niceyellow vrs

Buy another one then

The only way you're going to know for sure is to take the box off and have a look.

If it's only in first and second, it'll most likely be something inside the gearbox. If it was clutch/thrust bearing related, it'd be noticable across all gears.

The child locks are definitely mechanical, operated by turning the black circle on the back of the door, near the latch mechanism, with the end of the key. They possibly haven't been turned enough or the cable may have become detached from the internal handle. It'd be quite a coincidence for the cables to become detatched on both sides though.

Incorrect. The VRS rear bumpers have cut outs for the exhaust whereas the non vrs bumpers do not. There's currently 2 vrs rear bumpers taking up space in my garden. As for interior swaps, anything from the mk4 Golf platform is direct bolt in so mk4 Golf, Mk1 Leon, Bora, A3 8L. I'm running the black leather electric and heated Recaros from an Audi S3 in mine and they're very nice 🙂

I used to run a 200 cel sports cat on mine and it always passed the emissions test with no problems, wasn't far off the figures produced with a standard cat. If a 1.8t still fails with a 200 cel cat, it's something else causing the problem.

Full Leon Cupra R/Audi TT front end setup is a direct bolt on upgrade and gives a much better feel up front. You get cast wishbones and hubs along with a 2.5 turns quick rack. Decent, ready to go second hand stuff with a subframe can be had for around £150 - £200.

Need a bit more info really. Service history? Does it need a cam belt changing or has that been done recently? Has the oil pick up pipe ever been changed? Any knocks or creaks from suspension? Tyre condition? Do the wheels need refurbing? What condition are all the vac lines in the engine bay in? Are all electrical items working as they should? Brake discs and pads condition? It may be low mileage, but it's 15 years old so potentially could require more work than you think to be "A1". The prices on mk1 Octavia VRS are not massive unfortunately, there's plenty of decent ones around for £800 to £1200. If you're looking to get £1500+ it'll need to be something really tidy.

I'm well aware that prices vary substantially and I've broken enough cars to know that most asking prices are irrelevant. The high priced items on ebay tend to just sit there not selling. I always price stuff sensibly and it therefore sells. You'll more often than not get stuff at better prices on the Facebook groups as there's enough competition from many people selling the same parts so the prices stay reasonable. Looking at your examples there, a subframe for £179 is beyond rediculous. The frames on their own are no different whether it be a bog standard Octavia, Golf, A3 or it's from a Cupra or TT and are worth about £20 - £30 as bare items. Here's the one I sold which was in decent condition bar ball joints which had split boots. And here's a link to one I've just found on Facebook Market place for £120 https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1127891464222681/ So I'm afraid I'm going to have to stick with my original answer to your question regarding of whether you got a good deal or not.

£400?! Wow, the seller did well. I just sold the exact same setup last month for a much more realistic £150. Could've asked for a little bit more but it needed new ball joints. Don't get me wrong, it's a worthwhile upgrade, I'm running it on mine, but you have definitely overpaid by quite a margin there.

I have one of those downpipes and decats on mine and when I fitted it along with oversize TIP and my custom intercooler pipework, the improved flow saw an increase of 10bhp and about 30ftlb of torque.

Simililarish setup to mine apart from I haven't done anything to the turbo and I'm running standard injectors. I do have an oversized TIP though and quite an efficient set of intercooler pipework which flows really well. Mine runs 225bhp and 260lb of torque on a Jabbasport map. I could probably go and get the map tweaked and get a bit more out of it but it drives nice, the power delivery is good and predictable and most importantly, it's reliable so I'm leaving it alone.

Couple of nice subtle upgrades this week. A friend of mine comissioned me to break his car for him and I found a couple of things that I thought would be ideal to enhance mine. First thing was a set of red illuminated switch gear. Looks so much better than the standard green illumination that's hard to see at the best of times. As you can see, the heated screen, asr and fuel flap switches, light switch, all window switches and the climatronic unit now all light up red. Certainly fits my colour scheme much better. The instrument cluster still lights up green but it is possible to change the LEDs if you're careful with a soldering iron. I've ordered the different coloured bulbs and I've got a spare cluster to have a practice on. I've also recently been considering options for fitting a subwoofer, I've got 6x9s on the rear shelf but at the age of 36 I'm long past the days of massive boom boxes filling the boot so wanted something a little more discreet and practical. I came across a little Bose spare wheel subwoofer. It's absolutely ideal as it sits within the spare wheel and was really easy to wire up. It's more powerful than I expected it to be, but certainly not anti social in any way, just adds a nice bit of depth to my old school beats I just cut a little bit of the foam out of the polystyrene boot tidy jobby to move the jack into there so I can still carry the stuff to change a wheel without impacting on boot space. I also wanted the sub and spare wheel to be secure so I simply extended the original wheel holding down thingy with a length of M8 threaded rod and an M8 sleeve nut so it still all screws down into the existing hold down point. Pretty pleased with this little mod

