BigBadRob

Also, if one of the moderators could amend the title to say .Need PD170 turbo advice' I'd be very grateful. I was obviously very tired when I posted that last night...

Evenin all. I'll try and keep it brief and to the point. I used to have a Furby that was remapped (previous owner - had around 330lb/ft & 184 ponies) and it was excellent fun and never failed to bring a smile. Recently I bought an Octy and quite frankly, it's pretty gutless in comparison. I had a nice fella check it for fault codes to start me off, not a great deal to report there which I was fairly happy about, although some minor niggles but not showstoppers and a small service got it running smoothly (for a car that's done 175K...) Then I headed over to see JabbaSport (lovely people - can't recommend them enough) for a good seeing to and it has had DPF removal & delete, new clutch & DMF, cupra bushes on the fronts, 40K service and some other stuff that escapes memory right now. Here's the thing: I asked them if they could do me a remap on the basis that quite frankly it's performance was woeful compared to the furby -Yes I'm aware of the physics of the bigger car so it's never going to be the same without HUGE amounts of tweaking but nevertheless I have driven mapped Octys that have made me smile too so I know it's possible. I went offshore whilst they were working on it and when I got back, Brian and Carole had a chat with me and said they reckoned the turbo was on it's arse because of the whistling it's doing. It's the old police siren impersonator that many people have waxed about on here. He wasn't happy about mapping it because he said it could just blow the turbo within a few weeks (didn't even know he'd seen me drive...) and suggested that it needed replacing. So, here are my questions for the populous, bearing in mind I want more torque from a lot lower down the revs: 1. Turbo: New OEM one or recon? 2. Will a standard turbo/replacement be adversely affected by mapping lots of torque into the system? 3. Experience of prices and serviceability for new and refurbed units? 4. Recommendations for places to get a recon one if this is the way forward? I've heard a few bits about Midland Turbo who aren't too far away and I'll give them a ring when I get back to the UK next week but any other providers in the East Mids sort of area that people can recommend would be most appreciated. 5. If an uprated one is the way forward, any suggestions? I'd really like to be able to have some confidence when I drop the hammer like I used to in the Furby to overtake someone and also so my economy improves a little because I find I'm having to seriously give it beans to get any appreciable level of acceleration. All thoughts/suggestions greatly appreciated Rob

Moved in with the missus 7 weeks ago. She came from London with 2 full Luton vans. I came from Leicester with 2 full Octavia Hatchbacks... Only thing that didn't fit was the BBQ and that was largely due to not trying since I did the "I haven't opened this since last year, I wonder if I cleaned it before I......oh....." ;-)

Well, having owned the Octy for 2 weeks............and In no particular order.... 1. 4 Decent tyres (2 on order for Friday - woop!) 2. Clutch & DMF (Darkside I imagine) 3. Powerflex bushes everywhere! 4. Weitecs 5. Remap 6. N/S washer nozzle 7. Tasmanian Devil Tax Disc Holder (surprisingly hard to come by...) 8. New windscreen & therefore DAB aerial thanks to a Transit on the M4 the other day 9. De-chromed (black) grille (thoughts?) 10. See my man and get auto-lock & lock beep turned on 11. Replacement drivers door card 12. New Air-Con compressor & re-gas 13. Tracking 14. Re-paint spoiler ...................got a new house last week too. #skint

I must add my excellent experience of Dave's work, very competitively priced, happy to offer advice about your car if you ask and a true service professional. He even hooked up VCDS when I went to collect it and changed a few of the 'Security options' for me (Beep on lock etc) without any charge. I've been to garages that charge £60 for initial hook up and then £30 per hour thereafter for prolonged diagnostics. :S My Mum even takes her Pug 206 to him now as he's the only garage that hasn't ripped he off for being a woman on her own If you are in or around Nottingham you should use no-one else for VAG machines, excellent service and very pleasant to deal with

I had a major service, MOT and cambelt done 2 weeks apart this time last year. Didn't get much change out of £600.

Its gonna sting but I get 65-70 at 60mph on a long run in my Furby Vrs and my uncle gets 50mpg in a 2.0PD170 A6 estate, I suggest taking the back seats out, you'd be surprised how heavy they are and how much better your acceleration is ;-)

Wow, thats some response, cheers everyone. First impressions at the moment are that I'm going to ring round a few local places and see if anyone fancies a swift backhand £20 for fitting me some new rubber and then order some P Zero Nero's or more T1R's from Camskill as it seems to be the cheapest option for a performance tyre. I have to admit though, for all the possible options available I tend to agree with Rik that its only a Skoda. As long as those four bits of rubber keep me planted and last 10-15k it doesn't matter too much so will be researching some of the budget options too. If I can get 2 good quality Nexen(for the sake of argument) tyres for the same price as 1 decent Conti would cost I could consider the rears too as they're not exactly 'brand new' Apologies to anybody who may consider that to be heresy :-) Thanks again guys, much appreciated.

