yesiamtom

You could purchase spring assist kits although I don't think they are regarded as the best option. I'm sure I've seen some thick spacers you can put between springs/top hats which raise the car, perhaps used on the mk2 scouts or something. Are you springs particularly old? This could cause them to sag quite bad.

I think you might mean the ASV which is attached to the EGR pretty much. I had a similar problem and lubed it and moved it around a bit, then the problem never re-occured.

my diesel hasn't leaked once in the 6 years I've owned it, my vrs had a leak when I bought it but I fixed that within about a month. Both are sunroof models.

That's the exact problem I had wenham, took a month for the carpet to dry and I'm not totally sure the insulating backing is dry yet.

my tdi did this when it had a boost leak around a pipe joint. As SheffieldVRS said you probably have a split pipe or a connection has moved slightly and become dodgy.

my car is currently sat low at the front and a bit high at the back, again product of a previous owner not me so a picture would look stupid and embarressing Your prosports might have been for a mk4 golf, the octavia has a heavier bum than the golf and golf springs make it sit very low and handle badly.

Remember the VRS sits lower than a standard octavia anyway, I think by 15mm but I can't remember. I have Weitec Hicon GTs on mine fitted by previous owner, they are great on good roads but clamped down far too hard for any sort of roughness (I need to adjust them). On my previous diesel I put Koni Sport shocks with -35mm eibach springs and it made the car a lot nicer to drive.

I bought the car with the map already on it and have never driven a standard VRS so can't compare but I have a feeling the map is fairly aggressive. Average mpg is 30, that's with short pootles around town, couple of motorway journeys and then hooning it down a/b roads in a fairly equal split. On the motorway I've seen it creep up to 40 for a journey. The power is amazing, at 3000rpm the car just opens up and rockets forward. I've had the car 4 or 5 months and it honestly still scares me on the twisties

I fitted NGK BKR7E to mine (stage 1 remap, full exhaust) and it runs great.

If the previous owner did lots of short journeys (opening and shutting drivers door often) then you should peel back the boot that goes from the door jam to the door, the wires here are about 1cm to short which causes them to rub through, usually appearing at 100+ thousand miles as random electrical problems related to the drivers door.

IMO go with bilstein B4 dampers (high quality OEM replacement) and a set of standard springs. B4s are cheaper and better than OEM.

"Thomas EXOVCDS" on youtube recommends driving a small screw into the lowest point of the SMIC, letting it drain for a while, then reinserting the screw as a quick way of draining the SMIC. I tried it and had no issues when I did it. Up to you if you think it's stupid or not though.

I bought a remapped mk1 that had a CAI right down in the front bumper, I moved it to just an open filter in place of the airbox as it was the cheapest non stupid solution. The sound is almost identical to the £200 induction kit fitted and I've not noticed any reduction in power compared to before. I know the stock airbox is good but £30 vs £5 cone filter made the cone filter more attractive to me, especially as I did this change in winter!

Look down into the front left of the engine bay where the aux belt runs. You will see the air con compressor at the bottom here, check if it has the clutch on the end of it as they are known to fall off regularly. With the AC turned off in the car the clutch won't spin, with it on the clutch will spin. Also the engine tone on the diesel changes when the clutch engages.

You could fit them inside the car if you laid them onto the front passenger seat, although you will need to then secure them within the car and either be prepared for minor damage or do something (tarp?) to protect the interior. I've done this with very long bits of wood on short journeys with no issue.