fabialousvrs

Love this :-)

To be fair, the Sport moniker isn't created to challenge a GTI. Let's forget the mk4 golf for a moment, that was an awful "gti" and should have been dubbed "SE". But Sport I suppose is softer than Gti, XR was chavvey, ST is chavvey, RS is .... Super chavvey. To be honest, the word Sport is absolutely meaningless on any car. It must mean that you like Sport, if you drive one. Watersport anyone?

Or Cadbury's canal for you lot in Brighton.... :p

You mean Bronze Porthole?

I'm going for Gold on my Black... depending on "things"

Diesel will die one day... they are too dirty &gunk themselves up, not great at emissions and release huge plumes of NO2 into the atmosphere in larger cities. This is why electric is going to take over, probably when we are all jostling up the road with zimmer frames. Then this discussion will be aimed at Sport Electrics. I know the Tesla project with allow the name tag.

Bmw Sports too.. most of them are diesel FFS!!

You'll have a very small leak. Most likely passenger side at the bottom corner or from the fan switch.

Pull that lever..... Then a mechanical arm appears from the door card, and pulls YOUR lever.... Its great in traffic, takes away the boredom :p

Water leak causing an electrical fault

Warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. Talking from working for a car dealer in the past...

Oh no... Not red s%$#@ ?!

First thing to do... change your pollen filter. follow the guide to remove the old one (simple enough), bet its full of muck, leaves, condoms... whatever! You won't believe the difference when you do change it. Otherwise go and get a leak test at KwikFit or the like. Could be compressor related, they do eventually fail on most cars.

I'd say... sell now. The backside will fall out the market on SE's, they are still an old Diesel hatchback at the end of the day and get what you can for it. I'd be delighted with 6k... however the wider market might not want to see its been remapped or lowered. Generally you pay top dollar for standard OEM, untouched and in unbelievable condition. I would anyway, and I'd steer well clear of anything 'mapped. How do I know how you've driven it? There's opportunity for increased wear to engine/turbo/brakes and related consumables if you've been widely using the additional hp/ torque. Go back to standard, sell your suspension. BMW did this "speccing" with their "Individual" signature on the E39's (Agean Blue) & E46's (Estoril Blue), which was designed to boost a "not quite the range topping car" but was suited to either the "in demand" 2 or 3 litre Sport diesel's or petrol Sport equivalents. As they've aged, they are hardly worth any more than a Montreal Blue in just as good condition. Markets change quickly, seeing as they seemed to have been firm of late (still blamed on traders IMO) i'd sell asap to make the most ££££

These are the kind of tyres that alloy wheel retailers slap on. Cheap, poor grip, awful wet handling... probably not too good in terms of degredation either. You get what you pay for. The amount of times i've seen posh alloys, whether they are reps or not, wearing these tyres. They must see these people coming!

I'm in the same position as yourself with my car, doing little upgrades and brake change recently. Glad you swapped to the Eagle F1's, they are the best shoes for the money as I advised. I'm going the lowering route myself, Eibach or H&R are the way if keeping stock shocks. You can spend big (£350 plus) and go for good coilovers but i'm not sold on them myself, after fitting some to my Golf TDi 130 last year. Personally unless they are top notch Coilovers, i don't think they are beefy enough - just my opinion. I think that if you do get some Eibach lowering springs, also buy new shocks. At least take off one of your old shocks, and see what they are like in terms of response (i.e if you can easily push the shock absorber together with your hands, its bladdered and needs to be changed). It could be a major dissapointment fitting new springs over tired shocks. Easy to remove the rear shocks, trickier on the front but still fairly easy. Bush & braces next, ready for your remap. It will then feel complete... I'm already looking at a double din App Radio for mine, to stream media from my M8. Ive started carbon fibre vinyl on the interior, as well as outside door LED's (see my how to guide).

Dealers are trying to make a living, the Fab is seen as an in demand car (sporty, economical, solid reliability). Its over a grand over book, it'll be worth far, far less in 12 months. IMO steer clear from little garages, remember where they buy them from?... The auction?... For 2.5k less than the asking price.... Buy private, you know what you're buying and you'll get it cheaper. Pretty simple

No.. not too far from Heinz, Bell Lane way! Wigan is full of Skoda's!

I got some drilled and grooved Brembo discs & Mintex pads.... ebay for £120 all in.

Probably the most epic and affordable for me is the RS4 engine. They've got that thing barking its 414hp nicely. Couldn't give a sh@# about its economy.. Its a good one

Many more 150's fail than 130's... adding to the myth. Bessie mate worked at VW for years, they generally had many 150's in for early cam lobe wear. Hence the choc camshft label. I think in practice the 150's were just given the beans more, rev'd a bit to add to the wear. Plus it might explain that missing services on these cars is lethal on the head. Many owners skimp on service, thats a cast iron fact. The ones that missed their oil services, are likely to have had issues. Wear happens for a reason, I think the set up on the 150 is less forgiving in terms of lubrication a good. It needs it! I've had 2 130's, both been absolutley faultless cars. This Fabia is my 3rd one, and is fed the same, best oil possible.

I have a Jabba rolling road print for my BLT, which states 161 bhp & 260lbft. I would say, the car has NOT been mapped as it does not show the usual eagerness of a smooth remap. I would be honest and say it's a definite overread, rolling roads are generally never accurate. I'd say high 140's bhp possible 150bhp. My Golf tdi 130 was mapped to 180; boy it felt like it! Get together at a meet, and drive another members car to feel the difference

I know on my mk4 golf tdi 130, I did the whole DIY pipework change, went for a bigger SMIC (cut bumper to fit from inside) and Audi S3 pancake pipe. All designed to be free flowing with a larger 'cooler for the Blacksmoke 180 remap. It worked, and I went with new piping all the way to the turbo (changed red pipe also). I still had heat soak, unfortunately unavoidable with SMIC's. I'm not so sure i'd do it again, there's little affect really unless you're going FMIC and looking to push towards stage 2 bhp. For me, the TD engines aren't REALLY designed to be firebreathing monster although I appreciate it can be rewarding if you throw money at it, and go uprating your DMF/clutch. Money is best spent on handling for Fabia VRS's. With your boost leak, check the one behind the headlight to see if its come away. While you've got the bumper off, why not empty the Intercooler of oil vapour. It will be thick with it, give it a mini-service.

Brilliant... And all in my journal. Heh

Much better wheels :-)