Little Jo

Thanks everyone.

We did have a broken coil spring, noise started over a weekend and it went into garage on the Wednesday. It affected both front tyres. The car is carefully driven and is well-maintained. Tracking was checked and found to be okay. Just had one broken spring.

They are 205/45, it’s a Fabia Elegance.

The tracking alignment was fine.

Hi all My 2013 Fabia estate had a coil spring fail and when put on the ramps, unusual tyre wear was observed on both front tyres. The tyres were only on the car about 10 months and have not covered much more than 12,000 miles. I haven’t had this before and owned the car from Oct 2014 /5000 miles. Mileage is 61,000 miles.

Hello, I hope some of you Skoda experts can help me - I have owned my 63 plate Skoda Fabia Elegance estate for almost 4 years now, but I went to plug my iPhone into the Aux socket on Saturday and to my dismay, there is just a hole, no socket. I bought this as an ex demo car with 5000 miles on it, so I never expected something like that to be missing. I don't use the feature much now that the law prohibits the use of a phone while driving and the Aux socket requires that you touch the phone controls to select the music. It is possible it has just come apart and the cable is there and just needs a new socket to reinstate it?

My dealer doesn't know how to activate the feature. They haven't been asked for it before. Any of your guys with the necessary software within easy reach of East Herts/Essex Border? Or can I have a some guidance to pass to my supplying dealer? Jo

Great! Thanks guys! The salesman didn't know the feature was available. They have a big VW dealership as well, so someone in the workshops should know how to do it. It's a great feature. In fact, the Fabia is a great car and the estate version is just amazing. It's just so practical and so easy to live with. Not sure about the new version - not seen one in the flesh yet, but the info I saw said the new estate will have a smaller boot, but will be bigger overall. I had a look at the Rapid, but prefer the fab Fabia! :sun:

Hi Guys I'm in the process of buying a Sep 13 Fabia Elegance 1.2 TSi estate to replace my 6 year old Fabia 3 1.4 16v. I want the auto-locking feature enabled for personal safety (I was the victim of a road rage driver just yesterday evening and cannot contemplate driving with my doors unlocked). Can someone confirm this feature is still available and how to activate it? Thanks

There is no indicator light or dash switch. We have come across a couple of cars at different dealerships that have wrongly stated that the car has ESP. I don't think this is an attempt to mislead, but a genuine error somewhere. I have a 2008 Fabia 3 estate and I had Esp added as a factory option when I bought it new.

Hi All My hubby has just bought a Fabia, the spec in the web said it has ESP, but there is no ESP button and no light illuminates on start-up. We have come across several Skodas of the same age and trim that also claim to have ESP and turned out not to have it. What is going on?

If you must know, it was £420 + VAT for labour and £122 + VAT for the parts. That didn't include a new water pump either. It was Palmers of Watford. The total bill for that, a set of wiper blades and a service was £929. They wanted to do a big service even though the car had it on its last visit, so had haggled them and we got the service for £189. With such poor dealer coverage now, I doubt Skoda will be on my shortlist when my Fabia comes up for replacement. Sad because they make brilliant cars that do exactly what it says on the tin.

I was quoted £420 was just the labour, excluding VAT. I am in Herts and we don't have many Skoda dealers in the area to provide any competition. The one dealer that was close to home closed last year and no one else took over the franchise. The quality of the work isn't in doubt, it just seems very steep.

Hi Guys - just been charged £600 for a cambelt change. That sounds excessive to me. Dealer claims labour is £120 + VAT and labour for the job is 3.5 hours + the cam belt is over £100.

My 1.4 16v estate is cutting out in hot weather - usually at junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights and I've had a few hairy moments in the recent hot spell. I've got it booked in tomorrow to Palmers and was wondering if anyone can suggest what might be the cause. It only happens when the car has been sitting in the sun and is really hot. The rest of the time, it's fine.