newbie69

It's been a long time since I was around and an active member of this great forum as I no longer own a Skoda, but trying to help out a friend who, under my own advice, bought a 2014 Octavia 1.4 TSI manual in 2015 and has indeed been very happy with it since. So lately, he tells me, the car is really hesitant on a cold start up. It starts, but it's feeling down on power when setting off, and if he requests a little bit more power he feels it even more, sort of a hiccup behaviour. Strangely enough, driving like this a few hundred meters down the road the car starts to behave normal again. Car has 78.000km at the moment, no upcoming big maintenance, spark plugs changed 1yr ago, just oil and filters due soon. I was thinking coils maybe? They must be still the original ones at that mileage? But would they cause this if going bad? Otherwise something in the fueling system? Is it something other owners have come across and if so what was the remedy? Cheers

The wheels were Ispiri FFP2 19x8.5 ET37 but I can't remember if I had spacers on at the time as well... probably not.

Then I really have no idea how it could the opposite situation than mine... Also JR RS confirmed the rears poking out a little more than the fronts on his car and he's based in OZ 🤷‍♂️

I'm pretty sure on my 272 Sportline the rears were sitting further out than the fronts even as stock and these photos after fitting spacers confirm it: The rears are practically flush whereas the fronts could still spare 2-4mm it seems. Is yours a 272/280 Sportline also? (not that I know for sure that the tracks should be different between the variants, just a guess) No stud & nut kit (hadn't done a conversion) but simply 10mm longer bolts with the correct seat for the alloys. You only need to make sure the longer bolts have the same seat as the alloys you plan on using them on, the Ispiris I had featured a conical seat instead of the spherical R13 the OEM alloys do.

To be precise, the 23.4mm is achieved by both the aftermarket alloys being wider & with different offset (the distance between the mating plane of the alloy to its outer edge ) pushing the width of the wheel out by 13.4mm, plus the spacers which push it further out by an amount equal to their thickness (10mm). So, if the stock tires are pushed out by 23.4mm that means an equal amount of tire could fit yes so 235 > 255 should in theory fit. I can't comment about the 9" alone because you don't specify the offset, and these go together. If you mean 9J ET37 that would mean an increase of 6.4mm both ways comparing to my setup above (equally outside and closer to the strut) so that's not going to be the same. With 9J you would need to drop to ET30 to ensure the 255 tire would not be any closer to the strut than stock (it would be even 1.3mm further away) and then it would poke out by 26.7mm which is 3.3mm more than I had in mine and I imagine it would be really at the limit. Yes it's the rears that were sitting almost flush with the extra 23.4mm (maybe 2mm in). I remember the fronts were sitting a bit further inside but for extra safety I went with the same setup all around and didn't mind it.

At the time of those photos I just had the Eibach springs on and the wheels were Ispiri FFP2 19x8.5 ET37, poking out a further 13.4mm compared to the stock ones. However the tracks are so narrow that even those wheels looked slightly hidden inside so I later added 10mm hubcentric Eibach spacers which brought it closer to a flush look (still 3-4mm from fully flush and definitely no rubbing whatsoever) which finally made it perfect for my like and discreetly more aggressive. Here's a photo of the wider alloys + 10mm spacers on, which together equalled to 23.4mm further poking out compared to stock: PS. Corrected the original poking out value from 18mm to 13.4mm. PS.2 Stock 235/40/19 tires

I believe the retention of MPI is exclusive to AUS cars, eveywhere else it's gone and not come back.

No doubt, that's the numbers you should be seeing with this turbo 👍 Should feel savage above 4K rpm and I imagine the whole experience must only feel "weirder" being inside a Superb 😄 love it!

