DieselMonte

Hi all, Don't really know how to phrase this well but I'm wondering if anyone knows the best way to make seats from a different car fit into a fabia. I've seen some people take the whole seat base and swap the seat cushion over to the fabia base. The seats I want to use are these B6 Passat front seats. I think the black cloth is nicer than the grey of my original seats and these seats are in better condition than my seats (Mould got in when it was layed up outside, turned the interior into a Biohazard frankly, Not my proudest moment. The seats were pretty bad even when I got the car 4 years ago now.) I'm not concerned about making the airbags or seatbelt warnings work because my car didnt have side airbags or seatbelt warnings from the factory anyway. The only major obstacle for me is trying to get them to fit properly and so I imagine I need to swap the seat base over. What i'm trying to ask is if anyone has any guides for this sort of job and moreover if anyone has done a swap from another VAG car that uses the same base as the passat. Pics are of the passat seats out of the car and of the standard seats.

Today marks 1 year of me owning the Monte Carlo. Its been a pretty great car in that year. I think I may have been mistaken on the drop links being worn out, it clunks when turning the wheel when stationary and there is a bit of play at 9 and 3 on both front wheels. Most likely track rod ends. I'll head down to the motor factors today and see how much they are. Cant imagine they would be much more than 20 euro or so a side. I still will get new drop links and d bushes but I'll push it off until I'm sure that its track rod ends that are worn. I would imagine worn track rod ends would explain the "loose" feeling i've been getting lately. The weather should be starting to clear up soon so I'll get stuff in order to give the car a good polish. Been meaning to paint the front brakes too but I've been spending most of my spare time working on my Mk1 Fabia and trying to get it to be somewhat roadworthy.

To be honest, I only ever had the passat seats in by 1 bolt and they were sort of wedged into place from there. The track was too long and too wide to fit properly. I've been meaning to look and see If I cant swap the tracks from my standard seats over because then they'd definately fit. I liked how I could sit lower in the passat seats compared to the fabias, its a gripe I have even with my Monte Carlo. One thing that is nice about my car is that its old enough to not have seat airbags, or seat belt warnings so I don't need to worry about cutting wires. What do you mean by cables? As in the wiring for the seats? My car didnt have any of that so It never was a problem trying to plug them in.

Spent the day working on the bonnet latch, its working for the most part, wont always catch when I try to shut the bonnet and wont always release the first try, have soaked in in wd40. Hopefully it will loosen up over time. The cable you see snaking out is the bonnet cable, I removed it when I took the car apart for the first time. Anyone know of a good way to feed the cable back into the car? Also, I changed the plate to the damaged front plate because I was sick of trying to blur out the plate from the car I got the bumper from.

Nice write up, i've had this problem on mine since day one, might give this a go considering the parts are so cheap.

If you are going rear discs know that discs arent as good for handbrake turns in my experience. Saying that, Both of my fabias have ****e handbrakes as is.

They "only" have a normal 1.6 tdi. Am I right in saying that only monte carlo tdis got 288mm brakes and regular tdis were 256mm?

Window regulators always go in mk1 fabias, my car's the same. I've gotten good at finessing the button to use them or I just put the key in the door to put them both up or down. For the cigarette lighter it could just be a blown fuse or the connection on it is loose. Mine never worked and I only recently noticed its fuse was gone, works fine now. You'd be amazed what some interior cleaner and few hours of scrubbing can do to refresh an old interior, if you're ever in Asda get the carplan 2 in 1 upholstery shampoo, i've had great results with it. My cars starter sometimes drags too. Might be one of the connections like Wino said because both the old and the one I replaced it with did it.

I mean, you could just rig up some vents to cool them or get different wheels to keep them cool. From my experience beating the **** out of my old fabia in the fields the brakes hold up very well. I'd be out for hours at a time and they only got to be slightly soft once or twice in all of my left foot braking, 50-60 mph sideways in fields antics. The brakes on that car are still probably the best thing on it nearly 4 years later too. Plus with 256mm brakes you can run 14's, that was one thing that annoyed me about my monte carlo was that I couldn't use the spare wheel from my old car because a 14" rim wont go over 288mm brakes.

Weird, Could some of the wires in the door be broken? Its meant to be a common issue on mk2 fabias that the loom going into the door can become damaged over time. Could be causing your problems, but i've not personally had this problem so I cant say for sure.

Weight makes a difference too, but your point stands.

Was the battery connected while it was sat up? If its disconnected it needs to relearn the windows.

