nta16

Just an example Pagid CERA TEC - "Cera Tec is for lubrication on metal-metal applications such as Caliper sliders. Ideal for the lubrication disc and drum brakes, compressors, central lubricating systems, axle bearings, chains, seat tracks, sunroof guides and battery contacts, the perfect compliment for Pagid brake parts." It may or may not help with that brake squeal you mentioned. Not to be used with slide pins on rubber

Absolutely fantastic. And to see it being used nearly 35 years after build. 1988 was IIRC before VW went to the factory and actually reduced the build quality.

For many things, including those that you think you know about but because it's a modern complex car, you are best to refer to the 'Owner's Manual'. If you read the 'Owner's Manual' and refer to it before even simple jobs, you will know more about your car than many long term owners and those in garages and Dealership. If you are male you may have been told by some blokes with testicles bigger than their brains that it is against the law to read instructions, this is not the case. If for some reason you don't have a paper printed copy of the 'Owner's Manual' you can download a free VWSkoda pdf copy from this link. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models From my wife's Fabia 2015 book. -

For whatever reason or reasons these sound like an unsuitable tyre for your use or they had a manufacturing fault which would be hard to prove now. Have you actually seen this "cut to the core" or been sent photos or video? As a generalisation tyres can be hard wearing or other end of the scale very sporty, most are a compromise. On some vehicles you'd not expect 6,000 miles proper use and others drivers claim 40,000 miles, I'd never want tyres now that do 40,000 as they'd never suit me. Bridgestone tyres generally are pretty good AFAIK so write off the model of tyre (for now at least) rather than the brand. You've got a VRS do you drive it like a VRS, if so then that'd be more wearing and as cars now are so much fatter and heavier than they used to be and with silly big and wide wheels so the tyres are wider more 'rubber' contact to road. The great idea, for some, of chipping road surfaces must be more abrasive I'd have thought to tyres, that where you actually have just one level of road surface rather than various layers worn away or just a deep hole to do the tyres, wheels and suspension a power of good. In your 60 years have you know the roads to be as bad as they are now?

Sorry, but that literally made me laugh out loud. 😆 Well that suggest the person wasn't trained at all so shouldn't have been doing the job, that is the fault of any management on site. Your friend ought to complain about this to prevent it happening to other customers and perhaps get a gift voucher or something, they throw those around like confetti.

As I put Halfords seem to go their own way with batteries size numbers and different places have different databases with all databases having errors and omissions (including manufacturers) so perhaps the Halfords battery was different rather than wrong - but - wiring it backwards shows lack of basic checking or any checking, the negative and positive battery posts and clamps are different sizes.

I don't know about the print feature as I use downloadable PDF (might be the same thing?). I've just tried and at first got - I had to press the page reload 'button' (more than once second time) and then got to - Verifying I was human got me to - When I went to download it my antivirus didn't like it so I stopped but I do have some of the pdf on my computer which you are welcome to if yo message me, I don't know how they relate to a 2019 model and don't have engine or gearbox.

Great to see you used your "classic" properly. I've been accused of not having enough "mechanical sympathy" but that was from someone that has far too much respect for lumps of metal. A mate had a 1098 in his Spridget it seemed a very good choice until he swapped it for a Maestro (van) 1275 A+ engine that were some sort of surplus military stock order that were never used and had the engine worked on before fitting it. I really like the look of your Moggy, one time I thought about buying a convertible with a 1275, I drove a 1000 car for a few days and loved the feel of it, except the brakes on it, I was told it was "driven every Sunday" yeah every blue-moon Sunday. For the T9 box I can highly recommend the red heavy duty red saddle clips to take the slop out of the Ford or other black plastic ones. The guy that used to sell them went to prison for making firearms so they're not as easy to find now but I think still about. Also give a miss to the Comma SX75W-90 GL4 or Ford 75w90 Transmission Oil – 1790199 and change to something like Castrol TRANSMAX Manual Multivehicle 75W-90 for better changes and protection especially when it's cold. (I used a modern GL5 but that scared the **** out of many). The 'Owner's Manual' you need to consult even for very simple and what should be straight forward things such as changing the remote battery, using the emergency keylock and key (blade) and other stuff I forget made Simply not Clever by VW although the book I think was written by a German trainee engineer translated to Chinese before being printed in English, it's nothing like a Driver's Handbook of old and VW keeping somethings secret. Bear in mind what I put about the car battery state of charge too.

