rum4mo

Just guessing, probably not the speaker, I'm guessing that when the system is getting enabled, it performs a self test - fails that test and so shuts down until next wakened up.

Halfords sells a clip to hold that link arm in place, I've never needed to find out how good a work around fitting that would be - I'm mentioning that as most people can reach a Halfords branch. When my older daughter's 2002 6K SEAT Ibiza ended up with its wiper arms fighting destructively, I just bought a new pair of link arms and probably a new wiper arm, it was winter time and it needed fixing quickly, plus at that time, maybe 2006, I was not aware of them repair clips.

Ah, so you can feel that the handle is trying to do something AND the washer fluid is not spraying out of the rear spray head, sounds a lot like the washer fluid is leaking inside the rear hatch and that that has given the electric hatch release a problem - maybe. All will be revealed later!

It might be that your parking sensors are just stuck to the inner surface of the rear bumper cover using strong sticky pads - and that is what has failed. Audi, at least, used to have plastic welded mounting brackets for its factory fitted parking sensors to clip/snap into, when I retrofitted front parking sensor to my Audi, I just used some very strong "structural" Araldite as I didn't want/need to get that front bumper cover off again just for that sort of job. So, yes, unless you can reach up with thin strong hands and arms, to get the old sticky tape off and fit new stuff, I'd think that you will find that you have to remove the bumper cover. I'd think that in your local ambient temperatures, that substituting double sided sticky pads for a good strong adhesive could be a good idea - and check the other sensors while the bumper cover is off so that you will not need to get back under there again some time later. Having that sensor hole "open" will not cause any risk from water as the bumper cover is a sort of plastic and the parking sensor is sealed.

The behaviour of the flashing indicator on the driver's door is telling you that there is a fault malfunction in the doors locking system, it should give a single flash with a long period between flashes if the door locking has been performed correctly and there is currently no system faults. This still all points to something probably being wrong with the wiring section between the body and the rear hatch.

There is a possibility that the extra 5Nm comes into play if you ever removed and refitted these plugs as the crush washer will already have been crushed, that used to be pointed out in the dim/dark past!

A very similar engine, a 2019 EA888, I used 30Nm on my older daughter's SEAT Leon Cupra 290PS. Maybe that was what NGK stated as well, I've forgotten, I would have the Erwin workshop manual, okay that car has long life Iridium plugs but the same head material and thread size. Edit:- the figure that I have noted down for my old 2011 S4, same cylinder head material and same spark plug thread size, is 25>30Nm - also same type of sealing washer.

I've read this in the past about some countries having Government appointed/controlled/operated stand alone TEST CENTREs and many seem to accept "walk ins", ie you just turn up, car gets tested and you drive off. In UK, so far, I've always had to hand the car in by 08:00 and collect it by 18:00, okay that suits some people's way of doing things, but not very convenient. So far I've not found out what the cost of doing things that way is, it sounds like it makes a lot of sense, but might end up costing the user or that country's motoring public, more than the way things are set up in UK So, that is where checking the UK Gov MOT website comes into it's own - ie none of the waiting for the workshop phone to (not) get answered, or the promised "we'll phone as soon as it has been tested" that was offered without prompting, never happening - but, my small out of town local independent garage that also does MOTs, does what he said he will do, so he now gets my wife's Polo to MOT. My own car gets its MOT carried out by a VW Group Indie, and the guy at the desk tends to get a bit confused when I turn up to collect my car after it has passed its MOT - as the billing paperwork is hours away from completion!

For anyone who tries to do all their maintenance, ending up with advisories is a bit of a failure - at least that is the way that I view it. We've got friends that tend to run VW Group cars and the husband has a garage full of tools etc, he claims to know all about cars, but being sneaky and checking the MOTs history tends to tell a different story, ie "talking the talk" and not "doing the walk" - leaving it up to the MOT tester to force a garage to return their cars into a compliant condition. I don't mind if people can't fix their own cars or run out of skills sometimes, but claims that they can and end up successfully accumulating a big history of advisories - well that tells a different story.

So, have you found and are following a cable from that comes in from the rear bumper? Edit:- "from" not "form" - get it right!

I've just looked on the Fabia parts listing and it claims that the parking sensor controller is located on the rear LHS maybe even just in front of the rear wheel arch, that is going by the location picture.

I've edited my previous posting, typically the cable form from the bumper(s) goes directly to a parking sensor controller - and that feeds info to the infotainment system. So, sorry I don't know where the parking controller is located, though I "think" that it is maybe up at the dashboard area, though on my S4 it was in the rear of the car.

Luckily for me, I don't (yet) know where the parking sensor controller is on a Fabia, my wife has a 2015 Polo, but its SEL so came with front and rear sensors, I did retro fit front sensors to my car as it came with only rear sensors. Sensor cable form, across the rear bumper, has a supply +12V which goes to each sensor, a supply -ve which goes to each sensor and an O/P from each sensor, so if that wiring is damaged then the system will flag up a fail condition, as well as logging which sensor or what function in a sensor is causing the problem. So, that means that the +12V and the -ve lines are daisy chained along the bumper, and if moisture gets into any of the "nodes" then that might be the issue. As you suggest, maybe the rear sensors had been disabled as running with a trailer with sensors action would be a pain if nothing else was done to auto disable them. So, getting a wiring schedule of the bumper cable form and "looking back into" that cable form using a DMM might give you a clue, though removing the sensors and checking the sensor cabling sensor to sensor would also help. A quick check with a suitable VAG specific scan tool would be first thing that I'd do, saves taking trims apart etc. Edit:- going on how Audi wired thigs up on my S4, at the individual sensors plugs, pin 1 is +12V, pin 2 is O/P, pin 3 is -VE(earth). at the controller connector end pin 1 is -VE(earth), pin 2 +12V, pin 5 is left outer O.P, pin 6 left inner O/P, pin 7 right inner O/P, pin 8 right outer O/P.

I wonder if it is just due to "workshop loading", I'd be a bit pee'd off if that happened to me, mind you, I'd have fitted new wipers after checking them prior to booking it in. Really, a professionally run and honest workshop should not be trying to accumulate as many fails or advisories as possible simply by running the MOT before a service - unless the customer is a total tight ass and requested that order of jobs.

Going forward, when helping on any car that has SRS stuff, like airbags, is to always disconnect the battery before working on these systems, for your own safety and to avoid the system logging a fault. The way to sort this out has been given to you already.