Fabia MK1 front door arrester swap

[RaKa]

Hello

 

It's me again, sharing experience on a fix. This time it's the driver's door arrester.

 

 

The door arrester was worn out and even on the smallest inclines didn't hold the door open. It was quite a nuisance, so I decided to replace it. For me, it cost 15€.

 

As a careful person, I gathered information before I dived right in.

My first source, workshop-manuals.com says:

 

23 -	Door arrester

q

Removing:

–	Remove door trim panel from the bottom of pillar A.

–	Release screws Pos. 21 and Pos. 22.

–	Push door arrester inwards and remove from pillar A.

q	Installing:

–	Installation is carried out in the reverse order.

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this information is wrong. At least concerning my model (12/2002 1.4 MPI Classic).

 

After ripping off the trim, I was left with a handful of plastic and apparently no access to the arrester.

 

 

 

Then I shined a torch and found a hole that was in the most part concealed by the bottom dash panel. After removing the bottom dash panel, I found that it is neither sufficient nor necessary to remove the pillar trim. This is actually good news, because removing the dash panel is much simpler than removing the trim.

 

 

On the passenger side, the glove compartment is the piece to be removed.

 

 

Swapping the arrester itself was quite simple: an M10 spline bolt holding it to the door and two torx 30 bolts securing it to the pillar. After releasing it, I had to guide it to the access hole and it was out.

 

 

The new one is quite stiff so if you decide to replace yours, be aware of the danger of stabbing yourself with the sharp corner of your door. As you are too used to the door moving freely, you'll exert too little force to open it and lean in too early. Quite a nasty effect.

 

At first glance, the arrester mechanism itself does not look serviceable, but when I pried it open, I found that you could (at least theoretically) restore some functionality. You can carve off some plastic from the worn-out half to (re)create the profile that interacts with the curved bar. You'll also have to add a spacer under one of the rubbers to compensate for lost material. The housing is originally held together by four bent metal flaps but they are not necessary when the arrester is bolted to the car's body.

The arrester is symmetrical and can be installed on either of the front doors. This means that it is probably possible to combine two worn arresters into one fully functional one.

 

 

A few bonus tips: when you are working on your car in the winter or early spring, tie a scarf around your lower back to prevent aches. Also, when working around footwells, clean the area beforehand in order to keep your clothes free of mud and dust.

 

Additional pictures are available upon request.

 

Hope this guide helps someone and reduces unnecessary expense of blood, sweat and tears.

 

Raul

[JWvrs25]

great guide, should be made sticky, gonna tackle mine in next few days

[TMB]

Nice guide

[RaKa]

Thanks

 

Just realised that I should have posted this in the guides section.

[TripleMcB]

Top guide. I need to replace both mine but they aint cheap over here in the UK. Only other thing is your a left hand drive so for us Brits it may be a little simpler. 

 

Top pictures too. :-)

[TripleMcB]

Top guide. I need to replace both mine but they aint cheap over here in the UK. Only other thing is your a left hand drive so for us Brits it may be a little simpler. 

 

Top pictures too. :-)

 

 

*** Just doubled checked some prices and have ordered 2 (right and left) from skodaparts.com***

[RaKa]

Additional information:

 

Door arrester also seems to be called a door check strap rod.

 

The part number is 6Y0837249F

 

Link to skodaparts.com page for the part.

 

Correction: the spline bolt is M8, not M10. 

Edited 1 April, 2018 by RaKa
Correction

[TripleMcB]

Well did mine a few hours ago. 

 

2002 mpi UK spec car?

 

Ok passenger side is a doddle. Remove glove box and you'll see the large hole as per raka pics. I found a little string around the end that screws to the door helps to pull it through.

 

Drivers side, what a pain in the ass. I was unable to remove the lower dash panel so did this side as per the book. Removed the lower kick panel and you can reach up and feel the large hole. Its a pain to remove because as it comes through the hole it gets stuck in the sound deadening in the trim above the acceleration pedle. Keep cool and it will come out. Replacement is as slow but again with attached string you can pull it through.

 

*** Leave the door end of latch folded up do not straighten it out. If you straighten it out there's not enough room for it to pass from the access hole and through  the A pillar hole.***

 

Total time with cuppa and bowl of cereal 1.5 hours. Total cost inc delivery £30.35.

 

 

[RaKa]

On 8.4.2018 at 18:00, TripleMcB said:

Drivers side, what a pain in the ass. I was unable to remove the lower dash panel so did this side as per the book.

 

Sorry to hear that you were unable to remove the lower dash panel. I didn't include pictures of that process because mine came off just as shown in the workshop manuals. Also, I didn't want to clog up the original post. But I can add pictures here.

 

 

 

Instructions on removing the light switch here.

 

The panel is pulled off towards the driver, not down.

 

There is also the OBD socket but it doesn't have to be removed because it has quite long wires.

 

When putting the panel back, note the metal clip-thingy that has to slide onto a support above the pedals.

 

 

Hope that makes things a bit clearer now.

 

Raul

[TripleMcB]

Thanks Rual. I must have been the bottom clip as it would lean forward a little but then wouldnt budge any more. Got a few scrapes on my left hand but got there in the end. Great pics by the way. 

Edited 15 April, 2018 by TripleMcB

[miranc]

Thanks a lot for an amazing tutorial!
Today I managed to repair an old arrester, because it was a bit complicated and somewhat expensive for me to buy a new one. Therefore I opened the broken arrester and carved the plastic in order to recreate the bulged part, which actually holds the door from closing.
Tips:

1. When opening arrester in order not to broke metal clips just heat them up a bit, a candle serves the purpose. Again when closing it, heat up the clips and tight them with pliers

2. The easiest method to carve out the plastic piece would be a dremel tool, but as I didn't have one, I used scalpel and candle again 😊

3. Add spacer underneath the rubber part to compensate carved plastic. I removed probably 1-1.5mm out of each plastic piece.

 

Mounted back everything together, and so far so good... holds the door well