thelioncub

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Actually it turned out that I knew the theory of changing a wheel, only I lacked the sheer strength! The jack was easy, but it took me and OH an hour to get 2 of the 5 nuts off - we jumped on, kicked, and hammered before the damn things loosened! Then another hour to get the wheel off and spare on - it seemed to have welded itself on! The fact that I couldn't even lift the wheels didn't really help either. :( The kerb tip def made a lot of sense - just a shame the kerb was on the other side of the car in this case (and not in a place where I could turn it around) All in all, job done fairly well considering. Spare is on now as the water test shows a leak between the tyre and the wheel - on the edge (seal?) Now just waiting for garages to open. Thanks again - hope you've all had a great Christmas.

Yeah good plan!It's patchy ice, so I'm hoping that it's not too bad directly under jack point. Def gonna try and shift that first tho - and might ask the neighbour to move his car parked right in front, just in case mine does slip off! (He won't be happy with that - even getting off sofa is too much effort for him.. lol)

Not patronizing at all.. I totally agree with you... only I have no choice :( I have hope that the tyre is ok - when someone let the last one down I'd driven quite a bit further before I realised what was going on, and that tyre survived ok. There isn't anyone I can ask - the local garage who helped last time will be closed by the time my boss lets me go home, the neighbours can barely walk to their own car, never mind jack mine up. Everyone else has pretty much left already. Gonna have to give it a go.. wish me luck!

Thanks for that vid - am watching it now. It's the front wheel, so I'll put it in 1st gear as well.

Hi all, I'm in a complete state today and can't find the right threads to help with a very simple questions. How do I change my front pass side wheel using only the tools that came with car? My boss insists I work today until we are all sent home for Christmas, which could be as late as 3. 2 weeks ago some *****hole let me wheel down and I got stranded. Today I got 2 mins from home and the other wheel is now flat. I couldn't pump it up (wouldn't take the air) so had to drive home on the rims. (Because we have no breakdown cover, and suspect they wouldn't help until after Xmas anyway) The car is parked at home, on ice, and I need to get the spare on tonight because we'd actually like to see our family for Christmas! - also because if the tyre can be saved, we want to save it now as leaving it as it is will surely damage it? (Garage isn't open until 4th so no help there) Can anyone help a very depressed girl by finding some pics of how I do this, or perhaps give me some tips. The manual says something about a block of wood with a groove on it, but we don't have that - do we realllly need it? Thanks in advance!

Ok... So I've finally got my car back. Failed MOT sheet says : - Nearside & offside suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated resulting in excessive movement (2.4.G.3) Here is the breakdown of cost, including the extra bits I asked to be replaced at same time: - Labour (4 hours) £240 (so slightly less per hour than I thought/Skoda garage) Lower arm bushes £31.98 Anti roll bar link arms £28.78 Anti roll bar mounts £5.68 Total = £306.44 VAT = £53.64 MOT £50 TOTAL = £410.07 Will be eating stale bread and soup from now on! Thanks to everyone for your help. I know I possibly could have got it done in less hours at a Skoda place, but it's 6 and two 3's really. I might have saved £60 on labour, but I'd have paid another £50 on MOT and possibly ended up with more faults being 'found'.

I'm not a troll! *sigh* I don't know what is on the MOT sheet because I haven't seen it yet - it's still at the garage WITH the car. I'm getting the work done there because I trust this garage to not 'find' more things wrong whilst they do the work - which is something I know our Skoda dealer did with my last car! I don't know about drop links etc - I found all that out from the helpful people on here. Plus, as I believe I already explained - the garage explained the problem to my dad, so that he could 'translate' better to me. That made understanding the advise on here a bit easier. Anyway.. the drop links didn't arrive yesterday, and the garage is only open until 12 - so I won't get the car back until next week now. :( Makes driving to Bristol in 2 hours a little tricky!

