Lofty

Even better! Cheers fella

Quick technical question Ryan, i've rejoined the Skoda Owners Club just now as my membership had lapsed, how do I now go about getting tickets for Skodafest?

Only just caught up with this - it's a cracker! Looks like a lovely well kept low miles example. With the rear beam the best way to deal with the rust would be to get it off the car, blasted and powdercoated, but you're in the realms then of having to change axle bushes, then all the brakes and wheel bearings need to come off, it's a slippery slope, ask me how I know!! Good luck with it all.

Good point, the Fabia will be there. I think....

There's a dirty whisper going about that even I may attend this year......

Makes sense to "stockpile" bits if you have room and resources to do so. Even I was trying to locate a complete OE exhaust system - just in case but drew a blank on that and some stuff. Trim and plastics also seem to have gone from the parts systems as well, but the supply of service and maintenance parts are good for the time being.

While standard ones are out there, they are becoming more rare by the year, usually in the hands of real long term owners as well. A nice standard (but well maintained) example will always drive well, in fact just as any standard PD130 car will, and should arguably give little trouble but they are getting old now. A lot of parts are being discontinued by Skoda (Standard exhaust systems for example) so there will be a bit of dedication and resource needed to keep it stock. Good luck with the search fella.

Cheers Fella, It's currently hibernating under its cover in the garage, and is doubling as a storage shelf for lightweight Mercedes Benz parts but the plan is to get it taxed in March, weather permitting and get using it a bit more to at least get the running in miles under its belt, then it can go for final mapping.

I heard my name being mentioned.... 😝

Be mindful now that Skoda are discontinuing a lot of parts for these older cars, I know Ross has been unable to get genuine wiper blades (of all things!) as Skoda now list even those as NLA. Only going to get steadily worse I feel.. 😒

Unless you really have to, don't fit a single mass to a Fabia vRS. The noise is simply awful. No nice way of putting it, it sounds like all the bearings have failed in the gearbox and people will point and stare.

Yes the 195/50/15 is the right size, as fitted to some 2.0 Petrol Elegance models back in period

Small update - better than none I guess! 300 miles into the running in period and it's going kind of ok. Got a slight issue with limp mode at times, plugged VCDS in and it's pointing to the MAP sensor being at fault, so some investigative work is needed there. I have my suspicions that the wiring to the MAP sensor is too tight, and it'll pulled the connector and damaged it, not uncommon with the alloy boost pipes as it does move the sensor somewhat further away from the original location. I've bought a new 4 pin terminal/connector for the MAP sensor which comes pre-pinned with 150mm of wiring so i'll extend the loom to hopefully reduce the strain on the connector. Then i'll try it and see how it goes. Could well be that a new MAP sensor is indeed required as well, but for now i'll do the cheaper option. Rollhard Show - Bicester Heritage - Hmm, went to the show, displayed the car but didn't really "get" the whole show tbh. I know it's probably down to my age, but the majority of cars there were all Air-Bagged with massive rims. That seemed to be the flavour of the day. Left at lunchtime as it did nothing for me. I think i'll focus more on local stuff from now on, plus the next Skodafest get together next year. I did fit a new sticker, not normally a fan of stickers but the colour matched the car - The Hesketh Racing Superbear!

TBF the Toyota/PSA unit in these are one of their strongest attributes. If only VAG would have got their three cylinders as "right" in the smaller cars they'd be unbeatable value nowadays. I worked for Toyota for many years and have driven countless Aygo/C1/107 cars, and they all are just so chuckable, much more akin to an early classic mini than people give them credit for.

135 miles covered now, so that's 13.5% towards the running in target of 1000 miles. I have the "Rollhard" show coming up this coming weekend, so I need to have a couple of evenings this week getting it cleaned to within an inch of it's life. Display ramps are away being powdercoated Rall6029 Skoda Mint green and I "may" have bought a display mirror to show off it's undersides.... it's all got very out of hand. One thing I'll need to address in the next few weeks is the exhaust tailpipe. Quite simply the OE style of oval tailpipe, coupled with the bigger fuel injector nozzles is making me all twitchy on a long run with soot deposits on the tailgate, so i'll dig out the downswept tailpipe I made back in 2019, and find a local trusted exhaust specialist who can complete the missing piece to fit to the car. This is what it looks like, and i've already modified the heat shield, rear panel and rear bumper to fit it nice and high so you'll not see the whole thing hanging down. I have mocked it up before and it's nice and subtle, well as subtle as a 3" brushed stainless steel pipe can be... More soon weary readers.