zcacogp

Update on this one although no real progress. I had a decent few hours with the car today without it being used (sounds weird given it's my wife's car but I seem to spend very little time in the same place as it when I have time to work on it!) Stripped out the intake system to see the wiring up to the ECU, which is mounted in the top right hand side of the under-bonnet area. There was nothing that looked at all amiss with it. So I had as good a look down the back of the block as I could to see if I could see the crank sensor (thanks for the photo Breezy_Pete), and all I can say is that it's a long way down and will be a PIG to get to. I couldn't even see it, although I might have been able to touch it with the ends of my fingers (although I'm not sure). I saw what I think are the wires going to it and - again - they look fine. Given how hard this will be to get to (impossible from below, equally impossible from above, and I was seriously thinking about removing the inlet manifold to see if that helped things) I'm sincerely hoping that this isn't the problem. The only thing I could see that was remotely as it shouldn't be was the top ECU holding clip was broken so the ECU was a bit loose. I fabricated something a bit better (which might have involved cable ties) and re-assembled. I cleared the codes from the ECU so the dashboard light isn't now on and it started fine. As an experiment, I also tried removing the cam sensor entirely so I could see down the hole when the engine was running, and it ran almost as well without the sensor as it did with it (and no lights came on.) Reading around, it seems that a failed cam sensor will allow the engine to run but it takes longer to start as the cam sensor gives a TDC reading to the ECU. However a failed crank sensor will cause the engine to not run. I can't vouch for any of this, it's simply internet sleuthing, but if it's true then it points to a cam sensor problem rather than a crank sensor problem, OR aforementioned oil pressure sensor/switch. I'll leave it for my wife to drive for a few days and see if the light comes on again. I am very confident it will, so the next question is where is the oil pressure switch and is this worth looking at? Thanks for your input chaps. I have the feeling that this could be a fairly simple failure that just needs to be chased to ground. At least I'm hoping that's the case!

Another thought; can I get an oil pressure reading via the OBD2 port? I have a not-entirely-basic scan tool so perhaps I could plug that in and see what live data it offers.

Hi Alasdair, Thanks for your reply to this question. It's been a while ago now that I posted it but things have progressed ever so slightly. I've tried a third cam position sensor and the symptoms remain the same; the light stays off for a few days when the code is reset but comes back within a week. And the car occasionally runs a bit 'funny'. I've driven the car a bit more of late and thus can offer some first-hand experience; it is occasionally a bit slow to start (it normally fires on the first time past TDC but will occasionally need three or four revolutions to start), plus it occasionally seems fractionally lumpy under acceleration. Given the physical symptoms AND the code/light I guess there could be something amiss with the engine. Which is a pain. Oil level is fine (and checked regularly), although I have no way of checking the oil pressure. It's a cam chain engine and if that's jumped a tooth then the problems would be constant with an immediate light, rather than transient with an occasional light. I guess the question then is what can I now check - is there a procedure for checking the engine timing? Or should I be connecting up some kind of external oil pressure sensor to see if that is dropping? Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the thread bump. FWIW, the windows on my wife's car started working again soon after they failed. This is probably the symptoms of a broken wire somewhere with the ends randomly being pushed together again but while it works, it works. I'll think about it again if (OK, when .... ) it fails again.

Guys, I'm having a problem with the engine management light in my wife's Mk2 Fabia. It's a 57 model, BBM engine, 105,000 miles on it. Full service history, generally very reliable. Last week it produced a check engine light so I read the codes and it came back with a P0341 Camshaft Sensor error. I cleared the code but it was back within a day or so. I bought a new camshaft position sensor and swapped it in, and reset the engine light. All was well, but the code and light were back again a couple of days later (i.e today), plus reports of the car 'not running right'. I've just cleared the code and taken it for a drive. Code and light are back almost immediately, and the car definitely isn't right; it's lumpy to drive, slow to start (it usually starts very crisply) and seems down on power. Clearing the code again and leaving the cam position sensor unplugged makes it still drive lumpily but the light stays off. (Yes, you read that right.) Plug the sensor in and the light comes on again. I've swapped the sensor back for the old one and the light has stayed off for a bit so I'll see how things go. The huge snag is that the car is booked for an MOT tomorrow morning and an engine management light will make it fail. I'm therefore hoping that the light will stay off for long enough to pass the MOT. If anyone has any wisdom then I'd love to hear it. FWIW, the P0341 code appears twice - once as 'active' and once as 'pending'. Clearing them both makes the light go off. I've checked the wiring to the camshaft position sensor and it doesn't seem damaged (rubbed/frayed/snapped). I think the key question is whether I have one problem or two - i.e is the lumpy running related to the light? It could be a separate thing, and the lumpy running being caused by a failing coil pack (for instance), or they could be the same problem with different symptoms. Logic would suggest the latter, but they light/code appeared a good few days before the lumpy running. It could be a coincidence but it has been VERY hot this week so the lumpy running could be fuel vaporisation in the lines, perhaps? Any thoughts, suggestions or otherwise please let me know. Thanks.

