BigJakk

Just popped along to another place and got quoted £65 to pull the dent out, which is much more agreeable. However in terms of the minor crack to the bumper paintwork (Which can be seen at the bottom right of the last image i posted) they quoted £250 Again, im not an expert, and the dent removal quote sounds okay, but £250 sounds a bit on the rich side to me!

Hello mate, How much electronics skill is required for these, as mine are poor at best, but its something i would be interested in possibly getting done on the car. Also, how good are the sensors, as i have driven cars in the past where the reverse sensors are set up very much on the cautious side of things, and you end up getting beeped at non-stop! Cheers

Hello mate, Ah good stuff, should make things a bit easier as my mechanic mate only has a generic code readoer/ODBC Tool rather than the VAGCOM. I need to check the book over and see exactly what needs doing before i take it in to him next week You will be pleased to hear that she is running fantastically well, cleaned the throttle body out the other night and its made quite a difference at low revs. Only bad news is that some person of questionable parentage has dinged the rear bumper and tailgate with what looks to be a shopping trolley, im absoloutley furious about it. Hope all is well and that your having fun with the Leon.

Hello all, My MkI Octy VRS is due in for a service in the next week or two. I have a good mate who runs a garage and has kindly offered to look at it with me "off the books" for me after work one night, saving me a few quid. However the workshop manual states that as the VRS is a "QG1 LongLife Service Schedule" vehicle, if the service light is not cleared off using a "Special Instrument" then the car will revert to using the "QG2 Schedule". I was just wanting to check and see, is this "Special Tool" in fact VAGCOM? If so, my mate who will be servicing the vehicle hasnt got a VAGCOM at the garage, however another friend of mine does own one. As such, would it be in order to get the work done on the car, and then have the light cleared down a few days later using the VAGCOM or would this be a no-no? Cheers

Ive attached some Pic's. Unfortunatley they arent particularly great, and contain far too many reflections of my ugly mug, however it does help to illustrate where the crease is: As always, your thoughts are appreciated guys

Argh! Some blaggard has gone and plowed what looks to be a shopping trolley into the back end of my beloved MkI VRS - which i have owned for barely 5 weeks! This has caused a very slight crease (About 1cm in height and 7cm in length) which runs just below the bottom of the number plate on the boot. To be honest, its barely visible, but every time i look at the back of the car, its all i seem to be able to notice and its driving me to utter distraction. I went along to a body shop tonight which is owned by a friend of a friend and was quoted £120 at "mates rates" and was told the car would come back to me with all the rear badges removed, and that it would be up to me to re-affix them. Now it could just be me, but that strikes me as a bit on the heavy side. With that said, i am no expert when it comes to body panel work. I was just wondering what those with more knowledge that me would expect the "going rate" to be? Cheers for the help!

Did this today - took about 30mins maximum. It probably didnt need a new Gasket to be honest, could have just cleaned up the old one, but for £1.76 from TPS i cant grumble. Very straight forward to carry out, even for a relative novice like myself, my advice with regards to removing the bolts from the throttle body would be to use an allen key. I tried using a ratchet driver initially and it was quite awkward. Took the car out for a quick thrash along a nearby B Road afterwards and it felt much less "boggy" in 1st/2nd gear at low revs. Thanks for the excellent guide

Hello, Ive just replaced the standard Symphony Stereo Headunit on my MkI VRS, with the unit from my last car. I've used an ISO wiring harness adaptor to facilitate this change, and just want to check a couple of points out. Firstly, the new headunit will not turn on, unless the ignition is at the "I" position - is this correct? I believe the Skoda unit would allow you to turn it on regardless of wether the ignition was on or not? Secondly, i havent fitted the amplified aerial adaptor as yet, (namely due to a lack of space behind the headunit leading to frustration when i was installing). If i were to install the Aerial adaptor at a later date, whereabouts would i need to connect the blue wire that runs out of it to? My guess is that it will need to be connected up directly to the headunit, on the connector marked "AUTO ANTENNA OUTPUT"? Is this right? Cheers!

Hello again guys, I've picked up the suggested Wiring Loom adaptor and the Amplified Ariel adaptors. My query is what to do with the blue wire on the Ariel adaptor? Having checked the manual for my head unit it indicates that the "Auto Antenna Output" aligns up with the blue wire on my Wiring Loom adaptor. As such, do i just need to yank the blue wire from the wiring loom adaptor, and put the blue wire from the Ariel adaptor in its place? Cheers

Being in the job, my advice on ex-police cars would be to avoid any cars that have been used as a general Panda by local patrol officers are to be avoided like the plague. Although they will have been frequently mechanically serviced and maintained, They will have been lived in, with no consideraton given for their interior condition and upkeep and they will have been ragged throughut their lifetime, generally due to the fact they are largely used in urban area's, where the only way to get up any speed is to consistently push the car up through the rev range. The good news is that local pandas usually tend to be cheaper cars like the Astra or Focus. With cars that have been used by specialist units (Traffic, Surveillance, Driver Training, Area cars) its a slightly different story. Again they will have been well maintaned from a mechanical point of view. You also tend to find that cops who work on the specialist vehicle based units tend to have a bit more pride in the tools of their work - they tend to regularly clean them inside and out (almost daily with traffic cars). You will probably also find that although such cars will have done big speeds during their lifetime, many of these miles have been done on A roads and motorways, rather than on urban streets, where in the boggo panda's you are literally jumping up and down on the gas and brake constantly. The cars themselves that these units tend to use will generally be of a better than average quality, i.e. vRS, BMW 330d etc (the exception to this is the Vectra V6 - that may just because i hate Vauxhalls though) as well. My advice would be to try and have a good look at the car before you buy in all instances, but whilst i would always instantly rule out a panda car, more specialised police vehicles are worth consideration.

