commievid

Totally agree, market has warped. Cost of a brand new Skoda Superb Estate L&K is circa £47k (only in diesel at the moment), and that's now magically applied to used car prices. It is what it is as they say. The fancy DCC suspension meant spending more than I'd want on that, and my stupid desire for a heated steering wheel was a silly rabbit hole. It's only sobering because I'm keeping a very strict eye on the running totals, and I'm sure if we all did that, we'd stop bothering with cars very quickly!

Cheapest on Autotrader has been about £16.5k, so you are right, this was always the danger. In fact, once a body shop is involved, it'll blow that budget. The high road I'm trying desperately to take with my man maths is that even said £16.5k car is probably going to need something, and with what's been done, the suspension, general maintenance, and everything else means that once this drama is over, it SHOULD be just relatively smaller costs over the next few years, unless an itch needs to be scratched. Of course if the rust wins at the end of the day, then a lesson learnt.

Random stuff: Got some deionised water from Tesco, £3 for the pair. More pics of nuts! Some stainless nylocs, M6, £3.49 from eBay. Whipped those right onto the level sensors, and tightened to 8Nm: Then started to sort out the wiring: The left side was fine, routing made sense, but the right side needed the wire to be forced out of the way a bit lest it will rub on the anti roll bar link. Once tightened the zip tie, cut off the excess. I think the clips that came with the struts can just be replaced with new zip ties when needed. The clips themselves just push onto the thread: As mentioned, the left appears to clear the anti roll bar link without issue: I'll have to keep an eye on these once the car is on the road. Then started to pop out the coolant tank: Looks like it's just clipped into place in about three areas without any fasteners. Not sure when the arrival date is for the replacement tank, getting a bit impatient! Looked for some easy stuff to do: Clipped the cowls into the windscreen, put the foams in and the seal. I'll probably need to get some foam tape to get the side foams firmly in place, but that's pretty much that. Will probably put the wiper arms back on once the washer stuff is checked out. Hopefully I don't have to remove the washer bottle as that'll mean the cowl is off again. Totally jinxed it I reckon. So back in the house, got the tap and put a drill onto it: Then with some oil, gave the threads in the brake pad carriers a pass through: Will go through the wheel bearings with the same step to clean them all up. Hopefully will make assembly nice and trouble free. That's me for the day. Weather isn't looking too great tomorrow, so might have to clean up those wheel bolts and see what I can squeeze in between rain spells. Maintenance: £2220.90 (+£3.49) Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £687.25 (+£3.00)

Squeezed a bit more stuff before work: Figuratively and literally. Got a lot of the stuff to be dumped into my work horse to be dumped later before lunch. I supposedly have a more practical car for these purposes ironically enough! I've left the struts for now. If anyone wants a possibly knackered set (they're rusty as hell), drop me a line, otherwise I'll set a bit of time to sort out their disposal (some drilling involved). Moving on, went to sort out the top rear strut bolts: Tightened to 50Nm, then marked up with a Sharpie to 45 degrees. Access is a little bit awkward: Didn't want to use extensions, but without them, there isn't enough clearance in the wheel arch to get the bolt tightened, and anything smaller was proving too much for my puny arms. Smaller wrenches would risk rounding (brute force can get clumsy, in my experience anyway) just as much as all these extensions if they're not on straight. Kept a hand firmly pushing against the extensions to the bolt, and gradually did it a few degrees at a time: So got the paint pen to mark it formally: Repeated for the other side: So with that, dry fitted the wheel liners: I think I'll need to get some washers to add to the bolts attaching the wheel arch just to give it some more spread, but it's getting there. Went to the front, and started to lift the lower arms with the jack: This then compresses the strut and eventually lets the anti roll bar bolt through: Slathered some copper grease and started the nut on it. Didn't take long before the bolt to spin with the nut. So went and raised the other side to attach that bolt: Once done, the raised anti roll bar had a holding effect on the other side, so just went with the impact wrench to buzz the nut in: Tried my best to not give it too many ugga duggas, regularly checking with a torque wrench to see if it clicked at 80Nm. Jacked up the other side to do the same process: I imagine I've probably overtightened them, but the torque wrench was still tightening them slightly when clicking, so I think it's not insanely so. Not too bothered, new shiny anti roll bar links are eventually needed (if not an entire replacement roll bar, it's looking as manky as the rear one). That's the big bits for the front suspension done. I'm waiting for some replacement nyloc nuts for the level sensor as they're a bit grotty, but otherwise, once those are done, that's the front suspension complete! Just need to clean up the Bilstein Damptronic wiring... Maintenance: £2217.41 Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £684.25