Hi, I have a Mk2 Skoda Fabia, 57 plate (so late 2007). It's a very basic model with electric windows only in the front. I think it's a 1.2 engine, but that's probably not relevant. The electric windows have given up working. The driver's door has a switch for the windows on both sides, and neither window opens from these switches. The passenger door has a switch only for the passenger side window, and this switch doesn't work either. So there is no action from any switch for any window. They failed gradually; the fault was intermittent but is now permanent. The intermittency lasted for a day, perhaps two. They have now failed totally and don't want to come back to life. Obvious first port of call was the fuse, but it's OK. At least the one mentioned on the sticker on the back of the fuse panel lid is OK. It's 25amps (from recollection) and seems fine. (I'm assuming that I am looking at the right one - I think it was number 51 or 52. I guess I could go along the row and check all of them in case the sticker is misdirecting me.) Before I get too involved with wiring and looking for dodgy contacts, is there any known fault I should bear in mind? Has anyone else had this problem? If so then what was the solution? Thanks. ETA: Here's a photo of the car, after my wife reversed it into a skip.

Guys, The rear doors on my Mk2 Fabia won't open. (OK, it's my wife's car but that makes no difference - I still get to wave the spanners at it.) Google tells me that the problem is common and it involves the rear door opening mechanism becoming jammed and thumping the doors while unlocking them will cause them to free up and open, but this hasn't worked for me. I have the doorcards off both sides and can see the lock units in the doors but despite hitting them hard and repeatedly with a mallet they simply won't open. They haven't failed at the same time; one side stopped working a week or so ago and the other one has stopped working in the last couple of days. It failed gradually; sometimes it would work, then most of the time it wouldn't work and now it won't work at all. If the thumping method doesn't work, what do you do next? I can see instructions on this site about how to cut a hole in the plastic casing of the lock motor and then wind the deadlock mechanism back but I don't think that there is a deadlock on the car. I have followed the instructions on this video about how to drill a small hole in the door metal to withdraw a screw which then makes everything work but when I did do then I found that the thing in question wasn't a screw, it was a brass-topped pin which wouldn't unscrew, so no game. (The instructions are for a Polo rather than a Skoda so I wonder if this is relevant.) If I activate the locking mechanism while touching the lock body I can feel it twitch and hear it whirr so I don't believe that there has been a motor failure or a connection failure; it feels as if it is trying to unlock but just can't. So .... what do I do next? All suggestions welcome, Thanks.

Guys, Quickie: Mrs zcacogp has had someone kindly run into the back of her 57-plate base model Mk2 Fabia. The rear bumper cover is cracked all along the top and clearly toast. Whether the inner metal bumper bar is damaged or not I don't yet know. Thankfully the boot floor seems OK so I am hoping that the damage won't be more than the cover and the bar. YouTube videos suggest that the bumper is not hard to get off (although not helped by it having reversing sensors.) Does anyone have any suggestions of where I could buy a replacement bumper from? It's a dark burgandy red and while the precise match isn't essential (the car isn't perfect) I'd not want it to be silver or black or something like that. The car is an early 5-door hatchback; is the bumper the same as on the estate models or different? Happy to collect within a reasonable distance of Cheltenham. I'm comfortable enough with spanners to try fitting it myself. Thanks.

Guys, Thanks for the answers. Problem now solved. New bearings procured from Parts in Motion (who are excellent), fitting tool bought from Amazon. This one, should anyone be interested: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QPYYS9W/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Old bearing came out very easily with the tool but putting the new one in was a pain in the neck; it wouldn't go straight with the puller and needed to be tapped straight with a hammer and small drift several times in the process of pulling it in. Other than that the job was easy enough (even the ABS sensor came out very easily!) and having driven the car the noise has gone. There are several other speed-related noises which I heard but that's with a very critical listen and I suspect they are quite normal (it's my wife's car and I don't drive it regularly.) Thanks very much for your help chaps. Should anyone in the Cheltenham/Gloucester area want to borrow the tool they'd be welcome to ; it's clearly something that only does one job so it will now sit on my self gathering dust for the next 40 years!

