Indeed, the guy was uber-friendly, told me he couldn't do the diagnostic on Sat. as he wasn't in and wanted to make sure I wasn't charged for it!

Will let you all know the outcome after my visit.

Anti roll bar will be a new modified unit,we have loads in stock of both sizes due to them still being a common problem just under

Well,

Today I'm tackling the rear door carriers.

By The Gods! - It's scary stuff taking that trim panel off for the first time, I was convinced I was going to break summat, (apart from the inevitable trim button of course. The one thing the guide neglects to mention is, when taking off the trim, the trim must be first pulled away from the carrier, releasing the door trim buttons, then carefully lifted upwards to release it from the actual inner door panel at the base of the window.

I found, by teasing the the part nearest the door hinge, it would slowy lift up away from the door, then you could just repeat the up/down teasing of the panel to release it completely and it comes away nicely, even if it feels, (as mine did), as if it may snap when you first lift it. Dunno if anyone wants to update the guide to help others doing the same for the first time so they dont worry as I did. :P

Luckily, my carriers are held on with bolts, not rivets (Woo-Hoo!) so undoing them was easy.

I am putting mastic (roof & gutter sealant) around the rim of the carrier and being "generous" so the whole seam area is covered.

One thing struck me as I was doing it, the door trim button holes are actually lower than the carrier, so how come the door doesn't leak just as badly via them?

Even with the carrier "un-fixed" I would of thought they'd leak, or, is it that the pressure of the trim button on the little rubber 'washer' is sufficient to keep water out there?

Anyhoo, done one, left if to "air-off" a bit whilst I grab a couple of pies for lunch, then gonna do the other. Which I'm going to feel far more confident tackling having gone through the process once.

To be on the safe side, I'm going to swap any broken buttons on the base for whole ones on the top which makes sense to me anyway.

My first 'work' on the Fabia hehe...

not a good idea using mastic to fix it heard of alot of people using it and it doesnt work the previous owner of my car had used it and it never made any difference and it was a right pain in the **** to remove it needed to buy silicone remover to get rid of it!

hope it works for you!

I was operating on the instructions of both Parkside and one of the tech-heads here, if it doesn't work, well, at least I know how to take the doors apart now.

NSR was a PITA to do though, wouldn't release from the top of the door, I *really* thought that was gonna snap! :eek:

Mind you, the thing that took the longest was getting the darn dealer sticker off the rear window, urgh. I'm not brave enough to remove it from the lines of the heated rear window, but at least I have better rear visibility now.

The rear window is small enough as it is, don't need a whopping sticker across it restricting my vision even further. :P

:orb_froze :orb_bounc :orb_bounc

Two faults, both fixed, total cost 106 quid - Parkside Skoda of Bolton :thumbup:

Now wait to see if my work on the rear door carriers was a success.

Ahh me,

One door opens, another slams in me face.

Ok, bear with me here as I am no doubt being thick.

Having got the Air con sorted out - whoo ...and indeed... hoo

I now have had another warning light fire off.

The coolant beep and warning light came on tonight (made me jump I can tell you).

So, I goes home and checks, yup, coolant level is down, so I topped it up, then hit here and did me a search on coolant.

I've checked the oil, no hint of "mayo" in it, no apparent leaks anywhere.

I noted the comment about the temp sensor on the radiator (durned if I can find it, I'm guessing you have to remove the front under plate?)

I did see something like dried pink stuff on the plate under the radiator, but I can't swear that it wasn't there before. I also can't swear to the level of the coolant being 100% a.ok prior to the work on my aircon.

Ok, here comes the daft statement....

Is it possible, that as the Aircon is now working, the coolant is going places it wasn't previously or being "used" harder, thus taking up some additional coolant, or am I so far off base I'm not even in the same park?

I'm going to keep a close eye on the coolant over the next week and see if it drops significantly again. I know the radiator fan was working only last week as I heard it kick in as I parked up in me garage only t'other night.

If anyone has a piccy of where the (yet one more) common failing sensor is I'd be obliged, at least I can then scope it out.

I'm only wondering about the aircon having any impact as up to now of course, it's not been used. Tonight was the first time I'd run it for about 10 mins or so, I also hit the ReCirc button and about 5 mins later, I go the beep. Could be total co-incidence of course.

As I say, I'll be keeping an eye on it, but I'd like to know if it's possible the two are related.

(Will also check for bubbles in my coolant when I fire up the engine in case it is the worst-case of blown head gasket, but as I say, oil is nice and clear, no hint of emulsification.

I just sorted the door carrier leak with mastic, seems to do the job,

Ok,

Started off this morning, (after topping coolant last night).

The temp started to rise to the middle after only 1 mile, which was worrying as it normally takes about 3 miles or so to rise to 'normal'

After 90+ minutes stuck in traffic, about 70 of which was sat crawling - stop -crawl, I checked the coolant level, it has dropped a little.

Again checked oil, no obvious 'mayo' checked at bottom of radiator for any obvious signs of water - nothing.

Is there any other way of checking to make sure it's not the head gasket has gone?

It'd help if I could be sure it wasn't losing coolant prior to the work but I can't as I didn't really pay much attention to the levels. Due to the loud rain and blower today, I don't know if the radiator fan kicked in at all during my trafic jam time.

If the rad fan isn't kicking in, would that "burn off" a certain amount of coolant through evaporation? (It isn't a massive amount, about 2 or 3 millimeters during what was a very 'heavy' period of work for the engine).

Really need some guidance / advice here as I'm getting a bit despondant. :(

EDIT: There is definitely some sort of pinky residue under the left hand side of the radiator near the front, looks almost like crystaliine sherbert or some such. I'm thinking, (for the cost of a seal given folks are saying it's a simply DIY job), of putting a new seal on the rad fan switch. If it doesn't sort the problem or the swtich has somehow packed up since last week, at least I can see if it affects the coolant level - does this sound logical?

hello there

if the air con is not kicking in could it possibly be a fuse,also we had a temporary power steering fault,turned out to be a dying battery.also had clonking noise from front end when going over rough roads,turned out to be anti roll bar bush's,

The older problems have not raise hteir heads, spark plugs were replaced when I had her serviced.

Main problem now is an intermittent engine management light, MAF sensor keeps throwing up "implausible value". Goes off again if not stuck in long traffic queues for a few days. I swear, it cam fro ma rural area and gets 'stressed out' at having to deal with city traffic each day.

In the garage this week to see if all ok as they *think* it may have an air leak, which could be upsetting the MAF sensor as it tries to make sense of fluctuating values. I'm kinda in agreement as it's lumpy if I put my foot down sometimes.

Garage says if there is an air leak, I could end up paying for a new sensor which wouldn't fix the problem. Guess I'll know more once it's been checked out.