J.R.

Water pump or coolant leak?

A pre EU5 diesel engined car would immediately half the OP's fuel consumption on short runs, here diesel is cheaper than petrol so an additional saving, not sure if that applies in the UK. Unlike a petrol engine which will be running an enriched mixture (think old school choke) until it has reached operating temperature there is no enrichment on a diesel after the compression ignition cycle is sustained without preheating, so a matter of seconds. My car is doing 44-48mpg at the one mile mark, most of my journeys are short ones to town (4km) and stop start around town, it returns 50mpg overall on those trips, the 4km out 4km return trip to my favored routier restaurant return 57mpg. And that is with a 4wd Yeti with the frontal area and drag coefficient of a barn door. Sadly the monetary advantages of diesel power on short journeys has been wiped out post EU4 with the particulate filters.

I appreciate that it is super cheap in todays stupid market but that is double the price of what a vehicle with similar mileage but half the age was worth before the stupidity started.

A sensor reference voltage will be a regulated 5v (connector removed), I havn't trusted Haynes manuals for decades and am very suspicious of that extract because it speaks of testing the solenoid.

I try to cover all angles, I have a space saver spare carried all the time now instead of rear seats although I am wondering did I put a jack underneath everything? I have a mushroom plug machine that could only work for a front wheel still on the car and also on the outer tread. I have a tyre plug kit for repairs on or off of the vehicle.

I can, you must have driven very few vehicles or from one or few manufacturers. I have had scores of cars and driven hundreds, I have owned only one with a pull up collar for reverse gear. It takes a significant downwards push to overcome the reverse gear gate detent, its not good practice to rest your hand on the gearlever while driving as it will wear the gear selector forks eventually preventing engagement of top gear on a 6 speed box. Not only do you have to overcome the downwards resistance of the detent spring but you also have to push sideways against resistance to engage reverse gear, maybe someone should check for the correct operation of the detent springs.

Measured connected to the regulator or disconnected? Is pin 1 the supply voltage to the sensor or the output?

The female receptacles for the spade terminals on the relay plate not gripping the relay terminals. I dont know the relay plate construction but if there are any soldered junctions then a dry joint would be probable, if solid tracks then possibly corrosion from water ingress.

Control loading cam & spring. Proof is that it does it in at the bottom of the downstroke and at the top of the upstroke which is the control loading action, the peak of the cam is at the mid-point.

That is a stable voltage taking into consideration engine revs, current draw from lights, screen heater etc and recharging after a cold start. 13.2v would be plausible at traffic lights after having driven a couple of miles. 14.2v plausible at higher revs after cold start or with higher current loads. The flickering and shut down sounds like a fracture in the alternator field excitation wire, I believe this happens on the Fabia, someone else hopefully will confirm and explain where to check.

90ma is massive. That said if the way you are measuring prevents the canbus modules from going into sleep mode then its plausible. The following is for Octavia platform vehicles, it should be the same for Fabias but I frequently get things wrong where they are simpler, others will correct me if I am wrong. 10 minutes is probably long enough but 20 will be for sure, disregard those who say an hour or several hours. All the doors and bonnet must be locked for the Can network to shut down (after a while) leaving the bonnet open or reopening it to take a voltage reading at the battery will prevent the Can network from shutting down or re-awaken it resulting in a false high reading for parasitic consumption. Disconnecting a battery terminal to take a current reading (I dont trust low current DC readings from a clamp meter) will also wake things up. The best way is to connect the meter in series on a 10 amp current range using crocodile clips or something else to maintain the contact, force closed the bonnet latch mechanism so the BCM thinks the bonnet is closed. Lock the car and come back to take readings at 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 and 20 minutes, you should see the current drop down to the region of 15-30ma. Have you by any chance fitted an aftermarket radio or dashcam etc?

Not lucky, it was a considered diagnosis, the rough running from cold and the temperature gauge implausibility pointed to a temperature sender fault.

In the fusebox, the its location, the fuse number and rating will be in the owners manual if you have one, if not then ask Google.

Parasitic current drain.

Why do you want a picture? The answer to your question is the coil windings are copper winding wire, their usual failure mode is their connection to the connector terminals. What water does a cup of water contain except for the water in the cup?

Keep digging 😀

🤣🤣🤣

You have likely blown the fuse, the pumps take a substantial current and are on the limit of the rated supply, restarting when hot against pressure is often too much, the pumps dont last long either before cooking their windings with the same result. I once used one which had a long lead to inflate an air mattress in my tent, the power lead melted through the tent groundsheet.

Starter pinion will spin freely on the one way sprag clutch if the solenoid sticks or the key is held in the starter position. Given that it only happens on a cold start I would be looking at the vehicles other one way sprag clutch, the one on the alternator pulley.

Apologies, I misread your posting I took the "second one" to mean the second clutch but reading it again it is very clear you speak of different cars.

That is really early for a driver like yourself with mechanical sympathy, I would expect 3 times that minimum, was it the DMF that let go?

I agree with you but it can if it is driven by someone like I was in my 20's with company lease hire Sierra XR4x4's, max RPM clutch sidestepping from a standstill, doesn't sound like that is the case with the OP though. I think my Yeti was driven by similar uncaring youth idiots like me, maybe several of them as a pool vehicle, I replaced the clutch at 80K miles due to DMF failure, already very early, I found that it had already been replaced once and the pressure plate was blued and massively dished (80 thou!) and only engaging on the outer face, given it was an asthmatic 108hp model I'm pretty sure it had been doing max RPM drag starts. A 2wd version would have spun the wheels, a 4x4 variant transmits all the transient torque and inertia although the peak torque limiter would have slowed down the take up which probably explained the blueing. The OP's noise will be the release bearing which is not stressed by power transmission be it 2wd or 4wd.

But if the Man Tran identifies at DSG 😄

Manual or automatic transmission?

If its the same programming nonsense you need to select the function and do no more, just wait, it's a battle of wills!!!!