roaddetective

I know what you mean, cost versus gains. I am just so tempted by the cooler with the hotter summer months coming up. But close to a grand cost, it is a lot of money to spend considering how much I spent last year on it. Decisions, decisions!!

I buy them from the online site, Blackcircles. They deliver to a garage on their list of your choice and you just turn up and have them fitted there.

Don't know why I said air into turbo, I meant engine of course. My brain really is getting old! I spoke to the guy a few weeks ago and he mentioned 3 different intercoolers and he recommended a certain one, but for the life of me I can't remember the makers name. At the time I really did not think too much about doing it, so names of the parts did not register in my old brain. Now my mind is considering having it done, so I was after some advice from anyone in the know so to speak. I trust the guy and his expertise, so if I do decide to go ahead, I will go with the intercooler he recommends. However, I did spend an awful lot of money on the car last year, after a leaking gearbox input shaft oil seal ruined my recently fitted Helix clutch and new DMF. So another new Helix clutch and DMF was again fitted, giving me a really big bill. Improved new intercooler, or no new intercooler, that is the question?

As per question above, what do the more knowledgeable of you think about me fitting a good quality larger intercooler. I have been speaking to the garage that did the remap and Helix clutch about some effective future upgrades. He suggested to resist going stage 2, as it just was not worth spending a load more money on performance cat etc for so little gain. He did however, suggest investing in the new intercooler, for obvious reasons running a mapped car in the warmer summer months. Cooler air into turbo, gives you a bit more gains in overall performance. Maybe one or two of you have done this, what are your opinions. It's around a £900 cost, is it really worth it?

I am another one who has the Michelin PS4s tyres all round, in the size of 235/35/R19. In fact I have just had fitted another 2 new ones on the front I like them so much. I find they give really good grip on corners, as well as minimal wheel spin when I really put my foot down in a straight line in low gears. Okay, in those cold winter months I did get less straight line power down grip, but that is to be expected when the temp is far less than 7 degrees with a remap. They are not winter tyres after all.

It's only if you have your car remapped, that you really need super unleaded.

I had my previous car, a 2011 MK2 FL Octavia VRS TSI, remapped by Shark, now known as Racingline. I was very pleased with it and it gave me no problems up to when I traded it in at 104k miles. My present car as you can see details of at the bottom of this post, has got a Racingline map on and I am extremely pleased with it. This car was mapped on a rolling road by a VW specialist in Swindon. I am almost certain like me though, after the remap you will need to spend on an uprated clutch to handle the increase in engine torque. If you do spend out on an uprated clutch, have them replace the rear engine oil seal at the same time, as they are a weak point on the VW engine. I sadly had the gearbox input shaft oil seal go shortly after the new Helix clutch and DMF was fitted. It ruined the new DMF and clutch so had to spend out for all the new parts to be replaced again. Loads of money!! So I would have them replace that gearbox oil seal as well, seeing as though they have the gearbox out doing the clutch anyway.

Mine did it once as well. Very odd!!

I have an identical story to DC04R. Same car, same Racingline remap and the need for the same Helix clutch afterwards. The hardware mods I fitted afterwards.

Good advice from Kenai. In 2004 I had my car written off by by a driver behind me not paying attention to the road ahead. I did what Kenai advises and rejected the first derisory offer, the second offer and accepted the third. I have a good solicitor, who at the time handled the case. He is my good lady's brother! Mind you, I did not have Carwow, Motorway and WBAC back then, just the Thames Valley Trader car sales mag to compare prices.

It took me a couple of seconds to get it!! I must be a bit slow today.

It was Araldite Rapid. Goes off in 5 mins, which suited me as I was holding the badge in place while the glue set.

Silly me thought you could not separate the back panel of the badge from the VRS part. So as I stated in an earlier post, I just pulled the whole thing off once I warmed it up. Thank goodness it did not damage the grill in doing so. Quite like just the VRS part of the badge glued on the grill though. It just blends into the grill so that it is hard to see unless you are close up. Just the way I like it.

Here is the information inside my fuel flap, very much the same information as the one steelyboy posted.

I bought the front and back Skoda emblems, along with the front and back VRS badges, all in black. I bought them from Kopacek for the quality. Really expensive mind, but it depends how much you love the look of your car, as to what you are prepared to pay.

I wondered the same thing. Note to everyone reading this. Check your fluid levels weekly. You know what looks right and what does not. The human eye will generally pick up a problem earlier, example- fluid a bit low, before the cars technology tells you.

If I drive a route where DAB looses the signal, when I drive the same route again, it will still lose the signal in the same place. If it is happening to you on a regular route you take, don't be surprised if it happens every time in the same place. I guess some cars pick up the DAB signal stronger than others. I am not saying your car does not have a fault that needs fixing, just what happens to mine.

In some areas my DAB just goes silent. On a fairly long drive it might happen a couple of times. Not always a reliable signal with DAB. It does not happen enough to worry me though.

Owned this Civic Type R in the mid 90s for 5 years. Fantastic car, great handling, but you had to get that V-Tec high revs to get any speed out of them.

One SD card slot is for the media, the other one is the Nav. Both cards should come out easy by pushing them in and they click out themselves.

That is some price, still it is a Ferrari. I dropped in on my mate Nick today, who I have known for over 50 years. He has his own small garage one man business mending and building Porsche cars, engines and gearboxes etc. He is like an artist with the excellent work he does. Anyway, he asked me to guess the price of the engine he has just built for a classic 1969 Porsche 911 he is completely refurbing from the ground up. I guessed 20k. He said the pistons and liners on their own were £10k. The price was over £50k. I took a photo of the engine while I was there. Can't imagine what price his customer will be paying when the car is finished. Some car people live in another world to me, money wise that is.

I am after some sympathy here guys. Lol. Picked up the car today after all the work they did on it. Oil seals leaking, ruined new Helix clutch and flywheel, coolant leak etc. The bill was £2255.14. The garage did help out a fair bit as they have completed a bit of expensive work for me in the past, as that bill was with a 20% discount. Just adding onto this post, if any of you guys are having a new clutch put in your motor, replace a couple of oil seals at the same time. We all know about the poor rear engine oil seal, but the VW specialist who worked on my car has had a few of these motors in for the same problem I had, a leaking gearbox seal that leaks all over your clutch. It's got to be worth replacing these two oil seals at the same time as replacing your clutch, Saves having to get the gearbox out again to do them later. You don't want the sort of bill I have just paid!!!!!

Spent enough money as it is mate. The input shaft is the one that comes out of the gearbox and through the clutch connecting to the rear of the engine. That is why with this leak it has ruined a brand new performance clutch set up and DMF with it slipping putting heat marks on both the clutch pressure plate and the DMF. The drive shafts connect the gearbox to the wheels. Maybe I should crowd fund online to pay for it all. LOL.

It was not the rear engine seal that failed, it was the gearbox input shaft seal that went. While they have it stripped down, I have asked them to also renew that rear engine seal with the uprated one. It's all big money again though when the bill comes at the end of the week.

Cheers Ads230. Yes I am getting a load of luck, trouble is it's all bad. Lol. As for the engine oil seal that was not leaking. Seeing as though it's all coming apart again, I asked them to renew it at the same time anyway. I believe there is an upgraded rear engine oil seal they will be fitting. Never had any real problems with my old MK2 Octavia VRS TSI, apart from needing a new inlet manifold at 30k miles and I traded that in at 104k miles for my present car. That MK2 was also mapped as well. Hopefully after all this work, it will be reliable for a while now.