adurer

The hand brake has no lights at the back of the car, only a warning light at instrument cluster. So I guess you're talking about brake stop lights. In that case you should check the 6-pin connector that feeds the rear RH light unit for corrosion. A wire brush and WD-40 are your friends. Look for water leaks too. Careful when you insert the bulb.

That spacer has a double role (see photo). One is to locate the center of the bolt at approximately 11 mm from the edge of the sliding hole and the other is to act as a normal spacer. Your spacer got brittle and disintegrated from aging, normally that plastic is resembling Teflon (without Tom) when it's new. You can use a 2.5 - 3 mm Teflon spacer instead, but you have to fiddle the column casing back and forth to get that 11 mm dimension right.

Yes, but I doubt you need super ultra extra bright LEDs unless you want to pierce your retina.

That is why I asked previously about how the issue developed. That part is very often forgotten by those asking for help, making our task more difficult. When an issue gets worse over a lengthy period, it is either a case of corrosion, dirt, arcing, etc. or a part is close to fail totally due to to wear and tear.

Use a 3mm LED rated at 12V, no resistor, or a regular LED in series with a 620 ohms resistor.

I assume you have a 1.3 MPI, since you didn't mention it when you registered (Car:Felicia doesn't help too much). Your problem has to do with a weak spark due to condensation occurring inside ignition transformer or inside its connector. Check closely both for rust, moisture, cracks, dirt. Have a look at spark plugs too in the process for same things.

The key word is "voltage ripple". You can see and measure it with an oscilloscope, most DMMs can't catch only the AC component but rather display an elusive and incorrect average DC voltage. For that purpose I find the video below titled Alternator Diode Testing quite informative in terms of symptoms, diagnose, effects, and repair. If in a hurry, jump to 2:34. But I would recommend watching it in full.

If you were to rate the before/after engine operation, how would you score it on a 1 to 10 scale?

It looks that type of relay is out of production. I would take it out and compare it with a very easy to find 20A, 4-pin relay (having pin numbers 30, 85, 86, and 87). It is not the end of the world if it doesn't have the second 87 pin. Maybe it is not even used. But even if it is, it's quite easy to find a proper solution.

krrcan What is the average temperature where you live? And the minimum? Are you using a special engine oil during winter? I'm asking that because the only reasonable motive to have an engine preheater is to be more cozy inside, but you didn't mention that, so I guess you have gloves and stuff. Maybe it's worth while thinking about a little more wear for a few seconds after starting. But a good synthetic engine oil should take care of that brilliantly. Yeah, I know those who sell engine preheaters do a great job on marketing them 'by fear', the most despicable form of advertising, right before using kids in commercials. As for the increased fuel consumption till the engine gets warm... a preheater runs also on fuel or electricity. So it's an illusion you're saving money. Just my 2 cents. It's your call.

I think he's asking if there are differences in body design, like a facelift, modified interior, etc.

Block plugs and freeze plugs are more often seen in engine steel blocks. Aluminum engine blocks benefit from more modern casting technologies and are machined easier. You have below several examples of electric engine heaters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdtB2HK6L8&hd=1

I couldn't find anything resembling a freeze plug on the engine block. It might be due to the fact specific information on Felicia for arctic climate is very scarce. But I doubt a freeze plug would be any practical use because the freeze plug is far from being a precision low temperature safety device and by the time it pops out there are cracks already in cooling passages. In other words, Skoda deals with freeze problem by recommending a proper antifreeze mixture. The only place I see fit to mount an electrical engine preheater is the thermostat area, but you have to have a metallic type housing for it.

What exactly do you understand by engine preheating? What are you trying to achieve and to what purpose?

Boomlander, In case you are wondering why there is such a wide array of possible causes for the malfunction of your car, you have to know the symptoms described by you are common for almost every car make and model, including those on carburettor and no ECU. For instance, our local Skoda Felicia Club Polska has this special topic (you might need to register) 59 pages, 1753 replies long dealing almost exclusively with that issue. All those who replied to your original post mentioned correctly one or more parts that usually break. For now we are focused on different ways of fuel starvation, but it is not uncommon to be an electrical problem too, starting from a weak battery up to a bad ECU. One thing is certain though, the local Skoda main dealer can stick the lambda probe in his personal exhaust and return you the money with required apologies. I would be very curious on what ground they decided to advise that. In conclusion, be prepared for a methodical approach and don't buy any new part unless you are presented with strong evidence. PS I advice taking out the throttle body for cleaning. You can assess more thoroughly the status of throttle plate and inlet walls (i.e. pitting). Do not use any metallic tool inside!

The original lambda probe (aka Oxygen sensor) has 4 wires: 3 of them are connected to ECU, and the 4th to +12V. The heating circuit runs between the black and the brown wires, while the measuring circuit runs between the white and the yellow wires. The latter is using shielded wires. Depending on model, oxygen sensors can have 2, 3 or 4 wires. 2 wires - only measuring circuit, no heating circuit (older models) 3 wires - measuring circuit and heating circuit share one wire (usually ground) 4 wires - separate measuring and heating circuits It is possible that at one time somebody fitted an aftermarket oxygen sensor that has 2 or 3 wires. Either way, having the white wire cut you didn't have a measuring circuit all that time. I recommend taking the sensor out, finding what model is and assessing if it is fully functional, and eventually fitting an original one. Keep us posted

I am particularly interested in seeing the guts of Felicia speedometer. I think that people who had issues with not working speedometer or odometer would like to know how to get inside it too. If you need smart magnets, check this out. They even make magnetic tapes. Now... where could you stick 16 of those very light stripes?

When did you clean the throttle body last time?

@Boomlander It is useful to tell us how the problem started to develop, such as: a) apparently unrelated to anything, just out of the blue after doing such and such repair c) after doing such and such maintenance operation d) after filling gasoline from another vendor e) after a mechanical shock (pothole, rock, collision, etc.) f) after an electrical short that blew a fuse g) after cleaning the engine bay

That 16 Hz signal... should correspond to what speed?

OK, we're cool. But it would have been much direct something like "I subscribe to everything adurer (btw it's Richard in real life) said, also I can add that..." Everybody should learn to trust my opinion, I have only a genuine desire to help other people by sharing my knowledge. I happen to know a lot about TC-6(P) onboard computer in particular and carputers in general so that I'm positive Tom will be able to match this VSS to his bomb engine.

It is incredible how complicated it is to get rid of extras my car hadn't factory fitted. No power steering, no A/C, no ECU, no cat, yet more economic, easier to maintain/repair and less polluting than an MPI version...

Phil, did you feel my reply is not trustworthy or invisible? Because the "I found that it was a bolt-on sensor to fit the normal speedo" part was covered in my first reply (not just in words, but in a photo showing the original TC-6 speed sensor), while the "should be able to retro-fit something" part was also covered in my second reply with schematic and photos. So what else is new?

Don't forget to take photos while taking it apart.

Here it is.how to build your VSS. You have to use a TLE4905L Hall sensor (PG-SSO-3-2 package) mounted on a small PCB according to photos below. The speedometer is the original one without any modification. See Hall sensor PCB mounting details below. The output of Hall sensor is connected to ECU via a simple interface shown below. R1 pulls up the signal line, C1 acts as a low-pass filter, and C2 filters the +5V power line. I can't offer first hand info on the following:: - if there is a slotted disk inside speedometer capable to interact with the Hall sensor (it should be, but I never opened the speedometer) - what is the frequency of pulses according to speed (I would like to know too)