StevesTruck

Yeah, it's about as high as a standard felicia will go. New shocks and springs will help a bit, and you mentioned those spacers. They are pretty good offroad as they are, especcially if you put some mud and snow tyres on.

Just realised, I never asked what engine's in it? The diesel engine is heavy, 1.6 lighter, and the aluminium 1.3 the lightest of all.

There's an old lad with a felicia down the road, who's just had the wrong springs fitted on the front and he looks to have about 4-5 inch of arch gap I'm trying to remember if pickup springs fit in the car spring seats. It's probably as easy just to order a full set of springs for a 1.9D pickup truck if they do.

Diesel springs on the front and estate springs on the back should do it.

I'm getting two stories on the subject of changing the heater matrix. Some people say it's like a Golf and you have to have the whole dashboard and half the interior out. Others (mostly with LHD cars) say you just need to take the trim panels in the passenger footwell out and be a bit dexterous. Anyone got any hands on experience of doing one of these?

Mk1 Fabia Polo 9n (bug eye) or 9n3 (facelift) Ibiza 6L Fit new top mounts while you're there, and it's well worth changing the console bushes for Ibiza Cupra ones. https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/ibiza-cupra-uprated-console-bushes-for-vw-polo-skoda-fabia-and-seat-ibiza.html You'll also want a spreader tool for opening the hub up where it clamps on the shock (you can crack the hub if you try to spread it with a random chisel. This one's a pair of Sealey ones, so good quality. You can buy cheaper if you're not planning on using them much. It's worth having a new pinch bolt and nut to hand for the same place in case the old one doesn't come quietly. Febi part number 27876 https://www.vwspares.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=953

Any sign of oil that might have come up the breather in the air intake piping? Any smoke on startup when it's been sat overnight? Piston ring issues do happen on the 1.4. Take your spark plugs out and see if there's any oil on them, and their general condition. Might be worth doing a compression test if you've got a guage.

I have a few bits of wood flooring. Goes under the boot carpet without leaving a bump, stronger than it looks, and if need be you can stick a bit of gaffa tape round them to make a thicker peice.

That's the question, and I suppose really it depends what amount of space you're happy to work in. A decent pair of ramps is probably your best bet if you're doing the job on the driveway.

As above, the factory coating on a MK2 octavia is very good - I'd say you're more at risk of making a moisture trap if you seal over the existing protection. I'd personally get it in the air, drop the trays off, and do localised repairs to any damages bits of the rust proofing with something along the lines of POR-15, or whatever the fashionable one is at the minute, basically thick enamel paint. If you don't mind an off-brand, the metal paint in Lidl is very good.

We've got a couple of sdis in the the family. Dad has a MK1 fabia and I have a MK2 caddy. They can move alright when they want to, just have to use a bit of driver ability to stay on the power. The best thing you can do for them is get the cambelt changed and timed up well if it's not had one recently. They can stretch older or cheaper belts, which results in a lot of power loss. It's never going to be fast, so just enjoy it for what it is. I probably have more fun driving my 68?hp caddy than my vrs that's got about 100hp more.

185k, the car's got 99 problems, but the engine most certainly ain't one.

And again, that's just the way these are, the throttle response is pretty slow on them. A bigger cold air intake between the grill and the airbox (Ibiza cupra was a popular mod back in the day, not cheap now though), or just taking the pipe off altogether can improve it. You probably won't get it to rev-match nicely. I normally rev-match in my SDI caddy, mainly because I've got **** knees, but the fabia doesn't like it.

I think 950rpm is the standard idle speed on these. Both my fabia and the Ibiza before it seemed to sit there. I'm guessing vag made it that way so it sounds smoother.

Not really, no, as long as all the holes are intact. It'll have scuffs and scrapes, but who's going to see it? It's worth getting some stainless steel screws and dipping them in grease before you refit them.

I can't see it being much different. Mine was repaired using a lead pair off a scrap Audi TT. Worst case, the support grommets won't be in the right on place, but a bit of rubber hose and a couple of cable ties will fix that.

Yeah, looks like the rod's knckered at both ends. Febi Bilstein ones aren't particularly expensive on ebay.

When I've finished with them.... not many get sold. I think Heinz bought most of them.

Next on the list of things that are broken..... The heater's either hot, or cold, nothing in between. Nothing showing on VCDS (can't believe it's not got seized heater flaps on it's list of woes). If it were my mk1 fabia, I'd be cleaning out the little vent on the climate control panel that measures the cabin temperature - where is it on a mk2 octy?

I think one clutch does the odd numbers, one does the evens, so it could well be one of the clutches

Employ an assistant to shrink wrap the car once you're in it. When you reach your destination, alight via sunroof.

I'd say no, it looks like someone's swapped the locker out for a normal wheel bolt. It doesn't look to match the rest though, so I might be tempted to drop that one that doesn't match out and make sure it's the right sort.

There's a lot of reasons the VRS doesn't do well on bad roads and mud. Dad has a standard SDI, and it's far better than my VRS on bad terrain. The VRS bumpers are lower, the wide, lower profile, tyres don't dig and grip like his 185's, but just scrabble on the surface instead.

Depends on what you're padding. I haven't got a citigo, but my 7 foot long coaching / use and abuse boat lives on the 4 foot long roof of my MK2 caddy. It's just laid upside down on a cheap pair of bars with four pound shop straps, 2 in a barrel wrap for and aft and two in a barrel wrap making a cross, it can do thousands of miles up there and not move an inch

SDI won't unless you've got really lucky and found one with a Bosch pump, then it might.