DieselMonte

Had a go at knocking back some rust yesterday. Backed over the pit and went at it for a few hours. What I ended up doing was: -Grind back as much of the rust as possible -Kurust -Zinc oxide primer -Isopon stonechip (if thats the name of it) -Finally sprayed over all that with a tin of VW candy white. I was hoping the white would match the rest of the car underneath. It did not. Access wasn't as good as I hoped so the bits I couldnt easily reach I got in with a wire brush and knocked back as much as I could. Didnt do the rear beam as I intend on swapping it out for a disc one in the future. The whitelines paint is already flaking off on some parts, I've only had it on since January, thought it would have held up better but a bit of paint will sort it out. Also it seems to have slackened off on the two clamps somehow, tightened it back up with the impact and immediately the cars tight as ever. I'll have the front over the pit next time and do that half of the car, doubt theres much to do but worth checking.

Vrs and some Montes have 288mm brakes so they have different hubs. I think 256mm brakes have the carriers built into the hubs so they're not compatible.

So I gather from this thread that its not a direct power gain, it just stops loss of power from heatsoak. When we had that heatwave a few weeks ago my monte was getting quite toasty with inlet temps. Usually keeps around 30°c and during all the heat it was getting over 40° and peaked at 50° more than a few times. Its got a front mount intercooler standard (albeit a rather small one). Take it with a pinch of salt, but it did seem to blunt the performance of it a little. I'm guessing some proper heavy track work would do the same. On the opposite end of that, my monte absolutely loved the crisp cold air we had over last winter, Definately noticed a bit more punch even with it being then a mostly standard 105hp car. Wellycooler style intercoolers used to be a cheap way to go for putting bigger intercoolers on VAG cars. I do intend on changing the intercooler on mine in the future, darkside ones seem the best job, but it seems to me that its "just" a bigger intercooler with 90° bends welded on to make it fit easier, nothing some 90° bend silicone hoses can do the same for much less. Not knocking Darkside in the slightest, I have one of their downpipes on my cars and they're a nice bit of kit, the welds they did to it were done to a high standard. An intercooler with alloy ends performs better than one with plastic ones (standard). Black intercoolers also perform better. *Grabs popcorn*

Headlights done and dusted, working 100 percent. Drivers main bulb was broken, so I nabbed one off the original lights, same bulb happily. Far from perfect but more than good enough for now. Still, another BIG item off the list.

Was down the country and picked up some lights for the mk1. Initially I wetsanded them and clear coated them, only to have the clearcoat crack and craze on me. Great. Had to sand all off and go back up the grits to 2500. Then I polished them up as good as I could get them. Far from perfect but they are a decent improvement over the old ones. I broke one of the tabs on the passengers light as I put them in the boot at first and they started sliding around because I have a trunk liner in the mk2, my mistake. Bit of superglue sorted it. Anyhow, they're a bit fiddly to fit and the connectors were giving me trouble fitting them. The passengers light kept the indicator on instead of the main beams, maybe some sort of failsafe if the car thinks both bulbs are bust? I like the look of it if i'm honest. If I could wire them to work in tandem with the sidelights (and still work as indicators) I would. Waiting for the battery to charge again, this alternators scrap at this point so its always barely not got enough battery power to turn over. Will post some photos up of it outside once it has enough charge to start.

Some jags have the problem you and I got because of the placement of the belt reel making them sensitive to being parked on an angle. Mine passed NCT by some miracle, belts werent plugged in when it went in. I saw the tester struggle with both seatbelts but fair play to him he didn't give up! The pictures I attached are of the cover I removed doing it. I imagine it will be similar on your car.

If its the wrong belt it wouldnt fit proper i'm guessing. My MK2 fabia was terrible for doing what you cars doing. Both front belts had those stopper things on the belts. Passengers side one was by far the worst, both did it even on a flat surface and parking on any sort of angle meant the belts often wouldnt go at all. Anyhow I fixed the passengers side by taking the belt out and removing a little plastic cover on one side of the belt, where theres some cogs hidden under it. Got a spray can of silicone lubricant and sprayed the hell out of the gears. Then I pulled the belt out and started spraying as I was unwinding the belt. It seems to have done the job, no problems since I did it a few weeks ago.

If its keeping the engine from warming up I would imagine it would make the engine run rich.

Down the country on a weekend trip away to Wicklow with some mates. Cruised down the M1 and M50 no sweat, had Waze running the entire time to warn me of anything ahead, came in handy but mostly for traffic reports this time. Next day we got up and did Glendalough, from there we went up the R115 from glendalough to Sally gap. That road got particularly bumpy nearing the crossroads at sally gap. In particular there was 1 bump that I thought I bust the sump going over it! I'm amazed the undertrays still attached in all honesty. I would have done serious damage if it was any lower. Was fun as hell otherwise. At the crossroads we took the r759 east heading towards Bray. Still a bumpy road but not near as bad as the road we took up. We were glad the weather held up, you could see for miles around you. We ended up going on some more back roads around the Wicklow mountains, stopped in powerscourt for a bit before heading for Bray. The roads around the Wicklow mountains were tight enough too, even in a fabia it was a bit of a squeeze if you met anything on the roads, zero chance to pass anyone either so if you came up on someone going 20mph, you weren't getting past. On the sunday before we headed back up the road, we went to courtown for a bit, not exactly beach weather mind! Overall I put about 500 miles on the car over the weekend, performed well given the roads and returned a healthy 58mpg again, no complaints there. (I also got a few things for the mk1, but i'll wait until they're ready to go on the car to show them. They would be ready tonight but I must have done something seriously wrong as I clearcoated them, and it immediately started cracking and crazing. So tomorrow I'll have to sand them right back and do it all again.)

