Dooge

I've had a look and seem to be getting conflicting information as to whether they fit the VRS. From research it needs to be 55mm struts and multi-link rear suspension but the Koni website states it doesn't fit the VRS. However they do a set which are 55mm front and for multi-link rear which also fit the MK7 Golf GTi, effectively the same platform.

Thanks buddy, I don't want to go Sachs ideally. As a VRS I am pretty sure I have 55mm struts but I'll check.

Hey all, I am getting a knocking noise from my steering/suspension on my mk3 Octy VRS estate. Only happens turning right with a 90 degree turn of the wheel when it's slightly loaded up. I'm suspecting topmounts or ARB links. Ultimately if I'm paying to get the topmounts changed it may make sense to change the dampers, springs and ARB links to refresh the suspension whilst I'm at it. I've had Bilstein B4's and Eibach springs on other cars which were ace. I'm struggling to find B4's for the Octy online though but have seen front and rear Racingline Performance Dampers for £493 and wondered if anyone had experience? Also, any recommendations for online retailers who can supply Bilstein B4's? Thanks in advance, Doug

I haven't even had a chance to seal the wheels and bought some more bits! First up was a mega cheap mod and very easy to fit, hydraulic bonnet struts. I can't believe a car of this premium doesn't come with them. I found out about them through a Facebook group and thought for £14 I couldn't go wrong. Fitting meant removing two factory bolts, one 10mm one that joined the front wings to the body and one Torx bolt each side of the hinge mount on the bonnet. I made sure to apply threadlock to all the new bolts and fitting was really easy. Works well and tidies up the engine bay. I'm also not so worried about potentially knocking the bonnet stay when working now. I've put a screenshot of where I bought it from below. Next thing I've bought I've yet to receive but will help the car in breathing better, if only slightly. It again popped up on a Facebook and for £50 posted I thought why not. MTC motorsport intake tube and turbo elbow, the item I've bought has a silver metal elbow but should help when the car eventually gets remapped.

Finally got the wheels refurbed! I went with gloss black in the end and I'm happy with my choice, I really struggled to find a photo of the Extremes in black on a Race Blue car so hopefully the below photos will help someone else in the future. Unfortunately the weather was awful on the hour drive home and now the car is filthy so I need to give it a clean. Initial pics below, definitely needs lows now though!

Bought a 2015 VRS TSi estate in April, loved it ever since. Mine is well specced, leather, cruise, DSG, MIB2 with Android/Apple car play, 19" alloys, black pack, etc. I bought it with 82k on the clock and full dealer service history. Didn't seem like it had anything too scary in its service history and from what I'm experiencing they are fairly good. MK2's suffered chain tensioner issues but as mentioned above, these are likely to suffer waterpumps, occasional inlet manifolds, wheel bearings and seized rear toe adjustment. If you are going to change, do your research on spec. They had three power levels over the years, referred to as 220, 230 and 245. If you are looking at DSG as before, make sure it's been serviced every 40k/3 years ideally as that'll be expensive. If you go manual, a map will likely kill the clutch and ideally you'd want an uprated clutch to use all the power. Prices are relatively high but have come down slightly.

I've seen a few pics of black Geminis and didn't like them so much but I think it comes down to how they are sat in the wheel arch. If they are stock height with no spacers then look really lost. The Xtremes look lost top tbh so I would look to add some spacers. Also planning a suspension refresh next year so will slowly get all the bits together. I'll check out the wheel Caps from Super Skoda though 👍

Absolutely gutted, managed to kerb my nearside front rim badly on a pokey kerb 🤢 😭 Luckily I had planned to refurb them anyway, just now earlier than I anticipated. Thinking of going black, I haven't seen many race blue with black Xtremes but would match the black pack. The other option would be dark grey/anthracite. Opinions? I also fitted the genuine VAG LED numberplate lights, I fitted these before having the bushes done. They definitely look more modern than the original halogen lights.

I have a slight knock on my 15 plate VRS when turning right at a low speed, I suspect mine is anti roll bar links. They are relatively cheap and easy to replace if you can get it jacked up and wheels off. After that it could be tie rods or top mounts but I'd start simple, especially with such a low mileage.

I finally got the new bushes installed and tracking done! Took them a few hours to get sorted and a little fiddling to get the alignment correct due to everything settling a little. They also tried using VCDS to change numberplate lights to LED and sidelights to LED. Despite following the instructions on the main VCDS thread they couldn't sort it. I have found a local chap who could do it but he charges £40 an hour! May scour the threads and see what else he can do. I do want LED rear lights so I may wait for that. On another note, has anyone dyed some of their leather? I'm thinking about dying the grey inserts on my seats red. I found the following product from the Furniture Clinic for a tenner.

I should add I bought genuine Skoda ones from Horton Skoda at £12 a piece. This was cheaper than places on eBay which were charging £15+ each. I plan to get them activated using VCDS soon.

What do you want it for? The TDi has plenty of pep but are you going to do enough miles/cut the DPF out to justify the regenerations and get it hot enough? My other concern buying a manual would be the slave cylinder. Any modern VAG manual seems to have a slave made of a combination of cheese, chocolate and play-doh. They seem to go at any time - I had the same on a mk6 Golf GTi which went at 91k at a similar age - and its £950+ easily for parts and labour or almost double if you want an uprated one to cope with a map. Not a negative as DSG can be massively costly but something to consider. Otherwise, as full a service history, check for rust around wheel arches and just behind the rear of the front wheel arches (there's a black piece of foam which holds the moisture and constantly drips onto the sill underneath)

I'm due my first in October and although I have leather and the VRS is the second family car/longer trip car I am planning to get a half decent looking waterproof cover for sick/dirty fingers/food, etc. Keeping an old coat hanging by it's hood from the headrest would stop him kicking the back.

