1999 Skoda Felicia LXi Estate 02/09

[vulgalour]

Today, I took my brother to go and look at a Skoda his girlfriend had found on Gumtree for £300ish. We went in the Princess and that in itself seemed to say a lot to the vendor. The chap selling the car had bought it from a lady who had left it on her front garden with 6 months tax (that she didn't bother to cash in) and a fair bit of MoT left and was refreshingly honest about the car. It's not without problems, as you'd expect for a car at this price, but it has a full service history and a good amount of original paperwork, is pretty solid all over and while it's clearly had a tough life recently, it still looks clean and solid enough underneath the greb to make us think it's a bit of a bargain.

 

First thing to do, upon getting it back on my drive while my brother sorts out more permanent insurance for it was to have a good look around. We had of course inspected it on purchase, but you never get a real chance to poke about until you get a car home.

 

 

Being an LXi it comes with some neat factory extras. It's likely more factory extras will be sourced to spec this up a bit further.

 

Both flanks are nice and straight, there's one little ding on the front passenger door, but other than that (and the bits I'll go on to mention) it's pretty good, as you'd want.

 

At some point, a previous owner has bumped something with the nose.

 

There's moss under the headlights and inside the indicator units which we need to clean out. But then, the car had been sat under a tree in a garden for six months before going to the garage and getting pressure washed.

 

Usual Felicia rust spots on the front wings, but perfectly saveable with a bit of effort.

 

This is the worst part of the car, we think it was reversed into something due to the rust on the arch, the broken light cluster and broken bumper. None of this is serious, but it's a shame it wasn't dealt with when it happened. The light cluster lets a bit of water into the car so will be replaced along with the bumper and the arch will get repaired. The sills are absolutely solid, quite amazing for a 13 year old shed really.

 

Another common rust spot is the trim on the tailgate, so we'll have to whip that off and get it nipped in the bud. Easy stuff really.

 

 

It also has the weirdest dealer plates I've seen. Skoda logo and space for telephone number and garage details, but none of it filled in.

 

Passenger rear arch also has the usual rust, but again it's not that serious having had a prod at it, the silver paint makes it look far worse than it is. This is another easy fix.

 

The interior is grubby. Whoever was in the driving seat was possibly a mechanic as there's a good amount of engine oil type grease on the handles and steering wheel. Those air fresheners STINK so they were removed fairly quickly but the interior still smells like a '90s Metrocab.

 

We took the back seats out completely to remove a lot of pine needles, bits of wood and dirt from the boot area and found that there were sweets and detritus under the rear bench. There were also some cubes of glass which is when we noticed the rear passenger window is a blue tint replacement glass... on a brown tint glass car.

 

So after vacuuming the back out - we'll go back and give it a proper deep clean later - we decided to tackle the outside of the car which was covered in tiny black spots all over that I thought were tar at first, but are more likely tree sap. By the time we'd done, the car was a different silver as you can see in this picture if you compare the front half with the rear (clean) half.

 

Arches all got a much needed hose out revealing shiny silver paint in as new condition and no rust. Remarkable really. That's my brother doing the hose pipe work, it was an unpleasant job.

 

By the time we'd done, the rain set in and the cloths we'd used that were once white weren't anymore. We also took a plastic bristled scrubbing brush to the trim to get all the moss out of the crevices, that took a while.

 

We wanted to see just how well the paint would come up with the materials to hand, so into the garage the Skoda went. I love this picture, it really demonstrates my love of shite old cars.

 

Started with this.

 

Had some chips and very bad scratches on the bonnet to deal with. This is the worst panel on the car for stonechips, scratches and roughness of paint.

 

Finally ended up with this, before we ran out of time for the day.

 

So we're going to slog it out tomorrow if the weather holds getting more of the car deep cleaned. Lurking underneath all the detritus is a very solid little economy estate that I swear we paid too little for. For now, my brother is contenting himself with reading through the lovely leatherette folder of paperwork and the treasure we dug out of the car so far.

 

[Wilko220]

Nice. Years back, my grandad had one of them, until he smashed it into a skip, A Fish Called Wanda-style.

I thought it was a fun car to drive.