Blimey Jocko you sound like you're one for expensive (sounding at least, except Back to Black) beauty products, I used the AutoGlym Tre Dressing but it was so many years ago I can't remember what it was like. I used to like the AutoGlym Wheel Protector but like all their products it got too expensive. I forgot about that area of black, again I use AutoGlym BUMPER & TRIM GEL you could also use Back to Black Gel on the door rub strips. Many years ago I tried four different polishes on each door of a car I had to see which looked and felt the best finish and lasted the longest, AutoGlym, Raindance, something else and a tin of Turtle Wax. I can't say I noticed any real difference between them but if I had to pick one it'd have been the tin of Turtle Wax which was the least expensive. I must admit I totally forgot this is a specialist forum so I'll bow out as I've hardly heard of some of these products and have never used them, what I use I get when on special offer for £2 a litre and it's supposed to do four or five cars IIRC, I don't get that but I'm quite wasteful.

@toot might know. I've no idea what an image is but I've seen others put with VCDS you can back track on your path if you're fiddling about or altering thing and with computer programs don't you record or back up any original program before you start fiddling or altering it in case yo might ****-up (only technical term I know). If you have a scan tool of the correct level you can see if there are any error codes and delete them and that only *might* unstick the Speed Limiter mode with no set speed. Or VCDS and play around with settings.

Joko, some of my simple tips for you to make the car look even better, quite quickly and very easily. Anything that is black if you clean and 'polish' it with have those items looking clean and the rest of the car cleaner. The tyres, up to you you can mess around with whatever products you like and if you want have them in a (to me cheap garage) wet very shiny look or shake the can and spray on (more of a sheen look) AmourAll Tire Foam, spray and walk away that how all car cleaning ought to be. The plastic strips down the side, door mirror black bits, roof aerial, I apply AutoGlym BUMPER & TRIM GEL with a 1 1/4" cube of sponge, wipe off excess and buff with a clean microfibre cloth. If you don't have time to clean the car (or can't be arsed) then just cleaning/polishing the reflective number plates, front and rear lights will make the car look cleaner than it is, works better with some body colours than others. With this you're also doing your driver maintenance bit of being better seen and seeing. If you need to you could include as many windows as required (rear and sides sometimes for me). For these I use a product which KC terms as "like a shortcut to sandpapering", I've no idea how I've got away with it for so many years. Another tip, much easier done with a product that can do a panel at a time, use a second clean microfibre cloth to buff up straight the previous for that little extra shine. I'm not sure if your wheels are supposed to be shiny or not and I appreciate the sun isn't on them, shiny or not clean black exterior tyre walls will show the wheels better. Some say the tyres need to be left 'undressed' as the 'rubber' needs it but for decades I've used Tire and had no problems with the exterior sidewall - but I don't keep tyres until they're down to barely legal and wear them out before they're too old. Not really though it is rinseless, I mean waterless (except for cleaning the microfibre cloths which I use water so not truly waterless to me.

You are not talkiing about the same product as me and you wouldn't 500ml of it either, not on a medium-smallish car. Do you really think that' I'd use the a shortcut to sandpapering the paintwork of my cars, my wife's cars and my neighbours car - what am I thinking, of course you do. I seem to have picked up nothing from going to national custom car show nearly 50 years ago, decades of going to local and national "classic" car shows where they have high level concours completions (AutoGlym and Meguiars) where the owners literally clean the inside of the exhaust and tyre tread, decades of buying a variety of washes, polishes, waxes and other cleaning products.

That can be scratchy. My wife's car has swirls on it, by the look of it from someone cleaning with some grit filled 'chamois' at the local Skoda Dealership. Just remember whatever you use that removes any top layer that once it's gone it doesn't come back. My days of spending two days cleaning and 'detailing' a car are decades behind me what I do now is use Waterless Wash 'n' Wax which cleans and polishes in one go and like yesterday when I done my neighbour's car you can do half the car stop and go to the pub and do the other half later. I used to use many pounds worth of various Autoglym products at each clean and polish. Now I just mainly use Waterless Wash 'n' Wax. It's not truly waterless as you have to wash the microfibre cloth (but not use fabric conditioner). I've seen plenty of old cars that rarely get cleaned, if at all, but the paint looks alright and still very functional. My neighbour's car is 17 year old always sat outside I've been cleaning it for the x-number of years, every 6 months with Waterless Wash 'n' Wax, the paint looks fine, not show or concours but fine.

