My girlfriends Felicia is worn out... sorry. We have a 1.6 Felicia & everything has succumbed to wear, although, it has been a good servant for three years & never let us down. The problem is that because it has been so reliable nothing has ever been replaced so now I am looking at five new tyres, rear shoes, front pads & a new clutch. Obviously, this is going to be expensive. My first reaction was to consider scrapping the car but I don't know... Maybe I should bite the bullet & throw £300 at it even though this is nearly twice what we paid for the car in the first place. The car is clean with no rust except for two small patches on the rear wheel arches. I recently serviced it myself with new (good), oil & plugs & it's a relatively low mileage motor (69000).

So what do you reckon fellas? Fix it up or scrap it? I could save money doing the easy stuff myself but with limited space & tools the clutch would have to be garage fitted & I haven't a clue how much parts & labour would be but for a motorbike it would be about £150. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

No rust (except for two small patches) and only 69K on the clock? Fix it! Worn out tyres and brake pads are part of car ownership. Clutch is more of bad luck, but if you scrap it and get another second hand car, there are no guarantees against you standing there with a broken clutch in three month's time...

PS £300 for having the clutch changed is probably a fair estimate, esp. in the London area. Clutch kit is £60 at Jorily but as you say, without garage/lift/tools it's not a DIY job.

Fix it and it'll be good to go for the same mileage again.

For some context, I'm spending out £400 or so on tyres over 3 years, and reckon that's worthwhile.

five new tyres, rear shoes, front pads & a new clutch.

All consumables. The gamble is whether you can find as good a car for the money you would otherwise have to spend maintaining the current car, but you would also need to weigh up the chances of needing to replace some of the consumable items on a replacement car. The clutch is the headline expensive part, but you might find a clutch specialist is cheaper than a dealer.

Thanks for the replies guys - all sound advice. We have agreed to fix it up so I reckon a day to do the brakes/tyres in the sun ain't too bad. Does anyone know of or can recommend a cheap parts stockist in the North London area - preferably somewhere which does tyres & brakes & doesn't mind DIY do-as-you-likeys changing their bits in the car park? Or any cheap mail order specialists for the shoes/pads? Otherwise it'll have to be the Tottenham Halfords... Yuk...

You could check out jorily.com - brake shoes £49 and pads £15. Too far from home from me but I know a lot of Felly owners order parts from him. Jorily is also a Briskoda sponsor: http://briskoda.net/forums/forum/143-jorily-skoda-parts/

And as said, you can also get a clutch kit from there if you find an independent garage/mechanic that accepts that you bring your own spare parts

A quick glace round ebay may be of some use: I picked up 4 rims+tyres+trims for £40 a couple of weeks ago.

You could check out jorily.com - brake shoes £49 and pads £15. Too far from home from me but I know a lot of Felly owners order parts from him. Jorily is also a Briskoda sponsor: http://briskoda.net/forums/forum/143-jorily-skoda-parts/

And as said, you can also get a clutch kit from there if you find an independent garage/mechanic that accepts that you bring your own spare parts

Yeah, I saw that site - £49 for the whole rear kit thing isn't bad but do I need to replace the wheel cylinders or can I just replace the shoes? We don't have wheel cylinders on bikes & my bike has a disc at the rear - drums are old school, so I'm assuming they're hydraulic bits. In any case they aren't leaking & I don't want to spend the whole afternoon bleeding brakes unless I have to. If I was doing the front pads I would only mess with the seals if they were shot or the pistons were seized. If I took it to Kwik Fit would they change the cylinders as a matter of course?

If I took it to Kwik Fit would they change the cylinders as a matter of course?

Probably not, but they'd still charge you for it You'd probably end up paying for 4-wheel tracking adjustment, wheel balancing and a whole load of stuff you've never heard of too.

The clutch is perfectly possible using just axle stands and a trolley jack - the gearbox on them is not too heavy, and with a helper should be easy enough, and you'll save yourself £250, so even if you spent £50-100 on tools to do it, you'd have lots more tools, and know it had been done properly. I've done them on my own in about 90 minutes before, and with a helper it can take less; obviously I've done a few, but you should be able to do it in an afternoon yourself, first time.

Probably not, but they'd still charge you for it You'd probably end up paying for 4-wheel tracking adjustment, wheel balancing and a whole load of stuff you've never heard of too.

Aye! I'm feeling that. A mate has told me the same.

