I spent Rs 5 lakh to maintain my Fabia for 16 years and 1.35 lakh km

I feel that it is not really a big figure considering the age of the car and it cannot be compared to what it has delivered to me throughout these years.

BHPian Bsilver recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello guys, hope all of you are doing well. I own a Skoda Fabia Mk2 and it was the very first car which I got to drive in the early days.

The car stands 16.5 years as of today (26-06-2024) and was registered on 25-01-2008. This was the very first lot of the Fabia and the Classic variant. Skoda has not had a good association with their long-term reliability, but here I am sharing with you the journey, and what and all I needed to get done to the vehicle in order to maintain its drivability. Firstly, I would like to mention the pros of the vehicle.

Pros:

Everyone knows about the quality which VAG maintains across its line up of vehicles from the start of Fabia all the way to Superb, or even from a Polo to a Passat/Tiguan. But back then in the late 00s the fit and finish of each and every material on the vehicle, be it the door cards or the dashboard, every material was built to last, and fortunate enough to say that it has lasted me till date and more years to come as well.

I happen to own a Rapid as well which is my daily as of now, but the kind of versatility the Fabia has delivered throughout is impressive. I noticed that the quality difference between the old VAGs and new ones is quite a lot. For instance, the brake caliper and carrier on the Fabia were FSIII and made by ATE. I have done no paint job and the car is still wearing its original paint, only exterior detailing was done thrice in its life, 2 times by a professional and recently by me personally, and small touch ups for the bumpers.

This picture is after a thorough pressure wash.

The interiors have aged well and I do not have any fading of the dash and is still the way it was in the early days of ownership. The initial days of ownership are not told in much detail, as I only had to do regular maintenance and changed the tires at 45,000kms once and then again at 90,000kms and now they are due for a change, plus it was driven mostly by other members of the family. I usually do a deep clean for the interior every 10,000kms as I carry lots of materials in the car, sometimes even construction materials like cement bags, and jelly. This is the picture of the interior, recently when I had taken out the seats, the carpets, and interior trims.

This car embarked my journey of working on VAGs on my own, there were 2 reasons, one that I got scammed once for a clutch replacement on the Fabia and could easily avoid it, secondly being an Engineer from an education POV as well, I wanted to dismantle and see how VAGs were different from the others. So just to do work on this car, I got a tool kit from Bosch (the drilling kit as I do lots of DIYs in my home as well), but then realized it was only 1% of the tools needed, now the tool kit has grown three times in size with almost everything to work on any VAGs, including major things like removing drive shafts, the entire front etc.

Now from recent 3 years, I have been working on the Fabia on my own for most of the jobs, excluding a few related to the engine, and gearbox (detailed things about it are written down). The dashboard has minimal to no scratches on it and has a rough texture which I feel is a downer here as it collects dust really easily. The car still has the factory fabric on the seats, and the driver's seat gave up recently, will be getting an upholstery job soon.

• Engine: It comes with a 1.4TDI 3 cylinder which puts out decent enough 68BHP and 155NM of torque which I feel are really good figures to start with back in the day. The huge downside of this engine is the noise, till date I do get annoyed by the noise sometimes.
• Gearbox: Mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox which is decent enough, but I really pushed it to the limits, causing a failure, later covered in the review, but since I opened it I saw almost negligible wear and tear for a 16-year-old.
• Suspension Setup: Hard setup and felt really well built. I have hit multiple potholes at triple-digit speeds, but never faced much issue. I felt that nothing would break, but this is not the same with my Rapid, I do need to see and drive for those big ones, but with the Fabia, I somewhat felt no problem whatsoever.

Cons

• Rear Seat Space: Since it is a hatchback, there is a space cramp for those who are tall, otherwise it's not of much issue, but still the rear could be better equipped.
• Seat adjustments: The Fabia has a gear type of adjustment which sometimes gets stuck and inoperable, this is a huge drawback as some people don't find it easy to rotate the dial, it also takes quite some effort to rotate even when greased.
• No remote locking/unlocking.