Mines been making a squeak when its cold but it goes away after some driving, Maybe its just the cold weather we've been having.

Never put my car on the list. 2012 Monte Carlo 1.6 tdi 105hp. Bought with 89,000 miles on the clock and is now sitting at just over 93,500 miles. Will have it a year come February first. As far as I can make out it came with no options on it, no third headrest,grey seats etc. Has been modified slightly, its got: -vRS intake pipe -Deflapped airbox -Air filter sock removed -Dieselgate flow transformer removed -Heat reflective tape on airbox and intake pipe. -De-Restricted turbo damper -New backbox -Whiteline Rear Sway Bar -vRS grille striping -Team Heko wind deflectors (not seen on car, older photo) -Generic motor factor Mud Flaps. Not really modified too much but its definately a nicer car to drive than standard. Sounds much nicer too, without being chavvy in the slightest. I only really plan on remapping it but otherwise i'll just be renewing bushes and what not. It's been reliable in all my time owning it so I dont see a need to potentially mess that up. As Of December 2021: -Darkside Developments downpipe -UlterSport Backbox -Supersport Coilovers (lowered only about 20mm) -PSBushings Wishbone bushes -Powerflex Dogbone mount -312mm Front Brakes -Remap to 140HP -Rear Strut Brace -Pair of Spotlamps Hidden behind the grille -Currently on a set of 16" Spyders for Winter duty. Will be going back to the 17s with some fresh rubber for the summer. Quite a few changes made over the year, most of them due to parts wearing out and so needing replaced anyways. The exhaust was rotten and I happened upon a smoking deal for a nice darkside downpipe and a backbox. Had to get it mapped after that of course. The brakes came about as I got a deal on them and was needing to replace the 288mm stuff anyway. Then the shocks gave out so they needed replaced anyways, and again I got a deal on some coilovers that would work well so I would be daft not to. Then I noticed the boot creaking like mad so I put in a brace and so on and so on. I'll probably put a cr170 turbo on as well as a bigger intercooler funds allowing come summertime. Edit As of August 2022: -Poly ARB D Bushes (20mm) -Rear Axle Swapped for a disc one -New axle stripped and refreshed with polybushes -256mm vented rears put on -Intercooler fitted -Boot sound deadened -Superpro Steering Rack Bush -Soon to have caster increase bushes and new Track rods.

Thought i'd get away with only having the wheels off the car once lol.

Hi all, just looking to double check what size the Anti roll bar is on my Monte Carlo. I'm planning on replacing the drop links and d bushes to tighten up the front of the car and I want to make sure I have the right d bushes for my car. When I put in my reg to check the size some of them were 20mm and others were 18. Also is there any point in getting poly D bushes instead of the normal rubber? Are they worth the cost? Thanks again.

Gave the car a quick test earlier today and its amazing the difference the whiteline makes. Much more confidence in the car now and I can open the throttle up earlier in a corner because Its a lot easier to position the car and have it stick to your line. Might need to get stiffer front arb bushes and drop links to make up for the extra stiffness in the rear. Probably should get some console bushes too as I think they are getting to be a bit old, could feel a bit tighter to be honest.

I had one of the vRS wheels off of my mk1 fabia and wanted to see how it would look on this. Honestly not bad. Might need to get some tires on them and use them for the next month or so, The frost has taken chunks out of every road and it'd be nice to have some extra rubber to soak up the bumps.

Whiteline on and installed on the mid setting. Will take it out tonight to see if it makes any difference. Glad I finally got it, even if it took a while.

#261 is up on usedcarsni

I have a Whiteline RARB ordered, Fedex says its in Dublin as of Wednesday and I was meant to have it the Friday before. I wouldn't mind the wait but I was under the car spraying the shock bolts with wd40 in preparation for it being on the car friday last week. Hopefully it will come on monday and I can put it on then. Atleast i've been kept busy with my other fabia. We're supposed to face another cold snap soon so hopefully i'll have it on the car then and have some more slidey fun on our craptastic roads.

Knew it was something like that. All I remember is that nut spinning when the driveshaft/Wheel bearing had to be swapped after I destroyed them going sideways in the fields, it was welded in place and it held until about a month ago when the cv joint started clicking. I dread having to replace it.

The nut to tighten the cv joint on the hub is some funny size iirc

The switch on the mirrors? I thought they were independant to the rear demistor on mine, could be wrong though.

Afaik you cant remove the arb without dropping the subframe.