hey guys

I test drove a fabia vRS today, its up for £4k with 75k miles in red on a 54 plate

Got a few questions for you...

When we pulled away it was very smokey, it looked blue, but the engine warmed up extremely quickly and sounded like a healthy diesel though.

I know fabia's are a bit smokey, but doesn't blue smoke mean the turbo is on the way out?

When is the traction control off? when the yellow dash light is on?

It span up when I pulled away from a roundabout, with the light off.

So thinking the traction control was off already, I pressed the ASR button, and was met by a beep and the yellow light on the dash, im guessing I probably just turned it off.

is it a safety feature that you have to stop the car first to turn it back on?

Does the fabia have similar faults to the octavia, like the central locking problems, window problems, and dash board problems?

Is there anything in particular on the fabia I should look at before buying other than the regular car things?

EDIT; What MPG do you get on 20mile average 50mph commute, this would replace my octavia for commuting, I only got 40mpg in the furby my octy gets 60 mpg.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Edited 15 December, 201015 yr by Felicia racer

Leaky rear doors and the console bushes go there the most common

hey guys

I test drove a fabia vRS today, its up for £4k with 75k miles in red.

Got a few questions for you...

When we pulled away it was very smokey, it looked blue, but the engine warmed up extremely quickly and sounded like a healthy diesel though.

I know fabia's are a bit smokey, but doesn't blue smoke mean the turbo is on the way out?

When is the traction control off? when the yellow dash light is on?

It span up when I pulled away from a roundabout, with the light off.

So thinking the traction control was off already, I pressed the ASR button, and was met by a beep and the yellow light on the dash, im guessing I probably just turned it off.

is it a safety feature that you have to stop the car first to turn it back on?

Does the fabia have similar faults to the octavia, like the central locking problems, window problems, and dash board problems?

Is there anything in particular on the fabia I should look at before buying other than the regular car things?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Not sure on the smoke, never seen blue smoke on a fabia diesel tbh

If the light is ON the TC is OFF. However, it`ll let the wheels spin a little, then kick in. (and the light will flash)

Fabia faults are mainly leaky rear doors, front bushes go quickly, thats about it i think

Matt

Leaky rear doors and the console bushes go there the most common

The other fault is a hesitation (nicknamed stutter) on newer engines. These have BLT engine codes and were in 2005 or later cars. Rear door leaks are very common, although damp front passenger floors can happen. This is caused by a build up of leaves on the pollen filter.

In winter rear washer pipe that come apart from joints are common, theses are easy fixes though.

A fair few steering racks seem to going lately too.

Edited 15 December, 201015 yr by TriggerFish

I spent over £1k between 50k and 64k miles on my old car on the front - 2 x bushes, then 2 x boots, then steering rack...

"EDIT; What MPG do you get on 20mile average 50mph commute, this would replace my octavia for commuting, I only got 40mpg in the furby my octy gets 60 mpg." - the computers seem to be very inaccurate at times - the one in my present car is WILDLY optimistic!

hey guys

I test drove a fabia vRS today, its up for £4k with 75k miles in red on a 54 plate

Got a few questions for you...

When we pulled away it was very smokey, it looked blue, but the engine warmed up extremely quickly and sounded like a healthy diesel though.

I know fabia's are a bit smokey, but doesn't blue smoke mean the turbo is on the way out?

When is the traction control off? when the yellow dash light is on?

It span up when I pulled away from a roundabout, with the light off.

So thinking the traction control was off already, I pressed the ASR button, and was met by a beep and the yellow light on the dash, im guessing I probably just turned it off.

is it a safety feature that you have to stop the car first to turn it back on?

Does the fabia have similar faults to the octavia, like the central locking problems, window problems, and dash board problems?

Is there anything in particular on the fabia I should look at before buying other than the regular car things?

EDIT; What MPG do you get on 20mile average 50mph commute, this would replace my octavia for commuting, I only got 40mpg in the furby my octy gets 60 mpg.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Blue smoke would indicate it's burning engine oil. White smoke would be a dying turbo. It might also have been remapped (badly) which will make them smoke more.

If the traction control is off, the yellow light on the dash will be lit. If it spun up in the dry with the ASR on, something is wrong, or it has really nasty tyres on.

As long as you were driving the same as you would in the Octy, you should be seeing 55mpg + from that age of car. This one sounds bad and I would walk away from it.

Edited 15 December, 201015 yr by Mike Wrightson

Blue smoke could be that the oil is either old or the wrong kind, you sure it is not black smoke which is ok on cold engines. Yes the TC lights are correct but there is some degree off wheel slip before the TC comes in.

ah brilliant thanks guys

I think the mpg was due to me forgetting about 6th gear. Im not used to that... or maybe just an overally heavy foot for the test drive?

Unless your test drive was over a week and 300 miles the MPG return would not be correct, the only real measure is fill brim to brim and calculate

My Fabia vRS SE 70mile return commute 10%town 90% country roads at 60 returns between 56 and 64 mpg, 64 is with the advantage diesel

Regards National

Unless your test drive was a nice long mixed route test drive, then i dont think you can really use the MPG as a idea. Even more so if you havent driven one before!

Matt

Blue smoke would indicate it's burning engine oil. White smoke would be a dying turbo.

If a turbo is letting by oil then the smoke will be blue and down to the turbo, not sure why a turbo would make white smoke, thats normally antifreeze burning.

Ah, I had always thought a bad turbo would produce white smoke, thanks

I petrol one might well (on our vehicles anyhow) as they are both water and oil cooled. However the diesels are just oil lubricated/cooled.