I got here a little late but Wino was correct. The lowered springs on the Greenie, are to improve the aerodynamics, along with larger under trays/panelling and lower rolling resistance tyres. I personally, would stick with the lowered springs as, after all, it is what most people seem to want to fit anyway, to standard cars. Pop the ar5e up in the air and you will negate and/or worsen the benefit given by them. The Greenie, from new, was one of the higher priced models in the range.

 The adjusters are a wedge that is sprung to draw it down - holding the shoes farther apart and closer to the drum. There is no option to adjust when the drum is on, and be aware that if you operated the footbrake or handbrake with the drum off the adjuster will work and probably stop you getting the drum back on. Using the footbrake with the drum off could also pop a piston out of the wheel cylinder. Sometime a lip on the edge of the drum can stop you getting the drum off/on when the adjustment is correct. If the shoes are too tight/rubbing with the handbrake off, you need to take the drum off, put your finger against the wedge at the spring end applying pressure to allow the wedge to be pushed slightly upwards while at the same time levering the shoe away from the wedge. Hope this all makes sense, probably will with the drum off when you can see how it all works.

 You should be able to test the arm for sticking of the pivot with the drum off, I have previously found that I had to use a screwdriver between the arm and shoe to move the arm due to corrosion, but corrosion  of the handbrake cable in the outer sleeve can give the same issue.

Thanks all. Got correct spec springs arriving Tuesday. 

Keith and mrgf, can I ask how high your handbrake levers are?

Mrgf, one of the higher price models you say, so where's my temperature gauge?  Can't believe that's an optional extra? !

Got the original invoice where the first owner specced the car; silver paint, mats, air con etc. 

If it had been me I'd have wanted a temp guage,  spare wheel and a priming bulb on the diesel line.

@CheapasHigher priced has never equated to higher standard spec with MK2's.

The highest priced Mk2 was the vRS. 

No Front Fog lights as standard or as an option, yet the brochure and the stuff you find on the cars advertised using Skoda spec says they have.

Electric rear windows, arm rest and much more were options unless you were getting a special like the S2000 which was just the same car with a different name and decals then stuff came as standard.

The same with the early Monte Carlo which were overpriced and not selling well until Skoda came up with Tech models with more as standard and lower RRP.

You don't need a bulb, common rail pumps self-prime straight from the fuel filter bowl which is filled by the electric lift pump.

Self prime fine until you run into a problem.  Read a post on here chap had to change split fuel pipe and had murders trying to get it to prime up . Been there myself with an older Astra changing fuel filter which went wrong. 

Just think it's something that should be there, less strain on battery, starter etc if you're hand priming first b4 spinning over. 

The chap on here I mentioned was at it 3 days poor sod; although think it was his first diesel. 

As for no temp guage,  love to know the thinking behind that one.

4 hours ago, Cheapas said:

Thanks all. Got correct spec springs arriving Tuesday. 

Keith and mrgf, can I ask how high your handbrake levers are?

 Mine is currently on 6 clicks, but been a while since MOT.

brochure_fabia May08.pdf

Edited 3 April, 20215 yr by KeithCheetham
Brochure added

Thanks Keith,  mine too

SEAT have the way of thinking/tightness of wallet, so no temperature gauge, possibly to stop some people worrying(?), VW and Audi like to provide them okay maybe a more expensive car, but I'd go with having a temperature gauge, last car I had without one was an old 1972 Escort van, but a trip to the scrappy for a GL or GLX dashpod sorted that out quickly as the sensor and wiring were already in place, so just plug and play!

The lack of temp guage was asked in Car Mechanics mag a while back.

The advice was to buy something called a scan guage that plugs into the OBD port, and provides among other things the coolant temperature. 

Not sure where the OBD port is on my fabia, and whether it would be visible when driving. 

Also when I last looked they were  £90 ish, not cheap. 

I changed the rear springs on my daughter's 2009 hatch F II 3. I used a spring compressor and loosened the dampers at the bottom.

 

I have attached a picture of the rear drums. The red arrow shows the adjust which you have to push up with a screw driver through the wheel bolt hole in the 2 o'clock position on the right - blue arrow - and 10 o'clock position on the left.

Thanks 26DIPP, always helpful to have a diagram / photo.

Is the sprint compressor really necessary?  Video I watched he just dropped bottom bolt out of shock, lowered arm and pulled spring out.

Having said that he did have the car on workshop lift. 

If you're changing both rear springs then get the back end up on axle stands, jack under each trailing arm just enough to remove tension from the shock absorber and whip the bolt out, release jack, do the same the other side then you can remove both springs and replace them.

10 hours ago, Cheapas said:

The lack of temp gauge was asked in Car Mechanics mag a while back.

The advice was to buy something called a scan gauge that plugs into the OBD port, and provides among other things the coolant temperature. 

Not sure where the OBD port is on my fabia, and whether it would be visible when driving. 

Also when I last looked they were  £90 ish, not cheap. 

