SideshowBob

Couldn't agree more mate. It's easy for people to sit here in a forum, in judgement of a situation that didn't even involve them. I would hate for Awesome's reputation to be sullied by this, because I've not dealt with a more professional outfit in my 20 years of having work done on my cars. Yes I agree they could probably do all the nitpicky things that people have suggested, and have everything nailed down, a system put in place for tracking parts removed from customer's cars, items tagged or put in bins etc but all that would require employing more staff, having more overheads, and everything taking longer. And ultimately that cost would be passed on to you and I, the customer. And to be honest if I drove off having left some parts at a workshop, I'd expect them to be there the same day and maybe the following day, but after that it would be a bonus or a gamble. Yeah it's a sting, but that's how it goes.

Told mine when I got my mk1 remapped, cost about £40 extra for the year but I know they can't wriggle out of a claim for it.

Try and rationalise buying an iPad and most people would talk themselves out of it. It's just too much into decent laptop £ territory for most people. I used one last week, a mate at work had brought one back from the USA, it really is a super slick device for all it's shortcomings. Amusingly, all the nay-sayers at work who had been slating the device since it was announced couldn't get enough of it.... For me, if it was £300-odd I might be tempted, but £429 for the 16GB (really you'd want the 32GB minimum) it's just too expensive. At the end of the day though it's shiny, it's got the cool factor and it's apple so people will buy it.

Wait til winter when you're sitting in traffic, with a huge steam cloud coming out of the tailpipe...! It took me a while to learn to ignore that one...

Another vote here for the ARB bushes. The erratic running issue could be any of a number of common issues. I would suggest you find a local member on here who has vagcom to do a fault code scan as a first measure. Most of the time these things turn out to he easy fixes such as coilpacks, dirty throttle body, failed MAFs etc

I can recommend Performance Torque in wolverhampton Good smooth torquey maps

I have to say, I love my vRS. So far (fingers crossed) it's been pretty much 100% apart from the brake mooing problem. The remap has given it some real muscle, and yet coming home tonight in a fair amount of traffic it returned 38mpg on a 26 mile trip. It does all the family stuff without breaking a sweat either, plus the boot is (adopt brummie accent) 'yowge'

Let us know how you get on mate, mine is an 02 that also has the odd little bit of paint bubbling here and there, along with bubbling/rust under the boot release handle.

Thermostat mate, located on front of engine underneath and slightly to the side of the alternator.

What was the figure at the wheels? From the graph it looks like about 190bhp but that would mean 70hp drivetrain loss which can't be right? Looks a nice smooth map there mate, I'm really impressed at just how tuneable the 2.0 motor is.

You can turn text message preview off if you rummage around in the settings.

look in the void behind the alternator m8. You should be able to see a large-ish hose going into the block via a plastic elbow housing. The stat is in there. Changing it is a 30 min job if you've done it before.

Whoa... 2005 all over again....Tony Blair and George Bush are still in power and the iPhone hasn't been made yet!

I don't know how you manage it with the front end that low, I scrape mine from time to time even on standard suspension. The underside of the front valance looks like a warzone Love the black wheels, I am gonna get my spiders refurbed soon to get all the kerb damage sorted courtesy of previous owner. I was planning on going anthracite (it's on a silver car) but I'm now wondering if gloss black wouldn't suit it better? I do a lot of miles so whichever colour I go for has to look good under 2" of brake dust

Look on the bright side though mate... At least you didn't have to work out which coilpack had failed...

That's a new one on me, what's involved in that? Surely the fuel pump should just maintain a fixed (more-or-less) fuel pressure and that's that?

Sc0rp... You will need to run a couple of tankfuls of 98/99 through it before the ECU adjusts properly to the higher grade fuel. Once you're used to it if you have to put 95 in for whatever reason you will definitely notice it has taken the edge off the performance, and less MPG too.

