i actually posted this on this site less than 4 weeks ago its in the door shut in the rear door,dont ask which side though as its a while since ive had one in my mits,i would go for offside though
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\"a little man in a big world/\"
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I might be completely off the mark as I'm only going on memory, but I think it's somewhere under the front footwell.
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Obviously my memory has now gone altogether...:-((
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Not necesarily Stuart - it depends whether Horatio means the front luggage compartment or the rear engine cover. England expects that he will tell us.
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Thanks for the confidence builder...:-)
However, I did get the impression that Horatio does mean the engine compartment lid by the wording of his query.
It shouldn't take long to find out....
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Trunk at the front has a side hinge.
www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4313/skopix3.html
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I agree with Stuartli and think the poster is asking about the rear engine bay lid, not the side opening front bonnet.
If there's no answer posted by tomorrow night (reckon it's a bit late now! ;-) I'll call my Czech Father-in-law who drives a ?koda 105, and ask him.
(No need for a virtual beer; thanks to Telediscount the call will only be 2p per minute)
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If it's the engine compartment, open n/s near door and pull handle disclosed on front of wheel arch. If front luggage compartment, just ahead of driver's door high up below parcel shelf and above radio speaker (if any).
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Thankyou all, and Lud and Oldman,
It is the rear engine cover I want. It is a 2 door - I think - so no rear doors.
The front bonnet release was by the drivers side, so as Lud says, I'll look on front passenger side for the rear release.
I'll let you know when I find it.
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It is the rear engine cover I want. It is a 2 door - I think - so no rear doors.
It must be a Rapid then. From the same site posted by Henry K above, see www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4313/morepix3.html
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There is another problem with the Estelle side opening front boot lid, it opens on the wrong side. This means that you have to stand in the middle of the road to load or unload !
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Not really. It opens quite wide. You can load from in front of the car.
Typical piece of idiot Jasper Carrott-type Skoda bashing, none, but I'm afraid you are in very plentiful company.
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it opens on the wrong side. This means that you have to stand in the middle of the road to load or unload !
What's wrong with standing in front of the car to do it as per Henry's link above?
www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4313/luxskoda.gif
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There is another problem with the Estelle side opening front boot lid, it opens on the wrong side. This means that you have to stand in the middle of the road to load or unload !
Perfectly logical in it's home country, where they drive on the right
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Bit of a silence from horatio.
If the release on the rear edge of the N/S door opening doesn't release the lid with an audible click, the cable may be broken or displaced. By crouching or lying behind the car you can reach up inside the engine compartment and work the latch by hand.
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Well, I wasn't Skoda bashing. The side opening bonnet was a good idea, obviously designed for pavement loading. Unfortunately British pavements are on the wrong side of the car. They can be loaded from the front, but this defeats the whole object of the bonnet.
Actually I've got a lot of respect for the pre VW Skodas, I worked on them for five years and did the Skoda factory training course at Kings Lynn. One thing I remember clearly was an engine they had running for 24hrs a day at about 20% above max recommended revs. They waited until something gave up, and then looked for ways of improving the failed part. Apparently the engines used to run for weeks without attention. Maybe not the same as today's R and D but it was cheap and cheerful. It still remains though, that they were cheap and sometimes shoddy. The main dealer I worked for at the time allowed 4 hours for a PDI including AA recommended mods and adjustments.
Another urban myth I can dispel is the belief that Skodas were assembled in jails by prisoners, they weren't but some body panels were pressed out in jails, to be assembled by civilians at the factory. Overall - you got what you paid for.
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Sorry none, you misrepresented yourself and are obviously no Jasper Carrott parroter (there are a lot of them though!)
In my opinion though if you could cope with an Estelle you got something a bit better than what you paid for. I agree though that some body and ancillary parts were shoddy (starters and alternators were weak). Trouble was they were selling an early-60s plugs-and-points car in the age of the electronic engine and hydraulic tappet, and a lot of people neglected them. Naturally they would then run badly, and being a bit gutless to start with (especially the 1-litre engine) seemed slow and hopeless. The kingpins needed an industrial high-pressure grease gun to lubricate them (something that could make the difference between an MoT pass and a fail).
The engine was a bit complex too, as Aprilia has pointed out, and once badly overheated needed a total rebuild.
But I really liked my Skodas. They were dependable, economical and fun, if a bit prolo.
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I used to share transport at one time with a pal who had a Skoda Estelle and then a Lada Riva.
He used to go all over the country in them and never, to the best of my knowledge, did either let him down.
In fact Czech engineers were as good as most at the time and the Skodas used to do very well in the RAC Rally over a period of about 10 years, winning their class each time.
