fenderman

Funnily enough I have read on a couple of other websites that the owners report generally good ride quality on their 1.9TDi's.......very odd. Went out to the car this morning, put the bonnet up and applied the full force of my 14 stone bulk to the latch panel and the car barely moves......I am wondering if at just 60,000 miles the shocks are getting stiff....is that possible?

Were the heavy duty springs an option on the estates?

Thanks for the replies everyone I note with interest your comments about tyres, shocks and springs. The tyres are indeed 185/60-14 and are fairly new Conti Eco Contact 3's. I will check out the shocks etc. I won't give up on the old girl. Aside from the suspension I am finding the fuel consumption nothing short of amazing, and the engine pulls like a train with a bit of wellie!

Hello all, I am a bit mystified by the appalling ride quality of my recently purchased 2006 Fabia Ambiente 1.9 diesel estate. About five years ago I bought a high mileage (127,000) 2001 1.4 Mpi Fabia Classic estate. This car was bought as a cheap runaround as we had a nearly new VW Fox that my wife used for work etc. Apart from me having to fit a new timing chain and a couple of front discs the car ran beautifully. I was very impressed with the feeling of driving a much newer and expensive car. In 20,000 miles the car caused me no problems and sailed through the yearly MOT's. Having now retired my wife and I decided that running two cars was a bit of an extravagance and as the old Fabia was getting on a bit and the Fox was a bit on the small side we sold them both and bought the aforementioned Fabia Ambiente from a local Skoda dealer. Buying another Skoda seemed a sensible idea as the old Fabia had been such a good car. The newer Skoda has a full main dealer service history and is in immaculate condition and I know that this car has obviously been well cared for. Although I took the car on a short test drive I have to admit I didn't notice the difference between the older Fabia and this one. Unfortunately, this newer car feels nothing like the other car as far as every day driving is concerned. Whereas the old car had a generally more sophisticated feel, this one seems to have extremely stiff suspension and on particularly poor road surfaces skips and bounces around where the old Fabia just took these situations in her stride. I don't know if Skoda have had to stiffen up the suspension in order to cope with the extra weight of the diesel engine or what, but whatever they've done they have ruined a good car. What a shame. I would be interested if anyone out there have experienced similar problems? Cheers. Frank.

Hello folks, I know this problem has been mentioned before but I saw the post after I had replaced the timing chain and sprockets. The new chain kit was purchased from ebay and the company describe it as a genuine part. It certainly looks genuine enough. Anyway the old Fabia was running ok but the Idle was a bit rough and the chain was a noisy (124,600 miles). So I decided to replace the chain and sprockets....which I did. When I took the car for a run it was immediately apparent that something was wrong, it wasn't pulling properly and would only do about 45 MPH. To make matters worse the engine management light came on. That is when I saw the post on BRISKODA about the timing mark on the new crankshaft sprocket being one tooth further away from the keyway than the original sprocket. Unfortunately I didn't notice the difference! So apart it all came again and moved the crank sprocket so it aligned with the 13th pin on the chain instead of the 12th pin as stated in the manual. Anyway, all's well that ends well and the car drives very nicely, plus the idle is much better than it was. Incidentally the engine management light extinguished itself....the code was 17549: Load calculation cross check range/performance...whatever that means! Hope this prevents some poor soul doing this job twice.I have attached a photo of the old and new timing chain assemblies

Thank you SIMBO99 that should get me up and started............Frank

I would just like to say hello to all you good folks out there. I recently bought a 2001 Skoda Fabia 1.4 MPi estate which has done over 124,000 miles now. I saw this site on my computermabob and thought it would be a great idea to join! I worked as a mechanic from 1965 to 1971 in a BMC garage and have always been interested in cars/motorcycles etc. I will be 60 next year and have been told that I only look about 59! Anyway I have some pictures of a timing chain job I did on the Fabia this week that didn't go exactly to plan. Owing to being a bit of an old geezer can someone explain to me how I download said jpegs and get them into the Fabia 1 forum (if that is the correct place for them) please? Regards Frank.