Richard Black

Of course, there's an important point here in that the answer to the question, 'Is a Felicia safe?' - with no further qualification - is No. Just like any other car. It's only safe (well, _fairly_ safe) if you know in great detail what you're doing with it. Safety is all relative. So for pedantic accuracy we should instead consider two slightly different questions: 1. Will winter tyres on the front of a Felicia get you out of trouble compared with summer or 'all-season' tyres? - Probably, yes. (only 'probably', mind you, because it depends on the particular tyres concerned) 2. Will winter tyres on the rear as well as the front get you out of trouble compared with having them on the front only? - Yes. But there are always other ways of avoiding said trouble - drive slower, drive more circumspectly, don't drive, etc.

Can't find ATP online anywhere, but Monroe and KYB list the same damper for all Felicia models. In fact I can tell you from experience that the only difference between Felicia/ABS and Felicia/non-ABS (and Favorit) dampers is a little welded bracket to support the ABS sensor wire. KYB only sells the with-ABS type, which fits perfectly well on non-ABS vehicles.

I don't see any mention on this thread of one rather interesting distinction between the sort of treads normally fitted to Felicia-type cars and those on fast Beemers etc - the latter may be 'summer' tyres but the relatively skinny, low-performance ones on a Felly (etc.) are typically rated as 'all weather'. That's not to say they are as good as M+S treads in really dreadful conditions (er, like right now) but they aren't too bad - and would be legal in countries where summer treads are banned in winter months. As for front versus rear, I tend to run different sizes and types front and rear (my Favorit has 185/55/14 front and 165/70/13 rear - same rolling radius so I can in a pinch use just the one spare on either axle to limp to the nearest repair shop). This is most certainly not illegal and most performance cars (and the Smart!) have different front and rear specs as standard. Putting winter treads on the front will improve things considerably: putting them on the back as well may slightly aid matters but the bottom line is that if they're on the front you'll be able to get out of trouble in ways that will defeat most drivers in most cars. Unless you're intending to leather it to the max in the snow, putting them on the back of a Felly (etc.) is ornamental.

Reminds me of the fun I used to have in mine! Funnily enough I was chatting with a farmer friend the other day who said the Estelle he once owned was the only thing that compared with a Land Rover in snow.

38mpg in a Favorit 1.3i. My previous Favorit 1.3 carburettor use to give me 38mpg, and before that a succession of Estelles gave me.... 38mpg. Which definitely seems to support the theory that fuel consumption has a lot to do with driving style!

That's not advertising, that's public service! Well done that man, thanks for thinking of it.

On most door and boot latches, it's possible to trip the catch by accident so that it won't engage on the striker plate. You just need to flick it open again with a screwdriver. This is a very hard thing to describe but easy to see - just look very carefully at the boot catch and compare it with any of the door catches. Or it could be something's stuck in the striker plate, or something's got bent.... you may have to curl up in the boot with a torch while someone lowers the boot, and have a good look!

No, they're identical front and rear - the only, tiny, difference is that the Felicia front ones have a little mounting point for an ABS sensor and Favorit ones (from some makers) don't.

A bigger-bore master cylinder will give you a harder pedal feel because the leverage will effectively go down. However, if you're fitting bigger calipers you'll need a bigger master cylinder because the small one won't have (well.... might not have) enough pumping action to push the bigger pistons out far enough. Bigger m/cyl plus bigger calipers should give similar pedal feel, all else being equal (er, which it won't be, but never mind!).

I get about 38mpg out of my Favorit (injected), just like I did the one before it (carburetted) - and the three Estelles before that. The only non-Skoda I've used for a long period in the last 15 years was a Fiat Uno diesel, which gave me about 42mpg - equivalent to about 38mpg petrol (diesel has about 10% more calories in a bucket-full than petrol). Which kinda proves the point that driving style has more to do with it than details of the car! (all of those cars weigh about 18cwt) The Favorit tank holds 46l notional (a little more in practice, maybe 47.5l) but the gauge indicates half-full when there's actually about 20l left, typically.

Turn a light on - the inside light will do - and turn the key to try and start the engine. If it's the battery, the light will dim almost to extinction.

I had 4 Estelles before migrating to Favorits. Of the 4, one I was done on - it had a 130 badge but a 105 engine, very badly fitted (look, I bought it in the dark, right? Paid about £200) and I wasn't too bothered when some tw*t ran into it when my flatmate was driving up our very own road and effectively totalled it. Of the rest, one was a bit of a dog when I bought it (high mileage, not much maintenance) but never gave much trouble, just rusted beyond MOT levels. Another overheated a lot. The third.... overheated a lot. All overheating due to dodgy head gaskets which I never managed to fix up completely. I'll never own a 130 engine again as long as I live, the gasket's just too perilous. The 120 engine I had in one of them, briefly, was much better. And apart from that the only trouble (and my only roadside repair callout in 25 years) was due a a standard electrical connector working loose and falling off, causing the battery to overcharge and fail - car started running rough, I pulled over and stopped, engine of course wouldn't start again. Couldn't even get anyone to pull over and give me a jump start on the hard shoulder of the A1. Not a bad catalogue really for a 1960s-technology car, all of them bought secondhand at high mileage, total of 8 years with them and at least 100,000 miles. Not quite like my mate Antony's BWM750i, bought brand new - let him down in the middle of the motorway twice in 6 months....

