Dooge

A remap is definitely on the cards for me but having had a remapped manual MK6 GTi I know the clutches are made out of cheese and paper Machè. Even stock I don't think they are up to much abuse.

This sounds like clutch slip, you are putting alot of load on the clutch at low RPM, best thing even if you are gentle is to change down 1 or 2 gears and accelerate. This will be more common than struggling to get into gear.

Mines a 2015 VRS, I will try and pop the cover off at some point. Reckon there is still a speaker there?

VERY interested in this, always wondered what that perforated panel is for. I have a rattle between 1900 to 2100 RPM, does it in any mode so maybe it's a speaker just not secured properly.

The app is dogpoo. But I find it easier taking the SD card out and plugging it into the laptop anyway. I did use the footage to assist police in convicting someone driving like a turd so I can't complain about it.

Garmin 56w, small and works well. I've put mine on the left of the centre mirror and can barely see it from my driving position. Can get a parking mode kit separately for it too.

Sounds daft but I never pull away until that cold start procedure has been done. It's normally 15 seconds to a minute, really not long. Multiple reasons why, it will be there to assist heating oil up so it's getting to all parts of the engine and to get some temp into the cats. Not sure if the 1.4 uses the same intake as my wife's 1.2, she has 3 different size stack trumpet style tubes on her intake pipe, I am guessing this is to offset intake resonance so by removing those maybe that's what you are hearing.

Yesterday turned out to be great weather, sunny with some clouds but not too hot. We went for a drive around Wales, first getting to Llandovery via the A40 and parking up by the castle. From here we went North-ish along some fantastic roads, the A483 and onto the A470 and then B4518. Chasing the Mercedes was fun, he had the pull but I kept with him in the corners. I haven't had much of a chance to drive the car on extended B road blasts, nor in Sport mode. I decided I didn't like the gearbox revving out in every gear, it wasnt needed and I wanted to stay around 2.5k - 3k which seemed to be where the bulk of the power was. Manual mode was great but I realised the shifts are a bit sluggish. The improved throttle response was just right however. I wasn't a fan of the automatic downshift the car was doing on overtakes. Even without pressing the extra bit, I'd drop a gear (often to 3rd) indicate, accelerate and the car would drop down a gear to 2nd which would rev out and lose puff before I'd Scrabble for 3rd. We stopped at Llanidloes for a quick drink and back onto A470, then A489 to Newtown for a fuel stop. We then followed the B4355 out of Newtown and got stuck in traffic due to an accident. Worst views to have though! Onto the A483 and A470 again, A479 and A40 back to Abergavenny. I lost track of where we were driving and followed Matt at this point but some of the roads were absolutely stunning, I was happy to sit back and just admire the local landscape. It was a great drive but going in the summer we met alot of traffic. The cars performed faultlessly, not complaining at all. I did get the microswitch fault pop up on dash a few times, it's getting more common and I intend to get it sorted. The brake pedal also felt a little softer, I am not sure when fluid was changed so this will be on my to do list soon. In terms of the way the car handles, the front is definitely now superior to the back. The back always felt like it dragged its ass around but with the refreshed front it definitely felt weaker. I believe the spacers helped a little though but it's obvious a stiffer rear anti roll bar would firm the back up and help it pivot a bit, especially initial turn in. Once the car was loaded in the corner it was fine but initial turn in felt a bit soft. Certainly rear dampers, a GTi rear ARB, droplinks and bolts are needed. Brake fluid change too. Power wise, although I'd always wanted a remap I didn't feel it needed it. On several parts this trip I did think it could use more power and torque. Definitely more to come!

