Silver Bullet

No problem, Your quite right a lot have moved on to other cars including myself. I couldn't sell the Vrs as I have a soft spot for the old girl. Regarding the catch can, make sure the one you eventually buy has a drain **** fitted, they fill up with a mixture of oily water especially in winter (condensation). Here is a vid you might enjoy, some Brisky guys went to Germany for drive on the Nurburgring, enjoy !!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLYxljogZH0 Good Luck

Adding a Oil Catch Can is a great idea, it helps reduce oily air coating valves, piping, turbo impeller vanes and the intercooler. When I fitted mine in 2010 there were not many to choose from I opted for a Saikou Michi one from the USA. See my engine pic' its located bottom right, I made up a small bracket to mount it. 19mm diameter lined silicone hoses are the size recommended for the 1.8 turbo. Another useful mod is to replace the stainless charge pipe that dives down behind the engine on the drivers side. It has a push on connection & o ring retained with a c clip. My one kept leaking and coming off so I replaced the stainless pipe with 06A 145 731D , (there is one on e-bay). The lower end just pushes into a new silicone hose (Creation Motorsport). Dean quoted Bowders 1 post, he was a trail blazer for VRS mods for us all and posted many good "how to " posts and is a good source of reliable info. Good Luck Peter

I had a unsolicited text from the above company on my phone a few days ago offering me £500 for my Vrs Really weird 🤨

I had a similar problem, bought 2 new rear calipers + b/pads, offside bled ok working fine, when I came to do the n/s (using pressure bleeding from the master cylinder) nothing, no fluid came out. Garage thought the ABS block had packed up or had a bad airlock. I bled the ABS using VAG-COM process still nothing. My final attempt was to replace all of the nearside brake line with Cunifer + flexable hoses from the ABS to the wheel cyinder. Bled it SUCCESS !!!. I think this hose is the culprit, and as was said earlier had collapsed and was acting as a one way valve. When I took it off bits of the inner wall came out :- The offside one does not seem to have such a severe bend, but I do plan to replace it as well. Also I would suggest fitting return springs to the hand brake mechanism (see below)

Have a look in here, air con' is in Section 87 Page 50, I think its item 2. Note the picture shows a L/H drive car so its on the opposite side :- Octavia Vrs Air conditioning.pdf

I had a similar problem, bought 2 new rear calipers + b/pads, offside bled ok working fine, when I came to do the n/s (using pressure bleeding from the master cylinder) nothing, no fluid came out. Garage thought the ABS block had packed up or had a bad airlock. I bled the ABS using VAG-COM process still nothing. My final attempt was to replace all of the nearside brake line with Cunifer + flexable hoses from the ABS to the wheel cyinder. Bled it SUCCESS !!!. I think this hose is the culprit, and as was said earlier had collapsed and was acting as a one way valve. When I took it off bits of the inner wall came out :- The offside one does not seem to have such a severe bend, but I do plan to replace it as well. Also I would suggest fitting return springs to the hand brake mechanism (see below)

Firstly, a/ Take off each door card in turn b/ Carefully remove or roll up out of the way the plastic sheet (remember to put it back in place before replacing door card). c/ Inside all 4 door shells you will see a multi-plug for the harness d/ Unplug the two halves and inspect for any contact corrosion. e/ If they look ok give both halves a good squirt of contact cleaner and re-connect. f/ Finally carefully wrap the connector block in a plastic sheet using ty-wraps, paying special attention to get a good seal around the cable harness, this is where the water gets in. NB: What happens is water / condensation runs down the cable harness and collects in the multi-plug (these are not water proof) and causes corrosion on the contacts. Some owners have even found that on or more connector pins have completely rotted away. (Replacement pins/sockets are commercially available).

Well Guys and Gals, I got my road tax renewal notice come through today and its gone up toooo "Drum Roll"....... £365 for 12 months, every 6 months....£200.75 or if you pay monthly by direct debit...£383.25 I do it every year for 12 months to get the pain out of the way. NB: Checkiing my records.... when I taxed it in 2007 12 months was £190.00

I got it from Creation Motorsport here is the link, and its on special offer :- https://creationsmotorsport.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=AL0158 Yup its scary seeing young kids with mobile phones etc, we used to make our own toys ie trollies, build rafts (that sunk), I guess thats progress NOT!! Good Luck

Or perhaps one of these kits?

UPDATE I bought the straps from a main dealer £61.80 incl' VAT After giving both straps couple of extra coats of black paint I fitted them today. I Had run fuel down so there was only 1/4 of a tank, I supported front of tank with a block of wood with a rubber pad taped to it and it sitting on top of the trolly jack pad. For the rear I wedged a piece of wood in between the tank and the rear cross beam, then fitted the O/S first then N/S, both fitted perfectly.

Brilliant, thanks both👍.

Thanks, Its a FWD car.

