hzoltaan

Hi all, I'm writing up my experiences and symptoms, also the fix regarding this "typical pedal sink". True, it seems, that there is a "pedal sink" myth... I was sold that at a technical inspection station when i asked the mechanic about it... So it started by every now and then, when holding the car in traffic from rolling away, that the pedal started to sink... Then it got worse, so I started to google it, read through this thread and decided that I'll replace the master cylinder. It's done now, with new brake fluid and everything. Removal: it was very easy after getting the cables, hoses away (I have LPG) Syphoned out as much of old muck fluid as I could with a big syringe kept in the garage for such jobs. Disconnected the union press joints of the brake lines, also no trouble there. Took off the master cylinder's 2 13mm nuts and pulled it out of the drum. Getting the reservoir off the old pump was a bit of a hassle on the bench, but I managed. As an afterthought, if it's nasty dirty, might be better to get a new one... I thought the pump would come with one, but I received the part without. Cleaned the reservoir by squirting a bit of brake cleaner into it, shaking and then rinsing it with brake fluid. A google search warned me that washing with petrol or any solvent might not be a good idea so let's stick to brake cleaner and brake fluid... Master cylinder was not bench-bled as I did not get the joints for that. Installation: Was again straightforward, as Haynes says, "reverse of removal" Bleeding was done with a vacuum pump The manual says about the sequence: passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, driver front. Rear brakes bleed out about 200-300ml, fronts do with 100-200ml. I took off about half of that with the vacuum pump, then filled the reservoir and took another half. Got very lucky with bleeding now, (low mileage car, lovely to work on) the bleeding nipples were not stuck, and with a bit of fiddling I could use the vacuum pump well. Brake pedal is hard, pedal travel is short, the whole thing has a much better feel to it. Thanks for all the info, found on this thread! Z

Awesome, a friend of mine also explained it thus: the two swingarms get connected so they stop being fully independent. If one swingarm goes in (ie the outer wheel in a fast corner) the torsion in the sway bar will also push the inner wheel swingarm inside thus keeping the car more level. Thanks Fylaktos! One more thing, I read it somewhere here that you might need a different swingarm, one prepared for a sway bar to be attached. How was in your case? You have a 1.3 GLX? I have a '97 Combi, I think LX, the basicest of the basics (but i like simplicity)

A-Z? Meaning the manifold too is custom? Can you tell us more about it? Is it equal length, did someone calculate it to operate best on some RPM, and if so, does it work better on that RPM? So are you saying, that what you gained on higher rpms you lost on low-to-mid range? thanks!

Can you guys tell me the difference that you feel having the strut brace and / or anti roll bar? I could be interested in any mods just for the fun of it that makes the car ride better. Fortunately stuff like that is cheaply available from breakers now so it makes a good project.

This topic is very close to what i was considering on the other day, though i have a Felicia combi. So I gather, that a swap to rear disk brakes from the mentioned WV might be potentially bad as rear will lock up more often than not. Did I get the gist correctly? I would like to get a bit sharper brakes on a Felicia (sorry for hijacking the topic). I have a Saab900, an ancient heavy cruiser, 4 discs, all original, 10-20 years old system. The brakes are amazingly sharp compared with the Felicia. What advise can you guys give? Should i go for some high-end brand for discs, pads, or should i choose different pad material? Mind you it's not a racing car, i just wish for the same sharpness that that old Saab gives me. (every time i swap cars, i headbutt the steering wheel as i drive out the driveway. Then i smile having great brakes on the Swedish whale)

