Former

These J things seem to be modules or embedded module inside another module, all German car complex intertwined stuff as usual, also seem to be model and perhaps year(s) specific. A wiring diagram off your VIN will give the flow but not actual physical identification nor physical location in the vehicle. 5J is a Mk2 Fabia (I only know this as we had problems identifying a 2014 2015 Fabia recently) so perhaps the members that view and post in the Fabia Ml2 forum will know more, I know some will and at least one that will be able to help you with wiring diagram and about electrics with your VIN but I cannot volunteer other members services. Have a look in or post in the 'Skoda Fabia Mk2 (2007-2014)' forum. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/113-skoda-fabia-mk2-2007-2014/ Which also reminds me, you could also look in and ask in the 'Audio, Electronics and Security' forum. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/7-audio-electronics-and-security/ Careful not to multiple-post in different forums be specific but you could mention electrics, wiring and coding in all. Hope that helps.

As far as I know, very little, that would not explain wrong time and dates on report, especially the year 2057, as if the electronics would ever last that long let alone the car (my last car is now nearly 52 years old and still going as far as I know, I think there are still a couple of items on it from 1973, and still working Perhaps those more technical will have an explanation for 2057 (ghosts in the machine). 😁 If you mean the tripometers or fuel usage then yes that is one of the few things along with the time of day clock that is lost with battery disconnection / replacement. Personally I do not worry about MPG with a modern heavy vehicle with 5 seats and most often only one or two occupants using it, we are old so used to knowing roughly what the MPG is from last fuel refill and current one by dividing litres into miles (suck is UK confusion with going metric) travelled off the mileometer. DOH !!! I am really sorry I forgot to put the link up! There is no one is Sweden listed but nearby countries or your English is so good plenty in the UK but to go that way might be very hit and miss. As shown best to check if members are currently active on the site (in which case some might see this thread at some point. See list link below. To check the last time a member visited the site follow the hyperlink to their er wotsit on here and look at "LAST VISITED". - Briskoda VCDS Owners Map (click me) Will come bay to Js as it is tea time now

As it is difficult to check the mechanical pump and a risk to remove it I would clean and check the electric pump and try your idea of bypassing the mechanical pump. Clean the electric pump for fuel delivery and electric connection. If possible I would connect directly to the battery live and return for a good powerful electric connection if required you could install an inline on/off switch or fuel valve/tap (subject to fully testing the switch or fuel valve/tap is fully operational and reliable as you do not want to introduce more problems) then before connecting to the carb test the electric pump for correct flow and pressure rates as you want sufficient and possibly not too much to overcome the carb. Only after full testing of the pump connect it up to the carb and see if that makes any difference to your issue. Lobe operated pumps do need to be fitted in the correct position of lever arm to lobe to work properly. With the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s British engines that I was familiar with many owners that had the mechanical pumps fitted swapped to electric particularly because of starting issues, and especially if the car had been standing overnight or much longer. The older versions of the pump IIRC had a priming lever on them that would perhaps have overcome many of the issues. Once an engine or car is running you stand more chance of sorting things or getting to where you want to travel to but if the engine won't start or continue running it is a right PITA (hence also the need of a good battery in good state of charge and health). Even if an old engine runs badly the engine can at least still run and get you to where you want to go. This was part of the problems with many owners of old cars if they ran, even if not as well as they should or could, the owners would run them in that way, in ignorance or laziness. Personally though I do not often recommend stuff from Germany but I found the Hardi electric fuel pump to be fit and forget reliability (for decades from other users and 14 years with my car ownership) and its performance was good, as it should be it done the job well so was never noticed, fit 'n' forget. The pumps are basically body and head with selection of fittings to suit requirements so if your car is not listed by them look at the specifications and various heads and fittings available. Other makes of pumps are available those little square ones, the name of I forget now, Facet, can be noisy vibration things that need isolation mounts (basically the old rubber exhaust bobbins) so they can be used, the cube is smaller, perhaps neater but not my preference after having one fitted for a short time, it did not like idle kickover nor I from the noise it made. Of course your issue might not be anything to do with the pump but it would be good to know for sure it is not the fuel pump. Often it is the last thing you check that is the problem that is Sod's Law, if an issue(s) can be checked from the opposite ends of a route Sod's Law is you pick the wrong end to start at, but at least checking all other items means they are either checked or adjusted or attended to. Good luck.

