Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum, just joined today.

I have just inherited a Felicia 1.3Lxi, it's a 1999 model (T registration). I am trying to determine which engine is fitted to this car. It seems there are two different 1.3 engines with differing BHP output. How do I tell the difference? Does anyone know which I will have fitted?

Also the gearchange lever seems very stiff, although after a few miles I have kind of got used to it (maybe a Skoda gearchange is always like that!!). I just read in this forum about someone else who had a similar problem and it appears that a rusted bolt somewhere around the gearstick is potentially responsible. Can someone give me a little more detail on this? Can I get to the bolt from inside the car by dismantling the gearstick area or do I need to get good access from under the car?

Note that yesterday the car was put into the local dealer for an official Skoda recall job to be done. My father who previously owned the car had not had this work done since receiving the latter earlier this year.

The recall concerned replacing a bush on the gearchange (I guess many of you know about it). It didn't change anything as far as I can tell, but then they said it was only a small job and would simply "remove some noise". It only took them about 30 minutes to complete the job. However, nobody mentioned to me that there seemed to be something wrong with the gearchange when they drove the car into the workshop..... of course that could just be a main dealer who doesn't really care about maybe generating extra new business for himself.

Any comment or help would be appreciated.

Finally can someone confirm if the engine temp sensor is at the front of the car, just near to where the engine case meets the gearbox bellhousing. What I am looking at there seems to be the right size and shape and it has the expected wire attached (covered by a nice rubber boot to keep it clean and dry). The point is that the temp gauge is not working, I guess the sensor needs replacing as the thermostat seems to be in working order.

Otherwise it seems to be a really nice little car.

I will be getting a Haynes manual as soon as I get to the shops, but in the meantime any help is welcomed.

Thanks

Howard

The Lxi tells you it is the higher 68bhp model

Gearchange stiffness could be down to clutch problems.

My clutch springs went recently, could hardly get the thing out of gear.

Gearchange stiffness will be down to the pivot seizing at the bottom of the gear lever. IIRC they do a bush repair kit for it and its pretty simple to do once your underneath. Just loosening the 13mm bolt and applying some WD40 will do the trick short term.

The temp sensor you want is on the top of the thermostat housing just to the right/ back of the cylinder head. My advice to you is change the whole housing, its only a few pences more and you get the sensor with it plus a new thermostat which are prone to falling apart anyhow.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my thread and respond. The information is appreciated. I will contact my local dealer to see about the bush repair kit as suggested .

The main two causes I've came across of stiff gear changes are badly adjusted clutches and lack of gearbox oil combined with cold temperatures (the number of times Ive drained a gearbox and found less than half a litre of treacle in there :( )

Gearbox oil level is correct and it was actually replaced last year so that should be fine.

As I said before I don't have a haynes manual yet, you mention clutch adjustment, is there some mechanical adjustment I can check?

there no real visual check, you can check the pedals are all about the same height but even small variations between pedal heights can cause gear selection problems. basically if the clutch is biting fiercly as soon as you start lifting the pedal the clutch is misadjusted, felicia and favorit clutches generally have very forgiving clutch pedals when adjusted correctly. I also tend to find that reverse is harder to select than 1st with a misadjusted clutch.

Note that yesterday the car was put into the local dealer for an official Skoda recall job to be done. My father who previously owned the car had not had this work done since receiving the latter earlier this year.

The recall concerned replacing a bush on the gearchange (I guess many of you know about it). It didn't change anything as far as I can tell' date=' but then they said it was only a small job and would simply "remove some noise". It only took them about 30 minutes to complete the job.

Howard[/quote']

Do you have any more details on this recall?

I would be interested to know which bush was changed.

Also does anyone know if a recall is only issued to the first purchaser of a vehicle?

Thanks,

Chris

Recall is kept on skodas system and will flag up whomever brings the car into the dealer.

If just the back bush on the gear lever that is changed.

Great...thanks for the info.

I purchased a copy of the ETOS CD with this information in but the seller kindly didn't tell me it would expire in a couple of months. Needless to say I purchased it more than two months ago.

I am interested in item 27, the cover ring as I cannot see this in my assembly and wonder if it somehow holds the small ball joint together.

It looks like it should be cheap so I may purchase this and see if it helps.

Your engine is the 68BHP model