[Morgan84]

Add some nicer full size genuine hubcaps,or some Skoda alloy wheels,plus some roof rails,and that should look a tidy little wagon. Brake pipes tend to rust on these,so get the oiled/greased or whatever comes to hand first,and you will hopefully have a cheap reliable little companion there

[vulgalour]

The 1.3 MPi engine in the Skoda outpaced me very smartly on the drive home, but then the Princess is very much built for comfort rather than speed, so I'm not going to be too upset by it. With my brother driving the Skoda and me following, it looked very tottery being so narrow on such skinny wheels.

 

I'd forgotten to mention the brake pipes, that was as far as I recall the only advisory on the last MoT 'corroded brake lines' so the grease is coming out for that. Plans at the moment are just to clean it and clean it and clean it some more while he gets insurance organised for it. We've been muttering about possibly going into doing car valeting between us too, but we'll see what comes of that.

[Lord Sterling]

Look like a great car to start with. I love seeing cars being given a good clean out. Get some genuine or made to fit floor mats for it once you've got the carpet scrubbed up, it really does pick up the interior and give it a 'looked after' look. Also check the spare wheel well, I know others have found some interesting things down there.

 

I like your idea of using factory extras to improve it, thats what I'm doing to the Micra.

[vulgalour]

Sadly nothing in the spare wheel well apart from a good spare wheel with tyre. We're missing the toolkit, factory jack and wheel brace so those are items we're looking out for. A few bits of the plastic boot trim need fettling and some trim clips are missing. I'm guessing this will be a slightly easier car to get scrapyard bits for than my two as this is a young un at a mere 13 years old.

[Morgan84]

I once saw a Felicia Magic with a stuck on wooden dashboard trim - very nice actually,and that had electric windows;something thats pretty rare in a Felicia. The little 1.3 isn't the most silky smooth sounding of engines,but its a very durable chain driven engine,which from memory likes 15W40 engine oil,although I recall using 10w40 in one before ( used to look after a LXi + which ran on Quantum 15W40 )

 

There is a quirk with these,NEVER touch the throttle when cold starting,or it will flood itself and throw a tantrum !

[KruJoe]

Nice honest little bus, that is.

Good idea to go into the valeting game. Pitch yourselves at the mid-high end of the market though, rather than trying to compete with the Poles and Armenians. If you were closer to me, I'd have been around already for you to spruce up my shite for a few quid - it is something I just CBA doing myself.

PS: Don't mention Feli'Magic!

[Morgan84]

Is that some kind of swear word ?

[KruJoe]

It was the user name of someone who signed up earlier this year (?); his posts received a 'mixed response'...

[Morgan84]

Ah,I see

 

Well,it was a dark green/blue metallic special edition Felicia with alloy wheels then

 

I always thought the Felicia was the first sign that Skoda were on the up,as they looked quite nice,and were a massive styling improvement over the Favorit. I think now though they have gotten so close to VW in looks and pricing that actually,they have started to price themselves out a bit

[Wilko220]

Autoshite legend

 

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12877

[Morgan84]

Not been on in weeks now I see

[ProgRocker]

That Skoda is lovely. Top valeting job, chaps.

[Akron]

Yay more Felicia love, my wife still has hers 5 years of abuse and still plodding on.

If you need parts try the dealers first genuine parts are very inexpensive brake pipes are common, how is the gear change and is the timing chain rattling?

Check the fuse box in passenger footwell isn't full of water and under the rubber seal can corrode through on the tailgate window filling the boot with water.

Ask me if you need any more info happy to help.

[RedSparrow]

Nice buy I recon, and again respect to you for putting the effort in with another motor.

 

Of course there are loads of these here in CZ, a great deal of which have different colour front wings and/or boots!

 

When I get sorted I want one basically just like that!

[vulgalour]

Thanks ProgRock and Sparrow

 

If you need parts try the dealers first genuine parts are very inexpensive brake pipes are common, how is the gear change and is the timing chain rattling?

Check the fuse box in passenger footwell isn't full of water and under the rubber seal can corrode through on the tailgate window filling the boot with water.

Ask me if you need any more info happy to help.