Good to have it confirmed but OBDEleven gives same full report and most VW owners prefer VCDS if they have the oprion but you might be like me and dislike the (my words and description now) horrid "legacy" 1990s maths/computer/mechanics nerdy look and complex jargony system that VVCDS is. Can you remember was you disconnecting the Chinese (learnt your lesson there) radio at, hold on "05:22:30" were you really doing this at 5 am or is the VCDS time stamp wrong, not reset to correct time - and "Date: 2057.14.11" 2057, really(!??!) does the OBDEleven give the same time and date? And anyway, this was what I meant by the (serial, hard, soft ware) numbers showing on your OBDEleven screen but perhaps not registered with the car, perhaps the computer does not give power to a unit that is not there as far as the computer is concerned but I do not know, might not be speaking out of my speaking orifice with that last bit, as some would be quick to point out. Going back J289 off/from(?) J519 have you got a wiring diagram and know what parts/modules(?) these are? Same for J412 Yes I think it is always best to keep clearing the codes even though you know they or some of them will return the less mess for you and the computer programs to deal with the better. Much car servicing, maintenance and some repair can often boil down to simple clean and lubricate for computers/electronics deleting codes is a form of cleaning as far as I am concerned, there is enough crap to deal with on computers to allow it any to sit and fester. As you can see I have no time for computer or other jargonery or arrogant superiority of being exclusive by making things unnecessarily complex and secretive, a good system would be easy and intuitive to use, I understand and accept that there can be many good reasons to exclude but swapping out a radio (yes I know it is more than a radio) should not be included. Unless of course the cheap Chinese unit has done something to bugger up the honourable German computer system which I suppose might be possible but you would hope not and surely the German system would have safeguards to prevent this. As you can tell you really need someone who knows what they are talking about with these things, and who does not get so annoyed by them so easily - but hopefully with your wide VCDS report and the number of posts on this thread now it will attract those members. There is at least one member that could help you with those J parts and wiring and other very knowledgeable with electronics, electrics and VCDS (other know OBDEleven) as you did not do anything other(?) than a scan with OBDEleven they cannot blame OBDEleven for this outage. I hope any small part of this and previous post helps you. Keep going and let us know how you get on, I think you can use the car without the Infotainment unit, perhaps unlike later cars, and to me have the joy of not having mobile phone contact whilst in the car at least (I do not have a "smart" device of any sort yet somehow survive in life, I was fed up with mobile phone and SatNav, though that is not what I call them, from decades back, the phone signal have gone back to how bad they were in the earlier days. Right, I must stop the moaning and get on and allow you to do so too, if you got this far. 😁

It is common. Databases are copied so the errors are copied. All databases from all sources can and very, very often do have errors and omissions even from parts and car manufacturers, possibly more so from the greater use of computers onwards to internet sales the errors have compounded. And as those that knew the proper correct details have left their jobs for many reasons or have died the information also doe not get corrected. Soon if not already what is on computers will be correct even when it is not because the correct information was lost or deleted or withheld. 😁 😃 😆