OP, I have noticed that my 2015 VRS does the same. I'm going to get mine in soon for a DSG service. I suspect the gear selected is partially done by load, if you are cruising it will drop down to save fuel and if demand is low. It doesn't annoy me but occasionally I've found myself having to press the accelerator more and accelerate more than I needed because it drops down. I agree you shouldn't have to monitor revs for regular driving. I do find the box a bit dim-witted at times too, there's two areas on my commute whereby I hit a hill, the first is at 40mph and although it copes OK in 5th I like to be more prepared for the speed increase after so blip the down shift paddle to drop to 4th which keeps in 4th long enough to be able to accelerate. The second is a longer hill with speedbumps, it tries to change up from 2nd to 3rd, then back down to 2nd, back up to 3rd. I might switch it to manual and see if it improves this. I agree the difference between Eco and Normal is not enough and the difference between Normal and VRS mode is gigantic. Normal needs a bit more pep, maybe stay around 1800-2000 RPM. It also can't do the clutch packs any good accelerating from too low a RPM or constantly changing.

Thanks, I probably have a few before the tyre change. Not that it's square on but the one at the top below my list of previous cars is definitely before tyre change. If you are considering it I would do it, MPG hasn't been affected, road noise is less (my rears were heavily stepped anyway) and with the larger tyres being a more standard size they were cheaper per tyre too. I didn't drive it like Damon Hill before the tyre change so I can't say if its made a difference to handling but it wouldn't have made it worse. And from an aethestic perspective it looks better, the tyres fill the arches a bit better. Once I figure out the best way to host a few more photos I will get some comparisons up. Here's a few from a drive with a mates MK5 GTi recently. and the replacement boot handle.

Thanks buddy! Turns out the ones he wanted to offer me are the standard pre facelift ones which I don't mind but didn't seem like a fair swap. I've looked around for the diamond patterned ones for a facelift finding some on eBay but they are selling the rear seat, drivers seat and passenger seat separately at a fair cost. I might stick with the leather, I've dyed leather before and am wondering about dying the grey stripe to red for a unique twist. On another note I've got the rear toe adjust bushes booked in for fitting and tracking and alignment. They are also sorting some tweaks in VCDS for the LED sidelights and genuine VAG LED numberplate lights which is a winner.

Has anyone swapped from leather to fabric? Pro's/con's? I'm looking at swapping mine for later diamond patterned fabric ones but don't know if its worth it?

Another small update - I need to find out how to get hosted photos on here! Ever since I bought the car a small thing that annoyed me was the rubber on the boot release had torn from use. I looked up how to change it and did some Googling, finding it on a Skoda supplier's website for an eye watering £131.54!! Needless to say I wasn't going to pay that, eBay to the rescue. £20 later and I had another boot release handle. 10 minutes of faff (getting the large black plastic panel back on was 8 minutes of the faff) and it worked perfectly 🤟 After finding out the rear toe adjustment was seized I figured I would sort it out. £26 for the genuine bolts and £65 for the Powerflex bushes I hope to have it sorted soon. Booked in with the alignment shop for a 2 weeks time. I have enquired on some of the Facebook groups about swapping seats from leather to the later black and red diamond patterned fabric seats. I've always thought fabric was comfier but leather more practical. Full leather seems rare so hopefully someone will be interested in a swap. DSG service next month, although after that my spending on the car will have to be limited due to expecting our first baby in October!

We recently sold our 13 plate Ford Fiesta with Car Wow, they advertised it for £5460, alot were under £5k. It was initially advertised through Motorway for £5300 but was messed around by the buyer who, despite agreeing to purchase it for that amount never got in touch. Seems that's the only negative of these buying car sites, they make no guarantee and as you've entered into no contract there's no legal basis agreement. We did have a positive experience with Car Wow though, within 2 weeks of agreeimg to the cost someone was collecting our car and the full price was paid quickly by balance transfer. Facebook marketplace is the other place I have used but you have to put up with numpties and low ball offers.

Meh, it wont hurt will it. If OP wants to go for it, go for it. I doubt anyone would feel any difference with a mod like this. Like a panel filter, you'll never feel any of the benefits but tons do it anyway.

Won't make a huge difference either way, at least none that a driver will feel. Yes a diesel will react differently but its never going to make it worse. Anything to help an engine breathe easier will have a positive effect to a point, even if its a small amount.

If you can't get the genuine LED units coded out Kufatec do wiring adaptors to provide resistance to stop error lights popping up.

Can't do any harm and if it's something you want to do, I often find just doing it is best. I took my intake 'tray' out and dremeled out the holes on the drivers side, it's not perfect and some worry about water infiltration so some only do the top half to give some protection. I also added the blanking panel, although most places you buy it from wont supply it with screws. I did mine so soon after buying my car that I couldn't tell if it made a difference but its well documented through Golf MK7 GTi and R forums to improve things. Removing the snowgrate also helps things. Check out this website, he's done alot of testing. http://mygolfmk7.com//2019/02/more-stock-airbox-work/ http://mygolfmk7.com/2018/09/stock-airbox-modification/

Looks great de-badged, that's on my list to do. Dental floss and lots of polish? Sounds like it's well kitted out already! Powerfold mirrors would be something I'd love and I think black pack makes it look so much more modern than the silver.

Nice! Black always looks super smart when clean but gets so dirty so easily. I had a black Bora Sport years ago and after that vowed I wouldn't have another. Don't see many with those alloys either. Is it manual or DSG? From research, these remap amazingly well and really, I would imagine its all that's needed for a fast family wagon.