Looks like a nice one but not 4 grand nice. If it really is as nice as it looks and all the servicing including cambelt is up to date along with 4 new tyres then maybe £1800 if the wind is blowing in the right direction. They're still a cheap car and a long way off becoming a future classic. The sad fact is, they're currently still worth more in bits. As it happens, I'm buying another one tomorrow with the intention of parting it out.

So with the manky coolant in the header tank, I thought it was going to be head gasket time but fortunately it turned out to be just a bit of dislodged muck from somewhere deep in the cooling system. A good drain, flush with a dishwasher tablet and refill has sorted it with no futher problems. Gearbox issue was sorted fairly easily too by cobbling together a good box by using good bits from 3 boxes with different problems. With competitive motorsport still on hold due to the 'rona, the car has barely turned a wheel. I ported a spare exhaust manifold I had so hopefully a bit of improved flow. I've also sorted out the old tired bushes on the rear arms. A fresh set pressed in and the whole thing feels a lot more stable. Not surprising as one bush was completely no longer attached. Just in time for a track day at Cadwell park tomorrow. Track prep has basically involved removing the back seats, giving it a wipe over and putting it on the trailer ready for a 4.30am start tomorrow. Hopefully it'll behave itself

Wheel bearings no bother for me, got a 6 ton press in the garage. Keep pumping until it makes the satisfying bang noise Not long done one on the Octavia.

What have you broken on the Audi?

I got the different gearbox purely as at the time I needed a replacement, people were asking rediculous money for Octavia EHA boxes, £350 - £400 seemed to be the going rate. After a bit of research, I found the EVS box available for a much more reasonable £150 and as the ratios were only slightly different, I thought that was a decent option. Ratios between the two boxes EHA EVS 1st 3.300 3.300 2nd 1.944 1.944 3rd 1.308 1.308 4th 1.034 1.029 5th 0.838 0.837 Final Drive 3.647 3.684 So, as you can see, the difference is relatively small and in practice it results in about 200 rpm less but that's enough to see consistant mid 40's for mpg on steady motorway runs. When I was reseaching boxes, I found a really handy table to help me compare the different gear sets. https://workshop-manuals.com/audi/a3_mk1/power_transmission/5-speed_manual_gearbox_02j/technical_data/gearbox_identification/code_letters_allocation_transmission_ratios_capacities/

Suppose being as quite a bit has been done to the car since I started this thread, it's probably worth an update with a list of all mods and it's current spec. Engine: Jabbasport Remap running 225bhp and 260ftlb Various colour coding Oil catch tank Sai, N249, N112 delete Baffled Sump Induction/Exhaust: Induction kit with filter relocated to inner wing Oversize TIP Newsouth power gasket on intake Generic Front Mounted Intercooler with custom made hard pipes 3 inch downpipe into decat. Centre box deleted Powerflow cat back Handling: Audi TT front end setup - cast hubs and wishbones, and 2.5 turns quick rack Audi TT upper front strut brace S3 lower brace Bilstein B4 dampers with standard springs Whiteline adjustable rear anti roll bar Polybushed dog bone Brakes: Standard Transmission: Mk4 Golf Gti EVS gearbox (slightly longer final drive so better fuel economy without noticable comprimise in acceleration) G60/VR6 solid flywheel and clutch setup Exterior: Colour coded rear spoiler, front grille and mirrors Standard wheels powder coating Gun metal grey Hella Comet 500 spot lights Air horns Interior: Full Audi S3 Heated and electric leather Recaro seats Retrimmed door cards MK4 Golf black carpet Front arm rest Retrofitted cruise control Parrot hands free kit 6x9 speakers on rear shelf. Latest dyno sheet from JKM's dyno in February