And you have thank you. I was thinking pins could be bent from just disconnecting and reconnecting perhaps or if wrong plugs are put into wrong sockets or upside down if either is possible it only take a fraction of a second to bent tiny flimsy pins. Also of course the connections need to be clean, no corrosion or crud, I know there should not be any but, well just but. Yes that is what I was thinking with reinputting the data of the original unit, I know it is showing on the OBDEleven but I don't trust computer programs fully from decades of having computer in my life and experience of computer programs and computer programmers indirectly. Always remember computer are not clever or intelligent they are just dumb programs, keep things simple for them even if they make things vastly unnecessarily complicated for you. I am about as far away from any sort of pro in coding or anything else, I just meant put the serial number of the Swing unit in to the space without it, I guess the serial number it is on a label on the Swing unit, the description serial number is a bit of a misnomer as the "number" can include letters too. And then to re-enter the numbers for hardware and software that are already show by OBDEleven. Thank you, I too very much like for posters to report back, of of courtesy and to give the resolve or information for others. I did not see that post until I had already started this post so will have a quick look at that after a much needed cup of tea as I just got back in from going through the procedure or "pairing" her new to her "smart" (no it is not) phone to her 2015 Fabia Mk3. We follow the Infotainment instructions, that do not match to what we see on the screen but no matter we soldiered on and second attempt the phone and Infotainment found each other and will no doubt lose each other at some point in the future to repeat the procedure. Oh, what great fun dealing with a computer and an impatient wife that is more than capable of reading the instructions herself but wants me to suffer too because she knows how much I "luv" to fart about which such things particularly after a week of various computer program faults interfering with the smooth running of important parts of my life, thank gawd we don't have to rely on computers for driving, or no wait, we do. 😆 For Quote boxes in posts, just highlight the text you want, give it half a second and you should see a green box with black outline and "Quote section" text inside it, example below (by mistake to be honest).

Ootohere beat me to it again, 3 plugs is 25/33.3% away from 4 plugs so an issue with just one is a third of them and as has been put 5 years is 5 years, some will say the plugs will last years longer and the mileage use is far too low, I do not go along with that, 4 year change seems reasonable to me on such an inexpensive item (car ownership wise). Spark plugs used to be a service item but they're not part of the VWŠkoda (UK?) "service" rather part of the "maintenance" schedule. At £155, for 3, is up from the £99 for 4 we paid as it was about the same price as buying all the tools and plugs and farting about removing the to me PITA engine air filter box and when I said at least the tools would be an investment for the next change my wife said she didn't expect to have the car then, which I annoyed me as I thought I've suffered all my car mistakes long term. 😆 But the ladies have more common than men. If you are keeping the car you could look at doing the spark plug change yourself it's not difficult or complicated, I could do it so it can't be, and you could look at more expensive different material plugs that last a lot longer. Don't worry about bolts loose but again it's easy to take the belt cover off to have a look (well on the 1.2 it is) and if you don't have a noise or oil loss it might not apply to your engine. I totally agree with about engine numbers then their codes so difficult to know what you have as the number and codes apply to different things on the engine and when looking for parts or information different company want different numbers and codes. Don't assume it's the throttle body, don't assume full stop, diagnosis instead, it might be neither throttle body or spark plugs (or bolts) diagnosis still involves other tools like multimeters, test light, human brain, eyes, ears, nose, touch but with German marque complex computer program cars an appropriate scan tool can often speed up diagnosis greatly and find stuff that other methods might not. The scan tool has to have a program for your (make) model and year and that program needs to be fully up to date before use to avoid errors, the car battery and if appropriate tool battery, need to be not too low in charge to get a full report, error codes and preferably often live data. As you know the car battery is a hobby horse of mine for various reasons, your car is about 5 years old yet the battery has already been replaced, which isn't uncommon but often unnecessary, so being newish and car starting straight up doesn't mean as very much as you think, even a new battery can be depleted as it's only a store but I don't think it's an issue here by what you have reported but if you are keeping the car as I've probably done before I would recommend you buy and use an appropriate battery charger maintainer given your lower mileage use, or you may prefer to replace the battery again in another 4 years. That's it, all I can think of, unfortunately at a guess I think you could be right that it's probably the throttle body but at that sort of hassle and expense you can't go on assumption and guess you want diagnosis, a scan tool report. If you don't know anyone with a VW appropriate scan tool you could see if there's a Briskoda member near you that offers such, most for beer tokens, very few others professional with different renumeration. - HTH.

Sorry I can't find the thread I meant but as you're in some of the threads I've seen you probably know a lot more about this subject and be able to use better search words and terms than me. You could check your engine oil level as per this thread and post for 2018 car. - This thread for throttlebody issue and DIY repair. - As always let us know how you get on., good luck.