The clutch is perfectly possible using just axle stands and a trolley jack - the gearbox on them is not too heavy, and with a helper should be easy enough, and you'll save yourself £250, so even if you spent £50-100 on tools to do it, you'd have lots more tools, and know it had been done properly. I've done them on my own in about 90 minutes before, and with a helper it can take less; obviously I've done a few, but you should be able to do it in an afternoon yourself, first time.

Well, I have done a few bike clutches, mostly small bike cable/worm gear stuff but never a car but I'm willing to give it a go. What 'special' tools do you think I'll need? Will the left hand drive shaft need to come out or do you angle the gear box out through the top? I'll have a look at clutch replacement on youtube...

hi, ive got 4 tyres & trims you can have for £25,

im near you, en9,

07980 974012.

i would definately get some new rear brake cylinders for your peace of mind. When i did the rear brakes on our old felly i didnt purchase any as i saw no signs of leaks at all, until i opened up the rear drum (it was a real mess!). Its worth it for the piece of mind, and saving yourself a day or two if you dont buy them and then discover that you do need them :p

You will be able to get front pads, rear shoes and rear cylinders from pretty much any motor factors, and dont discount going to a skoda dealership as the are not much more expensive, and i always found genuine skoda brakes to be of excellent quality. Last lot i got off them was all ferodo premium stuff and have lasted well over 40000 miles, and plenty left to go on the rears!

Edited 20 April, 201115 yr by poorly_felicia

hi, ive got 4 tyres & trims you can have for £25,

im near you, en9,

07980 974012.

Cool, that sounds like a right proper plan. I'm going to call you after work tomorrow if that's ok.

i would definately get some new rear brake cylinders for your peace of mind. When i did the rear brakes on our old felly i didnt purchase any as i saw no signs of leaks at all, until i opened up the rear drum (it was a real mess!). Its worth it for the piece of mind, and saving yourself a day or two if you dont buy them and then discover that you do need them :p

You will be able to get front pads, rear shoes and rear cylinders from pretty much any motor factors, and dont discount going to a skoda dealership as the are not much more expensive, and i always found genuine skoda brakes to be of excellent quality. Last lot i got off them was all ferodo premium stuff and have lasted well over 40000 miles, and plenty left to go on the rears!

Sound advice. Well it looks like I'm gonna be stuck with a Skoda for the forseeable future then. Strange really, I only bought the car three years ago 'cos it was cheap (£250), & we just had our Nova stolen. In that time I forgot about maintenance - nothing ever went wrong! I almost missed tinkering. 35,000 miles of trouble free motoring has convinced me to fix this car & of course your good selves. Thanks for jogging me from my take-it-for-granted complacency. The only reservations I had were concerning the fact that everything has worn out at once. This is mostly my fault. I swapped the wheels over front to rear to get the most out of the tyres & always had it at the back of my mind that the Skoda was just a stop gap so I ignored the slipping clutch but its in such clean overall condition that it would be a crying shame to scrap it. Probably the best thing about owning a Felicia is that hotties don't want to steal it so I can leave it anywhere! I've never been pulled in it, flash twerps in 'real' German cars give me a wide berth & even the Islington traffic wardens ignore it...

Well, I have done a few bike clutches, mostly small bike cable/worm gear stuff but never a car but I'm willing to give it a go. What 'special' tools do you think I'll need? Will the left hand drive shaft need to come out or do you angle the gear box out through the top? I'll have a look at clutch replacement on youtube...

You won't need any special tools as such, from the top of my head you'd need sockets - 16 or 17mm (depends on the bolts fitted at the bottom ball joint, plus also the gearbox to engine studs), 30mm (driveshaft nuts), 10mm for stone guard under engine, 19mm for oil drain plug, 9mm for oil filler/speedo drive, 12 or 13mm for pressure plate bolts and release arm, possibly a tool to centre the new clutch plate (I do mine using an old input shaft or by eye) and I think that's about it? Also a pry bar to help get the driveshafts out of the box and a long bar to undo the driveshaft nuts (which are FT!) and an 8mm drift to take the gear lever out.

It's easy enough, loosen the driveshaft nuts, get it up on stands, drain the oil, stone guard off (between engine and box, covering flywheel) wheels off, gear linkage and steady disconnected, bottom swivels out, driveshafts out, clutch cable disconnected, starter motor out, reverse light disconnected, speedo and drive out, undo rear and then end gearbox mounting (having supported sump on a trolley jack with wood to avoid damage), let the box down enough to clear the left-hand chassis rail, undo gearbox bolts, that should do it, then just change the plate and the release bearing, and put it all back together.

