So after hearing from a fellow Briski member about a Mk1 Fabia 1.4 16V Comfort possibly up for sale in Gravesend, I got in contact with the owner and arranged to see the car.

 

The previous Owner was going to trade it in and buy a Ford, but they only offered her £300, So after I had a look over the car, we actually settled at a price of £380, i was feeling generous :p and she really wanted £400. So I bought the car with the intentions of fixing it up and selling on.

 

So tonight i collected "Junky" (see the reg). Its a 2001 Skoda Fabia 1.4 16V Comfort spec. Its blessed with the following Options:

 

Front Electric Windows & Mirrors

Air Con

ASR & ABS

All round Disc Brakes

A Cassette Radio (ill come on to that)

An Aftermarket Alarm/Remote CL'ing

95,000 Miles on the clock with only 3 previous owners.

Alot of service history and most MoT's going back to about 2005/06

A cambelt & water pump change at 80,000 miles, in mid 2011

 

but heres the reasons for why its so cheap:

 

The EML has been on for almost 6 YEARS!

a vast vacuum leak around the throttle body

a worn Lower engine mount bush (dog bone one)

and theres an Oil leak (not good on the 1.4 16V engines) which has been on the MoT history for quite a while too.

 

If I am honest theres not much else wrong with it.

 

So I got it home at about 7:00PM and being young and full of enthusiasm I busted out the tools to make a start, but please forgive the quality of some of the photos.

 

 

 

 

First job - EML. I plugged in my basic diag. tool and found 4 faults

 

O2 S1B1 - too lean

O2 S1B2 - too lean

EGR Flow Insufficient

MAP reading too high.

 

This all pointed to an air/vacuum leak along with the sound, around the throttle body. So i started by removing the engine cover/ air box

 

 

 

throttle body wasnt looking too happy as it was, 

 

 

 

Well heres the cause of the EGR Fault, it had a new EGR valve a few years ago (2009) so i didnt think it would have gone, and following Tech1e's guide on my old 16V Fabia, I thought it would be sensible to start here.

 

 

 

 

 

Then the underside of the Throttle body, Oh my! Also note distinct lack of the "green" gasket. For memory there was supposed to be some kind of gasket there! jsut touching the thing was bad enough!

 

After a little bit of cleaning

 

and a bit more..... Good thing i bought a new tooth brush a few weeks back

 

 

Then the EGR Port/ Intake

 

and then after some more cleaning

 

 

As i was nearing the final stages i thought I would do the Air filter next, a quick job and then saves me faffing later

 

Final clean with some more degreaser, before fitting the new gasket

 

Torqued the 4 bolts to 10Nm and it was the First Job Done! - The haynes manual was only used for the torque measurements and as a door stop as thats about all they're worth.

 

It took longer than planned as i dropped a few screwdrivers and one screw (which hid around the underside of the intake manifold) but it was fairly easy.

 

The remaining jobs are to be done:

 

Drain the oil, drop the sump and fix the oil leak. Then fit a new Oil Filter & New Oil

Drain the coolant and clean the header tank, doesnt look that nice and can be questioned "why isnt that nice and pink?"

Replace the lower Engine mount bush.

Clear the Headlights, a bit of wet n dry etc to clean them up.

Clear the fault codes and take for a test drive, then check again.

Possibly Swap the radio. Its the standard Skoda Radio cassette which has a spring loaded button to switch it on, well the catch has broken preventing the radio from being switched off unless the button is held in/ or the key is removed.

 

Apart from that I will just need to do the usual of cleaning the car up ready for sale.

 

 

Its my first "Project thread" so any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated

A good cheap buy there pal and hoefully from what you have said an easy fixer upper. I feel sorry for the new owner with that light interior though 

yea its a weird off yellow. Does anyone know if it came from the factory like it?

I think they came like that Ive seen a few with that kind of interior. How do you fancy taking on another project lol ?

lol it depends on what it is, and how much it will cost me :P

 

I have my insurance on my Citigo due next month so I need to add up my savings etc.

I've seen a fabia 1.4 near mine with headgasket gone for £300

Is it a 16v or an 8V engine? HGF was more common on the 8V. But you are a bit far away! 

 

bearing in mind im in Kent!

8v I would have taken it on but I have enough to do with my fabia wrc project

Blimey, you didn't hang about getting stuck in did you ?!?

Blimey, you didn't hang about getting stuck in did you ?!?

 

certainly didnt!

 

I would be working on it all day tomorrow too but some old freinds who are in the Army have just got back from Germany, so im meeting them tomorrow and cant go smelling of motor oil

So I finished early with my friends after a pub lunch so i decided to go back to working on the car. Early this morning i had actually jacked the car up onto axle stands in prep for work tomorrow, but as i had the time, I have moved everything forward in the schedule.

 

Today it was planned to drain the Oil & coolant systems and give them a good clean up. Unfortuantely I found some more issues....

 

So I knocked the Vacuum lines for the Brake servo which comes from the inlet manifold, and this happened to two line!

