r_holmes22

Hmm, doesn't seem to have ventured further north than Ipswich yet!

Yep, I get a very pronounced creaking from the back somewhere when I turn right from the road onto my driveway.

Dunno if it will help, but my 2001 reg Fabia started pulling to the left about a year ago and it turned out the anti-roll bar at the front needed replacing. Once this was done (cost roughly £150) the car went in a straight line again. The dealer says this is common on the Fabia and, indeed, my colleague's 2002 car had the same replacement a few months back. Might not be relevant if yours came on really suddenly, but thought I'd share just in case. Good luck sorting it out. I swear mine's started to drift left again since the chappy at Wilco Autosave altered the tracking when I had a tyre replaced a few weeks back!

Thanks for the feedback guys. Appreciated. Cheers.

Hello all. For the last two-three months my 2001 Fabia TDi has frequently been juddering alarmingly from under the bonnet when accelerating from stop. It is particularly bad when performing a hill-start, when the road surface is wet, or when there is more than one passenger in the car (and becomes more severe with any of the above in combination). On a flat, dry surface it generally doesn't occur (providing I accelerate fairly cautiously) and I can often avoid it by being extremely ginger with the clutch (i.e. raise it past the biting point very, very slowly; like you would if starting in second gear). Took it to Wilco yesterday but they were too busy to test it properly. They suggested the clutch might be worn and need replacing. Does the above description sound like a dodgy clutch, or could it be something else? I don't want to spend a fortune replacing it if it's not necessary. Would be most grateful for any advice/experience before parting with wads of cash. Cheers.

It sounds like a slightly different noise, but my 2001 Fabia TDi has recently started making a whining noise at low speeds. It sounds as though the handbrake is rubbing very slightly. It frequently makes the same noise really loudly when reversing. I'm hoping to get it looked at this week and will let you know the outcome.

I have something that sounds similar. A light, dull 'clinking' noise over minor bumps (mine is most prominent on the driver side of the car). Skoda reckon it's the clip holding the rear seats back (there is a common problem involving that) but they've tried unscrewing them slightly and it's still doing it. Drives me potty but it doesn't seem to have done any harm (yet!!) Have you tried driving with the back seats down (to open the boot space)? See if the noise disappears then. Good luck. Richard.

Sorry, bit of a lapse in concentration there. I have a 2001 (Y) registration Fabia 1.9TDi. Thanks for the rough ideas above. Bummer, it does look expensive. Anything above

Hmm, I've been experiencing an intermittent 'grating' noise from under the bonnet in front of the passenger seat for the last couple of months. It's a kind of mild grating noise and is only noticeable at low speeds when the gear is engaged (i.e. it ceases if I depress the clutch). I especially notice it as the clutch reaches the biting point when changing gear. I took it to a local garage recently and he reckons it could be a faulty bearing in the gearbox. Now, I'm no expert, but that sounds expensive. Would I be right in thinking this is going to involve them having to disassemble a load of stuff to remove the gearbox so they can inspect it? Most regular garages don't do gearboxes, so it's going to require a specialist. As I can only find two in my area in the Yellow Pages, I reckon the prices will be sky high. I have no idea what ballpark figure is reasonable to expect, so was wondering whether anybody could advise before I phone them and the local Skoda Dealer to get it sorted? Typically, my used approved warrantly expired six weeks ago! Pooh!

Just in response to the original question, I have a 2001 Fabia and have experienced no reliability problems with the aircon. My previous car (Ford Fiesta) didn't have it and, in common with everybody else who's responded so far, I wouldn't want to be without it now.

Thanks people. It doesn't sound as though the noise is related to cam belt but I guess it's worth getting both checked out. Oh well, pay day tomorrow... Ta for taking the time to respond.

Just wondered whether anybody could advise what to look out for regarding wearing of the cam belt. I've just had my 01 registered 1.9TDI serviced for 40K miles at an independent garage, as it's now outside its warranty period. I don't have the invoice to hand but I think they replaced oil, oil filter and air filter. I forgot to give them the service schedule, so I dunno whether they checked all the specifics. I am especially concerned about the cam belt, as I don't want to leave it until next year's service if it's dodgy but equally reluctant to fork out to have it checked out unnecessarily (things a bit tight at the moment). I ask because I've noticed an intermittent noise coming from under the bonnet, in front of the passenger footwell for the last three months. I can't really describe the noise, but it's fairly quiet and only occurs when in gear (i.e. no sign of it when coasting or between gears). It's most noticeable at low speed/gears. Any guidance would be most appreciated.

Mine's been cold on my hands if the vents blow directly on them but the rest of my body still gets warm. In general, the sun shining through the windows seems to counteract the aircon in the front. The annoying part is that while I'm still feeling warm in the front, rear seat passengers complain of the cold. I've never thought to try recirculating the air though; will give that a go.

It's the default setting on my 1.9TDI. Default position means movement of the 'joystick' adjust both wing mirrors at the same time. Twisting the **** round and holding it in position means joystick movements adjust only the left mirror. The third position activates the mirror demisters. This system is pants design because it means if only the driver side mirror is off you have to move both mirrors until the driver one is ok then adjust the left one back to where it should be.

Yes, this happened to me when I had my battery replaced. There's a sequence you need to press/hold the buttons in to reactivate the one-touch operation. The Skoda dealer went through it with me but I really can't remember the sequence. I can't find details in the manual, but I'm sure your local dealer will explain over the phone.

