Hi,

I read some posts on the forum about the main Skoda Fabia I problems, and guess what, I already have some.

I have a Skoda Fabia 1.4 8v from 2001 and just passed the MOT yesterday but have some advisories:

Offside Front Seat belt stitching slightly frayed (5.2.2c)

Front Exhaust has a minor leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2a)

Offside Front wheel bearing has slight play (2.5.A.3c)

Offside Front 165-70-14t Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)

Nearside Front 165-70-14t Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)

Nearside Rear 165-70-14t Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)

Rear Exhaust has part of the system slightly deteriorated (7.1.1a)

Brake pedal has slight side movement indicating a worn pedal bearing or pivot (3.3.A.1d)

Engine MIL on

Offside spoiler wiper blade fitted wrong way around

Offside rear tyre low on tread

Little reserve travel on parking brake lever

Beside this there is wet floor behind the front passenger seat.

My knowledge about cars is very limited, this is a 10 year old car and I have some money limitations.

I would like to have the car fixed so I would like your suggestions about which items are most important and any idea of the cost if done by a garage.

I just bought the car recently and I was planning to put it through a service to check all the problems, however, I'm afraid I will get a huge bill!

All help is appreciated, I need some advice.

Thanks!

I think a set of four new tyres would the first thing on my shopping list if it were my car. Try www.mytyres.co.uk or www.blackcircles.com, or just phone around your local tyre places - looks like it'll cost about £50 a corner fitted for 165/70/14. A tyre/exhaust place could probably weld up that small leak while you're in for the tyres.

All help is appreciated, I need some advice.

Thanks!

Blimey, that's quite a list.

From a safety perspective I'd definatley get the four tyres replaced before you look at anything else - from £160ish for cheapo budget tyres.

There is bound to be a local Briskodian with either VAGcom or a fault reader to have a look at fault code for you, I expect they'd do it in return for a cup of tea - FREE.

The wiper blade is a simple fix, just take it off, turn it round and put it back on - FREE.

The seat belt, depends how frayed it is. If it's only got an advisory and not an outright fail I'd expect it to be minor.

Many thanks for the fast answers.

I definitely will look for the tyres.

Does anyone recommend any garage to sort this out in Inverness? Like what everybody wants - sort out the problems and don't rip me off?

I like to see all the help within this forum! Really Great!

Who did your MOT? I have mine done by the local council MOT station (run by Serco). When I went for my first MOT with it, I took the previous MOT certificate (issued to the previous owner by a main dealer), and asked them to check all of the advisories - their response was something along the lines of "there's absolutely nothing wrong with it - ignore them". Just sayin'

As others have suggested, a new set of tyres seems on the cards, which will sort 4 of those advisories out. The previous own of my car put Barum Bravuris tyres (made by Continental) on it at a cost of £32/tyre by a main dealer (admittedly 3 years ago), which are fine for "normal" driving. The windscreen wiper is simply a case of unclip the wiper blade, rotate it, and re-fit it. The handbrake can be adjusted with the aid of a Haynes manual - there might even be a guide in the Technical Guides area of the forum (I'm assuming the advisory means it's at the end of its travel).

Wheel bearing is in the region of £50 + VAT trade for the part, if I remember correctly. Not sure about the seatbelt - if it's only a minor "pull" in the weave (and unlikely to affect its strength), I'd leave it.

For the engine management light, I'd recommend getting a fault scanner - something like this or this. You can use this to scan the car and get all of the fault codes (or erase them). The £40 one will give you the code, which you then have to look up. The £80 one will give you the description text too, and will scan a few extra systems (as a note, if the code says "sporadic", it's probably gone away/is intermittent). With the charges dealers make for diagnostic scans, they will pay for themselves in one use.

As I'm sure you're aware, the wet rear footwell is probably the rear door carrier seals: http://www.fabia-vrs.com/technical-info/door-carrier-repair/. Once you've repaired the seals, a blast with the AC on hot, or a VAX-type "hoover" will dry it out.

For tyres try online places first. Look at http://www.blackcircles.com http://www.mytyres.co.uk and http://www.etyres.co.uk Wheel bearing would be next after the tyres on my list. A bearing that has started collapsing will only worsen, potentially damage the hub costing much more to put right, and presents the risk of the wheel falling off while driving. I paid £150 at an independent recently all in for a wheel bearing change.

For the handbrake look here.... http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/186946-cleaning-fabia-rear-drum-brakes/

Edited 10 February, 201115 yr by anewman