DieselMonte

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.

Wish my own one was looking that clean!

I own an sdi, personally I don't think theres any power gain to be had from doing the evrymod ( and I was tempted to do it and see a while back). Mixing in a little kerosene does seem to liven it up a little (illegal for a road car, also not a great thing for the pump). Best ""performance"" mods I've done to mine are a service and it currently having a "stripped" interior, pulled a fuse so I could left foot brake (apparantly a better way to achieve this is to cut some of the wires going to the brake light switch, I just pulled the fuse) and theres a pair of stiffer rear springs in the back of it that made a big difference. In my (limited) experience, all new filters and a good service can make any diesel run noticeably better. Even still, its a very strong engine that can run on most anything. Uprated bushings, a rear anti roll bar and some uprated springs are all decent ways of atleast making a fabia quicker through a corner, even if it wont catch anything on a straight.

To put an end to the thread, I sent the car off to be sorted. The 2 ball joints I had put in a few months ago were changed out, and a gearbox mount I had waiting to go in was changed. Tracking sorted 100% now. Have the old ball joints back and will send them back and see if I cant get something back from them. It really was wearing badly though before, drivers side ended up wearing slightly worse than the passengers side. Kind of annoyed it was new parts that caused it, and it took me wearing out 2 pairs of tyres to finally send it off but live and learn I guess. Still needs new tyres, but these will last me another week or 2 before I'll go ahead and change them.

My car is the same, If you want a temp gauge get an obd adapter and torque and run it off your phone, which is what I do. Easiest, cheapest and least permanent way of having a reading of water temps. And can be used to read more than just water temps, and clear codes.

When the injectors go on these, do they all go within a short amount of time or is it a case that one can go, but the rest might last for another 30,000 miles+?

158ps is surely squeezing the most out of the stock turbo/injectors right? Remap on mine has made it a much nicer car to drive, lot less effort to get up to speed and passing people is a lot less difficult. Been averaging 56~ mpg since too which I can't complain about.

Small update, finally got the glovebox cleaned out enough to not make me gag whenever I open it, and took the time this evening to put it back in. Apart from one of the clips having been damaged it all went back together fine. The Monte Carlo is currently away having its tracking woes sorted. Apparantly it needs to get new balljoints and new bushes (again), and atleast 2 tyres. Atleast I can fiddle with this in the meanwhile to keep my mind off the other one.

Definately a little sketchy. I have dropped the mk1 down into it before. The main problem with this pit is that it was very poorly sealed. In the winter, its brimmed with water in no time at all.

I personally dont like using the pit for much. The one we've got doesnt seal at all and constantly is flooded in winter. During summer it gets drained out but theres always that 2-3 inch pool at the bottom. If you can get a 2 post lift then I would go for one of those instead. As you can see in the pic, our pits really made for lorries and bigger machinery, not designed with a small car in mind. If you zoom in you'll see theres only half of the tyre resting on the pit.

Any backbox from a polo or ibiza should fit really. You could be lucky and find an original vrs exhaust someone wants rid. There are sporty ones about, the backbox I got is an Ulter backbox for these cars. Only worked out 15 euro for the backbox itself. That bumper fitment doesnt look too bad. My cars a 2001 so the bumper wont clip into the original clips. Looks to be that the facelift ones work though, thanks.

I think it could be as simple as a woeful alignment. I parked up to collect a takeaway and the steering wheel was slightly to the left. The drivers side front wheel was straight, and the passengers side was out to the left.

2 pairs of tyres now with this wear I got some Accelera Phi-R tyres around christmas, for the front. The current pair on the front are some Toledo Tl1000 tyres that were on the rear of the car when I bought it. Dated late 2015. No abnormal wear on the toledos when they were on the rear. Now that they're on the front, inner edge wear. Weirdly, the tyres that were on the front originally were showing the same wear but to a much lesser extent. I only replaced them as a pothole lunched the passenger front tyre.

27k miles? Is that all motorway driving? I only got 5k miles on the fronts of my car before I put them to the back last week. Granted all my driving is backroads and towns. I do get on main roads but not much.

Fit fine, just be sure to double check the tyre sizes on both. The 16s need a bigger tyre to make them the same height as the 17s my car has standard. Any bigger or smaller than whats on your car will mess with your speedo.

They were only put on to test fit. I kinda like them in the silver though, they look better in silver on the mk1. I only wanted to try them out as I intend on using these as a winter set this year.

Nice looking vRS rep. Bit cleaner than mine! If I were you I'd look on FBM and gumtree for a sporty backbox for a Fabia/Polo/Ibiza going cheap and buy it. Thats how I got one for my Monte Carlo. IIRC, the vrs badge on these goes in place of the 16v badge on your car. Did you need to change the clips on the bumper for yours to fit? Or does the facelift clips fit a vRS bumper.

How many miles is on it? Seems to be giving a lot of trouble if its low mileage.

No, both mk1 and mk2 are 5x100 stud pattern. See the picture I've attached of mk1 vrs wheels on my mk2.

I needed to replace them anyway, but odd that the same wear is present on both pairs I've had on the front.

I've put some more close up photos. They are worn and are getting replaced. Tyre wear was perfectly even though before being put on the fronts. 32psi all round.

The tyres I've put on the front are already showing the same wear after 500 miles of driving. Yes, they are very dry and do absolutely need replacing. Very glad I just swapped fronts to back and didnt buy a brand new pair of tyres and have them wear like this. Definately going to go elsewhere and get the alignment checked. Lord knows whats causing this wear. If its even on both sides then surely its something alignment related.