wrightcnc2009

Its been a very long time since I last came on here and even longer since I last posted but my mk2 fabia vrs has now gone after nearly 5 years and 55k miles. It had all the makings of a great car but i never really loved it, I think my expectations we set a little to high by the mk1 vrs I had for 9 years before changing. The local dealership didn't fill me with any confidence and out of warranty the independent vag specialist didn't know nor seemingly want to know much about the car either so I've moved away from vag altogether and gone Honda. I hope the new owner enjoys it!!! Best regards Wrighty

I'm not doubting your ability or knowledge, I agree that if the wheels/tyres have simply been removed to replace on a different corner then re-balancing should NOT be required. We are assuming that they were not turned around on the rim though.

I've had mixed results on balancing of wheels in the past, I now use a friend who works at a Honda dealership and the guy that balances wheels there is awesome, the machines maybe be full proof but it is still down to a human hand to apply the correct amount of weight to the wheel and in the right place and then ideally re-run another balance test on the machine to check his work. As for tyre pressure's, here is a link to what I use to set my tyres http://www.tarkracing.com/en/e-pood/vega-tyres/vega-tyre-pressure-gauge-detail

Funny man! I've had mine 20 months now and still have this problem and there really is no cure, in fact it's a bit of an unhealthy addiction, and the addition of up rated springs and dampers combined with a set of federal rsr's have only made this worst, 141 miles out of a tank of fuel was a worry at one point but now I've got the engine run in a loosened up a bit it will do between 200-250 miles to a tank now. If you find a cure, let me know

So in a way after looking at those figures, me not looking at it and taking the attitude that they are the experts and should be advising me isn't possibly a bad way of looking at it. Thank you for the help and information

It was registered January 2014 new to me and now at 16,600 miles. I don't mind playing with suspension and brakes, and if these engines didn't have such a colourful history I would have most likely put a set of plugs, air filter, oil and filter change between the mandatory services that the warranty/service plan dictates but I figured best to leave well alone except I periodically check the oil level.

Yeah, I could but after reading some of the horror stories on here about the way Skoda deal with customers with engine issues, I'm more of the mind that if I don't touch it then there's nothing to argue about. Go on then, what plugs do I need and what is the gap to be set at, or are they surface discharge type?

Thanks for the heads up. It probably sounds very arrogant of me to say that and think that way but I didn't buy the car the with the intention of taking on an apprenticeship of how it works. I have very little faith in the ability of my dealer but they are supposed to be the experts and I am merely Jo blogs off the street so I'm not going to tell them there job at this early stage for the fact I could well be wrong and if something goes pop after I've been fiddling then I could have an even bigger problem on my hands, also if I insist on a set of plugs to be put in they will charge me full wack for that work and as much as I want to insist that work be done, on principle in not going to do that, it should be there decision. If they told me to drive it carefully because it may go wrong in a big way I would politely hand them back my keys and ask they let me know when I can collect the car when is working correctly.

Why shouldn't I boot it, it's under warranty and I've made sure that at first sign of a problem the supplying dealer knows about it and I made the car immediately available to them, it was the dealer that couldn't fit it in for a diagnostic check for 5 days they didn't come across concerned about it and I've not been told to drive it any different to normal so if it goes pop, on there head be it. This is the same dealer that told me the brakes a fine when I had the pedal touch the bulkhead under heavy braking, in the end I got a friend that works at a Honda dealership to take it in a bleed the system and now it's fine.

Bump thread, mine pooped itself last Sunday morning, pulled up at side of road and did the world renowned fix for all things electrical and switched it off and back on again and all was fine, rang dealership Monday morning and they couldn't look at it until Friday (yesterday morning) and it pooped itself again Thursday morning on way to work. So I immediate rang dealer and they said just bring it tomorrow as planned and if you late they would understand. Conclusion was none conclusive, a misfire recorded on no.4 cylinder but not a normal misfire apparently so they swapped no.3 and 4 coil packs and sent me on my way and told to drive it straight there if it does it again, no word of and ecu update carried out.