It's a 2019 so if you have a look on this forum you with find issues with other 2019 Fabias. There was a recent thread with something similar to yours about accelerator if I can remember and find it I'll post a link as I can't remember details or if there was a resolve posted. 2019s IIRC have issues with the throttle body and definite starting the engine on cold days with a member posting a DIY repair to the poor quality fixed electric relay used on the fuseboard. Of course it could be down to another issue, such as lack of full timely maintenance, the annual "service" that Dealerships and most garages do now are little more than an engine oil and engine oil filter change and a look for more chargeable work to increase revenue and profits not even a service of the engine let alone the whole car. Or the issue could be a very simple and basic one. You really need a diagnostic scan tool full report to start the diagnostics now to help speed the process up or much more information and checks to do an over the air website diagnostics but I presume you are not new to VWŠkoda models. ETA: just remember we've been in threads before. 😁 I'll have a quick look for that last thread I mentioned earlier.

Hi, welcome. Are you sure the creak isn't from the front? My wife's 2015 creaks when going up and down speed humps slowly, when going down the very few potholes of our 3rd world local roads, when a leaf blows across the road, no sorry that's when the front "assist" goes into panic mode (I'm exaggerating). Sounds like you might not have had your Fabia too long if this is first you have heard of the German engineering "quality" front dampers and suspension. Yes I am biased as I'm not a VW fan. On my wife's Fabia the front dampers ("shocks") were replaced over 3 years ago (and the Dealership replaced dampers started "misting" within 11 months) but we still have creaks and bumps from the underside of the car. Recently when it was very cold one morning and I hadn't been in the car for weeks the creaking was very loud but my wife was used to it and has country music radio on when I'm not in the car. Up to you what you do and obviously your creak could be different to ours but when the MoT was done, at that increasingly rare thing of a decent garage we finally found, he knew all about the VW quality dampers and it passed with just notes on the "misting". I think the issue might be the pad things that sit above the dampers which the Dealership didn't replace or perhaps didn't want to push their luck adding it to the £415 for the front dampers. I have looked at lots of threads and posts here about suspension noises and some owners have had of bits replaced one after another to try and find the source without success, so as long as my wife's car remains roadworthy we put up with the noise(s). The morning I noted above the creak got less noisy as the car and weather warmed up and back to its usual volume. I've had 20, 30, and 50 year old cars with a lot less suspension and under car noise. On the good side the suspension creak takes my mind off all the noises from under the bonnet from the VW engine and ancillaries. If you are new to the Mk3 Fabia I can give you useful info without moaning about it (well not too much) top priorities being state of battery charge not being low so as to upset the computer programs and reading and referring to the car's 'Owner's Manual' to save you time, hassle and money and trips to Dealership, garages, mechanics and auto-electricians. If you don't have the very useful paper printed 'Owner's Manual' you can get a VWŠkoda free pdf version from this VWŠkoda site. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models HTH.

Just quick thoughts whilst you wait for someone that actually knows what they are talking about rather than me. Did you check all the pins and sockets were straight and clean. Connectors connected correctly. Can you recoded the original radio back to its original code (does the OBDEleven or you take a back-up of all settings before removing the original radio, I know VCDS has something that gets you to this. 11.17v at the pin connections is that a good voltage at that point, did you have the engine running when testing if both radios work. Serial number is missing can you enter that. If that doesn't work perhaps re-enter serial number, hardware and software and hardware numbers and versions as a full set for entry. Note I do not know the system and have no idea if this would work or make things worse just the type of things I would try when nothing else is working with computers. I guess this might be something minor and someone will know the resolve, if not here you could try on the OBDEleven forum. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