Tiny bit more before supper: Got the right anti roll bar bolt into place into the lower arm: Didn't take pics of this side as simply forgot to. This left the strut on the arm: Which seemed to be a bit stuck. So went ahead and did the opposite anti roll bar link, with pics this time. Essentially, its a case of clumsily using a jack to raise the lower arm: Then using a pry bar or some such under the suspension arm to move the link and try and get it aligned. There's a gap under the lower arms to do so, and after lifting it up a bit more, the side was clear enough to slip the bolt in: Once done, went and slathered a load of anti seize on the bolt before reinserting. The bolt stops roughly where the other side hits the arm: So it's then a case of raising and lowering the arm to try and rejig the link and get it clear: Tried not to raise it too high so as to start clearing the rear jacks, but eventually, this and more pry bar action eventually gets the bolt to be visible, so a few taps with a rubber mallet on the bolt head: Then it's clear enough for the nyloc nut to go in place. I've used aftermarket bolts, which are 8.8 bolts, so I'll double check the internet for recommended torques for such a bolt. It'll be the same as what I've used for the anti roll bar clamps to be honest. I then struggled with the struts. No amount of lifting the arm up and down was getting it to go in smoothly, so had to resort to being a bit ham fisted: I firstly used Knipex pliers with a widened jaw to try and clamp it into place, which got it started. From the opposite side: The hole for the bolt was starting to be visible, so just went at it with a chisel and hammer on the bushing part of the strut to get it a few millimetres further in: Then managed to get a punch small enough into the hole, and used it as a pry to get it further into place: Then a few more taps with a hammer was able to get a bolt into place: So once done, more anti seize before refitting. From there, it was a struggle with a hammer and chisel to get the other side further down and into place: This was as far as I got, before I decided to try a different approach. I went and undid the top strut bolts, and it immediately looked like the better option: Basically, once the top bolts were undone, the strut flies out, seemingly straightening out, which then meant the bottom bushing of the strut was easily manoeuvrable in the lower strut arm, hence the nut being put into place in the pic above. So it was then a case of trying to get the top mount aligned: This was met with a bit of resistance, but essentially, with some convincing, I was able to get it positioned a bit better, then a jack to lift up the lower arm helps locate it a bit better, then as per above, used the punch to help align the bracket with the holes, and once one bolt is in, the rest is straightforward: So yeah, lesson learned, do the bottom bolt first. Undoing the top strut bolts on the other side immediately dropped the strut into the lower arm, so it was actually not an issue at all getting the bottom bolt in: The strut can then be wiggled to get the bolt through: Significantly less drama. The top still has some resistance when being mated to the top: But it's pretty much the same thing, jacked up slightly, and using something to align it to get a bolt in. So went and nipped up the bottom bolts: Just to get the nuts in place for now, 18mm for the strut bolt, and 13mm for the aftermarket ones for the anti roll bar link (it's not a Japanese car, but the car still probably wishes me bad luck). So that's that: Just torquing up left. As the bottom strut bolt is bushed, I'll need to tighten it formally once it's on it's wheels. I'll probably do so and get some ramps so I have some semblance of clearance to do the tightening. It's similar to the Lotus, where the weight of the car acts as the reference point for the suspension, and when tightening up any bushes on the suspension, it essentially clamps the rubber at that point, so when the suspension goes up or down, the rubber bush will rotate but essentially settle back to its relaxed unstressed point. Tightening the bolts whilst raised as above will mean the rubber bushes will be in a slightly stressed position once back on terra firma, so shortening it's life as it goes up and down. This doesn't actually apply to the top strut bolts so not sure why I haven't tightened those up yet. I'll do that at the next possible opportunity, as with that, I can fit the rear wheel arches back onto the car. Can also reattach the rear level sensor, so best remember that too. Getting there! Maintenance: £2217.41 Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £684.25

Weather is apparently going to get grim over the rest of the week, so decided to get some stuff in over lunch. Replacement paint pen arrived: Something from eBay for £2.89, got a purple one just because. Some more bolts: So some M6 x 10 flange bolts to replace the brake bracket ones to the front hubs, some M6 x 16 countersunk ones for the future when I get new wheel bearings and brake discs, and some additional screws in case I run short when reassembling the wheel arches. Totalled £10.78 from eBay. So another easy win thing, clipped the things on the coil pack connector back: Bit more of a faff than I thought it would be getting it all aligned up and actually snapping into place. Then checked the coil pack bolt thing to ensure its done to 10Nm, before nipping up the nut for the presumably additional ground bits also at 10Nm: Don't think there's anything else I removed at the top of the engine, so popped that plastic cover back on: Been a while. Then decided to tackle that 180 degree tightening. I rummaged through the garage to find: A 3/4 inch breaker bar, which I last used for my brother's Audi A3 where that crankshaft bolt is something insane in regards angle required. I ended up using my legs with my body braced against the wall to get the required leverage. If I'm ever unlucky enough to need to replace the timing chain on this engine, it'll be deja vu. Only have the reducer adapter for this thing though, as I can't justify the cost of dedicated 3/4 sockets for such rare use cases. So for the right side, took off the brake dust shield, and moved the brake hose and wiring brackets out of the way, so that the 18mm wrench essentially wedges against the hub: The plan was to mark the bolt with the sharpie and the opposite side of it, so that when it lines up, it'll suggest the required 180 degrees: The pic has some wiring in the way, but you can see the intended destination as it were. So got the M14 socket, into that 3/4 breaker and carefully applied some force: This pic shows it better, halfway there, just continue until: It's probably easier with some extension on it, but didn't want to risk rounding the bolt so kept a hand on it over the centre. Then got the paint pen and marked it up. So that's that. Got the stainless bolt to replace the existing one for the brake bracket and tightened to 8Nm: Then got the dust shield back on with that tightened to 12Nm, so that's the right side sorted. Left side was a little easier. For whatever reason, the nut was not rotating with the bolt, so was able to tighten the thing with just my other arm counter holding the spanner: Then the same process: The dust shield could have been removed which would have meant more of a swing with the bar, so probably slightly easier: But once done, tightened up the brake bracket and dust shield: So that's that! As eager as I am to get the wheel arches on, I ordered a replacement coolant expansion tank to replace the existing one, so want to replace that, before adding any more coolant in and checking for leaks. The other side has all the washer gubbins, so I still need to check for leaks and to flush all that hose work through. But for all intents and purposes the front suspension is complete. I'll start chucking the spoils of war at the local dump, like the bits of rear seat and what not. There's a fair bit! Maintenance: £2217.41 (+£10.78) Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £684.25 (+£2.89)

