nta16

Well done. Thanks go to Igor, the video maker and repairer and whoever first put that video on this site for me to copy it here. Did you fit the cowl after because you forgot or didn't trust my idea (who told you how bad I am). Yes I found parting the connectors, especially the one to the airbag detonator, a little tricky but Igor made it look so easy. At 12k-miles it depends how the mileage was built up, if it's lots of short journeys and/or lots parked up for ages then that can be more waring on many components and parts than a car that is used regularly for reasonable length journeys. With classics those that don't know them often might think a low mileage car and low use car is better, they often learn otherwise quite quickly. I could be fixing 3 faults every journey on my Midget and probably still never catch up as more ****-poor modern rubbish parts cause more issues and hassles. I changed the transmission oil on my wife's car as it normally only does very short journeys most days (IIRC 28k-miles in 5 years) and that made a noticeable improvement, I keep meaning to put a thread up on that.

Do, as it's not difficult, or I wouldn't have been able to do it, can be a bit fiddly and slightly awkward as these jobs often are but allow yourself plenty of time and keep checking the video if you need to. If you find refitting the bottom half of the steering column cowl before putting the steering wheel back on good could you please report back and let me know and I'll add that to my post, same if I'm wrong and it doesn't help I'll remove the idea, I just plumb forgot. Let us know how you get on. Cheers.

Others will be able to give you the technical answer but mine is to keep the car manufacturer and car's computers happy. I recently replaced the battery and then researched what was required (a lesson in how not to do things there) that's what got me here. I knew that a low battery (car or keyfob) could give the computers headaches and then the computers would get their own back by upsetting the car and you but I had no idea how invasive the battery monitoring system is on the stop/start car. The windows will be tied into other systems and not just wind the window up or down. The coding is done by someone with the appropriate scan tool programming. See the other threads here for more details. HTH.

No I didn't think you was, we're both apologising to each other. Difference between written and spoken words. Now I've not thought about this, assuming (and we all know what assume means) that the appropriate filter would be fitted at the dealership, if I remember I will look.

Who knows what anybody thinks unless they tell you. I think communicating to and with the customer saves guesswork, misunderstandings and problems on both sides. Communicated properly most reasonable people prefer to hear even bad news or changes and if done in a timely manner usually a sort around can be found. Of course this does require that the customer expectations are managed properly and the customer isn't over promised to. Anyone in a relationship will fully understand the basics and consequences when it goes wrong .

It's 15" wheels on my wife's Fabia, if it wasn't for the front brake callipers I'd have been happy with 14" wheels and in steel not that's it's ever anything to do with me of course as it's my wife's car. 14" wheels would give 175/70 r14 tyres, and in Avon ZT7 - and 70 would still be low profile to me.

@TerFar do bear in mind a good set of new tyres should feel better than a 5 year old used set of good tyres. There are (used to be?) different versions Potenza and getting the right type for your vehicle could make a lot of difference. That's not to say that the Dunlop Sports Maxx RTs aren't a better tyre than your previous Potenza and that the Potenza you had weren't the right ones for your car. I always promote the importance of good tyres, especially with someone new to classic cars where the tyres could be very old and/or very little use so not be performing well (or even safely in some cases) but they might think old cars are that bad at braking, handling and road holding, Personally, probably like yourself having previously had E rated tyres, I take the tyre ratings with a pinch of salt, as our German (and Japanese?) car manufacturers have shown you can set things up to get good test results. When the tyre labelling first came in I had some tyres that didn't score as higher for wet grip as their replacements score but in real world use to me it was the other way round for the scoring. There's a rubber shortage, like so many other things at the moment, but I think the rubber shortage has been going on a while and manufacturers have been looking at substitute materials and blending them in for many years IIRC. Bear in mind the bits that come off of tyres pollute and the fashion going back decades for oversized wheels and tyres even on things like small city vehicles doesn't help with this. I'm used to tyres with 80 section sidewalls and 13" and 14" wheels, the Midget has 145/80r13 tyres, and on a previous example where on 3.5" rims but I must admit looking at 13" wheels on old saloons , like my old Estelle 2s, the wheels do look small on them. BGT photo courtesy of R G Everitt, 20 year old tyres with lots of tread on them and they looked to be good at sidewall. Blue Skoda photo is from 1986, Estelle 2 130 Rapid - the poor man's Porsche.