With a used car I just bought or preparing to sell I used to do a fully two-day clean and polish, this would off course highlight any small flaws but I'm not in the motor trade and wanted to be honest, now I very rarely clean a car, I think I had cleaned my neighbour's car more than I have cleaned my wife's 2015 Fabia Mk3 (I'm not a VW fan). As required I clean (and polish) the rear lights, number plates, door mirrors and indicators and rear window, wiper, wiper blade and third brake light and any bird droppings with a carnauba waterless wash 'n' wax and two microfibre cloths (three if I want a higher polish look). I also use this to clean the whole car (smears with very old black seals sometimes) the few times I clean a car. Been using this stuff for many, years on different cars. It's not truly waterless as you do have to wash the microfibre clothes, don't use fabric softener and remove the label off the cloth before use. For those with cleaning bug you can get some extremely soft and luxurious microfibre cleaning cloths/towels. For the fantastic-plastic headlight covers I use a very diluted windscreen wash solution in a spray bottle and once a month or two use finish with Plexus, AFAIK not available at the moment, well in UK anyway which is a shame as it brings the fantastic-plastic covers up very well and makes them look very clean (and polished). I only buy the carnauba waterless wash 'n' wax when on offer and used to buy 5 or 10 litres at a time, I am not bothered too much about the brand and label as the UK ones seem to be made by the same two (or three, I forget) manufacturers. I know the wash 'n' wax is controversial but if used properly, which is very easy, I have found it find and I never pre-clean before using they would negate the point, on black textured paint and rubber side strips it is OK but I get a better finish if I use Autoglym Bumper and Trim Gel but then I have to wash my hands after. I still have various bottles of Autoglym products in the shed but generally now life is too short to bother with them. Decades ago I tried various polishes, very little difference between them and one of the inexpensive ones was as good finish, but was never into the hobby of cleaning cars or detailing I just done it as I have just about always had cars that lived outside. For many years I have used spray and walk away Amor All Tire Foam on the tyres to make the car look better particularly if I have cleaned the wheels (always a PITA job). Clean just the tyres, large areas of black on the car plus the windows and lights and the car already looks a lot cleaner and shinier than it actually is and it safe to drive. Even cars that live outside need very, very little cleaning, let alone polishing, for the paintwork to be fine many years later, seen this many times. ETA: red cellulose excluded, that picks up containments over a good number of years. 🙁 The car club I am in for a few years had their stand at the NEC next or near to Autoglym or Meguiars concours completion stand and I have seen a few concours competitions in passing and know the lengths some went to for the competitions, so I do also know the opposite end I bother with.

Thanks, that's the very useful Owner's Manual rather than the factory workshop manual. You can get free VWŠkoda pdf copies of the paper printed copy of the Owner's Manuals in various languages for models going back about 20 years from the following VWŠkoda website. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models And VWŠkoda update portal, GPS and other updates. - https://updateportal.skoda-auto.com/ And for the ones that admit to VWŠkoda Recall campaigns. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/recall-campaigns HTH.

I was think more of something like the follow, which is just the first example on the page so just general example. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KfBklu-qwQ Even so if something in the chain is not set correctly then adjusting the mixture will be setting it to the wrong adjustment for correct overall set up, it is up to you what you do but my experience is, and I have done it myself, when someone thinks "it won't be that so I won't check" or "I have already checked so no need to check again" Sod's Law things should have been checked or rechecked. Even very experienced professional people can make this mistake. Some on here may be able to point you to where you might find some sort of copy of the factory workshop manual and Owner's Manual. So do you already know about this car and its settings for say the CB points and spark plugs the engine timing and so on. You have to take a bit of care where you get your information from particularly with the internet and parts suppliers and others databases. On here are owners that have had the Felicia and used it for decades so they (not me) have real world experience and knowledge of what works best with the car in today's world. But as I put generally as a starting point at least following the original Owner's Manual (and factory WSM - workshop manual) is a good place to start, so much has changed for a 25 year old car in 25 years. Yes I saw that, that is the fuel filter after the fuel pump presumably, I wondered as I do not know if the fuel pump has a built-in filter or a standard factory filter between tank and pump, others would know I do not. Good. Fair enough. I have put most of what I know so will leave you in the capable hands of the other posters here and others yet to post. Good luck, let us know how you get along and the outcome.

@fabia29 as montecarlo hasn't seen your post yet. Bear in mind there is always a residue left in unless you remove, strip and dry the inside of the box. Dry fill capacity is different to service fill capacity and how much you actually get in depends on how thorough the change is but is normally optimistic even for a DIYer with no time pressures and the interest and desire to be as thorough as is reasonably possible. Different gearboxes will have different capacities. You could look up your car and see the dry and claimed service fill capacities they have on their database for your mode and gearbox. - https://www.millersoils.co.uk/which-oil/

The old Italian tune-up, though I was more thinking of hassling the turbo and engine with pushing it in too higher gear with lower revs, enough to get the turbo turning of course but engine having a bit of labour rather than big blow out. Sorry idea about turbo figures, and they're in metric, I've only got inches on my rulers. 😁 What about trying a thread in 'General Maintenance' or 'Diagnostics & VCDS' for different posters. Good luck.

