Slamby

Just kept an eye out on ebay. Save a search, and it'll tell you when new matches are listed. Not many people will list them as Spiders though, so keep to generic stuff like "16" Skoda alloys" etc. They were a little more expensive than I wanted to pay, but were newly refurbished, so look brand new. I did look at a couple of other sets, but by the time I bought them, and had them refurbished myself, I reckon I'd have spent more. MPG was another factor in keeping with the 16s, as you say Jimi. The spiders look way better than the standard wheels in my opinion. Car is sitting on 25mm drop Eibach springs btw, for anyone that wants to know what they look like.

Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover works well for me. Good for wheels and paintwork.

Now the weather's improved a bit, got the tyres swapped over onto the new wheels at the weekend: I really like the Spiders, and though I'll admit the 17s look better, I don't want to sacrifice the ride quality. Ideally I'd like to fit 5mm spacers to get them sticking out the same amount as the standard wheels, but you couldn't tell at a glance, and don't look at all bad as they are. The standard wheels will now have some winter tyres put on them June/July time, when there's stock and the prices aren't silly. Next on the list is some b-pillar vinyl I got off of someone on here. I reckon it'll look good with the tinted windows, and give that good "floating roof" look.

Just turned 37 *sob* At least insurance is cheap...... :S

Nice looking car. He did miss the exhaust though.

This is why you should always have your best tyres on the rear, regardless of whether you have a RARB or not. Understeer's a lots easier to deal with than oversteer. New tyres on front for a front wheel drive car is a complete fallacy*. *nearly typed phallusy then, which would have made me look like a right d*ck.

Quite. PD is a clattery old beast around town. Smaller petrol would be my suggestion too, but if you wanted a runaround, the TDi over the vRS would be what I'd go for I think. I just feel the vRS would be wasted a bit pottering around town in stop-start traffic.

205/40 is closer to the rolling radius of the original 16" wheels. 215/40 is going to give 2.2% extra rolling radius, and marginally bigger sidewalls, so a bit more long-legged, and i guess a bit more comfort. Not sure you'd be able to tell the difference though.

Good work! Looks really good.

They're also open to a bit of haggling apparently, so suck air through your teeth and um and ah a bit when you're next on the phone to them.

Just as an aside, you're asking for trouble sooner or later if you rag it from cold frequently. Better to keep the revs lowish until everything's up to temp. Hope you find out what your problem is, and get it sorted.

Console bushes? Droplinks? Could be all sorts of stuff. Mine clunked going over speed bumps, and the console bushes were worn. Does the front of the car feel a bit vague/squidgy? Didn't quite feel right with mine until the bushes were done, and then it tightened up nicely.

Twisting the nozzle usually works for me too. Not had this problem at all with the Fabia though.

There's more wind resistance to overcome at 70 than 50. I would expect better mpg at 50 in 5th than 70 in 6th.

+3 for Bosch Aerotwin. Wiperblades' service has always been top notch too. Haven't been on that long, but fitting was easy, and they look and sound good, with a good sweeping action. Whether they last or not, time will tell.

Nope, it's not practical or sensible; the arse end will overtake the front, and that's bad news. Fit four or just keep the summer tyres on (I'm an advocate of winter tyres though). You don't want vastly different levels of grip front to rear.

UK speedos are usually anywhere between 5-10% overestimating, so it's not really an issue on that front. Speedo will be more accurate if anything. As long as the speedo doesn't say he's going slower than he really is, it's not an issue. Is borderline and risky though. Sat Nav's the way to check of course! Whether he'll have rubbing etc is another matter......

+2 - Pathetic effort really.

Must admit I've not had the Traction intervene on me yet, but then I guess everyone will think I drive like Mr Magoo!

I have exactly this same problem. Fitted my nice new Bosch Aero wipers, tested the wash jets, and realised they're not pointing at the screen. No problem, I thought, and went to get a trusty pin. On close inspection though, nothing is adjustable. New ones from the stealers are about £1.50 each, apparently, so I will get them when I go to pick up a rear wiper, which is dealer only by the looks of things.

Not a lot I don't think. It's only a vacuum host to activate the EGR under various circumstances. I'm fairly sure it'll come on sooner or later. Either that or the bulb thingy's blown, or someone's already disabled the warning light. Dunno.

See my below reply to mikejay as to why people do it.

I've done it to stop my Bacon Lettuce & Tomato stutter, and it's totally cured what was quite an annoyance for me. I also don't like the idea of hot sooty exhaust gases going back into my engine, and mixing with the hot oily air from the CCV in the meantime. Gains in performance are probably not measurable, but that's not really the point of doing the mod for most people.

It will. Can take a few miles before it comes on, but it will, if you've plugged it properly.

Dunno is the short answer. I'm living with the light on mine at the moment, and after a while you don't notice it very much. I don't think it can be permanently turned off by VAGCOM (but I'm not 100% on this), so it would need to be mapped out by someone who usually does remaps for more power etc. Best bet is to talk to Shark/P-Torque/whoever does remapping that's near you. No idea what it's cost just to get rid of the light. Let me know if you find out, as I'd be interested to hear.