theid

Thanks for all this - particularly the hint about the battery!

The whole - walk, cycle, or take public transport thing is fine (although public transport certainly isn't cheap) but you need to be fit and not have children, dogs, ageing parents, etc. Sadly I don't fit into this category, hence the strong drive to have my own car and keep my ability to go anywhere at any time in whatever circumstances present themselves. Suggesting to anyone who lives in the country - and that's a lot of people - that they didn't need a car would not be well-received I suspect. Hey ho ... on we go.

Thanks for all your support. Needless to say Mr. Clutch are sticking to the "it's your fault and Warranty won't cover it" (see: ps://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6509048/clutch-replacement-what-are-might-rights) That's another 650 quid then!!! Happily I have found a decent garage and next time (and there will be a next time) I will take it to them. I wish I could afford to change the car, but sadly not many people can do this. I was extremely lucky when my first Fabia was written off that I actually got more than I had paid for it a couple of months previously, but that was because the cost of used cars had risen so quickly - as I found out when I replaced it with my second Fabia!!! It's a wonderful world.

The Octavia was a 2010, so ten years and 74000 miles before the clutch was replaced. The two Fabias - both 5 speed manuals. I think we're agreed the parts are absolutely useless - otherwise why would the garage have been able to reclaim the cost from their supplier? If anything the Octavia did far more town work than the Fabias!

The first used Fabia - purchased Sep. 2021 - was a 2017 1.0 TSI(95ps)SE L (s/s) Estate 5d 999cc 94 BHP with 36260 on the clock. The clutch went at 37560 miles in November. The car was written off in a third party liability accident in August 2022. The second used Fabia - purchased August 2022 - is a 2018 Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSI (95PS) SE (s/s) Estate 5d 999cc with 22500 on the clock. Clutch failed in February 2023 after 2,309 miles and was replaced. That clutch failed on 1st January 2025 and when removed one plate was found to be split in two. The garage who fitted it was able to reclaim the cost from the supplier because it was quite clearly a faulty part, but I still had to pay for the labour. Now the clutch has once more failed and will need to be replaced. What else am I to think other than that there is a serious issue with clutches for Fabia cars? (I had done 74,000 miles in the Octavia, although I was the first owner).

Thanks for the response. I'm clueless about all things (new) car. Until 2010 I had an MGB Roadster, bought new in 1973, and I could easily manage that. "Motherboard" is a word which makes my blood run cold (I don't have a Smart phone) and all cars now have so many dodangles in the system that the chances of getting exclamation marks on your dashboard at least every month (mostly erroneous in my experience) warning of something or other needing attention that driving is becoming quite a challenge to the nervous system! Even electric windows are a pain, but you can't order a new car without them!

My Fabia is currently at Mr. Clutch again. The clutch failed on 1st January this year and when it was removed there was a huge crack on one of the plates. Warranty is for a year but you can bet your life they are going to say it was driver error. This is the third clutch failure in 2 years (and 2 cars). The first was on a used vehicle and the principled dealer (Robinsons in Norwich) paid for replacement. The second was on the second used Fabia and the dealer (from Peterborough) only paid for the part, not the labour. A local garage fitted that one and it was that one which failed on 1st January. Of course everyone says its driver error but I had an Octavia for ten years (from new) before the Fabias and that never had a clutch change. It seems clear there is a problem with this particular part, and I will certainly approach Skoda about it. The quote already appearing in these forums is: "Due to anticorrosion protection applied to the flywheel and the clutch, the friction value increase is much more slowly. This may lead to premature clutch failures.  Despite optimizing measures (plate lining of the clutch S308, the diaphragm spring of the pressure plate with temperature stability and decreased rpm in the transport mode), the premature heat overload of the clutch still sporadically occurs.  The clutch failures occur in the range from 10 km to several thousands km depending on how the vehicle is operated.  Measure/Production change  Parts without Anticorit have been fitted to the vehicles since CW 20/2019 (except for Fabia III, where the measure has not been implemented yet)." Don't buy a FABIA!

Just to throw a spanner into the works I found this topic while searching "manual Skoda Fabia+acceleration when brake pedal is pressed in neutral" in duckduckgo. This has started to happen in the last couple of weeks and I am now going to research the anti-stall system. I notice that the RPM is always (i.e. default) pretty much on 1000 when I am accustomed to an RPM of 800. I have an extended warranty through the dealer which expires in August 2025 so hopefully can get some answers before that.