Had my Fabia 3 1.4TDi Estate for 2 weeks now (yippee!!)

Too early to post a proper review but a couple of things do spring to mind:

1. I have a rattle coming from the bottom left edge of the glovebox / front passenger doorbin that is really annoying. Will get it looked at at 1st service.

2. The engine is pretty flat and noisy pulling from 1st. I have to give it quite a bit of revs for a decent getaway. Not an unpleasent sound and it pulls great on the open road.

Anyone with similar experiences?

PS - still think it's a great car and the boot space is unbelievable!

I have a 1.4 tdi 80 estate too.

1) I had annoying rattle in the passenger door bin but this was a cd case. Took it out and it's silent. I thought there was another rattle from the rear but that turned out to be our permanent base for a car seat. When no seat is attatched, it sometimes rattles. Do you have anything in your door bin???

2)My car has covered 1600 miles now and when I first got it the engine was very slow to respond and noisy. Once past 1000 miles or so the engine became much looser and quieter. I couldn't travel at 30in 4th because of the loud noise suggesting the engine was struggling. After 1000 miles or so this is no longer an issue at all. It's perfectly quiet and not struggling. On my way to work (5.30 am) I change up at 1600rpm and engage the next gear at around 1200 rpm. No gruffness or loud disapproving noise, but granted it's not very fast this way. Your engine needs some miles to loosen up mate and it will be a pleasure to drive. Once warmed up I give it a bit more to put a smile on my face.

Mr Family...Jaxx is right! You need some miles on her. It's pretty much the same for all of us with the 1.4TDI. This engine is a jewel, smooth, powerful, economical...but incredibly tight when new. Being a diesel, it does take longer and a bit more effort to run it in. Don't go too easy on it. You cannot hurt it unless you are trying to do completely stupid things with it. Follow the running in instructions in the manual and you won't go far wrong. If you go too easy, the piston rings in a diesel engine just won't make metal to metal contact and won't run in properly to give you an oil and gas tight seal. Like Jaxx's mine wouldn't take 4th gear at 30mph until I had covered 1200 miles and she had loosened up a bit. But she won't be fully bedded in until around the 5k mark! You probably know that. The engine will become quieter and more powerful as the miles go on. Have fun and be sure to report back to us all on how you are getting on with it.

Thanks for the comments.

Rattle - emptied everything out of the car but still rattles. Did find an earlier thread on this forum saying there are known problems with the passenger door air vent so will hopefully get fixed on 1st service. Just a bit disappointed as my wife has a MK 1 TDi 100 Fabia and that's rattle free with 75K on the clock.

Engine - sure it will loosen up and pull better from standing eventually - I've already covered 800 miles. Do find it a nice restful (god I'm getting old!) drive once it's up to speed. What your comments I'm probably being too careful and should rev it a bit more to work the engine.

Biggest problem is the wife keeps nicking it as I got heated seats as an option!

PS - my heated seat switches appear to be backwards - the one's nearest the passenger switch on the drivers seat and vice versa! Another thing to sort out under warranty!

Forgot to comment on the pulling away bit. Again...when new they are a bit harder to move off quick unless you rev it a bit. Remember, your engine isn't developing all it's power yet! It gets noticeably better once you get some miles on it. Mine is as good as any with 2500 miles on the clock. No complaints, and yes, diesels are fast and powerful, but relaxing to drive. I don't have any rattles or shakes in my car so can't comment on that aspect. If you have a rattle make sure you tell your garage about it and it'll get fixed.

For the first 1000 miles, I took mine to 2500 rpm a few times per trip when the engine was warm. Not pedal to the metal, just gradual acceleration to this figure. Since 1000 miles I've been taking it to 3000rpm a couple of times per trip when the engine is warm.

It's loosening up very nicely, and when required in an emergency, it accelerated very sharpish to get me out of a tight spot. I felt really guilty and worried I may have damaged the engine. I'm such a wimp!

The rattle MIGHT be a ventilation system blower with excessive radial play in it's bearings.. You could check this by removing the sound deadening under the glovebox, make sure "recycle" is activated on the temperature control panel(to make the fan accesible), stopping the fan/blower on the temp. control panel and have a passenger reach up and hold the fan/blower blades tight while you take a drive where the noise normally occurs. If silent now, tell the dealer to replace the fan/blower :-) ,Or tell the dealer to do the same test :-)

Enjoy your new Estate! Great little (big) car!

Jaxx, don't worry. Diesel engines are incredibly difficult to do harm to even when running in. You could drive it pretty hard from new and no harm will come to it. This is in part due to the diesel fuel itself giving massive extra lubrication protection to the pistons and rings. But it also makes it hard to run the engine in so that's why it's important to make sure you don't go easy on it otherwise it just won't run in properly. But of course, the best way is to follow the manufacturers recommendations as you are doing.

The rattle MIGHT be a ventilation system blower with excessive radial play in it's bearings.. You could check this by removing the sound deadening under the glovebox, make sure "recycle" is activated on the temperature control panel(to make the fan accesible), stopping the fan/blower on the temp. control panel and have a passenger reach up and hold the fan/blower blades tight while you take a drive where the noise normally occurs. If silent now, tell the dealer to replace the fan/blower :-) ,Or tell the dealer to do the same test :-)

Enjoy your new Estate! Great little (big) car!

Hi,

I own a fabia (1.4 16V- 05/2007 ) and from the first drive I had the "famous" rattle from the right side under the dashboard . After 2 visits in the representative's service department they replaced the fan/ blower. Unfortunattelly in a week's time the rattle came back. They said that the new fitted blower is a new version with different code number.

Apart of the noise fabia is a very nice car with no problems (14000 Km).

But the rattle noise is very annoying.

Is it possible to post a photo of the placement of this blower?.

Thanking you in advance

I'm I afraid I haven't got any photos of where in the car the blower is, but it is built into the same box as the heater matrix and the AC evaporator. It's a black plastic box that is situated between the fire wall and the dashboard in your car.

If your (like mine) car is left hand drive, the blower is to the right in this "box" just in front of the lower glove compartment.

The dash board has to be removed to replace the blower.

Hope you get the rattle fixed!

Owner of a 19 tdi sport 08 , i'm very happy about the car but..

I Had rattles that drove me crazy from gloveboxes.

I solved many of them putting some of these in strategic positions, and rattles coming from glovebox covers disappeared, even on bad roads.

But still when i'm at 100 kmh and over i hear a noise like a bump and rattles coming from the gloveboxes area, it seems it is influenced by air getting on the car because when i'm close to trucks it gets worse, like if turbulence is influencing it.

Can it be related to the fan blower problem? Why it does not change if the blower is at low speed, max speed or completely stopped? (I have the manual air conditoning system)

I am not able to identify the origin, when car is moving below 90 no noise at all.

Please any idea, i'm going nuts.

Thank you

I sometimes drive down a cobbled street in Stockport and that makes the car rattle like an an old banger. I presume it is from the glove box area.

UPDATE.

Activating the air ricrcle on the aircon the noise disappears.

I will tell to dealer, let's see if he has some idea.

Merry Christmas to everybody.

Hi all,

At last after 2 fan replacements rattle has gone !!!.

The chief engineer of Skoda in Greece, told me that the fan was replaced with a new version which is improved.

They also applied grease to the base of engine due to minor noises when driving on very hard road surfaces.

I'll cross my fingers.

So far 17000 km and no other problem came up.

Greetings.

A rattle was coming from the headrests of the back seats from my car. I've taken off the headrests and removed the black cover. I've seen small plastic fragments freely vibrating, then I cleaned them.

I was happy to find them, cause I was looking to find the noise source for a year