GrahamM

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 🙂

After another long delay, I finally found the time (and patience) to sort out the problem of the reversing light on my Skoda Fabia Mark II not working because the wires that go to the connector on the gearbox switch had broken. Firstly I found it was easier to remove the heater hose that is in the way, it has a T15 Torx Screw at one end and T20 at the other end (another piece of clever design by Skoda!) This gave me more room to manoeuvre, but I also bought a set of extra long pliers (about 11"), one of which has a straight end, one is 45 degrees and the other has a 90 degree end. This made it much easier to grip the wires from the loom when I was stripping the ends and then crimping the new terminals. Here's a video showing some of the details, I hope this helps someone else who has had the same problem:

Well, thankfully I've managed to get the reverse switch light connector off eventually by using an old wire coat hanger that I'd straightened out and then bent the end into a short hook that enabled me get to the catch on the connector which was on the underside. It may be different on other people's cars, I suppose it just depends on the final orientation of the reversing switch when it's installed. (If you're not sure how these catches work, look on top of the cylinder block, there's another one there which works the same way.) My only other option would probably have been to get a set of wheel ramps, drive the car up onto them and try to get at it from underneath which would have been a massive PITA! The plastic on the switch is pretty worn, but, as far as I can see, the serial number is the same as the one that Thud linked to above, certainly I can read the 1699 in the bottom right corner and the rest of the number appears to be 1J0973702, so I'm going to buy one of those and hopefully it will fit ok. As for putting it in place, I've never really liked butt crimps, and, especially given the lack of space I've got to play with down in the depths of the engine, the idea of being able to get the tails of the wire in place in one of those and get them secure doesn't strike me as the easiest option. In the past I've used spade terminals to extend the wires on my motorcycle's rear indicators (when I installed a top box rack) and I added a liberal spray of Duck Oil before wrapping them in electrical tape and they've been working fine for years in what is, after all, a very stressful environment (open to the elements with lots of vibration). So I'm going to give crimping spade terminals a go, but make sure I leave enough wire that will enable me to cable-tie them to either a fixed point or, failing that, one of the other cables which I think should give enough support.

Yes, that was my thought. Far better to replace the connector with a new unit and crimp on a couple of spade terminals than risk fixing just one side, only to find the other side or the OEM connector fails a little further down the line...

Ah, now that looks perfect for the job! I certainly didn't fancy trying to crimp a connector onto about half an inch of wire, but there appears to be plenty of spare lead going to the red plug on the left. I'll have to try to get the connector off tomorrow to find the serial number and then pick one up off eBay. Thanks very much for the help 🙂

I've finally managed to find the gearbox reversing light switch and the problem, as you can see, there's a broken wire. (Great bit of design, Skoda, putting a thin piece of wire like that in a place where there's going to be a lot of stress and vibration... 🙄 ) Now the idea of trying to get a soldering iron down into there to fix it does not appeal but I'm not sure what else is feasible. I could (possibly) get the connector off the switch, I think there's a catch I'd have to push down which is, of course, out of sight on the underside (another great bit of design!), however there's not much wire to strip back if I were to try to crimp a connector on to it. Also I'd probably have to unwrap some of the covering to get to the rest of the wire on the loom side for the other half of the connector which is going to be fiddly. If anyone else has had a problem like this, I'd welcome suggestions on the best way to proceed from here.

Thanks, I'll have to find somewhere off the street so I can take a look.

I'm not getting the reversing light coming on when I select reverse gear on my Fabia Mark 2 HTP. I've checked the bulb and the fuse and both are OK, so I think it has to be the switch. Do you have any helpful advice on how to replace it (for a start, where do I actually find it! 🙃 )

For various reasons, including being busy, crap weather, being ill and simply not getting off my backside, I've not had a chance to look at this until now, except I've just found that the reversing light is not working, so there's no point in installing the sensors until I've sorted that. I've checked the bulb and that's fine, so my next guess is either a fuse, faulty switch or duff wiring. The fuse is the easiest to check, but I don't know where to find it. Please can someone point me in the right direction? Mark II Skoda HTP 2012

Noted, thanks. That should help me figure out which end is which 🙂 I'll take a look at this in a couple of days when I've got the time...

Ok, thanks. Before I start taking bits off, this video (starts at 4'36) shows a guy fitting sensors and refers to the "boot wiring plug". Is that the one I'm looking for? https://youtu.be/pTAC1XrKXqc?feature=shared&t=286 Also, where you say "Position 3" is there a way to know which is position 3? Are they numbered? I don't want to get the wrong one...!