Steve Walker

Until Skoda see sense and do a new vRS with diesel and manual box I suppose I'll have to stick with the old girl!

Just got it back from Skoda. It needed a new cam sensor for the engine problem and a new water pump for the water loss. They also mentioned a water leak through the offside rear door. I'll have to get the bath seal out again.

My 100k vRS is starting to misbehave. When I leave it parked up for a few days it sometimes doesn't start as quickly as normal and occasionally loses all power when running. When I coast to a halt it fires up OK again and then runs perfectly again for days. I can always tell when it will misbehave by the way it churns when starting rather than firing instantly. Perhaps a coincidence but it is also using a bit of water. Not much. Just need to top up every 3 months. There is no sign of leaks or emulsified oil. I'll probably put it into Skoda but I know how hard occasional faults can be to find.

The car is still in Germany being fixed but as soon as it gets home I will offer them the chance to explain why it has blown up again. Their reaction last time was very much " couldn't possibly be our fault mate" so I am not expecting a huge response.

My first vRS turbo failed after 15k miles & 100 Ring laps. My clutch failed after 30k miles. My second turbo failed after 30k miles & 43 Ring laps. My Boxster has done 20k miles & 450 Ring laps. It has had no sign of engine trouble. My Clio 172 has done 34k miles & 58 Ring laps. No sign of engine trouble. My MX5 has done 42k miles & 48 ring laps. No sign of engine trouble. My cars have the type of life car makers use for their testing. So far Porsche, Mazda & Renault have done very well but I suspect my re-mapper could do with a bit more testing.

My car has a well known generic remap. It has so far blown up 2 turbos. I doubt if the amount of testing remappers do is as large as you think. Testing costs money.

I won't name & shame yet but the last time I asked them about the first blown turbo they were adamant that their remap couldn't possibly cause a problem. Warranty? No chance! Personally, I'll not be using it hard again until I've had the remap pulled.

I was having a lovely time on Thursday evening. I was at a very wet Ring in Sooty the vRS & had just chased & overtaken a 968 CS and was trying to catch an Evo. I gave it full welly in third coming out of a corner when there was an almighty bang & all power faded. Towed back to the garage where a blown turbo was revealed as the cause. Blown turbo X2. I did the same thing last year. To blow up one turbo could be called unfortunate but to blow up two makes me suspicious. My remap is by a very large well known company who assured me that there would be no effect on engine life but it appears that the turbos are definitely not up to the job.

Shifty, sorry to hear you are having problems. We have fairly similar useage patterns, & after my impellor let go big time I decided to leave the vRS as my road car & use the Clio as my track car. Interesting difference in the approach of Skoda UK & Skoda Deutschland. I got a new turbo & motor! Steve

Have many of you guys noticed that a diesel Audi won Le mans or that a BMW 120d finished 4th in the Nurburgring 24 hrs ahead of a lot of Porsche GT3s etc. Skoda endurance racer anyone?

Have a look in the Demon Tweaks catalogue. I'm sure I saw one in there. On the other hand, unless you are going to fully strip out the interior you will find that most serious cages won't fit unless a LOT of interior trim is removed. Fitting the Sparco cage into my Clio was a nightmare. The "bolt in" cage needed a lot of cutting & welding. Another point is that a cage is actually bloody lethal unless you are wearing a helmet & are fully harnessed in which is extremely impractical in a road car. Too much hard metal near your head. Great for track days but not fun driving there. As a plus, when I got my Clio insured the presence of a cage really pushed up the insurance. Good luck!!!!!! Steve

I hope so. I am stuck working in an offshore fab yard in Scotland at the moment which is spoiling my fun a bit but I am due to start working in Gremany again mid August or early Sept. Steve W

Hi, glad you got sorted out. I was looking for you on Sunday to see if all was OK but with the chaos in the carpark it wasn't easy to find anybody. I saw a silver vRS with leather interior. Was that you? Steve

Just to show you both protagonists at play. Both good in different ways.