niceyellow vrs

Took the Octavia to Snetterton for a track day. Had a great time and considering it's only the second time I've taken it on a track, I was really quite pleased with how it performed. I've recently removed the lowering springs, as I wasn't really liking the ride they gave out on the road, and put the standard springs back on. I've still got the Koni shocks on it and that combinations provides a much more comfortable and stable ride. Out on track it was so balanced and predictable and it never once tried to step out of line. Along with sticky track rubber, it was pretty great to drive. I had a slight issue early on as it was getting a bit warm and when the engine temperature crept up to the next line past 90 on the gauge, it would limit the boost until the temp dropped down again. Easy fix was to take the spot lights and front grille off to help get a bit more air flowing through the rad. It helped substantially and made the situation a bit easier to manage. As long as I kept smooth and tidy, it wasn't really too much of a problem for the rest of the day. Early on, despite being quite experienced at Snetterton, I've always been in a much lower powered car before so I had to re-learn the circuit taking into account that I was arriving at corners about 30mph quicker than I've been used to. Soon got the hang of it though and by the afternoon I was lapping consistently quick and tidily. Early Video: Later video: Thouroughly enjoyed the day and apart from the small temperature issue early on, the car didn't need anything than fuel all day. I also have it on very good authority that it spits flames when giving it the beans I did manage to crack the brake discs by the end of the day though, good job there's some spares in the garage. It's due an MOT next month but before that happens it's also due a service including cam belt and water pump. It obviously needs some brake discs and it'll probably benefit from a brake fluid change too. Tempted to put a fresh raditor on it too as the original is now 18 years old and is starting to show up a bit of inefficiency. So, plenty on the list to be getting on with.

If the problem still remains after your throttle body clean, I had a starting issue a little while ago where it was taking a fair bit of cranking and often needing a lot of throttle on cold starts. Luckily a scan actually showed up a fault as an intermittent crank sensor signal problem so I changed the sensor and it's been fine since. Might not be your issue but a potential. Locking problem is more likely to be the locking mechanism itself rather than the wiring, I've got a couple that are getting tempramental on mine that I really must change before they fail completly as it's a pain in the pee pee to get a deadlocked door open without destroying the door cards.

When fitting a FMIC it's not necessarily bigger is better because you can go too big. It's more about building a system that'll provide a good flow. Here's what I have on mine: As you can see, it's certainly not massive but it does flow really well and when I last put it on the rollers it ran 225bhp consistantly without dropping off during the back to back runs which can happen on poor setups that can't cope with the rising temperatures. I'm also running a 3 inch downpipe and decat to further aid flow and I have a phenolic inlet manifold gasket to help with reducing heat transfer from the head to the inlet manifold. I'm afraid I can't help on sourcing the FMIC parts unfortunately as I bought my setup from a friend when he broke his car, all I do know about it is that the pipework is custom made stuff.

TT racks are a common direct bolt on upgrade for mk1 Octavias, I run one on my VRS along with the TT cast arms and hubs. Externally the racks are the same but internally they are quicker with just 2.5 turns lock to lock.

Or if you know someone with a Tig Welder, the CB Auto kit is a cheaper sump baffling option. I ran one in my TT and it worked well. https://www.cbauto.co.uk/18t-sump-baffle-kit

The pumps themselves are generally fine, it's the pick up pipe that tends to get blocked and cause oil starvation. I tend to replace mine every couple of years as a matter of course as it's not difficult to do, sump off and then two bolts to undo. Sump goes back on with sealant rather than a gasket. If you're doing a lot of track work, I'd recommend fitting a baffled sump to keep the oil where it can be sucked up effectively instead of physics pushing it all to one side of the sump on long sweeping corners. I have a Forge one on mine, not overly cheap but a decent investment to save having more expensive issues https://www.forgemotorsport.co.uk/Baffled_Sump_for_Audi_VW_and_SEAT_18T_Transverse_Engines--product--1019.html

They make a huge difference. I've had spot lights on most of my cars over the years but with how pants he standard lights are on the Octavia, they were a necessity. Literally didn't feel safe driving the car at night without them.

