Silver Bullet

Hi, Your friend is correct in saying the lower strut brace makes the most difference to handling,I have fitted both upper and lower braces. Drilled holes in car to match the pre-drilled brace holes, painted hole edges with rust proofer paint and bolted brace in place using stainless bolts, nuts and washers. (Bolts fitted upwards from underneath with nuts on the top). It does make the front feel very rigid and concise when cornering. Peter

Hi, I fitted new rear pads and discs in April this year, Skoda part number for rear pads is :- 1J0 - 698 - 451 K (The pads have a large chamfer on leading and trailing edges) NB: still get the occasional "Moooo" when reversing. Peter

Hi, Having read various posts about those hoses leaking, and using 'sods law' as a guide, I decided to replace mine (even tho they were ok), assuming that they would fail eventually at the most awkward time. Like yourself I did searches and finally bit the bullet and placed a order with Awesome for a blue set. I fitted them in September this year, (the inlet manifold one is a B**** to do), but touch wood they seem to work, and are the right shape which does help!!!!!. Peter

Yup

Fitted Whiteline 22mm adjustable from Balance Motorsport 18 months ago, improves the handling loads. Do a search for comments from users, should help you decide which one to go for. Peter

Well done mate!!!!, "won by default"?, technically yes but lets be honest, if I felt I was in the right and believed I could win in a court case i'd fight tooth and nail as i am sure most people would. I would go to a small claims if it falls within their remit, at least you would make it more public and and thereby alert anyone else considering going down the same route of modding their ecu. Once again Congrads Peter

I recently replaced mine with Superpro (assuming you mean the front arb), and also tried a longer bolt solution, didnt work as it bottomed out on a feature on the subframe before securing the clamp.I ended up using a pair of long handled adjustable pliers to hold the bush clamp closed and then quickly fitted the original bolt before my strength went. The bolt in question is:- N 101 016 03 M8 x 18mm Long.

Hi welcome to the vRS club, nice looking car:thumbup:, the wheels do suite it more than silver ones would. Peter

Likewise...... Philips X-treme H4 power headlight bulbs, using them for 18 months, and very happy with them together with Philip Blue vision W5W front side lights, they were a freeby with the bulbs (give a bright white light not blue). NB: Lighthouse bulb?? how big are the moths??:D Peter

Yeahhhh !!!!!!

I got the dealer to fit a front set (Part No: as above), before I bought the car. I think they use the existing inner liner fixing screws, not totally sure. I have found they really help by reducing a lot of c**p and stones hitting the body panels, a really useful mod . Peter

Nice looking car, the pics are very arty Peter

Thanks Bowders, I do plan a remap in the new year hence this upgrade, after I posted I did another search and found an interesting post where someone had filed a small groove in the s/plug bore location rings on the pack to allow any pressure build up to escape!!!. Im not to sure about this idea. :rotz:. A material thats cycling temperature wise, with any sharp grooves cut in it just invites a crack to form. I suppose the idea is to let trapped air (when the pack is pushed into its location hole) to escape when it heats up and expands when the engine is running, if there were no sharp edges, and it was a gentle radius recess it might work, its got me thinking now. I did see the brackets from ECS you mention, then realised the Hitachi body has built in fixing lugs duh. Many thanks Peter

Hi everyone, I have done some reseach on here and people seem to swear by Hitachi Coil Packs, as the car is coming upto 40k miles I plan to change the existing coil packs (no problems with them so far), keep them as emergency spairs and use the above with some new plugs I have bought (NGK PFR 6Q). Any performance feed back much appreciated. Sooo a few questions guys :- 1/ Do the coil packs come with brackets and fixing screws? 2/ Is this part number the latest version :- 06B-905-115E ? 3/ A reliable supplier you can recommend 4/ What sort of price can I expect to pay? 5/ Do the plugs need re-gapping ? (standard vrs engine I always use V power petrol) Many thanks Peter

Glad you got it sorted mate, now enjoy the car. Peter

Let me guess you couldnt find your cat

Hi IEP, You could be right, after scanning, taking it round the block (2 min drive), both fans were running, however the lower hose was much cooler than the top one. I think he needs to find out if the water pump has ever been changed. Peter

Good advice IEP, Last thing you want to do with an ally engine is cook it and end up with a warped head. :thumbdwn: Peter

Hi, I have Vag-com but am located in Herts (up A10 to Hertford then left onto A414). That too far for you?? Peter

Hi look at this thread, it has good tips and a pic where the water temp sensor is. I changed mine a year after I got it, only do it when engine is cold, its only a 10 minute job. http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/engine-coolant-temp-sensor/92795/ Peter

I finally got round to stripping my starter down to clean/re-grease it. I used the above mentioned strip down guideline post and found it a great help. When i eventually got the gearbox apart I noticed all the grease had been thrown off the planet gears onto the side walls, the gear teeth still had grease on. It looked as if there was no lubrication between the carrier plate and the side of the gears. I found a old tin of Castrol Moly Grease and slapped a load on the gears and carrier and a little into the oilite bearing that supports the motor spigot. Checking the shaft that extends with the spur gear on the end, I found that was clean, bright with no rust on it, gave it a squirt of WD 40 just to make sure. Grinding noise has stopped "touch wood" !!!! Peter

Close enough Rob Peter

Hi, I have standard 17" wheels, just measured one of the old centre badges i still have with my vernier caliper = approx 56mm diameter. Peter

You are correct, the body is a heatsink, however depending on a components location, for example if there is no air circulating over the body, or no contact with a larger body or its in a closed space then eventually it will heat up as the generated heat will have no where to go, (conduction / convection), resulting in a possible shortening of the components life. All I am saying is depending on the wattage of the device and its location any extra cooling is a big plus. (Robs location is prob ok, I dont know). We used a bolt on software package on Pro-e (cad) and run thermal simulations to identify hot spots where high wattage resistors were vunerable to overheating and needed additional cooling. The big 5 watt ones I used once on a engine test rig for Volvo trucks used to heat the surrounding metal it was bolted to so much that you couldnt touch it and a small local cooling fan had to be added. Finally, consider, if a resister body surface area / fins were sufficient to keep it cool in any environment then there wouldnt be a market for add-on heatsink suppliers or manufacturers mounting guidlines. Hope this has helped Peter

Very professional write up Rob :thumbup: The pics and diagrams are so useful:thumbup: Peter NB: That resistor needs to be bolted to a heatsink or a suitable metal surface using thermal conductive paste if possible. (I contracted at Motorolo in Stotfold working on engine ecu boxes before the site closed). We used to bolt the big resistors to the inside walls of the die-cast boxes where possible to prevent overheating and premature component failure.