Graham, it was sarcasm [ ETA: on my part to be clearer ]. 😉 VW computers interfering with themselves, the others, the driver from driving, reliability of the VW car. Another computer system problem today, email address involved too, are all computer systems now like low volume English cars used to, the customer completed the product developments by using them, when they could. Thank the lerd, in all her glory, we have VW German engineering quality. 🤣

@RalfRannet another thought, related to after this is resolved. Have you owned or test driven many similar Felicia that were in sound mechanical and electrical condition with reasonably good condition and working brakes and suspension and engine and gearbox to know how well your Felica could or should be? My experience is that many new (or returning to) "classic" old cars have or have been given the idea that they are all slow, don't handle well and have poor brakes when this is only the case when the car has not been kept or maintained well. Yes the old cars may not brake and handle the same as a new modern car but you just adjust your driving to the vehicle but not accept low standards for it. Old tyres, often with plenty of tread wear left re often hard from age and lack of use so despite having lots of tread left the tyres do not perform well with braking, road holding, handling noise and comfort. Same for brakes often age and lack of use. Brake fluid (like coolant and gear oil) is often forgot about or not bothered with because of the age of the car. I would expect you have all new fresh coolant in as you changed your head gasket? If a car cannot be driven it is usually a lot safer than one that can be driven but has old tired hard tyres and brakes.

@Paws4Thot just to let you know that was before the head gasket change, I just asked to see to confirm what is was and get some idea of more recent past history of the car.

Sorry I forgot the most obvious basic check, although I always start at the battery and battery terminal clamps anyway on any electric issues on someone else's car especially when they say "the battery is good" "er, no I haven't checked it but I know it is because ... ". 😆

If you wanted to know about them I could put up a video of how an old boy that used to deal with old Bugatties leans about various carbs workings but if the holes are clear and clean that can wait for now, unless you want to see it as a break from your car and future information.

