JonathonO

How much for the alloys and what sort of condition are they in? If you can PM me any pictures that would be great. Cheers.

Product: Farecla G3 Scratch Remover Paste Reason: Because it works? Sarcasm aside, I am a sceptic when it comes to some of the claims made on products like this. That said, I cannot fault the paste, it works brilliantly. Two or three pea sized blobs and with enough elbow grease you can remove light scratches and scrapes (do the finger nail test) completely and any deeper scratches and scrapes (finger nail runs into them rather than over them) they are barely noticeable. See my project thread for before and after pictures of this paste in action: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/325297-jonathonos-fabia-mk1-vrs/ Product: Faregla G3 Applicator Waffle Pads Reason: A must if you are using the above product. I tried two alternatives but didn't quite get the same results. Washed these waffle pads out a couple of times and reused them already and still getting fantastic results. Worth every penny.

Nice Welcome to the club.

Hey dude, she looks mint. Bought mine from a trader around Liverpool and first time I drove it I could've sworn it had aftermarket suss. and possible remapping but was definitely stock, might be the same for yours too? Either way, they are great fun to drive and welcome to the club

Stage One: Update So got myself some Farecla G3 Scratch Remover Paste to tackle some of the minor scratches and minimise some of the major scratches. Was pretty sceptical at first but here are the results. First is the the front passenger door; admittedly I could've put a bit more 'elbow grease' into it so the results could be better, but I am pretty impressed with how it handled the more major marks as a result of those stupid plastic door protectors. Then we have the bootlid; again, could've put a bit more 'elbow grease' into it but just learning how much of the paste to use, the pressure on the applicator pad etc but still happy with the results so far. Then we have the front passenger wheel arch which came up really nice. First test of the G3 paste seems really good. Got more scratches to go over and may repeat it on the one or two I didn't put enough effort in to, will post more pictures soon.

Cheers Richard, I'll give them a call. Thanks dude.

Cheers Steve, will have a look at them.

Pretty much reached the peak of my hatred and rage for other drivers today... Just happens to be the day I have an appointment to keep so I give myself 40 minutes to travel 12 miles into a place called Aberystwyth. Usually takes me 15 to 20 minutes so double the time seemed pretty realistic...oh how I was so wrong. Took me 45 to get there after following a convoy of every type of driver I hate and facing a few situations that definitely put my nose out of joint. 1. That couple on holiday cruising at 35mph through every speed limit, 60 they do 35... 40, they do 35... 30, they do 35, 20 they do 35. *screams* 2. The person who would attempt to overtake if they grew a pair... 3. The person sitting on the guy in fronts tail despite having every opportunity to overtake but not taking it. 4. The guy transporting a caravan on his lorry trying to fight his way through traffic. 5. The douchebag driving his flash new car worried about scratching it and has his head stuck so far up his backside he cannot be bothered to acknowledge you when you make efforts to move out of his way so he can pass easily. Naturally every opportunity to overtake was hampered by the drivers in front or oncoming traffic that is spaced out but not enough to overtake between waves of traffic. Eventually got there practically shouting at every driver only to find no parking and the town heaving; typical. Get to appointment a little late and it just so happens there is that one person in front of you that is out to cause trouble and make life difficult and is giving the receptionist a right mouthful despite them clearly being the one at fault in this situation. This is topped off with ignorant pedestrians who I let cross on a section of street that is not marked as a crossing and don't bother to acknowledge me. How I have not killed someone today is beyond belief. Rant over. Thank you...

Not sure if it is the 16V engine or not in the one you are looking at but the Insurance Group is between 7 to 12 and 170 to 173g/km CO2 emissions so you are looking at around £200 for the year on road tax. Check the usual things such as damp or wet in the footwells which might be signs of leaks. Did a quick internet search and some mention of cylinder head gasket failure on the 1.4 75bhp engine. I'm no expert so you'll have to take my comments with a pinch of salt but I hope they help.

So replacement double air vent arrived, needed a bit of a clean but good condition otherwise so I installed it earlier. Pretty easy to get the existing unit out. The dashboard is pretty soft material so it is easy to put a screwdriver or thin knife blade between the dashboard and air vent body without damaging the dashboard. The metal clips you see on the unit below hook onto the dashboard so when you are removing it, insert the blade where any of those clips are and it'll unclip quite easily. And here is the finished product: I found removing the air vent was actually a good way of sorting out the car stereo cables and keeping them out of the way when you install the stereo unit. Saves taking off the side panels of the centre dash.

