2005 Fabia 1.4 Petrol Help!

[herut]

I own a 2005 Fabia 1.4 Petrol, 100 HP, 'Combi' stationwagon. Unfortunately this car has been a total lemon from day 1. It has never had enough power to climb a hill with the A/C on (despite 12+ trips to the dealer) and now it gets very poor gas mileage as well. MAYBE YOU CAN HELP WITH THESE QUESTIONS:

1. DIAGNOSTICS: I have located the 16 pin connector in the dash, but I am confused as to WHICH cable/software is compatible? One source said 'ISO' and not CAN or OBD1, OBD2; yet some other sources indicate that it DOES use OBD2 or II. Any help here? (I assume I CANNOT adjust timing, idle, etc with only diagnostic cable/software, correct?)

2. TUNING: Has anyone used a KWP2000 or a GALLETTO 1250 to tune/remap a 1.4 Petrol engine? The specs in the ads (eBay and others) seem to refer to 1.4 TDI, but not my engine. Also, which software is compatible with this car and with which cable?

THANKS!

[STEWY L]

hello there herut,
sorry to hear of the problems you are having with your car,and i can't help in any way with your questions about the diagnostic connections.
all i can suggest is trying a different garage,as i believe their must be an underlying fault with your car,although having said that,i once hired a 1.4 petrol rover 214,and that was the pits when it hit a hill,especially with four of us in it!!!!!
as regards to your question of "remapping", i would say that for an awful lot of money
you would see very little return,perhaps only 8-10bhp if you were lucky, and no significant difference in torque.
if it's not turbocharged,then their isn't much to "muck around with", and for little gain performance wise, you may well see your fuel consumption rise in a somewhat disproportionate manner.
many people absolutely hate "oil burners",(diesels), but they are more adaptable when it comes to tuning.(that's not really true, but you see a bigger return for your money).
regards,
stewy.

[herut]

Thanks Stewy. I know the 1.4 Petrol, engines can't be tuned to give any real performance tweaks, BUT, I still believe that there must be a timing maladjustment (and probably others) in order for the car to be THIS bad!

As to the Diagnostics question do you know where I can turn to to find out for sure which Diagnostic cable will work with this car? Any experience with the any of the eBay cables? THANKS!

[STEWY L]

forget about e bay,the stuff on there can't be trusted to be of any worth.
you need to get in contact with ESH RULES on this forum for all your questions and supply of the correct cable at very reasonable price.
that's the place to go,just type eshrules into the search facility and your problems will be sorted.
if you haven't got enough posts under your belt to use this facility,just keep posting on here and i will answer them.
good luck,
stewy.

[paul b]

You are best speaking to Eshrules or Ross-Tech. I think you will need the 804 (I think) version, or maybe you could get away with the 409 if you're car isn't CAN BUS. This software is called VAG-COM you could purchase a cable from Eshrules or Ross Tech but the shareware software is free. If you want the fully registered stuff it costs $99.

I hate slow cars. I had a C200 Merc estate that was pants.

As mentioned, without a turbo there isn't much you can do with your car in terms of dramatically improving performance. You could start with a K&N air filter, but these can cause problems with the MAF.

Paul

[herut]

Thanks Stewy and Paul, I'll checks these sources out.

Herut

[Theresias]

A 2005 Fabia may work with versions prior to the build date of the car but apparently there is no guarantee that for example all fault codes or modules are supported. So at the end if you really want to work on that car you should head for the real thing and get VCDS either with a KEY-series or HEX+CAN series interface. Both come with the current version (thats 805.0) and will allow you to get future updates for free too.