Saturday morning I left early as the weather was awful, I got to Bath to meet up with my friend Matt and his newly acquired E class AMG wagon. He had devised a fun route along B roads to get to Caffeine and Machine, but the weather was still a pain. Off we went with him overtaking everything in sight! When you have a bi-turbo 5.5L hand built V8 I'm sure you can overtake almost anything else on the road... We got to Caffeine and Machine and started looking round some of the weird and wonderful cars. It was meant to be an 'air-cooled weekend' but there was a random mix. Some JDM and JDM inspired rides, a few Beetles and a few Porsches. As time went on cars came and went until a few Saab owners came in too. By 5ish it had quietened down and I managed to get a fanboy shot of my car in front of the main wall.

So I attempted to fit the spacers last night after work... First barrier was the neighbour blocked the joint driveway with dumpy bags of sand blocks as he's having work done in his back garden! So, I parked across the drive and jacked the car up which was far from ideal. The point of getting the spacers on for this weekend was I am visiting Caffeine and Machine with a friend today and then driving around Wales tomorrow. I wanted to see if the wider track would make it handle any better. I got front and rear on one side on, then turned the car around and attempted to fit the rear on the other side. Except, the locking wheel bolt was edging towards being rounded. The locking wheel key would slip meaning I couldn't get it off. Thinking back, I asked the guys at the alignment place to torque up all bolts... I rang a mechanic mate and drove over there, one side with spacers and one side without! By this point it was 8.30 and starting to get dark. Once I told him the problem he figured a way of putting enough pressure on the wrench so the key wouldnt slip. The legend only got it off! A quick check to make sure the other front could undo and away I went. I had already decided I liked the 20mm on the rear but was unsure of the 15mm on front. The front needs something but 15mm is too much for me. I suspect I may get 5mm spacers and potentially get some hub extenders which I saw on Awesome GTI. There's also the point of increasing the scrub radius, which I'm sure VAG have done alot of research to get to. I knew that increasing rear track would help a little more and it certainly hasn't done the facelift VRS any issues. A few quick photos. With spacers Without spacers Once I got home I fitted the rear 20mm, took the 1 front 15mm off and torqued everything up. Took it to a local self clean and gave it a quick rinse. I also splashed out on genuine Skoda wheelcaps from a local dealer which I fitted... £62.45!!! But the car is looking and feeling good. Time to test it out over a weekend of driving!

I ordered some Forge 13mm and 20mm spacers for the front and back at the weekend. I did measure the spigot depth and its 11.5mm. When I looked at photos and the construction of the Forge Hubcentric spacer there's definitely more than 2mm of material between where the spigot sits in and where the spacer takes over. In the end Forge came back and said they were out of stock of one or the other and asked if I wanted to cancel my order. I went for a kit from Precision_Autoparts on eBay who supply 15mm and 20mm spacers with 40mm and 45mm bolts for £78.99. I haven't measured the rear hub spigot depth but someone on a Facebook group said recently they tried to fit 16mm to the rear and the only way they could get them to fit was take off the metal dirt shield.

Have you got your phone videoing with torch on up above the pedal to see if there's anything obvious? It might help identify where it's from.

Nice colour! Sleeper-esque. I was told that the front hub spigot was too small for 11mm and 13mm spacers, I haven't measured it but it's on the to do list. Also for you having a facelift model the rear hubs are already 19mm wider than pre-facelift so you might find 12mm at rear is a little too much. It should sit really nicely on 25mm springs!

Pop up a photo! Hopefully buying spacers tomorrow and I've taken a chance on some more cheap centre caps as a stopgap until I decide if I want to fork out another £50 on genuine or Super Skoda.

I've really struggled with the same issue. I bought some cheap caps from eBay awhile back and found they are a crap fit. I peeled off the original fascia from the original cap and then used some stick on caps. My advice is if you do remove the original fascias, as the fascias are domed use a blob of silicone underneath to help secure them to the caps. My OEM fascias were stuck to the caps like this. I think short of buying aftermarket from Super Skoda (at the same cost as OEM caps) you don't have alot of options. Will aftermarket caps look as good as original caps? No, especially not cheap ones. Am I being fussy? Definitely, but pointless investing into getting the alloys nice if you can't sort the centre caps.