After 13 years of driving, I got my hands on it, and pushed it way beyond limits which I personally don't feel anyone would've used it in such a way. Ran the car through 3 feet of water (I was still a kid back then) which caused electrical issues with the vehicle, the windows stopped operating due to this the very next day and then the locking/button blew up, which I later fixed it because it was really awkward to open the door every time someone wants to communicate, the picture of fixing the electrical issues here:

Dent to wallet: 5,000 approx. I have the costing for everything on the vehicle so I will be doing a grand total at the end for 16 years.

The windshield was cracked by someone when I had parked the vehicle, so had to get it replaced, got the Asahi India windshield from GS & Sons @ Wilson Garden. Total Cost: 6,600.

Picture here:

Huge difference in night driving, glare is non-existent.

The suspension was leaking on the front corners, and every suspension part was worn, so I decided to do a complete overhaul of the front suspension, just excluding the springs. The struts, strut mounts along with bearing, stabilizer link rods, lower control arm bushings, steering ball joints, control arm ball joints, sway bar bushings, along with repair kits for bump stops, boots etc. Did the brakes that time and went with TVS rotors and OEM VW brake pads. It was running the stock suspension till 1L kms. I put in OEM struts, but then never felt that they were strong as compared to the factory-fitted ones back in 2008.

Pictures here:

Total cost including labour: Rs. 25,800.

The V belt gave up after this, and the prime reason for this was a leaking fuel pipe, the pipe had ruptured during the working of the suspension( I had left the car there for a day, can't blame anyone), I did not have this problem before and then all of a sudden after suspension repair it shows up. This is the pipe running from the fuel filter to the pump, right above the v belt running the electronics, it was dripping on it and the V belt broke causing me to have no power steering, AC, and eventually everything came to a halt. Got this fixed and they come as a set of 3, so had to bear with it and replaced all the 3 of them.

Picture here:

I did entire interior detailing as well at that time so including that cost as well. Total cost: Rs. 8,900.

I tried to fiddle with the steering and wanted to remove it to get it reupholstered with leather, but somehow stupidly enough managed to break something in the airbag area, and till date I do not have a solution and the airbag light still glows. I ordered a new airbag online, and the timing belt/tensioners were due for a change as the car hit 1L kms, and did that as well.

Picture here:

Total cost: Rs. 19,140

After a few months, the starter motor gave up and this time it was because of a valet. The car was in gear and he had held the brake trying to start it which did not happen, and his continuous attempts drew a lot of current through the ground wire, and it melted. The starter was gone by this time, had no intention of replacing it, got it repaired at an FNG electrical shop. Total cost: Rs. 5,100.

After all of this, I started doing lots of interstate trips frequently and used to take this car along since I knew most of it was pretty good, but then I was wrong and as I stepped into a different state, the driver side drive shaft gave up. Towed back to Bangalore, got it reconditioned and since the last control arm bush replacement I had done lots of rough driving and one had worn out.

Replaced them and the total cost for both jobs was: Rs. 16,600

Later all was good and I was fuss-free for 6 months, but then I started using this car for carrying heavy loads as well. And one thing to note is, that the heavy loads were not what you think, it was 20 cement bags sometimes, equating to around 500kgs, and sometimes I carried heavy pots, machinery. So I knew there was something which is going to break now because I was stressing the components too much, but then luckily when I did all of this nothing broke. But this really shows how effortlessly the car used to pull such loads, I have been to highways with these loads at triple digits, and no sweat to the engine.

My nightmare came true and the clutch gave up first due to repeated pulls. The clutch for the Fabia did not come cheap, the entire kit cost around 17,000 and my bad luck, the FNG did not do a great job with it and didn't center it. The guy did not have a centering tool, and went to a lathe to machine out the tool, in front of me, I could have avoided this guy as the car was not even opened completely. But then he did the job god knows how, and the clutch did run for 1000kms, but this 1000kms was covered in a day, as I had to go near Goa and return back for personal work.

