AnnoyingPentium's Adventures - Fabia Fettling and Other Nonsense

[Wibble]

Excellent news!

[RoverFolkUs]

Not bad just to have that one advisory! Definitely worth checking the front brake hose ferrules a bit more closely when you've next got the wheel off. 

They're a bit hidden from view from the MOT tester but I've quite often found them to be in terrible condition and rotten to nothing if looking closer, with the wheel off and protective cover peeled back. 

Especially in that there Scotland!

[RichardK]

I hate ferul brake hoses. So vicious compared to domesticated ones

[rainagain]

14 hours ago, RichardK said:

I hate ferul brake hoses. So vicious compared to domesticated ones

Don’t blame the hoses, blame the owners is what I say. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Seems I've had this three years now.

 

Jesus Christ.

 

Nearly 40k miles in my ownership. Cost me approximately 19p per mile to run on repairs and fuel so that's not bad in my book. 

Aiming for it to tick over to 100k miles by the end of the year.

[AnnoyingPentium]

The lesser used Fabia...

I'll be honest, this has been almost absolutely faultless since purchasing the Vectra (shame I can't say the same about the Vec, but AVAS). Since the spring replacement at the start of the year, I've had a hell of a bang coming from the driver's side front suspension. After much testing of components, it's the new shock absorber that's not doing its job. Replacement on the way, but it drives superb provided you avoid sudden changes to road surface/height.

Averaging a good 39/40mpg if I'm lucky, and now on nearly 94,000 miles.

I still think it's a great wee car, and it's the only one I can get the dog in and out of because he doesn't like the Vauxhall, and the Duster is too high up. Maybe Volvo estate time, it's only natural, surely?

[AnnoyingPentium]

This is still here. Running well*, it does minimal mileage now (about 20 miles a week) as I just use the Vectra mostly.

It's now got new seats inside, as the Bohemia ones I had from @JMotor's mate were very tired getting, and uncomfortable as a result. So I've got cool* patterned ones from the top spec Elegance. They're allegedly heated as well. Just need to get the looms from another car, although Kufatec in Germany do sell them brand new still!

Picking up new alloys in a couple of weeks to really tidy it up externally, then can get the new wing painted properly. Feel like I'm doing it a disservice just letting it go in terms of appearance.

I also washed* it (chucked wax and a power washer over it) for the first time in a while.

Now on 95k miles, I want to use it a bit more, when the shite weather comes in, it'll come into its own.

Thought about selling this, especially since it's hardly used now, but it costs buttons to run, and apart from the brake hose malfunction in Stirling, it's always there when I need it. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Whilst waiting for the Vectra to bomb its MOT, I'm cutting about in this. The windscreen really needed cleaned, that then meant I did the side windows... and eventually the whole car. Whoops.

[Bmwdumptruck]

Cracking thread. We bought our lad a 1.4 16v Ambiente about 6 years ago.  Previously owned by an old fella that had it dealer serviced every year even though it only did 2-3k a year. They certainly skinned him, when you read through the invoices he had so many brake rebuilds and new plugs alternate years it was rediculous.  Have to admit it didn’t get that with us.  The lad took it from 60 to 130k, we never changed the plugs or cam belt. Mainly because he’s useless and I rarely got to see it. Even oil changes often went 12-15k before I’d notice how many miles he’d done since I last changed it.  I’d get to see it mot time, and most years had a reasonable list, bushes, springs, lamba sensor, coil packs, more brakes……. But everything I did to it just went well. Bolts undid rather than snapping.  Even the exhaust heat shield bolts came undone without much effort when I did the lamba.  Have to admit I was very impressed with it, our previous Sharans were never as good as this.  Ultimately it died early last year, he’d ended up homeless and had walked away from a good job (good for him anyway), and ended up in a hostel.  He’d also been caught a second time for no insurance….like I say he’s utterly useless.  So off it went to scrap earlier this year. I did manage to salvage a decent set of Falkens off it, and the new coil packs.  Just in case he ever got enough money for another, but it’s holly unlikely.  
So instead……we’ve bought ourselves one😂😂

We’ve been keeping our eyes out for a similar 1.4 16v 100hp in Estate variety in Red. Love a red car me, always have.  And this one turned up a few weekends back, not too far away. Super low miles at 47k.  Collected it Saturday.  Bought as a runabout and to replace my Astra diesel estate.  It’ll do the odd tip run when needed as the wife doesn’t like me putting crap in her Mazda 6 tourer.  Not had much time to check it over yet, and I’m away to Spain on my bike next week, and we’ve got Solar going on the roof as soon as I get back, but then I’ll get more of a chance to have a better look round it.  I have managed to collect a set of 14” alloys for it yesterday, thinking I’ll stick the Falkens on those rather than the ditchfinders it’s currently on.  
 

