vRS - two irritating problems

[toothandnail]

I bought a silver vRS in March. Generally I'm very pleased with it. However, there are a couple of things that are irritating me (three really, but one I know the cure for, just not sure how I'm going to get it done while the weather remains the way its been for the last couple of weeks - leaky door cards....).

First irritation is the heater control. I've been using the heater a fair bit in the last few days, and there seems to be very little variability in the contol it gives. Once the car has warmed up, it gets pretty hot pretty quickly. But turning down the control does little to reduce the heat. There seems to be a one-click difference between more heat than I really need and no heat at all. So, the question - is this normal, or is it likely to indicate a fault of some sort. And if its a fault condition, what is the most likely cause?

Second irritation is of my own making. I recently took advantage of Unit18's special offer on bush upgrades, so I now have Seat and Superflex suspension bushes. Certainly helped the car's handling quite a bit. But the uprated bushes also transmit a bit more vibration through from the engine at low RPM. Which seems to trigger a resonance in the glove box lid, which then rattles most of the time. I've had a look, and neither the hinge or the catch for the glovebox are a very tight fit. Can anyone suggest a method of shutting the thing up ( other than gluing it up, which I have considered a couple of times, but would seem a bit counter productive)?

Thanks.

Paul.

[ric04vrs]

a rattly glovebox lid is very common, i had one replaced under warranty

i think the heat control issue is also common, what you could try is, wind the heat control to cold, then turn it one click at a time to the hot setting, this resets it

[MoggyTech]

Heater problem could be one of three things or a combination of them

1: EVAP sensor faulty

2: Flap motor for recirc stuck

3: Control cable for heater mech has come loose.

Rattle fixes. Glove Box. Buy some stick on rubber feet from Maplin, and fit one each side close to the stupid little rubber nipples behind the lid. Stick another two on the centre consul where the seatbelt anchors hit the centre consul. Fold back seats forward, and unscrew the rubber stoppers on the rear wheel arch area out two turns. Take off the rear headrests and throw them in the garage.

Extra road noise with the solid bushes is common, it will reduce over time.

There ya go, sorted

[GordonC]

Heater problem could be one of three things or a combination of them

1: EVAP sensor faulty

2: Flap motor for recirc stuck

3: Control cable for heater mech has come loose.

Rattle fixes. Glove Box. Buy some stick on rubber feet from Maplin, and fit one each side close to the stupid little rubber nipples behind the lid. Stick another two on the centre consul where the seatbelt anchors hit the centre consul. Fold back seats forward, and unscrew the rubber stoppers on the rear wheel arch area out two turns. Take off the rear headrests and throw them in the garage.

Extra road noise with the solid bushes is common, it will reduce over time.

There ya go, sorted

You've just in one go sorted my rear seat rattle that has been doing my head in for the last 3 years!

Result, cheers.

[toothandnail]

a rattly glovebox lid is very common, i had one replaced under warranty

Interesting. I have a Skoda approved warranty on the thing, so I might try that. Though I've got to say that so far, anything that I might want to have fixed seems not to be covered by the warranty (for instance, I'm told that the used car warranty doesn't cover water ingress, so I'll have to either do the door card repair myself, or pay to have it done....). I'm wondering just what the wonderful warranty does cover.

i think the heat control issue is also common, what you could try is, wind the heat control to cold, then turn it one click at a time to the hot setting, this resets it

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

paul.

[toothandnail]

Heater problem could be one of three things or a combination of them

1: EVAP sensor faulty

2: Flap motor for recirc stuck

3: Control cable for heater mech has come loose.

Thanks. Any ideas about how to narrow down the problem?

Rattle fixes. Glove Box. Buy some stick on rubber feet from Maplin, and fit one each side close to the stupid little rubber nipples behind the lid. Stick another two on the centre consul where the seatbelt anchors hit the centre consul. Fold back seats forward, and unscrew the rubber stoppers on the rear wheel arch area out two turns. Take off the rear headrests and throw them in the garage.

Thanks! That is certainly comprehensive. There's a Maplins near where I normally shop, so I'll drop in and grab some rubber feet from them next time I' in the area. The other stuff also sounds well worth doing.

Argh! I've also discovered at least part of the reason for the rattle - one of the silly little rubber nipples isn't even there. I may pull the remainingone off and replace both with rubber feet.

Extra road noise with the solid bushes is common, it will reduce over time.

There ya go, sorted

The bushes seem to be settling in nicely. The low RPM vibration has reduced at least a bit, and most of the road-induced noise and vibration has also settled down a bit as well.

:( Given the current weather, I'm not taking too much advantage of the handling improvements just at the moment. Though I was impressed with the way the vRS handled slippery stuff on the way in to work this evening - sliding about wasn't the problem - visibility was: there was so much snow coming down I couldn't see the road edges or center white line. Just lucky it stopped or I'd still be sitting by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

In comprable conditions, my old Fiesta Zetc-S would have fallen off the road.

paul.

Edited 24 December, 2009 by toothandnail

[Schern]

The Fabia has a fairly basic climate control type system. It's trying to get the car up to the temperature that you've requested on the dial. In freezing weather it does this by turning the heating right up until it hits the setting you've put it at. So 20C for example will kick out full heat until the interior reaches that temperature at which point it will maintain it. I usually find that just turning it down a couple of clicks sorts it.

[toothandnail]

The Fabia has a fairly basic climate control type system. It's trying to get the car up to the temperature that you've requested on the dial. In freezing weather it does this by turning the heating right up until it hits the setting you've put it at. So 20C for example will kick out full heat until the interior reaches that temperature at which point it will maintain it. I usually find that just turning it down a couple of clicks sorts it.

I didn't think the Fabia (at least the vRS) had any sort of climate control?

What I'm finding is, once the engine has warmed up (which takes a while - not used to diesel from that regard), I'll put the heating on pretty hight. The car then warms up fairly quickly, so I'll turn it down a few notches. Which doesn't seem to make any difference, so I'll try turning it down a few more. Still no difference. More, and suddenly I'm getting cold air, no heating at all. There doesn't seem to be even a couple of clicks between full on and nothing.

Paul.

[MoggyTech]

Your heater does sounds as though the EVAP sensor has packed in (Sometimes they throw out a fault code that will be picked up with VAGCOM, but NOT the small hand held scanners.)

You can eliminate the Flap motor, by setting blower to speed 3, and putting car into reverse, if you get an increase in airflow sound the flap motor is working.

The flex cables seldom give problems unless they have been forced past their stops, or if the dash has been in bits for a previous repair.

My money is on the EVAP sensor though. It lives in the heater housing, and not exactly easy to get to. DIY guide in tech section with pics.

[Schern]

I didn't think the Fabia (at least the vRS) had any sort of climate control?

It may be the issue that Moggy has posted but if you look in the manual it says that the heater will try and maintain the temperature that the dial is at. The only time it doesn't is when it's set to full heat or cold. Try it out one day if you can bear it for long enough. On a cold morning set it to 18-22C and wait for it to warm the car through. It'll start by blowing out the hottest air it can and then it'll gradually reduce the temperature once it gets to where you've set it.

Edited 29 December, 2009 by Schern