapter but the other two chargers don't work. Not sure why. May be either poor internal connection in socket or perhaps a voltage problem due to poor connection. He could do with another so was thinking of adding an aftermarket socket in the dash somewhere. Was thinking of somethig like this and hard wiring it in.

I was out at 6 as well. Damn cold and very slippy roads. Good idea getting rid of the locking/security nuts. I have had two times that they have snapped. First was by me but I had a spare so no problem managed to get rid of them but the second time it was the only one in the car. Tyre service got three wheels off then snap. It was a nightmare to remove plus our local Skoda dealer wasn't very helpful. Ended up getting a mate to weld a nut onto the wheel bolt to remove it. I now swap them for standard bolts on all my cars. Also When they snapped they looked more like alloy than steel. Don't think anyone would bother stealing a bog standard alloy these days unless it was for the tyres. Alasdair

There also the opposite I also remember when we were on holiday in a caravan and I grounded my old volvo 940 and hit the cat and exhaust started blowing, ended up all day under the car in midsummer which was roasting realining the exhaust joints. I was ok cause I was in the shade of the car and kept cool apart from my bare feet which were sticking out. They got so sun burnt I couldn't walk for days. Spent hours just standing in the sea to get them to cool down. Still would put up with burnt feet rather than frostbite. Alasdair

Thanks Pete, Will watch it later on. Sitting in front of fire to warm up. Gave up when I couldn't feel my hands anymore. Really need to make a door for the shed. Why do cars always break down in the cold or wet. Alasdair

Thanks for that. Have sprayed all bolts with release fluid and going to let them soak for a while. Was thinking of splitting exhaust at middle section or removing it as its a new front section a few weeks ago so should come off easily so I can lower engine more. Will have a look for the bolts you mention. There is always one thats hidden or a nightmare to get to. Going to do as much as I can today and Halfords tomorrow for higher jack etc. Taking it slow anyway as its -3C in the open building the cars in. Reckon I got till 3-30 this afternoon before the sun goes down behind the hill behind us and the temp drops too much for working. Many thanks Alasdair

Many thanks as usual. Cant see oil coming out unless I turn it upside down and as said a couple of kilos not going to make much difference. My only problem will be how high to get the car jacked up to get the box out. I will be lifting it manually although I made a flat bed scissor lift trolley for a massive autobox in a toyota lucida so hoping I can get it underneath. Been meaning to get a larger trolley jack plus a couple of extra axle stands for extra safety anyway. Just removed starter motor and it was full of what looks very like whats left of the clutch disc which would explain the sudden loss of drive in all gears. So far everything has come off easily and all the bolts etc look like new. Just the drive shaft ones and gearbox to engine to go. Alasdair

Hi there finally getting around to removing gearbox on a 1.2htp 06 plate to check clutch etc. Haynes manual states to drain first but I wondered if its required. Quite often find that you can bypass quite a few of the Haynes instructions. Gear box has flanges that the drive shaft connect to so cant see any way oil would come out. I was also going to try leaving the drive shafts connected at the wheel end as Haynes says to remove nearside one for extra working room if needed. Many thanks Alasdair

As long as the car is insured and MOT then you can tax it using the green slip online so insure first then tax, I assume you mean the small green slip that was given to you by the previous owner.

I can change vehicles on my Churchill policy online and its instant. Theres two options 1 is temporary and 2 is permananent. If there is extra to pay I can also do it online and if there is a refund (rarely happens they transfer it back to my account. Some companies will charge you to do it by phone. This year my premium went up by £150, I phoned them to see if I could get a cheaper quote but was told no so I used Martin lewis comparison site and got a much better quote with the excess reduced to only £100. It was still with Churchill so just paid for the policy and stopped the auto renew on the old one just in case. Went through ok. Still don't get why I got a much better deal from the same Insurance company? Alasdair

When it happened did you have any dash lights etc or was anything on the car working like lights wipers etc or was it completely dead. The fact that it zeroed the MPG sounds to me like a battery/connection/power failure. Might be worth getting it scanned for fault codes just in case its an ECU problem. If it was an ignition switch problem I assume the ECU would still have power. Alasdair

I got a towtrust towbar from Towbars UK. I actually fitted it to a seat but the quality of tow bar etc was excellent. I got the bypass wiring kit as well. The instructions were excellent and it was fairly easy to fit. I had to run a fused live from the battery through the car to supply the relay. Been on the car for 3 years now and no signs of rust etc. When I went to fit it there was a unit to connect to but if I remember correctly the car had to be reprogrammed to let it know a tow bar was fitted hence I went for the bypass. It wasnt a swan neck and doesnt stick out too much so you don't crack your shins everytime you go to the boot. The bumper cut was a bit awkward and in my case reconnecting the reversing sensors was a pain. Alasdair

If its the turbo veins stuck I have seen folks recomending spraying Mr Muscle oven cleaner into it to clear the carbon. Never tried it as it to me seems a bit dodgy. Read something about not getting the cleaner on alloy as it tends to eat it. Hope its just a stuck actuator. There is on mine a vaccum unit on top of engine to the right of the egr valve that I assume does EGR and turbo etc. I originally bought a replacement for about £30-00 on ebay as I wrongly assumed it was the problem. It could also be the diaphram in the actuator that has gone. I don't think they are repairable. If it wont free up then a replacement isn't too expensive. I remember finding a few on ebay for around £40-00. I put the car on a couple of ramps and removed undertray to get to it. Not the most accessible place and you get a sore neck while your at it. Would be a lot easier on garage lift. Alasdair

I had similar problems in my 1.9tdi It would go into limp mode randomly. If I stopped car and restarted and it was fine for a random amount of time. It did get progressively worse. Think it was the same error code. My turbo is VNT. I tried manually operating the actuator and it seemed very stiff and sticking at one point. I sprayed the actuator with some penetrating oil and spent ages operating it by hand. It eventually became easier and stopped sticking. Seems to have cured the problem. I assumed it was a vaccum problem and the garage assumed it was the veins on the turbo that were stuck. Might be worth a look Alasdair

Not sure if its rellevant but is the rear wiper connected/linked to the boot lock switch/interior light similar to the the front wipers that don't work with the bonnet up. The front ones caught me out once. Thought they had failed but I had the bonnet open doing a service. Alasdair