FAB59

Yeap, it's an Alpine SWD-2000. Bought it new back in 2006 for £200. It's only 350W, so it's not the kind that can be heard all around the neighbourhood. It does have quite a punch though, considering its size, but you'd expect it to be good anyway, as any Alpine product. Has got plenty of abuse in 6 years, but sounds just as good as it did the first day I got it. Excellent quality too, a very sturdy build. It actually came with speaker to RCA cables included, along with T taps to connect them. In the previous car it was in, I had to buy a set of RCA to RCA cables for it.

Too right. No disrespect, but this is a very sensitive subject...

Actually, I have ALWAYS had the treble and mid-range settings on 0 in my Fabia. In fact, in all the cars I've had, or even at home, I never touch any equaliser settings. If you consider all the hard work that goes into recording a song in a sound studio, it's all done there for you, therefore a song will sound the best when everything is neutral, or set to 0. It is no coincidence that on some high-end astronomically expensive home hi-fi systems, the amplifiers often have just an on-off switch, a source selector and the volume control. That's it, nothing else. Having said that, 95% of the time I listen to my own CDs. Some radio stations have crap sound, and in that case, you probably will be able to improve the sound by adjusting treble, bass or mid-range. If the recording is good quality though, they're all best left at 0. I have never had a problem with the tweeters in my Fabia. Mine's a pre-facelift one, but I believe the speakers are the same. Very often I have the volume at 26, and listen to it constantly on journeys of over 2 hours long without it getting tiring. Just note, my headunit is the Dance, not the Swing, and the volume scale is different. Try yours with treble set at 0 for a while and see how you like it. I certainly never had any distortions in mine from the tweeters. If you think yours are faulty, you could always go to the dealer and mention it to them, or even better, have a listen in another Fabia while you're there, to compare.

I'm afraid Fabia headunits don't have pre-amp output. Only way is to use speaker to RCA converters. I just tapped into the rear speaker wires on mine, just behind the headunit, and the result is not too bad at all. I had this same subwoofer in a previous car, connected to a Kenwood headunit with pre-amp output, hence using RCA to RCA cables, and quite frankly, I can't notice any difference in sound quality between "speaker to RCA" and "RCA to RCA". I'm not exactly the audiophile type, but I do appreciate good sound, and I think this setup works wonders in the Fabia.

Thanks FabFab. I didn't replace the door speakers. What I did was turn the bass to -8 on the headunit, to filter out low frequencies from the door speakers and stop the rattling. That way, I get only mid-range frequencies from the doors and all the bass from the subwoofer in the boot. Works very well.

I don't have any of these, but Alpine, MacAudio and Pioneer have an excellent reputation, as well as Focal, Infinity and JBL. However, if you want good strong bass without your doors rattling like crazy, the best solution is a subwoofer. Finally got a picture of mine.

I only took the liberty of making that offer because the original poster wanted an alternative to some expensive parts. It would hardly be any different if this were posted in the "Wanted" section of this forum, and that section is open to all members, as far as I know.

I do agree with you, it is in an obscure area, and indeed it doesn't affect the car's performance. Well, not yet anyway. We are all aware of the evil nature of the tin worm. It doesn't actually look too bad in the pictures, was far worse up close. I know that, if left as it was, eventually the rust would eat through the metal completely, and the engine would fall on its side. Now, this could happen in 5 years or it could happen in 25 years. Depends on many things, but why should I have to live with that thought? I would have expected a car to start rusting so early maybe in the 70's, but not in this day and age. It is obvious they didn't do a good job of rust-proofing that bit at the factory, and they should have owned up to it. This is a load bearing member of the chassis, it may have been cosmetic at the time, but in the long-run it could be a safety issue. I thought I did them a favour by spotting it early and making it easier for them to repair, but they just ignored it. That is not what I call good customer care, and as far as I'm concerned, Skoda's corrosion warranty is pretty much a scam. Otherwise, they would at least perform the body checks with each service. They haven't done that at all. Four services were carried out at the supplying dealer, and they never filled in the body check part in the service book, not once. That's just unacceptable. Not to mention how much it would de-value the car if I were to sell it. If any potential buyer saw that rusty part, they'd just walk away in an instant.

