Common "issues" and solutions with Felicia/Favorit based vehicles

[RicardoM]

We try to keep this pinned topic short, easy to read and browse, and exclusively for guides. It is a lot of work to write them. Other members got that and asked about details in their own topics. The answer came soon.

[Roo66]

Hello, I fitted a pattern part thermostat and housing that I got from ebay . It was easy to fit and worked perfectly well.

Hope this helps , Andy.

[D.FYLAKTOS]

On 14/07/2013 at 10:44, juan27 said:

 

And of course the facelift model 1300 plastic thermostat housing which has plastic clips internally that fail causing the thermostat to fail open. This will lead to the car taking an age to warm up. Whilst the car will go on running without a thermostat it will have an adverse effect on fuel economy and the heater/demister will take a long time to work.

 

Two times i had the same problem

I replace the thermostat with a ''metallic'' one so the problem with those plastic clips is gone.

 

I had another issue with the radiator fun (has a relay beneath the strut bar) so i installed a new Bosch code 0130109237

and a dynamo repair (got mud due a flow in our territory).

 

Iridium spark plugs never worked for me,i replace the factory Champions with NGK.

[KenONeill]

18 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

 

Iridium spark plugs never worked for me,

Given the age of the 13N engine family, I'm not surprised; I would be more surprised if you got a benefit from copper cores over iron ones.

Edited 26 December, 2019 by KenONeill

[D.FYLAKTOS]

18 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Given the age of the 13N engine family, I'm not surprised; I would be more surprised if you got a benefit from copper cores over iron ines.

 

From search in UK stores even in a local store i found Iridium for my model

but cause me nothing more that troubles, i throw them away and thank God that i don't had a crash because my car turned-off in the middle of an uphill !

[KenONeill]

4 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

 

From search in UK stores even in a local store i found Iridium for my model

but cause me nothing more that troubles, i throw them away and thank God that i don't had a crash because my car turned-off in the middle of an uphill !

Well yes; my point is that those engines were never designed for the higher conductivity of iridium cores, and I'm not certain they'd even benefit from copper cores (although the Ford "Pinto" OHC engines do, but that's more in longevity and stability of the plugs than extra power). You're actually agreeing my point.

[Thefeliciahacker]

On 08/04/2017 at 23:50, RicardoM said:

Correct temperatures for the radiator fan switch ON / OFF

 

1.3 l ON at 97°C +/- 3°C, OFF at 88°C

1.6 l ON at 95°C +/- 3°C, OFF at 88°C

1.9 l ON stage 1 at 95°C +/- 3°C, OFF at 84°C

       ON stage 2 at 102°C +/- 3°C, OFF at 91°C

It's actually kinda funny that skoda decided to make their most prone to overheating engine run the hottest. 

[RicardoM]

3 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

It's actually kinda funny that skoda decided to make their most prone to overheating engine run the hottest. 

All engines used by Skoda are foreign. 1.3 on carb is from Ford. 1.3i, 1.6i and 1.9D are from VW. Skoda just followed the manufacturer's specifications.

[Thefeliciahacker]

20 minutes ago, RicardoM said:

All engines used by Skoda are foreign. 1.3 on carb is from Ford. 1.3i, 1.6i and 1.9D are from VW. Skoda just followed the manufacturer's specifications.

1.3 mpi ohv is home grown stemming from skoda's early days 

[RicardoM]

Yeah, it is a marriage between Skoda mechanics and western technology injection management (Bosch Mono-Motronic and Siemens Simos 2P).

VW gave them VAG codes (AMG, AMH, AMJ, etc)

[Thefeliciahacker]

10 hours ago, RicardoM said:

Siemens Simos 2P

Actually the way ecus are developed goes something like this.
I have a carburated engine (skoda 1.3l on jikovs on 130s etc)
I want to make it fuel injected, 

I go to Siemens and tell them please port inject this engine,
Siemens develops or modifies existing ecu,
We both collaborate to tune the car,
The customer is unhappy because we forgot a bug in the code and thee throttle body acts up😅.

[RicardoM]

3 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

The customer is unhappy because we forgot a bug in the code and thee throttle body acts up😅.

Skoda couldn't just sit unhappy. They had a written contract ended with a reception phase and a maintenance phase. If Skoda ended being unhappy then the contract was weak. There is no "if" and "but". Since I have worked only in research/development and engineering, I managed lots of projects with lots of contracts and subcontracts. There is a basic rule: "If it is not written, it doesn't exist."

[D.FYLAKTOS]

On 26/12/2019 at 12:53, KenONeill said:

Well yes; my point is that those engines were never designed for the higher conductivity of iridium cores, and I'm not certain they'd even benefit from copper cores

 

After a short and uhhappy "travel" with NGK i returned back to the old-reliable-beloved Platinum Champion RC89PYC.

[RicardoM]

Never had any issue with original NGK spark plugs.

[D.FYLAKTOS]

I will post photos soon.

[RicardoM]

Can somebody add to this topic more material?

[Thefeliciahacker]

3 hours ago, RicardoM said:

Can somebody add to this topic more material

what kind?

[RicardoM]

Anything related to the title of the topic, of course.

[D.FYLAKTOS]

The lock on the drivers side is semi-working mode which means i can unlock the car with the key but can not lock it.

A local mechanic said he can do a patent but cannot guarantee that will last long which means i had to re-make the patent etc.

Removing the panels, working, put them back etc it's not something that i want to make it often and i don't want to replace that lock so i had to have an extra key only for this door.

I wish i could repair that lock permanently.

[Raychev05]

Another idea against the sloppy gear stick:

Sadly there is no shot before the repair

[D.FYLAKTOS]

On 06/08/2021 at 19:50, Raychev05 said:

Another idea against the sloppy gear stick

 

Few months ago i ordered some parts from Poland, i had a similar problem, my gear stick was ''too loose" in N and in 3rd was was trembling a little bit.

By instinct i ordered some parts (the shop helped a lot because for each part had the original code and with an arrow on ETKA was showing his place) and the problem solved.

The gear stick is stiffer, no trembling and more ''positive'' changes than before.

[RicardoM]

The most common issue for Felicia and Favorit in humid and cold countries is RUST. This is the main reason why the cars end up in junkyards.

Here are the areas where rust may start to eat the body. Any constructive and practical ideas for solving the problem before showing up are welcome. We already know there are countries with hot and dry weather where rust is not an issue.

 

[R_Blue]

6 hours ago, RicardoM said:

Any constructive and practical ideas for solving the problem before showing up are welcome.

My car's underside and wheel arcs are rust free but to protect from road salt, I wanted to cover it with anti-gravel paint. The shops do it for flat areas under the car but won't do it inside of the wheel housings. Claiming that, spraying would contaminate and damage the shocks so I painted them myself with a paint brush. After jacking the car and removing each wheel of course.

I've found deficiencies at factory seals between the joining points of front fender and chassis joints. When washing the car's wheel housings with a pressure washer, I've saw water was spraying from the gap between front headlights and front fender. Because of runaway water, there is a small rusty area hidden under the headlight. I sealed all fender joints with silicone sealers before applying anti-gravel paint.

 

Not practical but a good time killer for lock-downs.

[D.FYLAKTOS]

 

Tar spray won't help?

[RicardoM]

Don't forget about the section Classic Skoda Guides