Funnily enough i was thinking about the same thing, recently, though i approached it from the front end... I like the idea of equal length exhausts. There's a pretty good explanation about hem here: And of course they are available from CZ, 4-1: https://www.2racing.cz/Sportovni-svody-vyfuku-Skoda-Felicia-zavit-na-lambdu-nerez-S-0151-d167083.htm#detail-anchor-description 4-2-1 https://www.sp-el.cz/Vyfukove-svody-Felicia-Favorit-1-3-d112.htm they are pretty pricey though. I could weld it together though it would be a neat exercise. Any opinion, experience with this? Original Felicia runners are already better than a lot type, but they might be too short for scavenging and well... This is something i could fabricate on long winter evenings, without taking apart the engine. (by the way, there's a youtube video of a polish mechanic who grinded off material from piston rods, pistons, eventually getting rid of some 200grams of weight. car was tested on dyno, it gave him extra 15 horsepower and a bit of extra torque. He used an old car, all stock, only polished the passages in the cyl head, so that gain was only grinding off bits of the parts that make it easier and cheaper to manufacture. Great lesson. )

I fully agree, not for the faint hearted. I would especially try to avoid any drilling considering the climate here, that not only supports, but strongly encourages rust. Thanks! That's all i needed to make sure.

Hi, I thought i'll resurrect this one, Found a seller of roof rails for Felicia, (I don't have, but wanna) but it seems that the rails need to be bolted on, which would require the roof to be drilled... And that brought me to the question, how Skoda prepared the roofs for that? Surely they did not produce 2 different roof panels for the estate with / without roofracks?? I was hoping to see a roofrack that glues on with some magical-terribly-well-bonding-lasts-for-ever superglue. (so your average home-depot glue according to the marketing). So... how are the roof rails are fitted onto the Felicias? Thanks! Z

Here in Poland we can get pretty nasty snow. This year there was a sudden fall of about 20cm with temperatures later down to -10 and lower. -How do you take care of your car during winter? Especially how do you deal with road salt? If it gets this nasty wet I try to wash the car every week mostly under the car and wheelarches, pointing the jet washer nozzle under the car to suspension points, etc. Jetwash is very popular here and ever bigger village has one, so it's not an issue and costs only about 1 USD for a few minutes worth of spray -but would you go on a journey on a road like this with your car If i had to... the Skoda has the winter tires now (and they do make a hell of a difference, though nothing beats ABS and ESP when it gets compressed-slippery-snow-ice, but my other cars do not. Sadly I had another car with me when the snow had hit... Drive slowly, keep enourmous following distance and aim for well tord places where you have a bigger chance that more cars had churned up the sludge. Also bigger roads get plowed sooner. One more thing about abs/ esp: I used to live at the end a twisty uphill street. When it snowed in, we saw the first plow maybe after a week. My neighbor managed to get up the hill in his ESP'd Opel family van. (not 4x4) I often stayed on the bottom and walked home as even reversing did not work due to it being so twisty and uphill. Car really hated reversing up. -What were the drivers doing in harsh winter conditions with their classic cars even without ABS? Well, they all drove slower. today it's difficult, as the big man behind you in a 4x4 ABS, ESP, SRS and whatnot 200hp Audi will not understand why you want to do 34.5km/h I was taken over in the middle of a snowdrift by a man like that a few weeks ago. Distance distance, and let them front wheels rolling when you want to steer. that's what i do. Ah, good tires do mean a difference. -How do you know when to install tire chains before it's too late. I think when the snow is not yet compacted you can have some chance, but they will not help much if you want to go up on icy road. I tried once and they did the square root of jack, so... I guess it calms your nerves, having them in the trunk, but putting them on in -10 is a turnoff hassle anyway. I could be entirely wrong here and missing vital education about using them, but i had very little luck generally with chains.