Haven't done much to the Octavia for ages, it's pretty good as it is and nothing's broken. Truth be told, it doesn't get driven all that much, I tend to use my Volvo V50 mostly which is not only my current motorsport vehicle but also a very comfortable, well equipped and convenient runabout. I found the perfect number plate to go on the V50 just before Christmas and decided the Octavia needed a new plate too. I couldn't find any VRS plates that floated my boat so looked for another one with my initials on. V500 HMM was available and being just one digit different from the Volvo's plate it would have been rude not to. Now when people walk past my house they can tut and utter harsh words about the smug **** that lives there.

If you're locking mechanism is getting temperamental just replace it before it completely dies. Trying to open a deadlocked door without damaging stuff is doable but a royal pain in the winkle. The mechanism also has a small piece of wire with a plastic nipple on the end which connects to the outside handle. To disconnect it you need to remove the end cap at the back end of the handle. To do that, there is a torx head grub screw accessed via a small gromet covered hole on the back end of the door. Once that is loosened, the cap can be prised outwards.

If you look at the grab handle you'll see a seem as the front face of it comes off. It's a fairly snug push fit so needs gently prying out at one end to get it moving. Once that's off, it'll reveal the screws behind it. Number 11 in the attached pic.

If you've managed to get as many as 6 track days out of one set of tyres I really don't think you need to worry about it.

Greetings, Tomorrow night myself and my brother James will be taking part in the Shine Walk, a 26.2 mile night time walk around the centre of London, in aid of Cancer Research UK. It's for a great cause and cancer is something that has affected too many of our friends and family so we're doing what we can to help. We would love a bit of sponsorship, if possible, to support us in our efforts so if anyone is able to spare a little, donations can be made via our official fundraising page here: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/team/haydns-team-1?fbclid=IwAR3kaHBzbKyb2oZOb8B0gjiS6DZoEdvFsJch3qzqOGlqWzxKs96hM0R5v5A Anything you can give would be very much appreciated and make our efforts worthwhile. Many thanks.

I've got experience of both the ECS and Darkside kits. The Darkside kit definitely wasn't £900 though. This is the one needed for the VRS: https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/darkside-silent-g60-single-mass-cast-flywheel-clutch-kit-for-5-speed-02j-02a-02r.html I put the ECS kit in my previous VRS and went for the lighter flywheel option. That was about 10 years ago when the kit was about £200 cheeper than it is now. My Dad has the car now and the clutch still feels just the same as when I first installed it. Nice light pedal feel, perfectly smooth operation and no noise whatsoever going from dmf to smf. If you didn't know it had been fitted, you'd assume the car was still running the standard equipment. My current Octavia has the Darkside kit, which I installed in 2016. I went for the Darkside kit this time rather than the ECS purely down to the price hike. The Darkside kit is just as good, as ultimately they're pretty much the same performance wise, but if I had to give a preference, the ECS is definitely smoother, particularly when pushing on.

MG is long gone. TT has been replaced with a Volvo V50 😄

Well, I set about fixing it but more stuff broke to the point where it was going to require a load more money and I decided I really couldn't be arsed with it anymore. Time to cash out before it really bled me dry. Worth more in bits than as a broken whole so that's the way it's gone and that's the end of that.

So it just about survived Cadwell yesterday despite an annoying issue of the turbo to manifold bolts continaully working loose. I'd generally get 4 or 5 laps before needing to come back in and tightening them up. I lost two of the bolts on the circuit somewhere but luckily I had a selection of bolts in my spares box that fitted to get me out of trouble. Also had a boost hose pop off, which resulted in a tow of shame as it then didn't have the power to get up the hill at the circuit exit, but that was an easy rectification. There's now also a knocking from under the middle of the car which I'm pretty sure is the propshaft centre support mounting bush, So a couple of issues to look at but it didn't blow up this time which is encouraging. When it was working though, it did go well, the new springs and the sticky Nankang tyres really improved the handling making it very stable and predictable. The Brembo 4 pots also offered much improved braking ability compared to last time out on track. A few photos and a bit of in car footage:

