Tailhappy

Ok quick update. My OBD2 reader arrived today and showed cylinder 3 misfire so fitted the new coil pack there. Hopefully this will solve the problem. 🤞 Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the help. I did ask a preliminary question on the Mk1 Fabia forum so will follow up there. My Bluetooth OBD2 reader came in the post today showing misfire cylinder 3. I fitted a new coil pack there so hopefully that's enough. Time will tell and it's definitely the A and B roads home. Motorway is horrible in the rain with a broken car!

Thanks. Appreciate your help. I do have a full toolkit at home but since I'm on holiday it does make diagnosing the fault a bit tricky. Things like my test lamp and multimeter are all back home. Infuriatingly the check engine light has turned off and the fault with it. But it's not likely to have properly gone - I would like to resolve before the motorway journey home on Friday. Conking out on the motorway is never ideal.

I'm on holiday and have an intermittent misfire which comes and goes - check engine light came on. Skoda fabia 1.4 16v 100bhp 2005 model year I've just got a new coil pack as this is the likely culprit but now the car isn't so hot the bad misfire and shaking has gone for the moment. So to diagnose what the fault code (and hopefully which pack) was I've just ordered a Bluetooth OBD2 reader. If anyone has a suggestion of an app - paid or free - suitable for the Mk1 Fabia it would be much appreciated. I was about to install Carista but only the Mk2, Mk3 and Mk4 Fabia models are covered according to the website Cheers for any advice.

Thanks Pete. On inspection the epoxy shows heat damage on all four. I've just ordered from Amazon and it will arrive tomorrow. I'll update here if it fixes it.

Cheers. Do they need coding to the car or just replace? If coding is needed I'll order one and call at a garage.

Sadly being on holiday I have no reader or access to one. It's relaxing at home 🙄. I nearly packed it too...

We've just made it 140 miles of trouble free motoring. The last 5 miles we got caught in a small traffic jam then off again. Now I've got a misfire and the engine light is flashing. I'm in rural Dorset so if anyone has got any comment I'd really appreciate it. There's no overheating or other symptoms. When it's given some revs it goes OK (I checked if the brake servo hose hadn't popped off). I did drive through a lot of surface water on the M3 but no suggestion of problems then. Just after we waited then pulled away again the misfire occurred.

I actually had two rattles here. One was the chrome insert rattling in the frame (due to the clips bending over tume) which was fixed with some glue. And the grille loose like you said - but the bolts were not stuck. Also check the bonnet stay - mine rattled there too when it's clipped (the orange clamp was a bit loose).

Sorry to see this. I remember being reluctant when I first got my Fabia in 2008 about driving it in salty slush. I was the only one in our works car park with a bucket of water at lunchtime and people were saying 'cars don't rust any more'. I was reluctant to believe that and carried on with my car care (mocked by colleagues). All their cars have gone (most rust fails). The engine on these definitely outlasts the car!

Just fitted the new loom for the plugs. Old one fell apart as I moved it.

My Fabia VRs is 19 years old and I noticed that the glow plug loom is missing most of the insulation so thought I'd change it - splice in a new one. I'm an electrical engineer so no worries there What I did want to ask is glow plugs. Mine are original, never been out. So I thought while I was there I would inspect and check them and see if they could even be removed. Well I did it, but one was a close thing with lots of creaking and an hour of sweat and Plus Gas and back and forward. I think another winter and it would be stuck solid. All plugs were perfect electrically so I polished them and replaced (with a dash of anti-seize). So what about your cars. Leave alone or did you remove - and if so how many miles did they last? Did they come out willingly? Honestly I'm impressed mine are still perfect working order - just the loom is bare metal!

As someone working in IT I'm genuinely upset about the amount of waste computer equipment and peripherals getting junked as they are 'no longer supported' after seemingly minimal updates. Pallets of IT get taken away at a cost to be recycled - and it's been exposed what an environmental disaster that is. I get the impression that they are mostly just piling up these days. Even my own PC (around 10 years old) is not being supported beyond Windows 10. 18650 cells in the packs noticeably lose capacity over time. So for me EV's have no appeal. It's like they took all the things I don't like and put them in one place. Add to that the issue of finding charge in deepest rural Devon where regularly visit and it pretty much leaves me with nothing. To top it off they are often to be seen at the front of a line of slow moving cars as they are likely trying to conserve power. While overtaking a Tesla in my Skoda Estelle I found it almost laughable.

