DieselMonte

2 Michelin Pilot Sports fitted yesterday A lot of money for me to throw down on tyres but they have so far proved to be worth every penny. Done 250 miles on them so far, the bulk of that from a parts run for the other fabia this evening. These tyres seem to have helped fuel economy quite a bit. And another pointless photo of it at the services. Will definitely be getting 2 more pilot sports when funds allow, cannot praise them enough.

Give it time new bushes need a bit to bed in. Older arb bushes were just wore out hence the larger size hole.

Saw a pic of your car in another thread, that is far too low to be on standard suspension. Good luck with whatever suspension you do get.

I didn't even think about doing the door cards. That'd look great.

Corr, that's exactly what I should do with my old headliner. Where did you get the fabric?

Bits Coated in hammerite now: Console with the broken bolt is officially ruined so need to find another. Really turned into a pig of a job this. The other console though was wire wheeled back and primed for paint

More done today: Front Wishbones came out far too easy. When I did the Mk2 it was much harder to push them out. Only doing them again because I'm so far into this. Wishbones, Arb and subframe are ground back and soaking in Kurust. Bolt for the dogbone bush is stripped so I spent a while trying and failing to get that off. Don't actually "need" to remove the dogbone, but it feels very soft so I want to remove it and do a job on it. Video related: Got the steering rack bush off but had to cut the nut off to do so. So another nut and bolt I need to get. Had a go at getting an old welder working to help get the broken bolts out, but couldn't get it going. Probably just didn't have it grounded properly. As an aside, I'm amazed at how light these subframes are. I'd imagine someone skilled at welding could make some bracing to stiffen it up a bit. I'd say it'd be a worthwhile job to do on one of these. Maybe not for this car though, I'm really just trying to refresh what I can and have it as a solid roadworthy second car.

All I'm saying is on road trips the people in the back of my mk2 have a hard time hearing the people in front. I wouldn't be expecting it to turn into a Rolls Royce with a few rolls of sound deadener but keeping things a bit quieter couldn't hurt.

Power washed all the muck off, there was a lot. Wishbones were quite rusty underneath it all, suppose they've been covered in mud for 5 years. These brackets too. Sandblasting was messy but did a good job at removing some of the rust. Coated stuff in rust remover gel, other stuff is sitting in vinegar overnight. Seems a bit stupid making all of this look nice and shiny considering how dirty it is underneath. But I'm going to do it anyway.

After the heartache doing these ones? I'll pass. This should have been a piece of **** if the bolts didn't break.

Subframe is out Had every other bolt out except for one of the bolts holding the steering rack to the subframe as it spun. Ended up just pulling it out and bending the clamp that holds the steering rack bush in. Conveniently I have a superpro steering rack bush originally meant for the Monte to put into this, since I'm so far in. Now looks like I actually need inner and outer track rods. Not a big issue. Wishbone came out attached to the console: Console bushes are out also. One console is stuck into the subframe due to the aforementioned spun bolt. No spanner (or vice grip) will hold it so I'll probably just cut it off. One of the snapped bolts I'll try weld a nut onto and back it out that way. The other one will hopefully come out with an extractor bit. How everything currently sits: That subframe was a lot lighter than I thought. Could carry it with one hand. Feel I should mention that if not for the broken bolts, this would have been unbelievably easy to do. I think I'll take the time and thoroughly clean everything before it goes back together. I got a cheap sandblaster recently and I think this'll be a good way to try it out.

Bump out of interest I've been looking at rolls of stuff off ebay to do my two. I think the biggest gains are to be had from doing the boot area as there's not much sound deadening there.

Did this a few weeks ago but never got around to updating the thread. Ordered some stuff from creations motorsport for an upcoming project, and also ordered a short shifter while I was at it. Had ordered one before but shipping to Ireland post brexit meant it got returned to sender, and I got my money back. Pretty simple job to do and has done what it claimed and shortened the length between gears. Thought it was too short at first but after a few minutes it felt just right on the shortest setting. Short shifter lacks the large weight so it feels a little more notchy than standard also. Also filled the bushes with tigerseal to stiffen things up further. It did make a difference but didn't help some side to side slop I was feeling beforehand, but I found where the slop was coming from when I was doing this. Something to fix in the future but not really an issue now. It feels great in spite of this. Edit: Adding a video of Before and After Now for this upcoming project, its an Intercooler. I got an intercooler in good shape off marketplace, and ordered some 90 degree reducer bends and joiners from creations motorsport to get it to join with the original piping. All it needs now is some good clamps I don't want to start on this until the Mk1 is back on its wheels however, so this might not be done for a while. Also want to get a catch can to install at the same time, to keep the intercooler clean for as long as possible. Aside from the above, I recently found out the Air Cons no longer blowing cold, and it needs 2 tyres again. Air cons probably just a regas as I don't think it was ever done. 10 years old this year so can't be too mad at it lasting so long. Tyres are going on the insides and are at the point where they'll be going to the back soon enough. Have 2 tyres ordered in and they'll be done sometime next week. Brightside is that it'll finally be 215/40 17 all around now.

Short update but this is how it's been sitting since I was last out. Spent an age drilling the broken bolt through and it still won't come out. So next steps dropping the subframe. On the brightside the bolts I have out were soaking in vinegar the whole time so they're much cleaner now.