Installed that lamp, mirroring the original one on the left side. Just had to make a more-or-less correct size cutout in the plastic, popped in the lamp i got from the local ebay, installed the two LED fastoons, and voila, I have a lot more light to see in the boot during the long dark winter months on the countryside. (closest streetlamp is 200m away, so it get's properly pitch black in the carport) ran a cable from the original lamp to the new one right next to the original wire loom under the boot doorstep, so all looks decently original. Fylaktos, nah, I'm a native Hungarian and got a Hungarian speaking job here for good salary way back when I was a live-in-slave in a hotel in Essex. In the UK I was just another of the not too welcome "Eastern European" (mind me, i'm an Anglophile, and can't blame them: there was a plague of us, but we kept the economy rolling) and here the Poles actually like Hungarians (we are probably the only neighbour they don't really have a historic animosity with... the same on our side in Hungary, but here it's much much more pronounced). But would I say no to a place in Italy, preferably on the South, with the great kitchen, the good wine, the awesome car history? 😛 Hahaha, I guess, not.

Finally got around fixing the switch. It was a very simple operation, not counting the plastic pins that hold the upholstery to the hatch. 😕 I broke a few of course, but well... The microswitch has a steel tongue that is pressed in by the lock if the hatch is locked. That steel tongue needed to be bent a bit inward to switch off sooner. That was it. Getting the lock out took more time than bending/testing/calling it good. Ordered another light fixture, identical the original, i'll cut out a decent hole for it on the other side so i have 2 led lights to help me rummage around in the boot during our nasty winter. (it's getting dark at 16:30 already... 😞 OF all the countries i could have moved to, why on Earth i choose Poland???! That's a reoccuring thought for me during winter.

Cool thanks! I'll get that switch sorted. (so in the lock mechanism, right? Counterintuitive, the wiring must go around half the car to the roof and back down again. Well, nothing comes near the madness in my 2.3tdr Frontera's engine bay though) If that switch is a no go or just to messy to get to it, i'll just add some switch like you did Fylaktos. After that i'll add a light to the other side of the boot as well. And perhaps fix a lamp to the carport behind the garage, as it gets dark there as inside an elephant's a**. Thanks all. Z

Bit of an old thread but let me ask: can it be adjusted? My bootlight sadly comes on intermittently (flashing on off) even with the bootlid firmly closed. Fylaktos, how did you add another light? cut out the plastic on the other side and mounted the same thing or what? Nights are getting loooong over here and i need to dig around a lot in the boot nowadays. Thanks! Z

On the other hand... do fan motors go bust that often? I never had a dead fan motor or one that required or allowed any maintenance. I guess they are designed to pretty much outlive the car {from the manufacturer's point of view.., that's maybe 5 years and 100k kms?} If replacing it is so problematic even getting another from a scrapyard off a Golf or something? Or maybe just getting one that's roughly the same size and mounting that instead? I mounted 2 different fans over the years on a Suzuki Carry {Fa8 has a belt driven fan and can overheat in traffic jams} Locally here you can get some "tuning" fans, very generic with pretty easy mountings. They are worth exactly as they cost but hey, if you can't get the original...? :D

I read it somewhere that ECU needs to be informed of throttle body cleaned...?Some options were mentioned in a thread on that very topic here on this forum. Does that mean that cleaning throttle body without the cable and software is a pointless excercise in futility? :D

Thanks! I can see on mine that the right hand side adjuster has air in the tube. Marked the level on the hose and turned the knob, but nothing happened. I read in one of the linked posts that they often fail for not being used. Is that an MOT failure in Czech Republic? That was my impression from reading the comments. It is available here... or maybe not http://www.km.krakow.pl/en/6u1941331a,3,1,13922 Status: available Stock: 0 I found this method easy enough to do though: https://www.feliciaklub.cz/navody/elektricke-naklapeni-svetel.html So thanks again, now i know what to do. In the middle of moving from one place to the next, so this will have to wait but i'll post some pictures and description once done.