A friend has them in his Golf mkV. They have a nice light blue hue, and are noticeably brighter than standard bulbs, but they're nowhere near as bright as the Xtremes in mine. If you're after good looks, get the Diamonds. If you're after brightness, get the Xtremes. To adjust the beam, there's a hex screw at the back of the headlight, near the top and towards the middle. Turning it anti-clockwise raises the beam in most cars.

If you can wait for at least 2 weeks, I could sell you the factory steelies that are currently on my car, complete with scratch-free skoda plastic wheel trims, shod with Bridgestone ER300 Turanzas in the correct 195/55/15 size. Tyres are worn half-way (no uneven wear whatsoever), but they'll be a tiny fraction of the cost of new ones. Could send you photos once they're off the car, if you like. If interested, give us a shout. (apologies if I'm breaking any forum rules, feel free to remove this post if necessary)

It was rusting on the driver's side front chassis leg, where the engine mount sits. I will try to attach a few photos I had taken at the time. Went to another dealer to get a second opinion but their response was identical to the first one. They both took loads of pictures, which they would send to SUK, but told me there and then that this is only cosmetic and they were sure it wouldn't be covered. I was really eager to chase it up with Trading Standards, but by then I had witnessed the appalling service work from their useless technicians, so I could no longer trust them to undertake the task of repairing that rusty spot on my car. They would probably make it worse. Fortunately, a mate had his own little body repair shop at that time, so we sat together and worked on it both on a weekend, and fixed it.

You'd be surprised what those B@ST@RDS can get up to when it comes to warranty claims. My car began to rust shortly after its second birthday, and they wouldn't cover it because they deemed it to be cosmetic... Thanks skoda!

Bit of a long read, but here's what the owner's manual says about running them in: The first 1 500 kilometres and then afterwards The engine has to be run in during the first 1 500 kilometres. Up to 1 000 kilometres: – Do not drive faster than 3/4 of the maximum speed of the gear in use, that is 3/4 of the maximum permissible engine speed. – Do not use full throttle. – Avoid high engine revolutions. – Do not tow a trailer. From 1 000 up to 1 500 kilometres: – Increase the power output of the engine gradually up to the full speed of the gear engaged, that is up to the maximum permissible engine revolutions. During the first operating hours the engine has higher internal friction than later until all of the moving parts have harmonized. The driving style which you adopt during the first approx.1 500 kilometres plays a decisive part in the success of running in your vehicle. You should not drive at unnecessarily high engine revolutions even after the running-in period is complete. The maximum permissible engine speed is marked by the beginning of the red zone on the scale of the revolutions counter. Shift up into the next higher gear on a vehicle fitted with manual gearbox before the red zone is reached. During acceleration (depressing the accelerator) exceptionally high engine speeds are automatically reduced, yet the engine is not protected against too high engine speeds which are caused by incorrectly shifting down the gears resulting in a sudden increase of the engine speeds above the permitted maximum revolutions which can lead to engine damage. For a vehicle fitted with a manual gearbox the converse situation also applies: Do not drive at engine revolutions which are too low. Shift down as soon as the engine is no longer running smoothly. Caution All the speed and engine revolution figures apply only when the engine is at its normal operating temperature. Never rev up an engine which is cold, neither when the vehicle is stationary nor when driving in individual gears. For the sake of the environment Not driving at unnecessarily high engine revolutions and shifting to a higher gear as early as possible are ways to minimise fuel consumption, operating noise levels as well as protects the environment and contributes to a longer life and reliability of the engine. New tyres New tyres have to be “run in” since they do not offer optimal grip at first. You should take account of this fact for the first 500 kilometres and drive particularly carefully. New brake pads Allow for the fact that new brake pads do not achieve their full braking efficiency until approximately 200 kilometres. New brake pads must be first “run in” before they develop their optimal friction force. You can, however, compensate for this slightly reduced braking force by increasing the pressure on the brake pedal. This guideline also applies to any new brake pads installed at a future date. During the running-in period, you should avoid excessive stresses on the brakes. This includes, for example, violent braking, particularly from very high speeds, and also when crossing mountain passes.

