prt57

No, it's PFL from 2007. Aluminium underpinnings rather than the pressed metal of the later cars. You can drive it quite normally around town etc but get it to 4K revs and the beast awakens!

Honestly, that’s the beast with 121k miles on. I’ve also got this as well, close to 380 BHP now. It certainly does not go to the shouting ground

I bet 50g cartridges pack a punch. Nothing wrong with a Fabia. It cost me £250 five years ago and apart from when the battery died, it has never let me down!

No Purdeys either. Mostly Browning O/U. I’ve had my coaching gun for about 12 years, it’s a preowned Browning B525 with 30” barrels. It’s seen about 500,000 cartridges with me and to date has only cost me about £100 in spare parts. Lots of maintenance every week to keep it happy.

Ha Ha, wash your mouth out, no Berettas in my cabinet!!

The question could be tricky as I give the boss clay pigeon shooting lessons and I used to teach his son who also works there GCSE Science. Bit disappointed if it’s happened there!

Your son was lucky, mine were not locktited. In the photo, old and new where you can see one of the tabs missing on the old one. Both sides just span off. Disappointingly, it may have happened last year at my local “trusted” garage where I had the front shocks replaced. Release lower ball joint and driveshaft to make getting the shock out easier. The car has been in my ownership six years and no hassle in this area before.

Just an update as I think I might have solved the problem. I got ready by buying a replacement driveshaft. Luckily, I did not take it out of the sealed plastic…. So after thoroughly digesting my Haynes on the subject, I got ready to remove the bolt on the end of the driveshaft in the hub. Haynes said be prepared that the nut will be very tight. I had a 36mm 12 point socket poised on the nut with a long extension for max leverage. Quite surprising that the nut was not tight at all and even almost loose!! So the driveshaft must have been moving in the hub making the click noise. The driveshaft nut is a one use only and has wings on that interfere with the housing to prevent it undoing on its own. There were no wings left, just rusty stumps where they had been snapped off and so sometime in the cars history it has been off and then put on again rather than replacing and then gunned up. The edges were chewed showing excess use of the impact gun tightening it up. So I tightened it up thoroughly for a test round the block. Noise seemed to have disappeared. I bought two new Febi 12 point nuts and checked the other side too. That was fairly loose as well. So both replaced and all seems fine after torquing to 37 lbs ft plus 45 degrees. Moral of the story, if a nut or a bolt is single use, use it once then replace if it needs to come off again. Fingers crossed I can get a refund on the unopened driveshaft!

Just an extra thought, I was in a multi storey today where the clicks were very apparent. I was last there maybe a month ago and nothing was noticeable then so it’s a fairly recent thing and it’s even fair to say that it’s getting louder.

Hi there, Just asking for your collective thoughts about a click type noise coming from the front right wheel of my 2005 1.4 16v estate on 121,000 miles. The noise is heard more at slow speeds as there is less road and wind noise. If the last manoeuvre was reversing the click/ tick noise will occur as the drive is taken up as I move forward. If I keep on moving forward with the transmission under load the noise does not reoccur. If the last manoeuvre was going forward, the click will occur as I start to reverse and once again will only reoccur when the direction is changed again. Steering angle makes no difference. So something like a 3 point turn with produce lots of clicks as it is most audible at low speeds. It is not the pad moving in the calliper as the same occurs if I apply light brake pressure. I’ve had the wheel off and there is nothing obviously loose from a wiggle and external inspection. No play in the wheel bearings or steering gear. However, It is not possible to demonstrate the noise by manually rotating the roadwheel backwards and forwards. My son who is to be relied on said the noise appears to be coming from the wheel area when I did some up and down manoeuvres in the street. My thoughts are resting with a dodgy driveshaft with wear and as the slack is taken up in the joint the metallic click is heard. I’d really appreciate any comments and I realise you have not heard the noise!?

Yes, I think that is the next plan as it is to do with low or no throttle openings when it seems to get confused and pop the code up.

Thank you for your thoughts Alasdair. This is the trouble with this code, there are a number of options, listed as you said. The one guarantee is that it isn’t the MAF as it has not got one!! No issues from a visual inspection🤔

Some people have luck by repeatedly thumping with the side of a clenched fist inside the door close to where the lock is. At the same time, keep pulling the door handles repeatedly and also keep repeatedly pressing on the unlock key fob. So you need a friend to help you with this. The thumping maybe enough to momentarily reactivate the micro switch that has failed in the door lock. If you are lucky and it opens, don’t relock but replace the lock module. A preowned genuine one is going to last longer than a £20 pattern part on EBay.