Sounds perfect. I fitted the Jabba rear bar and when I removed it for refurbishment I REALLY missed it. Should have been there as standard. The 1.4 16v without the bar is much better on the bends than a vRS without one. With the bar the vRS is better. What would the 1.4 be like with the bar I wonder 🙃

My vRS is completely standard apart from one (in my mind very important) modification. Larger front brake disks. The first week I owned the car I had someone pull out of a turning that had a red light so hit the anchors. We stopped but it felt 'taxed' and the stopping power felt less than the car should have. So I had the Audi TT disk upgrade, and it was perfect on the few times I needed to scrub of speed quickly. Also a simple bolt on rear anti-roll bar was another early upgrade which I have appreciated on twisty roads and in Milton Keynes (lots of roundabouts). Otherwise totally standard.

Modern tech laden cars like EV's really are built down to a price. I can't see them lasting as well as a Mk.1. It's almost a negative - look after your early Fabia and it will likely just keep going - but you will end up with an much older car than everyone else (if that bothers you) as outlives the competition.

Parked up today. Can't believe how massive cars are these days. I could hardly get out. It makes me want an even smaller car!

Yes it will be all new with new calipers. If you can get genuine VW ones all the better. Ask to keep the old ones as you can refurbish for spared yourself if needed.

Really you need to completely disassemble the caliper so that all parts can ne assessed, cleaned, replaced if needs be and put back. The handbrake mechanism is part of the caliper. It's like a cam that pushes the pads out a little and utilises the automatic wear adjustment. So as the pads wear the handbrake stays in adjustment. You will need a rebuild kit from Big Red or similar and important, a pair of very long nose circlip pliers for master cylinders and the like. To release the circlip holding the handbrake lever mechanism in the bore (it pulls out through the cylinder after removing the cable holder lever at the rear). I thought I needed new cables but once I serviced the calipers they were working like new. the problem with insufficient action or binding is most times down to the handbrake mechanism sticking as i said. Honestly its not a good design as all that stops water and dirt getting in is one rubber seal at the back. I have seen the video on cleaning. It will get you by, but its not really enough. I'm betting that by now it needs new seals around the piston at the least. If you take it in to have work done it's difficult to guarantee they do the work perfectly. Even my known good garage told me they 'lubricated the mechanism' after mine started losing handbrake power. I'm suspecting the just sprayed around the pivot. It didn't last. I'd suggest asking fora full caliper rebuild and being Frank with them too.

I had exactly this issue. The 'freeing off' basically is just them working the handbrake lever mechanism on the caliper. This jams up over time. I had my brakes jam on with lots of smoke so it's important to get it sorted. I had 2 refurbished calipers fitted by the garage but these were no good after just a year. What happens is the steel rod that connects into the rear caliper to operate the pads gets rust, gunk and scale in between it and the bore it travels in. I have had much better success rebuilding the old calipers myself and fitting new seals and most importantly removing and cleaning out the handbrake mechanism. The handbrake when working well is very effective, but it's a fragile design and so it needs regular inspection. Once the mechanism starts sticking, it's needing service.

It was almost new just over 700 miles. It may have been faulty but it never lit any lights. It had enough power too. Just the thrum of the 3 cylinder engine through the steering wheel caused me issues which I've never experienced in a 4 cylinder car.

Not to be dismissive but if you do want to maybe go for one of the newer 1 litre 3 cylinder vehicles do take a proper test drive. Two years ago I wanted to take the family to Cornwall for a funeral in something larger than my Mk.1 Fabia or Estelle. We ended up hiring a Peugeot 2008 however the vibration from the 3 cylinder engine over the long drive damaged the nerves in both hands and forearms. Took over 2 months to heal and I still get odd feelings now. 3 cylinders are all the rage but they are not for me.

Ok update time. It turns out that the belt fitted by my garage and the belt suggested by the motor factors are wrong. 1180 is what it is supposed to be but 1183 is what was fitted. 3mm too long. This doesn't sound much but it's a proper difference on the tensioner. With the 1183 it's much further around and noticeably lower tenson on the belt. This causes it to slip and polish and then slip more. Fitting the correct belt has solved the problem.

Thanks both. I've confirmed everything is routed correctly. The only thing of note is the tensioner, whilst free and working, is one of the plastic pulley ones. Littens I think. I just replaced it with genuine VW with the metal pulley. The spring on the Littens is very different to the VW one so let's see how this works out.

Good call on the plug! Something to try. You wouldn't happen to have a link to the thread with different routing of the belt would you? Correct and incorrect?