Hey all. Been a lurker a while as the wife has a fabia. But I now also own one. A Yplate tdi in candy white. Its got quite a few problems for me to sort before I can use it. But it has some nice bits (and some not to my taste) so I thought it was worth a punt.

Heres a few pics. I will follow up shortly with some of my plans :-)

This came in the post today. One of the problems it has is the diff screams rather loud. I got this replacement off skoparts on ebay.

So the list of known problems. Being an early one the common arb plastic bush disintegration issue where the plastic stops crumble off the bar at the 'D' bushes causing it to move freely side to side.

*I have now got a new vag updated arb and bushes to fit.

The steering rack is leaking quite badly into the end boots. Being rather tight with money im going to strip it first and get a seal kit for it. As I will have to exchange it for a reconditioned one anyway I may aswell try and repair it first for the cost of a repair kit £30. It could save me a lot of cash if it works. If it does not then it was worth the money to try :-)

then theres the gearbox. Diff bearings are damaged. I did consider doing these myself also, and probably will at some point. But to get it usable I opted to get a replacement. There were only a few of the correct ratio code for sale on ebay. It arrived next day delivery from a chap called skoparts. All seems good with it so far, the diff is smooth atleast.

As you can see the car has been modified. some of which I like but I will be making some changes. It has HID headlight kit fitted and led side light bulbs. They will be changed back to standard. Silly neverbeen sticker on the tailgate will be coming off. That grill is deffo coming off. Does not sit well with me, luckily the original is in the boot.

I quite like the wheels. But im going to sell or swap them for something different so I can make it more my own.

The VRS seats, tough one, I like them to sit in, but realy dislike the colour. Im in a bit of a debate with myself weather or not to sell them on......

The window tints. Again not my cup of tea. Probably peel it off. Bit of a shame because its been done professionally.

Its got a central locking fault aswell. But im fitting remore locking anyway so im hoping the ccu change will sort that out. its due mot next week soIim hoping to get the jobs sorted this weekend. I was going to have a garage do it for me, but the lowest labour rate around is £60/hr. DAMN!!

managed a couple of hours on the car this weekend. got the subframe and rack off and the gearbox out on saturday. found many more things that need addressing. the rack i new was leaking, but damn, the nearside gaiter was full to the brim. there was oil around the sump plug, so i gave it a wipe and it moved!!!! got the spanner and tried to tighten it, nothing, just spinning in the hole. Great, i love it when DIY servicers do things like this and just let it ride. I will tap it out now and fit an M15 plug instead, no biggie but something that i wasnt planing on doing, as i will have to drain the oil to do it, may aswell bang another service in the book as i go.

then there was the off side drive shaft, 2 bolts missing and the others loose, flopping about in the gearbox cup, this is what has probably caused the diff to screem. unbeliveable. the off side front hub is also fubar, i took the disks off to get them skimmed, trying to get the caliper off though, the sliders were at snapping point, the top one had been crossed, all the way in, and was not sitting square. the bottom one had been helicoiled, badly. so thats a new hub needed aswell, add that to the list.

the list is getting bigger by the day. a well, could be worse, could be a mk2 golf and need everything replacing, and a pant load of welding.

the offending ARB

powewrflex bushes on the wishbone rears though

i got the replacement gearbox in this morning before lunch, and changed that ghastly grill back to standard.

Much better IMO

seriously considering selling the seats now though to fund more spares. im not that fussed on them anyway, but i dont think it will be worth it as i will have to pay for lower spec one to go in anyway, and apparently the vrs ones are only worth £150 anyway. may just get some seat covers and hide them

More updates as i get on with it

Not much progress this weekend, having a 2 month old baby girl means i can only snatch the odd hour for "messing about with cars" and the weather decided that in the snatchable hours available to me it would rain and thunder biblically, this made fitting the subframe interesting, and moist. fitted the new rack and new anti roll bar to the subframe, and hoofed it back onto the car, thats where i left things. :(

i did manage to press in a new wheel bearing in the week. I sprayed the old hub's abs sensor daily with WD40 in the hope it would save me a few quid if i could get it out, it did not, i ended up loosing my rag with it and smashing it into tiny bits

new one ordered though, hopefully the weather and motivation will be better this coming weekend. The MOT is now up, so i need to crack on, plus my polo is starting to realize im getting rid, and is playing up TYPICAL!!!

