If you own a Skoda Fabia, and have experienced lots of electrical problems with it, I would be interested to hear about your experiences.

Please could you reply with 3 key pieces of information :

What model it is (i.e. 1.9TDi) ?
How old it is (i.e. 2 years, or '51' plate) ?
What electrical problems you have had ? Some examples, which seem to be quite common, as as follows :

Power steering warning light always coming on.
Flickering headlights
Electric window switches swapping sides (i.e. left hand button works right hand window).
Central locking doesn't always work
Persistent blowing of light bulbs
...too name but a few!!

I would like to see if there is a common pattern emerging....Needless to say I own a 1.9TDi (Y reg) which is plagued with electrical glitches, and throughout its life has suffered Skoda dealers (and Skoda UK) living in denial of anything being wrong....Now it is out of warranty, I would like to put the challenge back on Skoda with some hard data !

Thanks
Rob.



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On my car I have had a couple of sets of pads but not any disks yet. Car had done 30K, but I have not measured the disk thickness yet. Pads were changed because a)) Fastfit fitted new pads when only the sensor wire was broken b) Fastfit pads caused sqeaking so OEM pads were fitted again.

IIRC correctly the OEM data shows the new disc to be 12mm and be replaced at 10mm

On this basis when should the discs be replaced (i.e if new pads are put in when the discs are 10mm then the disk will wear below the 10mm limit)

Is just working on the basis of 11mm or more is ok (the disks only have a 2mm wear across their life)

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Is there an override option with an intelligent key on a Nissan Micra? As far as I make out it is not possible to lock the car with any keys in it. Is this correct? I am thinking of things like:
- driving through a city centre at night when the safety advice is to lock yourself in
- lending a car to someone who leaves it in an agreed place with the keys slam-locked into the boot to await another keyholder fetching it
- several drivers going to a sports or similar event and all but one of them leaving their keys in the car to avoid dropping them

All quite common situations that I would expect my car to cope with. So have I misunderstood? I do hope so because I rather like the look of the higher spec new Micras to replace my P-reg

Thank you for any advice

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Hi I own a 2001 Citroen C5 2.2 HDI Exclusive Triptronic, the cam belt broke at 33'000 miles and 2 days out of its warrenty citroen would not repair this even tho they gladly took the £220 off me to service it every 12 months.

I have fitted a new camblet and timed it up correctly but the car still wont start.

I have rang a different Citroen Garage and they said that the computer needs reseting, i have purchased an AutoXray 6000 scan tool and this will clear the code but the car needs to be running.

can anyone please sugest how i can reset the computers on my C5 without taking it to the dealer?

thanks for your help

Paul
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My wife runs a 1998 Nissan Terrano, 2.7 turbo diesel. Had the car for just over 3.5 years and in the that time have had several problems with flat batteries and hence non-starting. 2 new batteries have been fitted and 2 home start call-outs required. Flat batteries had been put down to short journeys ? school run, 6 mile round trip. The last battery (Jan 04) was heavy duty. An Airflow trickle charger was purchased at the same time. The Airflow has been used during the night resulting in no more flat battery and failed starts??until last week.

Wife has started doing some longer runs ? 50 miles round trip but the Airflow has still been used at night. After a longish run last week the car was left outside, locked and without the Airflow connected. Came to start the car 2 days later and it would?nt ? flat battery. Connected the Airflow with an extension lead to try and get some charge in the battery for the evening which was unlikely. I came home in the evening. Airflow voltage check was showing 9 volts across the battery. Tried to start the car and the engine barely turned over. Out with the jump leads and jump started it from mine. Left it running a while then back in the garage with the Airflow connected every night again and no subsequent starting problems.

This got me thinking that maybe it was?nt short journey?s that was the problem (although they probably don?t help), but rather there is a drain on the battery. Bought a multimeter and did a forum search on ?battery drain?. Did the check (multimeter in series with earth lead and battery negative terminal) and found that there is a 0.2 Amp (200 mA) drain from the battery with everything switched off, bulbs removed from interior lights (main and boot) and the car unlocked. Seems excessive to me based on advice from this site.

Have done usual checks. Checked the alarm system (combined perimeter and volumetric are fitted) as per posts in this forum ? no increase in the amps reading. Removed fuses (in cabin and under bonnet) one by one ? nothing gave a drop in the amps reading. Have disconnected the alternator (one large lead and one smaller) ? no change, still 200 mA. Interestingly, when I disconnect the earth lead from the battery and then measure the drain, it starts off at 50 mA and then rises to 200 mA after a few seconds as if something is taking a few seconds to draw the current and get itself energised..but what?

Battery seems OK. Airflow keeps charge around 12.5 V and this increases to around 14 V with the engine running.

Some questions:

- is the 200 mA drain excessive (I would guess yes)?
- is it sufficient to stop the car from being started after 2 days (bearing in mind the car would not start on 9 volts and it?s a 2.7 ltr diesel)?
- should the measured drain have increased with the alarm armed?
- anything else I can check or any other ideas?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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