 

 

 

I found Skoda sell them at £30 per set and i thought it would be false economy to get a used set from the breakers. So they are arriving tuesday.

 

 

Then I set about draing the Oil, I decided not to drop the sump as I found the Oil leak was coming from the "Oil Separator" basically a plastic box to aid the breathing of the engine.

 

 

 

The Oil Filter was being a PITA so i busted out an antique to help

 

 

 

While i was there I also drained the coolant, YUK!

 

 

 

Then I took off the Oil Separator and found all the seals had vulcanised and were very rigid.

 

 

breather pipe before

 

 

 

 

 

After!, But i forgot to take a photo of the breather pipe :/

 

To prevent future leaks I applied a liberal coating of silicon sealant (high temp) to areas which wont block passage ways etc. and the engine wont be able to be started until the vacuum lines turn up so It gives it plenty of time to set.

 

 

Then my next job was to clean the expansion tank, again i forgot to take photos but it just involved some washing up liquid n hot water. Cleaned up a bit.

 

 

By this point i was pretty tired so i cleaned up and had another check over the car. I found these extra faults

 

O/S Foglight is broken, the lens is fine, but the electrics are so rusty its measuring 10Mohm+ and thats with the bulb out, connector to bulb terminal (if that makes sense)

N/S side light bulb is broken.

Also as it has an aftermarket alarm, i didnt disconnect the battery. But during my attempts to replace the oil filter, i shorted the Alternator to the engine, and it left me with a blown 175A fuse! :/ (Doh!)

 

So overall i still have

 

Clean the Intake/throttle body - DONE

Drain the oil, drop the sump and fix the oil leak. Then fit a new Oil Filter & New Oil - DONE

Drain the coolant and clean the header tank - DONE just need to bleed the system of air.

Replace the lower Engine mount bush. - Awaiting part from SUK (£36 - Wednesday)

Clear the Headlights, a bit of wet n dry etc to clean them up. - To do

Replace O/S Fog light cluster. - To do

Replace N/S Bulb. - To do

Replace the Brake servo vacuum lines. - Awaiting part from SUK (£30 - Tuesday)

Clear the fault codes and take for a test drive, then check again. - To do

Possibly Swap the radio - To do

Clean! - To do

 

Apart from that Im certainly making progress!

 

Thought you'd been quiet today.

 

At this rate you'll be looking for another one for next weekend !!!

haha yea! well tomorrow i have planned to visit a few breakers to get some bits, like the fog light cluster etc, but monday i cant do anything so i have to wait until tuesday to collect the vacuum lines before i can start it up.

 

It may all go bang! i certainly hope not, but i just need to wait and see.

 

I reckon it could be all done by next weekend, which would be quite convenient as i have a freinds engagement party to go to!

Excellent progress will be good to see another Fabia restored to its former glory

I really do like the Mk1 fabias, I should have kept my second one, which was a 1.4 MPI 8V, my only grief is the lack of a petrol VRS, but hey! that can always be changed with an engine swap like tech1e's.

That's true. I'd love a 1.8t but don't have the skills to do it myself, so would get expensive!

I think i could do it, but for me its more the lack of tools and space to do it. the driveway is really steep so I cant use an engine hoist with the car in the garage. So another words theres no way of me doing it at home.

I don't have a garage but my drive way is fairly flat at least

A breif update tonight,

 

I went to the breakers and got 2x Side light bulbs, 1x 175A fuse, and 1x  O/S Fog light cluster all for £10. All plugged in and all of it works!. I also bought a cheap radio from a Gumtree like service on Facbook, only cost £10 but needs some work done to the loom so it will connect to the VAG ISO connector.

 

Clean the Intake/throttle body - DONE

Drain the oil, drop the sump and fix the oil leak. Then fit a new Oil Filter & New Oil - DONE

Drain the coolant and clean the header tank - DONE just need to bleed the system of air.

Replace the lower Engine mount bush. - Awaiting part from SUK (£36 - Wednesday)

Clear the Headlights, a bit of wet n dry etc to clean them up. - To do

Replace O/S Fog light cluster. - DONE

Replace N/S Bulb. - DONE

Replace the Brake servo vacuum lines. - Awaiting part from SUK (£30 - Tuesday)

Clear the fault codes and take for a test drive, then check again. - To do

Possibly Swap the radio - INPROGRESS

Clean! - To do

So today has been rather stressful

 

I started by doing this today during my lunch break, its the radio loom, I bought a cheap adaptor for the Fabia loom, and i had the left overs of the loom which came with my cheap 2nd hand radio

 

Before:

 

 

 

After:

 

 

 

Then after work i set off to Skoda to collect the Vacum lines, that where it went down hill. The lines they had ordered were wrong. Supposedly I had LHD lines fitted to my car, and that the RHD replacment should fit fine.

 

Well clearly there was a difference, mainly being the new one would connect to any of the Fixtures! it was too long & rigid (i think theres an inuendo there :p) or too short to meet the other. So currently thats £30 wasted. If they dont give me a refund, i think i may loose my rag.