I bet you have a ball driving that MG! 145 tires? screaming in the corners and feels on the edge with 60-70km/h? The best way to have fun. The correct noises are pretty nice to hear too. Sadly, old Brit cars are quite rare and costly over here. But MGs and Spitfires do turn up every now and then. Dolomite or P6 is barely existent. But there are a lot of Series 3 LDs! The interesting part about the Felicia is that (over here) everything is still available, dirt cheap, even if quality. (like today i got Delphi brake pads for 15 quid? The Delphi temp sensor was less than a tenner, and i just ordered a Mann airfilter that's again like 7-8 pounds) I miss one rubber trim from a rear door, and my experience about such parts (ugly when missing, but not making the car less usable) for older vehicles is that they are desperately hard to find. It's available for Felicia, though slightly different looking so i'd need to get a full set. So this Skoda is interesting in a sense that it's very simple car to work on even by end of '90ies standards, parts availability is great, it's emissions are OK due to the MPI... By the way, just got the airfilter out. X) Nasty. The car has brand new brakes and it probably had an oilchange not long before (oilfilter was clean like out of a box), but the airbox has leaves and dust in, filter element is grey... It could do with a throttle body cleaning as well but i do not want to do that without the OBD cable and software. I read that ECU needs some resetting.

I generally do pretty much what you just described. In the not too distant past i shook a '91 Jeep XJ back into shape by doing basically all that was described as maintenance, including cooling system flush and a complete rear brake rebuild. (it was nasty in there)... Sadly, that car gave me an immediate lesson: Whatever maintenance you go if the car had 20 years of botched botches of botched repairs and neglect it will not be much better. Eventually engine went (it was a Renault 2.1 Tdi, an engine that should not exist), wrapped cyl head. The second car that got a full package was a '93 Frontera with the massive cast iron 23DTR engine. There actually all went pretty rosy (it was in a decent state when i bought it) but somehow i never could get used to that incredible rattle of that diesel. Now that I'm buying another house and the new place will not require 4x4 in winter, i sold the Frontera and decided to get a simple workhorse estate for the renovation of the new house. And i ended up with a 100% original low mileage Felicia that i adore more and more. It's an interesting mixture of rock bottom simplicity (mine is the least equipped model and i like that), old time's charm (I mean archaic bits, like hub covers, sheet metal grille, that OHV engine with it's character and noise) and at the same time it's pretty modern with the MPI engine management. (I used to feel bad about smokey, smelly diesels or carburetted petrols I owned / own) But I decided not to throw away bits and replace all. The tires for example, they are like 7 years old. Not perfect, but not horrible. And I really hate throwing good stuff away... I'm a big recycle, reuse repair guy. Like I guess you are as well with BL cars. Is LDV400 a BL car? I used to live in one of those for a few months off Stansted. Tell us, which Leyland would you recommend as a daily drive? old Brit cars certainly have a lot of charm. Sadly i do not have any (nor had to be honest.)

This is probably the one thing that's not working in the car for me. and as i gonna be soon moving and refurbishing the new house, i'll be driving a lot loaded... would be nice and kind towards others to have the headlamp level adjustable. I read here on the forum and in the workshop manual that it's a closed system filled with some antifreeze. Is there a way to sort it out, refill perhaps? Sorry if there was already a topic about it, my "headlamp level" search brought up everything from the next week even but not this. All comments are appreciated, Z