Quick update: Decided to get an M14x1.5 tap and die from Amazon for £9.99. The initial thought was due to the brake carrier bolts, and their general state, but weighed up the pros and cons of just getting new bolts. I then realised that the wheel bolts are the same, and they're in even worse state, so I felt cleaning them up with this will be worth it. Also this arrived earlier: The replacement hose to that additional cooler. Second hand one from eBay for £15.96 which I think compares similarly to an actual new one from lllparts etc. Guess I got impatient and didn't want to wait a week or the extra tenner or so for delivery unless I'm buying a bunch of stuff. It's the correct part I believe: So 5Q0 121 051 L as per https://www.lllparts.co.uk/product/5Q0121051L/skoda-coolant-hose-5q0121051l (the 5Q0 121 051 without the L suffix is more expensive). It's interestingly dated circa 2013, so it'll be the oldest part of the car! It came from an Audi Q2 according to eBay, so surely a premium part, lol. Anyway, the 7mm ratchet spanner to take off the clamps and replace with the new one: All tightened up to 5Nm. Then just topped up the coolant tank slightly: The old one with its rip: Chalk it down to my aggressive use of the pliers to free it from that radiator. Started to rain so tidied up, grabbed some bolts and ran back to the house. So this is an example of the brake bracket bolt: Just lots of aluminium corrosion where it passes through the hub and the rusty end which is where it's bolted and exposed to the elements. So got the die, put some 3-in-1 oil on its cutting thread and all on the bolt, and just winded it through: Any bit tight just got the ratchet spanner and for these bolts, a 21mm socket to aid getting the bolt through. It'll then usually go through easier and can then be done by hand. It's normally a case of winding a turn then back half a turn, but that's more applicable to cutting new threads. Once wound all the way in, just reverse it out: Quick wipe and it's better than it was. Repeated for the rest and started on the wheel bolts: The wheel bolts were a mixture of ok and horrid, some with mountains of grease built up and some without. This is after half of the wheel bolts: So I guess some brake cleaner would probably finish these off ready for reuse. Oh, and the other 10 bolts I guess. I'll check up on the coolant level later and once I top it off and it stays relatively stable, then we're really getting there. Still need to angle tighten the strut bolt to the hub, then reassemble the front brakes. Once those are done, then technically there's nothing stopping the car from being fired up! Maintenance: £2206.63 (+£15.96) Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £681.36 (+£9.99)

