Tailhappy

We didn't buy the tyres. They just sounded great being under 3 years, loads of tread and top make sold locally so we took a look. I'm sure the tyre fitter would have flagged them up had I not picked up on how far off the truth the description was. A pair of Uniroyals are £130 so that's what we will go with. Thanks again for the comments it's been really useful

Well as a testament to not buying part worn these two "hardly used" Michelin tyres with "6mm of tread and 3 years old" were in fact 25 years old, had 3mm of tread and dangerous cracking. So new is best 👍

I noticed today that the rear tyres on my Mk1 Fabia vRS are just starting to get low. So a replacement in the next few months is a certainty. I have Vredestein Ultrac on the front and Goodyear Efficientgrip on the back. I was planning on changing the back to Ultracs however the wear has been really quite rapid. They are a very soft compound. The Goodyear are Ok but as they have worn they have got very noisy. So thinking about moving over to PS5's. Any thoughts welcome.

Has anyone bought part worn? I'm seeing some top brands with almost no wear (around 3 years old) for around 1/3 new cost.

Ok thanks for the comments and links. I'll take a read and go from there. The car does some motorway work and is used for holidays too so safety is important. It's a Mk1 Fabia 1400 16v. I'll see what a set of 4 will cost him as well.

Thanks for the thoughts. I just checked the fronts. Vredestein with a 2011 date code. No cracking at all, around 1mm left of tread before reaching the markers. Ok I will suggest a renewal. It's hard to know from the outside what's going on. Trouble is most affordable tyres now are often very poor imports. My mum had two Nankang NA1 fitted to her car and nearly had an accident as the car wouldn't take bends even at moderate speeds - the front just washed out. Luckily the tyres were also deemed unsafe by a third party adjudicator so she did get her money back. Like driving on a slippy jelly. Tyres are 185/60R14 so any thoughts on a decent make and model are appreciated.

Just checked. 2008.

I was cleaning my dad's Fabia yesterday and noted the tyres had slight cracking in the tread slots. Not all the way around and not in every slot. It recently passed its MOT with no advisory comments. What is your thoughts? Is this likely just superficial or would you get them changed? Tyres are Dunlop SP 2000. Sidewalls are perfect.

Ok I do all my own servicing. For my vRS it's the usual oil and filters etc. For the toothed belt my local garage does that for me and I had Unit 18 put a refurbished gearbox in. But is it worth carrying out some sort of efficiency test on the engine and are there any manual adjustments that benefit from being made? Looking back in these forums I see injector timing mentioned and also injector health. I do like to stay ahead of any problems so but don't want to just throw money away. So any thoughts are appreciated. Car is standard with 110k miles.

Interesting stuff. My PD130 belt is 4 years or 40k. This summer it will be 4 years but only 20k miles. I was honestly dreading the price hike over the £550 I paid in 2021 so if an inspection will suffice...well that's great news!

It's a new one. It is on all the way as well - but it's definitely a bit longer. The old switch went flying during my assault on the seized stud.

Exactly Alasdair. Makes the car feel fresher and reliable. It may be a chore sometimes to fix but then I remind myself that at least it's fixable!

The new stud arrived today. Now all back together with new EGR and after resetting and taking a test drive the EML has not pinged on again. Hopefully that's it!

Does it look like this is missing something?

Oh yes it was the alloy first. Did that a couple of times. And freeze sprayed the stud. Then tried really heating the stud to see if I could free it. No joy. All the hammering and leverage had also weakened the stud I think. Yes I do have reverse drills but in this case they just drilled a hole. I managed to get out some old stud out with a centre punch. I think this is one of the toughest jobs I've ever done.

Well at least the EGR came off 🙃 Despite getting the stud cherry red multiple times it didn't even budge one jot. Only movement was the stud twisting. But I'll drill and tap no problem. "Slide EGR off the studs" 😅

Needs no words 😄

Success! Those undid

Cheers. Well it's tea up now. The oil pressure sensor was in the line of fire so that's gone too. The right hand stuff through the EGR is free - moves away. I have really heated and Plus Gassed multiple times. I've tried to remove the right hand stud but it's frozen. However it means I now have a small gap so what I intend to do is now the EGR is mostly gone to saw it in half, remove the loose half and rotate the remainder. I'll try those two bolts and if they do move I'll take the whole assembly off. But those bolts are risky. Don't want them shearing.

It's not giving up! Chunks of EGR flying off but not 1mm of movement. Perfect Saturday🙄

Metal pipe is off and to the side Pete. Gasket removed too - I thought it may be trapping the EGR. I agree, it's probably gunked up - but nothing to get hold of! Thanks for the tip of non-paralell studs. Will check that. I have just shaped the end of a flat bladed 'pound through' screwdriver to a fine wedge. See if I can create a bit of movement after blow torch application. On the YouTube video the old EGR just slid off 😄

Despite removing the EGR nuts (x2) it remains stubbornly in place on the two studs. Beyond smashing at it with chisel and hammer is there any 'knack' in removing it? I've soaked in plus gas, used a lever and struck it with a bit of wood. Not 1mm of movement.

Thanks. I'll add the breather to my list. Update. I saw that original Pierburg EGR valves were on super special discount - £81. My local motor factors was asking £160. So I ordered one. Will be arriving shortly. Inlet is all clean and definitely no leaks. I did have one on the servo hose though but that wasn't the problem as it was replaced around about a month ago. I managed to free off the two EGR M8 flanged nuts - one needed a nut splitter. Tough! I'll update here with EGR findings as well as the breather.

Thank you. Lots to consider there so I will work through. I did read that original linked thread but it's a shame we never got to hear if the work was carried out or successful. I'll have a look for a new EGR as its definitely original. 20 years old and over 80,000 miles. On my Fabia with the PD130 cleaning the EGR is very easy and running premium fuel it stays pretty clean.

Despite resetting several times I'm still getting this code up after a few miles. I spent some time reviewing old threads but they always seem to peter out without resolution. So here I am. Firstly the throttle body is clean, the EGR pipe entering it is clean and the car runs fine. So I gather (and correct me if I'm off here) the likely cause is a sticky EGR valve? So I think the next logical step is to remove and clean. What is the best way of doing this? Does the silver pipe need to be unbolted from the EGR to remove or can I just release the intake screws and remove with the pipe attached? Bolts seem stuck... So any input on this is welcome.