skinnyman

I've just seen this as I've not been on all week. I took a couple of photos in case you still need them. Front : Rear : They may not be to the nearest millimetre but I hope this helps.

I actually do remember that video. 😁 It looks reasonably quiet on the track compared to some of the videos I see nowadays. I've yet to go myself as work, family etc seems to take up all my free time... Anyway, I'm still plugging away with a Mk1 and will keep doing so as long as possible. 👍

I too remember those heady days as I joined in 2006. I recall people like Mr Wonder as they modified what were relatively new cars at the time. My black Mk1 vRS was new from the dealership in March 2006 so was under warranty until 2009, which seems crazy for a Mk1. By the time I could modify it, most things had been done many times. Things are in a very different era now. This was highlighted to me recently when R Tech said they would no longer tune the 1.8t 20v engine as it is too old. 😔 Still, if phrases such as 'Like a king' echo around Briskoda from time to time there's still hope for us old timers.

Another week, another small issue. The weld on the rear of the clutch pedal gave way a couple of weeks ago. I was just leaving Lidl’s car park when there was a cracking noise, followed by the clutch pedal hitting the floor. It would pull up again but it wasn’t attached to anything. I managed to push it into a parking bay to have a look. I found these pieces in the footwell : Broken pieces of plastic and metal is never a good sign & I knew that the car needed to be towed so phoned the RAC for help. They weren’t any help at all and I won’t bore you with the details so I sorted it myself and had the car taken to my trusted garage. The recovery company were great and I owe them a big thank you for doing what the RAC said wasn't possible due to the heat on the day......🤬 I did a bit of research online and ordered the pedal from Cardiff Audi. In the end I ordered an Audi TT pedal for £79.94, part number 1J2 721 319 C and the clips needed 1H0 721 357 and 1J2 721 332 A. They're the same as the Octavia and Mk4 Golf parts but the price at the time was better than the listings for the Skoda. Cardiff Audi delivered the parts to the garage and they were swapped over for a bargain price of £60. The master cylinder rod was slightly bent but luckily the clutch switch wasn't broken so that saved me another cost. It seems that this is a common thing on the Golf, Leon, Audi A3 - https://www.uk-mkivs.net/threads/clutch-pedal-broken.364457/ - and is a design fault that can happen at any time. I’m hoping that mine will be good for another 19 years. 🤞

The thought had crossed my mind. Having said that, I'm toying with the idea of a WRC spoiler but finding one near me is proving difficult.

The car passed its MOT this week. It needed two rear bearings to get through as there was quite a bit of play in them apparently but I figured that isn't too bad for 19 years old. I'd noticed that the roof was quite faded and ideally was in need of paint. I had been toying with the idea of wrapping it so took the plunge and went with gloss black. I'm not 100% sure yet but it looks better in the metal/vinyl than it does in the photos, plus it is much better than patchy pink. The black ties in with the mirrors, wheels & grille and if I decide it really isn't what I want, it can be easily taken off. The MAF seems to be holding up so far, no codes or lights have popped up and I'm hoping that this continues to be the case. The car does feel to be running smoother since the swap so maybe the old one had been playing up for a while? I still have to sort out the rear spacer issue but seeing as I've just had two bills it might have to wait a month or so.

If the Bosch unit I've put on does the job & doesn't throw up any codes then I'll be quite happy. If it does then I'm going to have to stump up for another and it'll cost me dearly. Fingers crossed....🤞

I'm impressed with the engine mount swap. What sort of cost was it for the parts and how long did it take to do?

