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Cheers. I'm taking it as a good sign that the wheel arch hatch was a PITA to open and close, because that means it won't open by accident and the panel be lost forever on the road somewhere. Didn't even occur to me that the bulb might not work before fitting, that really would have annoyed me. But they are Bosch branded (which from experience with power tools I know is not a cast iron guarantee, but better than trusting an unbranded item). Not too worried about the car battery as the car was in for a service at the end of November and the service report says they checked it and gave it a 'Green' traffic light rating then, but the car does get heavy and prolonged use a lot of the time and I don't leave it sitting around with the start button activated as I noticed that more often than not, this means it sits with the lights on so should be quite healthy in terms of charge. Especially as I asked them to give me a brand new battery when I bought it in December 2021.

So got it done, steps to complete were: Open bonnet Try to release hatch in wheel arch with Skoda tool, Skoda tool wouldn't budge it and even started to stretch out like a keyring being straightened. Tried to release hatch with a jury rigged tool made from a metal bar in my shed, kept slipping. Pushed a rubber handled socket wrench onto the hatch from the bonnet side and gave it a good shove, popped the hatch off no bother. Removed rubber cover from light. Tried to twist light from the wheel arch side and felt like an amateur gynecologist, probing around with two fingers. Couldn't get the grip on the light I needed. Loosened the retaining bolt on the battery clamp and slid the battery over about 5mm but still didn't have room to get my hand in that side so put it back where it was. Returned to shed with a couple of torches and positioned them in the engine bay and under wheel arch so that I could see the target and very carefully used a pair of long nosed pliers to turn it anticlockwise and pull the bulb housing out. Put on a pair of nitrile glove to put the new bulb in. Spend 20 minutes trying to sit the bulb housing back into it's socket, retire for a cuppa then return to push it in first time with no issues. Use the pliers to carefully turn the housing clockwise until it clicked. Put the rubber cover for the light back on. Started the engine and turned lights on, M-Dot, warning lights and car info no longer reporting the fault. Got out of car and checked lights properly aligned so as not to blind oncoming traffic, all good. Minor panic when returning to car to see warning light on, but heart rate returned to normal when the car info just said it was because I had the bonnet open and had taken the key with me when I checked the lights. Put the hatch cover back into it's hole and spent a few minutes forcing all the edges back into place. Closed bonnet. Hope never to have to do this job again and didn't even contemplate changing the drivers side, sticking the second bulb in the glove compartment for whenever it does decide to give up the ghost.

Got the warning yesterday that my left dipped headlight bulb had blown. As I was literally passing Halfrauds at the time and it was raining heavily, I stopped in to see if they could do the job quickly. They refused to touch it as they said they would need to remove the battery to gain access to the light. I've since got the car home and ordered the bulbs to do it myself via the access port in the wheel arch, but the space still looks awkward, even for my tiny hands. Has anyone had any success by loosening the battery from the battery tray and moving it away from the light housing to create space (avoiding disconnecting the battery and all the issues that can cause)? 2016 Skoda Fabia Mk III Estate

Just pressed my finger into the side wall of the rears and they have a bit of give in them, certainly as much as the fronts which have a DOT code of 2321, which would probably mean the fronts were replaced by the dealer shortly before I bought the car.

The car didn't come with a spare (just an inflation kit) so I bought a space saver brand new last year.

Yep, got it back to front. I was rushing it to the point of stupidity and went around 30 hours without sleep that day so I'm just happy I could remember roughly what I did. The car was already unlocked when I did all this too because I'd slept in it overnight. Thinking on that, I probably would have messed the sequence up if the problem wasn't the battery safety sticker.

Came back as 5mm tread depth on the service report, visually I'd say that's about right.