 

Useful tips! Gearbox is really nice and tight, no problems there, but the timing chain is rattling. We managed to get the timing chain to quieten a bit by putting a litre of desperately needed oil in and we'll be doing a much needed oil flush and change along with sorting out the cam chain. Fuse box is free of water, happily, and the tailgate window seal seems good, though the tailgate itself hasn't fared quite so well as seems to be normal on these. Proper update in just a tick.

[vulgalour]

Another day, but sadly not another dollar. Still in the honeymoon period with the Skoda, my brother and I are finding it easier to be motivated to continue the mucking out at the moment. One thing we forget to mention was that the car came with a Smurfette amid all the horrible air fresheners, and she was quickly moved on to the towing eye on the back, as is my brother's wont.

 

There was much cleaning done. Gave the boot plastics a scrub with Stardrops in hot water and a scrubbing brush while the carpet got treated to at least three vacuumings and shampooed twice with Vanish Oxy-clean to get the worst of the stains out. Ideally, this could do with another shampoo to the carpet, but it's fresh and cleaner by far than it was so it'll do until we can get a better product for the job to lift the rust, tree and oil stains out. When finished, all the plastics got a wipe over with Autoglym Rubber & Vinyl. We're missing one corner trim (driver's side) and need to source a replacement slam-panel trim as the one in the car is damaged.

 

 

 

The parcel shelf only needed a vacuum on the bigger portion, the smaller portion was going to be shampooed until I noticed it's missing a lug so we'll be looking for a replacement to that instead.

 

 

We also finished off the carpet under the rear bench.

 

Here you can just about see the difference between the cleaned and shampooed and scrubbed passenger side and the as-was driver's side. Lots and lots of work to get to this level of unremitting greyness.

 

 

There's a speck of brightness in the fabric on the seat facings, which I quite like.

 

The dashboard also got a scrub. I ought to get a picture of that glovebox in action, it's the strangest glovebox design I've encountered and really ought to open up into a cocktail cabinet.

 

Obviously, all that scrubbing was going to generate a grim bucket. Here is the grim bucket.

 

Then it was time to give the driver's side the same treatment. It looks like the interior has just had fizzy pop and sweets and popcorn and baby vomit liberally sprayed around. You should've seen the size of the sneeze stain on the windscreen!

 

 

 

We strongly believe Wayne and Waynetta Slob may have owned this Felicia, as evidenced by such delights as the steering wheel.

 

The driver's seat was likewise Slob-tastic but the pictures don't really demonstrate this until you see the second bucket of grim lurking just in shot.

 

 

Eventually, after about 4-5 hours of deep cleaning, the minicab smell is banished and the interior is looking and smelling somewhat more like a new car again.

 

 

The rear bench had to be put back in to save space in the house and we suspect it's been peed on at least once by the previous owners' dog/s and/or children and/or elderly relatives. Thankfully, it doesn't smell and the seats are a doddle to get in and out of the car. It looks more cramped than it is back there too, I found it quite comfortable in an upright seating position sort of way, with plenty of head and leg room.

 

Another big job coming up is the engine bay, which hasn't been touched by us or the garage my brother bought it from. The inner wing rails show how bad this car was before the garage gave it a quick pressure wash.

 

 

 

Eventually, we got a bit bored of cleaning and it being a relatively fair day we turned our attention to the rusty arch with the flap wheel.

 

 

Really not that bad. The other arch (picture eaten by camera) is less bad than I was expecting too, though will need a repair patch/careful temporary sculpture to see it looking the best it can. In the meantime, this has been liberally treated to Kurust overnight and will be approached anew tomorrow. Likewise with the tailgate which has, unfortunately, rusted through in a small localised area. We can arrest the development of further rust, but it may need a replacement tailgate as it looks like a tricky repair.

 

I had taken some pictures of the car with the new boots it swapped with the Polo but the camera ate those too. We found the PCD, centre bore and other important dimensions of the Tarantula alloys on the Polo match the Felicia steels so we swapped on a whim only to find the Tarantulas look better on the Skoda and the Felicia steels look excellent on the Polo. Turn up for the books that as I'd rather fallen out of love with the Tarantula items. Providing the Felicia steels fit the front of the Polo properly (brake calipers are often an issue) I'll be very happy.

 

I shall finish this update with this moody picture of the Felicia that the camera didn't eat. We stole a number plate light to replace the blown sidelight bulb up front because my bulb kit has gone walkies again.

[Station]

I had one in the early 2012 and it was brilliant, but boring. Probably the worst car to sell, they seem to go from 150 - 500 quid mot'd/tax and you get messed around by complete bellends, it seems to attract that type of person. The heater is -ferocious- and you will be driving round in the deepest, coldest winter with it on full blast and the window wide open, you could probably temper steel in there. You feel about 10 metres in the air driving it, but it's a comfy, cozy cockpit, esp in brown, as mine was. I hate to say it, but I'd love another one.

There are a couple of points - the windscreen seal will leak, the thermostat will probably be broken and the corner where the wing meets the bonnet will be 'going' (no arch liners). The engine will also rattle like a bastard, but your's may have the sound proofing, so it won't be bad. Adjusting tappets is a 15 min job.

[RedSparrow]

What's nice about this is you've probably just dramatically increased the life expectancy of this car. In other hands it probably would've continued to be treated like shit and would've been scrapped in 2 years time.

Just shows what a bit of elbow grease and effort can do.

[vulgalour]

Agreed, the heater is a bit fierce and it's a comfy (if not inspiring) place to sit. No apparent leaks from the windscreen or problems with the thermostat as yet, but we have the familiar rust spot on the front wing-bumper intersection. It looks like this one might have had arch liners at one point due to the holes in the bumper but they've since been removed, either that or there's just holes there for no reason. The engine does rattle, in part because of a slack timing chain but also suspected tappets which I think you've just confirmed for us with your statement, both things that are up for fettling when the oil is changed and flushed.

 

I've been expressing the opinion - which appears to be shared - to my brother that if all cars are 'just cars' then why not look after the one you have, especially when it's as solid as this one? He's owned much worse and scrapped much better, this one should see him well for a few years yet as a family hack, especially if it receives his usual care when it comes to cleanliness and maintenance.

[eddyramrod]

Excellent! No more to say really, carry on...

[Rocket88]

These are tough little bastards, they really are. That will look really nice when you've finished, but would look better in purple..........

[mattblack]

Excelent purchase, looks like that has a few more years life left in it now. I don't know if it's a common fault but a lad I worked with a few years ago had one and one of the front spring cups rotted and parted company with the strut, might be worth checking.

 

I had a late Favorit with the single point injection, I thought it was great little engine and pretty pokey for a 1.3. I think maybe the ali rocker cover makes the tappets sound worse if they are rattling a bit. No shortage of spanner-swinging room in the engine bay!

[Morgan84]

A tow bar would be a good addition to add to the cars usefull possibilities

[beko1987]

You should post this up on Detailing World! Loving the interior work so far, as already said you've added another 10 years to this already, and subsequent cleaning will be alot easier!

 

Giving me much motivation to crack on with the ZX now. I was looking at Felicia's the other week, some bargains to be had!

[Morgan84]

Its always nice to have a car fresh and clean inside and out;with the inside of a used car though,its much nicer to sit in your own dirt and stains ( if you make any),rather than those of a previous owners !

[oldford]

They're good little cars, a couple of items to watch are the outer CV boots - they tend to get through them and the ignition barrels can jam. Barrel replacement isn't too bad, I've done them at the roadside, but they're complicated in that the new keys will need coding to the immobiliser, for which you'll need the four digit log in code which Skoda can no longer supply. There are ways around this such as swapping the transponder from the key, but they tend to be stuck in quite well, taping the old key up next to the reading coil, or plugging in with some software to try and read it.

 

Watch out for the alternator voltage regulator going, they start putting out 19 or so volts, symptoms are an eggy smell from the cooking battery, the radio randomly turning off and the airbag light coming on. Regulators are available separately and can be fitted in around 10 minutes with the alternator still on the car.

 

We've got a M plate one at work that we haven't driven, it's got 128 miles on the clock.

 

The colour is Diamond Silver, paint mixing code 9102.

[purplebargeken]

A worthy buy!

[Akron]

Did you get the removable carry case that fits under the centre console?