Fair enough. My 5 year old Michelins, on my MG Midget, that have not seen a lot of mileage or use for various reason are cracking and feel hard and less responsive so I'm just about to change them. My wife's Fabia came with Nexen (N blue HD) that someone I know said wheren't the best handling tyres but then whilst the Fabia handles OK it's chassis wasn't noted for being entertaining. When I had the old Estelle 2s very good tyres would really improve their handling but I'm not sure that'd be the case with our Fabia. I had some Avon ZT7 put on last year but they went on the rear and the Nexen N blue HD Plus from a distress purchase are still on the front so it's difficult to know if the Z7s are any better. Of course the Fabia Estate is going to feel and drive differently to the Octavia and Superb. IIRC I've only driven on Skye once when I paid extra to stop in Flora MacDonald's cottage, but it wasn't really a cottage anymore, and the real ale in the hotel was quite expensive but when I went to the bar myself rather than being served at the dining table I found the locals go it at a lower at a lower price, which was fair enough otherwise they'd never get locals in, the person behind the bar couldn't get me back to the dining room quick enough. It was the year 2000 and at the time I had a 1999 MX-5 (mk2) which had some too good Yokohama (forget the number) tyres which gripped too much for fun in the dry so I swapped the set shortly after that for a set that gripped better in the wet than dry. MX-5s (and their drivers) had a habit of losing the rear end very suddenly in adverse conditions, for the driver's I think because they were too use to the grip and handling in good conditions and didn't adjust enough (or at all) out of those conditions.

Sorry I wasn't trying to create a storm in a teacup, I was trying to avoid being alarmist with the intense petrol smell on starting and was just trying to get over this shouldn't be so, also I didn't know this was about a different issue. So much effort has been put into stopping the slightest petrol fumes getting to the air around us. On the airbag being disconnected fair enough if it's been agreed and accepted that there wouldn't be a passenger there. Not that I know but would it have taken that much effort or time to replace the dash side/end panel, perhaps more hassle with the glovebox but again I don't know. If the petrol smell was already sorted and the blower due to be fitted it's just short term inconvenience, and of course the bill.

I take that back, as an experiment the other day whilst waiting in the Fabia for my wife I tried manually tuning and it only gave me four stations yet I could receive the pre-sets but only one of them was the four offered and it was a long winded way of going about things.. I can't remember how the local to national tuning is done without the unit in front of me. Rum4mo has reminded me I meant to put trying a portable/personal (or even mains on a power extension cable) DAB in the car to see what stations you can and can't tune-in with to give you an idea of the reception where your car is parked. Once you've got a station on pre-set it can also be set to look for the strongest signal for that station as you travel (subject to reception). Around town I know of two (forget the correct term) blank areas, one only lasts for half a second when driving at 30 mph.

I don't know but I can't think what panels those might be. I don't know where the blower gets its air input from but still don't follow why that would make any odds as it would be a sealed fresh air fed. Did you get intense petrol smell on start up this morning?

My car is a 1973 MG Midget, with a pull cable choke to twin carbs, but I wouldn't expect it to smell of petrol even with the top down, unless after too much cranking and/or too much choke it still didn't start, or if I overfilled the fuel tank, or the spare gallon plastic can in boot has bloated with the heat - other than those it'd be a fuel leak. I won't expect to smell any petrol from the Fabia particularly at the front. Average of 12k-miles a year was the old, er, average sort of annual mileage, and as with our cars at over 5 years old there will be additional servicing milestones reached but nothing that if missed would give an intense petrol smell. I think that needs investigating ASAP. Do you keep the car's servicing requirements up to date, do you know if the air filter has been changed and did this garage now run a diagnostic check and report anything else back to you?

Uhmm. Why leave off that panel and not refit the glovebox properly, I wouldn't like to think an independent let alone a Skoda Dealership would let you have the car back like this. More importantly why is the passenger airbag disconnected or turned off. Was this car new when you bought it as I can't work out, but others may well know better than me, why there's that shiny bit of metal with blooming around it. Sorry about all the questions but this is perhaps the important one - why have you got an intense smell of petrol on starting up?

If you feel like it, any chance of a photo so I can see if the motor goes on my wife's Fabia if I'd be bothered with the potential hassle of (trying to) doing the job myself or pay someone else.

I can see for an independent garage or even dealership work done out of warranty (or perhaps even in) there could be time, labour and cost constraints plus of course I've no real idea how much work it is to remove and restore the interior panels and parts so leaving them out could be a reasonable idea, plus of course each time things like that come out and go be in the more potential for damage or unable to match factory fit.

Oh dear! Is that common? I don't know as I've never done such but it doesn't look a difficult job to replace but probably awkward especially getting the new one back in especially without potential damage or future issues - but it's just experience, and/or time and patience. Perhaps you could do it yourself, if you wanted to.

