Geoff56

Wire and plug look good? Braided copper wire and contacts on top of solonoid are showing corrosion and fraying to the braided wire. Am I likley to see much benefit/ difference between a Lucas and a RTX starter, (both BME fitment)? Circa £20 difference at Halfords.

Well a lot of swearing later and the starter is off. As the nuts looked a damn sight easier to undo, thought I'd have it apart out of curiosity. Still some meat on the brushes. But commutator looks a bit oddly worn to me, but I'm neight an electrician nor a mechanic.

Thank you for your assistance gents. Having only this vehicle, and with limited time to play with it/swear at it, and the number of parts needing to be removed to get at the Alternator I did opt to give it to the local garage... in part also for "peace of mind" (more on that later) If anyone finds this thread, in conclusion a local garage in the Midlands charged £100 for "an" alternator £30 for oil change and filter and £100 labour + plus a couple of quids worth of consumables plus VAT totaling out at £280. -------------------------------------------------- "Peace of mind" Upon going to collect it it wouldnt start, they suggest the battery had probably gone flat, so put it on charge for 20 mins, still wouldn't start. I suggested fitting the fully charged battery I'd recharged at home a couple of nights before and I was away albeit late for work. Mechanic mentioned in passing "sounds a bit like a tired starter" A new medium high whine from the engine whilst running - im presuming the new alternator bedding in. A day later fitted battery only gave the engine half a turn, but jumped of spare successfully. Since then it sometimes starts fine, sometimes give the engine half a turn does nothing for a quarter second and then bursts into life and occasionally won't start at all, either with both batteries hooked up OR whilst being jumped off another vehicle. Last night drove 7 miles fine starting first try but after 4 hours of sitting refused to start even being jumped. Got the bus back this morning, batt read 12.4v started first time... Only difference I can think of between this morning and last night is heavy rain yesterday eve and damp air... Any thoughts welcome. Starter does look a lot easier to get to and I have the week off (meant to be fitting lintels and windows upstairs) so I'm more willing to play/swear 😅

Hi JR, thanks for your reply. I did top her up with oil as she seemed a bit low about a month ago. But no oil change and, nothing else has been loosened or tightened. Oil is localised to the components around the area photographed. Hadn't noticed any dripping when I'd been parked up, but the plastic tray I've taken off the bottom did have quite a lot of oil residue in, not sloshing about or a pourable quantity though. Daft question but what part am I looking at in the picture below, oil marks only appear below its black cap with a MN rating on the nut. Not sure whether it could be the source of the leak or oil has just been thrown against it.

Hi All, Long time lurker here usually benefiting from others existing solutions. Today however I think I've chased as far as my skill level/annoyance levels and think I need a new alternator. Has anyone had one done at a garage recently? If so can you remember the costs parts and labour? Why? Had the battery light flicker on evening, and come on solid part way through a journey the following day, eventually other warning lights came on and as I pulled into a cul-de-sac, lost power steering and ABS. Left it running, hoping the batter would recharge instead it conked out completely, couldn't even open the boot. A lucky 10 minutes walk to Halfords for new battery and adjustable spanner got me back home, with the battery light permanently on. Ended up on this thread:, (https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/287467-load-signal-alternator-cable/?do=findComment&comment=4357084) but unless I missed something no dice, I have continuity from the plug referred to on the brown wire back to the battery. Managed to scrape the insulation off the wires near the alternator to make a connection (no room or visibility to get multimeter clips onto male side of the plug) when running shows the same volts as across the battery: 10.7v ish, when not running a small negative voltage (0.11v.) (n.b. battery was charged up out of the vehicle to a happy 12.5v but work and back has taken some out of it) I also note the belt is turning the alternator, but it is also covered in oil source unknown. Any other advice or assistance welcomed 🤗 Also, if ive broken any forum etiquette my apologies in advance. Geoff Fabia Estate MK1 Bohemia 07

TMB thank you very, very much! Easy when you know what should be doing what. I'd presumed I should be seeing a coil spring around the cable between the "lug"(?) And what appeared like a fixed back plate, or perhaps that there might be a spring elsewhere. Completely hadn't spotted that one lower down. Now seeing that the black bit is ment to move, it's been worked too and fro with a screwdriver, and the spring eventually started to do some of its job, loads of crud scraped off, and from between the two plates, a good dose of WD40 and we are back in action! So gonna guess it was option 2 "pivot sized"... Or at least gunked up to hell. Will give it a better clean and re-grease tomorrow (cheers Paul!). A bit like visiting the dentist, very glad of your help, but equally hope I don't need to post again very soon 😉 Other fun jobs on the to do list are damaged wires in the hinge of the drivers side door, and a rear door letting in water, but I've already found the answers to those here, just need to get round to doing them 😅.

Hello all! Firstly thanks for the information contained on this forum, it's helped me with quite a few issues already on my mk1 fabia 2005 that I got about 2 years ago. So I've had a Google and a search here but can't seem to resolve this. Bonnet will not lock shut, but the secondary catch (pull out lever from the grill) does work. I'm thinking somthing has actually fallen off, perhaps a spring?, Or the lug on the wire should be engaging somewhere it isn't at the moment and I haven't spotted, or at a push the cable has stretched? Handle in footwell moves forward and backwards but with no tension. Seeing the lug on the cable in the bonnets lock mechanism I've pushed it back and forward, it moves fairly freely and pulling it will return the lever in the footwell, so I think the cable isn't broken and is ingaged in its housing in the footwell. Hopfully somthing will be obvious to a trained eye from the attached photos. It had been a bit temperamental about locking over a few months, but only gave up over the weekend. Any help, advice, or even picture of what it should look like if it shouldn't look like that would be great!