commievid

Few more random bits. Got some wiper blades ages ago as replacements, and was about to fit them: Only to discover I've bought more universal ones, i.e. the ones with a hook, which aren't the right ones for the Skoda! Bit annoyed, as I've replaced them before so should have double checked. £35.99 wasted. I'll put it into the miscellaneous expenses. Welp, decided to crack on with something else: So the washer jets were starting to be a little weird, so decided to muster up and just get genuine ones to replace several attempts at cheaper ones. You can see the part numbers, 3V0 955 987A and 3V0 955 988A, for left and right respectively. They were £21.77 each from lllparts, so £43.54, so a bit of a kick in the proverbials. They look identical, but after some perusing through the workshop manual: They apparently shoot a fan, a straight one vertically, and also some at a 45 degree to the side! I've always wondered what the actual correct adjustment for them were, so there it is, the top vertical spray should go somewhere in the top 20cm of the windscreen! Once fitted, and with the car running, the vertical jet was somewhere above halfway, so had to get to adjusting them. The genuine ones need a T8 torx to do so, and in my case, turned about 100 degrees anti clockwise to get them upwards. That, and a good wipe of the existing wiper blades seems to be ok, so no rush to replace the wiper blades. Another random thing whilst changing oil a week ago: The stupid dipstick decided to have one of its prongs snap and fly away! Not the end of the world really, but decided to source a replacement. Until it turns out there doesn't seem to be many online, and it looks to be £27 new. Maybe I should have driven to a scrapyard and gotten any which would have been sufficient, but decided: To get one of those aftermarket dipstick handles, in this case, Bevinsee? It's the sort of tat I usually don't go for, but given it was £15.59, decided why not. Amusingly, the only Youtube video I've seen about how to actually fit this involved someone using a vice to essentially crush the original plastic handle to get to the metallic dipstick underneath. I don't have a vice, so went overboard: So put the poor thing under the press, donned my safety glasses, and went to it: The handle literally flew off stage left, I don't know where it's gone. Leaving slightly bent metallic remains and the above plastic mess. Just got some pliers to bend it back slightly, and then its inserted into the new dipstick handle. The world's smallest allen key and grub screws are used to tighten the dipstick to the handle, and some o-rings are put in place, and there we are: Hopefully I don't jinx it by mentioning whether it'll come loose or whatever, but it'll do. Next time I order anything from lllparts or skoda-parts I'll consider a replacement dipstick. The heatshields around the exhaust at the rear are really rattling like buggery now, so I'll probably have to find a spare moment to muster how to actually sort that out, given the exhaust will need cutting or separating (which will probably also involve cutting given the rust and what not). Maintenance: £3487.58 (+£43.54) Upgrades: £5512.06 (+£15.59) Miscellaneous: £863.46 (+£35.99)

Oh yes, in my case I resorted to removing the rear bumper and not-so-gentle whacks with a dead blow hammer downwards which started getting it free. Any hammer bar a lump hammer would probably do it. You'd only need to do this if really unlucky I reckon. I used PlusGas which probably is akin to mentioned ATF and diesel mix, something to start fizzing through whatever is getting it stuck initially. My particular car has quite legendary amounts of rust, bit with a lot of other order cars I deal with, PlusGas has been very useful. Mine still firms up though so will probably be applying grease and wiggling it every few days until its a lot smoother, but I can at least get my hand in there and pull it down now if its not falling by itself, whereas before it wasn't moving at all.

