Well, my fabia has sounded like a bus from the day I bought it, back last summer. It already had 120k on it and I've put another 5 on since, however, it seems to run fine. Bought a code reader last month and the only fault showing is insufficient EGR flow. After looking about, this seems to make sense (revs up and down whilst idling and some bucking under acceleration as well as sounding like a diesel!), so after purchasing a new EGR and attempting to fit it (rusted nuts are holding the job up ATM) I was having a look round the engine and found a hose sticking out from under the battery holder and not attached to anything! Not sure if this has been like this since I bought it (been under the bonnet a few times, but never noticed it before) any ideas? A skim through the Haynes manual has still left me in the dark! It's a 52 1.4 16v 74kw/100bhp estate. Any help would be appreciated!

surely it has to be attached at one end

Indeed, under the battery holder. But the other end's hanging loose. It smells a bit salty... ??

I think its the pipe which just sends water under the car or battery acid under my battery tray because it would just hold liquids it has a pipe on the bottom off the battery carrier to get rid of any liquid beneath car

Thanks. I hope that's it. One less worry! ????

Thats what it sounds like to me if its the same as my fabia vrs pal

Thanks! Now just need to get those rusty nuts off to replace the egr valve!

Spraythe bolts in wd 40 or something similar frequently heading upto the time you go to change them should help

They're way past WD40! I soaked them for a couple of days, next move is drilling them to split them.

I had same problem, WD40 was useless, tried genuine Plus Gas and presto! nuts came off easy.

As stated the pipe is from the bottom of the battery box to the p/s fog light area next to the p/s pump, it's supposed to hang loose at the bottom to drain water etc. if you lift the battery out (bolt at the front off first) you'll see the hole for it in the middle of the battery box at the lowest point.

Plus Gas is specifically for dismantling things, WD40 is a water dispersant, the two are VERY different products, while one does lots of things to some extent badly the other does one thing very well. That said I still had to resort to a blow torch to remove a lambda but that's kind of expected.