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.

That's correct for the 1.4 16v. It's pretty good on the motorway.

On a mixed route through speed restricted lanes (21 miles) off peak: 43-45 mpg. Open road (A roads) 55-60 mph: 50 mpg, but can reach 54 mpg. Motorway 60-70 mph: 48-50 mpg. Slow traffic: 38-41 mpg

Underinflated tyes will cause wear on the shoulders of the tyre. Tyres should be checked when cold with a good quality tyre pressure gauge. Do not rely on the gauges on garage forcourts. It's worth checking your tyre pressures carefully as slight underinflation and driving style could cause the symptoms you describe.

Modern 16v engines use semi-synthetic oils to give added protection and allow longer intervals between service. Mineral based oils lose their lubricosity over time and after 9000 miles will be less effective whereas modern semi-synthetic oil is less prone to this. The latter is also better at neutralising the products of combustion. I'm not qualified to say whether this will/will not harm your engine, I don't know what effect the use of mineral oil would have over one service interval.

I've got the 1.4 16v estate and it's not a problem. Okay, it's no GTI, but it's competant. As long as the revs are above 2000 rpm, it goes okay and if you want to accelerate more quickly make sure you have 2500-3000 rpm. We did 1200 miles in Wales last month and for nearly 400 miles, the car was well laden with luggage. It was fine. On the open road, it returns around 50 mpg. On my normal commute in Herts, it averages 43-45 mpg. The engine gets slagged off, but it's not as bad as people make out. If you're used to a diesel, it will feel lethargic, but my husband moves between my car and a 1.6 16v Astra without problems.

The problem is resolved by a software update that is fixed very speedily by your dealer. If that doesn't work, then a new instrument binnacle may be required. My Fabia developed the same problem. The software update worked.

I have ESP on my Fabia 3 estate with the 1.4 16v engine. I opted for it as N-CAP who do all the crash safety testing recommend it and from next year (if I remember correctly), they will no longer give a five-star rating to a car that hasn't got it. It won't achieve miracles, but in an emergency situation it could make the difference between having an accident and not. It did prove it's worth when I found myself on untreated roads last winter because the council hadn't gritted them on time and it made life just a little less difficult. It doesn't mean good driving goes out the window - it's just there as an added safety measure. As with ABS, which doesn't allow you to stop any quicker, just allows you to brake and steer at the same time, it cannot defy the laws of physics. Is it worth it? If future models come with it as standard, (as ABS now is) then it should make the car that little bit easier to sell come trade-in time. That's aside from the safety benefits now. Curtain airbags are worth it too in the event of a side impact. The trouble with road safety is that accidents always seem to be something that happen to other people, until it happens to us. That's why I made the effort and passed advanced driving tests and reached RoSPA Gold standard.

I'm not a techie, but I can't help wondering if your issues are all related to one underlying fault, possibly an issue with the fuel supply. What sort of revs is the engine doing at 40mph in fifth gear? What sort of revs is it doing as you approach the roundabout? Are all problems more evident if the engine is cold? An engine starved of fuel momentarily will stutter. My Fabia was just four months old when we had a fuel injector fail. The car started running on 3 cylinders and sounded very rough. When it failed we had a warning light come one, but your issue may not be bad enough to trigger an error code, but bad enough to affect the driving performance under the conditions you describe. Solving the fault will almost certainly be dependent upon being able to reproduce the fault with a mechanic in the passengar seat. If necessary seek the assistance of another garage. Intermittent faults are the worst kind, but I would be suprised if your faults were all down to one basic gremlin. I hope you get sorted soon.

When I got my new Fabia estate last year, there was a plastic tab attached to the keys that had the key code, radio code etc on it. I was told to keep it safe. That's what you want.

The level 3 estate does come with curtain airbags, but not ESP as standard, I had it fitted as an option on mine and I must say that the all-round disc brakes are rather good. If your 58-reg car has ESP, there will be an ESP off button on the dash. If that is blanked off, the car hasn't got ESP. The climate control is really good and there's a really neat spectacle holder in the roof to hold your sun glasses/driving glasses. I've had my estate for almost fifteen months now and love it. I had Vauxhalls before and the Skoda more than lives up to expectation. The thing to remember is that many modern cars now use similar plastics to the MkII Fabia. Where you won't surpass the Fabia is on space and practicality. It's a lot better to drive than it's given credit for and if properly driven can outpace much flashier cars. I don't think you'll be too disappointed - it is a good car.