N1CK

Not at the moment, I've taken a deposit

Cheers Mikey, I think so! Having said that I've actually decided to reduce the price to £1250 now. I think that's incredibly cheap for it! The missus is bugging me to get it sold, and it would be much easier for me to sell it with the passenger window and alloy as is. If it doesn't sell at that price I will SORN it and put it in the garage for the winter which will give me more than enough time to either get my alloys refurbed or get a set off ebay for around £200 and sort the window (£17 for a rivet gun), then it'll go back up for sale for a higher price (about a grand more judging from interest in similar cars on here!) The car is actually fine as it is - I've been driving it a bit & discovered I very rarely need to use the passenger window anyway, and the spare wheel is a full size steel, so although it looks slightly weird with the alloys it certainly isn't anything like a space saver, and when driving you wouldn't even know! To answer a couple of questions I've been asked: - MOT is until April 2017 - Oil/filter service was also done in April, less than 2k miles ago. - Cambelt was done when I bought the car in 2010, appx 32k ago - Clutch and DMF have not been done while I've had it, and I can't find receipts for them being done by the previous owner, so I have to assume they are original. There are or never have been any noises/problems from them though, and as stated in the original ad, between me and the previous owner the car has done at least 80% motorway/dual carriageway miles, so they've hardly been stressed!

Here are some photos as promised. Can take others/close ups if necessary, but why not just come and have a look!

I had planned on keeping this car until it died/forever, but I’m now the proud owner of a 6 month old baby, and due to a more family friendly Yeti coming up for sale at a good price recently, my smaller, faithful Fabia vRS has to go unfortunately. Main points: Silver 2005 54 Plate 142k miles (80% motorway) Completely standard (increasingly rare!), with both keys, service book, manual etc Only 2 owners from new (including me for coming up to 7 years) Quite a lot of service history/receipts (services/work done at Unit 18 while I’ve had it, except recently since I moved further away) New Radiator less than 15k ago New alternator, pulley & belt around 8k ago Parrot bluetooth device Heated seats (working well!) MOT till April 2017 Oil/filter service less than 2k miles ago (April) Paint is good for 11 years/142k miles, but obviously there are quite a few stone chips to the front and some small general marks & scratches consistent with the age and mileage (nothing too bad), and there is a small bit of paint discolouration around the o/s rear wheel arch. No rust anywhere that I can see though, compared with what a lot of people seem to say about their Fabias on here! BAD POINTS Front lights a bit cloudy (can obviously be polished out) Front fogs - one missing (stolen!) one cracked Air con needs re-gassing (compressor kicks in, but doesn’t get particularly cold) One alloy leaking air (some internal corrosion) and needs new tyre, so spare steel on at mo Very slow puncture on 1 other alloy, other 2 fine. No real kerbing on any but some bubbling/brake dust staining (consistent with being 11 yrs old) so could all benefit from a refurb, which would also sort out air loss. Front passenger window cable has snapped, so window currently doesn't go up or down. Easy fix (well documented on here) and I already have the new cable. I bought the car in early 2010 at 5 years old with 110k miles on it from a guy who lived in Cambridge & commuted to London down the motorway every day. The vast majority of my journeys have been either to work (11 miles down a fast dual carriageway at non-rush hour times) or to visit my parents (30 miles up the M1), plus a couple of European trips, so the engine/drivetrain have been relatively unstressed for the whole life of the car, and it feels strong with no funny noises. I’ve had it for nearly 7 years and never really planned on selling it and just keeping it until it died to be honest, but with a 6 month old now, although being a 5 door helps, we have struggled with space for all her stuff, so when a Yeti came up at a really good price I had to go for it. I was getting all work and services done at Unit 18 when I was living up that way, but since I moved to the outskirts of London a couple of years ago I’ve done a couple of the services myself, and when the alternator pulley went I got the new alternator put in at a local place. The alternator pulley (and subsequently alternator itself) is the only thing that has really gone wrong with the car since I’ve had it (rad was replaced on Unit 18’s recommendation), otherwise it has been super reliable for 7 odd years. The only issues at the moment are the two I mentioned, the passenger window and the n/s front wheel: The window failed a couple of weeks ago with the classic crunch noise and window dropping down/not wanting to come up! I had a look on here and quickly diagnosed a snapped cable, and the guide is quite comprehensive, so I got a new one off ebay though I haven’t replaced it yet as I don’t have the rivet gun needed to bolt the carrier back on to the door. The wheel had a slow puncture for a while that I thought was a valve or something, but when the tyre was changed it was apparent it was a bit of corrosion not allowing it to seal 100%. It wasn’t that bad so I just continued adding a little air now and then, but as it started to get worse I put the full size spare steel on. I bought some of that goop stuff to put in the tyre as I’ve read about a lot of people having success stopping air letting by using that, but when I went to put it in I found a rip in the tyre sidewall so I was obviously unable to try it! If it didn’t work I was going to get all the wheels refurbed which would have sorted it (was thinking of that anyway before the baby came along!). I’ve only advertised it on here so far and reduced the price accordingly to account for the window (easy diy for a member on here) and the alloy, as I don’t really have the time to get them sorted myself at the mo with a baby in the house, and ideally I’d like it to go to somebody who will appreciate it, or maybe someone who wants to fix it up a bit for their son or something, but realistically I do need to get it sold, so if it doesn’t sell relatively quickly I’ll find time somehow and put it up again for a higher price, or put it on eBay where I know it will sell fairly quickly at this price. From other ads I’ve seen, I’d think it would have to be worth at least £1750 (£2000!) with everything done, so I think £1250 is fair. I'm in Ruislip in North West London, 10 mins from M25 junction 16. Could also possibly be viewed in Hammersmith

Ah right, probably got lots of them anyway as I had to drive a mile or so home after the belt self destructed! Thanks again.