Do you know anyone with a gas analyse or vacuum gauge, but bear in mind you set the fuel mixture at the end of that ignition chain so need to check (recheck, double check, treble check) all the other items in that before using a gas analyse or vacuum gauge. Is this some sort of anti-run-on valve? If you did not set or check them, or even if you did, after fitting the new head gasket it should be checked as first item in that chain of ignition checks. Haynes manuals are Ok-ish but like all information and databases they do contain errors and omission so do check and cross reference any information given in it. I had two copies of Haynes for my last car as it was produced and many changes over 21 years of production and neither copy of Haynes covered my year of model completely and had errors and omission in the information. Haynes was more for bigger job repairs service and maintenance work was best covered by the Driver's Handbook (Owner's Manual). If you do not already have a copy then ask the other posters about availability of the Owner's Manual for your car as it will tell you so much about your car and most of it not in a Haynes. You may also be able to get the factory workshop manual for your car but I don't know, again ask the others. Also bear in mind all information even from manufacturers can have errors and omissions too. The rear drum brake set up drawing was incorrect in the factory workshop manual, a well known error, but only if you knew. You could check the spark at the king lead (HT lead from coil, perhaps in your Haynes it has a troubleshooting flow diagram or table at the end of the chapter with ways to check. Bear in mind the coil can be effected by heat or it warming up too much, generally they are very reliable and last decades, unless perhaps it is quite new, is it a good make or an unknown brand. Breezy_Pete and others will know more and better than me about things like this. Good HT lead sets are not expensive but if the Chinese set is working well stick with them for now but any signs or suspicions they are not then I would replace them as they can be difficult to tell if they are reliable and always fully working, just putting a meter on them to test them can give a false positive, that is they seem OK on the meter at that point in time but in real life work in the engine bay they may not. You do not need to buy the sexy silly high priced HT leads just good quality ones again they should last very many years trouble-free so a good investment and reassurance. In the UK 98 (RON) would be E5 both can cause issues for old fuel systems that have not been refreshed and if the car sits around for weeks and months. You can get additives for cars up to 2011 to help counter potential issues, generally it has to be stored and administered correctly, and the one I had used within 2 years of date stamp which is easy enough if you actually use the car. If the fuel pump has a filter you could perhaps check that. As I put I think I could see a fuel filter at the bottom of the engine bay but presumably tat is after the fuel pump. It can also be water from the car sitting around a lot and only being used for short journeys, hopefully gone now not to return but it is a very simple and quick check to make. Also I think those caps have a rubber seal that you want to check is in good condition. Many original parts were better quality (not all by any means) so last a very long time with trouble-free use. This bring me on to engine oil (and gearbox oil) since the car was built oils have improved so just because the car is old does not mean you need to use an old oil or cheap low quality oil, more like the reverse, because the car is old it needs the greater margins of protection and great and longer lasting protection of better quality modern oils in case things go wrong as they can when old cars are actually used after years of little or no real use. Lots of old cars that look good do not run well whereas a scruffy looking old car can be a very good runner. Something we have not seen is the engine air filter, it is important that the air filter and air filter box are reasonably clean as the engine is basically a large air pump. Sometimes a filter looks clean until you compare it against a new filter. These old engines tend to love regular and timely engine oil and oil filter and engine air filter changes. This is not a service for even just the engine let alone the car. Of course the engine is not the most important thing on the car that is the braking system. The order is brakes, steering suspension (all three include tyres), safety electrics (lights, horn, wipers, blower, etc.), windows and mirrors and reflective number plates (see and be seen) and towards the end of importance engine and transmission. As the car is new to you I suggest you carry out a full 60,000 km / 120,000 km / 180,000 km service on the whole car as soon as possible but staggered over time with driving the car in-between to learn about the car and how to drive it and pick up on any issues and learn what you can get used to and live with. The staggered service work will also pick up issues and potential issues and prevent them. As the improvements from full and proper whole car servicing are incremental you may not notice them but anyone who has only driven the car before all the work and after all the work will probably notice a good difference if you have done all the servicing and maintenance and repairs and done them well. There are not too many reasons why potentially the car could not run better now than when it was only a few years old with the improvements in the intervening years. Good luck.

It was the reg she put wrong. A simple mistake and definitely one I'm capable of. The insurer may have been a bit hard but we don't know how the "old gurl" treated the insurers when dealing with them about this. Her attitude on camera was it wasn't her fault at all and she's old and dealing with computers, yet she managed to get the insurance done for the two years. In another life I used to deal with "uld gurls" from Northampton and they are not all sweetness and light I can assure you and older generation born and breed Norf'm'tun folk are among the most insular, miserable folk on earth, I know as I've lived here since I was 12. I've now joined them somewhat and find I can let my empathy slip with employees I deal with. My wife still deals with an over-50s-club in her work and they are very entitled and moaning, I call them MOBs, moaning old bags for the "uld gurls" and moaning old b*st*rds for the "uld boys". My wife is sometimes a consumer MOB and it's a standing joke if something goes wrong I ask "are they going to get a letter/email from Mob of Northampton". 😆 To balance things out - the other day I arranged our home insurance and when trying to complete the computer form it wouldn't let me use my email address because it said it was already in use. I found this strange as I have never used this company before and thought it might be a typo on my part, I tried again same result so I used my wife's email address and then went to change it once every thing had gone through but got the same answer from the insurers website and when conducting an online chat. To keep the story short I had taken out home insurance for 2023-24 with another company, with an entirely different name, that they ran. But it still made no sense as it was a different company with a policy that ended 11 months ago and I've used the same email address for all my accounts, purchases and policies for about 15+ years. A problem with their computer program/system I think, thank gawd we don't rely on computers in cars!!