Bleed nipples on rear brakes have a habit of doing that - any car, not just Skoda. Apply some Plus Gas a couple of minutes before you get to it, then crack it undone very carefully with a good quality wrench that fits right down to the base of the nipple. Once you've got the rust broken you can put a regular ring spanner on it so you can use a bleed hose. But wrong parts in the box is proper brain damage!

Any old 10W40 or if you really want to spend money 5W40. I'm a bit cynical about differences between brands and run all my cars on Comma simply because that's what my local motor factor stocks at good prices.

Understeer - if you're talking about a stock secondhand Felly or Fav, bear in mind that most of them will have been fitted with cheap rubbish tyres 'cos that's what most people put on cheap cars. Spend a little more on the best treads you can find and the difference will not be subtle. And indeed the whole mindset of 'oh, it's a cheap car, let's not do any maintenance' affects models like that in general.

Yer lucky so-and-so! Why can't we all find one of those?

Yes, but they fit the same way as most cars out there and if the one you happen to be working on is rusted up then it will take a long time and a lot of swearing. And never go near any car over 10 years old without a tin of Plus Gas. Leaking sunroof: by far the best stuff I've tried is Comma 'Seak'n'Seal', which is a sticky liquid that stays liquid. Silicone never seems to seal them up, quite. I hate sunroofs, they always leak after about 10-12 years, and since I usually buy cars at about that age, and most of the ones I've bought have had a sunroof.....

Wheel bearing's a probable cause, but have you checked that the noise is the same in 4th and 5th gears? That would be a clue - if it is the same, it's not engine or exhaust.

Don't be a t*t, keep the exhaust quiet - at least if you're ever going to drive anywhere there are people. There's a guy up the road from me with a noisy (deliberately noisy) Polo and I suppose when he sees us all looking at him he's thinking we're impressed - actually everyone thinks he's a womplete canker. Any other mods yeah, go for it, but noisy is just annoying!

Yup, compression test is a good call but if you haven't the equipment for that (doesn't cost much but still....) you just need to take the rocker cover off and have a look at things. The rocker cover has just two M6 nuts and you won't need a new gasket if you're careful pulling the cover off. Now you just need to turn the engine over by hand and observe each valve in turn. (How do you turn the engine by hand? Either put a big socket on the crankshaft pulley nut and use a socket wrench, or jack up one - not both - roadwheel, put the car in 5th gear and turn the wheel - in either case make damn sure the ignition is off!) If each valve goes down, then comes up again and leave the correct gap - 0.2mm - between valve stem and rocker, the valves aren't actually broken. They may be worn, but in that case your problem would have crept up on you gradually rather than suddenly happening. It's just possible that one valve has chipped and a bit of it has fallen off inside the engine. I've never heard of that happening on any engine, least of all a low-output type like the Skoda 1.3, but again it's not at all likely to happen between the last time you ran the car and it failing to start. Thing like that, if they happen at all, will happen at high revs (and will probably make a noise like the apocalypse when they do). So frankly I'd doubt it's a valve.

Haven't been on the forum in a while so only just spotted the thread. Pinkskud - your original plan sounds like a top scheme to me, mate. Sort of thing I'd be doing if I lived in the middle of nowhere instead of in inner London (but then I wouldn't have most of my work so couldn't afford to do it - why is life so unfair, whinge, whinge...). Anyway, good luck and report back!

THIRTEEN HUNDRED pounds? What do they think they're looking at - a ****** Ferrari? The last gearbox that quit on me (not a Skoda but another typical bog-ordinary FWD motor) I paid £70 for a working box from a breaker and £80 for a local garage to fit it, the latter only because the weather was wet and I didn't fancy spending a day lying in the road. OK, I got a fair bargain on both scores but there's a long way between that and £1320. I'd avoid that outfit if I were you.

I've never had any trouble getting Favorit parts from any motor factor. The usual sources (Motorparts, Quinton Hazell etc.) all list the Favorits and I've never found their catalogues to be wrong. Where have you tried?

Piece of cake replacing a valve on a head like that - much easier than an OHC one. But what makes you sure it's a valve gone? And anyway, most 4-pot engines like that will start and sort-of run on only three cylinders, won't they?

Go to the website of BK Racing and you'll find they have the specs for most common cars online. Not the quickest imaginable way of checking compatibility but it's the best one I know!