berre

indeed old thread but if the OP is still active on the forum or has email notifications active he could give some valuable feedback so I thought I'd give it a go... off course anyone else who has experience with the RS3's is welcome to chip in as well cheers b

Hi In the market for some new rubber as well... these RS3's are on my shortlist but I have 2 questions which I guess/hope you can answer 1/ how is the rim protection? I noticed you have the FR version which is the version with rim protection however it's a bit difficult to see on your picture. how far does the rim protection stick out? 2/ how is the wear pattern? some people are saying that due to the design the tyres would wear faster on the inside.. how about wear in general? Thanks! B

didn't have that at my disposal I'm afraid... wasn't really an issue as it was just to undo the screws a bit, once they were loose I could just remove them by hand thx B

small update (but a lot of work ): I have fitted flush mount parking sensors... modded them a a bit so that they are practically invisible! Only @ the rear for the moment, when I have some spare time I'll do the front as well For anyone who might be interested; I made a howto about it: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/400229-almost-invisible-parking-sensors-howto/ Cheers B

Hi all, I've been looking for an aesthetic solution for parking sensors for a while now... I started with an invisible-behind-the-bumper solution (cheap thing from china) which worked amazingly well... except in the rain As we have a lot of rain here in Belgium (just like in the UK I guess) this wasn't an option. I then went for the Cobra f394 & r394 (flush mount parking sensors)... but with a twist.... The result is pretty good imho so I hope this small tutorial can help someone who is looking for a clean parking solution. Note this is just for the rear bumper for now, if I have time I will do a howto on the front bumper as well once I get around to fitting the sensors Step one: buy Cobra f394 (front) & r394 (rear) kits > or only r394 if you just want rear parking sensors They are not the cheapest but they are flush mount and quality seems to be great compared to some other after market kits I've seen Step two: cut the rubber protection back as far as possible using a cutter knife: (do not pull the rubber protection out) It should look something like this: As you can see there is still rubber protection present to protect the inside of the sensor Step three: paint the sensors (in my case magic-black) I bought the spray-can kit from the skoda dealer (contains the paint and the varnish) I did not sand the sensors, only degreased them and primed with Motip plastic primer. This primer is very good, I used it in the past even on mirror-like surfaces and the paint doesn't come off To mask the sensors for paint, here's a small trick: push some painters tape really hard on the edge of the sensors, this will show an outline on the tape which you can cut out. Step four (the scary part): drill holes Here I have spent the most time on, I tested different tools e.g. punch tool, hole saw, ... ... but I ended up getting the best (perfect) result with a step drill. Using a step drill however can be a bit dangerous, if you don't focus you can easily go one step too far and end up with a hole which is too big. The trick here is to put electrical tape so that the last visible diameter is the one you want (red arrow) and drill very carefully towards the end. But don't be afraid to drill, the electrical tape really helps to avoid "overshooting" but just take your time and be careful... if possible you could try to get a piece of bumper from a scrap yard to do some test drilling and build up your confidence. Most important piece of information of this whole how-to is the diameter: 14mm! This is an exact fit for the sensors (without the rubber rings off course) Now for the location of the holes first thing to get is the centre of the bumper. You can use a vertical lazer if you have one available (align on the centre of the lock on your boot) or simply go by the markings on the bumper. For this you need to remove the plastic bumper strip (which you will need to do anyway), this is done by using a flat screw driver but be careful not to mess up your paint. I use a piece of cloth as a lever: In the center of the bumper you will see a round dot like shown on the picture, that's centre. Now put some painters tape on your bumper so that you can make the markings for the holes. In my case I have put the centre of the sensors about 45mm below the bottom of the bumper strip. I used 40 cm for distance between the sensors, so measure 20cm either side of the centre - those are your 2 middle sensors - and measure another 40cm on both sides. If you want you can always connect everything and do a test setup by taping your sensors to the desired locations. Do note that getting the sensors disconnected again is fiddly work (tiny connectors)! Now once you have everything marked you can start the drilling. I first used a small steel drill big enough to fit the first step of your stepdrill because this will help centre the stepdrill. So if the smallest step on your stepdrill is 4mm, then you first pre-drill with a 4mm steel drill And then you drill: As you can see it's not a perfect hole at the back, it looks like the plastic has been pushed back, don't worry about that, we'll fix that once the bumper is off. And so we come to the next point: Step five: remove bumper For this it's best you have a second person helping you but it possible doing it on your own if you take some precautions like putting a thick blanket on the floor in case the bumper drops to the floor Remove the plastic strip between the lights, this clicks right off. Behind it are 4 torx screws you need to remove: Then you need to remove the pieces of plastic below the lights, for that you need to remove a small screw and then slide the plastic towards the center of the boot: Then remove all torx screws in the wheel arch and below the bumper. There are 4 screws in either wheel arch, and 5 screws at the bottom of the bumper It can be difficult to fit a screwdriver in the wheel arch, especially if you are running 18" wheels so I used a torx bit and a lock plier: Finally remove or pull back the inner interior fabric in the boot, this should expose two bolts on either side Use a 10mm wrench to remove these: Now when you undo these your bumper may or may not fall off , in my case it didn't, I needed to wiggle just a bit and it came of. If you are working alone - as mentioned - take precautions like putting a thick blanket or an old rug on the floor. I also put some tape on the bodywork just above the bumper: Step six: complete holes Once the bumper is off we first need to fix the holes (remember the plastic was pushed towards the rear of the bumper?) This is how it looks: To get rid of this just drill from the back of the bumper using the same step drill, again be very careful and make sure the hole is 14mm throughout. (test this by inserting a sensor, it should go all the way through) Step seven: mount the sensors I'm not going into much detail here, the instructions are very clear... just make sure that the front of the sensors are perfectly aligned with the outside of the bumper. Make sure to de-grease the inside of the bumper and use strong tape to fix the wires: The instructions do mention you need to drill a hole through the bodywork to guide the cables in the boot but I just guided them via the vents: Step eight: put your bumper back on Same as step five but the other way around Step nine: connect module, buzzer easiest part of the whole thing, just stick the module and the buzzer somewhere in your trunk (I placed them behind the interior fabric against the side) and connect the wires... the wires of the modules are easy... for the power you need to strip the ground wire and the wire of the reversing light. In my case the ground wire is a brown wire (should be connected to the black wire of the module) and the reversing light wire is a blue/black one (should be connected to the red wire of the module) Step ten: enjoy parking sensors you hardly see My brother visited me today, looked at my car and asked when the hell I was going to install my parking sensors (in his defence they have been lying around the house for a couple of months now) And the results... detail pic taken about 10cm from the sensor: Full view (sorry for the lousy pic, it's indoor and car is dirty - I'll take a better one after a wash): And there you go... hope this helps someone... Cheers B

