yesiamtom

You could purchase spring assist kits although I don't think they are regarded as the best option. I'm sure I've seen some thick spacers you can put between springs/top hats which raise the car, perhaps used on the mk2 scouts or something. Are you springs particularly old? This could cause them to sag quite bad.

I think you might mean the ASV which is attached to the EGR pretty much. I had a similar problem and lubed it and moved it around a bit, then the problem never re-occured.

my diesel hasn't leaked once in the 6 years I've owned it, my vrs had a leak when I bought it but I fixed that within about a month. Both are sunroof models.

That's the exact problem I had wenham, took a month for the carpet to dry and I'm not totally sure the insulating backing is dry yet.

my tdi did this when it had a boost leak around a pipe joint. As SheffieldVRS said you probably have a split pipe or a connection has moved slightly and become dodgy.

my car is currently sat low at the front and a bit high at the back, again product of a previous owner not me so a picture would look stupid and embarressing Your prosports might have been for a mk4 golf, the octavia has a heavier bum than the golf and golf springs make it sit very low and handle badly.

Remember the VRS sits lower than a standard octavia anyway, I think by 15mm but I can't remember. I have Weitec Hicon GTs on mine fitted by previous owner, they are great on good roads but clamped down far too hard for any sort of roughness (I need to adjust them). On my previous diesel I put Koni Sport shocks with -35mm eibach springs and it made the car a lot nicer to drive.

I bought the car with the map already on it and have never driven a standard VRS so can't compare but I have a feeling the map is fairly aggressive. Average mpg is 30, that's with short pootles around town, couple of motorway journeys and then hooning it down a/b roads in a fairly equal split. On the motorway I've seen it creep up to 40 for a journey. The power is amazing, at 3000rpm the car just opens up and rockets forward. I've had the car 4 or 5 months and it honestly still scares me on the twisties

I fitted NGK BKR7E to mine (stage 1 remap, full exhaust) and it runs great.

If the previous owner did lots of short journeys (opening and shutting drivers door often) then you should peel back the boot that goes from the door jam to the door, the wires here are about 1cm to short which causes them to rub through, usually appearing at 100+ thousand miles as random electrical problems related to the drivers door.

IMO go with bilstein B4 dampers (high quality OEM replacement) and a set of standard springs. B4s are cheaper and better than OEM.

"Thomas EXOVCDS" on youtube recommends driving a small screw into the lowest point of the SMIC, letting it drain for a while, then reinserting the screw as a quick way of draining the SMIC. I tried it and had no issues when I did it. Up to you if you think it's stupid or not though.

I bought a remapped mk1 that had a CAI right down in the front bumper, I moved it to just an open filter in place of the airbox as it was the cheapest non stupid solution. The sound is almost identical to the £200 induction kit fitted and I've not noticed any reduction in power compared to before. I know the stock airbox is good but £30 vs £5 cone filter made the cone filter more attractive to me, especially as I did this change in winter!

Look down into the front left of the engine bay where the aux belt runs. You will see the air con compressor at the bottom here, check if it has the clutch on the end of it as they are known to fall off regularly. With the AC turned off in the car the clutch won't spin, with it on the clutch will spin. Also the engine tone on the diesel changes when the clutch engages.

You could fit them inside the car if you laid them onto the front passenger seat, although you will need to then secure them within the car and either be prepared for minor damage or do something (tarp?) to protect the interior. I've done this with very long bits of wood on short journeys with no issue.

I think I just found a video on youtube to do it. Be wary you will lose coolant but maybe a good time to flush it out anyway?

re coolant temp - Replace the Coolant Temp Sensor (or is it sender?) and the thermostat along with the plastic thermostat mounting pipe. You won't be able to get the pipe out without damaging it so don't bother!

Find a quoted 30-60 time or something and then test your car somewhere safe to compare the times. I say that instead of 0-60 as I expect your ability to launch the car is more important with that, and there may be concerns on the condition of clutch/driveshafts etc for such an aggressive launch. I believe the 150bhp 1.8t elegance was remapped to between 180bhp-210bhp which is a rather large increase and should be pretty noticable.

I'm wondering if there is any point to putting a new(er) blower in. Has anyone done this ?

Have you checked the rear wiper isn't bust? This can cause all sorts of problems and is quite common.

that heatshield is nice, did you make it or buy it ?

In fairness he has addressed this point in his post, so he's surely well aware :) On my vrs I have a 3" cone filter stuck straight onto the end of maf with a small extension alloy pipe. It is that simple honestly, the only complication is that you need to attach the whole assembly to something so it doesn't rattle. IIRC the tdi is a 2.5 or 2.75" MAF but I can't remember. edit: I put the cone filter on because the previous owner fitted a "CAI" and I didn't want my filter 1 inch off the floor where it can suck up puddles.

Weighting will surely be wrong and the front ARB droplink will mount to a different place. Also the vrs is lower as standard so you'd have to take that into account. That said, I'm sure you can get VRS B4s for dirt cheap anyway and the springs are probably the same price new.

I used a lot of screenwash in any car I drive, but that's more a comment on me I expect. Can't stand any dirt on the windscreen to the point I'm thinking of paying for a new windscreen on the VRS as it's got millions of tiny chips. :(

As above, probably the control unit in the drivers door or the wiring harness where it passes from the door into the car. The wires are half an inch too short and slowly wear through over the years causing short circuiting and other weirdnesses. The best bet on getting a new control unit for the door is to get one from an identical model car, so a 2003 octavia l&k. I think there are many many suffixes and variations, some made by different companies. I had one from a bora which did not work, I opened it up and opened up my existing dead one and found the manufacturer of the circuit board (and the layout) to be quite different.