doll

Another vote for Diamond Silver - it's pretty close for touching up.

The Mk1 has been running them since early 2009 and the car is still in the family as I gave it to my dad. I fitted them with OE shock absorbers and the SKF protection kits with bump stops and have had no problems at all. The car does around 6000 miles per year and lots of that is inner city, so speed bumps, pot holes, traffic calming etc. The Mk2 I did fairly recently to be honest, but they have been on for over a year now and it does 10k a year. Hope this helps.

I used to work for SKF so I am probably a bit biased. But I have fitted them to both my Mk1 and my Mk2 and never had a problem - SKF make a lot of suspension bearings OE....the rubber mounts and bump stops are sourced from OE quality suppliers. You wont have a problem

Ah my baby! Would'nt have thought that you'd have sold up Andrew!? I kept this car in A1 condition as well and is a testament to Andrew 25k later to be in the same condition. The leather was done by Seat Surgeons and the door cards were also done at the same time. The EGR mod was carried out to get rid of the stutter when I had it and the timing belt change was a full change including all tensioners and water pump. I also had a full multi-v belt kit with new tensioner as well. The wheels were re-furced by the Wheel Specialists in Birmingham. Bit of extra info and history on the car there for anyone interested! Good luck with the sale mate....my sister always wanted this and i'm sure she would have taken it, but unfortunately she has been out of works for over six months now following redundancy. Always the wrong time!

I've got the same as Nick P, with the Young Expert Plus seats. The bases fit with no problem at all and the leg extends down and sits on the floor. Also, as Nick said they do not foul the width of the seat by much so you do not lose loads of leg room like most ISOFIX combinations.

I'm not sure on the FL vRS's, but on the earlier vRS's with Stream HU etc., you needed to switch the display on in the menu for the OE fitment parking sensors to display on the screen. You can usually tell if they are aftermarket sensors - if they look 'pushed in' to the bumper, rather than the bumper looking moulded to accept the OE sensors, then I would say they are aftermarket. Another way of telling is from the paint finish on the sensors; if they look a different finish to the bumper, again they are probably aftermarket.

I guess from the OP that he is talking about the PD in vRS terms rather than the PD in general. And I would also guess his mate has told him of the various DPF preblems associated with PD vRS's. In the case of the vRS; there is really no comparison between the PD and CR units. The CR models are far more refined, better on fuel and far less problematic than the predecessor. If you are looking at newer cars, then I would look for a later CR vRS if you need it to be diesel. The petrol vRS would be my choice if diesel economy isnt number one on your list of requirements.

I dont understand what this has to do with alloys being less safe :wonder: An Audi R8 V10 vs. a Skoda Octavia 1.4TSI...where is the comparison? 500 bhp vs. 120 bhp in the wet? A couple of equivalent skoda's of the same power, one with alloys and one with steels surely is a fair comparison. I would also like to bet that lap times would be no different at all under those test conditions.

Hi Matey, I'll have this off you. Cheers, Mark.

The top one looks like the right one to me. OE number should be 1T0 598 611 - the SKF ref is VKBA 3644. HTH

That was it yes....and about the same power as my Octavia running on 2 cylinders! To be fair it was a nice looking little car at the time. It was the Sport pack model in black, so had lots of toys for its age. It took an independant and the dealer 16 weeks in total to get it running right after the belt break....after that it's fate was sealed though unfortunately! We havent had a Renault since after the experience of the dealers - I should have said the £2k was a negotiated price! I just don't take the risk with belts now - if I buy a second hand car, they get changed straight away. VAG reliability or not, my last Fabia and 2 Octavia's have had the same despite being under mileage and recommended year change.

Hi mate, Yeah it 's so easy to put on and take off - but I was dissapointed it didnt go in the cutout. But you are right, it is a nice towbar. Mines a Thule 9 series (9607 or something like that) and it works fine with my towball. I've had it about 4 years and it's used at least once a week. It has been all over the country without any problems. Once it's clamped it doesnt move at all. My mate bought the 2 bike version and he had a nice locking mechanism, with built in security lock on his towball attachment (you just push a metal flap down once it's on the towball). Mine was different when I got it, as it has a threaded bolt that you tighten up on the ball with a supplied flat spanner. I also bought the Thule lock that then fits over the bolt for security - I guess mine was just an earlier version or something. I would recommend it for the money - at the time I paid £55 from Halfords (one of these % off weekends) and my mate paid £50 for his also from Halfords.

Here you go mate:

I would'nt want to take the risk to be honest. From personal experience, I'd rather spend a couple of hundred quid every four years than the price of an engine rebuild. I've had 2 cambelt breaks in my driving lifetime, way before the mileage recommendation. Our Renault Megane dTi was the worst....we had the car a month when it happened whilst on the motorway. It was just outside of the recommendations for the yearly change but 40k off the mileage change. Completely wrote off the engine and cost nearly £2k in total, as it even managed to damage the fuel pump on the frikin hateful thing (can you still tell i'm bitter!?).

Not quite. The DPF needs a high, consistent temperature to regen - like that found at motorway or dual carriageway speeds. Driving it hard does raise the temerature, but actually creates more particles as it comes on and off boost more often and more agressively, creating more soot for the DPF to catch. I had my Leon FR from new in Feb 07 and put 87k on it before I sold it last year. Whilst I was commuting to Luton (from Brum) to work I had no real DPF problems (just the sensor problems that blighted the early 170 PD's). When the journey got local (6 miles round trip per day), the car was in regen all the time. Even a couple of extended journeys to take in a dual carriageway didnt really help. The CR's are much better than the PD's in this respect as they produce far less soot.