Wooody

Hi, son's car, 2006 1.2 12v 64bhp. He called me on way home, started juddering on idle, lacked power and hesitating / juddering when accelerating. Had a look. Oil was very low (and not been checked in ages- I know!!) Off the bottom of the dipstick. Took probably 1.5l to get it up in middle of marks. Still some juddering on idle, and when under load when accelerating but get it above 2500ish the and it feels and sounds fine. I've got a VCDS cable and no fault codes except intermittent ' catalyst system efficiency below threshold'. I've not got it home yet or checked plugs etc, but any ideas? What to check first? Could it be timing chain wear / slipped? Dave

My blue is an import R-Ltd: dark metallic Satellite Blue. I'm in Totley.

Good to see another Eunos over here. You sure it had a LSD from the factory? Only done of the Jap special editions had LSDs and Bilsteins as standard, and the pre 95 LSDs were **** anyway. Since getting my first last year I've had 4 and sold my Fabia VRS. Currently got 2, blue needs a bit of welding (but not as bad as I thought: going to have a go myself with a repair panel and my mate's help). Fitted a turbo to the red one, and coilovers / roll bar / frame strengthening rails / sticky tyres and its a beast. Got right under my skin they have! Good luck keeping it standard!

Would you consider returning to standard suspension before sale. Just seen this in Duckmanton ????

Glad you're happy with it Dan. Was great to look after it for you for a couple of years. Was good to get back in the mx5 today. Much as I loved the Fabia, you'd done so much to it that it was never really 'my car'. The 5 was more a blank slate I've made my own ????

Someone nice did buy it.. Sold back to Dan ????

Pictures..

Selling my GTB1756 Fabia VRS. Bought this 2 years ago off DanHam off here (he'd done a lot of the work and was a fairly well known car). He'd recently had all the engine upgrades done. I've since sorted the suspension and brakes and enjoyed driving it as my daily. Been very reliable in that time. Apart from regular servicing its just had a new gearbox mount and CV joint in that time. Very reluctant sale as my son's just 17 and learning to drive and no chance of adding him to the insurance on this :-( To be honest I've never really used it in anger, so had an easy life. It can get 70mpg on a run fairly easily if you drive it steady. The car is mapped by Faboka with switchable maps, soft cut launch control is enabled and it's pretty much smoke free. Mapped to about 230 -240bhp (never been on a rolling road) but still a civilised daily. Being it has a helix SMF it does have the normal SMF chatter but you can be sure the clutch will hold up no matter what you throw at it. It's a fairly stiff clutch pedal: can be a pain if you're stuck in lots of traffic, but I love the feel and revs so freely with the lightened flywheel. Machine polished couple of years ago: still super shiny. A folder full of service history and invoices! The Cambelt and water pump was changed at 96k in March 2014. Recent oil and filter change again by myself using Quantum Longlife 3. Full 12 months MOT (put new screen, front tyres and CV joint on). 131k miles (will go up as used daily). First registered November 2005. Here's the spec: Gtb 1756 turbo THS seat sport style fmic and custom pipework, widemouth and ibiza front crashbar Helix SMF conversion (£1100) 4 bar map sensor PD150 head bolts Bosch air filter in standard airbox with oversize cold air intake Piper downpipe with fake cat Piper centre section with long life backbox 42 Draft Designs gear shifter bushes Recent Bosch Silver battery KW v3 coilovers Inox coated stainless steel with adjustable compression and rebound (£1400), Meyle top mounts and bearings. Whiteline rear anti roll bar Powerflex gearbox bush Superpro rear console anti-lift bush, front console bush and front ARB bush (only standard bush left is the rear beam but I've got a powerflexed rear beam unfitted I'll include) Recent suspension refresh including Lemforder track rods and ends and ball joints. Meyle HD drop links Team dynamic pro race 3 wheels powder coated black (brand new Kumhos Ecsta Sport on front, Hankook Ventus Evo rears) Brembo Cupra R front brake 256mm Octavia rear brakes (spring upgrade) All brakes have been refurbed with new seals, discs (Brembo front, Pagid rear), Pagid pads and ATE super blue fluid. Full oem leather interior with red piping Custom leather Royal steering wheel Audi A3 S-line gearknob Red LED dash lights, LED footwell lights Alpine bluetooth double din head unit Depo projector headlights with HID kit and LED sidelights Leon Cupra splitter Vinyl wrapped grill surround and B-pillar De-badged rear Door bump strips removed. Pictures to follow £4300 In Sheffield

Had a search on forum and found mixed opinions re. upgraded reversing lights. Dark nights, and advancing age have led to a couple of near misses in the work car park, so after some brighter reversing lights. Any recommendations?

All fixed now thanks to the advice o here and on the Facebook group. Was the little red wire to the starter. The solder joint inside the black clip had failed, wire still flapping around inside so intermittent fault. Royal pain to fix, had to drill a hole in the side of the clip to get access with my soldering iron. Then soldering a joint in the engine bay was not easy. Almost 3 hours well spent!