Car is still at the garage :( They are ordering parts and getting a quote together. He's said they're estimating 3 hours max, and I've asked them to change the drop links and anti-roll bar bushes at the same time. Should know more later today/tomorrow - but it looks like it's going to be in the region of £300 with MOT

Are they made of plastic? The guy def said something about plastic when he was describing the problem. Darn - I wish I paid more attention to the details! lol

I don't have the MOT sheet - I dropped the car off this morning, then I spoke to the garage later on when he told me it failed. I've not been back, or heard more since. They still have the car, and the failure sheet - while they source parts and build a quote. I've not paid for anything yet, but I know that they will retest for free if it's brought back within 14 days. Should I even dare ask what drop links are?

Ah.. but I never said I was a woman in my first post, and you all replied anyway. Maybe your squeaky breaks aren't exciting enough?!

If this is the console bushes, and I did ask them to change the anti roll bar at the same time, would it add much more onto the time it should take? I do see your point, but right now I need this to be as cheap as possible. Do anti-roll bars need changing every few years anyway? I seem to remember my last Fabia had a problem noted about the anti-roll bar, but then it got written off and all that became insignificant anyway. :(

I think this garage might cost a little bit less per hour. The £80 per hour I know for definite is the cost a Skoda garage will charge - I used to work at one many years ago (and they've since shut down so I can't go there) and this is what the 'going rate' was. Hence why I'm reluctant to take it to any of our local Skoda dealers!

Darn it! And how much is that likely to cost? He definitely talked about suspension though. I got him to explain it to my dad (who builds cars for fun - but happens to live in Germany) and my dad didn't say anything about the anti roll bar either.

I wish I knew what any of that means.. but.. it sounds good. Even with double the hourly rate here and an increase in parts prices, I reckon this could still come in close to my £300 budget.. plus £50 for the MOT. Still.. I can just about afford that. I was thinking this was literally going to cost thousands. Thanks for all the speedy replies.. I'll be able to sleep tonight at least.

haha. I wish. And while they are at it, can they also fix my rear passenger door which stopped working this month too. I can't open it at all! Not having much luck with cars right now! I am a bit nervous by the fact the garage isn't too sure, but then I don't necessarily think it'll mean they do a bad job... I hope! I guess they just don't know the cost of and specific parts needed.

I live in Teddington, Middx. Seems like the most expensive place in the UK sometimes! The thing is I do trust this garage - been going there since I was 18 and had my first car - an 18 year old girl, with a 10 year old car, and he didn't use it as an excuse to rip me off - might have had something to do with the fact I worked for WhatCar? - haha. But yeah.. It's not so much that I think they'll take me for a ride with costs. It's that I'd like to know more about how long it *should* take - especially when he doesn't seem overly sure himself. Just means that if he turns around and quotes a ridiculous amount, then I know it'd be worth taking elsewhere and paying for the MOT twice.

I really hope you are right! How many hours do you think it'd take? I think the average hourly rate where I am is about £80

Hi guys, I just got the bad news that my Fabia vrs ('03 plate) failed its MOT because of a suspension problem. I really don't understand all the technical bits, but I've done a bit of reading on here and it very much sounds like its the bushes? There was a sort of bumping/creaking noise coming from under the car - hard to place, but for a while I thought it was something loose in the boot. Well anyway, the garage said that something had completely corroded away on one arm, and the other was hanging loose. He isn't totally sure how hard it'll be to fix (not done this on a Skoda before) and he's getting a quote for me once he's estimated parts etc. I know it's impossible to say, but do any of you know *roughly* how long this should take a mechanic, and how much parts *should* cost? Is it a fairly simple repair, or could it be a case that the fault has caused all other kinds of damage to the car? I'm insanely worried right now because everything we have money wise is going towards our wedding next year - more so because the OH was made redundant and is now struggling with self-employment. If this is going to cost a LOT, I'm gonna have to take the car off the road for a year and beg lifts to work! :'( Any chance this could cost under £300? (that way I can offset what I was about to pay in car insurance over 12 months, and use the money I had aside for that to pay the garage instead!) lol Cars eh!

