Now then.

 

I'm trying to get my reverse light working again. I've had a look at the switch / connector at the front of the gearbox, and the cable going in to the back of the plug is broken. I understand from previous threads that an easy solution is to use a plug off an old set of brake pads, but I only bought the car a couple of months ago, so I don't have any.

 

I imagine someone round here might have, so I'm obviously on the scrounge for one. If anyone has a spare around Sheffield or failing that, one they'd be willing to post, I'd be grateful.

Never mind, it'd only £6 to order plug + cable to solder on to my existing cable from the local Skoda dealer, so I've done that.

I know we haven't helped you, but would you like to help others by sharing the part-number(s) you've bought?

If that's useful, gladly so. When I get it I'll post the part numbers from the invoice.

It's actually 2 parts that they've ordered for me. As I understand it, one part is the plug that plugs into the switch on the gearbox, the other is a cable that is terminated with contacts that fit in to the plug. I think I'm going to have to cut the cable and solder it to what's left of the original wire, should be easy enough.

You might not have actively helped me this time, but you have no idea how much faff and cash this forum has saved me over the last few years!

Nice one. Finding part numbers for electrical connectors etc. Is something I find difficult even with the multitude of online parts look-ups available these days. Of course, one's friendly local Skoda dealer ought to be on the ball enough to find these things for us, but that isn't always everyone's experience. "Nah mate, you'll have to buy a whole new engine loom.." type response seems depressingly common in these sort of circumstances.

Right then. 2 parts:

 

"COUPLING PIECE" part no. 1J0973702 £3.48 inc VAT

"WIRE SET$" (that's what it says on the invoice!) part no. 000979131E £3.50 inc VAT

 

The wire is just a single conductor, terminated with a contact at both ends. I could have bought a corresponding red wire, but since there's no polarity to worry about, I'll just cut the yellow one I have in half and use both ends. It looks like the contacts are to be inserted in to the plug, then by pressing on a purple piece of plastic which slides within the plug the contacts are fixed in place and prevented from popping back out. If you want pictures, just Google the plug part number for images, there are plenty.

Good on you. Bookmarked for future reference. :sun:

One thing to understand, most if not all these connector shells that VAG use will have a VAG P/N moulded into them, so if you are stuck, use a magnifying glass to find the VAG P/N. So far, I've just crushed the old connector shell in a vice to split it open and recover the connector pins, and reused them, though it would be very handy if someone knew "what" is used "where" as as said above, digging into the official parts lists leaves me none the wiser most of the time. Why the technical authors just could not identify each connector on a loom along with its function and use that title to enable everyone to pick the correct connector and correct pins first time beats me - getting that information quickly/easily is needed sometimes!

^ That's an excellent point about 'look at what's on the existing connector'; it also goes for a lot of other parts, if they're original, they almost certainly have a VW group part number on somewhere.

 

In a lot of cases though, the connection in question is not very accessible, and may only have one broken out of several wires, so not necessarily easy to manoeuvre into a position where a part number might be seen.

 

It would be fairly awesome to have a thread where people added connector shell part numbers, contact part numbers (if that's ever possible), and 'repair wire' part numbers for as many Fabia connections as possible.

It could grow over time, with people adding info as they encounter different connectors around the cars. 

It may be that with 'just' the part number of the connector housing, as read from it, or from this hypothetical thread, it becomes easier for Skoda parts depts, or ourselves, to track down part numbers for repair wires.  Not sure to what extent the dealership system can/does suggest related parts?

 

I'd be more than happy to start such a thread, but would first like to offer the opportunity to dylofpoke, as he's been kind enough to close out this thread with info that will surely help others in future. What do you think fella, do you want to do it, or would you be happy for someone else to?

Much happier for someone else to, ta Sounds far too much like being organised for me.

While we're at it, I had to replace my oil filter cap recently. The one I took off which was cracked seemed to be a Ford part, and it was a right arse working out which version of the VAG cap I needed, as there are 3 slightly different ones, and there's no clue on the filter housing of which one will fit. Having solved this problem, where should I share the details for others?

Fixed the reverse lights anyway

I had to use my housemate's crimper as my 30W soldering iron was too weak to solder relatively fat cables in freezing weather. I need a better soldering iron.

Personally I'd rather warmer weather!! 

 

Maybe your next soldering iron needs to be one of these "instant heat" pistol type ones - or a gas one, seem to remember I started out with a whimpish one and now have slightly better one.