Hello from Swedish Lappland :)

18 February, 20224 yr

Hi All,

I've been lurking for a while looking up a bunch of stuff for the last .....year or so, if not longer.

Finally the time has come to come forward and say hello, and hopefully contribute a bit as well besides asking questions 🤓.

My wife and I have been very happily driving our Fabia 3 Combi for just over 2 years now.

We're dutch and in the process of officially moving to Sweden, and the Fabia has even served as a 'moving' van with our stuffed caravan behind it and a loaded roof box on top.

I'd probably be exaggerating if I said our cats have grown fond of the car as well, but at least they get comfy 😁.

Although our Fabia was pretty decently equipped when we bought, I've been tinkering with it a bit already so far - with more than a little help from all your combined knowledge here 😇.

The main improvement I was looking for was unlocking Android Auto, though that's a still ongoing quest I'll save for another thread.

In the process I ended up buying myself an OBD Eleven dongle, which has thus far been put to good use

I've unlocked

Offroad mode
Driving School mode
Scandinavian DRL (taillights on with DRL)
Refuel Quantity
SmartLink (more on that later 😶)
Hill Hold
Cornering lights

Probably some more stuff I'm forgetting now.

As we've moved up North quite a bit I've installed an engine heater/compartment heater/charger, again made easier partially with some help from you guys.

In addition to getting stuck with SmartLink/Android Auto, this was actually one of the motivations to register. Given all the help I've had lurking here, I thought it'd be nice to give something back in the form of a tutorial/write-up of the installation process.

Besides AA I'm curious about any further upgrades/improvements people might recommend. They don't necessarily have to be 'economically sound' investments, as we plan to drive the car until it's 'finished', it is currently our only car, and well last but probably not least I enjoy the tinkering. As long as they improve comfort etc, and the costs are reasonable in relation to said improvement.

Thing's I've considered/been thinking about.

Installing an (original) rearview camera. (Not really necessary, we've got the beepy sensors which work fine when they're not iced over❄️).
- The only thing nicer than retrofitting an OEM camera that I could think of is if we could somehow repurpose the 'hidden' system from the vw golf, where the camera hides behind the vw logo and only pops out when used. But it would obviously have to be with a skoda logo ...😅
Front parking sensors (This is probably never going to happen though, not too sure about drilling in the painted bits of the bumper, and I'd like a painted set of sensors in that case not the ugly black dots)
Dashcam front/rear.
Maybe an entertainmentsystem upgrade of some sort if I can't get the SmartLink stuff to work properly.
Electric windows in the rear - but they'd need to be lockable.
Maybe USB charging ports for the backseat in the backside of the armrest.
Heated seats, maybe steering wheel. ... Are these even retrofittable? Not too keen on doing the steering wheel retrofit myself given the relative importance and utility of having an operable/functioning steering wheel in one's car. It strikes me as a complex and somewhat delicate procedure.
Perhaps 'automatic' trunk-lid opening of some sort if that can be retrofitted/frankenstein transplanted from somewhere. Mostly just thinking of something that gently opens with gas springs, not the fancy electronic opening and closing that I think my sister has on their Enyaq.
Higher charging output from the front usb port, as in ....any charging output as opposed to data only.
Folding mirrors (where they ever an option on the Fabia 3?)

-- Just got distracted from writing this post while perusing the definitive vcds obd11 carista list by @JGrindel, which took me to @wirer's site.... I see can find a whole bunch of inspiration/instructions there 😂.

I think it was actually @JGrindel 's fog light retrofit guide that helped me a lot in finding a passage through the bulkhead for my compartment heater install, so much obliged for that :).

Alright wrapping up...

On the compute side of things I'm considering also getting the Carista app with the adapter, because I generally prefer their more open/extensible philosophy compared to OBD Eleven. Not sure if it's worth getting VCDS as well - as I think OBD Eleven lets me do most of the things as well with the pro license?

Anyhow....big long hello I guess on my part, and I will post the story of my engine/compartment heater install shortly.