Hello from a newbie.

I thought I would tell you guys about my recently purchased Fabia TDI (1.9). When I bought the car I was warned that the brake light was dodgy so when I found the car soon moved into limp-home mode, I hoped this might be a general reaction to a significant fault like that - it wasn't. I changed the Brake light switch, (there's a knack to it, easy to break the damn thing) but the car still limped as soon as I tried to use the performance at all seriously. I took up the problem with the previous owner, thinking it might need a new turbo - worst case.

Now I discovered that I had bought the car just after the p.o. had recently taken it to a dealer to be fixed for this exact same problem. The dealer had diagnosed the Air temp sensor but the part they charged for was the MAF sensor which I must admit looks bright shiny new under the bonnet - 130 UKP bill. They claimed the car was fixed and I bought it shortly afterwards in all innocence.

After a few exchanges with the P.O. I took the car back to the dealer since they had some skin in the game. They did another diagnostic (and charged me, so much for the warranty on the first repair) this time they quoted the MAP sensor - guess what - the MAP sensor and Air Temp sensor are the same single part that they claimed to have changed ! Didn't know that at the time or wouldn't have paid the bill.

Anyway, I changed it but then found a broken wire just short of the connector. I fixed the wire and all is now well. Anyone want to buy an Air/MAP (also known as Thrust) sensor in good working order . By the way, I downloaded the VAG parts cat which covers Skoda and Fabia - very useful resource for anyone with a DIY inclination - identified the part I needed.

I knew something was up with the "Air temp sensor" as I couldn't clear the original fault code with VAG-COM - kept coming back i.e. was still broken. The Skoda dealer in question was Wings of Peterborough and the tech in question was Nicky - I can't say I would recommend them.

Lastly, great car - everything I hoped it would be, 56MPG so far. Thinking of a re-map/chipping. That boost is wonderful, just want it to go on forever or at least past 2500 where it apparently tops-out in stock form. Any body tried it ? 130BHP here I come...

Hi, and welcome