That's very much what I am thinking. Thanks Jocko.

xman, Thanks. I'm thinking that it is worth changing a wheel bearing on that corner to be sure. It's not gearbox - I checked and topped up the oil but there are no leaks.

Guys, Bit of an update: the noise has become more and more loud but the way that the car behaves remains as before; the only symptom of this problem is the drone at speed. I checked it over again a couple of days ago and discovered that the near side front hub nut was loose, and wouldn't tighten. All the symptoms of a stripped thread on the nut (which is a bit weird as I've not touched the nut on that side; I've done the outer CV on the other side but nothing on the passenger side.) So I bought a new nut, pulled the old one off, verified that the threads were very mangled (why?), put the new one on and torqued it up. And the noise has changed but not gone away. A further test which was suggested was to chock the rear wheels of the car, jack up the front corner in question, remove the wheel, start the engine and run it in gear with the clutch up to a couple of thousand RPM, then hold the road spring to see if it vibrates; apparently bearing problems often cause the road spring to vibrate noticeably. So I did this and the road spring does indeed vibrate! So I strongly suspect it's new wheel bearing time, having ruined the old one with the loose hub nut. There are some very good threads on this forum about changing the bearing (which comes with a new hub), but it seems that a puller kit is needed to do the job. I don't suppose that there is anyone local to Cheltenham who happens to have a puller kit which they'd be happy to lend me for some beer tokens? I'd collect and return it, and leave a deposit (of course.) If you can help then please let me know, or if anyone can recommend a kit then I'd be grateful; it seems that cheaper kits kick around the £35 mark but I'm not sure whether they have all the bits necessary. More expensive ones are nearer the £80 mark, which is getting on a bit. I'll keep this thread updated, thanks very much for the suggestions thus far.

Jocko, rum4mo, Thanks for your answers. They are appreciated. Tyres are something that occurred to me, and that has been suggested elsewhere. The tyres are 18 month old Yokohamas, with about 12,000 miles on them - so not old or very worn. And I rotated them around the car when I serviced it while looking for the noise, but it didn't make any difference. However I'm not dismissing this as a possible cause. rum4mo, thanks. I think that wheel bearings are probably my best guess at the mo, but it's a guess. Interesting you say that modern bearing packs can be noisy well before showing any other symptoms. Another complicating factor is that there is no clue from cornering; a long sweeping left-hander or a long weeping right-hander both make no difference to the noise. Perhaps I just need to sit on it for a while to see if there is an obvious corner culprit when the wear gets worse. Thanks for your help chaps. I'll keep this thread updated.

Guys, My 2007 (57 plate) Fabia has started to make a droning noise at speed. It's definitely road speed related and becomes audible at around 35mph or so, getting louder as faster as you go faster. It still makes the noise when coasting out of gear (and when coasting with the engine off.) It started earlier on this week and has become worse quite quickly in the last 50 miles or so. It's a (very) basic 1.2l model with a 5-speed gearbox. I've just serviced it and can't see anything wrong. There was a hole in a CV gaiter which was weeping grease so I took it apart, cleaned the CV out and re-packed it with grease and re-assembled with a new gaiter. All the wheel bearings seem fine; the rear wheels spin with no noise, the front ones spin as best they can given that they are attached to the gearbox and there is no apparent play in the bearings. The gearbox oil level was down quite a lot so I topped it up but that's made no difference. The car drives absolutely fine, apart from the noise. The noise doesn't seem to come from any corner in particular (it could be front but I'm not sure.) It doesn't get worse or better when going 'round a corner in either direction. It happens regardless of what the engine is doing, and regardless of whether you are on power (i.e driving the wheels 'round) or coasting. It's a drone, not a clicking such as I'd expect from a dying CV joint. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else it could be apart from wheel bearings? I guess my next step is to replace them to see if that makes a difference, but I'd rather diagnose the problem properly and only replace the parts that are needed. Thanks.

Thanks UP. No, the adjustment mechanism is hoopajooped. The knob inside wobbles around and doesn't do anything. If a whole new mirror is the way forward then I'll go and have a squiz at eBay for a secondhand one. Are they easy to change? Thanks again for your help.