When I bought my Fabia second hand, I thought I'd picked up a nice clean car that was well cared for and with only 28K on the clock, felt I'd done ok. It was very clean, very tidy and seemd in great condition, full service history and all, I'm now beggining to wonder if I've bought myself something of a problem and am missing the solidity of my old Felly. :(

First thing was the ARB was faulty, which I got replaced (and am still waiting for the dealer to honour their agreement to repay me for the repair).

The 'service INSP' comes on when I start up (on the LCD display), even though it had only done about 5K since the last service, though I dunno if the garage actually reset it then, I didn't notice it on the test drive. So Hmm, something or nothing?

Then, I thought it needed a re-gas as the air conditioning didn't seem to do anything. The service recpts didn't show a regas so I thought I'd just get one done.

The chap came along, plugged in the doofer and said, "You've got gas, plenty of it", ..uh-oh...

Very nice bloke, he checked all my fuses, checked for power at the sensor thingy near the front of the car, and power at the back of the compressor. All had power, but the AC just wasn't kicking in, he reckoned there should be about a '5' (bar? psi?) at the one point of the compressor and around 10-15 coming out, there was no change in the pressure at all. :thumbdwn:

He felt it was an electrical thing as it seemed unlikely to him the clutch plate was not engaging in the compressor (his words, me, I'm clueless). Decent chap, only charged me a tenner for the hour he spent working on the car as he hadn't found/fixed the problem.

So, bummer number three, well, dontcha know it, it piddled down good and proper on me holiday, both the rear inner door panels were soaking wet. Don't laugh, but I tried putting tape across the window seal to see if it was water running down as I had heard about the leaking door carrier thingy. It didn't seem to make much difference, but I'm not 100% sure as they were so wet, it may have taken a few days to dry out and the rain eased up. Arrghhh....

Then, on me way home last night, the PAS light on the dash came on, (oh fer fecks sake..), wierdly however, it didn't come on this morning on the way to work when I was moving, just at ignition as it were supposed to.

So, basically HELP!

Does a VAG-Com just do servicy / re-jig stuff, or can it diagnose problems and list any possible faults? If so, is there anyone around the St Helens area of the Northwest UK who would be willing to help me out and see if there are other gremlins?

Also, I'd be realyl grateful if there was someone around my area who really "knew" Fabias, to come and give mine a good look over and give an honest opinion. I don't know if I have got a problem car, or if I'm being over-paranoid and these are niggly problems which once done, are done, (if you see what I mean).

If there is someone who would be willing to help me tackle the door carriers, I'd be more than happy to provide beer money in return as I don't know where to get the quidgy seal you use and am a bit nervous of trying to do the thing on me todd. :confused:

Many apologies for the length of this post, but you can imagine, I'm getting a little worried here that I may end up paying hundreds more to actually "buy" the car I thought I had. I'm dreading what else is going to 'surprise' me. :eek:

Is this car bought from a Skoda Dealer?

Does it have any Skoda Warranty on it?

Nope, it's a second hand one, the warranty only covers engine parts such as crank and so forth. It doesn't extend to the electronics.

Many of your problems such as door leaks, Inspection light and anti roll bar are already covered many times, try the search.

Air Con could be the Evap sensor which may well show up on VAG-COM.

When you engage recirc does it almost instantly switch itself off? If so then it'll be the age old flap motor problem.

air con and PAS sound like the sensors - try using the search facility on this site as there are plenty of posts as to the symptons, causes and repair costs for these problems

Don't think anything happens at all when the AC button is pressed. Also forgot to mention a lumpy tick over and the car sort of shudders when you turn it off. (1.4 MPI by the way). But I think my Felly used ot do that too so dunno if that's just me getting all paranoid like.

Also, about the rear doors, there is water on the rubber seal, but it doesn't seem to make it's way beyond a little 'pool' and doesn't seem to go onto the plastic bit where you put your feet. I'm not 100% sure if it is leaking into the footwell. It hammered it down all night one night but when I felt the footwell carpets, they didn't seem damp, let alone wet.

The ricirc button is different to the aircon button mate.

ok your doors, make sure the little drain holes in the bottom of the doors aren't blocked,

aircon, fabia's dont have a clutch in the aircon compressor they have these wierd electronic thingys. sorry not read up on these yet.

lumpy idle, get the throttle body cleaned! very common fault

anti roll bar: normally the bushes get a bit $hitty and need replacing with alarming rugularity

My money's on the evap temp sensor for the air con. Will be highlighted by VAG-COM and there's a guide on how to replace it (with dash in place!) on here (search for a post by Andy Ellis)

Chris

The ricirc button is different to the aircon button mate.

Slap me stupid and call me Susan. I'll check that tonight.

aircon, fabia's dont have a clutch in the aircon compressor they have these wierd electronic thingys. sorry not read up on these yet.

Ahh, well, definitely not the clutch then :P

lumpy idle, get the throttle body cleaned! very common fault

Throttle body? I'm guessing I'd have to get my garage to do that?

Throttle body? I'm guessing I'd have to get my garage to do that?

if you are feelinga bit daring and are a bit handy with the spanners it's fairly simple to remove the throttle body from that engine. would suggest using a can of carb cleaner, meths and a tooth brush. be carefull not to force the throttle body open if it dosn't want to go!!!

Well, checked the re-circ tonight, doesn't kick out, stays happily on until I turn off the re-circ again.

Is there anyone around the St Helens area with a Vag-Com to see if there is a fault listing? If not, I guess I'm gonna have to take a deep breath and take it to my garage.

I'd rather go in being able to say what was wrong than pay for them to try and figure it out.

Meant to ask this before, in a temperature related way...

The temp gauge on the Fabia doesn't seem to shift much from the 'centre' position.

