paulwakinshaw

OK spoke to the dealer yesterday - delivery time for a VRS TDI if the order is placed in the next 14 days would be September at best, more likely though October! Thats just crazy! I can have a BMW 320d Sport Edition with a host of options delivered in 10 weeks! I guess this is a VAG group problem and not just limited to Skoda? Have VAG gone on strike? As for a 2012 MY Octy VRS - does anyone know what the differences would be between this and a 2011 MY? Thanks - Paul

By epic delays what have you heard on the grape vine? 6 months?

Hi Guys, Company car renewal time is here again and I have my eye on a 2011 Octy VRS TDI. Looks like it will be in budget but my questions are: Tuning Boxes: I have it on very good authority that DTUK do a programmable box for this engine with some good gains to be had, a stage 1 and stage 2 box are available. Anyone tried it? if so was it reliable, good increase in performance and fuel consumption Dealers: Up North - Newcastle/Durham has anyone had good/bad service from local dealers? Thanks in advance all, Paul

What are the options for tuning an Octy II VRS TDI? Are there tuning boxes on the market yet that actually work with this engine? Are there any companies remapping the ECU either? Is this engine just the same as the TDI 140 or not? Thanks in advance Paul.

essentially it will be fine, as long as you don't go over 10K or drive like a hooligan 100% of the time. sounds like the dealer is trying to cut costs as the specific oil, the VW spec long life oil is quite a bit more expensive. Magnetec is only a semi-syn oil too and not fuly syn, i would be asking questions of the dealer and get them to write you a letter stating that it won't cause issues if you make a claim in the future.

cool, cheers. Was gonna move to Pagid Blues on the Elise once the Aluminium MMC brake discs wear out, but I have heard that these can last upto 100k miles...!

A question on brakes Am I correct in thinking that Octy vRS brakes are 312mm discs mated to single piston callipers? Next, has anyone gone down the stainless steel braided brake line route, if so how much did the lines cost? More, Pads

TBH a fluid change in our climate is best done every 12 months. Most people will never tell the difference when the fluid is changed (unless there was air in the system before making the brakes soft) until they start using the brakes with some force. I tracked my car for the first time in September and it had a fluid change in the May, the car had only covered 1000 miles between the new fluid going in and the trackday and I managed to pretty much boil it in the first session! That was with Super DOT4 in an Elise, which weighs 730kg...!!!! A good choice of fluid would be a good super DOT4 with a high boiling point. they can be bought from most good motor factors or Halfords and are not that expensive. Silicone based fluids are the next setp but are very expensive and it is a bit of a heartache having to bleed your whole system and watching this new expensive fluid being pumped out of the calipers when your are trying to get the last bit of air out!

thats the hammer- quality, cheers mate

As in the title - any one post a few pics of a vRS Est with non standard rims, preferable Audi items (either genuine or replica's) Thanks in advance - Paul

Use a genuine Skoda filter, it will only cost a few quid more than the Halfords one but just for peace of mind. I have seen some so called OE quality aftermarket oil filters that have been opened up and the filter itself was crap in comparison to the genuine OE one

This is like many of the threads I read in the Lotus Elise forums, usually titled “how much power is reliable” and the short answer is It can’t be determined. All of us have different driving styles, habits etc and even though the Fab is built on probably one of the better production lines in Europe, VAG still have to work to tolerances with all of their components. Lets take the clutch for example as it does seem to be the most common cause for concern for the Fab. My driving style is to get up to speed and stick my car in top gear and cruise along at 60-70. When I want to overtake I drop a cog or two depending on the situation and zip away. Other people will just leave the car in top and let the torque do the work, causing more stress on the clutch. Then each clutch will be different, if you put 10 of the clutches on a test bed and operated them identically, they would all fail at different times. However there does seem to be a common thread with the clutch failing at approx 30k miles on most unmapped cars and 20-30k on mapped cars, although there are exceptions to this. What you need to consider is driving style and torque (not power as such) 300lb/ft seems to munch the clutch pretty quickly so if you want a reliable clutch with slip free operation with your remap a clutch change would be advised. The tuning of diesel cars is not new, but has become more common in recent years and tuners have been quick to point out that big gains can be made with just a simple chip. In my Elise a managed to gain 54BHP and 20lb/ft torque with a multitude of substantial mods, and this didn’t have any effect on the clutch. The torque was increased by 17% but in the Fab you can be looking at up to 35% increase in torque with a chip or CC remap. Manufacturers have always built in allowances on all of their products to take in to account driving style, so my 17% increase in torque should be OK in the Elise, but a 35% increase in a Fab will never have been built into the design of the clutch hence the slip. Finally this will now cause a wave of people with standard cars to shout that their clutches have been slipping at 10, 15 20K and this can only be explained in one way – the car has a clutch that is not “fit for purpose” so if you all want to do something about it, club together and contact Skoda UK with your issues. This has worked in the Lotus community on at least one occasion with good results!

that's why Lotus offer a factory re-trim service for owners, very resonable in price too

But with a few mods like the PD160 intake and green filter, SMIC mod, and CC stage 2 remap should a vRS knock the socks off a VTS? As for the twisties I can say the VTS is top of the pops, but the vRS with some matched dampers and springs/uprated antiroll bars and even bigger brakes should help things along just nicely.

That sounds a bit like me to be honest, but I already had a company car so the Elise was always going to be a fun toy and not a day to day run-around. I have changed my job roles recently so I had to give the company car back hence the Elise was thrust into being my daily car