So with a track day booked at Cadwell Park this week, a few jobs needed doing in preparation. I needed a set of track tyres so had a scout round on Facebook marketplace and came across a set of barely used Nankang NS2R tyres just a few miles away from me for a very reasonable price. Once I got them home and looked a bit closer, it turns out I got more of a bargain than I first thought as they're actually a stickier compound, treadwear 100 as opposed to the standard treadwear 180 rating. First job yesterday was fit my oil cooler that I purchased from a mate a few weeks ago. A very straight forward installation and there was already plenty of space left behind the bumper so I didn't have to start hacking anything to make space. I just fabricated a couple of brackets to hold it at the top and the bottom is just held onto the top of the intercooler with double sided adhesive foam to stop it rubbing. Pipe run was easy enough and I made sure any potential rubbing points have been sleeved with silicone pipe. I don't want to risk anything rubbing through and start an oil related fire, been there, done that. The cooler is then just fed from a thermostatic sandwich plate between the oil filter and filter housing. Another job was to fit a manual override switch for the radiator fans. It never overheats but its does seem to get quite warm and the fans don't come on until the temperature reaches a bit higher than I like so I just tapped into the wires for the thermostatic switch in the radiator, up to a handy switch on the dashboard. Works perfectly so the fans will come on via ECU control or I can now manually switch them on at either low or high speeds. Coming from a Rover K Series background, extra cooling control is never a bad thing. One last little job was fix in my fire extinguisher. Neatly bolted the bracket to the passenger floor by installing a couple of rivnuts. So, with those few bits done, I thought that's it, it's all ready to go with a few days to spare before the track day this coming Thursday but alas no, not so lucky. As I went to put the wheels back on I noticed this bit of nonsense on the nearside Just what I needed on an easter weekend. No idea when or how it happened but at least it's happened now and not out on track. So a quick look on Amazon last night a brand new set of H&R 25mm lowering springs are due to arrive tomorrow. This meant that today's job was remove the old springs so that it's ready to put back together when the parcel arrives. It's currently sat on stands sulking. All I can do now is wait for my new springs and then it'll actually be ready for Cadwell Park. It needs to survive the track day for it's own sake. If it blows up again, I'll be stripping it for parts, can't be doing with unreliabity.

A before and after measurement at the centre of the arches showed it's now sitting 15mm lower than it was on the standard springs.

Haven't done much to the car for a while, mainly because I had to go back to work. Thoroughly inconvenient but needs must I suppose. For the last 6 months or so, I've barely even driven it, it's just been sitting on the driveway with the occasional start up. That still didn't save the old battery though, the cold winter finished that off so a brand new Bosch S4 was fitted. It's due an MOT and service next month so time for a bit of love. Rear brakes needed attention recently as the handbrake was nigh on touching the roof before it would do anything so I gave the calipers a working over, freeing them up and adjusted the cables. The rear discs were looking past they're best so I put on a barely used set of discs and pads I had in the garage that I'd aquired from one of my breakers. All working perfectly again so that's one job ticked off the list. Also noticed the reverse lights weren't working but that was an easy fix with just a new switch needed. I made a few quid this last month by breaking a MK4 Golf I aquired from a colleague at work so I thought I'd treat the Octavia to a nice set of brand new Koni STR.T shocks and H&R 20mm lowering springs. All fitted straight on with now issues and seems to handle nice on them, stays well planted and eliminates a lot of body roll whilst still retaining a comfortable ride.

Mk4 Golf seats are a straight fit. No modification needed.