So spent the weekend sorting a service. Oil change, haldex and brake fluid. Normally the air filter would be sorted as well but that was done earlier via the R600. Only the cabin filter left, which I forgot to order so will sort that out once its arrived. I did encounter a snag once I started test driving though: Now, this car has one of those fancy towing hooks where you pull a lever type thing in the boot and I guess in real life it then can be pulled out. But it's always been stuck, and up until now, the light on that lever was always green when the lever was returned. This time it was flashing red. Not sure why, maybe I bumped it loose in the gap in the bumper or something? Given its a Sunday with nothing else particular planned, decided to just see if there was anything I can do: So off with the bumper. It was only at this stage that I thought "oh probably should have took more pics", but hey ho! There's some plastic covers that need a hook type tool to pull off to access some bolts for the rear lights. Those can then be undone and the rear lights removed. This reveals some plastic tabs that the bumper hooks onto. I'm wondering whether the rear lights probably need removing at all, as it only makes that step easier to undo those tabs. The main screws are about 6 along the bottom of the bumper, and three in the wheel arch with two going through the rear mudflaps, and one above it. There is also a screw on each side tucked behind the wheel arch at the top of the front of the rear bumper. This is one of those where maybe a Youtube video search would be easier than lots of pics. Once disconnected the rear parking sensors: I'm presented with the towing bar front and centre, in all its rusty glory. To be honest, not terrible compared to the other horrors seen over the years. So essentially, I just improvised from this point. I pulled the lever in the boot a few times to gauge if anything with the cables were at fault, but everything seemed to be ok, based on feeling around the cables for movement. So I went and took some plusgas and started spraying it at bits that look like moving parts. In the pic above, you can just about see in the centre the main gubbins, and that appears to have a rotating element. Essentially, I then took a dead blow hammer and just started to whack the towing ball bit a few times, upwards and then downwards. After then stopping for a drink and a break to let the plus gas soak in a bit more, a few more taps started to make the towing ball move ever so slightly. So eventually, it started to not only move a few more millimetres, but I was able to then start wiggling. I think I managed to unseize it: So a random unexpected victory, and the light on the lever goes green. I then proceed to use the lever and move in the closed and open position, and seeing where it was rotating. Tried to wipe off as much of the plus gas as possible and just went to town with white lithium grease: So this is what it look likes now, as I forgot to take closeups with the bumper off. So yeah: Reverse steps to get the bumper back on, and the towing gubbins are now available! I guess I'll give it a wiggle every now and then and spray some grease wherever I can. I reckon in retrospect one could probably try this without removing the bumper, although it makes whacking the towing ball downwards a little difficult, which is what made the difference. I've bought VW 504/507 in bulk a few months back in anticipation of price rises, with it also being compatible with the other cars I look after, so I won't add that into the cost, roughly £85 per 20l. However, the Haldex oil was £23.99 for a litre (I ended up using about 650ml), £6.99 for some washers for the drain and fill plugs, and £8.16 for o-rings for the pump, as I also removed it and gave it a clean, but I think you can probably get away with doing that every 4 years than 2 years. The brake fluid was £9.42 for a litre. I also added some 6mm spacers for the rear wheels to match the 6mm on front, so that was £22.99. Oh, the wife also wanted tinted windows, so a lady came over and added those to the rear doors and windscreen, which came to £115 as part of doing my brother-in-law's car. He was doing the reverse, removing tints from rear doors! Maintenance: £3444.04 (+£71.55) Upgrades: £5496.47 (+£137.99) Miscellaneous: £827.47

Woke up early (mainly because I'm getting old) and given the weather wasn't too bad, got cracking on: So removed the R600 pretty much, in order to get the rubber grommets installed: Didn't know the orientation but some thinking and a double check on a Youtube video confirmed it. The video also mentioned that hole in the middle might be related to the OEM's drain tube bit, so decided to also transfer that over. Then it was the battery tray. None of it turned out to be as much of a faff as I thought it would be. So negative then positive terminals off, then wiggled the cover off, and then the 13mm bolt for the strap keeping the battery down. Then pull the battery to the front and hoist it off: Then got a metal trim clip tool to pry the harness off of the tray, two bits along the front: Then it's a 10mm nut at the rear: Then three 10mm bolts, two in the tray, and one off to the front right, which needs a tiny bit more dexterity or longer extensions due to the wiring in the way: Once all out, the old tray can be wiggled and eventually come free: The nut on the rear has a weird rubber bit that sticks out, I guess some random additional vibration dampening, nothing more wiggling wouldn't sort out. Took the opportunity to give the area a wipe and spray of XCP, whilst the area was easy to get to. Then it's the reverse to wiggle the new tray in: Had to use some force and wiggling to get the bolt holes to align up, but got there eventually. The three bolts and nuts were tightened to 9Nm as per the workshop manual. Hoisted the battery in, pushed it back so it slides under a lip on the rear of the battery tray, before putting the bracket and bolt in, to 15Nm: Slide the battery cover over and on, then greased the battery terminals, and tightened to 6Nm: That's that, the whirring and buzzing of the car coming back to life should be audible. So now its the R600 intake again: Like last time, some wiggling to get it into place, but this time, pushing it into the plastic bits on the replacement battery tray. Should go in without much bother and won't be going anywhere. The filter is then on, clamp tightened up, and the new screws that came with the replacement grommets are used to tighten the top cover down: Gave it a spritz of rubber and vinyl care and wiped down. I'll probably do an oil change in the next couple of weeks, but that's not really post worthy. Fingers crossed, the front subframe is the next big job and that'll be nearer the end of summer. Maintenance: £3372.49 Upgrades: £5358.48 Miscellaneous: £827.47