I agree with vRSy. A good friend has had a manual petrol 06 Octavia vrs since 2008 if I remember correctly. He's even been on a few track days with it, and the car hasn't skipped a beat. I've driven it quite extensively, and, for a front wheel drive car, it's about as good as it gets, a really nice car indeed. You can easily tell that a Fabia has been built to a budget, whereas the Octavia hardly feels any different to a Golf. I love my own Fabia, and although I haven't driven a Fabia vrs, as a car overall, the Octavia is loads better considering what you pay for each.

Yeah, I'd expect as much from Skoda and parent VW... How terribly nice of them!

Say no more, my mother has had a 116i SE since it first came out in late 2004. I absolutely adore the 1 series, it's a proper BMW and a great car, in every sense of the word. Looking forward to getting back to BMWs myself, as soon as finances and circumstances allow.

Just out of curiosity, what was your last car?

Yeah, I did sand it down to bare metal, no worries. Applied some grease as well around that area to prevent any rusting.

I drilled a hole at the very top right of the front passenger's footwell, above that foamy panel you remove to get access to the cabin filter, to keep everything well hidden. I literally took out half the dashboard to find a suitable hole, but had no luck. Took out the centre console, glovebox and passenger airbag, but found nothing. At least I fixed a couple of rattles in the process. Is the existing hole you mention on the driver's side then? I never looked on that side, since the battery is on the passenger's side. I don't know what gauge the cable is, to be honest, it's a pretty thin one that came with the sub. I was going to use one of the seatbelt buckle bolts for the earth point, but didn't have a torque wrench at the time, and didn't want to mess the buckle up, as seatbelts are rather important, lol. I drilled a hole close to the buckle though, not too close obviously, but around that area. Needs some attention so as not to penetrate the fuel tank when drilling. @Confide: Those must be some massive subs you have in yours. Did you have to drill any holes as well? Or did you manage to find existing ones?

I think it's a bit of a hit or miss when it comes to wipers. My Fabia is now over 3 years old and has over 42k miles on it, and yet, the wipers are still the ones it came with from the factory, and they're still performing brilliantly. That said, on a previous car I once had replacements by Bosch, and they started to deteriorate after less than 6 months.

Gotta love this forum, it's sooo amusing!!! :love:

Have a look at this thread too: (posts #4 and #7) http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/255692-best-settings-for-the-swing-stereo/ If you are serious about connecting your amp and need any more help, let me know. It appears very few people have had subwoofers in a Fabia II.

I have the Dance stereo, as mine is a pre-facelift Fabia. Connectors at the back should be the same as the Swing, for the most part. I have a 350W Alpine SWD-2000 in mine, which is an active subwoofer box thingy, nice and compact. Speaker line output is how you get the sound signal to the external amp, I just tapped into the rear speaker cables at the back of the headunit. For the amp remote switch, I just wrapped the wire around the ABS fuse, doesn't cause any issues, my car has been like this for over 3 years, never had any fault codes because of that. That way, the amp comes on as soon as you switch the ingnition on, regardless of engine running or not. Unfortunately, I had to drill a little hole on the bulkhead to pass the power cable to the battery though, and another hole under the rear seat for the amp earth cable. If you don't mind the holes, which are invisible anyway, it's a great solution, fairly easy to do, and the difference in sound quality, compared to the factory setup, is like night and day.

All that's left now is you need to dyno it and let us all know how much horsepower it has gained. Hehe, if your wife loves it, nothing you can do. But you can always remove them if you ever come to sell it. It does however look like a job well done, judging by the photos.

Confide is right, a subwoofer is the only way to get decent bass in the Fabia. I've got one in mine and, by using that for all the low frequencies instead of the door woofers, I got rid of all the door panel rattling as well. So you kill two birds with one stone - good strong bass and no rattles.