Cheapas

Hi Sepulchrave, Thanks, read that. So according to that , above 8 bad, below 5 bad mine then at 6 clicks is perfect!?? As I said tester passed it like this last year , it's just his comment that confused me.

Thanks for all the replies and advice. To bore you all more car does 2 x 65 mile trips a week to and from work , mainly motorway, early hours or late night. Then dumped in yard/ road. Past 3 cars all had rear drum set up, never had to replace drums /shoes due to actual wear in 15 years unless contaminated by occasional leaking wheel cylinder. With the mileage and type of journeys I do there is no real wear from the backs. MOT is due April this year , so no fresh ticket yet. Spartacus 68: Thanks, and yes with all previous cars if left safely used to leave in gear, handbrake off. Tip I picked up in Germany in 80s, it was used to prevent brakes freezing on in winter. Wanted to carry this on with the Fabia, but I'm sure I read somewhere on here that this can lead to slack in the balance chain if left parked in gear. This is way above my knowledge , so if anyone more knowledge could advise please do. I found buried in the service history it has had a new balance shaft fitted at 3 years old , presumably under warranty.

Thanks xman for the reference. I had found that already, most advice I've read says slacken handbrake cable, sort brake shoe adjustment then adjust cable . Had an MOT failure years ago on rear drums simply because they never really got used ; ie car is only used on motorway, no stop/ start. 5 mins with some sandpaper to remove glaze, car passed. Lesson learned. Clean brakes up every year now, and ensure shoes adjusted to drums but I've never adjusted the cable on the fabia, so maybe it's just that it needs. Was just curious why no advisory on test cert , should have asked him at time, but with Covid small talk not encouraged.

Thanks for the replies. Jeez JR, wind your neck in I only asked for advice which I thought was the point of a forum, your reply was a bit aggressive. Xman and Urban Panzer thanks, what you say makes sense. Handbrake has been sticking for a while, but I strip brakes every year to clean up, drums and shoes have plenty of life. Car has full Skoda service history from previous owner ( can you believe £144 to change pads?) , no record of cable change. I'll try the adjustment you suggested.

Hi all, 2008 1.4 fabia greenline tdi. Last MOT car passed but tester mentioned he was in two minds whether to fail on handbrake. He passed car but said handbrake lever had long travel, but worked. Strangely he didn't put an advisory on the certificate. Next MOT due April. So this being my first skoda and fabia my question is what is acceptable handbrake travel on a fabia? I've just tried it, on 6 clicks car won't move, rock solid. It then has 1 further click available. Would this constitute a pass? At the back of my mind didn't the parameters change from amount of clicks allowed to actual handbrake performance a few years ago? Any advice gratefully received.

Hi rum4mo thanks for reply. Yes I'll stick with my old style jump pack, especially as I usually leave for work at 3am ish. Sure it's a bit more weight to lug around but they are dependable. Was put off in past by cost of replacement battery for jump pack being so expensive, but they seem to have got cheaper. New style lithium jumpers look attractive but 3am on an icy morning not sure I'd want to rely on one. On a happy note as I mentioned above ECP changed under warranty faulty Lion battery which I upgraded to a Varta blue. Changed battery in their car park ,drove home 4 miles and dumped car. Today had to go for Covid test for rtn to work and it started no hesitation after 8 days sitting there and did several stop/starts around test center with no hesitation unlike the 18 month old Lion battery that always had a hesitation b4 starting. One good buy last year was an Aldi trickle charger. Was going to go down the Ceteck route but for £17 ish took a chance and it works. Even revived wife's totally flat battery after my air con 'repair/ bypass ahem' left battery flat. Interesting story about your work colleague. I presume they're not confident/ knowledge enough to buy and fit a battery from a factors themselves. Would have hoped the fast fit place replaced battery under guarantee for them . Even the cheap Lion battery from ECP came with a 3yr guarantee and the Varta with a 4 yr one. Shows how they've come on over the years, dragging my memory back to the 1980s/1990s , think if you got over a year from a battery it was a result, and they certainly didn't come with several years guarantee.

Thanks Murdockman for reply. You've really echoed my own thoughts . After spending all Xmas procrastinating did what you did and ordered replacement battery for jump pack off Tanya Batteries yesterday. £ 30 for 17ah battery should hopefully rejuvenate my jump pack for another year or so. Was a bit unsure if 17ah would be enough , but Tanya reckoned ok so we will see. On the few occasions in the past that I've had to use it , just attaching jump pack was enough to top up car battery to start car first go. On a side note a bit of praise for Yusa batteries. Six years ago had palpitations when mechanic fitted one to our 1.5dci Megane for £90. Six years of school runs /shop runs still going fine, with the occasional trickle charge as it gets older. Not always worth going the cheap route.

Wow, thanks for quick reply Roottoot, I look a bit of a wally not finding that myself!

Hi all, sorry if this is maybe in wrong section. So battery went down on our 2008 fabia greenline 1.4 tdi. Bit surprised as it was only 18months old, one of Euro car parts budget line Lion make. They changed it without blinking an eye and after a chat let me upgrade it to a varta blue with a discount. Anyway my question is this. We have always had the old style jump pack Clarke or Halfords over the years but the internal battery won't hold a charge anymore. New quality battery can be bought for £40 ish to rejuvenate jump pack ( Halfords 100). But I've been researching all Xmas the new style lithium power packs, obviously smaller and lighter. Trouble is most of the reviews are American based, and the rare uk ones are on petrol cars. So does anyone have any real life experience with these newer style packs specifically on diesel cars ? Presume they must be tested harder due to glow plug electric consumption before turning engine over. Or just replace battery in old pack? Any advice/ thoughts welcome. Thanks

Nope. £93 at Barkingside registry office paid myself . Wife ( who really should have known better) sent me to Tesco for the wedding cake. Unfortunately for her they had a birthday cake on offer for £3. MIL not impressed but £6 is £6 and we'd been together 7 years already. Did you get your air con and clutch done? Still blowing cold in ours.

Took me a while to research the correct oil for the Greenline. Not helped by there being quite a few offers on cheap oil at the time, along with me being the tightest man alive according to the wife. However went with the correct specification oil due to the engine type. On other diesels we've owned just used to use the cheapest going, but I've always changed oil/ filter annually regardless of how small mileage covered and at max 6000 miles. Small price to pay for engine longevity. I did find all the VW/ low saps / pump dose etc etc specs a bit confusing, even the factor I used initially got the spec wrong.