Hi, For some time now, at random my Fabia 1.4 BBZ displays lights on the dash and when scanned reveals fault code P1142. Last month, we did 540 miles over a weekend, largely in the motorway and no codes at all. It seems to pop up more when in local traffic, on and off the throttle but difficult to be precise. Normally, it might appear once a month but more recently once a week. The car drives perfectly fine and once I clear the error code it does not come back straight away. I know this has been discussed in the past but with the passage of time has a definite solution been found to banish the code for ever.

Just to update you all, I’ve just returned from my 539 mile journey with my overdue cambelt and I’m pleased to say everything is fine and no need to call out the RAC! On inspecting the belt, there is no difference compared to before the journey. So maybe they do keep on going. As an additional bit of information, at the wedding we went to, I was chatting about this to my nephew and he told me that recently he took in his diesel Golf to an independent for a cambelt due to the years, not mileage. They sent him away saying the years guidance had now been deleted and just on mileage now. Has anyone else heard about this as if this is incorrect, the garage turned away a paying customer?

This is reassuring, thank you for your thoughts.

I’ve just been to check the water pump area and everything looks brand new down there!! Another check on the cambelts and I cannot see any evidence of cracking or deterioration. Has anyone else done mega mileage or many extra years between cambelt changes?

Thank you for getting back to me Pete. I did have a good look round and did not see anything to cause concern. However, now you mentioned it, I’ll look again in that area. The coolant level never alters so I may be OK. In fact the oil level never changes either. This car just keeps on going. I fixed most things a couple of years ago. In comparison to my wife’s TT 2.0T that has cost a fortune recently. I’d get rid but she likes it.

Hi, It is 5 years since Midlands VW replaced the cambelt on my BBZ 1.4 16v. Mileage since the change approx 40K. I was not going to get it changed as there could be a new car on the horizon and most of my mileage at the moment is fairly local. However, we have been invited to my niece's wedding which will be a 500 mile round trip. I have inspected the belt which is probably an INA as that is what Midlands VW will use when I enquired last month. The belt looks fine with no obvious cracks etc. So I’m not asking should I get it changed, it is more about your experiences of not having it done and what sort of age / mileage did you reach with no problems. At £565 to replace both belts and water pump, it is more than the car is worth as that has done 120k miles total. All thoughts welcome!

If you need to buy a new door lock, don’t be tempted by the cheap brand new locks on EBay. Experience with a Mk 4 Golf shows they last maybe a year. Far better to get a preowned genuine part for not much more. I had this a year or so ago in my 2005 Fabia and the modern equivalent lock is fitted to something like a VW T5. An improved lock mechanism with a shield over the micro switch to give it more protection.

Hi, My Fabia estate with a 1.4 16v BBZ engine from 2005 has starting to display fault codes. The car runs fine and the codes can be cleared but the first one has been seen a number of times, maybe a month apart. No obvious faults looking under the bonnet. I always run it on 99RON and the car has done nearly 120K miles. 1. 17750 (P1142) 2. 17961 (P1153) This 2nd code has only been seen once and it happened on Wednesday as my wife was driving through Warwick. She has never driven the car before so no idea if there were any symptoms other than a light popping up on the dash. She carried on to Oxford then returned home on the M40 later on. Apparently the dash light was still on when she set off to come home but when I started the car this morning no dash light but the 2nd fault had been logged when I scanned with my very basic tool. Searching the internet gives a few fault options but for any of you that has experienced the same faults what is/are the exact problem(s) and how to fix? Thank you for any assistance.

Thank you for your detailed reply. 👍

Yes it is, thank you. As I’m always keen to learn, what happens if it is connected the wrong way round as I understand an electrical impulse is generated by the interaction between the disc on the hub and magnet in the sensor?

There are two wires

Hi, Today my son was “helping me” with the front brakes and for some random reason pulled on the ABS sensor wire. The wire pulled out of the connector so one job leads to another. My question is, does the polarity of the wires matter when I reconnect everything as I have nothing to tell which wire goes to which terminal in the connector? So at the moment, the ABS light is showing on the dash as I just insulated the ends of the wires and sealed the ABS sensor terminals from water ingress. If it does matter what will I see if I get the wires the wrong way round! All thoughts welcome!!