It was the person on the Service Desk who was handing me the paperwork back when I collected the car. Totally agree that they've lasted well. Car has one previous owner who clearly didn't drive as much as me, I've added 11k of those miles in the last 12 months. I'm certainly going to my usual tyre fitter in the new year and will probably ask him whether it's worth going for a top of the range tyre rather than a mid/budget range option for longevity. Would be over the moon if they lasted another 6 years because I intend to upgrade to a new car well before then.

I also just had a look at the inner treads in daylight and can visibly see the weird pattern on it now. Looks like someone has taken an ice cream scoop to the tyre and scraped off small sections all the way around.

Try re-syncing the keys. I did this the other week after changing the batteries in the key fob. If the battery is low, you should get a warning on your M-Dot Display when you first turn the ignition on. Pop the lock cover on the driver's side door off (there's a little notch underneath to fit the key blade in). Put the key blade into the lock and turn the key. Remove the key and press the unlock button on the key fob within 30 seconds. The funny story to this is that I was 120 miles from home marshalling a 24 hour race in a pretty remote area when I got my warning. I was lucky enough to find a supermarket with the right batteries in the first hour of the race and quickly changed them in the car park to find that the car was not responding to the key fob after the battery change. I then did the re-sync and still nothing. I was about to try the second battery in the pack when I noticed it had a safety sticker over the battery terminal (apparently it stops kids getting awful internal burns if they ever swallow a battery). I popped the replacement battery out of the key fob, took the sticker off and voila, worked fine and I was back on the road in minutes.

I fit in the boot of mine. Well not strictly the boot, but with the back seats folded down and having made a raised platform to level the boot and the folded seats out with marine ply and cut up sections of an old foam roller as legs in the boot, I've made a very comfy camp bed which I've used a few times now to car camp. I can still fit a lot of gear under the raised platform in the boot and plenty on top if I need to use it as a proper boot. In the summer I also dismantled my mate's conservatory and put the bigger sections on the roof bars and the rest in the boot. He thought I would need a van. I think the only bigger boot I've had is on my Zafira. Never had one this size in something that looks like a standard hatch.

Weirdly the left hand side doesn't have a month/year indicator but the right hand side indicates week 30 of 2016 which is the same age as the car. Both are Dunlops and have directional arrows which looks like I won't be able to rotate diagonally. Will keep on top of the pressures. Cheers

Thanks. I'm running the 16 inch wheels. Will moving the worn ones to the front have any impact on the handling? I'm guessing there's not much I can do beyond tyre rotation to prevent it happening again?

That's what they said at the service reception and have written on the report. I don't have photos of the tyres, but from a little limited Googling, the term 'Saw Tooth Wear' is interchangeable with 'Stepped Wear'. The description is that the tyre edges have uneven wear on the tread blocks. The front of each block wearing differently to the back (heel/toe) etc. From a naked eye point of view, it's difficult to even see an issue. I'm yet to go under the car and have a feel around.

Hi, Took my 2016 Fabia Mk III Estate in for it's first service and MOT since buying it last December yesterday. Sailed through the MOT but they told me both rear tyres had stepped wear and recommended replacement in the near future. Both tyres have a good 4mm or so depth on them so they do have a bit of life left. I had noticed that the worn bearing like rumble before I took it in but didn't mention it when taking it in. Aside from having let the pressures get a little low for a few weeks earlier in the year, there's been nothing that should have caused this IMO. I'm currently driving around 100-200 miles a week, mostly motorway miles but a decent amount of country roads too. My main failing as a driver is harsh acceleration, but other than that, I'm relatively sensible and conservative. The car went through 44k last week and the rear tyres are very possibly the original ones that came with the car. The dealer told me it's a common feature of tyre wear on Skoda/VW cars and while they did put a tyre quote (bloody expensive compared to my regular tyre fitter) on the service report, they didn't actively try and sell me on new tyres which gave me the impression that they were nothing to worry about or that it was maybe just close to closing and they couldn't be bothered to fit them. Is this something to just accept and make sure that I'm more on top of the pressures in future or should I be getting my alignment checked or changing my driving style?