In my experience, playing the indy garages against Kwik Fit works quite well, thats how I got my Toyo's for the price I did, I gave them the quote and said beat it. If I'm honest, I'm hoping that might work this time with that Conti offer.

Kwik Fit also add valve and balance charges at the checkout so the charge for the Contact 2's is actually £92.50 per corner, I admit its still not bad for what you get but still a bit more than I wanted to pay thats all. Am currently reading reviews on Pirelli's. Can anybody add weight to the argument they're a bit soft and wear quickly? At the moment the Conti's(Although pricey) are heading up the field...

Anybody got any thoughts on Pirelli P Zero Nero's? They're quite cheap on all the websites I've checked. Are they complete pants? Any opinions welcome. Rob

I like the Kwik Fit tip, although it is a speed rating lower than the Toyo's, I do have Conti Sport Contact 2's on the rear and in the time its taken me to take 9mm of tread off the fronts, they've only gone down 2mm between MOT's and believe me, cornering is not something I take lightly. Keep the suggestions coming

Standard size-205/45/16 I have looked at Camskill and Blackcircles and their prices seem to be the same as they were a year ago which is pleasing but like you say, if someone charges me £20-£40 for 'disposal' of the old ones, its not really worth it. Thats what made me go to a garage last time, it worked out slightly cheaper at the time IIRC.

Lets start with the obvious, yes its been asked a lot and yes I have searched on this subject:google: Right, my Furby has quite successfully made our road look like a runway in the past 10 months:yeahdude:, leaving a very good pair of Toyo T1R's smeared all over it, and credit where its due, they have lasted about 13000 hard driven miles with a remap I didn't know I'd got (Not the kind of thing you'd put in the service history I suppose) The time has come for some more rubber however and I did what I normally do, ring 10 or 15 different places around the area and get a quote for the tyres plus Vat n fitting etc etc I've just **** a brick as I realised that across the board here in the East Midlands, they seem to have increased quite considerably in price, some places were giving me quotes well in excess of £100 a corner:jawsmall: 10 months ago I had 2 fitted to the front for £152 all in, which seemed pretty reasonable to me and was the second cheapest. Heres what I'm after: Opinions from around the country as to whether I'm being scammed or whether Toyo's really have increased in price by that much at the supplier. Ideas for similar tyres in price, performance and ability(remember the winter we've just had-My T1R's were flawless!!!) I'm seeing a lot of love for Uniroyal Rainsport 2's and obviously Eagle F1's, I don't really care what the name is as long as they stick like poo to a blanket and aren't more than £80 a corner. Is this an unrealistic price to expect now for this kind of performance? Let us know like, Rob

If you're serious about spending over £1700 on insurance alone, why not just go and buy an old Skyline or Lancer and use some more of the money that would buy your Skoda on the extra premium? I can't even comprehend why you'd pay that much on an insurance premium unless it was a seriously powerful RWD performance car. For that much I've paid my insurance AND put fuel in my furby all year! (25 with 3 points, shortly to disappear)

I wandered through a Ford dealership in Derby looking for some sort of cheap diesel fiesta type thingy as a replacement for a shagged astra and amidst all of the nasty 1.2 petrol sheds I found a furby. I took it for a test drive and am still smiling 6 months later (despite imminent new clutch) Wouldn't swap it for the world (Except if I could afford an S3 or the new S2000 when it turns up in the showroom) :-D

Spent 4 years there as a student and although its had a facelift I still know my way around ok. I can recommend parking down on the docks(car park now underground beneath LiverpoolOne) and looking round the new shopping centre(for the Mrs) and then a wander up to the Anglican cathedral. Its a bit of a trek but worth it if you like huge architecture. There's a nice cinema (not free but cheapish) near the top of Bold street called FACT that shows some decent films, new and old. Bluecoat art gallery is around there somewhere too. Chinatown is small but the restaurants are proper bo and if you're lookin for something a bit different ask someone for directions to Kimo's. Its an egyptian restaurant/cafe, there are 2 of them, a small one at the top of the hill behind the Philharmonic hall and a large one on Mount Pleasant, just down from the YMCA opposite the multi-storey. Its fantastic food and you can get a slap up egyptian curry for £5. Personal recommendation is a club sandwich though. Triple decker toasted with chicken, bacon, egg, salad, cheese, massive portion of chips and a brew thrown in for £4.50 Have a nice day with the Mrs

Nope, doesn't include fitting but I have contacted DSB this morning who have booked me in for a cambelt change and they said they're gonna give it a road test and see if they think its a problem. I have to say though, since giving it the viscous starting treatment for 2 nights now it seemed to be a lot better on the way to work this morning. Still, if a replacement is needed, a standard one can be done for around £350 all in. That doesn't sound too tragic if I'm honest, given whats involved in the procedure...