Squeezed some easy win bits before an afternoon off. Got the washer bottle in the wheel arch all torqued up to 8Nm. Replaced the torx screw with a stainless bolt, which has a pozidrive so actually like a phillips head just slips off after a certain tightness. The stainless bolts have a slightly smaller head than the OEM ones, so I'll have to play it by ear for the wheel arch liners. If I'm unlucky, I'll have to source some washers to go with them. Then went and plonked the top part of the washer bottle into the cowl area: The rubber bit that connects makes it a bit difficult if done dry, so best to smear a thin coat of silicone grease or probably some fairy liquid to make it slip into place without drama. The two nuts are then torqued to 8Nm as per the others. Then started on the top suspension strut bolts: The workshop manual actually outlines three variants for the bolts, and the ones I got were N 912 464 01 which needed 20Nm then 90 degrees. Interestingly the ones removed from the car were more likely the smaller N 101 277 07 as they looked like flange bolts rather than having a separate captive washer, so not sure if it actually makes a difference. Just sounds like a bit more exposed thread under the wheel arch? Anyways, as you can see above, I couldn't actually find my paint pen, so I'll need to buy another, but for now, used a sharpie pen to mark an arbitrary place on the bolt. This I can then use as a reference to whether I've tightened it up to an appropriate angle. I guess one could mark the bolt and then mark on the chassis the expected angle to really remove ambiguity: In my case though, I have pictures to act as proof I've done it. Same for the other side: So again, 20Nm then a right angle: I know there are fancy tools like electric torque wrenches that beep for a target torque and angle, maybe one day I'll splurge on one of those, but maybe not as this will be the last VW group car I ever own. Depends if any other cars with TTY bolts are on the horizon... Anyways, with the top strut bolts tightened, there's technically nothing stopping the cowl covers going back on: So dry fitted the cleaned up passenger side. The new one has holes in it for presumably a left hand drive wiper set up. I think I saw some grommets to cover those, so could still use the new one if I fancied. I put the clips in, but had to remove them again to fit the other side on: The driver side has a little latch underneath that slides into the passenger side cover, before it can then go over the wiper blade mounts and the hole for the washer bottle. Then put the clips in place for now more so I don't misplace them. I'll need to get the cowl covers to clip into the small bracket across the windscreen. Workshop manual suggests some washing up liquid as a lubricant, so same as my fairy liquid suggestion earlier. The driver side sticks up slightly at the edge, not sure if that's due to it being new and been packaged, hopefully it'll go back to a more expected shape. Decided to do another random thing: Had a spare Ctek connector with M6 eyelets, so connected it up to the positive. Bent the eyelet to allow the connector to be more horizontal, but I don't think that'll be an issue. The negative was a tiny bit more of a faff: The negative connector looks to be designed to not have its bolt and nut removed (not without bending out some locking tabs which keep them captive), so decided to fit it onto the chassis point which is used for jump starting too I believe. Was a bit tight, so just had at it with a spanner and tightened up as best as I could. Then tackled the ball joint bolts: I noticed the bolts on the ball joints are marked with 10.9, so consulting Google, for M10 bolts, the recommended torque is 75Nm. So decided to experiment. Torqued the bolts to 40Nm, as the workshop manual specifies 40Nm then 45 degrees. I then marked a corner as per above and got the torque wrench set up to 75Nm. By the time 45 degrees was reached, the torque looked to be nowhere near 75Nm. So left them at the specced torque, but presumably, they are nowhere near being stretched, so I think they should be fine? They're aftermarket, so nyloc nuts are involved rather than the typical self lock nuts as per OEM. The tie rod ends were at 20Nm and 90 degrees. I guess technically I should replace them, but I'm being a bit blase with the tie rod ends, I'd rather just replace them rather than a single nut. Of course, I totally expect the removal of said tie rod ends to be an absolute pain in the arse given everything else thus far. So that's it for now. I've torqued up the strut bolts to 70Nm, but haven't angle tightened them yet, as I think I'll need a helping hand to keep things from spinning, as it's 180 degrees, so a huge source of danger in regards rounding that spline bit bolt. Why not just a normal hex and normal non-TTY bolts? Maintenance: £2190.67 Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £671.37

