Thought I might as well put up a thread on my recent purchase. Two months ago I purchased an R53 Mini, cutting a long story short - the car had an issue, that the dealer was making a meal out of fixing and in the end I got my money back. Now not sure what to replace it with and looking at the used car market, anything decent is MILES away from me. So decided to purchase a run around. Now this involved looking at the sub £1000 market on Facebook/Gumtree etc which is a MINEFIELD. Lots of scrappers and chav wagons at this price point, however this popped up on Gumtree last Tuesday and looked promising:

 

2008 Skoda Fabia Estate 1.4 TDI - That turns out to be the higher spec 3 model with full DIS, cruise control, climate control, 6 CD, better speakers, parking distance control.

 

It was pretty filthy inside, has no history and the bonnet has suffered bad lacquer peel, but the mechanicals were good and the MOT history was a lot cleaner than anything else I had checked. It needs a service so the asking price was knocked down from £795 to £750 and I was on my way!

 

Pics before clean:

Scrubs up pretty well:

Well happy with it! Service was on the cards next.

Servicing was next, which was long overdue I think!

 

Up on the ramps to make a start:

Dirty engine bay! I'm actually missing a bit that connects onto the air intake pipe:



Clean air filter, old one dirty but not too bad:



Pollen filter....!!! I dont think this has ever been changed, as this was an original OEM filter. Car smells better now!




 

Also a free fix - the rear load cover didn't hold in place. Turns out the spring clips that hold the cover, fall down into the space behind the boot trim. Spent half an hour recovering them and refitting and it works perfect now!

 

Broke:

Fix in process:



One of the missing clips:



Fitted back in place:



Fixed!

On those load cover trim clips did you glue them back in place?  I only ask as I had similar on my FIL's Honda Civic Tourer and they kept popping out but a drop of glue sorted them.

22 minutes ago, skomaz said:

On those load cover trim clips did you glue them back in place?  I only ask as I had similar on my FIL's Honda Civic Tourer and they kept popping out but a drop of glue sorted them.

 

That thought had crossed my mind, but no I didn't. They will get glued in place if they fall off again. 

Good progress there in showing the car some love - and a hoover!!

Nice colour, looks a bargain