So, another update on the car. I got the PS5s fitted to the wheels a couple of weeks ago. They are a cracking tyre and I can't fault them yet as they seem to hook up even better than the PS4s I had on before. I was so giddy about the grip levels that I took the car out and was driving in a spirited manner. The MAF must have been on its way out as the WOT and heat we've had ended up in the EML and traction control light coming on. A quick scan showed a P0102 code. I took the MAf off and looked at the part numbers to try and get a replacement from Skoda. The local VAG parts department is really helpful and they apologised that the cost would be close to £200 inc vat and they also needed the MAF off the car in exchange. Their computer said that they no longer make the unit and it's an exchange for some reason. It looks like the unit on the car was already an exchange part so Skoda said I couldn't exchange a non-original MAF anyway. Suits me really as £200 is a bit steep. Anyway, I confirmed the part number and set about finding one from somewhere else. I ended up cross referencing the numbers and found that the Bosch 0 280 218 340 unit should work. I managed to find it for £74 on ebay and so far, so good. I've done a few miles in both urban and out of town driving and the car has yet to throw up any codes. Fingers crossed it stays that way as the MOT is due in a few weeks so I really don't want a dashboard full of lights causing and instant fail. On another note, I'm still faffing around with the rear wheel spacing. The offset on the OZ wheels is very high I reckon - I bought them without knowing the exact figure. I ran them on the 15mm spacers with the new tyres for a bit and all seemed well until I gave a couple of people a lift and the tyres rubbed ever so slightly. We're not talking a huge amount but I don't want any rubbing at all so I've taken them off for now & as you can see, the wheels sit way too far into the arch & look a bit crap. The spigot is the issue so I may have a solution for it that I'm going to try when the car's in for the MOT. If it works I'll post up here with the results.

That's a shame. Hopefully you'll get it back on the road before too long and start to enjoy it again. I know from my own cars they don't like to be sat for extended periods of time as they somehow develop additional issues whilst not even moving!

Today's commute home from work.

Thanks. We've had it since 2013 and it's an amazing car to drive. Small power but even smaller weight and it goes round corners so well.

I had to drop the wife's ID badge off at her work and parked up in front of her car. On the way back I took this pic as it's not often we see them both out and about together. I then got up for the sunrise this morning seeing as it was the 21st of the month. There weren't any druids around where I was but I did take a photo that captured a bit of the car. Here's one just for the sake of it.

You'll have to put a video up as I enjoy seeing how your car does against others on track.

Now that's a sign of commitment if I ever saw one. 😁

It seems that you make pretty good progress against the other cars. Did you say yours is Stage 2? As for the TrackDay Hub, I'll have a look to see if the planets can align and allow me to book a day at a circuit.

I'm getting more used to the wheels as the days go by. On the way over to Bolton today I stopped off at Birch services and as I was walking back to the car I took this photo as I thought the car looked okayish. Having said that, I've ordered some PS5s so the 18" wheels will be going back on in a week or so.

Just seen this. I'd love to take mine on track but work/kids etc always gets in the way. Whenever there's a track day I can't get time off work. Whenever I'm off work, there isn't a track day. Also, my car is my daily so if I broke it in a dramatic fashion I'd be quite unhappy. I even bought a car a couple of years ago that was set up as a track car but never got to use it in anger and had to sell it.🙄

A cracking choice of wheel. They should look really good on the estate.

Thanks for the input. I'm glad it's not just me that thinks they're too small. I reckon they look more like the 16" wheels the original vRS estate came with, which look lost on a car like the Octavia. I've ordered some 12mm spacers so hopefully they'll arrive next week. I'll have a think about the replacement tyres as when the PS4s hook up they really do improve the handling of the car. As for your Ronals, I thought they looked pretty good to be honest. I was aware of the weight but from a styling point of view, I liked them. The Speedlines will be a good mix of styling versus weight and as you say, they will be similar to the OZ wheels.

