Petardo

the 'normal stuff' is really the most important stuff. Namely: full service history (doesn't have to be a dealer history, just as long as it has had the correct service types at roughly the correct intervals, some owners also service the cars themselves which is fine as long as they can prove they have done it, be able to show you a parts invoice or something). Also just pay attention when driving the car make sure it doesn't judder, shake, clunk or knock anywhere, I'm talking about gearbox, clutch, suspension etc. If any of the above doesn't add up you should just proceed with caution or else walk away. The 1.9 pd tdi is a solid engine, high mileage is no issue as long as it has been looked after properly. Anyway on to the common Fabia 1 faults that I am aware of. Mostly minor things that shouldn't really stop you buying the car but if you should spot them you can haggle the price down. Door leak issue (you'll find info on these forums about it) it should have been fixed by now on an 04 car. Look for black sealant around the edges of the plastic door trim where it meets the painted metal of the car door, that means it has probably been fixed. Ask the seller about it anyway. Make sure hand brake releases properly, old rear callipers can stick. Its usually an easy fix, clean and lubricate the release mechanism and fit a pair of calliper release springs. Cost a couple of quid. Check the radio, if the reception is bad on it then the aerial base probably needs replaced, over time moisture gets into it and degrades the connection, it is a powered base. Spray the rear washer, if no water comes out then one of the hose connections has popped off somewhere. Spray it a bit then get out and look under the car to see where the water is leaking out. Mine was off inside the front passenger wheel arch, took 5 minutes to fix it. It can potentially pop off elsewhere, there is plenty of info on it on these forums. Check the air con works - mine still doesn't, I'll get around to looking at it, probably just needs re gassed or might need a new condenser. Rear boot release - make sure boot opens without issue, the mechanism can get sticky over time, on mine I had to press the button and at the same time push down on the boot to get it to open. After a week or so spraying the mechanism with WD40 every day it now opens perfectly

How did you get on mate? Did you make the purchase? I see you didn't get a decent answer to your question, I could list a few things from my experience of buying an 04 if you still need the info?

... and at the low end of the market, my car had a fresh set of Raceland on it when I bought it. They are extremely cheap, I think around £180 on ebay for the set and to be honest, the seller told me they were cheap and gave me the orignal springs with the car in case I ever wanted to go back to stock. I had never had coilovers on any car before so I told myself if they were horrible I'd change them, over a year later and they are still on the car. Only thing I did was raise them up a touch and tbh speedbumps are no problem, and theres a **** load of em where I live. Okay handling probably isn't going to be as good as expensive set but comfort wise they damp really well, they are not too firm and not rattly. They are also easy to adjust. If you're on a tight budget and still want the adjustable low ride height I can testify that they really aren't too bad at all, despite what some people on here might say. hey don't rattle, don't squeak or anything like that. Personally I feel that putting £1000 coilovers on a mark 1 vrs is a bit extravagant.

^^^^ +1

moisture?

Like the other guys said you need a new header tank. The sensor is built into it. Had mine done last year for about 35 quid

Standard H7 bulbs (left) Night Breaker Plus 90% H7 (right) Night Breakers are visibly whiter but the main improvement is that they shine a bit further up the road. We'll see what reliability is like, I've heard bad things on that front but these ones are supposed to be improved

Could be normal, maybe just running 'rough' because it's not warmed up??? If you drive it a few miles and the engine comes up to temperature and the issue is still there then you might have an issue of some kind.

I recently used this stuff http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380392377875 and I am very happy with the result, I think I paid less than this though. The shade is slightly lighter than standard but after you've done all 4 calipers no one would know it wasn't original colour.

pulled my lower grill section back into place and ordered a new number plate... after someone had decided that kicking my car was acceptable punishment for parking (perfectly legally) on the roadside outside thier house. They also left a hand written note on my windscreen advising me among other things that their need to park on the public street outweighs mine and that I should seek alternative parking.

get yourself some Signal Green Brake Caliper Paint 125ml off ebay and use that As long as you're repainting all 4 calipers then it will look great on the car, very original looking

If you're not handy or confident enough to fit a replacement header tank (I'm not) I just had mine replaced at cost of £35 all in at my local dealer and it seems to have solved my problem, which was exactly the same as yours. Warning came on most mornings and went off if you restarted the car. Now it seems to be fixed. Just giving an alternative to the diy method :-)

I was just advising from experience of wasting hours trying to diagose and solve issues I suppose you could open the pc and reseat the memory chips as they would be the most likely culprit but thought a windows reinstall would rule out any software issues as they are usually the hardest thing to diagnose and fix. When you are getting seemingly random issues like what was described software is usually where the problem lies. Hardware failure will usually give consistent repeatable issues, not random.

