MikeTheThinker

5k a month is a lot of miles!

My wife's 2009 Mazda 2 DE seems to have a magnetic attraction to third party objects, encounters with which tend to leave bits of her car wounded. The latest escapade needing investigation is from a 3m high school gate which 'leapt' onto the nearside front wing, causing damage to the wing, underpinning bracketry, headlamp, and wheel arch liner. We've had an 'official' estimate for repair which is above the 'write-off' value but we don't want to do that. I've located some US parts catalogues but trying to match part numbers is something of a challenge. A good start - if I can find one - would be a Euro/UK parts catalogue site. Can anyone help, please?

Their website looks rather like that of Autodoc, although their 'about' doesn't hint at a connection.

Weetwood?

Does your reversing light work?

I suspect you need to clear the standing fault codes first and then investigate the ones that arise or return.

A quick and almost painless check is to withdraw a small sample of brake fluid from the reservoir (a disposable syringe is ideal) and take a good look at it (throw it away after - don't put it back!). Any cloudiness will indicate water having been absorbed and any particulates may indicate corrosion/wear in the system. A good comparison is your fluid to a fresh sample of new fluid. They should be very similar in texture and clarity; if not, change. BTW in case you didn't already know this brake fluid is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water from the atmosphere over time and would need replacing.

One obvious possibility is poor electrical connections such as broken wire or corroded connectors. Those could have been disturbed during your investigations and are now working - although I'd be inclined to check and clean if necessary. This point is speculation based on many years of fettling motorcycle brakes; vehicles standing for a long while, especially with aged brake fluid, can suffer from sweat that can rust pistons and caused them to lock up. Could this be an issue with your abs pump?

Worth stuffing a non-fluff rag down below your workings to act as a dropped item catcher.

mk1 at a breakers https://www.gumtree.com/p/car-replacement-parts/breaking-for-spares-skoda-octavia-1.9-tdi-2001/1508402067

This is not directly relevant as my car is a 2l tdi mk2 Octy but will hopefully be helpful. When I bought it with a worn camshaft I chased around pricing options from dealer camshaft repair, to indy camshaft repair to replacement engine (it's a BMM) and a guesstimate cost of the exchange. I wasn't able to tackle the work myself at the time. It's 5 years back so prices may have varied somewhat but the numbers I ended up with were: 1) dealer replace camshaft - around £1k 2) indy ditto - £300 3) replacement (refurb) motor - £7-800 plus guesstimate workshop via indy £500 If you have the offroad drive space it might be worth buying a scrap car, pillaging it for bits and then selling on the carcase for scrap. That way you can inspect the replacement engine and do any work that's appropriate before swapping it over.

I've found a parts catalogue entry for roof rails for a 2011 Fabia, interestingly it only came up when I widened the search from Europe to Worldwide, so maybe this is for China-built Fabias? There's only one set of part numbers listed (left & right) from which I deduce the hatch & estate rails are the same. https://www.lllparts.co.uk/catalogs/skoda/ALL/FAJI/662/8/853/853030

Have you examined the brakes for wear? Grinding noises occur when a pad has worn down and the backing plate is directly contacting the disk.

Ditto here for our O2 estate t the time. Our Indy simply disabled it by cutting the wires to the alarm unit on the bulkhead behind the front wing; direct, but effective.

VCDS scan & save output Clear codes Drive/skid/brake test VCDS scan, which should show which bits are erroring. BTW it is of course possible that the fault lies in the wiring or leds on the dash, but I don't believe VCDS will flag that up.

From the note above about the MoT rules it seems as though it is only the headlamps that are affected by the 'upgrade' issue, and not the sidelights - or presumably any other non-headlamp light?

Would the road camber be enough to affect this? Right turn, rising camber, left turn falling camber.

+1 for Tayna.

Those prices will likely be 'official' Skoda prices. Take a look at one of the Euro suppliers - such as skoda-parts.com - or aliexpress.com in China.

1) pulling the rocker box is easy enough as long as you have the long sockets to get to the rear holding down bolts. Not technically difficult, just awkward. 2) steady tickover but with accompanying noise.

Just a thought on tracing the problem. Our Indy pulled the rocker cover and ran up the engine, at which point we could clearly hear the misfire as a result of the worn cam lobe. I thought I'd be able to see the wear on the lobe but it was not possible, and only verified when the camshaft was off and miked up.

This could be a worn camshaft, which would result in poor firing on that cylinder. I don't believe VCDS or its ilk will report on this (hopefully a serious VCDS expert can comment) but a compression test can give some clues. Beyond that it's rocker cover off and mk1 eyeballs. I speak from experience with our Scout (BMM 2.0l tdi) which had exactly that problem and sounded like yours is doing.

That sounds like one cylinder not firing.

Parts catalogue says 1K5253609E. Details HERE.

Hopefully not "The Eye of Sauron" ...