When cold, it's on the stop, after a couple of miles, it rises to the middle, (pretty much as my Felly did). Sat in a traffic jam today, I heard the rad fan kick in, but the temp gauge didn't seem to shift towards the 'hot' as I'd expect. Is this normal? Does it only head 'up' towards the red if it gets really hot? Or is this something else I may need to have checked? :(

ok you seem to have the same car as me and pretty much the same faults, does your car deffinately have air con and not the recurculating air thing as it might as well not exist as there is practically no difference. the leaking door carriers you can fix yourself for £20 which is for the rubber seal that you can get from skoda there is a guide on here on how to fix them in the guides & how to's section on the left hand side of the screen.

i have a 1.4mpi and when i bought it thought it was spot on then i started getting all the "common faults" i have sorted them all out now last thing i need to do is fix the creaky arb then it should be problem free (touch wood) lol!

Heh, yup, sounds like my car.

I did try ordering the sealing cord from a local garage who used to be a Skoda dealer, but when they asked what a "carrier" was and suggested I just used mastic, I thought I'd better find somplace else to buy the cord for the doors from.

Trouble is, no place around here is a Skoda garage anymore. :(

Car defo has AirCon, but it ain't kicking in, no change in pressure at all.

I've been reluctant to do the doors myself but, well, looks like I got no choice as if the garage doesn't know what the door carrier is, I'm not optimistic of the work quality!

What is so annoying is, thought I'd got a good car, but I suppose, in theory, once these problems are sorted out, though it may cost me a couple of hundred on top of the buying price, it should be, (I hope).

Hi

Like you I brought my Fabia second hand (not a main dealer), I have had the same problems with the non exsistant AC.

I have just recentley returned from holiday and the car was standing for a couple of weeks, when I returned I had problems with the warning lights coming on and off, it has now settled down again after a good run down the A2, but I can't get anything out of the air con for love or money.

Hope you get all the little faults sorted out, the Fabia is a good little car, and if you work out the problem with the AC let me know, I have not had the time as yet to look at mine

Well,

Seems there are a couple of Air Con places in St Helens I wasn't aware of, A1-Aircon and a place called "CoolTune Ltd".

Gonna phone 'em, CoolTune is supposed to do engine diagnostics and fault code listings, may see if A1 do the same. See if the ycan confirm the problem, (which folks suspect as the sensor) and then find out repair cost.

Kepp y'all posted, it's costing me more and more, but on the up-side, I did get a partial refund for the ARB replacement. Would of liked the full amount, but it's an imperfect world after all.

At least it will go to the other repairs to ease the burden.

The 'official' method for replacing the Evap sensor involves removing the dashboard so expect a hefty quote.

well, seeing as the 'alternative' method seems to end up inevitably breaking something, I think I'd rather take the hit, as painful as it may be. Unless someone knows different and it can be done without snapping anything? In which case, I'd maybe get it confirmed by diagnosis, order the part, and try to replace it meself.

Well, dats not good.

Tried calling the air con places, 2 are no longer in business.

The third, well, according to him, the Fabia does have a clutch system on the compressor and he says the reason it has failed is likely the internal clutch on the direct drive has sheared and it would cost £450 to replace, fit and regas the system.

I don't know nowt but what I've read here, but that sounds iffy, he reckons he's got 2 fabias in to be done already and both have this fault.

Opinions?

We've been giving you our opinions but you are ignoring them and phoning Air Con companies.

If I refer you back to my post in the first page -

Air Con could be the Evap sensor which may well show up on VAG-COM.

Keep phoning round wasting your time taking wild stabs at what the problem is or get it checked with the proper equipment.

Well, I ain't ignoring anything.

I am not making wild stabs, at all, I am trying to find someplace who will run a diagnisis on the feckin' thing. The only place who said they could, made it clear, they would only do so IF I then did all the repairs through them, which, considering they seemed to have made their mind up without even seeing the car, put me right off.

I did ask at the start of this thread if anyone nearby from the forums had a Vag-Com and got no reply so I figured the answer was no on that count.

I may be making a false assumption here, but I presumed non-Skoda / VW garages would not have VAG-COMs, certainly, the few garages I've contacted to try and get the thing checked out were very 'umm ahh' about the whole thing.

It's not my fault if half the feckin' places I've called have gone out of business. One of was *supposedly* the place the ex-Skoda garage round here sent the cars to be diagnosed. Given it ain't in business, well, don't seem likely do it?

All I want is someplace I can book the thing in to, I am not trying to drag this out but so far the garages are not exactly being bl**dy helpful. Given they are faffing over just the ability to diagnose the damn car, I sure as hell ain't gonna trust 'em to repair the stupid thing. :(

A common phrase seems to be "we don't do air con repairs".

Guess a visit to Bolton is on the cards then, I was trying to avoid it in the vain hope of getting it sorted locally, which doesn't seem to be going to happen.

Not everyone who has VAG-COM will read this thread.

Try here -

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/diagnostics-vag-com/members-vag-com/27055/

Car booked into Parkside at Bolton for next Tuesday.

Given my conversation with Richard there on the phone, I can see why folks are giving it such a good review in the dealer threads, very friendly and helpful. Already ordered the sensor "just in case it does need replacing", on top of which, he reckons they can do the job "dash in" so it will be quicker / cheaper.

Very re-assuring chap to talk to.

Car booked into Parkside at Bolton for next Tuesday.

Given my conversation with Richard there on the phone' date=' I can see why folks are giving it such a good review in the dealer threads, very friendly and helpful. Already ordered the sensor "just in case it does need replacing", on top of which, he reckons they can do the job "dash in" so it will be quicker / cheaper.

Very re-assuring chap to talk to.[/quote']

That sounds positive.