skinnyman

Well, I've gone & spent some more money on the car. I've just put in a set of Recaros from a Mk4 Golf. They're from a three door but they fit fine & I'm not bothered about the catches on the side of the seats. They were the best set I could find at the time & for 20 year old seats they are in good condition. There's minimal wear to the bolsters and I'm looking forward to not having to worry about the white inserts any more. I got them because the Skoda seats don't give me the support I need on longer journeys. Hopefully these will be better for my back & I'll not have to hobble across car parks any more after a longer drive. There's a small issue of a missing plastic part from the sliding mechanism but I've temporarily sorted it for now. I'll see how I get on with them & will probably sell the originals in the near future. Next is the door cards as they look terrible at the moment. I'm undecided about what to do so any suggestions are welcome.

I've been noticing a Mazda colour of late that keeps catching my eye. I think it's called Soul Red Crystal & it looks amazing in the sun. Not sure about it on a Mk1 but it's definitely eye catching.

I've had a look (after finding my glasses first!) & can't see anything that look like the bits I need. I've just checked the seat and it looks like there's two different shaped pieces. I wonder if anyone has a second hand part as it's a shame not to use the seats just because of this.

I need a bit of help please. I bought some Recaros for the Octavia yesterday and have found a bit of a problem. The driver's seat is missing two small plastic parts in the mechanism that allows the seat to move backwards and forwards. This is allowing the seat to rock ever so slightly when you push on the brake or change gear. It's quite annoying and I wondered if anyone on here could help me with the part number? I've circled the part on my original Octavia seats as I'm assuming they'll be the same. Thanks in advance.

Right. The clutch kit is in and I'm back on the road. In the end the kit cost £547 https://www.awesomegti.com/shop-by-brand/ecs-tuning/ecs-stage-1-clutch-kit-228mm-5-speed/ plus delivery and then fitting was £325. My wallet is a lot lighter but at least I'm back in the car for my daily commute. I'll need to bed the clutch in for a few miles before I give it WOT so that'll test my self control over the next few weeks. Initial impressions are that it feels smooth and there's no noticeable vibration at the moment. I reckon that the unknown hybrid kit that came out must have had a lighter flywheel as it seems that the car is ever so slightly less keen to pick up at low revs. This may not be the case as I've only done about 50 miles but I'll report back on that after a few weeks. Apparently, the old clutch had pretty much torn itself apart and the middle simply fell out so it's a good job I stopped using the car when I noticed it slipping. There aren't any photos I'm afraid but I thought a quick update was in order.

Looking good. It's a slippery slope you're on now. One mod leads to another & before you know it your bank account is empty & the Mrs is wondering where the new kitchen fund has gone. 😁

The figures are 235bhp and 301lbft. You win in Skoda Top Trumps. 😁

Some days the DIY doesn't go very well. Some days it all goes better than planned. Today was a good day in terms of maintenance for a small outlay. My passenger door lock had been making some strange noises of late. As some of you might be aware the car needs a new clutch and for various reasons beyond my control, it's been sat for over a month now. I always say that cars don't like being idle and if they feel neglected they'll cause problems. This week when checking that the car was okay the passenger door failed to open on the key fob. Bugger. I then tried to open it from the inside with no success and had visions of having to butcher the door card to get to the internals. I remembered a guide that had a hi-tech solution so tried that first before cutting things up. I hit the door on the handle and luckily it opened. I left the car unlocked for the rest of the week and ordered an ebay special lock mechanism. https://www.ebay.co.uk/ipp/151173095196?transactionId=2206303453005 I decided to fit the lock this morning and it didn't take too long. It was fairly straightforward and when connected it worked a treat. I have no idea how long it will last but there's a year's no quibble guarantee and at least the door works. Here's a couple of photos with the necessary bits swapped over ready to fit into the door. Because I then felt like mechanic of the year I decided to look into something that has been annoying me for some time. The OSR door hasn't worked off the fob since getting the car. I changed the lock mechanism last year and it didn't work. I figured that there must be a break in the wiring somewhere and found this. So, out came the soldering iron and a repair section of wiring. It was heat shrinked (is that a word - shrinked?) wrapped up in the correct tape and reconnected. I did a little happy dance on the drive when the door fired into life and celebrated with a coffee and biscuit. I now have four doors that open off the fob and a warm feeling inside knowing that it was all solved for £25.00. This will no doubt be cancelled out when I eventually get the car booked in for the clutch replacement and I'm left with a ££££ bill but for now I'm happy.

Nice. Very similar to mine in terms of figures and as you say, still driveable as a daily if needed. edit : I've found the old graph, just to compare.

It's very tempting. I called yesterday and was told it's going to be next week now. No apology just that's how it is.....🙄

I'd be interested to see some pics of that & how you fit the loom as it's something I'm considering. 👍

Great thread and I'm impressed with how you are cracking on with things. I'm looking to change the carpet & wondered how long it took to swap things over?