Reason I've been reluctant with aluminium lower arms: Above is a pic of the aluminium arms that came with the subframe, and some Meyle replacement arms: They essentially look about a centimetre short? Hence not wanting to bother, as almost all aluminium arms of some sort are for the S3 or Golf and such, so probably a narrower track? Happy to be corrected if Passat/Arteon/Superb variants exist. Regardless, the Meyle arms were from eBay, bought about a year ago for £69.54. Now for something different. From the R600 install, went online to look for replacement missing bits, and found them: The part number turns out to be VWR120004, and was from Progressive Parts for £20.35 with delivery. If I knew the part number, could have probably shopped around I guess. However, this was ordered on Thursday evening, so for it to arrive Saturday morning isn't too bad to be honest! What was a real surprise was: The battery tray! This was ordered from eBay in the same Thursday evening, with some shopping around and a discount coupon getting it to £16.96. Arrived around mid afternoon, very impressed all round! Technically not the cheapest on eBay, but honestly, it looks brand new, or is certainly VERY clean! Wife actually has the car for the weekend, so can't do anything until she's back. I suspect a fiddly job of disconnecting and wiggling wiring harnesses and whatnot to replace this tray and the subsequent fettling of the R600 bits to get the rubber grommets on and all sorted. Maintenance: £3372.49 (+£86.50) Upgrades: £5358.48 (+£20.35) Miscellaneous: £827.47

So, after work, took the opportunity to do something that's been on the back burner for ages: I think it's the first engine performance mod! A RacingLine R600 air intake! Alongside other bits such as: Turbo inlet pipe, and additional bits like a replacement pipe to go underneath the new air box bit. These bits were bought absolutely ages ago, circa March 2024, and have been lying around since. The R600 main bits were £502.93. The turbo inlet pipe was £74.99 and the coolant pipe was £42.94. So the first step is to start removing the original air filter box and inlet. Two screws, and the front should wiggle away: Then used a flat head screwdriver to loosen and pop out the vacuum line from the air box: Then my Knipex pliers to get the clamp off of the air intake pipe: Once the pipe is loosed from the air intake box, the air filter box itself can be removed, as its some rubber grommets over plastic bits: Popped out with effort, and unfortunately: Looks like I got too hamfisted and ripped out one of the plastic bits with the rubber! Guess a new battery tray required... So those bits out so far: Next is to replace the coolant hose with the replacement designed to go under the R600 box. Lots of Youtube videos show coolant going everywhere, and to be honest, I did the same. Got towels and whatnot underneath and just removed and replaced as quick as possible: Got messy so no pics for the other side. Wiped excess and some parts cleaner before the next bit. So dry fitted the bottom part of the R600 box: Just some wiggling really, but noticed the instructions mention attaching rubber grommets to the box before installing them: Sadly, the packaging didn't have any! Plus with the broken plastic bit in the battery tray, kinda stuck for now. I expect rattling until this is sorted I guess. So carrying on, time to remove the air intake from the filter to the turbo inlet pipe: Standard hose clamp, so a 7mm to loosen, and then wiggling to free that pipe: So next is the turbo inlet pipe. There's a hose that needs to be removed, via squeezing and popping it off. Then also a T30 torx bit keeping the pipe in place. Once removed (carefully lest that torx bolt drops into the abyss!), initial attempts to pull the pipe off wasn't fruitful. Turns out it needs some rotating before it pops out: The new one is the reverse. I put a light smear of engine oil on the o-rings that the new RacingLine pipe had, then pushed in and rotated into place: Then carefully put that torx bolt back into place. I tightened it to 12Nm as its an M6 bolt, not sure what the actual figure needed is. On the home straight now. The R600 kit came with a new pipe, so slotted that in alongside the filter itself: Just some wiggling but it eventually all aligns up. Orientation of the pipes and stuff was probably made simple by just looking for the RacingLine logo and making sure that points upwards! Not forgetting the vacuum line: That's pretty much it, on with the top cover: Tighten up all the hoses and bits and that's that: Noticed also that the R600 box didn't have any screws, so decided for now to just take a few from the OEM air filter box and attached them to the R600 box. Will need to source rubber grommets for the R600 box and screws if available. The spoils: So will need to find somewhere for these OEM bits to go, but that's that! Haven't really driven it in anger yet, I'd imagine there probably won't be any major difference really. Am hoping this becomes useful once a remap is involved! Bit annoying that some of the bits were missing, but some Googling has shown replacements are available, so I'll order those, and probably a battery tray as well, so technically some of this will need disassembling once those have arrived. Maintenance: £3285.99 Upgrades: £5338.13 (+£620.86) Miscellaneous: £827.47