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Married to a wonderful Czech lady and exposed to Czech engineering for some years now, I echo the above sentiment; The Czech machine tools I've seen have been superbly made and none of the many old ?kodas I've known have been unreliable. Even in the depths of winters that typically make our coldest ones seem like the Tropics, they start on the button. Great little power units. What is unfortunately poor however, even by Western standards of the same era, is the bodyshell and trim quality. Not that I would have liked to hit something in my 1984 MG Metro either, I certainly wouldn't like to hit something in my Father-in-law's 1984 (or 1985, not sure) ?koda 105, even disregarding that the front seats slide backwards and forwards as the ratchets are broken and the intertia reel belts are jammed in one position too!
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Back in the late 70's, my father in law (to be) retired and returned from Switzerland to his birthplace, now in the DDR. Before going, he bought an Estelle in Switzerland. This caused much confusion whenever he crossed the border (pensioners were allowed to leave the country for short periods) as not only was the Estelle rare in the land of the Trabant, but this one had alloys, casette player and, ta-ra! a vinyl roof! They wondered if he was a party official to have such a highly spec'd car!
Normal waiting list for a car was 5-7 years; when you finally got it, you ordered a replacement body, as by the time it arrived, the original would be well rusted...
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Lud, the engines were odd in as much as they had a cast iron head and aluminium block with wet liners. Overheating did mean a complete stripdown to replace liner seals.
The S100 / 110 were a bit more reliable as they had a large engine driven rear mounted fan and radiator - they were a bit overcooled. The Estelles had a front mounted radiator and an electric fan, with hoses running from engine to front grille. This presented problems with bleeding and subsequent overheating. Another problem that emerged with the Estelle was that of a very noticeable vibration period at about 3000 rpm. Same engine as the S range but without the damping effect of the fan. It really used to rattle things about.
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The 1200 engine, which was quite zippy in LSE form, did have very strong crankshaft vibration periods and a favourite speed which was, if I remember correctly, about 3000 rpm. But it would scream away at 5.5K happily.
The 1300 was much less speed sensitive but also less willing to scream. But then it didn't need to so much. The 8-port 136 engine (or the rare fuel-injected 135) was better still. Needed to be balanced though.
None of my Estelles ever overheated except as the result of a failed fan or a warped cylinder head resulting in coolant loss. The front radiator/electric fan system worked fine. The 1200 had an oil cooler in the engine compartment as well.
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I had a friend who swore by them, she was involved in a horrendous accident one night. My submisison at the time was that if she was in a modern Western (ideally German) car she would have required far less rehabilitation after the serious head injuries she sustained. The thing was a horrid car based on 1950s technology, even the engineers at the Skoda Factory were ashamed of them towards the end. The thing was a recycled Renault designed in the days of post war austerity. Autocar had the bare faced cheek to favourably compare it with a Porsche at one time.....honestly.
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Didn´t someone use an Estelle as the basis for a very nice-looking Porsch Speedster kitcar recently? It might even have been in the Sat Telegraph.
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Didn´t someone use an Estelle as the basis for a very nice-looking Porsch Speedster kitcar recently? It might even have been in the Sat Telegraph.
It was the Banmoco Spyder - the company website no longer exists so they may have ceased trading.
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It was the Banmoco/Banham Spyder - the company website no longer exists so they may have ceased trading.
PS I've just found this photo if anyone's interested
homepage.ntlworld.com/andy.murdoch1/spyder.html
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Thanks for that Chris S. I remember the thing, and it is nice looking. But I remember thinking too that a properly sorted VW floorpan is the best basis for one of those. There was a 550 replica on Fifth Gear the other night, quicker than Tiff Needell in a Westfield Eleven and a damn sight tidier too. I reckon Needell's example needed some chassis fine-tuning, although he seemed to enjoy keeping it on the road.
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There was a 550 replica on Fifth Gear the other night, quicker than Tiff Needell in a Westfield Eleven and a damn sight tidier too.
Looked like the Eleven was on authentic 'low grip' 1950s tyres! Nice though.
Back on Skodas, I think Autocar's headline was "More fun than a GTi and handles like a Porsche" or something?
That was the Rapid coupe which had semi trailing arm rear suspension rather than the more savoury swing axles on the Estelle!
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Actually Garethj the 130 and 136 saloon (there weren't many of those) had the same semi-trailing rear suspension as the 136 Rapid. It gave a better ride than the swing axle setup and much more forgiving handling, without the lift-off oversteer with which the swing axle cars could test your reflexes when they were in a frisky mood. As long as you kept your foot buried in the machinery, both setups gripped very well. But the bearings at each end of the stub axle on the trailing arm tended to get noisy, and spares became hard to get even in the Czech republic.
I have two stub axle and bearing sets if anyone out there has a Skoda and wants them.
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Thanks too from me for that link Chris S - very interesting.
Happy memories of our two Favorits - underrated car, practical, once drove it back from Milan to Lincoln in one hit.
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