sepulchrave

Ideal, not essential, touting for extra work at a quiet time of year.

It's incredibly easy to get at, you just have to remove that airbox trunking first!

You should check fuses first.

The car will have 256mm front discs.

The two areas where you can relax are that the 16V drive train is reliable and the bodyshell doesn't rust, otherwise age related reliability issues are common to any twenty year old car and the Fabia is more reliable than most since other makes have rust issues and engine reliability problems as well.

The 1.4 16V is very reliable and with 100BHP is more than capable of holding it's own at speed as well as being economical when driven carefully.

I did mean ASV, must've had a TIA.

Could it be the ASD flap motor getting stuck, I'm assuming it's a BLT.

I wouldn't worry too much about the oil, even new oil goes black quickly. It sounds like the thermostat may be stuck open so you should simply replace it.

Estate and hatch have the same bonnet.

Don't worry about it, it's rubber and can't harm anything.

Just take it for a four-wheel alignment check, that will tell you exactly what's bent and where, all this ridiculous guessing is utterly pointless and is a waste of time. Pay for a scientific explanation.

Does the central locking work when you use the key in the lock, what about if you use the buttons on the drivers door? Are you saying that only the remote locking facility doesn't work? Did it work before? We need information in written English to help diagnose the problem.

Is it possible that you spilt some oil and what you can smell is this spillage gradually burning off?

You say the exhaust isn't leaking but you obviously have an exhaust leak, you need to look at the manifold, turbo and EGR for leaks under the bonnet rather than from the exhaust system itself.

I seriously doubt it.

Of course the other thing to consider is that if the only symptom of the fault is that the CEL comes on then you can safely ignore it and just continue using the car.

You have a 1.4 16V petrol engine so the EGR valve won't be dirty, it has probably stopped working completely. Forget the spray jizz, it won't do anything.

No, the tyres are much too big.

Are you sure there isn't a blanked off hole in the new gearbox where you can retrofit a speed sensor?

It is particularly cold at the moment, on old port injection engines such as yours you get a lot of fuel vapour condensation which causes the engine to run very badly until warmed up a bit. However the engine light flickering suggests a misfire which might indicate that damp has been getting into the coil pack, check it for any cracks and give it a good squirt of water dispersant all over before refitting.

What's the voltage across the battery with the engine running?

The tyres that you've bought are too big, they should be 205/45R16, you may get some rubbing and your speedo will be wrong.

Exhaust manifold heat shield.

It gets in from the air then condenses out and runs down the windows overnight, it doesn't have to be raining, just cold.