skinnyman

Catch can time. Lots of gunk in there for some reason but as I have said before, at least it's not going back into the engine. Also, the car tipped over the 120k mark at the weekend. Sounds a lot but that's an average of about 6300 miles a year, which isn't a huge amount I guess.

That's good to know, as it always surprises me how much gunk ends up in there. We did a trek over from Scarborough to Denby Dale yesterday. I'd filled up with V Power at home before we set off and as always on a longer run I try to take it steady as there's no point in trying to rush in holiday traffic. Anyway, here's yet another photo (taken by the Mrs) to show the trip computer as we were getting to the journey's end. The car also said we'd averaged 49mpg as we rolled into Denby Dale. Admittedly, I'm being a bit obsessive about this at times but it's good entertainment on a longer journey to see what MPG I can get. There was the occasional use of the right foot to get into traffic or to relieve the boredom otherwise I might as well have taken the diesel van but on the whole the journey was calm and efficient. I remember reading an article a few years back on hypermiling. I think it was Evo mag and they'd entered a competition with a VXR8 alongside people with a Prius and other eco cars. They fared really well in the overall rankings with somewhere in the 30s mpg as percentage wise it was a massive hike over the official Vauxhall figures. The other cars achieved amazing figures, way above the Vauxhall, but didn't rank as well as their official figures were pretty high in the first place. I guess that's why I'm on a quest to see what can be done when on a longer run. Rest assured though, my average mpg is way lower as I try to enjoy the car as much as possible. The Fuelly figures below are more of a true reflection of how I use the car.

Thanks for that. I'll have a look at getting a set of those, although they have gone up in price quite a bit since I last bought some!

I think they are et45 and they are 8J, they're on 10mm hubcentric spacers at the front, 15mm at the rear. They have metal spigot rings which were on when I bought them second hand. They came off a MK5 Golf & he'd run them on 5x100 to 5x112 spacers. The PS4s were on them when I bought the wheels & he'd obviously had some rubbing issues as there were some small marks on the outer edge of the tyres but nothing that affected the structure. I have a sneaking suspicion that mine might have rubbed a bit too at the rear but I can't decide if that's down to my imagination or not. Maybe a 10mm spacer would be better but I can't find any hubcentric versions that clear the rear hub, so the 15mm is the next size up that fits.

I've always liked the Turini. Looks wise, 18" for sure. Subjective feel and comfort, 17" I reckon. There'd be more flex in the sidewall on the 17" but that'd be the only downside I could see to the smaller wheel.

The torque figure after the tweak to the map should give a noticeable shove in the back now. To be honest, I drove round in my previous MK1 with similar figures for about four years and it was just about right on the standard suspension etc. As for the wheels, I've tried all sorts over the years. I don't know what the exact weight of the Ronal 18" is but I'm currently on 18" OZ Ultraleggera which work really well. From a quick bit of Googling, the Ronals come up at roughly 16kg and the OZ wheels at less than 10kg. The Ronals must feel a bit like when I fitted some Audi Fat 5s to my original Mk1 which killed the handling & I took them off after a day, returned to the 17" Spider and stuck with them till I sold the car. The OZ wheels are so much lighter than the standard 17" Spiders (over 18kg from memory) and the car feels quite happy on them but they aren't cheap. I also have a set of 17" Pro Race 1.2 in the loft which I keep thinking about fitting again. They have pretty much brand new tyres on so I might as well run them for a while just to compare. Keep up the good work as it is great to see someone investing time, effort and obviously money in a Mk1 to improve and develop their car.

I spent yesterday cleaning, polishing, machine polishing, cleaning and repeating. The overall effect is a nice shiny car but I couldn't help being reminded of the Polo Harlequin. I know the car is going to be 19 years old in a month or so and that it's had an interesting and fun filled life before I became the current custodian. I'm also aware that compared to some cars half its age the car is in amazing condition but I'm always looking to improve things. A full respray would be the obvious solution but that's not going to happen any time soon. The roof is in need of some TLC, as is the bonnet. If I have those resprayed then I reckon the overall effect would improve no end. The rear bumper has a small crack from a previous owner which niggles me every time I see it so I think that this is maybe the way to go for now. My only reservation is that red is such a bugger of a colour to match up that it might tip me over the edge if they aren't spot on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

What sort of power/torque are you aiming for then? I've got used to the Stage 2 as a daily and keep thinking about squeezing a bit more out of the car at some point. Trouble is, when the weather is wet, cold or the roads are greasy it's pointless trying to use the existing power anyway. Fitting an LSD would help but I think even then there would be quite a few months of the year when it would still be a bit frustrating. The car is looking great by the way and I'm quite conscious about the time you've put into it as it makes me look neglectful in comparison.

I do like a yellow Mk1 vRS. When properly clean they look amazing and yours definitely falls into that category.

Sorry, it sold on eBay a while ago. 😟 As for the oil, it was a bit of an experiment to go for the more expensive stuff, just to see what it was like.

Another couple of jobs sorted out there. The pickup pipe looked remarkably free of debris but it's good to know it's sorted. The crankcase breather replacement is interesting & I can see the sense in doing it that way to prevent more plastic falling inside next time. I'm also using Millers 5w40 oil & it seems to be fine. I went for the Nanodrive NT+ just to see what it was like. I guess they're both very similar and I'm sure mine uses less oil since making the switch to 5w40.