So after lunch, spent about 30 minutes going around looking for that socket. Found it eventually, and tightened down the driveshaft bolt to get it into the hub on the left side. So time to get the strut into the other hub. The other side seemed to go in much quicker: The rubber mallet was able to get a lot further compared to the other side: You can see the metal tab bit on the strut as it goes through the strut bolt hole. Presumably, the bolt prevents the strut flying away due to this tab, in addition to it being bloody tight I guess. Then a lump hammer and a few more taps to get it home: Or at least nearly so. This took an hour in comparison to two for the other side. No idea. I'm guessing the yellow paint job on the Bilsteins add a thickness, the hubs having years of corrosion, and possibly the spreader tool I used not spreading enough, were contributing to this crazy struggle I've had. If I get to a position where the struts need to be separated again for whatever reason, I'll probably need to research and see if there's a more significant spreader tool, just a fraction of a millimetre more was probably going to be enough. Anyways, fitted the strut to the turret: Then got one of the strut bolts and checked it goes in: So that appears to be fine. So then it's the same as the other side, tapping with a mallet to get the driveshaft into the hub, then lowering the arm to get the ball joint bolts in: Once a few more taps got the driveshaft in enough for the bolt, then began tightening it down: So it looked like this before: Then once the driveshaft bolt couldn't tighten by hand anymore: So once the ball joint nuts are tightened up, and the track rod end nut, then only torquing them up to spec is left. Well, bar the strut bolt, so for that just went mad with the Alumslip: Then put it into the strut, rotating it as I went in to try and get the grease spread out and filled the strut void as much as possible. The end wasn't greased, for the nut to be winded in: It's an 18mm nut, and an M14 spline bit for the bolt, just hand tightened for now. Then slapped some corrosion block grease where the bracket mates to the hub and copper grease on the bolt: Need to tighten this down later (or maybe source a stainless replacement). Then dry fitted the wiring to the Damptronic: The Bilstein dampers are supplied with an adapter to connect the Damptronic to the OEM connectors, fairly self explanatory, but the routing: Isn't super clear, so I've left the clip on the strut captive bolt and I'll plan it later. This is mainly to not have any connectors exposed. With the front struts only needing torquing, time to do something else: So given the right strut was just done, made sense to sort out the washer bottle, so attached the hoses and connectors to the washer bottle. Looked like it was fairly idiot proof. Used some of the dielectric grease on the connectors whilst I was there. Then the wiring and hoses were clipped to the top of the washer bottle, and essentially just wedged the washer bottle in: Takes a bit of wiggling and faff, but it eventually goes in, including that separate side bit, which also needs the hole in the end going through the opening in the windscreen cowl area. Started the nuts and bolt for the washer bottle, to be tightened later. So with that, went on to something else: Got the rear level sensor, dabbed some dielectric grease around the connector, and then fitted the top level sensor bracket to the subframe. This is tightened to 5Nm. The top bolt is a little bit of a faff to get to, best to tighten it down first with the bracket swung away, then put into position once ready for torquing. It may be easier to use extensions for the top, but was able to get the small torque wrench in there. I started dry fitting the bottom: But decided to undo it for now until the suspension bits on the rear are fitted proper. Not gone round to this as jacking the arms will be involved. So just the Haldex controller left, so put dielectric grease all over the connectors to try and stop dirt getting in and making it a faff to remove in the future. Then connected it all up, bolted the top bolt to 9.5Nm, and cable tied the bottom: Had to use a pair of smaller ones to do so, but tidied up: Who knows, I'm sure this'll be fine. So that was pretty much the day gone unfortunately. Got the flap wheel and started to clean up the wheel bearing faces and the brake disc, and have just used the wheel bolts to dry fit the brakes: They'll be taken off again in order to sort out the torque tightening of everything, but that's me for the week I think. Was expecting a lot more progress, but the faff of the struts into the hub really kaiboshed the day, and the ripped coolant hose just felt like icing on the cake really. Technically, I could still get the car's ignition on, which would be enough to get the washers activated, which could be something I could do during the week, to basically flush out the system. I'll need to disconnect the hoses from the jets front and rear and the headlight washers, fill it with some water and just use the stalk to squirt whatever out. This is mainly because of the bits that were in the washer bottle, which implies said bits are probably in the washer hoses. Could be the cause for the blocked washer jet, so want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Looking at the spreader tool I have, it looks like it may have suffered some wear from use, maybe that's why it was such a struggle? I need something to spread the hubs further? Well, doesn't matter know. For all intents and purposes, the suspension is fitted on the car, sort of! Maintenance: £2190.67 Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £671.37

Not the smoothest of days. Got the balljoints purchased earlier out and ready: Workshop manual mentions they should be labelled: Just the one had a "L" labelled which presumably means the other is for the right, so went and started on the left side: Just wiped some corrosion block grease on the hub where the balljoint goes through and started tightening the nut for the ball joint. It was 19mm for these aftermarket ones as opposed to 21mm for the OEM ones. I then started to prep for the strut: Gave the inside of the sleeve a quick sand down with some abrasive lying around (120 grit just because it was around), then gave it a quick clean and a wipe of corrosion block grease. So time to get the struts out ready: Normally, I'd expect that after using the spreader tool to stretch out the hub slightly, the strut should then wiggle into the hub, the reverse of removal: No chance. Of course something was going to be more annoying than it needed to be. The strut would go in maybe a few millimetres but no more. After a few attempt, I couldn't see any other way of doing this than to tap it into place with a mallet. This kinda meant I needed to remove the hub from the car. So there was an ABS sensor connector, just disconnected with a thin screwdriver, then buzzed out the track rod end nut: Again, the ball joint removal tool couldn't do the job here for whatever reason, so I resorted again to just hammering it out. I wound the nut back in and tried to get it as flat to the bolt threads as possible, to try and reduce any damage. Then a few sharp thwacks: So the hub is freed, so the idea is to tap the hub into the strut from above, but first: I think it was a T30 torx bolt that keeps the heatshield in place, so some PlusGas and a bit of care and the bolts came free. Then it was just this: Very slowly going with constant thwacks of a rubber mallet. It was interspersed with regular moving around of the spread tool, more to take a breather: As it got further in, the rubber mallet lost effectiveness, so out of desperation, resorted to the lump hammer. I have no idea if I've done lasting damage to the hub, or the new strut, or both, with the constants bashing. But it eventually gets there: Seriously, this took about 2 hours of the morning, what I presumed was a 5 or 10 minute step! I believe the strut should be touching this lip: So it's probably a portion of a millimetre off. No idea if that's going to be a problem in the future. Of course, this also happened: Another cracked connector cover. Lucky I bought a spare. A slip of the hammer puts this right in the path, so for the other side, I'll take the cover off before I start the process. I then started to get the strut up and into the turrent: This is a bit unwieldy done solo, but can be persisted, then once a bolt or two in the turret is attached to the top of strut then I breathed a sigh of relief, at least it looks like it's attached! I started to prep the other side, so removed it from the track rod end same as the left side, but this time tightening the ball joint to the hub early doors, to 60Nm: Did not need any counterholding so probably should have done that for the left side before I continued. I noticed the coolant tank was low, so started to top it up, but then noticed a wet leg whilst working around the left wheel well: Looks like my use of the pliers to wiggle and loosen the hose has put a rip into the hose. Extremely frustrating given the top part of these hoses didn't actually need these new clamps installed, so damaging the hose puts a blocker on future progress. I don't think there's a decent approach to address this other than to replace the hose. So, looking back at the left strut fitted, lowered the arm and got the balljoint into lower arm and got the nuts tightened: Not torqued it to spec yet. There was actually a bit of a palaver getting the driveshaft into the wheel hub before this, again involved eventual tapping of mallets and so on, until it got in enough so that the old driveshaft bolt lying around was able to start winding in: This is because it would mean that the driveshaft bolt could then be tightened, hopefully pulling in the driveshaft and getting it home. With that, the ball joint under the driveshaft was tightened, via a crow's foot attachment: Kinda lucky it was 19mm as I don't have a 21mm crow's foot. Then tightened up the top bolts a bit more: So at this point, I couldn't find the 24mm 12 sided socket I bought to undo these driveshaft bolts. But it was midday by then, so took a break for lunch. Maintenance: £2190.67 Upgrades: £1322.97 Miscellaneous: £671.37

