My son is going to look at a Skoda Fabia 1.9 PD130 VRS 2004 (54) 70kmiles.

Dealer advertises as 'fully serviced' so this will include a major -cam belt- service done when please. I have no idea what the service intervals are for this car so any pointers would be helpful to be sure things are correct. Any other issues to look far apart from the usual type of things, smoke, rattles, odd noise etc.......

Many thanks

Brian.

every 5 years or every 60,000 miles which ever is soonest! (I think!)

Engine movement can show signs of a knackered engine mount - test this with the bonnet up, put it in gear with the handbrake on try and lift the clutch to biting point and see how much movement was on the engine. its and easy cheap fix, but good bargining tool!

Warped discs - brakes arent brilliant and can fade quickly - leading to warped discs

Mould! The rear door seals go just for fun! Water gets into the carpet in the rear footwells. check and make sure the carpets are dry.

Clutches - depends on who's had it - 70K it could start to slip

To check the engine put it in 4th at 50mph (revs should just be below 2000rpm - depending on the gearbox) and put your foot right down, it should smoke a moment then the boost should kick in and then a surge of acceleration. excessive smoke or a whistle can be caused by a disconnected or loose boost pipe (normally behind the drivers side headlight!)

Hope that helps

Cam belt is every 4 years or 75,000 miles (used to be 60,000).

In theory a 54 car should have 8 inspection services showing in the service book assuming circa 9,000 miles per year.

However it has recently been suggested - though without any proof being posted - that Skoda have recently changed the service schedule, so it's become a matter of "Who knows?" these days

Edited 19 December, 201213 yr by DRJ

Dont know about you - but I dont trust a 75000 mile old timing belt??

Thanks all, info all sent to him.

Cheers

Brian

Can....

...worms

...opened

Lol

I think a lot of cars are sold when the cambelt needs to be done as it's a big expense and people think sod this I'll buy a new car!

It should cost about £300 OR £369 including the water pump (this is for an SDI but should be similar)

Other things,

Heated mirrors burn out unless left in either the L or R position on the 3 way switch, they should be warm to the touch

Reverse lights wont work if the reverse sensor has gone

Make sure all doors lock and unlock with the central locking a few times as its a pain to fix

Fuel flap remote works

Rear washer squirts without sending water into the area around the boot latch

Air con is ice cold (needs to be above 5c to work though so could be hard to test)

Heating works and goes off again when the engine is heated up (can take 10 mins)