rum4mo

I think that is a VW Group weakness, as it is not a safety critical part, I'd think that MOT would ignore it - at least until it has or is nearly broken at one point. I seem to remember thinking that that part looked very rusty "for its age/mileage" on my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS almost 43K miles, and so either coated the lower surface with something or plan to do that this year, ideally I'd remove it and de-rust it and repaint - or replace as that part should not cost too much, and work on that new part as mentioned below. I think that if it really worries you, just buy a new one, strip the feeble paint off it and start from scratch repainting it, any/all black painted "underbody" parts really don't stay looking good for long unfortunately. The joining sleeve on the exhaust near there also ends up rusting by year 8 or so - or at least the clamps do, though it looks like your car has the later version/design of joining sleeve, which might mean that it will resist corrosion for longer, my wife's 2015 VW Polo will probably need the clamps on its older style joining sleeve replacing this summer. It is just a stiffening brace. Edit:- sorry it appeared in "BOLD", I've resolved that now!

I think that you are just getting range(from home) anxiety, which is fair enough, the drop off in "start/start" might just be down to winter temperatures and so using more lights/heaters, NC500 in March, brave person, I waited until May/June. I hope that there are plenty Langoustines in Applecross - if you like that sort of thing, I'm well overdue my meal of them fresh out of the sea! I have an exwork mate who is going to France in July, so he felt the urge to get rid of his 3 year old 4K miles Ford Focus and get a new Ford Kuga - now that is proper range(away from home) anxiety - PCP had run out though, and he'll have a 1.5 engine instead of a 1.0 engine for the long run down UK and through France.

I agree with the above, also, my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS has done 42K miles and its pads have got a long way to go before they need replacing, though the rear discs on her car are a bit nastier looking than your rear ones. So, if your friendly VAG Indie is saying that about the discs, it is a pity that you are not in a position to measure the outer pads friction material thickness. Being a scatter-cash when it comes to tools, I treated myself to a tool from Laser Tools that lets you measure the friction material depth/thickness while the (alloy) wheels are still on the car - okay I can measure them easily enough using other means once I've removed them to clean thing up - but that tool is handy for making a quick check on our daughter's cars and any other friends that are too shy to work on their cars or take them to garages! As I sort of implied, that sort of tool is handy for filling in spare spaces in tool cabinets, and checking brake pads through the spokes in alloy wheeled car - and even checking pads that I have removed from the car, now that I have bought it!

It could be interesting or useful to know if the cam belt had ended up getting contaminated with engine oil - or not, maybe ask to see the removed parts or request that they get returned to you. I think the the best that you will get by complaining officially to Skoda UK who are the importers of these cars into UK, will be a derisory offer which with the conditions it comes with will leave you further out of pocket than you will end up just leaving things to get sorted as you have begun - or most likely a sad letter saying that they are sorry that you have feel hard done to and am sure that you will find your next Skoda car exceeds your expectations, getting that crap would hurt! But officially complaining to Skoda might be therapeutic, at least for a moment or so.

I just wonder if any of this is due to the lack of "good tooling" when that cam belt was replaced back in 2020, ie it seems like new kit has become available to make sure that the cams are correctly, or more accurately positioned when working on the cambelt area? Or. There were a very small number of instances where the inlet cam variable timing pulley had ended up with its bolts holding that assembly together slackening off and so oil escaping onto the belt etc and so these early pulleys needed replacing, but that was only I think. an issue with a small number of very early EA211 1.2TSI 16V engines. I'm sure that I have checked the assembly part number on the inlet pulley on my wife's 2015 Polo 1.2TSI and its DOB of the engine is 07/05/15 - s/n CJZD498523 , that is info from the label on the engine, is your engine earlier or later than that?

Other VAG marques don't do things that way, so just Skoda within VAG marques, they also keep the 12V DC socket live at all times, again not something that Audi. VW or SEAT do. That was just a casual comment not a criticism of either way of "doing things".

If you are worried about the cam belt, just make sure that you get it replaced by a workshop that has invested in the correct new tool kit for accurate timing of the cam shafts - I'd doubt if a non VAG specific workshop would have bother to spend money on that, though I'd think that VAG Indies will have.