Very interested in the cup holder you replaced the ashtray with. Where’d you find that? 
And, we’ve been investigating your home area the last few summers.  I’ve had a couple of visits to the biker hotel in Moffat and have also stopped in Garlieston with the wife in our Moho.  It’s becoming our go to starting place for our summer holidays, three or four nights in Galloway then up to FtBill Bunree campsite for 9-10nights.  

[AnnoyingPentium]

37 minutes ago, Bmwdumptruck said:

Very interested in the cup holder you replaced the ashtray with. Where’d you find that? 

Nice write-up there!

I bought the cup holder through someone I know! They're increasingly rare, but I'll see if I can source the part number for you.

[Yoss]

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to hijack your thread briefly. I could have put it in the lazy spotters thread but I feel it would have been lost there. I drove past this on the way home, did a double take and had to drive round the block and come back. 

I've never seen a mk1 in Rallye Green, I'm sure it's a colour that was only introduced on the mk2 on both Fabia and Octavia. 

It looked mint, even the wheels were shiny black which is no mean feat this time of year. But apart from the colour it looked absolutely standard, it wasn't barried at all. Even the wheels are standard mk1 VRS just painted black, again not an option on the mk1 but was on mk2. The interior looked completely original and clean too. Very very impressed. 

Right you can have your thread back now, thanks. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to hijack your thread briefly. I could have put it in the lazy spotters thread but I feel it would have been lost there. I drove past this on the way home, did a double take and had to drive round the block and come back. 

I've never seen a mk1 in Rallye Green, I'm sure it's a colour that was only introduced on the mk2 on both Fabia and Octavia. 

It looked mint, even the wheels were shiny black which is no mean feat this time of year. But apart from the colour it looked absolutely standard, it wasn't barried at all. Even the wheels are standard mk1 VRS just painted black, again not an option on the mk1 but was on mk2. The interior looked completely original and clean too. Very very impressed. 

Right you can have your thread back now, thanks. 

That's lovely! I've always wondered what one would look like in that colour. Must be a custom job, but very good nevertheless. 

[Yoss]

Actually, I just checked and DVLA says it's black, which only bits of it are. I think it might have been done quite recently looking at how tidy it was. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Still going, just!

About to be hit with a shed load of mileage after sitting mostly dormant for the past few weeks. Oh this is going to be interesting!

Will do a write-up of how it and I get on again since I've been using the Vectra more lately. The drive around the block with it earlier was... questionable.

[Wibble]

Liked in anticipation of what’s to come.

[AnnoyingPentium]

It has been a wee while.

Since the last post, I took the car to Glasgow once and deemed it a nightmare to drive. Would sway all over the road at speed and had as much of a squint as Columbo.

Anyway, one message later to a mate who had previously offered to carry out some work on it, should I supply parts, and it made its way down to Kirkcudbright. 

It's had:

- A driveshaft

- Gearbox mount

- Wishbone bushes (the 'console' ones)

- Another lower arm (passenger side this time)

- droplinks (again)

- driver's side shock absorber (the noisy one, turns out it could be pushed down by hand... fun)

Plus I just got him to chuck my new alloys on it whilst he was sorting it out. Looks a lot better now, to me at least.

Drives really really well, but the tracking is still slightly off, so I was meant to be taking it to my usual tyre fitters in Kilmarnock for new rubber as well. Until this happened.

Fuck, that'll be another window regulator. I've ordered one and it has since arrived. Been away somewhere exotic* (Cumbernauld) last night into today so will try and tackle the regulator today when I return home.

Car's lucky I don't want to cube it... yet! 😂

[AnnoyingPentium]

Well that was a fuckabout.

Fuckin' rivets, man!

Replaced this for the new unit. It works, it's not as good as it was before it broke, but I did buy the cheapest panel available.

Rivets replaced with Lokut nuts (?) and self tapping screws. Same as the other side now.

Once again broke the locking pin, but it's not really needed as you can still control the central locking from the buttons on the driver's door.