Having taken the 'viscous starting' advice from the sharkriders post last night I can report that the problem doesn't seem so bad today. Not that its 'fixed', but the slip is much more difficult to instigate now which might be enough to get me into March's wages... I'm going to give DSB a call on Monday anyway and will get the service done so I'll ask an opinion from someone who can have a butchers and a drive and see what they say too. Thanks for your advice guys, if anyone knows of a competitive price for the Sachs clutch, feel free to post me a link or a phone number The only quick bit of research I did on it was the Jabba website and the Sachs clutch kit was £570 (£885 with the flywheel!) against the £92 standard one. You don't have to be a mathematical genius.... If its available for a few hundred quid then I'd consider it since everyone seems to be of the opinion that its the way forward.

Having done some research last night I think the standard clutch will have to be a good enough replacement for the time being(assuming its gone). Although the Sachs is tempting, its 6 times the price with the DMF and to be honest, a 312mm brake upgrade and rear ARB is on the cards before any remaps will be done. Can anyone shed any light as to whether the £92 from Euro car parts is a good deal? Its still the cheapest I've found, but some of the "Willing to offer advice regardless of whether you want it or not" crew at work told me to keep looking. Thanks to the guys who recommended DSB in Notts, I'll be ringing them on Monday to sort out getting my cambelt done and most likely this too.

Generally I drive like my Dad, a right foot made of lead and other heavy elements, regardless of revs although I tend to use the low end torque rather than the power from the top end of the turbo. I don't tend to think of the preservation of mechanical components because at the end of the day its only a tool to get me about. If its fun too then its a bonus but I really didn't think that at 50k I would see this. There is of course the distinct possibility that for the 37k it did before I got hold of it, it was absolutely thrashed but I still wouldn't expect this to be a problem just yet. Last night I drove to Leicester and back and although the outward journey produced the same results, on the way back(3 hour gap, car had cooled down) I noticed that it was doing it much less. This is possibly because I was tired and so took it easier than normal until I hit the M1 but I tried to force the error to illustrate to my girlfriend what the problem was and it wouldn't do it in any gear. Didn't notice it on the way to work this morning either but at 6.30am on Saturday you don't notice much! I will give it a good pounding on my way to pick her up later and see what the results are. Like you say, I can't really do much more damage to it. If its gone, its gone but if it might 'cure' it then its worth a try

Completely standard. Theres a PD160 intake is sitting in the shed waiting for the time and I was considering a remap as a birthday present to myself in July, hence the uprated query. I was told by a VAG owner at work that a remap on his Golf ripped his standard clutch to shreds in 15k and I don't want to be here again next February, I do around 30k a year!

Can anyone else shed any light on how likely it is for a standard clutch to last in a Vrs? I have an '05 plate Vrs that ticked just past 50k last week and have been noticing the tell-tale rev increase, coinciding with speed decrease for about a month now. I'm almost resigned to the fact that its been chewed by my driving style but thought I would see if anyone else has experienced this? More importantly, since I've already done the 6th gear test and convinced myself, does anyone in the midlands (Nottingham/Derby specifically) know a decent place to get it changed? I'm aware its an **** of a job and that I would be a fool to attempt it without ramps, pits, proper tools, much greater electro-mechanical knowledge etc etc. I was going to ask Farmers in Notts or Clock in Spondon but if there are any non-main dealer specialists around who are more reasonable price-wise.... I've had a look round on the web this evening for some prices and thus far Euro car parts are winning at £92(ex VAT) for a clutch kit. Is this reasonable? It sounds it to me. Or should I keep digging? :confused: Also, the clutch is obviously in this state because of the amount of torque that is being forced through it, has anybody on here installed an uprated one? If so, makes, models, performance, prices? I've heard Sachs do a good replacement. Any confirmation? All information is welcome, I'm gonna have to get it sorted in February before the cambelt and MOT is due (Ouch!) [/b]

Did exactly that when I got home, that wasn't the problem. Unfortunately the problem may actually have been where I did the installation. It appears my mates driveway in Syston isn't the greatest for signal. Last night on my way to Asda I picked up Radio1, 2 and the local dribble pretty well. Suffice to say I didn't change anything when I took the unit out. The signal still isn't absolutely brilliant but at least it works now. Rob

I went to Halfords in Leicester to get the required lead to supply 12V down the aerial lead to the antenna amplifier. Its very simple, it comes with a flying lead that attaches to the switched 12V feed for an amp in the stock loom (blue wire) It improved the signal right up to the point that I slotted my headunit back into the dashboard. After that I'm back to square 1. I was going to remove the circuit altogether and fit a new aerial hoping that the headunit would be able to pick up enough signal. When I get the time, I'll let you know the outcome... Rob :read: