zcacogp

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.

Hi, I'm having problems with the driver's side wing mirror on my early Mk2 Fabia. The mirror glass and housing are all OK but the mirror itself flops around very loosely. It's a mechanical adjustment system (not electric) and I assume that the adjustment mechanism is broken. Is it possible to change the adjustment mechanism and keep the parts are are OK? Or am I better off just changing the whole thing? It looks like this. The cover is not coloured, which I imagine makes things easier. Thanks for your help. Oli.

If tinkering with the fuse turns the light off, even temporarily, then you are on the right track.

.... and ABS?

Thinking about it, would 185x60R15 be a better choice? What's the difference between the rolling diameter of these and the 195x55R15's? It's a smaller width but bigger proportion in the sidewall height so it may be quite similar in circumference.

Different sizes (of any kind - width, diameter or sidewall height) on an axle will cause problems, I understand that. I'd not be trying this in any circumstances. However what are the odds of a different rolling circumference front to rear causing problems? Thanks for the maths Carlston, 3.4% sounds about right. I guess that the only surefire way of finding out is to try it and see. Sepulchrave, your idea of changing all four and selling the part with ones from the back on eBay sounds like a good one. If no one can reassure me that mixing sizes front to back won't cause problems then this is the way that I'll go. Edited To Add: early mk2 fabia, very base model, pretty sure that it has ABS but also pretty sure that it doesn't have ESP or TPMS.

Bother. So mixed sizes front and back won't work? That's annoying. It'll make it all a chunk more expensive. I wonder whether it'll be cheaper in the long run to swap both the worn-out tyres at the front and the part-worn ones at the back for new ones in the smaller size. Thanks for your input chaps.

Another question about my Mk2 Fabia. It's a base model - about as base as base can be. The front tyres are worn out. They are 195x55R15's, which is the same as on the back of the car. It seems that 195x50R15 tyres are another recommended size for the car, and are significantly (about £25/corner) cheaper. Is there any harm in having 195x55R15's at one end of the car and 195x50R15's at the other end? (I'm assuming not, but I am also assuming that I'd do better to run the slightly smaller ones at the front in order prevent the old girl from looking too odd.) Thanks.