VanhireBoys

Ahhh you get used to that ....!! Don't take it personally ... I get great entertainment out of seps responses and the way things are at the minute we all need a bit of sarcasm and banter.

Well 3 years down and 90,000 kms or 56,000 miles - This year the car was relatively stable mechanically wise - I did have an issue with the injector loom and just after leaving the car at Dave's the whole family got Covid so I didn't need the car anyway !! The price of second hand cars at the minute is unprecedented - It was the case that any car with an NCT commanded €700 - Now that has gone to €1500. What puts people off a 07 or before car here is the engine cc based tax. The price of diesel is really shocking and is set to continue for the foreseeable. The original intention was drive until the test was up then get rid for sommit cheap again and run it until the test was up - Any mechanical failures and get rid but that plan has now well and truly fallen by the wayside !! My insurance has gone down to a more acceptable level and this coming year its down to €633 Fully comp - Must be my age Now wheres that light pod again !! 2021-2022

I'm going to throw in a complete curve ball ! Now I could be wrong but a friends B5 1.D PD Passat had fuel supply issues and displayed the same symptoms as you. Now it was a long time ago but it was traced to low tandem pump outlet pressure. Its very time consuming to try and troubleshoot but be methodical and do one part at a time. Its a PITA but keep an open mind and rule everything in or out no matter how daft you think it is !! We would all like to know what the outcome is !!

Now I'm not nosey but sorry yes I am being nosey - I'd like to know the reason why you want an example with less than 150k ? And not yellow ...! At this stage in the game given the youngest Mk1 Fabia is now 15 years old its condition and regular servicing that is the yardstick but expect the unexpected - Don't be fooled into thinking that you will drive the car for 3 years and make a profit out of it !! If its a daily you are after then a well looked after example with a good MOT and service record is a better bet than an infrequently used garage queen. Regular use and sorting minor issues before they become major is key ! These examples still exist but are in a major decline. Most examples could have 170k+ at this stage which for a 2005 is 10k a year..! If its investment potential you are after then the vast majority have been put away already and you will pay very strong money for an original unmolested low mileage example if you can find one. You might be lucky but thanks to recent mentions across motoring publications has given the car quite the following and people are jumping on the bandwagon. Even in the last 5 years we have seen a sharp decline in numbers where tatty well abused and badly modified and maintained cars are getting broken up at quite a rate. So just be patient and keep an eye on the for sale in here and the mainstream market places - If its cheap there is a reason - Dont commit until you see a few and get a feel for them !!

Great work there DM ! Its great to see that the like of yourself and Ryan aren't phased by electrics and mechanical. The NCT inspector will need sunglasses to go under the Monte

Sep you have brought on my PTSD - we had this happen an Astra many moons ago - ended up taking the head back off, the bolt had snapped nearly flush with the block. Tried to knock it out with a punch no good - ended up drilling out and using a tap to clean the threads - The resultant swarf got in and scored the bores. Bottom line - Use proper new headstuds @Kharl Im wondering if the head itself is warped ? Did she get a heating ? Worth ruling in or out when the head is off. Would you be confident to take the job on yourself as it looks like you have very few trustworthy reputable mechanics over there. There is plenty of help and advice here if you were prepared to take it on. Its a time consuming job but if you prepare properly and have the proper tools theres no reason you couldn't do it !!

Hi All My beloved Fabia has been running a small bit rough over the last few months - There seemed to be like a drag on the car - hard to explain to anyone else - we all know our own car and if summit is going adrift then you just feel it ! There is a roundabout with a steep incline on my commute so from a standstill the car is under a big load - she usually laughs at this hill but recently she developed a misfire which got worse. I did notice the digital SMC boost gauge I fitted fluctuating wildly and put this down to boost leakage ! Well last Sunday going home from work she dropped on to 3 cylinders - I nursed her home. Next morning she ran normally until she reached temperature and then went off a cylinder again - i will repeat again it is not the DMF. Going looking for an intermediate issue is very time consuming - better to have it failed rather than chasing hearsey and speculation I had an injector in the dock but it happens to be the injector loom itself. Age related problem - i have a distrust of the Internet and spurious suppliers so would you believe that Western Motors VW in Galway had a brand new old stock genuine loom !! This is now fitted and the car is running really well once again. I did see a lad fix the loom but to me this is only temporary. Ive seen 6 year old machines with brittle looms and bad connections so 17 years of heating, cooling, oily atmosphere and vibration is no shame.