What brand are those wind deflectors? Team Hekos?

Polishing the wipers did a good job. I use carplan trade valet wheel cleaner, I dilute it by half because as I said, I wash my car weekly so it never gets too bad. TFR is great stuff but it strips any sort of wax on the car so I stay away from it.

I've used xpert 60 wheel cleaner before. I think they call it indigo 10? Top notch stuff but decently expensive. Its similar to stuff like iron off. Probably best to use cheaper wheel cleaner for a normal wash and then bust out the xpert 60 stuff for when they get bad. I agree with you on the turtlewax, I used to use megs ultimate wax and it was phenomenal. Got a tub of turtlewax hardshell for 9 euro last week and waxed both my car and my mothers. Same as you I've not noticed much difference between the turtlewax and the megs ultimate wax regarding the finish. The turtlewax was a bit of a ballache to buff off compared to anything else i've used. Waxed my car saturday and had to use it that evening. Drove it through a rainstorm, parked it outside and the next day the car still looked spotless, you would have sworn I had just washed the thing! Hopefully it lasts a while.

Of course there's money in it. I've been buying the big megs gold class car wash at 26euro per bottle of it. Margins must be insane with detailing stuff.

Stuff I have is called bumper gel but its not Autoglyms stuff. Same stuff likely just a different brand. Its in a 5l drum but I put it into an empty 500ml waterbottle with a sports cap on it. Easier to use as I can just pour out a little bit onto a foam pad. Instead of it coming out in one great lump.

I wash mine weekly and keep a fresh coat of wax on it usually. I've used bumper gel on the rear wiper and it worked great as its plastic. Might just give the front wipers a go of meguiars ultimate compound tonight.

Wonder if you could get some wax or back to black crap to stick to them? They're painted metal wipers so maybe a bit of polishing by hand could bring them up, provided the paints not lifted like felix's has.

My matrix has that same corrosion on the wiper arms. I'd take the wipers off the car and either paint them, or get a nice set from a scrapyard. My monte doesnt seem to have that wear on the wiper but they are pretty faded. Mine definately hasn't got it either.

That exhaust is an Ultersport one I bought with a darkside developments downpipe. Whole lot for 140 euro, 25 of which was the backbox. Bit of paint and some polish and you'd think it was new! Must get some video of it driving by and post it up.

It shouldn't put it into limp mode no. These engines are very simple and very much overbuilt for the power they produce. Sdis are very sensitive to smoke compared to a tdi. If you wanted to roll coal i'll bet you'll have results from just gutting the cat, or putting in a dummy pipe. Mine blasted soot out of it when I first got it. Standard cat and no funny map on it. It failed its NCT on smoke hence why I got my hands on it. For some reason its stopped doing it since I put it back together. Probably explains how I once managed 8mpg in it lol. Anyhow, the tiny vacuum line on the top of the egr is what I removed. I think I put a screw in the line to plug it and tucked it behind one of the lines on the firewall.

1.9 sdi is an ASY code on these. I pulled the vacuum line on mine to stop the egr from working. Mine is duffed I think as once I pulled the vacuum hose it got rid of a stutter the car developed around 2k rpm. It will make the glow plug light flash iirc. I'd just pull the line and put it back on for MOT. You can probably get metal blanks to put between the egr and intake either.

Were any mk2 fabias equipped with stop/start?

I have some universal ones on my car, they work well and are nice to have given our roads. If I were to do it again I would have took more time and done a neater job, but they have held up well regardless. Great thing about here is that 99% of cars run mud guards or mud flaps so spray is not as bad from cars infront. Cars only low in that first picture because It was full up with people and luggage. Haven't joined the agri spec scene just yet.

Nice! Have you noticed any difference driving it?

Would be the same as a 1.9tdi evrymod, exact same so just search for it as such. Again, doubt there'll be gains from it but i'd like to hear how you get on.

I'll be going on another small trip next week, so I took the time today to do 2 things that I've wanted to do since I got the car. First up, fix the seatbelt. I only fixed the passengers side belt as it was much worse than the drivers one. I might do the drivers one at a later time because theres been times where people cant get it on because its so sensitive. Wasnt a hard job in the end, just took it out, removed the cover for the gears (the cover I took a photo of) and sprayed the hell out of all the stuff that was behind the cover with ptfe spray. Works a treat now and I don't have to worry about people not bothering putting it on now. Video of what the belt was like on a good day. Video of the fixed belt. Secondly, since I had the spline bits out and the battery off I finally put in the underseat storage from the mk1, dead easy to do and looks nicer than the original blank that didn't even sit right. Doesnt seem to be the exact same shade as the rest of the seat for whatever reason, but its close enough. Considering it won't be seen and it was free, I'm not bothered.