GrahamM

Well, it's sorted now and sounds a lot better! Thing is, I was used to the noise from the old one and realised the slight rattling sound on starting that I'd put down to something in the engine, was, I now realise, from the exhaust. Oh well... 🙃

I found that Kwik Fit do a free, no obligation, inspection service and went in there this morning. It seems that the back box/ silencer has rusted through where it connects to the exhaust pipe and completely parted company. I asked how much it would be to fix and the young lad I spoke to phoned the suppliers and then said £94 which was a lot less than I'd thought it would be. On the way home, I got a call from them saying "Err, sorry, he made a mistake, the quote was just the cost of the part to us! It should actually be £197 including vat and labour," (which, to be honest, was more like what I'd been expecting). So I've got it booked in for them to replace it tomorrow. PS I told them they should take the extra cost off the lad's wages... ;-)

Ok, thanks for the replies. I did notice the exhaust sound seemed to have changed, so I thought that something might have come adrift. I'll try to get a better view of what's happening and see whether it's just a matter of replacing a clamp or putting on some exhaust bandage or whether the whole thing needs replacing.

Anyone...?

I did check those and they seemed OK, but I squirted some contact cleaner onto them too. I might have another look tomorrow and give them a go-over with some emery paper just in case I missed something.

Unrelated (hopefully!) to my faulty light problem, in the past few days I think the tone of my exhaust has changed and it sounds deeper. Whilst I was fiddling around with the lights, I gave the exhaust a push and noticed that it was swinging from side to side. Is it supposed to do this?! If not, what might the problem be?

I checked the number plate lights and squirted some contact cleaner on them and they seemed OK. One thing which I didn't think of before, was to turn the light switch to side lights instead of just all on and found that I still got the warning, even though they're all working. The side lights did seem to be a mix of types, so, out of frustration I swapped all the side light bulbs (rear and front) for new 12v W5W T10 bulbs, but that didn't help either :( So I really have no idea what is going on...

All the lights are incandescent, not LED and I wasn't getting the problem before the fire. As far as I know, apart from the numberplate lights, the garage re-used the bulbs from before. I found this video which suggests actually checking the bulbs themselves and maybe the number plate bulbs are the wrong wattage, I'll have a look. https://youtu.be/JJeRxRi7Lpo?si=VUB2mziqUXTN0BAb I cleaned up all the contacts on the tail lights, but not the number plate lights, so I'll take a look at those, thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I've looked at a bunch of sites and it seems that it's only a Red warning lights that are automatic fails, Amber ones may not, depending on what they are. But, yes, all the lights, including the number plate lights, are working OK. I'll give my MOT place a call on Monday and see what they say.

A while ago, a car parked behind mine decided to spontaneously combust, melting my rear bumper and the outsides of the light clusters, plus scorching the hatchback. The light bulbs themselves weren't damaged and still worked, as did my aftermarket reversing sensor system, none of the wires were melted. I got a garage to replace the bumper, hatchback and light plastics, but I'm having a problem with the "faulty light" detector as, whenever I turn on the lights, the bulb symbol on the instrument panel comes on. All the bulbs work, I've taken them out, cleaned the contacts, tried disconnecting the reversing sensors etc, but I'm still getting the warning light. I don't know what else I can do to sort this out, the MOT is coming up in a couple of months and, despite the functioning lights, I'm worried that the presence of the warning light will result in a fail. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what I can do next?

Just to finish this thread off: I went and had a look at the car today and after a good check over and test drive, I decided I'd buy it. After a bit of back and forth with the Dealer, we agreed that he'd get the front suspension bushings fixed and renew the MOT so they wouldn't be on there as advisories, and I'd pay the full asking price which seems a good enough deal to me, because I don't have to worry about them or pay a few hundred quid to get them fixed in a year or three 🙂

https://www.seafrontmotors.co.uk/used/skoda-fabia-se-tsi-in-fratton-portsmouth/55945 Oops, missed the link 😳

It's a local dealer, but I don't think they do the work or MOT themselves. Here's the ad although it says New MOT, I presume they'll do it when it's about to sell.

Thanks to someone driving through a Give Way line, my previous Mark 2 Fabia (which I'd only had for a year!) is now a write off, so I need to get a replacement. There's one locally I'm looking at, 2012 registration, which has done 58k miles, but a check of the MOT gives the following from last year : Nearside Front Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement rear wishbone bush deteriorating (5.3.4 (a) (i)) Offside Front Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement rear wishbone bush deteriorating (5.3.4 (a) (i)) Nearside Rear shock casing corroded Offside Rear shock casing The shock casing corrosion Advisories have been mentioned since 2020 (except for 2022 which seems odd, unless the Inspector didn't consider them to be a big deal then) The suspension arm pin/ bush wear was only first mentioned last year (the MOT expires at the end of this month) and I've looked at a couple of threads on here and elsewhere which give the impression that it's a fairly common Advisory, but not particularly critical. I'm going to have a look at it and test drive it tomorrow and insist on a new MOT before I even think of purchasing, but if these are flagged up again, would it be unreasonable to try to get the price down or have them fixed before I buy?

I had a problem with a flat battery on my Fabia Mark 2 Hatchback (2012), so I called the RAC and got a jump start. I was just about to go for a half hour drive along the motorway to recharge the battery when lights started flashing on the dashboard and the mechanic checked the electrics to find that the alternator was only putting out half the power it should 😮 He put a volt meter on the battery which said 14 volts, but then tried it on the engine and got a reading of only 13 volts, the volt drop test indicating that there was a resistance in the electrical circuit. It turned out that the actual problem was that, at some point, someone had undone the earth connection on the left side of the engine (opposite side to the battery), but then bodged the bolt back on and crossed the threads so it wasn't fully tightened 😒 This resulted in the connection getting corroded and the rust causing higher than normal resistance in the circuit such that the bolt was actually getting hot! To fix it, since the bottom part of the bolt is (I think) M10, but the top is M8, he borrowed my Dremel and reamed out the hole in the earth cable to let him secure it with the M10 part of the bolt and, once it was back in place, all the parts of the circuit were registering the same voltage. So thumbs up to the RAC guy for spotting this and saving me having to fork out for getting a new alternator fitted! 👍 I hope this might help someone else who has a similar issue 🙂