Pete in Notts

I cured mine with a bit of car cleaning sponge and a cable tie. The car only rattled when at tickover and on a cold engine. When heat gets to the plastic fuel pipes they get more pliable and don't rattle.

Trouble is my dealer at Mansfield wanted to fit a Witter bar and they use an outside mobile fitter so I used an independant company in Derby called Mobile Solutions which were cheaper than the dealer, and apart from the defective sticky pads, did a fine job. Can't understand why dealers don't offer the OE Westfalia bar which in no more expensive than the other makes and is much neater. Pete

Pictures as promised and what the the towbar is used for.

Yes I have. You have to buy the blanking plate form the Skoda dealer (about a tenner). It does not come with the towbar and its grey plastic, but an aerosol of plastic primer and a aerosol of top coat soon gets it sorted. However the blanking plate retaining inner frame is only attached by four self adhesive sticky pads and soon became detached so finally got it to stay put by using 1 mm thick number plate stickers cut into strips to stick the whole circumference of the frame to the inside of bumper. Also if you are fitting it yourself you will have to cut out he hole in the bumper, its marked out on he inside but a special tool is need to get a good finish. I had mine fitted. Will try and get some pics posted tomorrow. Pete

What dealer and where? Pete

Thanks for the quick response George. Handbrake requires 8 clicks and it does not get used much. Never use it whilst driving as hill holder works a treat and its never on whilst parked in the garage so I dont think its wear and tear so if its stretched cables will it be covered under warranty Pete

Hi Peter, my 2010 1.2 TSI 105 DSG Elegance has the 16" alloys on 205/45 x 16 and these do make for a ride firmer. I run 15" steels in winter with Avon Icetouring tyres and these do ride a lot more smoothly and with no noise. The 16" alloys shod with Continentals do make some noise and the Conti's are supposed to be the best in this respect. So you will get a firmer ride and more noise but the handling is sharper but I suppose you are not too worried about that if ride quality is paramount. However it might still seem a softer ride than the Honda so you might be OK. another Peter with old bones!!

Hi all, any ideas what I should pay? My local dealer has phoned me to remind me my 2nd annual service is due in October and offered me a 'special deal'. Should be £249 but can do for £199.00. Said it included a pollen filter change but this is a lot more than I paid last year. Think I paid aprox £110 with a bit of bartering. Also would like handbrake adjusting but I assume this will be extra. Any idea how much they will charge for this? Did not mention this when they quoted me £199 price so as not to confuse the issue initially. Car has only done 9000 miles so does it need a pollen filter? Thanks in advance. Pete

Hi, I'm in a similar position but its not the ride that bothers me but the noise. Just changed back to my 16" Elba's with 205/45 Continental Premium Contact 2's and the increase in noise and slighter harsher ride is very apparent. The winters I had on were Avon Ice Touring 195/55 x 15 on steel rims which were very quiet, actually no road noise at all, and gave a softer ride but steering response and turn in where not as good as the Continentals but that could be down to the winter compound being a lot softer. If you look at the tyre tests the Continentals come out very well for tyre noise and comfort so to get any reduction in noise/harshness may be difficult without going down to 15" rims. The 195/55 x 15 is an approved tyre/rim combination so should not make the insurance companies too jittery. I've also considered fitting a higher profile, narrower tyre to my 16" rims but it would be an expensive experiment that might not yield any dividends whereas the 15" route will having driven other Fabia's on this wheel size. Most of my tyre noise comes from the rear tyres so I might look at putting some extra sound proofing in the boot and around the rear wheel arches which would be a lot cheaper option

Update: Had turbo shim mod done on Friday. Nothing showing on computer for my car for DSG update but dealer felt that ecu update might alter some parameters that effect the gear box so only got the turbo shim update done. However, very pleased with the results....no throttle delay when coming off and on the gas at junctions, roundabouts etc., behaves just like a normal auto now. The whole drivetrain seems a lot smoother with less clunky gear changes and no fierce take offs when starting off. There is a trade off though as that diesel like low down grunt has been reduced but really that makes it much easier to modulate the throttle at low speeds. Still plently of pull low down but is starts happening a bit higher up the rev range but is more progressive. Early indicatons seem to show that its a bit more economical as well but it needs a longer test to prove this benefit. Overall very satisfied as I was losing a bit of faith with this engine/gearbox combination. But only time will tell?

Ok contacted my dealer in Mansfield and they confirmed my car is part of the recall. Apparently you should get a letter but they are doing them in batches and had not got around to me yet. Interestingly, as someone has already posted on here, that it cures the delay in pickup when coming on and off the throttle when slowing down for roundabout etc. So what we thought was a DSG problem turns out to be turbo lag? Also asked about the DSG update but did not know anything about that, so told him I'd been on Briskoda and had the TPI number for this so they said bring it with me and they will try and do this at the same time. I am suffering with some fierce clutch take offs that make me look like a learner driver sometimes which I hope will be sorted with this update + I've had some kangarooing which feels like the box has selected 5th instead of 3rd. What are my chances of getting this sorted in one visit????

