DieselMonte

Change the wheels front to back and go for a spin, then you'll know if its a wheel out of balance straight away. When I swapped tyres back to front on my monte it suddenly shook like crazy above 80, sure enough one of the wheels had lost some weights.

Little in the way of tinkering on a modern car but you can do a little bit to it. (Aside from a remap and exhaust, these are cheap and or free things I've done to mine.) On mine I've: -Deflapped the airbox -Fitted a vRS intake -Cleaned out the Egr pipe and ASV -Cleaned out boost pipes -Gutted the turbo damper Some little things you can do aside from a remap. No harm making it breathe easier, last I checked my cars running fine after all the abuse I've given it.

vRS intake pipe from the dealership. 25 euro from a dealers and a better job than any hot air cone intake. I have a darkside downpipe on mine. Good exhaust but its cracked once on the car it came off of and once on my car. Need stiffer mounts to stop it cracking.

Axle is officially done. Mechanic had a lot of trouble fitting it, both the discs were rubbing on the carriers and the pads I had were too thick and the caliper would not go back far enough to take them. Very luckily I didn't get rid of the discs and pads I got with them, as they were the only ones that would work. Got quite dirty so needed a deep wash when I got it home. No clue how it got rust water over the top of it, certainly a new one for me. Sprayed it down with iron remover to get as much of it off as I could before touching it. Had to do 2 even 3 passes in some areas, and it seems to have etched into the roof slightly. It'll polish out easy but I'll do that another time. Anyhow, some before and afters: Currently I don't have my rarb on as its on the old axle which I still need to pick up. You'd know it was off, I think i'll sand it back down and paint it before it goes back on. I know its only cosmetic but its still shocking how quickly that rarb started to rust. New polybushes are absolutely perfect so far. Car rides fine, no more harsh than it was before. Haven't driven the car much so the rear discs havent had the chance to clean off 100%. What I can say so far is that the handbrake is fantastic compared to the drums. Brakes feel really good in general, imagine they'll be even nicer after they settle.

Thanks gents, now I know for when I crack on with mine.

Does anyone take the console off the car off the car or is it more hassle doing it that way?

Even better, a vRS on the same wheels.

Montreals were fitted to Mk4 golfs, which are 5x100. Mk5 golf onwards is 5x112. Pic of Montreals on a Mk4 All a fabia is under the skin is a b*stardised Mk4 golf.

When I have my Stiff springs in, 5 up in mine and it sits the same as my car does now on the short springs I got with my coilovers. Do drop links and arb bushes together and rule them out. Your shocks even though they're low mileage are still quite old so no chance they're working at their best. And of course better wishbone bushes will make a difference. At this rate I might have my wishbone bushes on before you

My cars horrid with carrying weight too, this pic is exactly why I'll be swapping in my big stiff springs for road trips. Made it over to galway and back like this though!

5x100 VW stuff 100% will. Mk4 Golf platform aswell as Polo/Ibiza sister cars will all fit. Always thought a Set of Montreals would look ace on a vRS. Brake light switch should be easy to do, stick your head under the dash and you'll see a button looking thing near the top of the brake pedal, thats what you're looking at changing. SMF wouldn't dampen vibrations as well as a DMF no, but you'd get used to it pretty quick. Its definately not going to shake it to death. Worth noting a Heavier Single mass flywheel will dampen more vibrations than a lighter one.

+1, my glow plug lights on because I've the fuse to it pulled. OP can swap his tyres onto another set of spyders either

I've seen quite a few sets of fabia vRS spyders for the £100 mark, tyres and all. My set were 80 euro and while they were rough to say the least, all the tyres held air and 2 of them were perfectly fine for road use. I painted mine up to get them looking presentable but thats just cosmetics. Any 5x100 vw rims would work, whatever you can get a good deal on really. Rear discs aren't much either. I paid just over 20 euro for 2 discs for the same. Clutch and DMF job would be pricey, but most of that is from the price of a dmf. If you were to convert it to a smf you'd be taking a lot off that £1000 quote.

Mispoke a little bit, I have both bushes for the wishbones, only the rear ever needs changing

Problem Solving Bushes, get them as cheap direct from their website, plus free delivery. I run them on my monte, and have front wishbone bushes for my mk1 that I need to get my finger out and fit. Haven't failed yet on my monte with 20000+ miles of abuse so far. Not sure if its just early fabias, but basically theres 2 types of console bushes fitted to em, early ones have rubber on the top and bottom and the updated bushes have the rubber in an "X" pattern. My car had them replaced at some point as they're the X type ones.

Depressing. If you're looking for a cheap car that probably won't bankrupt you with repairs, look into an older avensis. They were popular with cabbies for a reason.

Older toyotas sure, newer ones don't hold up as well, even their diesels for the last few years were BMW oil drinkers for the most part.

"Skoda Granit Metallic" Is the proper match, I have a touch up pen of the stuff. Code of it is F7S / 9090 / F7B according to the listing I got mine off. https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Car-Touch-Up-Paint-SKODA-GRANIT-MET-Code-F7S-9090-F7B-Brush-In-Lid-/191796789348?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Hopefully they'll not look too hard at the lack of a dpf/cat Calipers got high build primed: Then sanded back and painted: Got lazy and didnt bother masking off the piston and boot, doubt it'll make much odds. Also got new discs and an abs sensor as one of them on the axle was damaged getting it off the car and the correct size heat shields ( not sure if they can be put on without needing to replace the wheel bearings.) Its basically ready to go into the car otherwise, end of next week is still when i'm aiming to have it done.

Technically I now have most of what would be needed to convert it to discs, since it has the mounts for a set of calipers.

Lot of progress done since: The axle has turned out very nice compared to what it was before, should keep looking fresh for a while yet. I managed to find a set of 256mm rear brakes, full set up including discs and pads. Had to ship them over from England, but I got them. Pads look to be the same as the new pads I bought for the 232mm setup, so I think I should get new discs and put all the new stuff on instead of using these discs and pads (even though they seem to have very little wear on them). Had new 232mm discs bought, but they won't be needed. Side by side of the 232mm standard rear discs vs the 256mm setup. And test fitted to the axle: Calipers are silver which I wouldn't mind, but the fronts are green so the rears need to be painted to match. So I scuffed all down and etch primed them. I had a can of the correct shade (Pantone 348) green mixed up, should match the fronts well. Noticed the calipers have helper springs already fitted, seems these help keep handbrakes from sticking on. Getting pretty good with a spray can. Also got the polybushes in, they went in with little fuss, got them started in with my hands and tapped them through with a rubber mallet. Aiming to have it in end of next week, should be doable.

You can get the same units off ebay for less than half that, just so you know.

Conversely the sills on my mk1 don't seem to have any rot, they're just dented in a ridiculous amount.

Good to hear hammerites good to keep rust at bay.