Some more stuff: Some dielectric grease. Not sure, usually silicone grease is my go to but decided to get some stuff specifically for the connectors for the car. This'll be aimed at the Haldex connector, the level sensor for the rear and the coil packs. This was £11.62, so I'll chalk up £5.81 to the tally as I'll probably use one for this car solely. Also got these: There was a pair of stainless speed bleeders on eBay which I jumped on, only to find that I wasn't able to source another pair of stainless ones. Previously, I've always been able to get them from the US, but upon ordering from their website, I got a refund due to them not having sorted out UK VAT stuff apparently. Most interesting. So got some normal ones from eBay instead. So the stainless ones were £14.50 and the other pair were £25.04. The former being cheaper was probably due to being something lying around and the seller just wanted rid. Don't think it matters at this stage, one day the calipers will probably get refurbed and then I'll revisit whether I go fancy or consistent with these bleeders or whatever. These have been hanging around a while but I'll note them here: A pair of door seals. These were £94.05 for the pair from eBay, which to be honest, probably could have been cheaper via Skoda Parts or lllparts, so don't know why I thought to get them at this price. This is mainly to address this: Just some weird chewing of the door seal on the drivers side, so figured swap both out as a pair. Pedantics really. Anyways, after work, decided to tackle the coolant hoses which have been disconnected for a while. This is mainly so I can actually start filling it up and also hopefully allows me to start assembling the undertray and wheel arches (sort of). So on the left: Got some pliers to take the spring clips off: Then I used the pliers around the hose and very gently wiggled the hose and rotated to try and loosen it. If it starts squeaking, that's usually when it's starting to separate. Then continued to wiggle and pull them free. Once out, put the new clamps on and put the hoses back into place: According to the JCS Hi Grip brochure https://www.jcshi-torque.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/JCS_Hi-Grip_brochure-1.pdf it suggests that these sized hoses are tightened to 5Nm, so went and did that. You can see from the pic above that the 25-35 sized hoses, whilst tightened fine, does seem to have quite a large bit of excess, so it may well be possible that a size or even two lower could be possible. Something for the future to be honest (all things going well, it'll be 4 years before these are revisited). So the two above were only changed because they're easily accessed, rather than the main ones, which are on the other end of those hoses: So the other side is shown here. I've tried my best to position the hose clamps so they're easy to get to in the future. The pic amusingly shows the other side of this quick connector with the OEM and rusty spring clamps, but would it start being overkill to fit clamps there as well? Anyways, went to the other side for the radiator hose: So detached the hose, put the clamp on, and then put it back to the quick release part near the radiator: Hopefully positioned so it's much less stressful to undo in the future. Didn't take pics of me adding coolant in, but basically poured stuff into the tank, then just pretty much massaged the hoses around the engine bay. There is an easy to get at one near the air filter housing (presumably the top radiator one) and the one above. This helped in getting the tank level down so presumably filled up the system a bit more. Normally, I expect an engine to have a bleed screw to undo which would be at the top of the coolant circuit to help bleed and sort out air locks. But this car doesn't have one (par for the course in terms of VW being annoying), so I'll have to hope that when the engine fires up it'll help push coolant around and so on. Technically, I don't think there's anything stopping the passenger side wheel arch from going back on the car. I think for now though I'll wait until the engine is fired up in order to just be sure the coolant isn't leaking around these newly clamped hoses. Not much to do for the coolant now, I'll leave it until tomorrow, so went back to the top of the engine: Fitted the air hose from the housing to the rear of the engine, and tightened up the hose clamp, this time facing the opposite way so I can actually do it up without it being a pain. I then pushed the air filter housing in: I then immediately lifted it back out again, because: This part of the front air guide kinda needs to go in at the same time as the air filter housing, it'll clip into the bottom part of the air guide after some faff. Once done though, the upper part can then go in, starting with the two tabs at the front: Then pushing the rear tab into the bottom latch: That should be it: So then it's a case of tightening up all the bolts. They are all T20 torx screws. The workshop manual specifies 2Nm, which is to be honest, feels less than hand tight. So a delicate torque wrench is needed and care so as to not inadvertently overtighten, although it doesn't really matter for the air filter housing I imagine. You'd have to be tightening it up something special to break the air filter housing. I then had to figure this: This particular spring clamp was quite awkward. I had to eventually involve two Knipex pliers, one set with a wider jaw, to essentially start compressing, then with some faffing around, transfer that to other plier to compress it further in order to get it large enough to get back onto the hose. Not safe in the slightest. It'll be much more easier to just get a normal hose clamp in the future I reckon, so that'll be on the back burner. So other than fitting the vacuum hose back into the housing: That was that. Most of the servicing is pretty much done now! So tomorrow, the front suspension will be looked at, and from there, just the few more odd jobs I believe. Maintenance: £2190.67 (+£94.05) Upgrades: £1322.97 (+£39.54) Miscellaneous: £671.37 (+£5.81)