Called the AA out today after my Fabia got about 20m from my house before the power steering went. Pulled over and tried the old 'turn it off and on again' trick, but sadly the whole car decided that blocking the entrance to the NPL (lab) was a good place to die completely! :thumbdwn: Anyway, we suspected a dying battery as it was damn cold tonight and its been sat unused for 2 weeks. After excellent fault finding by the AA man, we found that the battery and alternator were working ok, but the exciter cable (which is pulled very, very tightly) has most likely broken. There is no battery light on the dash, and if I rev the car before moving, the alternator is kicked to life and charges the battery. After seeing this post - Fabia Electrical Help Needed - BRISKODA - The Skoda Forums I'm a little worried that a garage will use this as a good excuse to charge me £ I don't have and insist that the ECU needs replacing or something. It sounds like someone in the know could do this themselves, but sadly I'm not one of those people. Are there any nice people in the Teddington/Kingston/Richmond area who would have a go at fixing this for a bit of cash in hand? It sounds like there is a common place that the wire breaks - 'connector on the front of the gearbox (held in a bracket)' which could be fixed with a bit of soldering?? Anyone? Pleeease?

What happened is I never saw the car again... :( I managed to get all my stuff out - tool kits etc, but the car got moved to breakers before I could get someone to remove the cable for the CD changer which was in the boot. Skoda said they couldnt get me another one, so I ended up paying

Ah sorry, I didn't make myself clear enough. I put my arm through the open window and tried to open the car, and no, the alarm didn't go off but the deadlocks worked. My concern is more that if there is a fault with the convenience unit that I could end up with intermittent faults with the security features. I read elsewhere that others had windows that randomly opened themselves etc?

oh! Does it mean the deadlocks are still working and it's just the alarm? The Skoda garage seemed to think they wont be, even if I only push lock on the remote once. Could it simply be something needing fixing with the interior sensor? I know I had my old one turned down a notch cos it was too sensitive. I guess I basically need to know if the convenience unit *does* need changing, or if I can carry on with the car just knowing the alarm isn't working right now. I don't mind if it's just the alarm, but if the imobiliser and deadlocks are also fubar then i'm getting worried.

Hello peeps. Tried to search for an answer to this one but can't find anyone who has had this specific problem.. I now have a Fabia VRS, but I noticed the red LED is not flashing when I lock the car. I took it to the Skoda garage today as I wanted them to hook it up to the VAG-COM to set the alarm to beep on lock/unock, but they were only able to get the car to beep on unlock. They couldnt get the LED to work, and gave me the impression that it could mean that the deadlocks are not working. They hooked it up again but then found that the convenience unit was not repsonding at all, and now needs to be replaced. I'm now left with a beep on unlock, no flashing light, and possibly a £300 bill if i want that unit changed. I was also playing around to try and get the alarm to work, and found that the motion sensors are not activating the alarm. If i opened the window, locked the car, then tried to start it, then the alarm goes off, but not if I try and open the door or wave my arm around inside. (And no, I didnt push the remote twice to deactivate the internal sensor) Help! Is it worth me getting the unit replaced at this stage when the only symptom I have is no red LED?.. could it mean that if I have a problem with r/c/l or e/windows then I'm gonna be screwed and will need it replaced anyway? Does any of this sound symptomatic of another problem? What does the lack of flashing LED actually mean??

If your pollen filter is wet, but not full of leaves etc, then i guess the block is somewhere else and the water is just using the pollen filter as an escape route! I thought the same thing about removing the plug bit, but apparantly no, it doesnt let more water in! I'm sorry I can't remember any more details :( It was a good 5 years ago this happened to my car, and I currently don't own a car to go have a look at to be able to tell you exactly. Perhaps if you go to a dealer and ask about the plug with too small a hole, they may know what you are on about? (or they may look at you like you are nuts!) Like i said, the dealer I worked at knew about it instantly and it was quite common as far as I know!