14 miles might be longer but it not a very long run. By coincidence my wife was just now working out fuel consumption (gallons into miles) and it was 44.88mpg, not that it means much to you and others. In my experience it is very common for garages and tyre places to overinflate tyres you want to check them as soon as you can on collection, they often overfill engine oil too in my experience (whatever method you use to check). That's just an engine oil and filter change, not even a full engine service let alone a full car service. Brakes, steering, suspension (all three include tyres) and safety electrics are more important. Check if brake fluid needs changing. And as has been put sparkplugs and air filter ... The two spring clips are the worse, IIRC then disconnect 90 degree small hose and the you heave the plastic airbox off the rubber locators, take it away turn it upside down to remove the screws, bit of a faff because of its size and shape, quality engineering!

According to the free pdf copy of the VWSkoda 2018/11 'Owner's Manual' (paper copy should be in the car) "The rear window is wiped once automatically if the windscreen wipers are on when reverse gear is selected. The function can be activated / deactivated in the Infotainment menu  →  → Mirrors and wipers." That's how it works on my wife's 2015 Fabia. If it's intermittent there might be a stalk or computer fault. The 'Owner's Manual' will give you lots of useful information the macho workshop and Haynes manuals don't, you probably know the phrase RtFM but it also has to be the appropriate manual. I'm with you I much prefer a paper book to some small phone screen that you can't see in the slightest bit of sunlight and the battery is low and packs up because they're designed to be so. Skoda Owner's Manuals - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models You'll probably have plenty to keep you occupied on the car, German engineering quality. 🤣 If others are driving the car surely you've taught them all basic driver responsibility maintenance and checks rather than you needing to always rush out with your underpants on the outside as Roadside-rescue-man for them to at least get the car to the nearest pub. The one thing you do want to watch with yourself and others using the car is the state of charge (and health) of the car battery as the computers systems can cause all sorts of unexpected issues if the battery is too low for them and that is often before any warning lights or messages. Tell them even if the car starts and the lights seem bright enough it still doesn't mean the battery might be too low in charge. You'll also obviously want a good level of scan tool that covers your particular model but sometimes fully recharging the battery with an appropriate battery charger and maintainer and just driving the car can get rid of some issues and error codes, or just delete them if the scan tool is handy. You won't find a the Fabia as forgiving as a Moggy, blimey you babied that, I completed a weekend tour before keeping to 50mph to get me home on the A14 and getting the work done later at my convenience and not the A-series. ☹️ 😄 I can't stand to see broken down old over-priced and over-valued old cars called "classic" as I've had enough of my own roadside stops, repairs and recoveries to last me three lifetimes, often makes the cars seem more unreliable than they actual are or could or should be. German cars and "classics" in one post and I thought I couldn't get any more miserable today, I'm wrong again. ☹️ 😄 Now, what did I come in this room to get . . .

@Alanhipperson25 a different model with different issue but much of the same basic advice was given to this thread originator with a car new to him and following up on the advice he's beginning to see why it was given. -

'Since refuel' is the only one to take any notice of as far as I'm concerned, check it against your maths from MPG refills to see how accurate it is and then in future if you want to you can rely on the adjusted (or ignore adjustment) 'Since refuel' figures. I don't know what device you view on but Gerrycan has a Fuelly fing in 'is signature(?), as below. -

I was joking, British humour. I've never been cool at any age and certainly not now, though I am cold a lot more often now. I know very little about cars and mechanicals but when young had to learn a little as the cars were very old and simple then and you had to do a little to keep them going. I only returned to doing a bit on cars when I ran out of money and patience with poor quality professional work and realised I could do the job as badly myself without paying myself money. What very little I did know I keep forgetting or mixing up. One thing you learn when older is how very little you do actually know or previously thought you knew and that even very clever people have very limited knowledge. Life is about learning, and relearning, facts change and the internet has sped up loosing and changing facts, all the time, AI will loose or change more facts faster. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 30k Km (18k-miles) seems too long to me to leave checking the rear brakes and cleaning them given your hill use, what is the factory service interval for the rear brakes, and I would check before that given hill use. Depends on the shoes you use as to how much they shed, if the rear brakes are reasonably clean and lubricated after the 30k km hill use then fair enough, you will know better than. I had to check/adjust the rear shoes on the Midget every 6 months (if adjustment was needed this would also improve pedal feel and take some slack off handbrake - but these were different drum set up to yours). I would inspect clean and lubricate the shoes and mechanisms and drums every 12 months as I knew the age and use of the drums and shoes. Shoes uprated in size to try to match the uprated front pads but it is more about friction material than size (similar to tyres).