The tyres had been rubbing on the rear arch liner, it was minimal rubbing but still, it's not something I am too keen on. I decided to put the old Pro Race 1.2 wheels back on until I can figure out what the next move is. I can't decide if I really dislike them or if I've just got used to the 18" OZ wheels. Personally I think they look too small, despite them being the same size as the 17" Spiders. I prefer a wheel that's flat or dished and these are convex . This particular shade of silver looks quite cheap and a bit bling and compared to the OZ wheels, they look quite fussy/frumpy. There is one bonus, they have pretty much new RS3s all round so I've got about two years of driving left in them. I think I know what I need to do to stop the rubbing. I can either run the OZ wheels without 15mm spacers but that looks wrong with them tucked into the arches. I just need some 12mm hubcentric spacers and the 3mm difference will stop the tyre making contact with the arch liner. That's my theory anyway as I did some basic maths based on the two sets of wheels. The ET on the OZ wheels is 45 and on the TD wheels it's 48. The TD wheels are on the 15mm spacers and after a spirited drive yesterday to get used to the difference in handling I couldn't see any evidence of rubbing on the RS3s. This may be totally wrong but it's worth a try. I have two sets of H&R 10mm spacers and thought about running them but they don't fit on the rear hubs. They aren't deep enough to fit over the lip on the hub so they won't sit flush & rock from side to side. I looked at the cost of some 12mm hubcentric spacers yesterday and was quite surprised to see that they are almost £90 now! I also need to replace the tyres on the 18" wheels and am undecided on what to go for. They currently have Michelin PS4s which I think are an amazing tyre in the right conditions. However, for six or seven months of the year they aren't much use and I have to tiptoe around on them, waiting for the temperature to rise or the roads to dry. I used to like the RS3s but after the drive yesterday I realised they are nowhere near as capable as the Michelins. I looked into some all season tyres as we have them on the van and after three years I can't fault them for year round performance. I know that the American market can get performance all season tyres but unfortunately we can't over here which is a shame. So, I'll let you decide if the TD wheels are wrong as I'm not sure I can live with them for various reasons and I'm off to try and source some 12mm spacers.

Good point. 👍

I've figured it out. It took two cups of coffee, some flapjack and a bit of logical thinking. If both mechanisms were doing the same thing, it must be me who's doing something wrong. In the end I realised that the pin mechanism that goes up & down has to be as far over as possible to the left when unlocked. Then I figured that the tab that fits to the handle needed some fine tuning. Too far in & the door wouldn't open. Too far out and it moved the pin mechanism out of position. Get it just right and it works!

I might need a bit of advice on this one. The new lock mechanism turned up during the week. I had a bit of time today to swap the old for new as it only takes about 15 minutes at the most. I checked the two mechanisms side by side first and all seemed well. The replacement wasn't exactly the same, as you can see there's a spring not fitted to the replacement. However, this doesn't seem to affect the working of the lock so I went ahead and fitted it. I felt quite happy with things until I pressed the key fob to lock and then tried to reopen the door. It was deadlocked. You can imagine the language that followed so I'll spare you having to be exposed to that. Anyway, no matter what I tried the door just wouldn't open. I was just about to drill the new mechanism to wind it back manually and the car locked itself as it does when you haven't opened the driver's door after unlocking it. I unlocked the car, tried the rear door and it opened. Now the sensible thing to do would have been to stop and think, except I shut the door and locked the car to see if it had decided to work. Deadlocked again. So I repeated the unlocking without opening the driver's door a few times and on the fifth attempt the rear door opened. This time I took the lock out and refitted the original as it was working just fine despite having holes drilled in it. Half an hour before this, the original was working perfectly but on refitting it and locking the car, it now decided to deadlock itself! I've tried using both locks manually whilst unplugged and both are deciding to deadlock for some reason. Both work intermittently by using the old trick of banging the door in the right place. Both old and new mechanisms are acting in the same way when plugged in and when not plugged in. I'd understand if one was doing this but both mechanisms are acting the same way and it's driving me a bit crazy. The door loom looks fine and in fairness it's been working perfectly all week. I've stopped for now as I needed a break before I lose the plot. The car is unlocked and the rear door opens at the moment. It's on the drive behind the van so it's not going anywhere but I'd rather have it locked overnight. Does anyone have a clue as to what's happening and what I could do next?

It was bound to happen at some point. The rear offside door deadlocked itself during the week with no prior warning- maybe it was the shock of passing the 120k mark the other day. Whatever, I had to get it sorted as the MOT will be coming up soon and a deadlocked door is an instant fail. I looked around on the forum for guides and set about taking the door card off from the inside. To be fair, it was fairly simple & nothing broke or snapped in the process of removing the card. I was a bit surprised to see that the membrane behind the card was an old plastic bag. Having said that it must have been doing a good job over the years as there haven't been any issues of water ingress. I then tried to get into the lock mechanism with a blade but in the end it needed drilling. Once I'd wound the lock far enough the door popped open. All I need to do now is order a new lock from Ebay and fit it all back together. I'll not be putting the door card on until the new lock is fitted, just in case.