What LED bulbs did you use? I have canbus compatible LED's but they have a blue tinge to them which I'm not keen on, but yours look pure white which is good.

Mine has a G suffix as far as I can tell. Using a mirror looking on the side of the compressor housing under where its says 'Made in Germany' there is a big number starting with b/n then ending in 'G' I keep getting the occasional 'engine fault' 'workshop' warning on the maxidot plus the epc warning light when starting from cold which disappears if I stop and restart the engine. I've rang the dealer and he said that unless it did it when they started it up they would not detect a fault code. So I have not bothered but having now read about this turbo shim mod, perhaps this is what I need doing. Don't want to lose the low down boost though that our Turkish/Greek friends has mentioned. Is this a feature of the mod and ecu update? Regards, Pete

I quite like the red seats, the interior is too dark otherwise!

Continentals were also offered to me by my local tyre fitter but were £90+ each whereas the Avon's were only £65.00 each + fitting so worked out at £71.00 each I think most UK tyre fitters could get Contnentals as they were running an ad campaign on TV for winter tyres. They would look pretty daft if fitters could not get hold of them after spending £1000's on TV ads.

Hi SJRT, how is the DSG update performing? It is a lot better now you've had a few more miles to assess?

Because Mytyres have a huge choice in most sizes and if you bought them early enough, say Sept/Oct at cheap prices also. I wanted Avon Ice Touring ST in 195/55 x 15 because rightly or wrongly being a UK brand might be more suited to our average UK winter where we don't have snow all season long but a lot of cold wet and icy weather. I asked local tyre dealers to source them but none of them could so bought from Mytyres in Germany. Fitting and balancing to new steel rims cost me £36.00 And what was stamped on the side wall of the tyre MADE IN ENGLAND! Coals to Newcastle and all that?

So there's a warning. Thieves looking for cars on winter wheels/tyres knowing that there is a nice set of shiny alloys in the garage/garden shed.

No it doesn't include fitting. Have them delivered to your home then take them to the tyre fitter of your choice. That's what I did.

I'll get mine booked in next week to have the updates

I also have these delay issues in my 105 TSI. I also drive a VW Transporter 140PS 7 speed dry clutch DSG which has no problems at all. Tech1e (Skoda God) seems unusually quiet about this issue. Does he know something and is he holding back?

I'll look out for you around Mansfield area then. Shouldn't be too hard to spot a white Fabia on roller skate wheels Yours and mine sourced from the same dealer. Hope you didn't buy your winter tyres from them as they were very expensive Regards, Pete

Having fitted my winter tyres on to new steel wheels they looked very small against the standard 16" Elba alloys. I even gave them an extra coat of gloss black but that did not improve the look so decided wheel trims were the way to go. The standard Fabia 15" wheel trim was not to my liking but wanted something that was 'Skodaised' Looked at several different types on e bay etc., but decided on Halfords Seville trims partly because I had a £10 gift vouncher to cash in. Quality seemed very good but wanted now to put some Skoda logos on. Got some resin 60mm Skoda logos off e bay for £6.00 which I stuck on. They are self adhesive but heated both trim and resin badge with a hairdryer to ensure good adhesion which also had the benefit of making the badge more flexible to bend around the slight radius in the centre of the wheel trim. See pics for end result but the wheels definitely look bigger than the did before.

My supplying dealer wanted £118 for 1st annual service on my 105 TSI. Shopped around and got it down to around £80. Went back to Mansfield dealer and got them to drop it to £110 but they were adamant the cheaper quotes were because they used cheaper oil. They used the longlife spec Castrol 5w-30 which is for variable servicing not fixed but claimed if they used a lower spec oil (VW approved) it has a detrimental effect on fuel consumption. They claimed the lower spec oil when used in their demo cars used more fuel. They could not understand why at first but a change of oil to the Castrol corrected the increase in fuel consumption. The Castrol oil alone cost £56. This might be a reason why some are getting poor fuel consumption from their 105 TSI's.

My Avon Ice Touring ST's took about 3 weeks. When I got the tracking number they said I would receive them in 1 week but they actually took 4 days. Tracking site worked really well and I new they had arrived at Nottingham depot in the early hours so expected delivery that day which is how it worked out. I think it depends on what you have ordered, some sizes/makes are harder to find than others. What made me wince was that the Avons were not available in UK so ordered from Mytyres in Germany and guess what, where are the tyres made? On the side wall 'Made in England' :wonder: