arnoc

Background My wife and I are in the process of emigrating from the Netherlands to Swedish Lappland, and as the winters can get a bit frosty out here (coldest we've seen so far is -32 but it can get colder) we figured our fabia could use a little help with cold starts. Apparently Volvo's (being swedish) come with a built-in engine heater by default as a volvo-owning friend of mine helpfully pointed out. This is all well and good, but we like our fabia and even if it had been an option when the original owners purchased it- it's not on our Dutch Fabia. (Engine) heating systems and selecting the right one The main 2 manufacturers that I've come across are Calix and Defa. Generally speaking both should be fine, but Defa offered a few options that went a bit beyond the basic features so I settled for DEFA. There are multiple types of engine heaters (link 1, link 2). Some of these are model specific, others less so. The inline circulating look quite nice, but given that I only had the car up on 2 small ramps in a cold frosty garage, with no professional means of capturing the coolant liquid I didn't want to drain it all - particularly since it had just been replaced with the right frost-proof mixture this fall. Luckily DEFA offers a variety of different types of engine heaters, and within each type they offer some variants that may be model specific. For my Mk 3 Fabia Combi 1.2 TSI, I needed the model 420810 engine heater, but you can find the right model for your skoda here. That gets you your engine heater, but your cabin is still cold - mine would be anyway as we don't have heated seats (yet) nor a heated steering wheel (yet?). I'll fully admit that this is a bit of a first-world-problem, but having a cabin heater really would be quite nice as well. At this point you need to start considering your demands/requirements. The simplest kits will simply use a Y-splitter with 1 lead going from the plug/socket to the engine heater, and the other to the cabin heater. As far as I can tell all cabin heaters (both Calix and DEFA) tend to have their own power switch on the unit, more powerful units may have a multi-mode switch between 'off'/'medium'/'high'. More advanced kits include an extra lead to a battery charger, as well as controllers that may be remote controlled with a dedicated remote, bluetooth, or even via GPS. Taking into account that really cold weather isn't all that great for batteries either, depending on your budget a kit with an included charger might be worth it. I ended up choosing the WarmUp II 1900 Bluetooth kit, combined with the engine heater mentioned above. My requirements Compatible engine heater, this requirement doesn't really count because both DEFA and Calix will sell you the engine heater separately from the rest of the kit. Adequate Cabin heater Battery Charger Remotely controllable No subscriptions The GPS enabled version requires a subscription because it uses GPRS (mobile phone network) to communicate data, presumably to the app on your phone through DEFA servers. My considerations. Cabin heater: Given the extra volume of the combi/estate I figured that a 1200 W or 1400 W might be adequate, but I'd ratter err on the side of caution and look for something in the 1700 to 1900 W range. I don't recall where, but I read somewhere that the 1900 W (and up) heaters are aimed more at large cars/suvs and vans. Battery charger: No detailed requirements here, just a drip charger that will maintain a decent charge given the low temperatures. Remotely controllable: The most basic kits will just turn on when you plug them in, pretty much like you want them to. But I don't want to have to go out and do that every time. I've actually only just now noticed that Calix also sells a bluetooth control unit, but they call it 'Timer' 😑. In any case they sell it separately from the rest of the kit. As I wasn't aware of this I had ruled them out. Looking at their website it looks pretty decent. In term of control it might even provide a bit more than the DEFA app. Price wise I think the Calix option may be a bit cheaper, though the available kits don't quite neatly match up in terms of capacity, for easy price comparisons. A separate remote (DEFA Smart start kit) would likely have been fine, but I know I would likely have misplaced the remote control half the time. Given that I tend to always have my phone with me (if I haven't misplaced it 😉😅), a bluetooth controller with an app seemed much more practical. Also easier because now my wife and I both have the app on our phones, and linked to our hub. Should we have guessed that might borrow our car or something, we can just tell them to install the app and pass them the instructions for pairing. No subscription: I somewhat understand the need for a subscription in the GPS package, because an embedded mobile connection is needed for sending data. However I'm not sure I like that it's not up to me as the customer to arrange this subscription with an e-sim or a physical insertable sim, with the mediation of DEFA. Although I get why it's needed in some form in this particular case I'm also on the whole not a big fan of subscriptions for everything. I also don't think the pricing is particularly unreasonable or egregious, it's just also not particularly great - especially given the inherently limited amount of data being transmitted. ## Installation Considering the time I'm parking this post for now, will update it later this weekend to include the pictures and explanatoin of the install process for my skoda. For now I'll leave you with the youtube vids that I used to evaluate whether I was going to do the install myself or not. MONTERA MOTORVÄRMARE & KUPEVÄRMARE ( GÖR DET SJÄLV ) (swedish vid of installation on a ...vw passat?/golf?) Defa Cabin Heater Install DIY (2009 Saab 9-5) - Trionic Seven Interior heater install for Skoda Citigo iV electric ##