Screw all that m8 Save anything you wanna keep to a usb drive Get your windows disc Stick it in Reinstall windows fresh

This is lovely. I am v jealous of the head unit and leather.

lol, I just came in here to comment on teh Galaxy SII and saw all this maths stuff! wtf!?!? lol Anyway... yep the SII is amazing... better than the iPhone 4S in many ways Don't think about it, get it

Lol, I tested this for my comapny recently. The guys at Motion are lovely and I really like them and they work hard but this machine was a bit slow and laggy. I also had their F5v which was packing an i7... it was a powerhouse! Loved it but really enterprise focussed.

What I have been told is: The new bb os (QNX) will require new hardware so existing users will have to upgrade their hardware. The first device will most likely be a small tablet device like a playbook. QNX phones will come later. The "Android Player" is an app or feature that allows you to play Android apps it does not run the Android Operating System.

I find the battery life on the pb to be awful. That's the main reason I wouldn't spend the money on it. The other reasons being screen too small and lack of decent apps. I'm a Galaxy SII user and love it as a phone but not sure I'd buy a Galaxy Tab. There are a few good Android tablets out there Asus eePad and Sony S and P but at the end of the day the iPad2 is hands down the best Tablet on the market. The Amazon Fire looks decent and cheap! but you'll have to wait

lovely car +1 on the remap, get a custom economy one done at around 165 bhp you'll definitely notice the extra oomph and won't need to uprate any other parts +1 on the lcr splitter they look great coilovers.... i hate mine, wish it had the original susp. Probably would have went for eibach springs on standard shocks instead of coilovers

It will add Zero value to the car

Thanks everyone, I suspected that they had caused the issue. We're writing a letter to customer services to ask for some of the money back. Cowboys like... ya couldn't watch them. No such problems with my Fabia of course.... :-)

A month or so ago I decided to get the wife's Scenic dci seen to, the clutch felt worn, high bite point, shuddering. So I took it to Renault garage as they weren't really any dearer than an independent and I thought they'd know their way around the car etc. Was expecting it to need a clutch but they rang me and said actually there were "Marks" on the flywheel and that they recommended new flywheel and clutch. After taking advice etc. I went ahead with the work at £700. After collecting the car a few days later it wasn't really driving any better, in fact there was now a knocking noise when accelerating / decelerating and lots of engine shudder. I took it back over to them, demonstrated the problem to their tech and they ramped the car. They told me they'd need it back again to properly diagnose the issue and I booked it in, they assured me it was safe to take away. A day before the booking the car was driving like cr@p and all of a sudden (while I was in work) the wife was coming home from the shops with the kids and bang, a big noise and horrendous grinding, winding noises. The kids were so scared by the noises they were crying (they're only 2 and 4). We get the car towed over to Renault and they "play stupid" saying they haven't a clue what's going on. Anyway next day they send the car back to us fixed. Right enough it's now driving fine. So we demand to know what the problem was and how they fixed it. They were quite sketchy but said the engine mount needed replaced and that was that. I asked had they caused the problem while carrying out the other work and they obviously denied it. Still I suspect that broke it somehow and sent us away in an unsafe car so we demanded a written report saying what parts had broken and their thoughts as to why. Today I get this "TECH CHECKED FOR NOISE FROM FRONT OF VEHICLE, 315 CHECKED AND CONFIRMED FAULT AT O/S/F ENGINE MOUNTING, REMOVED AND REFITTED AS NOT IN CORRECT POSITION. ROAD TESTED NO NOISE AT TIME OF TEST." My question to any experts in here: To replace a clutch and flywheel would they have had to be anywhere near this engine mounting or could they have somehow broken or caused the issue with the engine mounting? And would this have made the car unsafe? And are they trying to cover their ass? Finally the car is now very hard to go from 4th to 3rd gear, it seems to stick on the way in to 3rd, could the gearbox have been damaged by all this?

my needle seems to get to 90 quite quickly too so I'd assume that was normal. However but the only problem I have is when I park on a hill (facing downhill) overnight when I start the car in the morning the coolant warning light comes on the dash, when I turn the car round facing uphill and restart the car the light does not reappear. I have been told this is the sensor in the coolant bottle and not to worry about it as long as my coolant level is normal and I'm not obviously leaking coolant. A tip I read is (before the car has been driven) to open the coolant bottle and put a long flat headed screw driver down into the bottle and gently scrape the sensor to clean it. Apparently this can improve things. I still haven't bothered doing this myself but probably will get around to it at some point

oops, almost posted a fabia vrs pic there. sorry dude, more googling I'm afraid :-(