OccyVRS

FYI all LED Superb and Octavia cars have that DRL design. Most people think of this when they hear eyelashes -

What would you suggest instead, Pilot Sport Cup 2s? What a strange comment to make. OP has a Rapid with about 120bhp at most. Those tyres are perfectly adequate... @AdamR04 welcome! I see what you mean about the arch gap - I think some lowering springs would sort that out a treat.

It's more that you will have too many adverse effects to make it worth the effort. I could swap my 18" for 21" RS4 wheels, but it just wouldn't look good. Part of me also wants to point out that if it's aesthetics you're after, going to a 19" wheel might make your brakes look pathetic - I know the 18s made my Leon's front brakes (288mm) look a bit weak!

It doesn't... S/S and ACT/CoD is irrelevant to the braking system, and if you look, you'll notice that a coasting car shifts into gear when you apply the brakes.

To answer the original question - yes, 19" wheels on a car designed for 15-17" wheels is too big. You will have an arch gap loss of 34mm and a ride height increase of 34mm, which will cause clearance issues and look stupid. Your speedometer will over-read by 10%, which is completely illegal and an MOT failure. It will, as others have said, overgear the car. This would mean starting in first is like starting in second - probably not great for a little 1.0/1.6. You also can't get any OE 19" wheels in 5x100. Aside from wide, track going 18" 5x100 PCD from Work/Enkei, I can't see any wheels that are even close to what you're suggesting. You would need a 225/30R19, which isn't really available and, even if it was, is once again daft on a car like a Rapid. Increasing to a 19" wheel will also hugely increase the unsprung weight, which will ruin the ride and handling of the car. If the wheels look a bit small in the arches, then get some lowering springs. Converting it into a monster truck won't help!

Calipers, carriers, shields, discs and pads, AFAIK. That's the list from 288 to 312mm, anyway. You also need to tell the ABS you've upgraded the brake size. How are the brakes a limiting factor? The only thing larger brakes will do is give you more heat resistance which, tbh, you shouldn't really need in a car with 120bhp or so. With the best wil in the world, if you're driving a 1.6 little Fabia that hard, you're going to end up in a bush. That aside, have you looked at the insurance for modified brakes? There's a reason my 350bhp vRS is now back to the standard 245! Certainly, 288mm aren't going to do anything some nice pads won't. Are your rears drums?

I can only assume they are installed before that section of the door is plastiwelded onto the card. Mine has a nice chunk on the bottom corner. I used some leather effect vinyl from eBay to cover it up for now. I'll either get it trimmed in alcantara, or replace the card. Skoda want £900, and I haven't been able to find a 3.5 card with the lighting that isn't knackered. I left my windows open in the rain so needed to remove the switches to replace them. For some reason I decided to pull the surround out too, which was a mistake. Future problem.

Good luck. It just pulls out, but getting it back in was impossible. I took a nice chunk out of the door card.

I've seen it done, although it was a custom system on a 1.0 SE. This also had vRS badges along with a full vRS interior and wheels, which tells you all you need to know, really.

You'll find the A-Pillar trim to be far more exciting than the glove box! I've attached a photo of my dashcam setup, to show you what some cloth tape, a Dremel and an hour or two can achieve 🙂

+1 I would assume 3/4 of VAG cars on the road have 'a light misting of oil' - it's nothing to worry about. Sure, they aren't fresh, but they still have plenty of life in them. Lowering springs will have a different compression rate, and ideally the shock will need a different rebound rate to suit. Some people don't change them but really, you should.

Different tyres will fit differently, depending on the rigidity of the carcass, if they have rim protectors, etc. I have PS5s on mine and it's a very nice fitment, even if I do need to get the wheels refurbed (previous owner, not me). I'm not sure what you mean about built in spacers - they either have spacers or they don't. The wheel is a standard ET51. If you post a photo here, we should be able to tell you if the poke looks standard or not. I wouldn't be laying a wheel down - always keep it upright until you have something to put underneath, just in case. Ultimately, you shouldn't be relying on a tyre to protect the wheel from a kerb... arguably, I'd rather chunk a metal alloy than chunk a bit of safety critical rubber. It might be worth using the mirrors dropped when parking, or maybe avoiding tight car parks until you're used to the car? I always open my door when parking by a kerb, and take my time in car parks. People might laugh, but I've never kerbed a wheel.