That'll do.

Might wash it after tyre fitting that has been arranged for tomorrow now as it was meant to be on Friday.

4 Pirellis ordered, don't know what they'll be like but the reviews look good, and honestly it's only doing a small amount of miles now.

Quality.

[EyesWeldedShut]

On 30/11/2024 at 10:10, AnnoyingPentium said:

Kirkcudbright

Jeez - that's local to you  
11/10 for perseverance (or bloody mindedness) though - top job 

[AnnoyingPentium]

500ish miles (but not 500 more) done since the work was carried out. Car ticked over past 96,000 miles now.

Overall, drives well enough, I think.

Still manky as anything, which makes it look a million times rougher than it actually is. I'll sort that eventually.

Currently wanting to tackle the bigger issues, which seems to be nailing down the back end a bit, as it has a tendency to shimmy a bit now that the front has been tightened up. Rear axle bushes do creak, so they're on the list to be replaced with polyurethane replacements, and I'll source a nice pair of rear shock absorbers as well. Afterwards, who knows, just work from there really.

In terms of usability, I've replaced the headlight dipped lamps for some "higher power" whiter Lucas brand ones from Halfords. With this in mind, I reckon they've got another two weeks in them, but I'll wait and see.

In other, slightly "chavvier" news, I did a thing.

No, it's not the Mk5 Golf... erm, that actually belongs to the local postie. Apparently they've had six vans break down at the main office in Ayr so they've been sent out in personal motors. Pretty cool knowing he's running an early Mk5 Golf with the 1.9 PD in it. Nice.

What I actually did, was this...

I didn't fancy one of those boot subwoofer things, they're a bit much. Underseat was a better idea. This isn't the final place it'll sit in, but it'll do for now since the carpet is meant to be coming up soon when the rear doors are getting rewired. No idea when that's going to start yet, ideally when my mate is back in the country and I'm less skint for having the doors painted.

Can't recall if I've said previously, but I've got the car booked in with my local bodywork bit for them to give the front wing a proper respray so it actually matches the rest of the car properly.

Winning, or something.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Have ended up temporarily removing the subwoofer as it seems dingbat here had wired it to a constant live as opposed to a switched live, despite the paperwork for both the subwoofer and the stereo stating that the wire I was using was switched.

I went out to the car on Christmas Eve to find the battery completely flat, with the car helpfully deadlocked which meant I could only get the driver's door open with the key. Further helpfully, what I needed from the car was in the boot.

A plan had been hatched! I would open the driver's door, and reach in to open the rear doors from the inside. Ha ha ha... no. Deadlocked, remember? No way at all. I'm not going to beat around the bush here, but I'm not particularly slim. The next hour of my life included removing various bits of this car just to try and throw myself between the front seats to reach far enough into the back of the car to pull the rear seats down.

Ended up getting stuck between the front seats anyway, part way between the front and back of the car, stretching to the point where I thought my shoulder was going to pop out of the socket, just to reach the fucking pull handle for the rear seat. Went to pull it, and it came away in my hand. 

Managed to squirm back into the front of the car, went and armed myself with tools like I should have done in the first place, and fitted the battery from the Vectra. Got the stuff out the boot. Winning*.

 

In other news, since getting it running again, I've been using it a little for work and that. Frozen inside and out was becoming a theme too, since the interior is like a fish tank.

Long term me has the great solution to fix the water ingress issues, but short term me is just going to moan about it.

[somewhatfoolish]

Ice on the inside of the windscreen is just such fun*.

[big_al_granvia]

at least get one of these for de-icing in deepest east ayrshire https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/ultimate-speed-electric-ice-scraper/p10022359

[reb]

22 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Ice on the inside of the windscreen is just such fun*.

I remember many years ago when I had my 205 in regular use it would ice up inside, which was great fun since the heater blower just didn't work at all.

One winter's night I was driving around aimlessly with a girl from work and she asked "can we take the pug out". Quite why you'd want to bimble around at 3am on a winter's night in a tin can with no heating, I don't know, but she was nice so we drove whatever proper car I had at that point (probably 2.5 10v 850 saloon?) to where I was keeping the 205, and we spent about an hour scraping ice inside and out. I kept suggesting that we give up and go back to the car with the furnace like heater that would save us in a crash. She was adamant that we kept going.

There's no real point to this story other than some cars are best left alone during winter unless you have no other option.