A valid question, and unfortunately, could be the case! I'll be doing an oil change on the thing in the near future, and I think whilst I'm down there, I'll try and see if it looks like it'll fit. It had the original lower control arms on there, and they didn't look wonky. Aluminium ones as well, but they're a bit shorter than the ones for the Superb, so will have to use steel ones. Worse case scenario would be the current subframe goes back on I guess...

MoT all passed, so all good on that front! Gonna post some stuff I've collected randomly as part of long term planning and hoarding. That way, I can add them to the cost tally before I totally forget! So I've had this tucked away for a while now: An aluminium subframe. Got it for £100 from eBay more than a year ago! The ad said its from an Audi RS3, but to be honest, but be from anything from Golf R to anything related. Because it's aluminium, I've pretty much left it out in the garden come rain or shine, but I've given it a quick rinse and wipe over, as I'm planning for this probably end of summer or early autumn. I should probably price up the other related bits, but I'll leave that for when I start tackling this in earnest, as essentially every bolt is replaced, let alone other bits like wishbones and ball joints, etc. I also found this on eBay that I couldn't resist: Virtually an entire rear axle. This was £165.75, and as you can see, even has the rear pad carriers and discs attached. The ad said it was from a Golf R, and given the colour of the rear pad carriers, didn't have much reason to argue against this. It's not immaculate, but only has a few bits of rust around the subframe and arms, nothing that a slathering of hammerite or somesuch would help with. Took three of us to hoist this into the rear boot, and with just myself at home once back, didn't have much choice but to start disassembling it to make it less bulky: Was a case of slowly attacking the bolts with impacts and whatnot until arms, hubs and other bits were all separated out. It's a lot easier with a free floating subframe and parts that haven't rusted to buggery! Once it was virtually the subframe after a hour or so, plonked it into the house: Wife isn't particularly chuffed with this arrangement, so I'll probably have to consider giving it a quick clean and then probably buy some shrink wrap or something and wrap it up so it can be left outside or something. Complete madness on my part, but given replacement arms are a few hundred pounds, let alone a subframe in good condition, I couldn't resist. Whether I genuinely brave disassembling the rear of the car, and the all the inevitable chassis/body clean up as a result of that, I don't know, but having this around hopefully simplifies the reassembly stage, and if not, I can probably sell it on. Got some other bits I could probably start doing this evening, mainly as this looks like the last nice sunny day before the weather turns for the weekend. Maintenance: £3285.99 (+£165.75) Upgrades: £4717.27 (+£100) Miscellaneous: £827.47