We need more info on the engine. Because the TDI vRS isn't as powerful as the TSI, so the larger brakes aren't really needed. PFL Mk3 cars had 340mm fronts and 272mm rears, regardless of engine. The FL 245 had 340/310, the 230 had 340/272 and then the TDI had 312/272. The vented 340/310 setup isn't cheap, so it makes sense they swap to solid rears and smaller fronts on cars that don't need them.

Yeah.. using a Dremel to cut a notch in a £5 part isn't going to affect your warranty. I replaced several trim pieces on my vRS and Skoda still did related warranty work. It was, as I said, just an idea. Just because Skoda couldn't be bothered to change the port location on RHD cars doesn't mean people need to have unsightly cables. The USB-C on the mirror is ignition only, so if someone wants to run their camera in parking mode, it will need to be hardwired regardless. My point was that doing this can still be done very neatly.

Yep. FYI, clearing a fault code isn't always the best thing. Most of the time, ifd the issue is still present it will come back, but sometimes the car will see it as the 'new normal', which causes issues.

I'm a huge fan of CarPlay and the like (makes my life much easier), but the phone stays in the glove box. If something disconnects - tough. In the UK, at least, even touching a mobile device while the engine is on, is actually illegal. Not sure about smart watches, mind.

I think so - on the oil pumps at least.

Hopefully you'll be able to find some stuff in the Octavia Mk4 forum!

Bottom line is that as long as the chosen wheel and tyre combo is type approved by Skoda, OP is fine.

FYI there is a reason OE wheels are more expensive. You don’t want to be running one wheel different to the others. Gemini’s shouldn’t be that expensive.

FYI. You can route through the mirror housing. My Mk3.5 has the camera/sensor unit in the housing, and while it’s hardwired in, I have it coming out of a dremel hole. Just an idea, as you could potentially take tbe USB-C port to the other side.

I don’t hate the rear wing - ditch the silly lip spoiler and mount it an inch lower like the BMW GTS ones and maybe I’d forget it was FWD for a second. The fitment is iffy, the wheel choice questionable, the F1 rain light a non-starter and I love how the kit completely ignores the body lines. The issue is, despite OP clearly attempting to rage bait, he’s just missing the point. If you want DSG farts and a Maxton diffuser, buy a Golf R. If you want a track weapon, get a GTI CS. VAG make a performance-ish MQB car for everyone - the vRS is the practical, understated, all rounder. FYI - unlike some vRS owners here, I’m in my 20s. This doesn’t look good. The only cosmetic stuff these cars need is a Rieger rear diffuser with some proper exhaust tips. Aside from that, I like it how it is. Nobody is buying a widebody for a GTI, let alone a vRS.

It will probably invalidate the drivetrain warranty, if not under the CoC specifications, but then again most stuff will invaldiate the warranty. In terms of the effect of handling, yes, the dealer is correct - smaller diameter wheels will reduce the unsprung weight and improve handling, however increasing sidewall height will increase the tyre flex, and have the opposite effect on handling. That being said, going from 18" to 17" on a 1.5 crossover won't make any real difference. Sticking with OE Skoda wheels within CoC is not a modification. Anything else is, however when I swapped from OE to Revo I paid an increase of a £9 admin fee. Depends what Skoda list as suitable, however a 215/50R17 is the equivalent to a 215/60R16, depending on wheel width (I assume anything from 6" to 7").

You need to keep the circumference the same, so to increase the profile you’d need to decrease the wheel size. Tyres make a big difference, although maybe not to the extent you need. Most of these cars are developed and come with Bridgestone, however there’s a reason you see them with Conti or Michelin.

I think it's a lost battle - OP was asked for this eleven hours and thirty comments ago. That being said, I think I've found the petroleum/oil company -