WOW, that's some luck you're having with this car, incredible... On the upside, that's a healthy torque curve you're getting there 😄 spool up not late at all for the larger turbo and the overall power delivery seems very linear, well done! You have to borrow/get a Dragy and measure 100-200km/h times now, I bet it should be in low 8s

Just caught up with this, what a misfortune, can't believe those pics with the ruined exhaust... On the actual remap, that was definitely low for that turbo. 420-430bhp is maxed out stage 2+ , not a proper stage 3, let alone with WMI. Let's hope your new tuner can sort you, should expect 460-480bhp. But apart from dyno numbers which can be a lottery, since you've done all that investment already I'd suggest getting a PGEAR or Dragy device and measuring 100-200km/h times, this is the real world performance that counts, and gives the best idea of how the car compares against others and whether it would meet your expectations. Following... PS. Appreciate the sleeper approach but you just HAVE TO ditch those alloys!!! 😆

Ah nice, I'll go have a read then!

To expand on what was written just above: "Sport" in the Driving mode affects a few things al-together: Throttle response, steering weight, suspension (if the car has DCC), cornering lights speed, A/C operation etc. (there may be more I am forgetting) PLUS it switches the gearbox to its S mode as it assumes you'd like it that way. However, the gearbox can always be set independent from the driving modes via flicking the stick to D or S. Examples: - If you want to be in Normal Driving mode for everything but would like the earlier downshifts and later up-shifts of the gearbox's S mode, leave Driving Mode to Normal and simply flick the stick to S. - Similarly, if you want everything firmer but don't want the gearbox to hang on gears for longer choose Sport Driving mode, it will put the gearbox to S too, then flick back the stick once to switch to D. This will leave the car in Sport mode (overall) and the gearbox to its normal, economy biased operation. In addition, there is a third gearbox mode which is only accessible indirectly, via the Driving modes, and that's E (ECO). Normally, flicking the stick only cycles from D to S. But if you choose ECO Driving mode you will see the gears now have a prefix of the letter E (E1, E2). In this mode, after every application of throttle followed by a lift off, the car coasts in Neutral (you will see just "E" and no gear indicator in the dash) until throttle or brake is re-applied. Maybe this is considered an engine mode for Skoda/VW but to me it's clearly a third gearbox mode, further supported by the fact the gears now are E1, E2 etc. Again, the gearbox can be changed to S (as you did) despite the car being in ECO mode.

Oh you did? I missed that but I was not hanging out much here lately. Did you create a thread?

That's mad expensive for the (minimal) gain that will be obtained, as mentioned you could probably get a big turbo setup locally for that amount of money, not worth it by any means. Imo, it's only worth spending money on the intercooler if you do plan to go stage 3 etc, otherwise stick with stage 1. Maybe add an intake and turbo inlet pipe just to scratch that itch of a few more easy bhp (if you haven't already) and call it a day.

Any decent intercooler for this platform (Wagner, Do88, Forge etc.) would do just as well, doesn't need to be the REVO one. But then if the installation is not a DIY then it will get expensive anyway. And I can think of many other better uses for ~ 1500 EUR (or more) spent on the car...

Yep, I have no experience of the REVO TCU remap but I would imagine it's been developed in the same high standards as the ECU one, especially since it took them so much time to come out, and that it will be working well together with their ECU remap. When i said about the cost, I meant if you do it "properly" and add the intercooler too, otherwise if just a reflash to stage 2, especially if in a discounted price as they go from time to time then it's more palatable.

Reliability wise I never had any issue until September when the car was sold. That included a 2 day road trip of 14hr drives with one high speed acceleration after the other, including several pulls close to 240-50km/h on the Autobahn (and a few quite higher than that) without absolutely any hiccup. I was very impressed actually during those two days because the car was really put to a test but apparently REVO's work on these is very solid. Following that trip I spent a couple of months in 30 deg C+ temperatures even in the evenings. Again no issues (overheating, CEL etc.) at all but the one thing I noticed was that the car in these 30+ deg C conditions became a bit slower, clocking the 100-200 in high 12s, even very low 13s in some cases, as opposed to the average of low 11s the rest of the year when I was in Sweden. I guess that means that an intercooler is indeed a good idea if you want to have all the extra performance at your disposal unless you're in a cold ( < 10 deg C) place for most of the time. Also to update on those times posted above in the original posts, they were really the fastest ones I had achieved, probably an ideal combo of barometric pressure, humidity, wind etc. the average times as wrote just before was low 11s. PS. Retrospectively, I'd say the cost of stage 2 vs the gains is not worth it, nothing like stage 1 value for money at least, but I know how the itching feels like when you're already stage 1 and have no better uses for some spare hundreds of EUR 😄

