I hope you'll search for the list of possible cause for the check light to come on.

As far as I can see, it's usually something to do with the emissions system, but (unlike my FZ6 which puts the fault codes on the display), you've got to plug in a diagnostic reader to find out what the cause is... 

Well, I've put down a deposit on a 2010 Fabia 1.2 2 HTP which has done 118,000 miles and is priced at £2245.

I rode to the dealership (pretty much just a gravel area on a farm that is next to another dealers/ workshop) although it wasn't until I was halfway there that I realised I'd not brought my driving shoes    but I found that if I just undid the zips and velcro on my riding boots, I had enough freedom of movement to control the car.

I had a bit of a chat with the dealer first, then took it for a test drive (he didn't even ask for my driving licence, but I was hardly likely to leave my bike there and vamoose with the car!)

It was a little tricky to drive to start with as the height of the brake pedal was much greater than what I'd got used to in the Corsa I'd learned on and, of course, the clutch feel was different, but I drove it around (mostly on 30 and 40 mph roads) for several miles.

The only real problem I had was on a single lane hump backed bridge with traffic lights at the top. I had to stop, so I figured I'd be able to practice a hill start, unfortunately I got the clutch/ accelerator balance wrong the first time and stalled it, much to the annoyance of the BMW driver behind me who decided beeping his horn was the correct way to help...

Anyway, the second time I got it right and then I tried some reversing in a car park which went pretty well and on the way back I got onto a 50mph road and tried out 5th gear.

From my (very limited!) experience, there weren't any nasty noises, although the Check Engine light was on, however I was told that it was an issue with a filter that they were going to fix. There was also a "clunk" when I tried a hot start, but (supposedly) that was a loose exhaust bracket which, again, would be fixed.

Once they say they've sort those out, I'm going to pay for an RAC inspection and the dealer has signed up to the AA Car Standards code. It will come with free AA cover that actually makes no difference to me as I have Any Vehicle RAC cover, but WTH! Also the MOT runs out in September, so they're going to do a new one for me.

The tyres are only about a year old and barely worn, so that's ok.

One thing I have discovered is that the Fabia needs the Timing Chain, Tensioner and Water Pump replaced every 60k miles, so I guess someone decided to flog it off before they needed to pay for between £500 and £800 of work, however, on further reflection, even including that, it still bring the car in at a maximum of £3,100 so that's well in budget for me.

It comes with a 3 month guarantee, so fingers crossed everything goes smoothly...

The surf forecast for this morning was looking good and, when I checked the webcam I thought "Great, some waves!"

So I jumped on the motorbike, got two yards out of my shed and realised something definitely didn't feel right.

Then I thought "Bugger, a flat tyre..."   

No surfing today

I tried posting the link myself, however although the post would appear, it was completely blank.

It's probably something to do with SMF, but I don't know what.

Let's try something...

hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVfvRhWbj8

... ok, that worked, just replace the xx with tt and you can see the video

I can't help you with this as such, but I saw a great tip on Facebook a while back.

Get a piece of cardboard and draw a sketch outline of the parts you're working on.

Every time you remove a bolt etc, you stick it through the cardboard in the place it came from, that way, when you reassemble everything, you know what goes where

Still looking for a car, but I've widened my search to include the Volkswagen Polo and Seat Ibiza because they're effectively the same car, although the VW costs more because of the name and the Seat because it tends to have higher spec...!

Presuming you've adjusted the cable, have you tried taking the actuator arm off and moving one "notch" further around on the mount?

I tried to get a test drive in the "Boy Racer" one last week, but just got voicemail and left them a message.

I called them again yesterday, only to find they'd sold it on the weekend.

So I called the other showroom...

... and they'd sold theirs on the weekend too..!!

Oh well, I'm not in a rush, so I'll keep looking.

I checked the resistances of the new one before fitting and before refitting the throttle bodies, just to make sure it was within spec. Graham, is the info you posted regarding diagnostics, what do the numbers refer to, and are they adjustable through the system? Where did you find that info?

The info came from the Haynes manual, but it's the same in the official Yamaha Service manual.

The values are for resistance (I think), but what really matters is that they scroll smoothly up and down through the range, from what I recally, the original TPS had an issue where it could suddenly drop to zero causing the engine to die unexpectedly.

No, I used a multimeter neither mention using the diagnostics mode. Given the findings, surely that points to the TPS? Unless you can tell me otherwise?

Try this:

With the ignition off and the kill switch on, lift the tank and disconnect the fuel pump connector.

Hold down Select and Reset and switch on, keeping the buttons pressed for about 8 seconds until all the displays disappear except for the clock and trip meter.

Press Select until you see Diag appear on the display, the press Select and Reset again for 3 seconds.

Turn the Kill Switch off and you should see Diag 01 on the display and a number.

Open and close the throttle and the numbers should scroll smoothly from between 15-17 and 97-100 which are the readings from the TPS.

If you don't get that, or it skips around, the TPS is probably faulty.

Did you check the TPS range using the Diag mode on the instruments?

There are a lot things it could be, including a loose fairing bolt (guess how I know!)

One thing that might help you isolate it is to try shifting into neutral and hitting the kill switch and seeing if you still hear the noise with the engine off.

The only other thing I can think of is to use a multimeter to check the continuity of the wires that lead from the cluster to the plugs at the front left of the fuel tank, then back through the loom to the sensors and ECU.

It's possible that you've just got a loose wire or a dodgy ground somewhere.