So I covered it with the new clutch, and the prayers did come true, I did not face anything in the middle of the night or anytime during the trip, just when I got home from the trip and started the car the next morning, a squealing sound as if the clutch is rubbing against something, so I knew it was the bearing, which was not an OEM. Then opened up the gearbox to see the bearing and the clutch was completely finished and it was a centering problem. So the previous clutch job was a complete loss for me, so ended up changing 2 clutches when I could've just changed one if I had avoided the first guy by seeing no centering tool. I also replaced the coolant reservoir as well that time.

Total cost: Rs. 67,000 rounded.

Pictures here:

This time I replaced the engine mounts, and pendulum mount and this time it really pinched me as well, because I fixed something and another thing broke in the car. The alternator was showing signs of giving up and then eventually gave up as well, and that cost me Rs. 6,500. I usually do the jobs myself when the car is in running condition, brake jobs from the past 3 years are done including the flush, all at home. EGR valve and throttle body was cleaned as well, along with a nice deep clean for the entire engine( as I had removed the bumper), and general service as well.

Picture here:

I usually take the help of my home worker to accompany me for these day jobs. All was well and I was using the Rapid as the daily and was continuing to use the Fabia like a truck, despite knowing something would break, but I did not have much of a choice in my mind. The most stressed component when carrying heavy loads is the gearbox, and mine failed after 16 years of ownership and was almost abused every day. The input and output bearing had failed and not the entire gearbox itself. The bearings are held on by plates and this set of things had given up.

There were 2 things I could do, scrap the vehicle, find a new gearbox. But then if something holds sentimental value in your heart and supports you on the lows of life, you eventually end up repairing it and keeping it running, no matter what dent it does to the wallet. I was on a hunt for a used gearbox and found none as mine was a 1.4TDI, there were many 1.2TDI in the market but not a 1.4TDI. I could only try to mate the engine with a different gearbox, but then the drawback is the adapter plates. Finding adapter plates itself is difficult, and if they fail, the car is undrivable again.

I found no used gearbox, but found a guy willing to repair it for me, I gave him the gearbox, he said to me at the start of taking the job itself, that the parts would not be of OEM quality, but they are German-made. I did not have any option and decided to get it repaired with whatever was available. The gears were fully intact after so much abuse, leaving the 2nd gear. Got the second, reverse, and the bearing replaced, and then fitted everything back, and works like day one. Cannot tell the longevity as it is only 6 months over.

But it was a sign to not use the car in a rough way, and a really expensive one for me, as I did not want to keep throwing money into an old vehicle. As of now running really smooth, and fine.

Pictures here of broken gearbox and rebuilt one:

The gearbox even after many years was in very good shape, however, the second gear was worn out, and a tooth had broken, when the bearing broke, I was in second gear, so this might be the reason why the second gear was bad. The reverse gear was also wearing out, so thought it better to replace it instead of opening stuff again and again. I wanted to go for a complete set of used gearboxes, but the problem is I do not know how much wear and tear was there in it as no one would open it and show it to you.

There was one entire set available but the guy selling was hesitant to even show me the disassembled one, so thought of not going for that. I have completely stopped carrying materials exceeding 200kgs, and continue to use the vehicle without stressing it too much. I have bought a different vehicle for the same.

A few days back I had gone for an alignment and noticed grease leaking from the CV axle, got the car home, opened it up, took it to the lathe for the work, fixed it, and all good. Took me 5 hours to do the work, and the cost was around Rs. 600 I have done many DIYs on the car and can say that I have touched most of the bolts in it. The cooling was a bit inadequate during the peak summers this year, so I thought of cleaning the condenser for the same, from the outside. This time I noticed that the radiator also was dirty, so took the entire front apart and took out the radiator to clean it outside of the vehicle.