When I looked at your photos, even before reading your issue I wondered, didn't this create more problems than it solved? Unfortunately in the majority of upgraded engine mounts this is the case, despite some people saying "oh it's not that different", they probably have too much "because race-car" mentality and a higher tolerance than I do. It's a long time since I was looking at engine mounts for the Clubsport (think they are the same for the Superb) and can't remember who was supposed to be the "mildest" one but even for that I had heard people say that it's not exactly as stock, which is to be expected, which is why I didn't proceed really. I had a similar experience in a previous car of mine, an ordinary warm-hatch, and it was really taking away from the comfort and driveability, I can only imagine how out of place it must feel on a car like the Superb so I hope you find an alternative, or maybe the "normal" version of Racingline (is it the one with blue dampers? (instead of the reds in yours) is less harsh?

Awesome upgrade those KW V2!! Together with the rest of the modifications I think they have completed this new level of performance and are allowing you to use it more often and to a greater level than before. Always wanted to be able to justify those on mine when I had it but didn't manage so I am retroactively jealous 😄 (in a positive way) Photos are good but go on, give us some in-depth feed-back about what has changed and in what way! PS. Still not as fast as a Mini around corners though 😁

Quite close to your second hypothesis 😛 At 30s you're still feeling like you can physically and mentally do anything and in a better way than you did in your 20s so you wouldn't really miss it I think... But seriously, I hadn't really owned a car in the full analog era, and yet that's what I love so far on this one and in this configuration/state, the simpleness and back-to-basics approach, even if it comes with learning to live without some luxuries I've had in my cars for a while. I think anyone over 50 taking a manual S or JCW for a spin would come out with a huge smile on their face, i think i'm one of the youngest in my local mini club actually... Plus I'd be lying if I said it doesn't have loads of character from the exterior down to the smallest of switches inside which matches the desirability of the driving experience to equal extent. Have it for a month now and I've caught myself doing all silly things like looking for Mini JCW miniatures to buy, for the children of-course 😆 or helping them make paper cars that end up looking like this: So yeah I could say i'm pretty happy with it... The two bigger problems with it are that: a) I can see it being a real money hole, not from a maintenance perspective (the F-series addressed many of the reliability issues of previous gens and upped the overall quality considerably) but because there's so much that you want to do to it in terms of visual and performance (mostly suspension and chassis) mods, it's that kind of car and b) It's not a Skoda and there's just no other forum like Briskoda out there...

It was quite a turn of needs and priorities indeed and I wouldn't blame anyone for sticking to more modern luxuries and refinement 😄 But if you want to actually drive to your destination instead of simply be transported there, this car makes you work harder and rewards you to an equal extent. If you think again of what I wrote earlier, that a GTI Clubsport DSG which is supposed to be a focused hot-hatch felt like an ordinary car compared to this you get an idea of how much extra input you are provided with. That it might not be most people's primary requirement is perfectly understandable, but I wanted to go back to a much more analog, raw driving experience like this, after all I think the days of such cars are numbered anyway. Oh and they are not all as firm, or noisy or lacking all those modern gadgets, it just so happened that this one was as basic as possible, manual, no options apart from bucket seats, and an uprated exhaust that is making me feel like I'm 20 again... And then there is the whole handling and nimbleness aspect which makes even 20km/h corners a reason to smile and every trip that is not just a straight line, an event. A lightweight car will always have an intrinsic advantage in the way it turns, accelerates and brakes that cannot be substituted with just more bhp. This was my main directive really. I wanted to have daily, accessible fun without having to hit stupid speeds to realize I am going fast and so far I can confidently say that it is delivering aplenty.

Hi Paddy, More likely a 2.5lt 5-cylinder 😁 but regardless, I'd driven a 2015 RS3 and all I can say is that during the search for this particular next car the RS3 was never in my list, the same way a M240i or M2 were (even if I wouldn't go for such a car in the end anyway), they are completely different cars. The RS3 is strong, has big tuning potential (if talking about the mk2) and does a lot of things very well, but kinda falls short dynamically and is too "isolating" and one-dimensional in its approach, not the car I was after at this point.

