Hi,

 

I just bought my first car which is a Skoda Felicia GLXi Estate W reg for £500 and was just wondering if anyone could give me a few tips on how to keep it in good order?

 

Cheers Joe

Bodywork, presuming you're not chasing "show and shine" trophies - Wash with a decent car shampoo (do not use washing up liquid because this will scratch the paint) about every other week: Do NOT wash the windscreen with this stuff. Polish with a good quality polish (Mer, Autoglym, Turtle wax for example) every 3 to 6 months.

 

Engine - follow service intervals, and don't skimp on oil. I don't mean using a race grade full synthetic, just a brand name like Castrol, Duckhams, Mobil rather than an accessory shop generic.

Thanks that is helpful, especially about the windscreen

Edited 12 August, 201411 yr by shambrook

Looks clean, good purchase and happy motoring

hi, nice clean usable motor, without wishing to disrespect yours or any fellow felicia owners, from experience on my fathers previous car, these can suffer from wheel arch and rear tailgate corrosion, if yours is sound keep the inner wheel arches free from crud on a regular basis may seen a bit of a faff but will pay big time in the long run

Hi, Joe - I agree with davidwhite, early application of TLC to those rear wheel arches is a very good idea.

Also, take a good look at the jacking points at the forward and aft ends of the sills. Here, careless jacking over the years may have damaged the underseal allowing moisture to enter, leading to rusting and localised separation of underseal from the metal. Stitch-in-time: carefully remove any loose underseal, clean the exposed metal and apply fresh protection.

You will see from other threads here that a known problem which has affected some Felicias is corrosion failure of the spring cups which are welded to the front shock absorber bodies (I have encountered this, and it is not nice, but the ones on my 20-year-old Favorit are still OK). Anyway, I now give them all The Treatment, as in:

- Jack, remove wheel and examine the spring cup.

- If it is still sound (if in doubt, ask), clean off the flaking paint coating and take particular care to remove all the muck which has accumulated in the trough above the weld.

- Apply fresh protection, making sure you don't miss the part of the trough behind the shock absorber body.

With a little patience this can be done quite easily with the shock absorber in place. Please, do not even contemplate shock absorber removal without experienced help, with appropriate tools! (Removal of badly-corroded shock absorber clamp bolts in particular can be very difficult even for those with some experience ... maybe I should offer a HOWTO on this, if there is any interest).