Ah, I agree that the carrier pad contact areas can easily be cleaned with the carrier still on the car - I clean the Polo brakes every year at wheel changing time, but, this time, as I had decided to properly scrub up the outer surface of the callipers and their carriers, I did feel the need to remove them completely and give them a coat of high temperature paint - the front carriers were already off as I was replacing both front hubs/bearings.

Audi use wheel bolts with captive free running washers on alloys, same length as all the other VW Group cars that use M14 wheel bolts, fortunately at least VW and SEAT use same plain bolts for all wheel types, ie steel or alloy.

Yes, luckily for me I was introduced to wheel locator studs when I bought my VW Passat in 2000, after finding that in the tool kit area, I bought one for my wife's 2002 Polo and older daughter's Ibza - which have been moved onto their next cars, my next car came with one, and I passed one to our younger daughter to have in the Arona as it might come in handy if they are smart enough to "waste" money on equipping that Arona with a steel spare wheel and jack etc - younger people don't tend to "waste" money on things that they might not need it seems! Edit:- the other "treat" that VW had for at least some Passat owners was, there was no hole in the front hubs to fit a disc retaining screw, so if anyone did not work out why they had included a plastic wheel locating pin in the tool kit, they could have quite a bit of "fun" stopping the wheel rotating the free to rotate disc while desperately trying to get the first wheel bolt in!

She has a telescopic wheel wrench fitted with a good hex socket in place of the double ended sloppy one that tends to come with these telescopic wheel wrenches, as well as having AA membership, which hopefully she would use if her partner was not either in the car or contactable - or even contact me! I can still remember the "useful" wheel wrench that was included in LR tool rolls - the handle tended to fold under the weight of your feet, that was before the screw jack might or might not stop lifting the LR up and instead chose to send the second stage section down into the ground, charming, what BMC/BL could do to a reasonable product! Edit:- no worries about wheel bolt torques, I tend to be the last person to tighten then up using a torque wrench set at 120Nm, now the wheel bolts on our younger daughter's Arona - that is an unknown, so hopefully she or her hubby would ring the AA - and not try their luck with the leak sealing gunk!

I'm sorry to hear about this, my old Passat broke a front spring while we were travelling down to my sister's funeral from Scotland, it happened near Oxford while we were in there collecting my younger daughter on our way to near MK, not good at any time, but even worse when you are driving to a close relative's funeral! It is good that you have reported this with the correct agency DVSA, you will get a letter/email saying that they know about this and have discussed it with VW Group, and as it is not a safety related issue, they can not take this further - or maybe these reports are adding up and they will now start to take action, time will tell.

I think that the ability to store the removed wheel, unless fully deflated will still be an issue for too many cars - then is the sad tale about the BMW Z3 passenger who had to hold onto a damaged wheel that had been removed from that car - and it "exploded" and killed him/her - just adding that last bit as being a very good reason to fully deflate any damaged wheel/tyre. Edit:- I have informed my daughter that as she chose non OE alloys for winter use, that I have placed a set of 5 standard VW Group bolts that must be used instead of the bolts presently fitted to the alloys, if she needs to use the steel spare wheel. I even painted these 5 "spare" bolts yellow - just because I thought that might help and make it easier to find any if they dropped while changing a wheel.

Yes, I fully understand that, but the advice being offered was for a Fabia MK3 which did not have an engine size/output stated - so that was why I made that comment.

I think that in maybe just the past that some cars were supplied with a spare wheel that could only be used on the rear of a car, when ending up with a front wheel puncture/breakage, the way to sort this out was to jack up the rear, remove the serviceable rear wheel and fit the spare wheel, then move to the front and remove the failed front wheel and fit the wheel removed from the rear. Again, I think that on some Ford cars, that were supplied with a spare steel wheel, different nuts were required for use with steel wheels - that sounds like being a bit of a **** up. A friend that always buys nearly new Fords, or did do, always boasted about his Fords that had alloys always came with an alloy same size/model spare wheel due to these cars being spec'd that way for sale to rental companies. Both these first two statements, if true do sound a bit crazy, but what do I know.