Good question, but it's hard to say from behind the wheel 😛 I really need to go out and check below the car and I'll get back you 😁 In all seriousness, this was something that prior driving it made me a bit hesitant but i has proved the least FWD-feeling FWD car I have ever driven. This car just doesn't know what understeer is. Don't know if it's the short wheelbase, low center of gravity or the entire chassis setup and dimensions as a whole, but If you ever manage to reach the grip limit around a corner (and that's a big IF) it will start to let go in a 4-wheel drift fashion, rather than the nose washing wide. Oh and you can complete a 180degree handbrake turn inside your garage probably, lol, so it's good. It's also much harder to break traction compared to the GTI. I've only seen the ESP light come on once, briefly, and that was after it started making 300bhp (oops, forgot that bit) and hit identical 100-200 times like the Superb which btw I never saw coming! Cooper SD then?! I guess the core feel should be there even with less focused suspension. No idea how the bigger and heavier versions like a Clubman ALL4 behave though.

If I wanted to give an idea of how this car feels like to drive I would have to say: "think of the Superb ok? and now turn everything that you've thought upside down and you're starting to get there" (both good and bad, that is) For starters, it's a 2016 manual (10 years since my last manual car...) 231bhp JCW. But it also had two crucial upgrades: It's on Eibach springs (saved me the trouble of doing that myself, car looks just perfect) and a valved Remus non-resonated cat-back ☺️ (I appreciated that modification more than I ever thought was important for me) . Previous owner had also ditched the awful stock run-flats for PS4's. Oh yes, and it's red with black roof. I would not buy many cars in red, actually it's the colour I was always steering away first from in all my previous cars but there's something about this caricature of a car (because that's what it really is) that makes it look so right on it. In fact i think it was one of the reasons to go for it after I saw it in the flesh thinking "i should just have some fun this time without over-thinking everything...: Now, as "cute" as it may look to some on the outside, it is completely the opposite when you're inside. First off, the engine sets of with a massive "VROOOOMMMM" and if it's doing its cold start and you have the valves open it sounds outright brutal. Not cheap, fake, or loud, but rather proper angry and purposeful, as if it was always that way. Then there's the steering wheel and clutch that are so heavy and so old-school feeling compared to most other modern cars and especially to what you think such a small car must feel like that it's giving you smiles before even taking it up to speed. Set off and you feel everything in your fingers, butt and ears, from road anomalies to how the engine is firing (probably an after-effect of the open valve and non-res exhaust that turns it into a straight piped setup after the cat...). Gear shifter slots in so nicely I found myself enjoying the very thing I was once mocking when people were on about "the pleasure of shifting your own gears". Probably not equally enjoyable in a manual Astra but in this car it completely makes sense. Suspension is definitely on the firm side but not crashy. My Fabia vRS on H&R springs and Bilstein B8s was punishing on imperfect surfaces but this one no. And then you arrive at your first corner and the real appeal of the car becomes apparent. The immediacy of the steering and the response/lack of resistance of the whole car to your input is hard to describe and hard to expect. There's a new (to me) feeling that the car does not steer front first then rear follows but from somewhere between the steering wheel and the back of the seat, almost exactly where you're sitting, with front and rear rigidly connected as one piece. It takes a while to get used to it. At first I was either applying more lock than it really needed or I was cornering at a much slower speed than the car could take the corner in, you need to delete your old thresholds of inertia, grip etc. and re-calibrate yourself to it. Seating position is great. Car is already low and by picking a low position also, you feel you could reach out for the road with your hand. Coupled with the excellent support from the buckets this allows you to push with even more confidence the more you learn the car. The day I returned home i took it straight to a "reference" b-road nearby despite having driven 350km to get back as I couldn't wait to try it in a suitable environment and boy did I have some good time... Exhaust valves fully open and the engine noise turning from a throaty to sharp, racecar-like tone as it approached 6K rpm, (Remus really has nailed it with this setup, didn't expect it from a 4-pot), steering wheel throwing everything that was on the road at my palms, focus on the shift, slot it in, MASSIVE pops and bangs on every lift-off, repeat! Prior driving it, I though it would be similar to the GTI Clubsport DSG I owned before the Superb, but it is a completely different experience. The GTI was so efficient but at the same time it would feel like a standard Golf when you were not driving it at 9/10. I now realized the DSG also made much of the driving "automatic" (pun intended). This one shows its true character as soon as you start it up, it demands your attention even to reverse it and encourages you to thrash it at the first chance you get. It's firmer, noisier, less refined, and with much less comforts and gadgets than I have had for some time. With its retro, analog styling it feels more like a restomod for the track than a 2016 car, auto folding mirrors and rear cam you say? it doesn't even have CarPlay! But i don't care. For now it is giving me all that I've missed for some time in huge amounts. Will it at some point become tiring? I don't know but then again, it doesn't have to be driven everywhere all the time (although for now I do want to drive it everywhere 😆) as there's another ordinary and much friendlier car available. So yes, happy times. Some photos:

