DieselMonte

Yeah I noticed its sitting higher in the back again lol. Definately lots better to drive but thats mostly the difference in the front suspension. Already had rear springs and there doesnt seem to be much difference between the rear springs themselves driving it.

Both of those will fit, same car underneath as a fabia.

Fabias are ALL a 5x100 fitment. Mk1 and mk2 are 100 percent a 5x100 stud pattern. Can't go wrong with getting a wheel off a wrecked fabia to use as a spare.

Any fabia wheel should fit in the spare wheel well. I've had one my 205/40 R17 wheels in there to check before and it fit. I've had one of my mk1 vRS spyders in there as a spare too, no problems. I use the small spare wheel kit my mk1 came with in conjunction with the 16 inch Spyder when i'm on a roadtrip. Ideally you would hope to find an Identical alloy as a spare, but it doesnt really matter for a spare so long as its near enough the same size. Why not take one of your wheels off and try them in the spare wheel well and see if it fits? I'll bet it will.

You can get one to fit surely, you'd just have to get or make a shift boot to replace the one you'll be missing.

Not threaded. Its got a little clip on it that keeps it tight to the gearstick itself. Its also attached to the leather boot. Funny I think the one in my cars too high.

Not a lot of difference between the before (Top) and after (Bottom). However, its definately a lot nicer to drive. Its cornering much flatter and feels a lot more responsive to drive. I took it on some dirt too, and it definately seemed to handle itself better there also. As I said in the last post I'll have to get shorter droplinks. Otherwise i'm considering these coilovers a win.

Rear suspension is done and the car is back on the ground. I ended up swapping out the coil springs for the ones I bought. Both seem to be the same height, i'm guessing any differences in them will come from the way the coils are positioned. You can see in one of the photos how worn the old bumpstops were, nasty. Easy enough job overall though. Only trouble is that the arb is fouling on the driveshaft at full lock. I believe Mondeo drop links are what most people go for in this case?

Mine came with it so I don't know exactly where it was got. I'm guessing you could get them in Halfords, or online on eBay, Amazon etc.

You can just get a small cubby to go in one of the dins, with the single din radio on top. Mines done like that.

Both front coilovers are in. Surprisingly easy to do. Only trouble came from a bolt on the top mount stripping the plastic around it. Had to grind off the head of the bolt and it made quite the mess of the paint. Other than that it was smooth sailing. Having an impact gun makes it miles quicker. Still need to do the rears, its a very easy job though so next day i'm out it'll be back on its wheels in no time at all.

Nice to have confirmation. Gave them a good clean anyway but since i'll probably just use the carriers it seems there wasn't much point. So I probably wont even need to bleed the brakes at all then?

1 degree difference in alignment? There are shims you can use to adjust the rear wheels alignment.

Guessing either rust or it got bent because someone jacked from the middle of it.

Same car underneath so it should fit. I learned from here that our cars have the older rear suspension from the mk1 fabia, while the ibizas and the polos of the same age as our cars had a newer, slightly wider setup. Apparantly both fit straight up. Are you changing to discs?

Good to know. Means I can use away at the current discs and pads and keep the Mintex ones spare for again. Thanks.

Got some used coilovers to go on this. FK performance coilovers and while dirty they do seem to be in decent shape! I think the rear coils are from a different brand as they should be shorter with a collar to adjust ride height. Either way all is in decent shape. Bought these along with a lovely set of 312mm brakes that will soon find a home on my mk2. I'll compare the rear springs I got with these and the lowering springs Vanhireboys graciously gave me. Honestly, I'm happy with the current rear springs As I think they help cancel out the high arse it got from being stripped so I'll probably keep them on. Might be tempted to throw one pair of the rear springs onto the Monte carlo for the hell of it. After all, its only a 10 minute job on these cars!

Saw a few things come up for sale that I had to have. Got these 312mm brakes for this car, and a set of coilovers for the mk1. Got the 312MM Carriers, calipers, set of new Mintex pads and the part worn brembo pads and discs that are in the picture. From what I can gather the 288mm and 312mm caliper are the same? But either way I have the whole 312 setup there. Not putting these on straight away, but I will put them on soon. Love the coat of green that was put on them, whoever painted them did a much better job than I did of my own brakes! I realise that the 312mm brakes are a touch overkill, but when I saw that the person I was buying the coilovers from also had these, I figured I should get them. Bleeding brakes is a job I don't love doing, so I want to see if I could use my 288 calipers. These discs have plenty of life in them, if anyone could chime in and tell me if the rust on them will come off after a few good stops I would appreciate it. Otherwise I think i'll spring for some new discs to go with the pads. Of course that means I'm left with the 288MM brakes spare, they have lots of life left in them so I could keep them for my mk1 in the event I can get the hubs from a vrs to put on to it. If anyone is interested in them let me know, I could probably post them from Northern Ireland to the UK thus avoiding any customs hassle. Otherwise, with 312s soon to be going on the front I think its time I start looking for a disc rear axle to complement the fronts. Already looks a bit daft with 288s and drums in my opinion. Having a decent handbrake would be a very nice plus too...

Another +1 for using car polish. If you had the time to wetsand and then buff them i'd go for it. Toothpaste works but doesnt last long at all.

Let me guess, the brit/o/ thread?

Another pretty pointless post, but maybe it will help someone. Bought some H8 Michiba 3000k 35W bulbs to replace my literally weeks old normal white foglight bulbs. Since it takes 2 seconds to change them. I already have tints but wanted a stronger yellow so got these too. I thought the tints made the fogs pretty yellow but the difference is insane! Have yet to try them out at night, when I do I'll throw up a photo.

Clean vRS' and pristine normal fabias will become classics I would imagine. A car like mine could never be worth anything for example. Nor will a vRS with 330k miles, JOM coilovers and a HXRNY sticker on the windshield be worth as much as a completely original vRS either. For now though, I don't see much point in worrying about keeping a car locked away because they might go up in value. I can speak from experience here when I say it does more harm than good. Tyres get flat spots, batteries go dead, fuel goes off,mould appears (and fabias are notorious for having dodgy seals that let in moisture), mice and rats can take up residence in it and do a lot of damage if they want to. Mice were in my car, around the engine too. They didn't seem to chew much of the wiring but they somehow got between the roof and the headliner. Found droppings on the top of the headliner, sound deadening on the roof chewed and a stain of I presume mouse pee around the spot where the sun visor would fold up into the headliner, nasty. I don't think that at this time its worthwhile to put some storage as opposed to just driving and enjoying them

I'm guessing the connector I circled is the one ehod has the photo of? Near the battery? I don't know if this is much help But I started at the brown wire at the alternator plug (see second pic) and tried to chase it back. From what I can see its going down and under some coolant hose in behind the intake manifold. I lost it after that but it must be pretty low on the engine, guessing you'll see it if you can get under the car and get off the undertray. If I can get out i'll put my car over the pit and take off the undertray and look for it.

I'll give a look later on my car. My car did the high idle thing before when I wasnt driving it much, I think its just a regen. Was told it could also be because the car thinks the battery is low so its keeping higher revs to charge itself. Since i've had the dpf removed its done the high idle thing exactly once. If its a connector that size my mk1 has one just like that on the front of the engine, (I want to say near the oil filter housing?) and it goes to the alternator iirc. I imagine its going to be in a similar spot on my mk2.

Probably would get a nice 1.6tdi with that. Hell, I saw a Monte Carlo up for £1495 Had a power steering fault and a massive amount of miles but looks pretty straight. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106153849111?advertising-location=at_cars&postcode=Ls15 8qx&model=FABIA&page=2&make=SKODA&include-delivery-option=on&sort=relevance&modal=description