Other side arrived today: So labelled that up and tucked it together with the right side sensor. £28.49 from eBay, so on the back burner. Decided to get these ready: Got these again from eBay for £3.49 a while ago, ready to replace the ones that were mangled. Just a case of pushing them in really: So it was two on the right side: Then one on the left. Assuming I reach the point where the underside of this is genuinely sorted out, I'll probably end up replacing all the clips as a matter of course. The wheel arch lip though... So try and keep some of that stuff out of sight: Dry fitted the wheel arch just mainly to check if it was ok to attach it: It sorta gets in the way of the suspension here, so I guess this should be tightened up appropriately before attaching the wheel arch. This should be ok, the rest along the bottom are the ones with the bushes. Then took the wheel arch, and took them into the house and gave them a hoover to grab up a bit more of the loose grass and crud as it was dry now. Then took the air filter and inserted it: Then dry fitted that to the engine bay: Will need to get the plastic front air intake bit in alongside the filter housing as I'm sure there's a specific order for it all. That's probably it until the weekend for now unless there's some other small easy wins I can do in the meantime. Maintenance: £2096.62 (+£31.98) Upgrades: £1283.43 Miscellaneous: £665.56

Bits and bobs, with some chintz from China: Metal pedals, no real reason: With metal foot rest. Again, no real reason, the original doesn't have much wear (I guess most of the wear was on the carpet). It was £43.82 which I didn't think was too bad. This was all ordered before so much of the horrors of the rear suspension, so more innocent times. Some additional chintz: Some DSG paddle extensions. I wanted some proper ones where the DSG paddles themselves are removed and a pin is involved, removing the old and replacing with new. However, the Skoda Superb DSG paddles are just a little bit different from the others for sale, so just played it safe and got the stick on ones. This was £11.20 from AliExpress, so I thought pretty cheap. This also arrived: The front right hand level sensor, which I got initially as a panic from apparently bending the one on the car. It's sort of fixed itself, so I'll probably just monitor it, and leave this sensor on the back burner, as it's quite nice and shiny and it'll make sense installed amongst other shiny things. This was £27.60 from eBay. Some pics of bolts: These are M6 x 35 for the Haldex controller and pump. Stainless because I don't want that drama again (hopefully). I know a few won't be used for now with one of the bolt holes buggered. £3.84 for 5 of them. So anyways, spent a bit of time sorting out that coil pack connector whilst it isn't raining: Just a case of removing the remaining terminals, putting them into the new connector. Didn't take further pics, but insert the purple locking tab and fit it back onto the coil pack. I'll probably mess around with some dielectric grease once I start putting this back together properly. I then jumped into the drivers footwell: The footrest has a couple of plastic hooks which clip into the metal bracket where the footrest goes. From there, it's a bit of a faff regarding the screw: Visibility isn't possible, so this was a bit of guess work. I eventually used a rubber mallet at the top of the foot rest to just see if that helped locate the foot rest further. No idea if its solidly attached. Then, got the mat and fitted it: Which of course, fouls the new footrest. Had a moment of madness and decided sod it, just cut a bit of the mat away to get it into place. I can probably clean it up a little bit more to make it look ok, but I guess the original footrest wouldn't have this issue. Fitted the other pedals: The brake pedal was nice and simple, as it has two pins which locate into the pedal quite precisely. Less the case with the throttle, which looks like it sorta slides over the existing pedal, which was a bit of a struggle, but hopefully I haven't buggered anything up. Maybe an argument for genuine stuff? Took the steering wheel off (as it's not really on per se), and got some rubbing alcohol onto the DSG paddles to clean up ready for the tape: Once dried, slapped the tape on: Then peel off the red backing for the double sided tape and just slide the extensions on: It's pretty much on I suppose. So that's the cheap chintz sorted, so back to under the car. Normally, it's copper grease everywhere, but for aluminium bits, especially with stainless bolts, I use AlumSlip: This is the stuff I use for the Lotus where applicable, and to be honest, not much stopping me from using it everywhere, as I seem to use it sparingly for no reason. So slathered the AlumSlip onto the new stainless bolts, removed the old ones on the pump and fitted the new ones: Seems fine and fits without issue, and tightened to 9.5Nm as per the workshop manual. Top bolt needed some extensions and fumbling due to access: But that's done. Lovely rusty pump. For the controller bolts, just slathered the bolt and winded it in and out a few times: Just to be sure that's clean enough: Dry fitted the controller for now, still want to clean up the connectors and figure some sort of grease to stop dirt getting into the grooves and making it harder to disconnect in the future. So with that, went at the battery tray and tightened the nuts and bolts to 9Nm: Then hoiked the battery into place. Pretty idiot proof as there's slots and everything for it. Dab of grease and tightened the clamp to 15Nm: Then slipped the cover over the battery. It might have been easier to put the cover over the battery before putting it into the car to be honest, but I just slid it in and assume the wires and stuff will keep it attached. Gave the battery terminals a quick clean and grease: Not my first rodeo, hence the tool for it. Workshop manual specs the terminals at 6Nm, which is probably a good reference for any cars: As eager as I am, there's still a few things not plugged in yet so didn't want to rush with the negative terminal yet. That's me for the day I think. I'll need to reattach the rear level sensor, the Haldex controller, and then connect the suspension DCC up, which also means the front suspension actually needs fitting. So that's probably the next big thing on the list! Maintenance: £2064.64 (+£31.44) Upgrades: £1283.43 (+£55.02) Miscellaneous: £665.56

