I'm off to look at a mid-range Fabia PD100 tonight for my girlfriend, and just wondered whether there's anything to look out for. I'm a Seat Leon driver myself, with the PD150 engine, I assume that the PD100 in the Fabia is very similar to the 1.9 PD TDI unit that's in my car so it's likely to have the same known issues (coolant temperature sensors dying, MAFs dying, that sort of thing)? Anything I should look out for bodywork wise though, I don't know about any common faults Fabias would help so thought I'd post here after a long time as a lurker

Thanks for any help!

There's a few threads on here bout known faults.

At this time of year though you need to be checking the carpet in the rear foot wells under the mats. If they seem a little damp they the rear doors are most likley leaking. It's a simple DIY job or if 3 or less years old should be a warrenty job. It's just a case of re-sealing the inner door skin. If it only seems damp on the passenger side then this could also be caused by the rear wash pipe busting a connection just by the rear bench, that's just a case of reconnecting the pipe behind the trim. if it has a weak or no rear squirter then it's a dead cert.. but this pipe can pop else where, but all easy enough to reconnect and documented on here in a couple of places.

Find some speed humps to drive over as on the front the console bushes are very weak and will cause creaks and soggy steering.. again, not a huge job but not so much of a DIY thing unless you handy with a spanner. You can use the Seat Ibiza Cupra Diesel bushes as an uprated replacement that'll last longer as they're solid vs the Fabia's voided versions.

The rear bushes can also creak with age in these weather conditions, but this isn't a mechanical worry and a spray of ptfe grease will quieten them down.

I'd say they were to two most common Fabia related items. Most the other stuff is obvious or common on all cars.

oh, and if you notice a slight pull to the kerb when you let go of the wheel then this is normal to.. find a closed or extremely quiet dead end and drive on the opposite side of the road and it should want to pull the towards other kerb.. if not then could be more serious but the Fabia is quite a camber sensitive car.

.

Edited 12 January, 201016 yr by Rob.

Damp carpets (leaking door carriers) easy to fix. FSH showing PD oil has been used VW505.01

Other than that, pretty much bullet proof.

Cool, thanks for your replies. The door seals I'm semi-aware of, as it's also a common Leon problem (which I haven't experienced yet, thankfully!) and now you mention it I do recall reading about the Ibiza Cupra bushes as an upgrade (my sister drives a Fabia vRS so I've looked for info on those in the past as well). I'm not a spanner person, I understand most of the theory but am completely inept at putting it into practice, so any problems with bushes I'll either push the garage (Farmers Skoda in Nottingham for anyone in the know) to do as part of any sale, or try and adjust the price down a touch and have done by a good independent I know afterwards.

Service history I intend to ask about due to the milage, 77k on a 2005 car. I want to make sure the timing belt has been done at either 60k/4 years as per the latest VAG recommendations I'm aware of. Obviously if it's not been done by now then I'll be looking through the service history in more detail to see if that fact is indicative of a general lack of care, and if everything else checks out service wise and they'll agree to the cambelt change then it could still be worth looking at as it seems to be a good price for the car (only PD100 I've found locally on Autotrader under 5k)

I think you have got everything covered mate.

Farmers? Arnold / Daybrook.. right? Used to be Ford?

Check electric windows are smooth and work from all switches

I don't know about used to be Ford, but it's Farmers in Daybrook, yeah. I don't know the area so don't know the history of the garage, sounds like you probably do though

As for the car - cambelt hadn't been done, although service history was complete other than that. There didn't seem to be a record of what oil had been used but the guy who owned it previous had used the same local (to him) garage for all 7 services so I'm assuming they know to use the right stuff as otherwise it would have given him problems earlier on in its life. Farmers said it would be serviced and MOTed including the cambelt on sale anyway. Only other problems I could see were a couple of tiny scuffs on the bumper on the passengers' side, a cracked drivers' side foglight, and the salesman pointed out they've borrowed a part from the centre console for the fan speed control for another customers' Fabia so the fan only works at settings 0 and 4. Would be replaced on sale though. Front electric windows only so less to go wrong, but I have to say I didn't check the windows as they looked pretty frozen up even after a short test drive so I didn't want to cause any damage to window regulators or anything (although with hindsight I should have done so that if they were iffy they'd be replaced!). Other than that it seemed to be in almost mint condition and the salesman's story seemed to check out (one previous owner, elderly gent, Farmers sold it to him from new and he'd come back to them to part-ex it against a new Fabia).

I don't think we're going to buy it as when I spoke to the girlfriend about it she was looking on AutoTrader and decided she'd prefer a Civic instead so I'm going to look at one of those near me tonight hopefully, but if anyone's in the market for a Fabia PD100 in Nottingham it really did seem to be a top car, well looked after and not abused.