Thanks! I'm actually still looking for a maintenance schedule for the felicia. My Cedric book does not contain that info in a neat separate part like a Haynes would. I got a manual to be dowloaded from a member here and i'll check that once at my home computer. (company restrictions in office. ) So far this is the state of affairs: Car has 62000kms, so if there is a big maintenance run at 60k, i will presume it was not done. Over the last few years it was used very little the 500km trip home from the seller was surprisingly good. Brakes did not pull left or right, suspension was OK, tires are aged but barely used and visually new. (it was garaged, so i guess UV degradation is that big.) there were vibrations over 100km/h, i think wheel weights will take care of that. MOT ran out a week after buying, so it went through the typical Polish test, that showed me rear suspension being on 50% and left front brake being slightly weaker. brake disks are pretty good, (no warping and lot of "meat" on them) handbrake is strong as hell. (not usual on some old cars) The old owner was probably fiddling a lot with the car, engine bay was spotless, all plastics, hose clips, covers are present, battery is still on warranty, even the battery clamps look clean and attached in right angles. the general impression given by the car is that it was owned by a very careful owner. All locks, hinges, other mechanics in the car work great. Planned maintenance coming up: - get a maintenance schedule and lubricants chart. (from the Cedric manual i gathered that 15W40 every 15k km, or DOT4 brake fluid ever 2 years. No info found about gearbox oil as an example of missing maintenance stuff... I'm telling you, weird repair book. Has a 1 page essay about technical parameters and classifications of brake fluids or a one-pager on oil viscosity, but there is absolutely no chart of lubricant replacement schedule. ) - take a look at sparkplugs and if they are to be changed after 60k, get the Champions - Measure compression once I'm there just for kicks - check airfilter, throttle body, if schedule says replace / clean than do that. - check valve adjustment, that part is awesomely covered in my manual - I checked for grease points of suspension underneath but could not find any. If there are, let me know! - What else...? As you say, this oilchange is mainly of cleaning purposes, will do another soon.

Hi Nta16, as you mentioned, using the car frequently can erase things, so till now nothing too deep has been done with the engine. (the car had done 75km between the MOTs between 2021 and 2020, and did less and less kms as the owner (really old) gave up driving. ... that said, the car is far better running than similar "Grandpa" cars i acquired in the past... an Opel Frontera for example needed full brake renovation after sitting for a year in a garage) So far just a quick oilchange was done. Sadly, there is no sign of the last servicing, no stickers or service history, though the fluids in the car and the general state of the engine bay looks very promising. I think i'll get around adjusting valve clearances in the coming days check filters and so on. And replacing the brake pads as one started to squeak. The vibrations: I must admit, this is my first Skoda for a very long time. (20 years ago that S100 bought without papers from a barn and driven a few yards in the village is probably not relevant experience ) So would i recognize the normal vibrations of a chaintensioner-less camshaft drive, pushrod engine that has 3 bearings? I guess not. the RPM changes are a different matter i'll check the throttle body and seals and hoses around that area.

Hi, I thought that this would deserve a separate topic, we could collect links etc here. Recently i got a Mario Rene Cedrych "Skoda Felicia" book that seems to be a translated version of some Czech workshop manual. It's pretty weird at times, like being very detailed on certain topic, but utterly lacking useful information like maintenace schedules, oil types and filling amounts. (like the Haynes manuals usually have) Other than that, great drawings and very informative descriptions of processes. Anyone knows of a working link to some other manual? Maybe can send to others as PM? Z

Would this help with ever so slight changes in idle RPM or "hanging" after releasing the go-pedal? (RPM stays high for a second or so after taking your foot off) The car has only 60000kms, but of course it's 25 years old. I dealt with carburetted engines before and when i had "hanging" it was usually due to extra air getting into the intake. but I'd expect an ECU to compensate for that so it should not be noticeable...? I'm just guessing, never tried to troubleshoot injected engines before. (maybe it's normal for Skoda 1,3 MPI and i do not know what to expect... The only other car i had with "this" engine was a 1977 S100, but that's a very different animal ... my other injected car a 1.4 Opel Astra F (single point injection) does not do such uneven idle or "hangs". Neither do (or did) my carbureted cars. Should i move this to a separate topic or can it stay here as part of the guide?

Thanks Fylaktos, but OBD11 needs android and ios. I know, I'm sorry, i'm one of those irreparable cave-men who still uses a dumbphone. (can you imagine i work as a web-miner with some basic programming? ) There is just no way to please some people, huh?

Right... by the way... Thanks for the advice, the replaced temp sensor fixed the gauge. (now it looks "normal", around 90 when i drive). I did not notice any difference with engine operation. The faulty sensor was sending a slightly "colder" signal (higher resistance) to the ECU. I guess the difference was not too big. It did not do away with the weird vibrations and slight changes of RPM but i guess that belongs to another topic altogether.