Hi All, We got our bluetoot 2 years ago. Decided to casually start looking for a Mk3 Fabia Combi, ran into this particular specimen that same week :P. Between the decent price, higher spec than we'd been thinking of, and the blue color that just popped we couldn't resist - after all why wait if you find what you are looking for... Q1 2016 Mk3 Fabia Combi/Estate 1.2 TSI 66kW Greentech Style Business Race Blue (I think) Tow hook Panoramic roof Arm rest Sunset Glass Tinted rear windows (passenger and rear) 2 * 16" Alloy wheels, but currently running on steel rims with studded tyres - 1 set summer tyres (pictured below) - 1 set winter tyres bought later in a dealer promotion

Hi All, I've been lurking for a while looking up a bunch of stuff for the last .....year or so, if not longer. Finally the time has come to come forward and say hello, and hopefully contribute a bit as well besides asking questions 🤓. My wife and I have been very happily driving our Fabia 3 Combi for just over 2 years now. We're dutch and in the process of officially moving to Sweden, and the Fabia has even served as a 'moving' van with our stuffed caravan behind it and a loaded roof box on top. I'd probably be exaggerating if I said our cats have grown fond of the car as well, but at least they get comfy 😁. Although our Fabia was pretty decently equipped when we bought, I've been tinkering with it a bit already so far - with more than a little help from all your combined knowledge here 😇. The main improvement I was looking for was unlocking Android Auto, though that's a still ongoing quest I'll save for another thread. In the process I ended up buying myself an OBD Eleven dongle, which has thus far been put to good use I've unlocked Offroad mode Driving School mode Scandinavian DRL (taillights on with DRL) Refuel Quantity SmartLink (more on that later 😶) Hill Hold Cornering lights Probably some more stuff I'm forgetting now. As we've moved up North quite a bit I've installed an engine heater/compartment heater/charger, again made easier partially with some help from you guys. In addition to getting stuck with SmartLink/Android Auto, this was actually one of the motivations to register. Given all the help I've had lurking here, I thought it'd be nice to give something back in the form of a tutorial/write-up of the installation process. Besides AA I'm curious about any further upgrades/improvements people might recommend. They don't necessarily have to be 'economically sound' investments, as we plan to drive the car until it's 'finished', it is currently our only car, and well last but probably not least I enjoy the tinkering. As long as they improve comfort etc, and the costs are reasonable in relation to said improvement. Thing's I've considered/been thinking about. Installing an (original) rearview camera. (Not really necessary, we've got the beepy sensors which work fine when they're not iced over❄️). The only thing nicer than retrofitting an OEM camera that I could think of is if we could somehow repurpose the 'hidden' system from the vw golf, where the camera hides behind the vw logo and only pops out when used. But it would obviously have to be with a skoda logo ...😅 Front parking sensors (This is probably never going to happen though, not too sure about drilling in the painted bits of the bumper, and I'd like a painted set of sensors in that case not the ugly black dots) Dashcam front/rear. Maybe an entertainmentsystem upgrade of some sort if I can't get the SmartLink stuff to work properly. Electric windows in the rear - but they'd need to be lockable. Maybe USB charging ports for the backseat in the backside of the armrest. Heated seats, maybe steering wheel. ... Are these even retrofittable? Not too keen on doing the steering wheel retrofit myself given the relative importance and utility of having an operable/functioning steering wheel in one's car. It strikes me as a complex and somewhat delicate procedure. Perhaps 'automatic' trunk-lid opening of some sort if that can be retrofitted/frankenstein transplanted from somewhere. Mostly just thinking of something that gently opens with gas springs, not the fancy electronic opening and closing that I think my sister has on their Enyaq. Higher charging output from the front usb port, as in ....any charging output as opposed to data only. Folding mirrors (where they ever an option on the Fabia 3?) -- Just got distracted from writing this post while perusing the definitive vcds obd11 carista list by @JGrindel, which took me to @wirer's site.... I see can find a whole bunch of inspiration/instructions there 😂. I think it was actually @JGrindel 's fog light retrofit guide that helped me a lot in finding a passage through the bulkhead for my compartment heater install, so much obliged for that :). Alright wrapping up... On the compute side of things I'm considering also getting the Carista app with the adapter, because I generally prefer their more open/extensible philosophy compared to OBD Eleven. Not sure if it's worth getting VCDS as well - as I think OBD Eleven lets me do most of the things as well with the pro license? Anyhow....big long hello I guess on my part, and I will post the story of my engine/compartment heater install shortly.