Hi all! Been a while! So the car failed its MoT: Driver's side tie rod end, no idea what's happened, but looks like rusty remains of whatever was trying to keep the rubber boot in place has long gone, leaving the boot unable to do its job. So off to scour the interwebs for replacements. Got a pair of Meyle HD's from eBay for £33.81. Parts 116 020 0025/HD and 116 020 0026/HD. As is typical, this was all on the Thursday on the run up to the Bank Holiday weekend, so essentially had to wait until yesterday before they arrived. Decided to sneak out of work for a bit to try and tackle this. Original intent was to at least get the wheel off to see if the locknut would come free. Kinda lucked out: Gave it a quick wirebrush and PlusGas, then got a 24mm spanner and gave it a grunt. Magically, it came loose! Only a tiny amount, sure, but that's all that's needed. Buzzed off the nut on the other end, gave the hub a few whacks with the lump hammer which resulted in the old tie rod end popping out, and then just replaced with the new one. Was 22 turns off, and 22 turns back on, so probably straight enough! Be ready for a retest tomorrow. Annoyingly, I was intending to replace bits of the front suspension over the next few months, as I've been stockpiling some random bits as and when I saw a good deal on them, in addition to a few upgrades I might do if I can feel I can them done quicker. Not much drama otherwise, other than perhaps some rear wheel arch rust starting to come through. That might put a scupper on long term plans unless I say start to learn welding or something. Regardless, very happy the tie rod end swap took about 45 minutes, rather than the potential drama when that locknut doesn't want to budge. Maintenance: £3120.24 (+£33.81) Upgrades: £4617.27 Miscellaneous: £827.47

Already have shelving in the back of the garage! I suppose the question is whether I start adding extras to the side!

I'm off work for the rest of year starting from...now! So I'll definitely get a crack on with tidying up the garage. There are bits for cars that are LONG gone!

Apologies for the thread revival! The car started to nag with a "Inspection now!" message, so decided given its about half a year since the last oil change to just do so. As it was Black Friday last week, the usual barrage of emails arrived of discounts of various sorts, and one stood out enough that I decided why not: A 2000kg capacity tilting car lift. From SGS, although CJ Autos is the other one who normally sells this sort of thing. At £450, I thought it was worth a punt. Not going to add it to the running costs as its a more general use tool. I've had my eye on one of these for a while, although ironically the cars I would want to use them on, like the Elise, don't really work with it. Also turns out that even though its about 15cm lowered, it's still not able to clear some of the cars we have. Once the wider extensions were fitted as per the pic above, slid the thing under Skoda to see if it lines up to the sills: Normally, I'd be worried about this sort of thing for the sills, but for whatever reason decided the hell with it, and got one of my cordless drills and started: It kinda worked, and I basically lifted it up enough to get under (with a jack under some area of the subframe in case!) and start an oil change. I bought 20l (4x5l) of Mannol 504 507 oil for £78.85 so should be good for maybe 3 oil changes, maybe 4. With a couple more oil filters, my usual Mann branded ones, for £21.83 for the pair. Turns out the VCDS doesn't reset that inspection one amusingly, and it looks like you can just use the dashboard trip meter button to reset it. Looks like I've committed to twice yearly oil changes, which is probably no bad thing. As for the lift: It's a little on the large side, so I really need to tidy up the garage before I find out whether it may or may not make my life easier, but I imagine once I lift up the Skoda and tilted it forwards, it would potentially provide amazing arounds of room to work on the rear, which would be fantastic should I brave renewing all the rear suspension and bodywork area. I'm hoping with fashioning some sort of ramps or whatnot that it can lift some of the other cars and with all four wheels off the ground, would make wheel changes and brake jobs a whole lot simpler. Probably nowt more until the Spring, so Merry Christmas everyone! Maintenance: £3086.43 (+£100.68) Upgrades: £4617.27 Miscellaneous: £827.47

Hey all, So earlier in the week, after the wife drove off for work, noticed a couple of bits on the driveway. Didn't take any pics, but a couple of strips of wheel weights, somehow just decided to give up. I'm presuming the tyre fitters looked at the new wheels and didn't bother with giving the wheel a quick clean before they attached the wheel weights. Could also have been my use of some wheel sealant which might have prevent proper adhesion. Either way, something for a garage to sort out. Alongside the whooshing sound of the air con expansion valve, a regas was also on the cards (yes, it's getting warmer hence now caring about it). So booked it all up alongside an MoT. With the previous MoT only being about the brakes, the presumption would be a nice pass. Which it did. Advisories were for some bush wear on the front suspension arms, and a loose rear heatshield. Neither to be fussed about, and can easily sort those out throughout the year when I can be bothered. The arms are slightly grotty/rusty anyway, and alongside bearing replacements, probably isn't too much out of the way once I start on the fronts. The air con regas (cheapo R134a fortunately) was at £54.50 and 4 wheels rebalancing was £39, plus VAT came to £112.20. One day I'll scrounge up enough money to get my own air con machine, but until then, not the end of the world, especially with the warm weather we've been having. Maintenance: £2985.75 (+£112.20) Upgrades: £4617.27 Miscellaneous: £827.47

