bnjyn

Thanks for that. Do you also happen to know if a replacement must be the same exact part number? I see some on ebay with different suffix. Thanks

This applies to MY2000 fabia comfort. Sorry for the lengthy post. Last winter I found that after particularly cold nights, the remote central locking wouldn't unlock properly in the morning (I could hear the motor whirring once instead of the usual twice but the door remained locked, I could enter the car normally using the key) Later each day, when it had warmed up a bit everything returned to normal. This problem has steadily got worse, recently it has been happening every morning - but again it would return to normal later each day. Now each morning, during the period when the locks don't work: - the red lights in the doors randomly flash on and off, regardless of which door is open; - the locking / unlocking switch on the driver's door works intermittently; - sometimes the locks go crazy locking and unlocking by themself, one time it deadlocked me inside. If I pull out fuse 49, I can lock the car manually, but rather oddly the electric window controls reverse in this condition, and the boot remains permanently unlocked - so I don't appear to have the option of reverting to manual control. I have examined the circuit diagrams, and it all seems to work on a CAN bus system, and the functions or control seem to be shared somehow between the convenience unit 6Q0 959 433A and the Onboard Power Supply Control Unit. Can someone help me to identify which of the control units is likely to be failing? I have an Autel VAG405 code reader but it finds no fault codes. Thanks Andy

It's only about £120 fitted if you pay for it yourself. Really not worth trying to fiddle an insurance claim as they'll probably load your premiums in future to recover it.

Blue/black wire is fed from fuse 45, it's one of the larger ones in the dash fuse panel.

It should be permanently live - check your fuse!

The instrument panel lighting wire goes to the radio, my guess is it is shorted or has too much load (did you use it to power the radio?)

This is what I have in mine: (not sure if all years & models are the same) Connector T8d 1 white/purple - vehicle speed signal 2 not used 3 grey/white - diagnosis K line 4 brown/red - positive connection 86s 5 black/blue - positive connection 30 6 grey/blue - positive connection 58b 7 black/blue - same as pin 5 8 brown - earth Connector T8n 1 red/green - rear right 2 brown/green - rear right 3 red - front right 4 brown/red - front right 5 blue - front left 6 brown/blue - front left 7 blue/white - rear left 8 brown/white - rear left

Seems to me he is just complying with the terms of his insurance, which probably go something like this: "...in the event of an accident, do not admit liability..."

... I might even hoover it!

As I've got older I've had more and more to deal with - wife, kids, job, house. So long as there's the proverbial bread on the table and a roof over our heads then I won't lose any sleep over the state of my car. It's not that I don't care about it, it's just lower down on my list of priorities. I support what vagophile said: a car is for getting from a to b. It would be a different matter if I was going to cruise around town all night, trying to pull :p

Interesting topic. As I understand you, engine spec doesn't really matter as you will be modifying it. So why look out for a 100bhp model? Well: they're cheap, and they've got disc breaks on the rear, which probably makes for a good donor. It may come with ASR but I don't know if this will survive an engine transplant, and you're probably better off without it. It may have AC / elec windows / mirrors / remote locking, probably not wanted on a rally car though. I think all models had ABS (?) Parkers website is pretty good for comparing model year / spec variants. Not sure why you're looking for an elegance? Can you provide your ideal list of features?

Is that the Foxhunter carvery? Looking at the road markings in the photo of the accident site it shows two lanes merge just before the junction - that might have been a factor.

The only way you'll gain any experience is through practice. Talk is no substitute for doing. Just don't be too silly.

climate control is standard fitment on most http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/14806-full-climate-control-in-a-fabia/

I have wiring diagrams. The LED is supplied via pin 1 of the white 6 way connector between A pillar and door (white & purple wire). It earths inside the door harness. The diagram doesn't show it going to the passenger side, and pin 1 might be absent from the connector on that side. It should be fairly easy to check just by pulling back the rubber boot - without removing the door card.

Bear in mind it will be more difficult to sell on in future, a dealer won't want to touch it. But if you are confident in the standard of repair, and it's cheap enough to depreciate to zero over the time you intend to own it - then it could be a great bargain.

Fundamentally, I believe it is the insurance company's liability to restore the vehicle to pre-accident condition. When the water pump was replaced, I would have expected the ins. co. to pick up the bill. Maybe Sewards didn't get authorisation for the cost of this, that's why they say it's their goodwill gesture. Now they would have needed to remove and refit the cambelt to replace the water pump, which makes me suspect it was refitted incorrectly, leading to camshaft damage, however that is just my guess. I am not a lawyer, but I think it will be best to avoid getting drawn into arguments about how and why the damage occurred, and simply tell the insurance co. you haven't received a satisfactory repair to your vehicle.

My first car was a 1982 polo 1.1 litre 8V engine, mileage ~ 100k. It would use a litre of oil in 300 miles and put out a plume of smoke that was visible in the rear view mirror when accelerating and on overrun. Looking in the exhaust and inlet ports you could see oil running down the valve stems. I took the head to a small local cylinder head specialist, they stripped it, cleaned it, fitted and reamed new valve guides, and rebuilt it all for £100 (that was 15 years ago). The guides were so worn that the valves would rock from side to side when we took the springs off. I also replaced the rings and big end shells whilst I had it apart, they were sourced by a local motor factors at a very reasonable rate. I didn't have any measuring instruments but the bores looked OK so I just cleaned them up. A fabia 1.4 16v will obviously cost more to rebuild, having twice as many valves but the principle is exactly the same. After the rebuild it never used any oil.

Kittens being murdered for pictures too? I suppose I could have used the search. BTW, what's the pull thingy in my driver's side cubby hole? :p

I have a dension icelink and it emulates a cd changer. I think it would all get very confused if you spliced the two together - the devices wouldn't know which one you were trying to control.

Item 3 in this picture? "Noise Insulation Panel"

What do they give you for £60? Surely this can't be a price to stick a suction pad on yer windscreen eh?

maybe not quite what you were after :p Next to the furby, this is my other ride now:

This *was* my other ride... ...the wife made me sell it :(