 This is on my headunit running Android 6 (cheap chinese headunit so sold as 8.1 but actually 6), but will work on an Android phone. The OBD socket is in the fusebox by your RH knee. A bluetooth OBD is under £10 which is what sends the signal to the headunit, or phone which is how I used to utilise it. I went the headunit route to also have sat-nav, using Co-Pilot.

Cold coolant - Skoda Fabia Mk II - BRISKODA

I started straight away with the spring compressors and used axle stands with a 2 tonne hydraulic jack. I think I would have run out of clearance. I had to change "standard" height springs. Maybe you have more clearance with shorter springs.

I removed standard springs to fit shorter ones, I'm not clear how you'd run out of clearance, the trailing arms will drop right down allowing you to simply lift them out.

Thanks all for advice. Weather depending I'll have a go Tuesday. Got several jacks etc, if not Screwfix have compressors for  £20.

Thanks all for advice. Weather depending I'll have a go Tuesday. Got several jacks etc, if not Screwfix have compressors for  £20.

On 03/04/2021 at 11:31, Cheapas said:

Mrgf, one of the higher price models you say, so where's my temperature gauge?  Can't believe that's an optional extra? !

Got the original invoice where the first owner specced the car; silver paint, mats, air con etc. 

If it had been me I'd have wanted a temp guage,  spare wheel and a priming bulb on the diesel line.

There is only a blue cold/red hot temp light on this car. This is now veery commonplace on modern cars. Most owners don't really need an exact (PAH) Temp gauge as they won't be thrashing the nuts off the car to need one. The light lets you know the engine is warm enough to open up a little, the red, if you have overheated the engine. It will also come on, along with a few peeps, if the coolant is too low. This will not be overheating but just a warning it may do. So, a gauge, in normal use, is just an added distraction. 

Edited 5 April, 20215 yr by mrgf

Metallic paint was a £500 option on most Fabia's. A/C was standard on Greenie but climatronic digital was an upgrade. Forgot how much. The Grenline also had an expensive DPF system in the exhaust, altered gearbox ratios, larger under tray and other under car panels,  all adding up to a higher purchase but putting it in the lowest (At the time) RFL bracket of £20. The London congestion charge was just lowered though, stopping it from being free for the Greenie, when it came out!

Yes, taxed it the other day. Much more pleasant paying  £20 as opposed to the  £270 we used to pay. 

In fact hopefully with tax and fuel saving fabia will self pay for itself over 4 years, touch wood. 

Wouldn't call a temp guage a distraction,  especially when sitting in traffic. 

18 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

If you're changing both rear springs then get the back end up on axle stands, jack under each trailing arm just enough to remove tension from the shock absorber and whip the bolt out, release jack, do the same the other side then you can remove both springs and replace them.

 

Like he said, leave the spring compressors in Screwfix - for another job, maybe the same at the other end?

9 hours ago, Cheapas said:

Yes, taxed it the other day. Much more pleasant paying  £20 as opposed to the  £270 we used to pay. 

In fact hopefully with tax and fuel saving fabia will self pay for itself over 4 years, touch wood. 

Wouldn't call a temp guage a distraction,  especially when sitting in traffic. 

I agree, I would call it a VERY important indicator of whats going on under the bonnet, often just a red warning light is to late, not fitting one is just a cost cutting exercise nothing else.

 

If there is any misconception of where the Greenline sat in the order of play, I have attached the fabia brochure.

brochure_fabia.pdf

Edited 5 April, 20215 yr by UrbanPanzer

Interesting brochure. Under standard equipment states - tyre repair kit / no spare wheel option available. Really?

Are repair kits that good they can repair blow outs / kerbing? 

Maybe it's an age thing but in the unlikely event I ever bought a new car a spare wheel and temperature gauge would be a deal breaker for me.

When we bought our greenline all it had was a can of tyre sealant and a tyre inflator. Bought spare wheel off eBay straight away.

Regarding the temp gauge has no one else in years past found themselves stuck in traffic, watching that guage start to creep upwards, and then done the old trick of putting heater on full blast to drop temp ?

As Urbanpanzer says when the red light comes on its probably too late, especially if it's August and your queuing for the Stonehenge roundabout on the A303 with the kids and wife......

@Cheapas Yes in years past, but it was vehicles well past 10 years old overheating while sitting in traffic that could be an issue.

My last vehicle it happened to with was a Ford Scorpio V6 in gridlock traffic in the centre of Edinburgh while towing a car transporter.  That was a fiasco.

 My last new car with a blue and red light was a Kia Picanto 1.1 68bhp Auto from 2006 and i never gave a thought about it over heating and i used to take it to compete in 'Autotests'. 

 

I had a 4.6 V8 Auto on LPG in a Land Rover 110.

When it was going to be going through cities and maybe sitting lots i turned on the fan manually to stay on before any overheating might occur.

By the time it was getting too hot it would be too late,,,,

 

Edited 6 April, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot