DieselMonte

Huh, always thought the monte was the same light just black. The more you know...

These are twin beam headlights for reference, you have projectors. The small bulb is a sidelight.

The small lamp next to the mouse is the sidelight

For normal twin beams yeah. I think 32k of data has blacked out his headlights on his car but its got projectors.

I had to cut one of mine with a grinder when I did mine.

Maxxis tyres are usually decent enough.

If they look like this they're standard wheels. I think 205/40 R17 is the standard size, but people have run 205/45 and 215/40 before. Funny, I noticed my car had a bit of a shake in the steering wheel on the old tyres I was running up till yesterday. Tiny bit of vibration at around 80-90mph cruising, especially on the motorway. Only with them tyres though. Not had it at that speed for long enough to notice it since. Tyres I had were toledo tl1000. Hated having them on the front, glad to see them off the car.

How did you manage that? Road debris?

Very minor and very boring job today. I had some free time and thought the pedals looked dull so I took them off and took them apart to give them a good polish. I used some meguiars nxt metal polish with my knockoff dremel and spent a while buffing the pedals. For not a lot of effort I think they came out good! Very easy to separate the metal from the rubber and that made it incredibly easy to just put the metal parts in the vice and Polish away!

Two new tyres put on today. Pair of Grenlander Enri tyres, 130 fitted for the pair so can't complain. Only driven them a little bit so far and they seem okay, next wet day will tell all I think. I'm just happy that I dont need to be driving on these tyres anymore. Apparantly one of them was put on backwards too and no one ever noticed until recently when they were put onto the front! Also one of the foglight bulbs quit working that morning so ended up buying 2 bulbs and replacing the pair. Bit of a waste as the new bulb looked the same temp as the old ones but not a big deal.

They aren't reflectors. They're projectors. I understand its your preference in regards to the car itself, I was saying that a Monte without the black headlights looks naff in my opinion. I have an ad from when the car I mentioned before was put up for sale in Ireland. It was originally a northern car when I first saw it up. Pictures aren't great but its enough to get my point across. In spite of my liking for the black projectors I would tend to agree with you. I don't really like the look of the twin beam lights of the mk2 but it wouldnt be a deal breaker either. I just think the black projectors go great with the bodykit of a monte carlo like mine. Definately will be getting better bulbs before winter comes though.

I've seen a monte carlo with normal projectors fitted. Was hit in the front to no ones surprise. Its mostly because Monte carlos come with black headlight innards. Some vRS had them either as an option, or I *believe* standard for later ones, correct me if i'm wrong on that. Absolutely just a style choice. They make the Monte Carlo. Imo they look naff with the normal headlights.

Whats with the ziptie and the chopped hose? Mines like that, I thought it was just from removing the dpf. Is it just how they are? (Sorry if I'm hijacking a thread)

Not on a monte carlo!

Or go back and get it mapped out. I should have gotten mine mapped off with everything else. Ended up putting a restrictor on the egr pipe instead.

Does your car have projectors as standard?

Not long back from my trip to the west of Ireland. Car performed great the whole way there and back. Averaged 58mpg carrying 3 passengers and a full boot of luggage most of the time. Atleast with the remap it was comfortably keeping a good pace the entire time even with the air conditioning on non stop. Knowing how it behaved pre remap, I'm glad it had the extra power to haul all of us with ease.We ended up heading all the way down to the cliffs of Moher and came across a very fun section of hairpins. Had a blast wringing out second gear climbing it. Even with the back of the car tucking tyre the entire time it was still decently comfortable.

Not the first thing that comes to mind when you see a blacked out golf match....

All the range in the golf match community from what i've seen.

Can you not get lights from a monte or another vRS with black headlights? Unless some vRS' came with twin beam headlights.

I dont want to sound daft, but if i'm not mistaken, theres not much in the way of emissions or noise control to remove from an sdi. Its a euro 3 engine iirc, its only got a basic cat and an egr that can be disabled by pulling the vacuum line to it. There does seem to be a bit of a gain to be had by disabling the egr, but that can just as easily be done in 2 minutes by yourself.

I'm also curious, You can get remaps for the sdi, but its usually only a 6 or 7 hp bump MAX. Contrast that with say my 1.6 tdi, where a "stage 1" remap has given a healthy 35hp bump over standard. Not much gains to be had on N/A diesels really. The sdi has its merits though. A big, understressed, underpowered lump of a diesel in a (relatively) small car such as the fabia is pretty okay to drive, much better than an Sdi Golf or a caddy. And actually, the sdi has a better intake manifold and much shorter gearing than a tdi to make up for the lack of power.

I "borrowed" one of the alloys from the mk1 to use as a spare wheel for this car. I'll be going on a roadtrip over the country in it so it makes sense to me to have a spare wheel with me. Lastly, changed the original skoda badges for another pair I've had for probably a year. Mine weren't bad, but since I had them, I just swapped them out. I think I might get (or make?) a catch can to try and keep some blowby out of the intake. I would imagine its not doing any harm, but I would still rather it not be coating all the intercooler piping and potentially help clog up the intake manifold.

When I got the car back, I ended up doing a little bit of fettling with the EGR. I removed the front pipe and piece that goes into the intake manifold and cleaned them as much as I could. Then, I got the dremel out and cut a notch in the "nozzle" of the egr. The purpose of this is to be able to have the exhaust gasses shooting straight into the intake rather than going away and then being pushed into the intake. Apparantly this is standard on later Tdi's. Once that was done I started putting all back together. My last bit of fettling came in the form of a restrictor plate I bought just before I sent the car off. I installed it as I put the rest of it back together. As I didnt get the egr removed when it was remapped, I couldn't do a blank. BUT, using a restrictor like the one I bought wont cause an engine light and still prevents a lot of exhaust gases being put through the intake. It does seem to run a little bit better since but more importantly, it should keep everything a bit cleaner for longer.

Ended up sending it off to get the alignment sorted, and the gearbox mount finally put on. It took a day or two, but the car is back and holding an alignment. Both ball joints were replaced, with stock ones. Going to try my luck and send the tt ones back under warranty, its worth a try atleast. Still have the polybushes installed though. The gearbox mount has made the car 10 times better to drive. Gear changes are much easier now, and so much more confident. Old one was past it, cracked rubber and very loose compared to the new one. I may have a go at filling it with urethane and throwing it into the mk1.