Hi welcome, you might be better asking in the 'Škoda Scala Includes all aspects of the Skoda Scala from 2018' section. -https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/384-škoda-scala/ Sorry I've no idea about phone leads.

Appears to be four catch type things on the underside, why they make things difficult, because they can! Personally I'd give the edges a sparing spray of GT85 (releasing/ penetrating lubricant with PTFE) and ease up one side of the four then the opposite, then third and fourth. Or break the other side to where you've broken the first and take it out as two parts and glue back together as one before refitting. Usual cosmetic job for sales of engine bay looking clean but mucky and unkept out of sight, compare new filter with old. I'd also have a look at the cabin filter and drainage channels in engine bay side and elsewhere just in case the leaves are there too.

(Warrior193 posted whilst I was still one-finger typing) Fair enough, but I'd have thought you'd also want to know how they achieve their mpg figures and why you don't. There will be plenty of threads on here about MPG and hypermiling but not sure if they cover the models you're concerned with. Some on here show Fuelly stuff on their signitures(?). There have been recent threads about the 1.0L 3 cylinder against the 1.2l 4 cylinder engine not sure if they included mpg. I've seen posts where people don't understand how to work out mpg and don't understand the variations to why mpg varies so much (plus perhaps some willy-waving figures). Quite recently some poster on here (forget which model) was getting 20mpg and he followed simple advice and was up to 40mpg within a few posts.

Alan, if you're coming from a Skoda you should know better than to fully trust VW computer figures (though some say they're not far out). Coming from a diesel to petrol you might need to adjust your driving style, you probably don't notice or realise you're driving the petrol quick (not necessarily faster) but as you know you won't see the same MPG regardless. The only way to get a reasonable average MPG for one fill to the next is to fill the tank to the first click of the petrol pump, zero your trip and at the refill fill to first click of the pump, note the mileage and litres put in, divide litres by 4.546 to get gallons and divide the gallons into mileage for MPG (average on that fill). 34/36mpg (even allowing for lying German computers) sounds low but there are so many variables that comparing one car and driver to others gives wide variations, my wife would always get better mpg than me unless I was on a mpg/car performance check journey. Not in a Fabia but I once did 50mph for about 100 miles up the M6 my wife begged me to speed up, I did for the second half of the journey and literally halved the mpg whilst doing so, keeping up with a mate's Honda S2000 that had joined us. Printed figures for other drivers in other situations must be taken as a rough guide only, you don't know the accuracy of the submissions or if more hypermilers have submitted than average or lead-footed drivers, you and your car are what matter how you and the car can increase your mpg. A 2016 car with only 34k-miles on the clock is low annual average mileage, this isn't always as advantageous as many think so time dependant, rather than mileage, servicing and maintenance is even more important. You will want to know , or get done, full car servicing (not just engine oil & filter changes). Simple things like engine air filter and spark plug changes can make a big difference to performance. Do you know if the car sat around for a time before you bought it (probably the battery has been changed recently) if so after servicing the car properly then fill up with a couple of tank fulls of Shell V-Power, Tesco Momentum, Esso Synergy Supreme+, Jet Ultra, Texaco Supreme, BP Ultimate, all for their additive page of additional cleaners and give the car a few good blowout runs (higher revs over some distance not fuel-saving runs). - petrol.pdf Do a tank to tank refill and see how your maths compares with the car's computer and check what actual servicing and maintenance work has been done on your car and if there are any faults with it.

Personally if it's local I'd just go and see whoever will be doing the MoT and ask them about it, always pays for that person to regard you favourably. But you might well find the answer in the link you've ben given (I'm only familiar with recent MoT requirements for a 1973 car). As always there could be insurance implications too should you be unlucky so best to get it sorted ASAP.

Or buy from somewhere different to the CarZoo type places. Have you actually driven a 2018 Fabia Mk3 to see how very different it might be to your 2005 Fabia, or driven a few years older Toyota or Honda to reduce the purchasing gamble. 2017 and beyond is a different Fabia car to even 2016 and personally I'd avoid anything during the time of the pandemic and the ongoing computer chip shortage in the car industry. Things have moved on a lot since 2005 but not all are improvements.