Hi All, 

 

I have had my vRS for just over a month now, im very impressed with the car, drives lovely and super cheap to run! (just did Southport to Cornwall for £36...) 

 

But i have a couple little issues that I wonder if people could throw an opinion on..

 

1. Temp warning beep - for the last couple of mornings when I leave the house im getting the red temp warning light come on and a beep, when i leave home i have to drive down a hill and this warning is coming on at almost the same point on the hill every day... I turn off and restart the engine and this goes away and does not come back until the next morning.  

 

My guess is this could be an issue with the coolant level sensor? does this sensor only measure the level in the tank? or is there a dual sensor that does the temp and the level? 

 

I don't seem to have lost any coolant and the system does not appear to be pressurized? the car is not running hot and comes up to temperature normally... 

 

Any ideas? 

 

 

2. Smoke?  - about 3 days ago after a long drive I pulled up at my sister in-laws place and went in for the usual chat and a coffee with the wife. when going back to the car i started it up and it was smoking a bit, white smoke with a hint of blue, it did this for a couple mins, stopped the car checked the levels ect ect, restarted and there was a little smoke but nothing more than usual. the parking space at my sister in laws is on a slope.

 

Since then i have had no smoke, the oil level is still fine, has not dropped....

 

my guess is that there was some oil in a pipe somewhere that got burned? 

 

any ideas on this? 

 

Cheers

Dazzler 

Smoke on startup is normal (a little)

The sensor in the bottle is faulty and will be causing the temp beeping. Quite common, and quite an easy fix.

 

The sensor is built into the expansion bottle, so you have to replace the bottle. Around £20 from a Skoda dealer.

 

This guide is great

http://myquickfix.co.uk/2011/10/skoda-fabia-vrs-temperature-beep-expansion-tank-replacement/

Common fault the coolant tank level sensor, you can get OE spec ones off E-bay for circa £13

Usual fix for the coolant warning (it's a false positive) is to open the expansion/level bottle, and scrape the 2 prongs you see inside it with a fairly big flat screwdrivers about 3 or 4 times each.

 

Agreed that these engines usually smoke a little on startup, particularly with temperatures in the range 5..12C, since they don't actually run the glowplugs, but it's not quite warm enough to get the combusiton chambers up to temperature on the starter alone.

Usual fix for the coolant warning (it's a false positive) is to open the expansion/level bottle, and scrape the 2 prongs you see inside it with a fairly big flat screwdrivers about 3 or 4 times each.

 

Agreed that these engines usually smoke a little on startup, particularly with temperatures in the range 5..12C, since they don't actually run the glowplugs, but it's not quite warm enough to get the combusiton chambers up to temperature on the starter alone.

Unfortunately that can't be done on a Fabia.

Ok cool, thanks for the responses, 

 

It sounds like the temp sensor is easy enough to sort. 

 

it is the smoking that bothered me, I know that diesel's smoke a little, this was quite a lot though, enough to make me turn off and start checking things...  (we are talking more smoke than me old landrover and that was a quality diesel) 

 

it was just odd that it smoked a lot and then stopped... 

 

Cheers

Daz

The sensor in the bottle is faulty and will be causing the temp beeping. Quite common, and quite an easy fix.

 

The sensor is built into the expansion bottle, so you have to replace the bottle. Around £20 from a Skoda dealer.

 

This guide is great

http://myquickfix.co.uk/2011/10/skoda-fabia-vrs-temperature-beep-expansion-tank-replacement/

 

The bottle is about £10+ VAT from a dealer, if you're paying £20 you're doing something wrong :P

 

For the OP when was the coolant last done as it may be worth doing the whole lot at the same time for the very small cost involved. The smoke you describe could be normal, but it could also be the oil seals on the way out, keep an eye on your oil levels but on startup it's not that unusual.

can anyone tell me the part number? (expansion bottle)

 

or a link to somewhere i can buy it online? 

 

Cheers
Daz

http://www.skodaparts.com/product/fabia-coolant-header-tank-2000-2007-34672

 

From there

 

Looks like the price has actually gone down since I changed mine a few years ago.

Great just what i needed thanks! 

 

Cheers
Daz

can anyone tell me the part number? (expansion bottle)

 

or a link to somewhere i can buy it online? 

 

Cheers

Daz

As I posted above, E-Bay £12 delivered with new cap

Got one on mine, OE tank.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/171204259116?nav=SEARCH

got this through today, will be a job for the next few days! thanks for the link!

 

could anyone tell me what coolant i need to get to top the system back up after the bottle change? 

 

at the moment the coolant in there is pink, im guessing this is the standard???

 

Cheers
Daz

got this through today, will be a job for the next few days! thanks for the link!

 

could anyone tell me what coolant i need to get to top the system back up after the bottle change? 

 

at the moment the coolant in there is pink, im guessing this is the standard???

 

Cheers

Daz

 

Just drain it into a jug at the rad drain tap then put it back in when you've swapped the bottle.