For sure the ugly sister ...!!👍 Last project nearly had us all demented - A friends Porsche 924 with a Passat B5 130 TDi and 6 speed box. This all looked really simple on paper, I mean "Sure isnt a 924 transaxle just an extended Passat..? " So everything had to change - even the suspensions had to go 5 stud 924S. Every part of that bloody car was a nightmare. I was involved in the loom to get it all going. Even hid the clocks in the glovebox so the engine would run. The keybarrel was an absolute horlicks. Everything had to be changed or shoehorned to fit. I suggested at the time to use the complete Passat body control module to run all the ancillaries and lights and ditch the 40 year old 924 loom but that was rejected in favor of using only the engine loom from the Passat mated to the 924 loom. The car ran ok but with all good classics the gremlin's were at play. I just wasn't that happy at the time with the outcome but the others were all excited ..! The only instrument you had was the mechanical speedo and the Passat clocks were like the Blackpool Illuminations ! If I would have been left more time I would have got all that sorted properly. But it wasn't to be. That car did run and drive but I had enough of it - Too many cooks involved - Ended up half cooked - Last I heard of this car was 15 years ago. The thought of a project like that now gives me the shivers...! @ScriciMM we aren't bitter nor killjoys but we have all been there with projects over the years and fair enough some did work well but think about it before diving in to the unknown !! What ever happened to the 1.2 Turbo Fabia ??

There is spirit of adventure alright but you need to plan and plan well - No point in getting half way through and then a working car in bits ending up at the recyclers as sep has said. There is no gain in going modifying a 1.4 petrol engine - Unless you are building a race/rally car that is class restricted. Putting in cams, throttle bodies, ported and polished head will give at most around 150bhp max and leave the car a totally unmanageable, lumpy highly strung, gas guzzling mess - This conversion will be mega bucks anyway. or Keep an eye out in the market for an Audi TT, Golf GTi or Cupra Leon or sommit VW, Audi based that is a runner that you can use the engine, gearbox and loom for a proper transplant. You could take a chance on a breaker but if you know for a fact the donor is a good runner you will be able to work from that instead of doing a conversion and then wonder why the car wont fire up or worse still find the engine to be knackered ! I've seen many projects come and go over the years some successful a lot end in tears - fail to prepare and prepare to fail.

This thread fills me with dread lads !! This is an obvious message to tell me to fix mine 🤔

Yeah we here are getting rightly fleeced now on customs 🤔

Ahhh the advantages of living in a border county are not to be underestimated 👍

That's what I thought as well ! A leaky seal will most certainly cause this If you sit in the car with the engine off and pump the brakes until the pedal is hard, then put a good bit of steady pressure on the brake pedal - If it starts to move to the floor you have a fluid leak or master cylinder issue. Do the due diligence of looking at all the flexy and hard lines for evidence of fluid loss just to make sure its not that. Just throwing this in as well - When I got the fluid changed in mine there was a VCDS routine run to bleed the ABS Modulator - Then as far as I can recall the brakes were bled after this. Check the easy stuff first but.

So another Wednesday another Dunnes Stores mission - Its all a bit groundhog day until I came out and a lovely 18 Fabia was very badly parked next to me ! Well I suppose the person who done this didn't park straight for fear of association with me That color of green would suit a Mk1 vRS so well... If I were to respray mine this is the color I would paint it. Unfortunately at my age the outside patio needs to be sorted and the driveway resurfaced so thats' the respray money gone 🤔 Did anybody ever paint a Mk1 Fabia that color ?

Mine has the 288mm discs still as well - I did put Goodridge metal braided flexible hoses on and replaced the fluid with DOT5 and the brakes are plenty good for my needs ! The pedal feel is great, the car pulls up square and Ive never suffered fade in any form ! I probably will go with Padgids the next time round as sep as said but I'll wait until she needs them first !!