I've had mine for about 2 and a half years and it's been great to me, 1.6 tdi is a reliable lump largely. However: -Make sure you know whether or not it's been affected by dieselgate, more than likely it was "fixed" by now, mine was. Fixed cars are meant to have more trouble with injector problems and egr/dpf shenanigans, the fix also blunted performance and MPG figures somewhat. Emissions and injectors are not cheap to sort. Saying that, I've never had any trouble relating to the diesel gate fix on my car and any problems from it would have been sorted by now, but it's still worth mentioning. -These cars use a timing belt and off the top of my head it's every 5 years it needs done. Check the service book or ask for invoices to prove its done -On the same topic make sure its been serviced regularly, mine had its oil done every 10k miles and continues to have it done every 10k. -TYRES, my car chews front tyres on the inside, seemingly a lot of these do. Just be aware of it when you're looking at the car. Looking at the price and the miles I'm guessing it's in pretty good shape. I'd check the MOT history of it and see what it says. For reference I payed £3400 for mine start of 2020, 89k miles on it Do you mind posting up the advert? Sorry it seems quite a long post, hopefully it'll give be of some use to you. These cars are quite solid and aside from injectors and dpf/egr stuff, very cheap to sort if something goes wrong.

After scratching my head over what to do next, I figured out that the bit the bolt stuck into is actually the console that the wishbone attaches to, not the whole subframe, so I got to removing it. Hoping unbolting the console would also get the wishbone out with it, and look like this Shouldn't have been a big job but: Bust one of the bolts holding it in, think it goes into the steering rack which is just wonderful. Otherwise I got every other bolt out in one piece, wasn't easy. The console is ready to fall out of the car EXCEPT for where the bolt I snapped earlier lies. Much like the wishbone, the bit of snapped bolt is holding the console into the subframe still. Basically out now but I need to find something to drill the bolt out some.

Sorry for the late reply but it is an easy fix, my monte had this same problem and what I did to fix it was take out the seatbelt and clean spray it with some silicone lubricant. Worked a treat and they've been fine since. Passengers side was worse, can't believe it passed NCT like this. Its not too bad of a job, dont even need to remove the seat. Only annoyance is that it uses 12 point bits to fasten the seatbelt into the car.

Not the post I wanted to make, but i'm stuck at this point so may as well have this thread up to date. I hadn't had time lately to do much with this, I fitted the rear stops for the seats and the rear strut brace. Took the chance this evening to do the console bushes finally. Passengers side came out very easily, I'd sprayed all down the night before to hopefully help getting all off. Drivers side however was fighting me the whole way, until So I'm pretty well stuck at this point, wishbone won't come off as its catching on a bit of the bolt, don't think I have enough access to drill and tap either. Might be easiest to get another subframe than deal with this mess. I'll sleep on it before I do anything, but I'm fairly sure the vRS I got the bits off a while ago still had the entire front subframe assembly on it. Noticed the balljoints are pretty sloppy aswell, another thing to be done.

My egrs still in place I have a restrictor plate on it, however this was occurring long before that was fitted.

Hello everyone, Ever since I got my car (1.6 tdi) it occasionally throws a P0101 error code. It has never affected how the car drove, nor put it into limp mode. It always goes away on restarting the car too. This code relates to the maf. It comes up every once in a while, seemingly at random. As I've said before its not made any difference to the cars running and it only comes on every once in a while, but I'd rather find out whats causing it, and keep it from coming up again. Since its a code for the Maf I'm guessing its the main culprit, but if it was truly bad I would have expected it to put the car into limp mode instead of just throwing a code every once in a while.

Got some larger spotlamps to replace the 3 inch ones I had before. These ones are 5 inch. Much larger than the old ones naturally enough and it didn't take me long to wire them in. Old ones were decent, but these ones are even better, far more light cast out, reaches more distance and spreads better. I had expected these to come a lot earlier, but it was a good "small" project to keep me busy as I've been too busy to get out to work on the mk1. My RARB was on the old axle still so I wanted to paint it while it was off the car, got it sanded down, painted and ready to go and then as I said above, got too busy to go out and fit the thing until this evening. Its purely cosmetic, but still very poor job on the powdercoat this came with (bought it brand new from whiteline) Ground all back Primed, then High Build primed. Then was painted to match the calipers and finally fitted this evening. Some rust on the shell, and marks on the axle from fitting that need looking to, but not enough time this evening. Worth noting that I soaked the hardware in a vinegar bath to knock off any rust on them. Which worked very well. These got a coat of hammerite before going on the car. I'm glad to have it back on the car, immediately noticed the difference

I've gotten around 70mpg on a few occasions in my monte, must be flukes as I've not been able to come near that lately. Noticed my cars not been quite as frugal for the past while. Drives fine otherwise so who knows whats going on. I've gotten around 70mpg on a few occasions in my monte, must be flukes as I've not been able to come near that lately. Noticed my cars not been quite as frugal for the past while. Drives fine otherwise so who knows whats going on.

Lasted a long time that heatshield! The ones on my monte were hanging when they were changed. Atleast the damage isnt too bad!

I've no clue to be honest how it got in there, you can see some of it in the photos of the old one I posted before. Probably worth it for me to take off the new one and see if it now has the same gunk on it. I've never noticed much oil usage though and its running absolutely fine. Noticed a fair bit of oily vapour coming through the CCV, Suppose thats normal though.

Mines been running much better since I put the new one on. I cleaned out my old one though not too long ago, as I was curious if anything was stuck in there. Ran compressed air through it first, barely any air coming through the other port. Sprayed brake clean through it and a lot of black gunk came out of it. Ran compressed air through it again and immediately clear it made a difference. Proper "click" sound when starting and stopping running air through it, and more air going out the other side of it. Chances are I could have gotten away with cleaning my old one, but now I can use it as a spare "just in case"