I'm not sure of the full scope of annoying noises that a failed front shock absorber could make, so I'll not comment there. Why I've suggested the powertrain mountings is, because I had that issue on a 2015 Polo, but I could clearly discriminate between it being a suspension movement issue and it being a powertrain movement - if you can definitely discount it being a powertrain movement issue, then discount what I've suggested. Edit:- is this noise there at all times, or is it just there now and again, like in only dry winter weather, but not there in wet winter weather? If so then it will just be annoying rubber mountings, my wife's 2015 Polo can get very noisy in a way that I could consider that "something needs sorting" - then a few days later, under different weather conditions that car's suspension is as noise free as it was when factory new.

You would need to know which version/size of front brakes are on a Fabia/Polo/Ibiza before considering having a 14" as a spare, if the front brake version/size is 288mm then a 14" spare would not work - not even for a short period.

You seem to have covered nearly or all of the usual suspects, maybe now check if the power train mountings are still okay, ie lower gearbox mounting and the upper gearbox mounting.

To me, sort of strange logic, the Fabia might have been around for 23 years, but "Fabia" is only a car model name that Skoda has carried forward for their offering in this segment of the car world, okay where possible car makers evolve as little as possible unless they need to, but I've never thought that my wife's 2015 VW Polo is just "same old" because the Polo (name) has been around for some serious number of years - thinking that way is illogical. I'd not be holding your breath waiting for a dealer's service people to get to you on the G13/G12evo question, why would they give you "the nod" to use an older product that what is currently fitted into your car - that decision must only be your's to make, and I've already offered my advice on that.

I've never tried too hard to do that, some people say that you can force the old disc out while the carrier is still in place - but will you then be able to get the thicker new disc in? From memory, and I had both front and rear calliper carriers off this year - rear ones to clean up and paint the carrier, the big problem is identifying which type of head is on these bolts, you will be able to find out what fits these bolts as VW Group claim that you do not reuse them, so you could check the heads on the new bolts. I managed to get these bolts off back in maybe August on an August 2015 Polo.

I'd just take the money hit and buy a bottle of premixed G12evo from any VW Group dealership, as said it will be what has been loaded into that car at the factory. Most people that mix G13 and G12evo will just be people with G13 in their from factory and now needing to top it up. Having a coolant level midway between Max and Min when cold is okay, on some cars filling the Max when cold will end up with some coolant being discharged from the reservoir when the coolant has expanded when hot. I don't think that G13 will be known as the best coolant additive ever produced.

The flap motors tend to be remote from the heater, so if any of them have failed, then either exercising them(if you are lucky) or replacing failed ones is what you need to do.

I'd think that the fact that the protective sleeve/boot is missing from that side is never a good thing, adding springs can only be a good thing, I did that on a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V, and that seemed to improve or remove the drag that tended to "appear" with time wrt pad<>disc, so I just did the same thing as some as we bought a new 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI for my wife, okay maybe the internal return spring has been slightly beefed up on later rear calliper, but I've added these external return springs and again no pad<>disc contact when the handbrake is off. Obviously you will "lose" the recommended clearance between the arm and its stop, but you can just adjust the cable length to suit what you feel is correct in terms of handbrake "lift".

I have tried listening to hear slight clicks from factory fitted parking sensors and I've failed to hear anything, plus my hearing is okay. I even bought a mechanics stethoscope that came with a rubber cup on the end, still 100% disappointed on a 2011 Audi S4, 2015 VW Polo, 2018 VW T-Roc and a 2019 SEAT Leon - none of these cars had faulty parking sensors, so I was more than a bit disappointed as I had hoped to have learned something useful! I've always stuck with buying genuine "correct for that car/end" parking sensors, picking them up as NOS or stock being disposed of when dealerships closed, but then I was just collecting parts together to retro fit to a bumper without sensors. Basically for this age of cars, there are 2 versions of parking sensors, ones with "straight" connector and ones with right angled connectors it will be easier for you if you buy the correct version as the space and cabling will be quite tight.

Maybe I'm wrong, but you don't seem to have answered the question about your car usage, ie journey length along with what type of speeds. Cabin air flap motors, now that might just be another part of your problems, ie the temperature flap motor or the one that works the re-circulate and general direction of air flow to where you feel it the most. Good answers/help rely on good info being handed out when requested. Also, 3 thermostats - did any of them end up being checked in a pan/tin of boiling water, and where any/all of them new and "quality" brands?