Small update, I got the tracking and alignment completed and the car now drives well. They have said the offside camber adjustment on the rear subframe is seized so can't adjust it. They said they'll have to drop the subframe to cut the bolt out and replace 😑 I started looking at the difference between a facelift and non facelift subframe, the facelift has hubs that sit further out to give the wider rear track but otherwise probably identical. I'd figured I could get one from a newer car, it may be in better condition and I could get everything replaced before doing a direct swap to minimise labour. Not sure when I plan to do this, it may be a next year job... On another note, I managed to pick up a spare wheel. Genuine VAG 18" with polystyrene insert and full tool kit, completely unused. It cost me £60 which I thought was a bargain. I picked it up as I'm off to Caffeine and Machine in early August for an Air-cooled weekend and then a drive around Wales so wanted to be prepared!

I'll take 3, here's a tenner, keep the £1 😁

Very tidy car that! The wheels don't look like they need a refurb? I had my Xtreme's refurbed in black which goes well with the Black pack highlights.

Good to know. I was hopefully only worrying about the toe adjustment and camber adjustment bolts. There's nothing else to worry about adjusting is there? Very true, I just dont have £2k to spare 😂

Yeh I figured you were implying £1k for parts and £1k+ for labour. To be honest, if I bought a good second hand subframe Id be content with taking all bolts out and greasing to ensure they can be adjusted, maybe checking all bushes arnt literally falling out and putting it in as it is, as long as it's not majorly rusty. I'm not building a track car or a show car, so as long as it can be adjusted now and in the future without the potential of 'corroded subframe' coming up on its MOT advisory list I'd be happy.

Ouch, deep pockets needed. I did manage to find out that the difference between the MK3 and 3.5 is the rear hubs. They stick out further on the 3.5 so I assume a different part number. I remember from another post it's 19mm each side. I suspect my best bang for buck would be a good condition 2nd hand 245 rear subframe, clean it up and replace anything needed whilst it's off. This would give me something hopefully newer and less rusty and seized along with the wider rear track. I'd potentially take off the concentric bolt and bushes for the Toe adjustment from mine as they are well known to seize. But it's not an easy job and from what I understand involves derouting a brake line? And thats if all the bolts come off easily enough. I definitely wouldn't be doing the work myself so I'll need to save for the labour.

Thanks DibDib!

And what does something like that cost? The car still has alot of life left in it and would be worth it.

Hey all, After fitting my front suspension with a friend last weekend and having a nightmare with rusted and seized bolts, I took my car for tracking and alignment today. Unfortunately, they can't adjust the rear camber due to a completely rusted bolt. I'm not worried in the short term as I had the toe adjustment bolts and bush replaced last year so toe is ok. However it's something I'd like to sort at some point as camber seems to be on max acceptable adjustment. When talking to them about it they said the whole subframe would probably have to come down due to its location near the boot floor, the part sourced and the old one ground off. Due to this, it made me wonder if the later 3.5 (facelift) rear end will fit the pre-facelift. If the entire rear subframe has to come off, and with my current one being rustier than I'd ever expect an 8 year old car to be, I figured it could cost just as much as trying to replace the original bolt, as long as the subframe I replace it with is in far better condition. It would have the benefit of adding track width so I wouldn't bother with spacers too. Does the 3.5 fit the 3? Does it have to be an estate version or is the saloon the same? Is the mk7 GTi rear end the same? Thanks in advance, Doug

Hi all, A few friends and I are off to Caffeine and Machine on Saturday 5th (air-cooled theme) and we are looking to drive some nice roads in Wales on the Sunday. Not necessarily fast but scenic would be nice. 2 options we have are: -Stay near Caffeine and Machine and enter Wales near the North OR -Return to a friend's in Bath overnight and drive into South Wales. We are all Southwest (Bath, Exeter, Plymouth) so either way will probably make sense to cross the bridge at the M4. Any recommendations for either?