I too was totally confused (not difficult) by the rich and lean burning but it might be a language thing. I have no idea about these carbs but back when automatic chokes were put on carbs they could go faulty and be unreliable so much so that many owners converted them to the previous system of manual chokes where you pulled a cable and set it and adjusted it for starting the engine and as the engine warmed until you could set the choke to an off position. I am probably one of very few if any here that was still using a manual choke "daily" until a couple of years ago. I used to run, another car, with a carb with the auto-choke disconnected all the time summer and winter but it was a big American carb so sucked a lot of fuel anyway. Can you eliminate the automatic choke by getting the car started and warmed either without the use of the automatic choke or be able to disconnect it once the engine s running? I appreciate this might not be possible where you are if your car is not inside and can be warmed by other heat. With things like this where a lot of other additional work has been carried out I find it best to recheck everything that has been done and recheck all settings made, I know this seems likely to be a carb fuelling issue but over decades on old car forums and bulletin boards I have seen that small errors or issues in set up or incorrect assumptions made can hinder progress with the present issue. As you have removed the head do the valve clearances need checking/adjusting (I cannot remember on this engine). The order for ignition set up was/is - (valves), CB points / spark plugs, timing, carb mixture - in that order and if you adjust any item in that chain then you also check and adjust the items that follow it in the chain. If you have put new parts on do not assume that those new parts cannot be faulty, lots of poorly made parts now. Also do not assume any part that is fitted and working is fitted correctly and/or fully working correctly. Copying how something was fitted to the car is not always the best thing to do referring to a period workshop manual is often a very good starting point at least. Old car Owner's Manuals often gave lots of servicing and maintenance information (unlike the ones now). For older cars than yours in the UK CB points (unless yours is electronic), condensers, particularly rotor arm can be of p1ss-poor quality and cause all sorts of unexpected issues. So too can cheap (often Chinese made) HT leads, spark plugs and coils. Thinking of which how is your coil? How is your fuel pump (electric(?) I guess) for quantity and pressure when engine is cold and warmed? I would make a long list of all that is needed to get and keep the engine running and check and adjust all as required and tick them on the list without crossing off the list as you made need to repeat checks. I have no idea in your country but in the UK E5 and E10 fuel can cause issues if the fuel is very old in the tank and pipes, can cause icing too if I remember correctly. You also mentioned something about white bits on the oil cap(?) a photo of that might help too. In the photos I saw a fuel filter but lost track of the fuel line, other than a variety of hose clips and an electric wire disconnect (for a purpose possibly) my very tired eyes can see little nothing wrong but I don't know the model and am not a mechanic or expert in anything. (I noticed the battery figures of course.) All looks very clean externally at least.

Er, just in case there's any misunderstanding, I have never ever had any oil analyse done, well other than me looking at the oils that have come out of the cars and feeling any bits in the emptied oil between my fingertips. Emptying out the oil from a lifetime factory fill was informative but totally unscientific. A poster in another forum has put how changing the gear oil type and brand has helped the poor quality manual gear selecting on his 2018(IIRC?) VWŠkoda car I warned him this wouldn't be believed. He used a German brand of oil which was developed for VW gearboxes so of course I took the opportunity to say . . . no, I can't say. ☺️ When I had the Midget and was going on to the Chunnel train I was a bit behind a TVR Cerebra and I wanted to be parked behind it on the train to get a good look at it on the train (I had yet to meet a local owner). A newish Aston Martin (model I forget) got between us but I was close enough as we all got in the same train carriage. I didn't realise the two were together and by the time I got out of my car the other two drivers were approaching me. They wanted to look at and talk about the Midget. The Aston driver was about 6' 2" or more (1.88 m) and told me his first car was an MG Midget and when I asked him how he fitted into it he said he didn't know now and declined my offer of sitting in the car. Whilst I was talking to the Aston chap the Cerbie driver went off so I never did have a good look at the Cerbie. This type of thing happened often, at petrol stations people would come across to say they or someone they knew one and how nice it was to see one on the road. At a tyre place a flash Porker (Porsche "Porschar") was just in front of the Midget but two different people came over to me to talk about the Midget. It wasn't just my good looks and charm that had them talking to me about cars rather than the more hero-worship models. Another reason I liked such cars people were friendly towards them, wave and toot when on the road allow me to pull out of junctions when it wasn't my right of way. And no traffic light Grandprixes or wanting to race on the roads (unlike when I had my more sports type cars). Midgets made you were classless, welcomed by the high and low, which isn't always case in the UK.