 

 

I called a mate for some advice, he came over and we ended up with a possible soloution and it worked!

 

We were then ready to start it up. Which was harder than planned, due to the ECU having alot of bad readings saved, it took a good 6 attempts to get the car to even start and run. Afterwards it was running REALLY rough, revs ranging from 500 to 2000 on idle. I cleared the fault codes with my reader, and it went beserk shortly then smoothed out. It kept going rough until it was well up to temperature. It still running rough now, and keeps flagging up the following errors:

 

EGR Flow too high (i reckon due to the blocked port, its calibrated to have the flow very very low and now there is flow, i.e. ive unblocked it, its now saying flow is too high)

OS1B1 reading too lean - im not sure what to make of this fault, It is clearly based on the old MAP settings, but i will also check the connector tomorrow when im doing the engine mount, i had a similar fault before and it was due to the connector being positioned close to the exhaust manifold.

 

leaves me with the following:

 

Clean the Intake/throttle body - DONE

Drain the oil, drop the sump and fix the oil leak. Then fit a new Oil Filter & New Oil - DONE

Drain the coolant and clean the header tank - DONE

Replace the lower Engine mount bush. - Awaiting part from SUK (£36 - Wednesday)

Clear the Headlights, a bit of wet n dry etc to clean them up. - To do

Replace O/S Fog light cluster. - DONE

Replace N/S Bulb. - DONE

Replace the Brake servo vacuum lines. -  DONE, Returning part to SUK (£30 - Wednesday)

Clear the fault codes and take for a test drive, then check again/ RUN BASIC SETTINGS - INPROGRESS, I need to find someone local with VCDS to get this done.

Possibly Swap the radio - DONE

Clean! - To do

Throttle body needs resetting via vagcom

Well the main issue ive had os that the egr valve adaption kept failing.

It stayed at 1.4v and would not move. When the car is hot it idles fine but cold it is all over the place until I unplug the egr valve. So I reckon that the egr valve is gummed up.

But so far I haven't had any luck removing one of the studs which holds it to the block

so then! Progess today.

I had the EGR Valve off, I cleaned it up (very gummed up) and put it back on, EGR adapted firs time, I also did a new Throttle Body Alignment.

I tidied everything up, went out for a drive, after 10metres the EML came on, i cleared it and it drove fine for 35 miles. It was the O2 S1B1 heater sensor. Pointed towards a loose/bad connection.

I unplugged it, plugged it back in and it worked.

But i later on the EML came back on with 17559 (i think) but basically running too lean. I found out that as i had the EGR valve and the EGR to Throttle body pipe off, there was an air leak where the egr pipe connects to the underside of the throttle body, probably because when i put it back on i didnt torque it up (and there was no gasket, can anyone confirm this?) The problem is none of my tools can actually get to the screws to tigthen them up except for a 5mm allen key, which is fairly limited in how much torque i can apply.

Im currently waiting for the engine too cool down before i Can work on it.

One good point is while i was waiting for it to cool down earlier I was able to get the headlights sorted! so now they are clear and dont diffuse the beam as much as they did before. When im all cleaned up ill post up a photo or two.

so then! Progess today.

I had the EGR Valve off, I cleaned it up (very gummed up) and put it back on, EGR adapted firs time, I also did a new Throttle Body Alignment.

I tidied everything up, went out for a drive, after 10metres the EML came on, i cleared it and it drove fine for 35 miles. It was the O2 S1B1 heater sensor. Pointed towards a loose/bad connection.

I unplugged it, plugged it back in and it worked.

But i later on the EML came back on with 17559 (i think) but basically running too lean. I found out that as i had the EGR valve and the EGR to Throttle body pipe off, there was an air leak where the egr pipe connects to the underside of the throttle body, probably because when i put it back on i didnt torque it up (and there was no gasket, can anyone confirm this?) The problem is none of my tools can actually get to the screws to tigthen them up except for a 5mm allen key, which is fairly limited in how much torque i can apply.

Im currently waiting for the engine too cool down before i Can work on it.

One good point is while i was waiting for it to cool down earlier I was able to get the headlights sorted! so now they are clear and dont diffuse the beam as much as they did before. When im all cleaned up ill post up a photo or two.

 

Keeping busy.

prefer to say Keeping filthy

i also took the rear seats out for a clean, but i havnt got around to doing that.

Ive just removed the EGR to TB pipe (again) but this time put some high tempreture silicon around the surface which mates with the block (just bellow the throttle body). Althought its feeding Exhaust gas back into the intake, It should be ok for this. Then i tighten the screws up a bit tighter than before too.

While i am waiting for the silicon to set (shouldnt take too long as the block was still mildy warm) i quickly re-adapted the egr and re-aligned the throttle body. Good thing i have this VCDS cable :P

just got to give it a short wait then when im confident the sealant has gone off, Ill start it up.

One more thing i have to do tonight is top up the oil, perhaps get some wiper blades and then ill be willing to go to bed :P