Hi everyone Car sailed through MOT (no advisories) yesterday, however the tester did comment on a lot of rust on the petrol tank straps. My EKTA parts catalogue has decided to stop working. Soo can anyone help me with the part numbers please?. I know the 4 bolts are M8 x 25 Long, I plan to replace them with stainless ones. Car .... 05' Mk1 Octavia VRS, 1.8 turbo AUQ Engine. Thanks

Ahhh, So your going over to the dark side lol, seriously tho' I got to drive a Fabia 1.9 diesel vrs on a standard map and the torque was very very impressive. The only thing I didnt like was you seem to sit very high up, this was one of the early ones. As has been said above forget about engine oil spec ive got no idea what you need.

Try to find one thats been loved and not thrashed by up and coming F1 drivers 1/ Find out when the timing belt was done last, it should be every 30k miles or sooner. 2/ Engine oil changes, how frequent, should be every year or 12k miles. I use Castrol 5/30 Fully Synthetic always with a new oil filter. 3/ Petrol, they love Shell V Power thats all mine gets. 4/ Look at the welded sill lip, if it has been crushed its because its been jacked on them, they should not be used to jack the car, there are jacking points underneath and you will need a low profile aluminium jack to get underneath, (about £100), or the jack with the car if its still there. 5/ The Y breather pipe on top of engine on right side ( viewed from front) gets soft and can split causing all sorts of running probs. 6/ Try to get a standard map one, at the most a Stage One mapped. 7/ They were sold from new with a full size matching alloy spare wheel. The car will have had parts that wear out ie front and rear supspension bushes. If there is a clonk from the front when you drive off its usually the Dog Bone bushes. They are easy to replace many polyurethane kits available, about half a hour with car on ramps or jacked up on stands. Good Luck with your search Peter NB: Mine is coming up for its 18th birthday, there are older ones on here still flying strong

Hi, Well thats an interesting question, I have had mine for 17 years, I've not had it re-mapped, however have done minor mods to keep engine efficiency good, silicone hose kit for turbo (bigger inlet pipe), side vents (in front of wheels) and Audi TT inner wheel arch vent (both for improved intercooler cooling). recent jetex cat-back exhaust, engine air filter box de-finned internally, oil catch-can, plus regular servicing oil, filters etc. I find its still plenty fast enough. There are a lot more faster cars on the roads now driven by muppets than when the Vrs first came out. If its a keeper and it has low milage then I personally would stay standard. Though, there will be no visible indication of a re-map, except when you plant the right foot hard. its really up to you and what you want and how deep your pockets are of course. But Im old so am biased😃,

Top up steering fluid to max, take it round the block see if fluid goes down, I did think maybe air in the power steering fluid line, check power steering drive belt is tight, or the steering pump could be failing Jack front of car up with both front wheels off the ground, try to turn each road wheel as if turning left then try as if turning right. Any play, either track rod end b/joints are shot or lower suspension arm bushes are breaking up allowing tracking to change, or respective bolt that secures the the bush has snapped or is loose. Also while holding the tyre at the top and bottom try to move it to and fro, if it does it could be the big ball joint that goes into the bottom of the suspension strut has failed, they unbolt from the lower arm and can be replaced. Tyre pressures? , I set mine to 32 psi on all 4. At rest, engine off see if there is any play in the steering wheel, the steering box can be ajusted to eliminate any gear play (very rare though). If you find the cause please let us know what it was. Good Luck

Hi Phil, Nice to know the early enthusiasts are still around and carrying the flag 👍. Mine was second hand and 6 months old when I bought it . Peter

Hi Dean, Your right about the plastic bits lasting, but I still think one day a little stress crack is going to happen. you have two very dissimilar materials expanding and contracting at dfferent rates, something will give eventually or not 😀 Regarding the colour, I plan to mask off the hose spigots and spray the body blue with engine paint👍. Happy do a "how to post" when I fit them, it wont be for a while though as Im focussing my efforts on "fatty" , getting it ready for MOT next month, Ive got two rear suspension knuckle joints to press out and replace. "Fatty"

I have never been a fan of plastic parts on a car engine (and before any ladies have an attack of the vapours, its my opinion ok !!😁) I decided to treat the car to some new parts. Bought the kit of bits (see below) from Creation Motorsport. My dip stick holder is plastic so will be looking for a aluminium replacement as well. NB: Have noticed since fitting the Jetex cat - back system, the car feels a lot more responsive and still fairly quiet👍 (on a standard map).

I used Google for this search, the search engine here is c***p, click on the arrow on right side in the box the thread then opens :-

I remember you my friend and Chicken Eyebrow, Bowders, etc. I remember taking mine for a test drive it was 1 year old with 9k on the clock, I could not believe how fast a 5 door heavy Hatchback could go. It still brings a smile, that says it all. You might remember this :-

When I joined Briskoda shortly after the Jurassic Period (2007), I became a avid reader of the forum and followed the exploits of many pioneer's who were doing mods/improvements to their MK1 Octy VRS. One person stood out, taking his Mk1 to a whole new level, his avatar name "Steevie Wonder". I seem to remember he removed the vrs rear badge and stuck something like "Octavia 1600" in its place ☺️ Here is a list of the mods he did :-

Thanks Andy👍, Ive since tracked down a "howto" on a golf forum and the guy did the same thing. How do you find the new Octy VRS ?.