On my wife's hatch 2015 Fabia hatch the 185/60/15 tyres can be set at 30 or 35psi for eco running. They're run at 35 psi and it does make the handling noticeably different, not as good, but the rolling resistance is reduced which must improve mpg as the car continues to roll along when lifting off the accelerator a lot more than at lower pressure. You do need to check the pressures with a good quality gauge, that's generally not those on foot or electric pumps or garage or petrol station forecourts. The gauge doesn't have to be expensive the old PLC pencil type were very good. If you stick to one good gauge then any small discrepancies should at least be consistent with tyres at the same pressure. You may already know that the pressures need to be checked when the tyres are 'cold', in the morning when it's cooler and the tyres not in the sun. Then there's the tyres themselves, some are better than others, if they're a few years old and get very little use they can get hard which effects the sidewalls and tread areas and will deteriorate their ability of braking, road holding, handling and ride comfort and noise. Different makes and models of tyres might suit slight variations from the what's on the petrol filler flap but that would always be my starting point. Being an estate the pressures will perhaps vary more depending on how the car is loaded and used and may need changing with changes in use, do also remember to reset the TPMS at each change. What make and model of tyres are on the car? ETA: The standard Fabia handles OK but as standard isn't the best handling car generally.

I was covering that with containers in wrong place. The canal was sorted but the results from it are ongoing, bit like Covid with hospitals, schooling, etc. (wealth, for a few, from contacts).

It's better to be told about something twice than not at all. £3.65 is a great price the one I got IIRC was about £7 or £8 inc. P&P, I think both of the one's I've got would be tough to cut by hand so they can stay the way they are. A lot of items are difficult to get at the moment, Covid, Brexit, containers in the wrong place, China/USA/Aus and who knows what else - price and supply realignments.

No, that' s a fault, most likely bad parts quality or build, no amount of high quality lubrication can overcome this. Building cheaper often doesn't lead to building better, well not for the end user anyway. The race to the bottom has been going on for some while, but variable quality has always existed anyway. I've owned British made cars since the 70s so know all about variable quality and well before the rush to the far east.

Did you perhaps pick a station that was weak reception so lost as you moved? In "Advanced" tuning have you got "DAB Station Tracking" switched on? Do you get a list of available (DAB) stations? Have you tried manually tuning to a DAB station that you know gets strong reception where you are? On our Fabia DAB radio if we 'switch' to BBC Radio 2 it always takes ages to pick up that station yet the other BBC DAB stations and other we have pre-set tuning in straight away.

IIRC (always doubtful) a certain British car manufacturer from Lancashire used to put a short piece of thin plastic tubing to the bonnet hookbar to stop rattles. My wife's 2015 Fabia doesn't rattle on the glovebox or bonnet release handle - well so far anyway.

A different and/or better oil can't overcome a fault or flaw in design and/or build but can sometimes ease a reluctance. In my Midget I've got a Ford Type 9 manual gearbox from Sierra days which was basically their 4-speed manual with an added 5th gear, them and Vauxhall with their 5-speed found they needed a different oil but later developments bought an oil that was better for colder climates in easing cold weather gear shifts but before this time Ford had moved on, and so had and have oils. I use a type of oil in that gearbox the some say with ruin the box and rob me of my teeth and good looks, as if! Same with the Rover 5-speed manual box LT77 I remember seeing different oils being specified by the manufacturer over different years including IIRC ATF. This year as the first job I've ever done on the Fabia I changed the transmission oil for the standard 5-speed as the car is mostly used on very short journeys in town and oil wears. My wife said the feel of the gear shifts had improved with the change of oil and we've been together too long for her to say that just to please me. Some people think that as oil has been in the ground for millions of years so that's how long it can stay in the transmission, but not me. Castrol SMX possibly what was in the Ford bottles, but I don't know, but even Ford didn't have oil refineries even if their name was on the bottle and the Castrol was dyed red.

In that case shouldn't they look at using a different and better oil(?). I'll get me coat . . .

Yeap, I can confirm M14 x 1.5mm was what the one I got said it was, I got one with a cheaper finish than the one my mate got me. Both must have been more expensive though as they have a posh name - 'Alloy Wheel Alignment Removal Fitting Tool for Audi VW Skoda Mercedes SEAT Bolt', you can get them in sets of two, but both same length. I looked up my purchase history. My wife is just below 5 foot too, but she's a good swimmer so has no excuse.