I have to be honest, I think VW are flattering themselves a little if they think the Golf is held in as high esteem as they make out. My last car was a Mk4 Golf GTTDI and to be honest, it wasn't "all that". Yeah they are ok, but also common as muck and still come with the same issues that affect other models within the VAG range. This occurred to me earlier after reading t'other post about a chap who's just moved from a VW to a Skoda (same as me). It got me thinking, perhaps VW like to keep Skoda in their place for owners who like the VAG range but find VW's running costs a little bit salty. Skoda are ideally placed to 'catch' those customers on their way downstream, whereas they may otherwise go running towards Ford or Pug/Renault... :yes:

Welcome matey... This is a great site with lots of helpful folk. Interesting to see another person moving from VW to Skoda (same as myself). A mate at work who was looking at a 25k 120D M-sport BMW was recently won over after he got interested in the Octy vRS and took a test drive. He is now taking delivery of his CR170 in March, and factoring in the scrappage price of £3.5k on his old knackered mazda he has walked away with the Octy brand new for £16.5k. A comparable audi would probably cost at least 10k more before the options, and I'm not sure if there is anything directly comparable in the VW range? Hope you enjoy the Yeti! :smirk:

You say that oil wasn't reaching the top of the engine.... was the head checked over once the oil pump issue was found? Leakdown test done?

LOL My brother used to have an old land rover defender, which had the '90' front end and grille transplanted on. This meant that there was about 8" gap between the grille, and the rad. One day while poking around in there doing some odd jobs he found a full-on birds nest, with eggs, and an angry little blighter sitting there tweeting at him defensively. He thought 'what the hell' and just left it there. I believe it was still there when he sold it about 6 months later. Must have been nice and warm with the occasional 70mph breeze I suppose.

Does sound like a boost leak somewhere, because ( a ) you're hearing it louder than before and ( b ) the power has gone. The power coming in later is also a clue, because the inlet isn't perhaps getting any pressure until the turbo has spooled up more and working harder. I'm sure one of the Fabia massive will point you in the right direction, I would check the intercooler hoses are connected nicely first though because (might be wrong here..) I'm sure I've heard of a few fabia's doing this. Have a browse through the Fabia section and I'm sure there are a few threads that might help.

I think a rebrand is much needed tbh. And I'm 36yrs old so not exactly a young pup anymore. The early VW takeover years were accompanied by an ad campaign that was almost apologetic (I forget the slogan now, but that's how the ads came across to me as a non-Skoda owner at the time). Something along the lines of 'yes we know its a skoda, but it's actually rather good' or similar. I think they need to put that attitude behind them, draw a line under the whole preconception thing and reinvent themselves to some extent. If Volvo can reinvent themselves from the makers of old boxy estate wagons, through interim cars such as the T5 and now with models like the C30 which I actually think is a great looking car, then I'm sure Skoda can do the same. IMHO they need to come up with a badge that doesn't look 'cheap' which I'm afraid the current one does, recruit a few decent designers to give them a stronger identity (drop the new grille for starters) and start fighting the big boys on equal terms instead of coming out as the underdog all the time. Otherwise all they will ever do is sell cars to the enlightened minority, and taxi drivers.

Ok consider me convinced. How long does it take roughly before the catch tank needs emptying? Does anyone know where I can find a how-to guide?

Nice write-up Bodge, you've been busy eh I've only recently started noticing people mentioning the breather/catch can setups...what are the problems with the standard system? Presumably it's the usual trait of oil building up in various places within the inlet tract? I intend to pull some of the breather hoses when I get chance (and when I can figure out which ones they are) to check for oil buildup especially in the intercooler where others here have mentioned as a common prob. I don't think I will do the catch can mod though purely because I do a few miles and would probably forget to drain it. I did a great breather setup on my Buell (a motorbike for those at the back) which is a 1200cc air cooled v-twin. It was quite a 'breathy' engine what with two pistons rising and descending close together, with resultant constant variance in crankcase volume and pressure, and the breather used to help a lot with smooth running. It was surprising how much oil that catchcan used to get. When it had filled up and therefore blocked the breather filter it would really struggle to even just turn the motor over... Which reminds me, do you have a breather filter somewhere in the setup or does it not need one?