The litany of faults continues on my recently accquired Fabia.

When I first bought it, it took about 3 miles for the temp gauge to "wake up" then travel to it's 'normal' position of the middle of the gauge.

This last few days, it has started to rise after only a mile, going to about the 'quarter' mark, then rises again towards the middle after another mile. Or, if it's hot outside, it rises straight to the middle after around a mile.

Thankfully I know the rad fan is kicking in when it gets hot as, after a run on Sat. it was going when the car stopped. (With the car running I can't normally hear it).

Another problem also surfaced last night on the way home, been trolling down the M6 for a while, then I noticed that my headlights started flickering, it seemed to get steadily worse, but when I pulled up at home and just left the engine running, they didn't flicker. Has anyone got experience of this?

Also, my power steering is quite "talkative" at low speed / low revs (like < 10 mph). Sort of sounds like a happy "clanger". Is this normal? does power steering make noises normally?

I'm pretty sure I have a leaking rad fan switch, (a seal is on order) that couldn't have anything to do with the strange temp behaviour? (I am making sure the coolant is topped up with the correct type, it seems to be a slow leak).

I've also checked the head gasket, it is one of those with "TEMAC" on, which I understand is the 'correct/modded' one so the risk of failing head gaskets is not there yes?

Another problem also surfaced last night on the way home, been trolling down the M6 for a while, then I noticed that my headlights started flickering, it seemed to get steadily worse, but when I pulled up at home and just left the engine running, they didn't flicker. Has anyone got experience of this?

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Me too, noticed that exterior and interior (dash lights) flickered on and off once but I thought it were just me.

Will keep a proper eye out for it now though.

That's the wierd thing, the headlights flicker, but the dash doesn't, nor do any warning lamps flicker. It's very frustrating, I'm just hoping that once all these darn faults are located and fixed I'll end up with a car actually worth having.

As opposed to the whole durn fault cycle starting again!

I thought these things were supposed to be good value and reliable? :( :( :(

It's been through a diagnostic, but seems to me, the much hailed diagnostics aren't actually very good at pinpointing problems.

headlights flickering , poss alternator or battery fault ?

Are there any other things I should check, seeing as sensors seem to be a problem, is there any link to flickering headlights and a sensor. Or temp gauge oddness and sensors?

As it's had a full diagnostic only last Tuesday, I'm just wondering as it suggests the diagnostic doesn't cover everything. Or should it?

A little bit of 'clanger' noise from the PS during low speed manoeuvring sounds fairly normal to me although there are also threads which link a faulty PS sensor to flickering lights.

Ahh right, wasn't sure if the clangers were normal PS 'occupants' Never having had PS until now, I didn't know if it were all related as there is such a plethora of electrical stuff on this thing.

I'm just really hoping that the fault 'appearances' start to slow down on this, it's very dissapointing, not to mention, costly.