Managed to sort a tidy brake upgrade. After scouring ebay and facebook marketplace, I found a set of Leon Cupra R 4 pot Brembos at a sensible price. After a bit of a clean up and a lick of paint, a nice, easy direct bolt on along with a new set of 323mm discs and new pads. Whilst the brake system was apart, I gave it a full fluid change and it turned out to be the most easy brake bleed I've ever done on a car. All was good with the brake swap apart from the Seat Leon wheels I've been using wouldn't fit back over the larger calipers so that was an excuse to buy more wheels. I wanted something cheap and direct fit without having to mess around with spacers or anything. Also needed to be 17 inch again so that I wouldn't need to buy more tyres. After a bit of research, standard Audi TT 6 spokes would be a good solution. Managed to find a couple of sets reasonably locally so purchases were made. They're not overly pretty, but nothing that can't be sorted with a rattle can. They need a bit of time to bed in, of course, before I really stand on them but straight away it's a vast improvement over the standard 312s.

Another job ticked off the list today, despite it being a track car, it is also used on the road and the distinct lack of a radio was getting irritating. There's only so many times you can listen to vroooom tschhhhhh before it gets a bit samey so I liberated my trusty Kenwood from the loft and now we have tunes Little bit of a faff to get it working as the standard radio wiring has been hacked about with and originally the car came with all the Bose kit so it ended up being easier to just run some new wires from the fuse board under the dash. Anyway, all up and running and journeys that are longer than just nipping down the shops are a bit less lonely now.

Substantial development this week, it's now got an MOT, tax and insurance so I can start driving it around I've done about 120 miles with it over the weekend and it's seemed to have behaved itself apart from one moment where that misfire made an appearance for about 5 seconds. I'm leaning towards an electrical connection somewhere that's causing it but like with all intermittent problems, it'll be hard to pin point as most of the time it works with no issue. New turbo is all working fine and it delivers substantial boost. I'm not sure how accurate my boost gauge is but it does seem to show and hold quite a lot of boost if you floor it from low revs so I'm tending to keep it higher up the rev range if I want to push on with it. It is properly quick though and doesn't need much throttle input to build up pace on the road. I took the woman out in it last night and a full on, everything it's got, launch from a standstill made her tummy feel funny apparently The amount of grip it has with all four wheels digging in is quite impressive. In other news, I managed to find a good condition bonnet, in the correct Avus silver, on ebay yesterday so it now has one decent panel to admire. Just need to aquire a drivers door, wing and probably a boot lid, sort the roof out and then it might not look quite so shabby chic.

The TT has been fairly low down on the list of priorities recently but I installed a replacement refurbished K04 turbo on it last weekend. Fortunately, putting it all back together didn't take anywhere near as long as removal and that included taking off and cleaning out the intercooler and all the pipework, along with dropping the sump and cleaning that out too. Luckily, the oil that came out was still pretty good so it was more just piece of mind that I wouldn't be sending crap through a new turbo. All fitted back up with new gaskets, bolts and crush washers etc. Fresh oil and filter and then I cranked the engine a few times without firing, to make sure the new oil had circulated, before starting and letting it idle for a while. Once up to temperature, I starting putting some revs on it and it all seemed to make the right noises until after a little while, it developed a misfire It would clear itself once it returned to idle and as it was getting dark and cold, I put the tools away and went inside to sulk, confident that the turbo swap was ok but disappointed there was further issues. For good measure, I compression tested the engine this week and that produced good results so that gave me hope that the engine hasn't sustained any internal damage due to the original turbo failure. Had a bit more of an investigation today and the code reader showed a misfire on cylinder 3 so I swapped the coil pack with that of cylinder 1 to see if the misfire would follow it. Had the car running constantly for an hour or so, combination of idling and bouncing it off the limiter and of course, now no misfing So I've swapped the suspect coil pack for a known good spare anyway and I see how it goes. If it's now the coil pack then it could also be possibly be the wiring loom for the packs, as that can be a common issue. Moving stuff around might've given it the jiggle it needed. Either way, it seems to be running so I think the general advice would be to "send it"

I've already got a full driveway with a tidy mk1 Leon PD150 in stock ready for breaking. Appreciate the thought though