I think that's it, but that's just off the top of my head.... the manual makes it clear enough, but it's not a complex job, but I await someone telling me I've missed something!

Why would you treat wheel cylinders as service items? If they're leaking it's obvious, and if they're not they're not. Would you change disc calipers just because you were changing the discs and/or pads?

I'm with Ken on this - just peel back (carefully) the outer dust seal, and see if it's dry in there. If it is then there's no reason to replace them; if there's any sign of leakage then change them. It's a good idea to bleed the fluid through so that it's all fresh even if you're not changing them as fresh fluid will a) brake better and (probably more important) not have any water in it, and therefore mean your cylinders will last longer; if you do change the fluid regularly you have far fewer problems with corrosion which is the problem with cylinders for the most part.

You won't need any special tools as such, from the top of my head you'd need sockets - 16 or 17mm (depends on the bolts fitted at the bottom ball joint, plus also the gearbox to engine studs), 30mm (driveshaft nuts), 10mm for stone guard under engine, 19mm for oil drain plug, 9mm for oil filler/speedo drive, 12 or 13mm for pressure plate bolts and release arm, possibly a tool to centre the new clutch plate (I do mine using an old input shaft or by eye) and I think that's about it? Also a pry bar to help get the driveshafts out of the box and a long bar to undo the driveshaft nuts (which are FT!) and an 8mm drift to take the gear lever out.

It's easy enough, loosen the driveshaft nuts, get it up on stands, drain the oil, stone guard off (between engine and box, covering flywheel) wheels off, gear linkage and steady disconnected, bottom swivels out, driveshafts out, clutch cable disconnected, starter motor out, reverse light disconnected, speedo and drive out, undo rear and then end gearbox mounting (having supported sump on a trolley jack with wood to avoid damage), let the box down enough to clear the left-hand chassis rail, undo gearbox bolts, that should do it, then just change the plate and the release bearing, and put it all back together.

I think that's it, but that's just off the top of my head.... the manual makes it clear enough, but it's not a complex job, but I await someone telling me I've missed something!

Thank you for that - you have put it neatly in perspective. A mate has offered to help out & he has access to trolley jacks, ball joint splitters & such like... So I'm gonna give it a go! One of the fellas on here has offered me some tyres so I'll take care of the wheels/brakes/tyres/legal stuff first. The clutch can wait until I get a Haynes BOL. Wow! I'm getting exited now...

Why would you treat wheel cylinders as service items? If they're leaking it's obvious, and if they're not they're not. Would you change disc calipers just because you were changing the discs and/or pads?

Yeah, if it ain't broke don't fix it. I agree. I have found some for £12 so if I do need 'em they're just up the road. No point in wasting twelve quid - I'm gonna need it for beer!

I'm with Ken on this - just peel back (carefully) the outer dust seal, and see if it's dry in there. If it is then there's no reason to replace them; if there's any sign of leakage then change them. It's a good idea to bleed the fluid through so that it's all fresh even if you're not changing them as fresh fluid will a) brake better and (probably more important) not have any water in it, and therefore mean your cylinders will last longer; if you do change the fluid regularly you have far fewer problems with corrosion which is the problem with cylinders for the most part.

I will bleed them. I can use the old fluid as paint stripper for my moped

Glad to hear you are gonna keep the motor, just so you know my Felicia has 103,000 and still goes very well indeed and gets me near enough 40mpg still.

I'm with Ken on this - just peel back (carefully) the outer dust seal, and see if it's dry in there. If it is then there's no reason to replace them; if there's any sign of leakage then change them. It's a good idea to bleed the fluid through so that it's all fresh even if you're not changing them as fresh fluid will a) brake better and (probably more important) not have any water in it, and therefore mean your cylinders will last longer; if you do change the fluid regularly you have far fewer problems with corrosion which is the problem with cylinders for the most part.

i was never treating them as a service item, just saying that its sods law that he doesnt buy them and then it turns out they are needed. if they are unopened, they can be returned for a refund!!

i never thought mine were knackered (looked dry through wheel bolt holes) but when i took the drum apart one was most definately foobared and it cost me a day

Depends - most places put a surcharge on unneeded parts that are returned (20% at the places I use)...