DieselMonte

When I mentioned earlier about my original shocks my car was at 89k when I got it and the shocks gave up the ghost around 104k miles. My car would be a bit heavier on the nose which would give the shocks a harder time. Fairly Low mileage for the age of it, about 7300 miles a year. Would love to see some pictures of it.

I'm adding very little to this compared to what has already been mentioned but: -Rarb absolute best bang for buck mod, cannot praise it enough. I got the whiteline rarb (BWR19Z is the code for the one for our cars) Some people get H&R. Whiteline is the one I have. I would 100% put a Rarb on first and go from there. -Suspension, ask him what springs he has, how much of a drop they are, brand etc. On standard, original shocks and springs my monte would often bottom out on some of the roughest parts of our roads (albeit at first only when I was going ""quick"") eventually they got to the point where the shocks were completely gone so I put coilovers on mine. 20-25mm drop, the car handles itself very well and no more bottoming out. If your cars reaching around 100k miles theres a good chance the shocks won't be performing at their best and it would be pointless putting lowering springs on worn out shocks. Tyres- your car will have 205/40 R17 tyres standard, thats one size smaller than the equivalent ibiza/polo. Going up to a 215/40 to match the sister cars is a no brainer. Bit more tyre on the road and a slightly fatter sidewall to soak up the bumps better. Plus a 215/40 fits the rim so much better than the 205/40s. Bushes- If its on original bushes they might be wanting to be changed at this point. I replaced all my bushes with polyurethane but thats just me. I'd atleast do the wishbones with polyurethane bushes. Brakes- Standard brakes are decent especially if you have quality pads. I changed my front brakes to 312mm ones and have no regrets in doing so. Rears do very little in comparison and your vRS has rear discs already. They can be upgraded to 256mm vented rears but again, it won't make as much of an impact as upgrading the fronts will. I'm in the process of converting my monte from drums to discs, think I have a set of 256mm vented rear brakes sourced but if that falls through it'll just be 232mm solid discs same as a vRS. While a Monte (Especially a diesel one) is different to a vRS, the basic handling upgrades will be the same.

I had read 10 and 15mm and assumed the lower figure, my bad.

Montes have "Sports" shocks and springs iirc. About 15mm lower than standard. Shouldn't make any difference to fitting springs however all else being equal. Heres the boot sticker off my monte if its any addition.

You need a crowbar to get the cap back on the bush whenever you're putting them back on. I've done mine recently and thats how I did mine. I wedged it against the steering rack and levered it on.

Bushings out finally, and I was able to use the holes for the buhes to hang the rear beam up to make it easier to paint. Then got a coat of Primer on it. And a coat of Hammerite Hammered black this evening. Its come out pretty well, seems to match the wheels almost perfectly which is cool. Needs a second coat of hammerite, and the bushes pushed in and thats the beam pretty much done. After that I can focus on the brakes.

Hehe

More progress in the beam, soaked it in rust remover gel for a few days, reapplying every once in a while. That left me with this: I pressure washed the gel off, and scuffed it down with steel wool, wire brushes and a sanding pad on my polisher. Once it was at this stage I gave it a heavy coat of kurust and left it. Which turned into this: Also had the bolts soaking in vinegar for a while, turned them from looking like this: To this: To this: And after a coat of Stonechip, This: Will be soon primed then coated in paint. Need to remove the bushes before then and they are fighting me. Atleast the new ones will go in easy.

Comfort and up have them. As well as painted mirrors.

I have PSBushings ones, almost every bush they do aside from the rear beam bush (which will be done soon). They're cheap and do the job well. If you do the wishbone bushes you'll really only need the rear one, front ones hardly ever wear out although I did do both on mine. My old ones practically fell out of the wishbone: Vs the new PSBushing ones: I've found PS bushings to be pretty good for vibrations. I changed my arb bushes for PSB ones too, had new Rubber ones bought but put these ones in instead, only reason being I got a "kit" of bushes for another fabia, and got the right size arb bush for my car.

People used to be mad swapping 1.8 ts into fabias. They'd use an ibiza as a parts car and swap all over.