Managed an hour the other night on the fab. Got the off side hub and drive shaft in. I had a bit of steel pipe i had cut from work that fitted in the hub and over the threaded part of the cv joint so i could give it a good clout without worrying about destroying the threads and needing a new joint. this worked a treat, thankfully. So with the shaft out i dropped the hub off also. The nackered caliper slider threads and I noticed the track rod mount had gone oval, old one must have been loose at some point, i should not be suprised.
I got all new shaft to gearbox bolts, decided to go 12.9 hex head, no chance of these rounding out, also loctited them in so no chance of them working loose either (hopefully).

While i had my head in the wheel arch i noticed that the scuttle gutter drain was blocked full of dirt and leaves, so i gave that a clean out while i was there, notice the slot to the left of the strut here.

Not long now and it will be back on the road, i cant wait, i need my driveway back, parking on the road with the ammount of muppets driving up the street is making me nervous!

Good call on the grille.

Totally, horrid creation that milotec grill imo.

So today was a good one for progress. This is my to-do list. This morning nothing had been crossed off it. This afternoon the majority have been. Unfortunately I uncovered a couple more problems to add to the list. The nearside wheel bearing. Although new, fitted by the previous owner recently, it must have been pressed in as you would with other types, so it seems the bearing is shot due to it being pressed in on the hub without spacers or the propper tool. So its got some up down and side side play im sure mr mot man will pick up on. Gutted. Good news thought the new gearbox is silent.

Yesterday I fitted a pair of new drop links. One ha seized, and the were not for this car either, about 10mm shorter than the oe ones, so I had to swap the pair.

I also repaired my sump. The original nut had been over tightened by the previous owner and stripped the threads in the sump. He leftvit at that even though it was dripping substantially, he kept oil in the boot and just topped it up. I had no intentions of leaving it like that. So off with the sump and pick up pipe. And glad I did. The stripped threads had been swimming around and some were lodged in the pick up gauze. Cleaned all that out. I re tapped the sump out to 3/8th bsp and fitted a cap in there. I work on plant machinery an these are free to me :-)

Fresh filter and oil and yey she is ready for mot next week. Cant wait to get driving it.

Still plenty to do, I want a black lower dash and door cards. Get rid of the vrs seats. Track down a candy white fab at a breskers somewhere for a rear door. Little ripple in mine.

Nice to se antoher white Fabia mk. 1

So far good work, and I like it much And about the wheel bearings, yep those suckers are a issue on the Fabia. A year and a half ago I changed the bearing on the left wheel, and now couple month ago also let change on the right wheel. And the mechanic said that now it's all ok but I have to consider to change the left one also because when the car is in the air and he spins the wheel he can hear little noise that usually point out that the bearing is going to be bad. I was like, that cannot be because it's almost new and not a cheap one. 

And now that I read here that if it's installed wrong it can be damaged, so this must be the case by me also. Didn't know that before

They are a pain. Gen1 bearings are so much easier. Manufacturers just don't want people working on their cars any more and try to make them as difficult and complex as possible.

Yesterday I got home at 17:00 and by 17:18 I had fitted remote central locking :-)

Here is where the ccu is mounted. Little fiddly to remove but not that difficult. Swapped for one out of a higher spec fabia allows me to have rcl :-)

The car failed mot last weekend. Front wiper blades. Could not belive it!!!!!

Fresh mot. Insurace sorted. Alignment fixed. Now time to drive it :-)

The wheels have to go though. Profile far to low for my back.

its been a week and I have to say I love it. such a nicer car to drive than my polo 9n, the power makes driving much more enjoyable. being able to overtake is a novelty to me lol.

 

 

anyway I decided to investigate the passenger side window issue. basically the electric window would not work from the passenger side switch. I took it off and stripped it down and found a lot of corrosion in there. cleaned it all up and now it works

 

 

 

last night I also swapped the rear view mirror with the one from my polo. the polo one is about an inch bigger, could not get on with the little fabia one.

 

should finally get my blade cut today for my flip key remote locking fob. what a pita that was!!!

 

still need a black lower dash and my wheels to sell.