From what i've read an ISO wiring harness should fix the problem with the permanant/ignition feed. With regard to the amplified ariel adaptor, will this require me to do any soldering to install, as my soldering skills are pants! Cheers

Hello all, I currently have an Inphase IPS620SD headunit kicking about from my old focus and was planning on putting it into my new MkI Octy VRS. I dont particularly want to mess about with rewiring things, so was wondering what ISO connector i would need for the Octy? Will i also need an amplified arial adaptor for the MkI Octy or not? Cheers

Cheers chaps!

Heyup, In the last couple of days ive noticed that the drivers door on my vRS isnt sitting quite flush to the rest of the bodywork, and seems to be protruding horizontally outwards by a few millimetres at most. Having looked at it, the door seems to be aligned okay vertically so i dont think its any issues with the hinges. As such im going to try adjusting the strike plate on the door and move it inwards (toward the drivers seat) ever so slightly. Having looked at the strike plate, it looks like i need to slacken some screws with a ratchet driver, however i dont seem to have the right type of screwdriver/ratchet bit, and as such wondered if anyone knows which type of bit or tool i will need to purchase Cheers

I was gonna go to Halfrauds today and pick up a new lot of wash kit for the new car, however as the Missus was going food shopping at Asda yesterday, i duly dispatched her by the means of SMS to the car asile. Ended up with one of the drying towels (which was really excellent when i used it yesterday night), six microfibre cloths, a couple of microfibre wash mits and a bucket for under £8. I shudder to think how much that would have set me back at Halfrauds - seems Asda is the place to go for consumables Cheers

I was just about to ask about those, as ive found one on Ebay for £55 - will they fix this issue? I've had a look at the brakes on both rear wheels and they both looks pretty much pristine, plus the "Mooing" has been completely absent today, wheras yesterday i couldnt reverse two inches without it sounding like a herd of farm animals. Cheers

All of the discs and pads were done about 16months ago, so the discs are still in pretty good condition. It will be going up on the ramp on Saturday when we do the sensor, so will have a good look at the rear wheels and try and work out what exactly the issue is, if its the pads or a stuck caliper Cheers

Well i've had a quick look around on t'internet and Mintex seem to be doing Pads for about £15 each (part number MDB1377) At that price it seems worth a punt replacing them, however would i need to do the discs as well? Cheers

Was that just the pads that you have replaced? Going to have a look at the back wheels when its up on the ramp having the sensor done on saturday, see if it is one wheel or both that is making the squeal Cheers

Hello all, I've recently purchased an 04 MkI Octavia vRS from a fellow member on this site. Thus far it has been absoloutley fantastic and looks like a cracking buy. Other than a faulty Lambda sensor (which is neither here nor there) there is only one issue that the car seems to have, which is the "Mooing" brakes issue when reversing. The mooing is extremely loud and irritating and im afraid that i cant just grin and bear it. From what i understand the official Skoda fix is to replace the rear pads with chamfered pads. I've had a look at various suppliers online for rear pads, however none of them seem to say wether theyre the chamfered ones or original. As such, i was wondering if anyone knows the specific part number for the chamfered pads? Furthermore, how likely are the new pads to actually fix the problem? I've seen some talk of needing to recondition calipers as well, is this in all cases or just in a few rare instances? My only reason for asking is that new pads looks reasonably cheap and im quite happy to carry out the work myself - so the cost and effort would be worth it. In contrast new calipers look rather steep and reconditioning looks a bit over my head, and with the money situation at present, i dont think i could justifying getting them done at the garage. Thanks for the help all Cheers

Just out of interest for everyone, Following carryng out a HPI Check on my new vRS, i recieved an email from HPI with a code for free 7 days insurance with Aviva. The only condition of the insurance was that you must obtain a full quotation from them. I obviously knew that Aviva would come in waaaay over the odds for the premium - which they did. However, interestingly the nice chap i spoke to on the telephone said that as long as i could provide proof that i had over two years and 6 months without a claim, then they would round it up to 3 years for me for the purposes of a new quote. So it seems that it may well depend on the broker - as it is i have about 6 weeks remaining on my policy from my previous car, so am just going to transfer the vRS onto that for the time being and then get a cheaper renewal once that policy has run its course. Cheers

Yeah, i rang em up this morning - for two months its only about an exta 30 quid than the combined cost of the remaining two monthly premiums for the Focus. Not too bad, and worth it to save losing out on another years NCB for the sake of six weeks Cheers all

Hello all, Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but here goes. I'm currently over 10months through a 12month insurance policy on my Focus with Admiral. I'm looking to pick up a vRS in the coming weeks and Admiral cannot give me a competetive quote on the car. As such, i have found a different insurance company who arent quoting bingo numbers for the vRS. In the meantime i will obviously be selling the Focus and cancelling my insurance. My query is this: i currently have only 2 years No Claims Discount and obviously feel a bit aggrieved about cancelling my current policy 2 months before the end of the current policy, as i was looking fwd to a third years No Claims Discountand the benfits it would bring. As such, is it possible in any way/scheme/loophole, to get my current 2years and 10 months without claims, classed as 3 years of no claims? Cheers ladies and gents -- Carl

Hello mate, I appreciate that i am new ot the forum, however i have been looking into picking up an Octavia vRS 1.8Y for some time now and this looks very much up my street. If the car is still availiable, pop me a private message. Thanks