What ever you do dont skip them .. As Lofty advised put them somewhere warm, dark and dry. The vRS seats are not that easy to keep right especially with our two rascals and juice and sticky stuff - Add in a bicycle or 2 and my seats are in a right state !! My fronts are Octavia vRS Mk1 half leather so its a total mismatched affair !! Tide is starting to turn on the Fabia vRS as ratty chavvy abused examples are getting culled at quite a rate. in about 5 years time when the vRS gets the recognition it so rightly deserves they will be worth good money to anybody doing a resto. Try to get an interior for a 90's Nova GTE to see how you get on .... I saw mint ones 20 years ago for £40 .... The Fabia will definitely follow this trend so well worth hoarding if you have the place for them !👍

Kharl your an absolute hard nut - Your prep is like summit out of an intercontinental challenge! I'm going to a breakers here in the next few days so I'll see whats on offer - I take it that its the centre and 2 side vents you need ? This breakers is still a traditional type - even has an alsation guard dog with a starter motor around his neck during the day so he can't attack the customers !!

When I got my "mildly tuned" vRS I knew the gearbox was "soft" as the dog rings were badly worn and the bearings did not sound great - I nursed it for a year and it eventually went bang - I had lost 4th and then 5th. I got a second hand box which does crunch in 2nd if you rush the change when cold but apart from that I got somewhat lucky - Its being going well for over 2 years but one night of hard abuse will spell the end for this one as well. I did consider doing a rebuild myself for the experience but after advice here I ditched the plan When the last box failed I went looking - I was offered an 02M box from a Golf but it was totally different. I have heard that it is possible to swap the internals from a Golf box to the Fabia casing but this is a lot of faffing and there s a certain amount of uncertainty - The casing will crack as well. Sep is 100% right saying the gearboxes are soft and even a mild tune will stress them - Add in age and miles and you have a perfect storm - You could be lucky in a second hand box or you could be unlucky. Unless you drive the donor car which 95% of the time is impossible it will be a gamble.

I've learned a great deal from this thread alone. Again this forum has proved invaluable - Again Id love to go the Caribbean........ Well done Kharl for getting this sorted and sorted properly 👍

The main weapons of choice around here are the Passat and the A4 Audi - The Lexus IS200 is the crossroad ring maker ! Honda Civic EK4 seems to have lost favour due to insurance cost ! If we look at the chav mobiles of old - Capri Astra GTE - Civic VTi - Escort XR3i and here the Corolla AE86 to name but a few These all had the stereotype attached - Could we call out any of these now ? The Fabia has generally left this undeserved stereotype behind - Good original and tidy ones are being minded - tatty altered ones like mine are slowly dying out. That stereotype never affected the Ibiza FR and Polo GTD - I'd love a 2ltr petrol Fabia mk1 if I wasn't doing the miles - I love the way mine drives but there's just summit about a proper size NA petrol engine.

Thanks for that sep I'm really looking forward to this job now 😀 At least I now know what to expect and I'll be prepared 👍

That takes me back Ken - great show ! I do know of a 1.4 TDi which has 170k miles on it - still going very well. The secret is the correct oil and regular changes. The car is going from Capatagle to Galway and back 70 miles round trip 5 days a week and sometimes weekends as well. Car has been at this for at least 5 years. So nothing to fear if the wee car is serviced right and driven with mechanical sympathy!

Not really into classical music myself either - a good friends father used to sneak out of the house into the mates and my car and reset all the radio presets to Lyric FM !! This put me off it. Ive decided to ignore that meme sent to me as the girls have found out a juicy bit of gossip and this has no doubt diverted their attention for now.😄

I was sent this by one of my missus friends as a vain attempt to wind me up to a slagging match - I refuse to be drawn into such an exchange. Maybe somebody already put this up before What should I respond with ?

Hi Pete - There's a bit in mine alright now that you say ! You can pull the glass up at the back where its not attached - As far as operation is concerned no real hassle although I did put some runner specific lube (Wurth I think) in the rubbers about 6 months ago as both the windows were squeaky and sticky. This did activate the load sensors before I put the lube in. I dont open the passenger window much at all now as a broken front clip will spell disaster !! Wind deflectors are notorious culprits for this as well - Fairy liquid in the rubbers was a well known hack years ago - Maybe try that in the meantime and see if it gets better ! Looks like we are both faced with the same prospect but at least were not the first and wont be the last 😓