Hey dude, welcome to the Skoda and vRS club. Got mine in the last two weeks and loving every second of it.

Interestingly enough I am looking into this myself. I'm more inclined to go for remapping than a tuning box and I am basing that on a discussion I had with a remapping guy who runs a business called Evans Remapping Services (ERS) which is mobile too. His FB page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Evans-Remapping-Services/641450685910960) shows some examples of his work including him breaking protected ECUs apart which I found interesting because of an article I came across while I was doing some research into this which is worth a read: http://vagoc.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?t=10672 before you consider making any decisions. Pro's and con's to both methods. When I was asking ERS about remapping, risks, costs, problems he's had, he seemed pretty honest and upfront with me but perhaps more experienced people can confirm if any of this is utter BS. First concern of mine was what the risks are; My thoughts were if you are making your car pump out more performance there is some additional strain put on the car and that's before you take into consideration how well you treat/service the car and how you drive. Lets face it, we mod our cars for more bhp and torque, we are going to drive faster and harder, right? He was honest enough to tell me the good and the bad cases he has had and he seems to post a great deal on his FB page. He mentioned a case with a Seat Ibiza 1.9tdi 90bhp which the client wanted remapped with a 'power map' which would put it at 145bhp. He explained he told the client it would probably be a bad idea for one reason or another (didn't go into specifics other than saying he warned the client a power map might be very risky for the car) but did the job and within about 10 to 15 miles the turbo was blown. Obviously I don't know specifics but he was at least willing to mention some cases where it ended badly regardless of who was to blame. On the other hand he gave some decent examples, two of which were his own vehicles one of which is a VW Transporter that now has 300k+ on clock. No components swapped out (that he mentioned), ran a stage 1 map on it some time ago when he first started his business and has had no problems aside from changing a flywheel which he has put down to him remapping it from the way he explained it (could be wrong). Dimsport trasdata (http://www.dimsport.com/race/trasdata.php) seems to be the kit he is using, reportedly spent nearly £8k on remapping kit over past few months. Again, I know very little about this so maybe someone who has had experience getting cars remapped using Dimsport trasdata could give some feedback? Started discussing my Fabia vRS then and he asked me about make and model, year, basic engine details etc and then asked the reasons for wanting to remap my car which I thought was good because I didn't feel like he was simply trying to nick my cash and tell me what I wanted to hear. Explained I wanted the remap because the power band (as I call it) is between 2000 to 3000rpm and it can feel a little sluggish outside of that. He reckoned around 190bhp (give or take) and an additional 90nm torque (give or take) is achievable on a power mapping but I felt the risks of that offset the benefits. Asked him what else could be considered that doesn't involve sacrificing too much fuel economy (although the way I drive has a big impact on that) and he mentioned an economy map or stage 1 map (one of the two) which could push out 160bhp which seemed much more realistic to me. Failing that, suggested a totally custom map too if I have more specific requirements. Quoting around £160 for unprotected ECUs and up to £220 for protected ECUs; think a protected ECU relates to this term 'tricore' but I know nothing about that side of things at the moment. We got chatting about the tuning boxes, mostly the 'bolt-on' kind, no mention of swapping out the chip completely or replacing the ECU for a tricked out one (can you even do that?) and mentioned a few local cases he's seen where they failed and although the car still runs fine, ended up burning through fuel. He did explain briefly why that was, mentioning the fuel injectors but he did lose me a little with that part of the discussion. Mentioned some cases where newbies bought cheap kit of eBay to do the job that basically overwork the turbos and end up blowing them to shreds. He does have a background in car mechanics working for a few local garages over the last ten years or so which is something. He offers 14 day money-back guarantee, if I ain't happy he'll revert it back as he creates a backup before doing any work and he says he hangs onto the backups forever (or however long his business lasts). That said, my only concern there would be, what if his business goes bust and, after 14 days, can he basically hold my ECU backup hostage pretty much and charge me an extortionate fee to reverse the changes? The only questions I didn't ask were what are the risks of corrupting the ECU both by remapping it and reverting it back to stock configuration? Last but not least was my car insurance. Quotes nearly doubled in most cases based on online comparisons but I have yet to phone any providers.