Radiator bushings were worn out so I grabbed 4 new ones from my local parts guy for around Rs. 800. Fitted everything back, and also did a brake job as there were scoring marks on the discs. Total cost of resurfacing was Rs. 600 and got anti-seize paste as well. The entire cost for the radiator and brakes was around Rs. 1500, if I had to give it to an FNG, they quoted Rs. 3,500 for everything, which I saved upon by doing on my own.

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Verdict:

This was the very first car which I put my hands on and have made innumerable memories as well. I previously had a Hyundai, which I never worked on as did not get the permissions, but still used to open it up at a friend's place. The build quality of the entire car as I said previously is top notch. There is no rust in any of the panels or the chassis.

The area which collects a lot of grim is the one behind the fender (near the door, sideboard) and VAG owners make sure to clean it at least once a year by removing the fender lining or else it will accumulate waste and eventually rust. I made sure all these areas were cleaned at regular intervals. The engine is still running without any problems and never faced even a minor issue related to the engine. I felt, that if I had not used the car way beyond limits, then the gearbox would also be in good shape, and hence the overall drivetrain.

Some tips from a long-term view:

• Always change the oil every 8,000kms or max 10,000kms. I know that VAG recommends it after 15,000kms but I never reached that mark by the end of the year and serviced it way before that.
• If you are going hard on the throttle on the highway, then let the engine idle for at least 3 minutes before stopping it, this ensures good turbo health. The turbo would be spinning at really high speeds and does need cooling as well, which it won't get if you shut the engine.
• Always keep the engine bay clean, no matter what. It helps reduce heat build-up and also ensures the overall health of it. After a wash ensure to dry the car's suspension/subframe through a blower, if you do not have one, just drive around for 5mins. This ensures that the water does not stay in the areas like bushings, and linkages to cause any rust.
• If you drive only in the city, then at least every 6 months ensure that you go for a long spirited drive. The carbon builds up over time as the EGTs are not able to reach peaks to melt the carbon in the system. Driving on the highway or flooring it occasionally melts the carbon on its own, you do not have to open the exhaust manifold or the EGR at all to do it. This is the best way to prevent carbon build up in the long run. I have done multiple trips to different states and till date I have not faced an EGR issue.

The total cost till date has added up to 2.6L for running repairs, and general services done from start till date would be around 2.2L, so the entire cost of maintenance till date is well close to 5L, which I feel is not a really big number considering the age of the vehicle. But this cannot be compared to what it has delivered to me throughout the 16 years.

I usually get a mileage of 13-14kmpl no matter how I drive and a range of around 550 on a full tank. This equates to 250 full tanks in the entire life. Considering each one costs an average of 3,000 (fuel prices were cheap back then) equates to around 7.5L. The overall running cost would be 7.5+5=12.5L which is around 9.25rs/km. But the Fabia has served me well, and keeping the cost aside, it is a good vehicle. I would not say it's an unreliable one, because pushing way beyond what it can do obviously reduces reliability, but if I had not done it, might be a different story altogether.

But if your VAG is old be ready, it takes much more effort to maintain it. I would recommend anyone whose VAG is old to do most of the fixes at once and not make multiple trips to workstations. This would only increase the labour cost. But as far as ownership is concerned, I am pretty happy with the Fabia.

Will be attaching a few images of outstation trips here.

Overall, the driving experience of the Fabia is quite good, the car has got a lot of work done to it, so there are a few things which cannot be like factory. For instance, the interior whenever I take it apart, takes quite a lot of effort to fit back in, and one will find it really hectic to deal with the clips for the trim. I've broken many trim clips and replaced them. Due to its age, I need to lubricate the door hinges and the handles quite often, around every 4 months.

Apart from these small niggles, there is almost no creaking to minimal creaking sounds in the interior. Post the suspension change I could never get back the original sturdiness that the factory fitted had to offer. Lastly, the longevity of VAGs is good, but be ready for spending for repairs. If maintained correctly and timely then VAGs can be considered to last a long time. The car is also compact, finding parking has never been a hassle for me, and can be used for running daily errands, which I do till date.

That's it for now guys! Happy motoring!

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