Sorry I've been slow coming back to this, been away on work with poor internet coverage. The ballast weights are long gone, took them off in the first thousand miles of getting the car from new and it's never been plugged in to see what it's factory settings are. The other one I've noticed when driving at night in the dark is the high level brake light flashing in the rear view mirror.

Possibly, which part of the forum is the best place to ask? I would like to get the necessary kit so I could play with it myself in my own time to understand it and drive the changes to understand the feeling differences but I'm more mechanical minded than electronic.

The sales guys wont let me drive it properly from past experience...

A trip to jabbasport then?

I don't personally know anyone who owns another fabia vrs....

Sharkrider, how do I turn off this xds??

Despite growing up driving 100cc direct drive karts, I don't use left foot braking so it can't be that cutting power.

The rear end slide you have at the end of that vid where you run up on the rumble curb on the exit would have never happened in my car, at best if you had run it in hot enough it would have applied the brakes and understeered you wide.

If I took it to a track and ran it over a curb on an apex it would apply the brakes or cut the power or both. Its really annoying and spoils a potentially good car.

I always turn off the traction because if left on it wont give any slip before it cut power down dead and it bogs down of of slow corners. I don't fully understand xds and what it does/doesn't do when and why but I know when something doesn't feel right and I will try explain the feeling best as possible. With traction off, I entre a corner fast, the corner has a fast slight bend approach so heavyish braking trailing the pedal in with steering lock gradually being input as brake pedal pressure is increasingly reduced to nothing so as to keep the car as balanced as possible and on the way in I can feel the brake pedal go hard but if I press harder I don't don't get anymore braking just a rock solid pedal and the feeling that the car is pulling itself straight so in need more steering input to attempt to turn into the corner but it feels as though it is fighting my input back and the dash flashes. In a fast 's' bend using both sides of the road to go through it, it will cut power on a trail throttle and apply brakes as it goes light over the camber of the road. I felt these issues in standard guise, I've now go h&r springs with b8 Bilstein dampers all round and federal rsr-r's and it's just the same apart from feeling better in general if pushed a tad bit more the nannying systems kick in. I can't instigate lift off oversteer on a roundabout, if I do lift to try tuck the front end into the apex it begins to pitch the weight and then electronics cut in and it sits flat and understeers.

Hi all, I've been a bit quiet on here for a while now because I've lost the love for Skoda and vrs badge. The reason for the loss of love is the nannying electronics and namely the stability control. It's very nearly had me off the road twice now by applying brakes suddenly and aggressively mid corner on a bumpy road that I've driven tousands of times before without problems in a mk1 vrs without issues and when trail braking into a corner it try's to straighten the car up giving the effect of reducing the steering lock input. So I have a couple of questions, firstly to the track day boys, how the hell do you drive these mk2's on the track?! I'm struggling to find any threads with heavy criticism of the stability control spoiling your day and fun. Secondly how can it be switched off or desensitized, is there anyone else out there that understands this and has the knowledge to resolve this issue for me!!!! It ruins what could be a really good little car.

Mines the same, upper box floor is red hot, my car is Jan 2014

Interesting what you are saying about the brakes, I have the same issues on the road and never know what you going to get until you commit to the pedal, sometimes is fine and I feel rob of the corner because I brakes to early and other times I'm glad I I got on the stoppers early because I would never have made the corner. I've had it when the pedal went rock hard but it wouldn't stop at all like chronic brake fade.

Bit of fuel info on a decent run from Ely (cambs) to Sittingbourne today, a round trip of 211 miles, trip computer said average speed of 64mph and 38.5mpg I consider that to be pretty good.

Part numbers are correct, I checked, they fit and drive really well but the original shock has a small bump stop under the rubber boot but the Bilstein shock has a bigger diameter shaft than the standard shock so wont accept the bump stop. Just wondering if anyone else has spotted this and if normal/acceptable to not fit the bump stop.