PART 3 - A CHANGE OF MINDSET I should probably start by saying that the car finally chosen was not one I was having in my radar ever before. Relieved from the burden of "it should be spacious, practical, comfortable and have 4 doors" for the first time in the last 8 years, I started considering some rather powerful German RWD coupes but in the end I decided this was not the right time to jump into one. I should also mention that during the time of transition a few significant changes/decisions in our professional and family lives took place which meant it would be wise to not get too carried away with my next purchase for roughly the next year or so before things were completed/settled. This situation made me feel somewhat nervous every time I was thinking of going ahead with one of the aforementioned type of cars so I decided "if the prospect of its ownership doesn't feel 100% right and gives me various worries when it should only be giving me enthusiasm, then it's probably just not the best choice at this point". This actually helped me dissect what I was really missing from the Superb and should be looking for in my own next car, in an effort to see whether it would be possible to find it in other, more "reasonable" options: I wanted to be into something that would allow me to hit the track again without heavy supporting mods. I wanted it to be more "involving" as opposed to "isolating" even if that meant loss of comfort and refinement. I wanted to be able to provide my own input and choose different approaches to different scenarios based on how i felt like. Last but not least, I wanted it to feel special from a driver's perspective, clearly associated with some good time behind the wheel without many questions asked or preconditions met for that to happen. At the same time I thought the decision to stay within "reasonable" costs of purchasing and ownership would be a good break from high bhp and 100-200 km/h obsessions. So... a MX-5 would (as always, lol) be the answer? In its latest ND generation I really love its looks (for the first time), chassis is said to be more sorted than ever, at least more than the NC I had driven several years back, what's not to like? Errr, "yeah did you forget about those two rear seats we talked about?" Dang... Ok then, a 2 series coupe? Yeah but I was previously thinking of either a M240i or (if going full crazy) a M2C and it would feel like a complete failure/compromise getting in a lesser 220i even if that was for just a transitional period so no. Back to a practical hot-hatch again after the GTI maybe? Pfff... I don't think I would discover anything new with such a car so again, no. What was I left with then? Nothing really seemed to be doing it until a good "car buddy" said, have you thought about a John Cooper Works? And the truth is no, I hadn't. I knew what a JCW was but as it had always been so irrelevant for my needs i had basically forgot about its existence until that point. But the thing is I was now (then), for the first time ever, in the market for a car for just myself (ok yes with 2 seats at the back but still) and so its practical limitations did not matter. If anything, the lack of space, weight and refinement added to its appeal rather than take away from it.... So this was starting to become interesting. BMW's B48 engine (same unit as found on the F30 330i) with extra power and reinforcements compared to the Cooper S, stiffer suspension as standard, and ,oh-yes, 4-pot Brembos finally as standard. On the visual department several bespoke bits and pieces like the sportier bodykit and the lovely bucket seats, something I was really missing since the Clubsport's amazing Recaros just topped it off as a prospect and gave it all the uniqueness I was after. The fact that a really nice one was on sale at the time just brought the inevitable closer and after just 10 minutes of driving it I knew I was going back with it.