Convinced VW use the same one for every car in the range, even the one in a 2016 touareg looks the same as the one in my 2001 fabia

Took ages for a replacement one to arrive but I have fitted it, noise is gone and its running a lot better. Theres some weird gunk on the ports of the old one, how it got there I don't know.

Took it out for a run and immediately noticed a difference, pulling far better than before and handlings much sharper. Did not realise how bad the old stuff was until I changed it. D bushes were annoying to do because of the driveshafts being in the way but i'm glad I stuck in and did them also, I had both rubber and polyurethane ones got but went poly in the end, hopefully will last the life of the car. Really like how PSB stuff is usually black and so looks standard.

Parts came in, so I now have new discs, pads and handbrake cables for the rear beam. Also got another N75: Bit of junk on the ports of the old one, so good thing I changed it. New Boot struts because why not: New Drop Links: And Changed the D bushes to PSB ones:

Welcome to the forum, Can you throw up a photo of it? -There's plenty of ideas on the projects section but probably the best first mod would be a RARB. Was one of the first mods I did to mine and it was a night and day difference. -Wheels, any Fabia/polo/Ibiza alloy will fit, as well as Mk4 golf platform cars. Plenty of OEM choices, Mk1 Fabia vRS or Mk1 octy vRS Spyders are a really nice wheel on these. (Pic related) Can do a little bit with the engine too, vRS intake and a deflapped airbox are cheap/free to do, no harm in giving the engine as much of a chance to breathe as possible. Remap is good to see 130-140hp easily. For your own sake you should check to see if its had the dieselgate fix done, mine has and i've not had any trouble stemming from it, but best to be aware. Plenty of people retrofit LED lights into projector light equipped fabias, not my cup of tea but I believe the preferred brand of lights are called Nighteyes, H7 to fit the fabia. If you don't have projectors led lights will just blind oncoming traffic.

0-60 in a spry 18.9 seconds

Price of fuel these days makes people do strange things, saw a passat being filled with kero for example. I'd chance mixing some kero in my sdi but running pure kero? No way. Heard of people mixing in a (small) amount of kerosene to help cars pass smoke but even then its not much.

1.9 sdi fabia, they're a non pd engine.

I have got an identical engine to OP, never noticed any surging as such. Lights on and what not you can feel the load on the engine at idle, only slightly. Mine idles steady however, the only time it changes from that is when its cold out, moves up to a steady 1000rpm idle. I have torque so could gleam info off it if its needed.

Made a move and got a disc rear axle, not from a newer ibiza like I had wanted but from a mk1 vRS instead. Had to clean it off, pretty crusty but was going mad trying to find anything else. Scuffed some of the easier to reach bits down. Soaked the beam in rust remover before I left. And got the calipers and discs off, they came off much easier than I thought they would. Wheel bearings are smooth as butter so not going to change them. Left carriers on as the bolts on them are very crusty, so they're soaking in wd40 overnight. Brake shields are pretty crusty and it looks like I can't get them off without pulling the wheel bearings. One of the calipers has a perished boot so I'll need to order a refurb kit for them. Have rear beam bushes, discs, pads, handbrake cables, etc got so don't really have much more to order.

On a parts run I snagged a rear bumper for the Mk1, was meant to get two quarter panels but when I saw them up close they were as rough as mine so no point. Also got a windscreen washer bottle and some rubber stops for the back seats. Not much of an exhaust pipe to show, may have an idea for that. Got a few odds and ends, not much left on the vRS I got it from, rear spoiler and exhaust was gone or I would have had them too.

Back on the Spyders, first time since I "refurbed" them. Really liking the fat tyres on them. Few pieces should be here soon, but I got some this evening, namely poly wishbone bushes. Same brand I have on the monte (PSB), needed rear beam bushes and D bushes for the monte and it worked out to be not much more to get wishbone bushes for this on top. I'll fit these when I can, Montes got priority but these will get done relatively soon. Happy with the quality of these, got the whole kit for the same price as just the rear beam bushes from powerflex plus free shipping.

You may have better help from the mk3 section as thats what your car is, not a mk1.

Splines would be the same, wiring for the buttons and airbags are probably different and would need figuring out.