So they luckily arrived next day: Some longer tuner bolts, 40mm these ones. I guess technically, the ones I got with the allows were 30mm, so 36mm would have been the exact correct ones. I think I saw 35mm being the closest, but only 40mm ones were in black. Wanted the black ones so as to not stand out against the black alloys. These were £37.99 from eBay. No more pics, because removing a wheel bolt and replacing it with these ones isn't really worth it. Torqued up all the wheel bolts to 140Nm and gave it a short test drive. The brake pedal is super spongey and inconsistent. The wife will need to be careful. The new discs and pads still need bedding in, but it does feel like there's air in the system, the usual annoying of case "I've bled it through twice and still spongey". For now, we'll drive carefully until a 100 miles or so, once the discs have their initial black coating removed and presumably the EBC red stuff bedding in stuff removed. I'll probably have to bleed the brakes again, so I'll rummage another litre of brake fluid. I could probably involve the VCDS and perform some ABS bleeding just to be sure. Worse case scenario would be my overzealous use of the brake pedal holding tool could have pushed the seals in the master cylinder too much. I've done that before on another car, and meant replacing the master cylinder, which is mainly a messy job rather than perhaps difficult. I'll remain hopeful it doesn't come to that. Maintenance: £2873.55 Upgrades: £4617.27 (+£37.99) Miscellaneous: £827.47

So some potential replacement wheel bolts for the fronts arrived this morning, but unfortunately: They're only 28mm in length thread wise. The ones I got with the alloys are 30mm, so these were very much the wrong ones. A typo on their eBay ad unfortunately, so being sent back and another order made. Only other thing left to do was the electronic parking brake connectors and replacing the damaged ones. So after some Googling eventually found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDWKcAiLJ_Y which pretty much summed it up nicely. So essentially, there's a locking tab, grey in colour: Got a precision screwdriver with a flat head and just needs a small tug to get it accessible from the gap in the side: Once free, the terminals are in a position to be removed. So went through the extractors to find a possible suitable one: I actually found it just as effective to use two thin flat ones, which go into the "top" and "bottom" of the connectors per se: With two flat ones across, it catches onto the tabs better, and once in, you just tug at the wires and it should come out of the connector. Forgot to take pictures of the removed terminals, not that important! So essentially a case of doing the same steps on the car: This is the damaged driver side, needed to disconnect the ABS sensor to get enough leeway and space to get at it. Probably another case of being much easier without a caliper in the way! This was a bit fiddly and dirty, so didn't take pictures along the way. First obstacle was to see if that rubber boot bit was going to be an obstacle. It was tight, but ultimately looks like the connector is just forced into the rubber boot. So once the locking tab was removed, the terminal extractors were used, and one at a time, some wiggling of the connector then frees one terminal, and then do the other: Then with the new connector, placed it in line with the terminals, and pushed it into the connector simultaneously, waiting for a click for both: That's pretty much it. Almost forgot to insert the locking tab: Put a dab of silicone grease, reconnect to the electronic hand brake, and then repeat for the other side. So the remains of the old ones: The passenger side was mangled with my pry bar as part of removing it, so both were in need of replacing. You can see the dirt in the connectors, and I presume that's a factor making disconnecting difficult, in addition to just years of exposure making the plastic more brittle. I'd probably factor coil pack connectors as part of service items. Don't think there's much to remediate it, and I guess in the grand scheme of things, disconnecting the parking brake isn't something that happens often enough to make an effort to sort out. So with that, put the car back onto terra firma. I guess once the longer wheel bolts arrive, I can essentially remove one bolt at a time replacing them with the longer ones, so no need to do any more lifting. I'll need to remember to use VCDS to reset the parking brake, but that should be it, fingers crossed! Car should be MoT ready now. Maintenance: £2873.55 Upgrades: £4579.28 Miscellaneous: £827.47