Random thing arrived today: Slight plug with the website it was from, but a match for the coil pack. This was £5.99, probably could have gone and went with AliExpress for it to be cheaper with a much longer delivery time given there's no rush. So just to confirm: Clicks into place in the coil pack without issue. It's a new clean connector so came out without issue, but this Youtube clip: Nails the process for these connectors and how to disconnect them. Hopefully no more damaged connectors(?). So the process to replace the connector is to remove the purple locking tab: Another thin screwdriver to wedge it out business. Then, it's a case of fumbling with the terminal removal tools to find one of the right size: So once one fits in the top and bottom gap of the terminal, push it in with some intention, and eventually it'll sink into the socket, which should then unlatch the metal tabs on the terminal: The terminal can then be pulled out, so just a case of putting that back in the correct terminal in the new connector: That should be the steps. Repeat a few more times for the whole connector and then reinsert the locking tab and that's that. Not got there yet as the heavens opened. It'll be a day of sun and rain so I'll leave it at that for now. Maintenance: £2033.20 (+£5.99) Upgrades: £1228.41 Miscellaneous: £665.56

See if I can squeeze in a post before work. So went to the car and just went at the rear bench: Pic isn't much different, because it's all out of sight. Started on the drivers side, and just pushed the bench towards the rear of the car at an angle, with the intent of trying to get the metal bar to hook underneath the tab that protrudes out of the bodywork. It sorta clicked, and from there, it's just guesswork whether it actually is fitted. Tried to lift the bench once in and it not budging felt like a good sign. Doing the opposite side, I found that the front and the rear hook ended up going in at the same time. Either that, or it just clicked into the front. Again, couldn't tell, but the rear of the bench wasn't lifting, neither was the front, so went back to the other side and clipped it into the grommet at the front. Then the Isofix trims just click into place after a push: Which again, hopefully implies that the bench is installed as otherwise the trims wouldn't have clipped snugly onto the Isofix brackets. Repeat a few more times and insert the Isofix covers with another click: Started rounding up more new bits, such as this bag, containing another bag, containing: Rear hinge cover to complement the new front. This was less necessary as the old one just has a few scratches rather than damage, but was only a pound or so: Like the front, the clip hugs the actual metal hinge bracket, so needs some bending and manipulating to get it to go around and clip into place. Only really the release levers left: Just remember to tuck in that bit of leather under the trim: Repeat for the other side: So that's that: The rear of the interior is complete! Was it worth it? Probably not! So basically, if one wants to retrofit the remote rear seat release, the easiest approach appears to be to buy some scrapped Octavia rear seats that contain the gubbins already installed (it seems to be more commonplace), and purchase the levers for the boot, which look like they will also contain the Bowden cable to the seat. You'll have to pretty much dismantle chunks of the rear boot trim in order to fit that lever and snake the cable to its destination. From there, transfer the seat covers from the Superb to the Octavia frame, and that should be the path of least resistance(!). My purchase of the Bowden cables for the seat frame, a replacement seat frame, and additional Bowden cables, and additional covers were ultimately a waste in the grand scheme of things, mainly due to that spring mechanism on the seat frames that do have this feature, which kaiboshed any planning and budgeting for this retrofit. Here's some of the spoils: Pic doesn't include the THREE seat frames also involved, nor the slightly mouldy Octavia seat foams and covers. If anyone wants anything, let me know, otherwise I'll be packing this all into a bag to be thrown away. Maintenance: £2027.21 Upgrades: £1228.41 Miscellaneous: £665.56