Starting problem with 2005 Fabia VRS. Electrics all working fine, newish battery charged, and charging (when I can get the car started). No response to ignition at all: not attempting to turn over. Happened for first time yesterday. First try of day nothing. Second try started fine. Third time nothing. I ended up taking battery out, charging it and putting it back in. Started fine. Then this morning nothing. Battery still at 12.7v. Any ideas?

Brand new unopened set of Super Pro rear axle bushes SPF2481K Kit contains 4 bushes, 2 metal tubes and 1 super pro grease. £90.84 + postage at Awesome, £70 posted. Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2s 17 x 8, et 45. Perfect stance on a mk2 Octavia. Hyper silver and excellent condition: only a couple of minor marks. Come with Goodyear Eagle F1 AS2s. 2 with approx 5.5mm tread, 2 with 3.5. Give a bit more comfort and save about 4lbs per wheel over Neptunes! £550 Pics in this thread: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/350610-mk-1-fabia-ap-coilovers-mk2-octy-team-dynamics-prorace-12-with-eagle-f1s/

Sorry only just seen this . Yes still for sale

Bumpety bump

You need to change your avatar Dan. Anyone would think you still hold a flame for a little red Fabia!

I removed seals, used paint stripper and sanded back a set of brembos: a complex casting so one hell of a job. Came out great though. I only did it as had already had a crap layer of paint over the original. I used Japlac spray paint, no primer. Now discontinued but still available on eBay. Great finish and holding up well so far. If the paint is sound I would just rub it back to give a key. Give it all a really good clean, then primer or perhaps just silver basecoat, then top coats. Not sure if a standard paint will resist calliper temperatures. Japlac or Hammerite get decent reviews.

Coilovers back up for sale. Just them, climatronic, and the Pro Race left.

Cheers Dan, good to know the fluids lasted 18 months. I'll be very happy if it lasts the same agin. If I had to do it much more often it might be the excuse I need to move the battery to the boot! Were you having similar issues with stiff steering? Couldn't see any fluid in the reservoir before I topped it up. Thanks for heads up on the shifter bushes. On my Octy the missus moaned about the short shift. Imagine the short shift plus shifter bushes might even try me! Workmate was having a bad day at work today. Decided he wanted to take the car out for a spin to clear his head. His face when he booted it was a treat He was more gentle second time!

Thanks Josh, but picked up an undertray from Wardy the other day. Want to double up the boost pipe clips and change the oil before I cover it all up though. In other news I've bought some secondhand KW v3 coilovers off eBay, had to buy new rear adjusters (which were missing) and a rear spring cup (damaged). Changing them went fairly smoothly except one of front dust covers was cracked, did a pikey gaffa tape repair which has only lasted one drive, so I've got to take the whole strut out again to change it :-( 'Review' to follow after alignment. Other thing frustrating me recently is steering: been getting sticky with a fair bit of resistance to turning at times, though sometimes it's fine. First thought I'd put something back together wrong, even bought (but not fitted) some new longer drop links thinking they might be too short and leading to the farb rubbing somewhere now I've raised the car up. Then changed battery (was still on original), made no difference. Then checked power steering fluid (could they put the reservoir cap in a more awkward position), which was very low. Topped up and steering perfect :-). Guess there must be a leak on the rack :-( While I had the battery and airbox out I've test the gear linkage. I found the shifting fine but my wife kept complaining about it. Don't think this will stop her moaning though ;-)

Had a slightly better look at this, and really paid attention to the driving on the way home. The steering is 'sticky' at all sorts of points: particularly turning left, but also straight ahead. Checked FARB to track rod clearance and it only touches at full lock and driving uphill (which is how I checked it this morning), so don't think this is causing my issue. Straight ahead there's loads of clearance. Had a think back, and pretty sure the stickiness is new since I changed all the suspension bits. Going to have it back up in the air, check over all the work I've done, loosen everything and retighten. Fingers crossed!! Why didn't I pay the garage to do it? ;-)

Picture attached. The contract point I'd the tiny orange rusty spot on the track rod

Bought vRS off Dan from here in January. Suspension was a bit tired so changed a load of stuff: track rods and ends, ball joints, superpro ARB bushes & front & rear (with anti-lift) console bushes, shocks (running KW coilovers wound up pretty high), top mounts and bearings. Steering much better: lost a significant looseness to steering (left inner track rod was very loose), and some 'crunchiness' on full lock (top mounts). But steering now intermittently sticky, with a fair bit of resistance to turning wheel, particularly on left full lock. Sometimes a metallic knock grind at full lock together with the resistance. Really not sure if this was present before all the changes I've done as steering/suspension was far from great, but I think it was. Had a quick look under car and seen there is contact between the FARB and the track rod on left side on left full lock. Don't think it is a drop link issue: pretty sure its had shorter drop links fitted by Dan, and contact is right near the bend of the ARB. Going to have a good luck underneath tonight, but anyone else had similar issues, or better still have a solution? Found a similar thread here, but no fix: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/132591-anyone-with-coilovers-had-this-problem/

Induction kit, ALK, coilovers all SOLD

And unless anyone knows otherwise I think the window blinds do fit FL and pre-FL mk2s.

Had a question over the condition of the H&Rs which were a bit dirty in the picture so cleaned one of the front struts up and a couple more pictures.