Hi all,

I've had my MK1 fabia for a couple of months now and put 6k kilometers on it. She's lovely, and mechanically perfect.

There are some issues creeping up since the past few weeks, they are strange and I wonder if they could be related.

 

1. There is moisture on the windshield on the inside. And it's quite a lot, enough for me to need a towel to dry it.

 

2.  The interior fan rarely works. It broke 2 weeks ago on a return trip (the way there it worked) but on return it didn't turn on. I say rarely, because on on the last trip after we where driving back (1,5 hour trip) it turned on after 2/3 of the way. Today i checked and it was off again. I've checked the fuses and they seem fine. The airco light also does not turn on if the fan doesn't work. When the fan came on, the airco worked again as well. I know it isn't the motor, because I leave it on full blast since the heat passively comes from the engine and the motor kicked on last trip.  It could be some loose connection but I don't know where to look.

 

3. The drivers window fell in the door. On a recent trip, after trying to close the driver's window (fan doesn't work), the glass of the door made a strange noise and fell in frame off the rails. I pulled it up by hand and taped it to the frame as a temporary measure I have electric windows, so my guess is that it jumped of the gear or something. Is this a common issue, can I fix this myself? I have replaced the speakers, but I made sure that nothing could touch the glass. I did notice that some of the rivets inside where missing, I'm guessing someone messed with it before. Wondering if I can fix this myself.

 

All these issues occured in the last few weeks. Margreet (as she is called) has had some quirks before, but they've been there since I bought it. Like the keyfob sometimes unlocks all the doors, except the drivers door, or the beep letting you know that the headlights are on sometimes doesn't work either. I've taken these for granted since she's 15 years old but the 3 problems mentioned above actually cause me to worry a bit.

I want to work on these issues myself where possible and learn, and hope some of you can guide me a little bit on the way.

 

Kind regards,

Wessel!

29 minutes ago, mk1margreet said:

The interior fan rarely works. It broke 2 weeks ago on a return trip (the way there it worked) but on return it didn't turn on. I say rarely, because on on the last trip after we where driving back (1,5 hour trip) it turned on after 2/3 of the way. Today i checked and it was off again. I've checked the fuses and they seem fine. The airco light also does not turn on if the fan doesn't work. When the fan came on, the airco worked again as well. I know it isn't the motor, because I leave it on full blast since the heat passively comes from the engine and the motor kicked on last trip.  It could be some loose connection but I don't know where to look.

 

1. Unsure. Mine does similar, however.

 

2. There's a resistor that controls fan speed, that could be faulty. See video below.

 

 

3. The issue with the window could be a faulty window regulator. Hence the dropping of the window.

 

You may also have bad connections, corroded wires, faulty CAN-BUS related things, or something to that degree. I am unsure however. Good luck.

1. Check for leaks from the rear door ancillaries carriers. Most obvious by small puddles on the horizontal section of the seal in the doorway when you open a rear door after rainfall. Check front doors for similar puddles, but it's usually the rears.

 

 

2. There's a relay called the X contact relief relay which powers the fuse for the cabin fan; it also powers front (if fitted) and rear fog lights, so try to see if the fan non-function correlates with fog lights not working, and vice-versa.  If it does, you may have a dirty/worn contact on the relay; it's in position 11 on the relay panel near the steering wheel.

 

 

Edited 15 December, 20214 yr by Wino

1 hour ago, mk1margreet said:

3. The drivers window fell in the door.

This is a fairly well known failure of the window regulator. It affects manual windows as well as electric ones.

Yeah, the regulator cable usually snaps. Happened to mine just as I was parking up to go to the dentist and I had to leave the car with the window dropped inside the door. Luckily it was a dry day and no skulldugery happened while I was gone

 

Handy video...

 

 

I also had this happen you can buy a complete replacement window regulator the whole panel for around £30 and it literally takes like 30 mins to swop out mate.

Bit more than 30 mins if the panel's held in with rivets, which it will be on a 2006 car. 😢

Can confirm the rivets things, as I seen them when I had the door cards off. Haven't needed to touch the absolute ******s quite yet. Touch the fake wood coffee table.

I would also check the cabin filter and the (scuttle) drain holes engine bay side of windscreen to check they are not contributing to cabin moisture.

 

ETA: I am literally about to put the Pingi bags back in my wife's Mk3 Fabia having dried them in the microwave, large widow area, seasonal English fog and damp all day.

 

 

Edited 17 December, 20214 yr by nta16
ETA:

Just as back up to previous video this is for left hand drive (LHD) cars. - 

 

Skoda Fabia Mk1 (1999-2007) Heater Ventilation Blower Fan Control Unit replacement / removal -

 

 

 

Ah yeah I forget I'm one of the lucky ones with bolts not rivets 😁

Managed to fix everything!

The drivers window regulator panel was one hell of a b*.

Couldn't find a M8 torx for taking out the doorlock in all of the 4 shops in my area, so I had to work around that. It's possible! Just quite tricky to get the old panel off and the new one on.

Then I also didn't have the right size rivets, I only managed to get my hands on 5mm x 12mm rivets, which pulled straight through, So I ended up fastening some steel washers behind the tabs to create a smaller diameter hole, and riveted into those and that did the trick. It's not a perfect solution but it ain't going anywhere.

Luckily the motor still works, next step tomorrow is to fit the window into the clamps and rebuild the door. Doubt I'll have many troubles, this was the hardest part.

Greetingsss

10 minutes ago, mk1margreet said:

So I ended up fastening some steel washers behind the tabs to create a smaller diameter hole, and riveted into those and that did the trick.

 

Good idea 👍