Hi there. I bought a second-user 19.TDI with FSH (Skoda garages) 13 months ago. It was four years old with 32K on the clock. In that time I've only had the following faults: Wing mirror demister has never worked (quoted about £150 to completely replace mirrors; I haven't bothered) Front ARB replaced (was causing car to pull to the left. The Skoda mechanic did say they wear quickly on Fabias) Tyre blowout (probably my fault, as I think I had a slow puncture and neglected to investigate it in time) Battery died at about 38K (just over four years old). I'm now (at 42K) hearing an intermittent odd noise at low speeds from deep under the bonnet in front of the passenger footwell, which seems to be connected with the drive mechanism because it stops when I press the clutch in. I get the feeling that's going to be expensive to fix too but am hoping it's just something in need of lubrication. I've also had a couple of irritating rattles investigated (and not fixed) at a cost completely disproportionate to the work involved. Overall I've been quite pleased about the reliability, but it's frustrating that the dealer didn't check/fix the mirrors before they sold it to me and disappointing that the rollbar needed replacing so quickly. That said, just one significant fault/repair in a year is probably not bad for a 4-5 year old car.

Somebody else recommended making a wedge out of a wine cork. Cut it in half then make a wedge shape out of one of those halves and jam it between the metal bar and the plastic. The hard part is getting the wedge to the back without it dropping. There are now two halves of cork somewhere down the back of my air vents!! Wedging kitchen roll in seems to have reduced the problem, but the chamois idea sounds better. Will give that a go. The rattle that really annoys me is coming from just above the dashboard console (i.e. just above.behind the steering wheel). The trim is obviously coming slightly loose from whatever it's mounted on, as even feather light light pressure shuts it up. It feels as though it needs sticking down, but there is no way to get in there. It's soooooooo irritating, as everything else is quiet.

Thanks guys. I've finally managed to get it apart. It turns out the screwdriver thing does work. You need to slot it into the little gap beneath the skoda logo and push at an angle towards the metal bit of the key (as opposed to levering towards the top of the fob, as I was previously trying to do). There isn't a clip, as I was expecting; the key half just needs 'encouraging' away from the fob half. Even then, it's still a bit of a pain trying to unclip the two halves of the fob part to get at the battery! There's a clip on either side and it's hard to get both of them undone together without worrying about snapping them!

Yes, my brakes make a disturbing noise when I apply them while reversing sometimes too. Not every time though; maybe it's a temperature thing?

Hi there all. The battery in my key fob has just died and I can't open the thing up to replace it. I've searched the forum and followed some instructions but no luck. One thread pointed to the following http://www.briskoda.net/forums/article.php?a=47 which doesn't seem to be around anymore. Another poster suggeted sticking a screwdriver into the small gap on the badge side of the fob and 'twisting' to release the two halves of the fob. It is not clear whether this means twist the screwdriver or the fob, but neither seems to work. I've tried rotating the screwdriver (i.e. as if trying to undo a screw) and I've tried levering it (in case it's a tab or catch I need to release). Neither has resulted in the separation of the fob and both just seem to result in mangling and deformation of the plastic in the slot! Could one of you kind souls provide any further details? For instance, should it require a lot of force to pull the two hlaves of the fob apart, or should it just release when I turn/lever the screwdriver? Or does it sound like a 'take-it-to-the-dealer' job? The key is the solid variety (I've seen references to a flip-down type or something on these forums). Hope somebody can advise... Cheers.

Many thanks for all the suggestions; I appreciate it. I'll perhaps try Josh's tip first and if I make a backside of it I'll just have to bite on the bullet and get a full valet to try to fix it as best I can.

Apologies, but when I search for 'seat and clean*' using the search box I only get four threads returned. Probably need some advice on using the search box properly... Anyway, I own a regular Fabia TDi with original cloth seats. A while ago I used a damp cloth to try to remove a mark from the seat and, when it dried, the mark had gone but there was a new larger stain due to the water. The other day I accidentally spilled some juice drink on the driver's seat, which has marked it badly. Am reluctant to try getting it out for fear of making it worse. I'd really appreciate some guidance on the best way to get the seats clean without getting this horrible water staining. I have no idea which product to buy and how best to apply it to avoid staining. I don't know whether I'm supposed to scrub the cleaning product in, wipe it lightly, leave it to soak etc. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, even if it's just links to previous threads. Any I've found seem to refer to VRs seats, beige seats, white cloth inserts and other types of fabric that don't seem to apply to the regular cloth ones in bog-standard TDi's. Cheers.

Excellent! Many thanks.

Sorry for being a bit of a thicky, but I'm having problems interpreting the tyre pressures on the sticker inside the fuel flap in my Fabia. My only other car was a Ford Fiesta and the pressures were something like 30psi for the front ones and 25 for the rear. I can't see anything to correlate to psi in the sticker I have. I don't have the figures to hand at the mo, but can report them back if required. Basically, can anybody please tell me the correct psi for a 1.9TDi Fabia? The front ones are looking a bit flat but I don't want to over-inflate them!! Cheers.

Aha! I've noticed that my windows steam up rapidly in wet weather and need the blower to be on top setting ('4') to keep the windscreen clear. Perhaps the pollen filter is to blame here. I bought it at 31,000 miles and it currently stands at 34,300. Will check the filter. Cheers.