The car has been running fine since the sensor was changed so that's a bonus. I've also noticed that the fuel economy has improved since, even on cold mornings. My usual commute would give me just over 30mpg when the temp was around 5 degrees Celsius. Since replacing the sensor with a genuine version, it is now around 34 to 36 mpg over the course of the working week. I did a slightly longer run today and was quite pleased to see the numbers on the trip computer were back to where I expected them to be. I'd been dipping into the high twenties over a tank which was annoying, especially as I was trying to be careful. Today's Fuelly fill up said the car had averaged 38.29mpg over 190 miles. Admittedly the ambient temperature was 11 degrees but even so, that's much better. The 190 miles had been a mixture of two long runs of 60 miles and the rest was stop-start traffic. As you can see, there's a theoretical 545 miles from the tank according to the trip computer. Don't worry about me driving and taking pictures either, the Mrs was the photographer. I also turn the traction control off every time I drive the car as I find my right foot is safer than the on/off system the car uses by default. Just after filling up, the computer thought I'd be able to get a whopping 580 miles out of a tank if I kept driving in the same manner as I had for the previous hour and a half. The trip reading for the journey today was reading 47.8 just before I filled up. I know nobody buys a Stage 2 vRS for the fuel economy but it's interesting to see what can be achieved if it's driven carefully.

That's a great looking car and credit to you for all the work that's gone into it.

That looks a lot better than it did & should keep the water out for a long while yet.

It looks like the new sensor has cured the problem. After leaving the car overnight it started first time today, better than it ever has done to be honest. I reckon the sensor must have been on its way out for a while as the difference in how it started and ran today was very noticeable. It's amazing how such a simple component can affect the running of a car to the point where it won't start.

Update : I took the car to my trusted garage this morning. They did a scan which showed very little other than a slightly erratic reading from the coolant sensor. It was on/off/on/off as the car was running and being scanned at the same time. I popped down to my local VW parts department and luckily they had the sensor and O ring in stock. I have fitted the sensor and the car started just fine but I'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if the problem has actually gone. Fingers crossed.....

It has climate control as standard, it's fairly basic but it works well. Auto means the aircon pump is working, Econ not. I tend to set a temperature in Auto and leave it to do its own thing. Econ just means that the aircon is off but the car will maintain the temperature without using the cooling facility of the aircon. Basically it'll heat the car up and cool it as best it can but in the summer you won't be able to sit there at 18 degrees inside the car if the outside temp is in the low 20s. Some people remove the SAI as it can be easier than fixing it. There's a link here,

I can't help you with the grommet, sorry. I just wanted to say well done for removing all that crud from the car. It must weigh 2kg less now that all that mud & stuff has been removed!

Well, it's not sorted. I've spent most of the day looking into this on the internet and it seems that there's a few possible solutions. You're right in saying it could be the crank sensor as that's on my list. So is the coolant sensor and a throttle body reset. I don't have access to VAG-Com so I'm hoping it isn't the throttle body. I'll be onto my local Skoda dealer tomorrow for a couple of prices for the two sensors. Some forums talk of a knackered MAF or fuel pump but I'll try to eliminate the less expensive stuff first. I'm not too worried as it runs fine after the second attempt but reading a few posts on VAG forums suggests it could get worse and leave me stranded. Luckily I have a van to use till this is sorted as I'm not keen on running cars that aren't spot on.

I've been a bit quiet of late so a small update is overdue. It was time to clean out the catch can again. I've covered roughly 1200 miles since the last time I emptied it and as you can see, there was quite a lot in there again. It's quite a satisfying job when it's done as knowing all that goo wasn't going back into the engine. I also had an uncharacteristic problem yesterday. The car took three attempts to start up in the morning. It turned over, fired and then died. Even when it did begin to run it was lumpy and felt like it was on three cylinders. Once it was up and running things were fine. On the way home from work it did the same so I decided to clean the throttle body. I already had a gasket in as it's on my list of jobs to do. I knew that it had been done once already due to an earlier post by a previous owner. I seem to recall it was somewhere between 70 and 80k so it was well overdue. I took the hose off expecting to find things all gunked up but this is what I found. There was a bit of build up but nothing too bad. I did notice that the gasket wasn't visible with the throttle body in place and on removal it was a bit wet as you can see in the picture. I cleaned things up anyway, removed the old gasket and put things back together. I then left the car to sit for a couple of hours and fired it up. It started first time and ran nice and smooth. The real test will be in the morning so I'll let you know what happens. I've also attached a photo of the two gaskets for comparison as you can clearly see they are different shapes and that the new one is visible when the throttle body is in place. I was daft enough to think I was on top of things and then noticed that the rear nearside door hadn't locked with the fob. I locked it manually & then opened the door on the fob & it seems to work again. I reckon I'll be getting my soldering iron out soon to repair the wiring in the door. There's always something isn't there?🙄

That's some good progress so far and cleaning the carpet is something I keep meaning to do... As for the crud behind the scuttle panel, that looks like it's never been done. I don't think I've ever seen one so full of gunk and removing it all can only be a good thing.

From what I can gather, they're not available anymore and I've never seen one for sale second hand. Mind you, I'm not on Facebook so maybe they come up on the owners club on there? I'll hang onto mine for now if that's okay?😁

I bought this one as mine was past its best. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142407385975 I then got a genuine sensor from Skoda and it's been fine since.

Once fitted you could add a cold air feed a bit like mine. It works well and I've never had any issues with water getting into the filter the via pipe. Just don't drive through any really deep water and you'll be okay. Also, please excuse the state of the engine bay, it's my daily driver and winter has taken it's toll on what is normally a reasonably clean bay.

I could do with tackling my door cards as that's a massive improvement. Which brush did you use on the drill?