Brilliant, thanks for your help, I appreciate it At the risk becoming annoying, just one more thing - as the belt only drives the air con & the alternator, I assume it will be ok to drive a few miles without the belt on to get the pulley changed, the only risk being I might need to jump start the car afterwards?

Seeing all these high figures is making me jealous! I average about 50mpg doing about 80% motorway/dual carriageway driving & 20% town, but not usually much traffic, & I have a pretty light right foot!

Is it only the pulley the determines how the fins spin then? IE with no pulley attached at all they can just spin in either direction freely, but with a working one they spin one way & lock the other? I was worried that with them spinning both ways now it might mean that the alternator itself was broken, not just the pulley.

Yeah, that sounds about right, as the centre splined part doesn't move, but the outer roller turns with the belt happily (apart from getting red hot!) So I know the pulley is definitely goosed, but should I be able to turn the fins of the alternator in both directions with a screwdriver as I said? Hoping I can get away with just changing the pulley & not the whole thing!

Hi Guys Apologies, I know there are quite a few topics about alternators, but I couldn't completely clarify what my problem is so I thought I'd see if anyone could help! So recently my aux belt started squealing pretty badly, and not long afterwards about a mile from home my battery light came on & there was a pretty bad smell of burning. Turns out the aux belt had disintegrated & part of it had melted onto the alternator pulley, hence the smell! Using the above mentioned threads, I diagnosed a worn out tensioner as the source of the squealing, and a broken pulley as the cause (quite wobbly, so clearly bearings gone). I replaced the tensioner & bought a new pulley, but I don't have the tool I need to swap them over, so I fitted the new belt anyway to see if I could just drive it a few miles or so to a garage that did have the tool to change it for me (assumed running it with a dodgy pulley wouldn't destroy the new tensioner if it was only for a short distance). Anyway, when I started the car to test it, the battery light stayed on, and looking at the alternator I could see the fins inside weren't spinning at all, (despite the pulley moving freely) so the pulley was obviously worse than I thought! What I am unsure of is whether or not the alternator is ok other than the pulley. From what I've read, the fins should move freely in one direction but lock in the other, but using a screwdriver, I could move the fins in BOTH directions. Is this right?!

Thanks Moggy, much appreciated

Sorry for starting another battery related thread, but after much searching I've not managed to come up with an answer :S Anyway, I had to change my battery the other day, thanks to a (suspected) broken load signal wire. After finally defeating that damned impossibolt, when I took the old battery out, it seems it was just sitting on top of the clamp that holds it in as it's just a flat bit of metal with a hole at one end for the bolt to pass through, so I could probably have just lifted the battery out without all the hassle of getting to the bolt! How is the clamp actually supposed to attach to the battery to secure it? At the moment I've just got the new battery sitting on top of the clamp like before, but I'm slightly worried that the battery isn't really secure like this! On a side note, one more noob question - I need to fix that load signal wire. I'm happy I can solder some new wire in fairly easily, but do I need a specific type of wire (I.E. a specific rating or something), or can I just use anything that looks similar to the original wire?

Ok cool, I think I'll give that a try first then. Thanks for the advice Sorry, just one more noob question though (I'm not particularly technical, like I said!) - will I need a specific type of wire to do that, or will any old stuff from maplins do?

Yeah, I tested the voltage with the ignition off and it was 12.33, so doesn't seem too bad? Haven't checked it with it on yet cos I'm not sure if it will start again when I turn it off! I'll have a check tomorrow afternoon when I'm going out in it though, cheers. Yeah Tech1e, I did have the undertray off and checked the wire from underneath, but it seemed fine, certainly around that plug anyway. Could it possibly have gone inside but still seem ok? Tempted to just cut the plug out anyway tbh and just bypass it. Is that fine to do (I mean, is that plug actually there for a reason?!) and is there any specific wire I'd need for that? Thanks for all the help so far everyone

Thanks for the replies chaps Kevin, do you mean the connector in front of the gearbox that I mentioned where the wire usually breaks? MoggyTech, hoped you would reply cos I've read a lot of your posts on here which seem very helpful and well informed. Not too pleased if it IS the alternator though! I'd kind of ruled out that out though, because the battery seemed to be completely drained the first time I had to jump start it (no electrics at all for a couple of mins), but then it was fine for quite a while after that, so I assumed the alternator was ok because it must have charged the battery. Am I right in thinking I can test the alternator with my multimeter if I test the voltage with the engine idling? Though if it's low, could that also indicate a problem with the load signal wire? As I said, it's not broken in the usual place, but is it likely to be broken elsewhere? And is there no way it could be just a fuse? (hoping!) Sorry for all the questions by the way!