hi, I have the same engine (also year 2003) and do even less km... I have a company car since 2007 with a total-card so it's logical I use that one most of the time... when I got my company car I also looked in to the option of selling the car but I would have lost way too much money on it so I don't even want to imagine how much I would get for it now even although it's in perfect condition... only about 60.000km and in showroom condition (not a scratch or dent on it). So far (touch wood) I haven't had any issues... I do use sometimes a diesel-cleaning additive but reading this topic I looked a bit into the direction of turbo cleaners and apparently those exist as well (e.g. Bardahl Turbo Cleaner) so I might try it. Reviews seem to be positive but it's quite expensive (more than 70€) but I guess a new turbo costs more. Ideally I would prefer to have it physically cleaned but I'm not a hero in car-mechanics so I would need to have someone do it but I have no idea on how much that would cost... Cheers B

Any reason why? The misses will start using the octi and she needs a parking aid :-) I would like to avoid having to install parking sensors that is why I was looking into a reversing camera but if it's useless for parking I won't be bothering off course... Thanks

I notice you have/had parking sensors as well,were they oem or aftermarket? they look to be "sunken" on the picture, many of the aftermarket ones are sticking a bit out which I don't like cheers b

been looking at chinese sites, cheap but a lot of comments that the camera's didn't last long (also same comments on amazon for cheaper models)

Hi all, anybody fitted a rearview/backup camera (don't know the correct name)? Any recommendations? Experiences? Worth it? looking for a good one with night vision if possible (only looking for the camera, I've already decided on headunit/display) cheers B

Hi, been looking for a double din solution too... something with smartphone features or at least a good compatibility because today I have a car radio but don't listen to radio or cd's, I just use the aux in and connect my smartphone to it for music :wonder: so far the parrot asteroid smart seems to be a good option http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/asteroid-range/parrot-asteroid-smart/ Not the cheapest but if you take into account that you can use it as a satnav as well, it becomes a good value for money. Was looking at the pioneer app radio as well, you can control your smartphone with the pioneer app radio screen. It is a bit cheaper but you have to buy a bunch of cables and connectors (which would cost about 60€) and even then it seems to be hard to get it decently working with your phone, looks like a lot of hassle... I've been checking out other (unknown / chinese) brands as well but reviews seem to be overall negative pretty sure I'm going to go for the parrot, just going to check it out irl next week + look for a good reversing camera to connect to it (to make the misses happy) :yes:

Hi, sneaking this one in in this topic as I guess it's related... Read about the hockey-puck thing so ordered one, cut out a slot in the middle but still doesn't really feel ok... I have the feeling that with the original jack, the real jacking point is just behind the sill-lip, not the sill itself if that makes any sense. With the hockey-puck it feels like all the pressure is on the sill-lip. pic:

very nice! are these audi replica's? any more pics by any chance? cheers b

ok bought the bosch plus 90 because of the good reviews I've read, in combination with philips bluevision w5w result is great, really white light. There is a bit of a blue shine in the reflector of the headlight but the light itself is white. here's a cellphone pic, on the left oem, on the right my new setup. picture doesn't really does the bosch justice though... the oem looks white in this picture but irl it's yellow-isch haven't driven around with them yet but it lights up my driveway better then the oem's so it's promising :-) cheers b

any other options then?