Purple Toms Mk1 Fabia Elegance - the accidental purchase!

[Purpletom]

Hi,

Just thought I'd stick up a bit of a project thread about the Fabia Elegance that I'm in the process of bringing back to life.

To cut a very long story short, I bought this car for a very cheap price on eBay back at the start of July when a 'make a best offer' that I put in was accepted by the seller. The first time that I've ever bought a car completely blind like that and knowing what I now know about the car I can see why it was so cheap! Here's one of the pictures from the advert:

I travelled over 150 miles to collect it, paid and then drove it home. It's a 1.9 TDi, ATD engine code and Elegance spec with a sunroof. It actually drove really nicely and didn't miss a beat on the journey. The heater did get stuck in the hot position though which I now know is pretty common!

I also noticed that the traction control button didn't do anything and also that with the ignition switched on there was a distinct lack of ABS, PAS, ASR or Airbag warning lights...

Due to the car being an accidental purchase that I didn't expect to buy I didn't really have a plan of what to do with it so my initial thought was to just do a bit of cleaning and polishing and get it sold on for a bit of extra money. However, after much deliberation I decided to keep it and get it nicely sorted as a winter runaround which will enable me to sell my current daily (Audi 8L S3) and get the car I really want which is a Mk1 Octavia 4x4 (another story!)

Back to the Fabia. After a VCDS scan which revealed a fair amount of fault codes I discovered that the reason none of the above mentioned warning lights weren't working was because the LED's had been cut out of the cluster, in a very bodgey attempt at disguising the faults! Fortunately 'Wino' from this forum came to the rescue and repaired the cluster very cheaply for me so all the lights were then on.

I've now fixed all of them for the sum of nothing. The ABS/ASR fault was a faulty sensor which I already had, the airbag light was a poor connection on the steering wheel and the PAS light has gone out since I've repaired the alternator wiring and charged the battery. Such a shame the cluster was bodged instead of just repairing the faults!

In addition to this work I have carried out a full service, fitted mudguards all round, acquired and fitted a parcel shelf, fitted discs and pads all round, new wipers and number plates as well as rubber mats and a rubber boot liner. Jobs left to do are to polish the headlights (they're a bit yellow), replace the O/S/F door lock with one that matches the rest of the locks and fit the DAB aerial and head unit that I've currently got in the S3 so I can listen to Planet Rock ????????Oh and wire in an additional hidden 12V socket so I can have a phone charger without using the one in the centre console.

Finally - the heater. I traced this to the very common fault of the motor that controls the heater flap (V68) going faulty. This really isn't hard to do, it just necessitates taking some stuff off! Managed to get hold of a second hand motor which seems to have fixed the problem which I'm pleased about...a new one was over £130 from VW!

I'll get some more pictures up soon once it's completed.

Thanks for reading

Tom

[hutchysrs50]

Sounds like you've done some good work. Wino is a great help to many around here, he's a great guy!

[Purpletom]

I know it's only a cheap little Fabia diesel and not a vRS or anything exciting but all the same I'm pleased to say it's on the road and so far working well!

 

 

I've fitted the stereo and hidden 12V socket for phone charging and one of the final jobs to do is replace the drivers door lock barrel with the right one for the car.  Got one for £31.56 direct from the dealers which involved giving them the VIN and proving I was the registered keeper.  They then sent off for it and it arrived this morning, matched to my existing keys.  Means I can get into the car now if the remote central locking ever fails.  Happy days :-)

 

All of the warning lights are still out and the PAS light has also stayed out too.  Considering the car was bodged (with some effort to remove the clocks and cut the LED's out etc) it's nice to know that all of the issues were fixable with just a bit of time and effort.  

 

All told, the rest of the car is good with good power, no bangs, rattles or knocks.  I've stuck a set of winter tyres on it that I had lying around and all thats needed now is a good wash and polish and the headlights polishing.  

 

A good little car for not a lot of money 

 

Thanks

Tom 

Edited 12 October, 2016 by Purpletom

[Purpletom]

Found time to give it a quick wash and polish....

 

 

Got the door lock fitted too.  Pretty much finished :-)

[mealmond]

Where have you put the socket for phone charging, not the easiest thing to charge with where the cigarette lighter is.

Did you just use a piggy back fuse for power?

Nice looking car though.

Martin

[Lofty]

Car looks great. The PD100 is the hidden gem in the Fabia range, just do everything well with no fuss and tremendous economy. Can't fault the work so far.

[Purpletom]

Martin - just took the under dash panel off on the drivers side and wired in a fused feed from the permanent live buzzbar up above the fuse box to a 12v socket. Earthed to one of the steel dash mounting points and then fed it so it comes down between the lower edge of the centre dash and the top edge of the lower centre console. Very straightforward and it works with the ignition off obviously.

Lofty - yep, economy is brilliant and performance wise it's pretty reasonable really. Very pleased with it!

[mealmond]

Cheers, will look into that then, hate wires trailing everywhere.

Was thinking of trying to put in a power supply into one of the blank button's above the stereo but yours seems easier.

Martin.

[Purpletom]

Yeah I don't like wires trailing all over a car either.  Just grabbed a couple of pictures of what it looks like:

 

 

 

Cheers

Tom

[skomaz]

Nice – as others have said the PD100 ATD in a Fabia is a great combination.  We ran our 2001 estate for 130,000 miles ish and it was a great little car, still running very sweetly and returning great economy when we sold it to take on my father-in-law’s Civic…

 

Still miss it’s comfy ride and eagerness and as far as I know it is still going strong on 156,000 according to the DVLA…

[mealmond]

Thanks for the pictures Tom, that's exactly what I would like.

 

Just to clarify, the charger you wired in, is this just one that would normally plug into the cigarette lighter, but you just cut that end of and wired it somewhere under the dash panel on the drivers side, with a fused feed.

 

 

Thanks

 

Martin

[Purpletom]

No not quite. I used a 12v socket with a fused feed, like this:

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/product.php/776/in-line-socket-for-cigarette-lighter-plug

Just wire it in to 12v and earth with an inline fuse in the 12v side.

I then used this Nokia DC-17 charger because it provides a 1A feed to your phone which charges it nice and quickly:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-Portable-Charger-Coiled-Smartphone-Black/dp/B006JF4TUM

Just mount the 12v socket with car charger inserted down near the centre console and feed the charge wire through. Job done.

Skomaz - This one has done 128k and is still going really well. No oil usage and plenty of power. Well chuffed with it!

Cheers

Tom

[mealmond]

Thanks Tom, will get this sorted now.

Martin

[Purpletom]

Well I've found an Octavia so this little car is now surplus to requirements. It's a shame because I've actually grown really attached to it since I've owned it and feel a bit like I've rescued it.

The final few jobs included polishing the headlights (came up really nicely), getting the aircon regassed which is now working really well and getting a fresh MoT on it which it passed with no advisories and a comment from the tester about how clean it was. Job done!

Anyway, it's all ready to go as a perfect little winter car if anyone is interested. Here's a link to the advert (unfortunately I don't have enough posts on this forum to advertise it in the classifieds here)

https://www.gumtree.com/p/skoda/2003-52-skoda-fabia-1.9-tdi-elegance-ideal-winter-car/1196533279

Thanks

Tom

Edited 3 November, 2016 by Purpletom

[Purpletom]

Now sold to a 17 year old as his first car.  What an awesome first car :-)