There's always something to do on older cars. As long as you're still rolling, that's the main thing.

It'll be interesting to see how the other options last and with hindsight maybe I should have looked at things a bit further. On another note, I'm still waiting for the clutch kit to be delivered. I ordered it from Awesome on 1st September and it still hasn't been posted. There's been a delay with ECS sending their stuff out, a delay with shipping from the US, a delay at customs and now a delay with whatever is happening now. If I'd known it'd be a month before it was even getting shipped I'd have looked elsewhere. I'm a patient individual and can appreciate a certain amount of delay but even I am starting to sound a bit sarcastic in my commutations with Awesome.

Welcome to the forum and well done for getting a Mk1. It's been really good to see a recent batch of new owners on here who are set on looking after their Mk1 Octavias. As numbers dwindle and the rough cars are scrapped or broken it seems that there's a new wave of people who are appreciating the MK1 for what it is and for what can be done to them. My car has had a lot of work by previous owners and myself to keep it going but at the end of the day, it's still a decent car that can be used every day. The list of things you have planned will definitely help to make it run better and if done in the right order will leave you with a reliable daily that can surprise a few people.

I remember my first ever drive of a MK1 vRS. I was selling my S14 200sx as we'd found out our first child was on the way & needed a bigger car. I went to Harrogate to test a brand new vRS and drove over in the Nissan. On the test drive, the salesman encouraged me to put my foot down on a stretch of dual carriageway and I genuinely thought the mat was stuck under the accelerator pedal due to the lack of get up and go. I bought one anyway as I knew it could be remapped but it wasn't the rocket ship I had expected. As I got to know the car I learned how to get the best out of it but when the warranty ended I went straight out for a Stage 1 map and never looked back. Now I have a Stage 2 car I don't think I could live with a standard vRS as it would just frustrate me every time I drove it. My mate is into Hondas, he owns a DC2 Integra and his daily is an EP3. When we compared the EP3 to a standard vRS (when both cars were new at the time and standard), the Skoda was definitely quicker than the EP3 in a straight line. However, when we got to some corners it's game over for the Octavia on its standard suspension set up.. I also know what you mean about connecting with the car. I've owned a lot of cars and this is definitely one that gets under your skin. Surprisingly though, the other I would have back in a heartbeat is my Vectra VXR.

Looks like it's in pretty good condition. Other than the suspension does it have any other mods? On another note, I was behind a Zafira GSI yesterday in Thirsk. I was telling the kids about them & how back in the day they were a bit of a weapon if modded correctly. 😁

Hmm. I contacted Darkside, gave them my reg & VIN and Jamie replied with the link for the more expensive kit. Ah well, I'll have to see what the ECS kit is like now. The thing is, I don't know what's in there at the moment. It might be a SMF but it might be the original DMF so I just thought I'd get everything to make sure. Worth knowing that, thanks. I've ordered the heavier flywheel on the advice from Darkside and the garage I use. When it eventually turns up I'm hoping that was the right choice as I'm quite happy with how the car drives and don't really want to change things too much.

I've decided to go with the ECS kit with the heavier flywheel from Awesome in the end. I couldn't quite stretch to the cost of the Darkside kit as it was nearly £900 including postage. I'm sure it would be a great choice but there'd be fitting on top of that and it was just too much. The ECS kit is £570 plus postage but the twist is that after I'd paid for it I was informed there's a two to three week back order. Luckily I can use the van or the Ignis for now but I want to get the car back on the road as it's easy for an expense like a clutch to put a car off the road for a while. If that happens it's possible for a car to still be sitting there a year later and that leads to all sorts of problems. The sooner it's back on the road the better. Thanks for the advice and opinions as it always helps to make a decision.

Well, the time has come to put a clutch in the Octavia. Under full boost there's a lot of slippage and it's getting worse as the miles pass by. The car is still driveable but it requires a light right foot and a lot of self control. Seeing as the car is running Stage 2 with 300lbft of torque, I'll need to get something that can handle the increase over standard torque. I'm a fairly sedate driver most of the time so the clutch wouldn't need to be doing launches every day, but I don't want to be changing things in a couple of years time. I've seen this from Awesome, https://www.awesomegti.com/shop-by-brand/ecs-tuning/ecs-stage-1-clutch-kit-228mm-5-speed/ but I don't necessarily need the lightened flywheel. I've had a look round and have got a bit confused by what's out there. I know a few people are running different setups and would appreciate knowing what you're day to day experiences are. I would like it to be as near to standard to drive as possible due to the Mrs using the car, so anything too awkward wouldn't go down very well. Price does come into the equation as always so that's also something to consider. Thanks in advance.

Hmm. Not sure what that means. Is my car producing too much liquid or is yours the opposite?

Same as you, I would like to take my car back to R-Tech to have the Stage 2 map refined. I've made changes since buying the car and despite it running really well at the moment, I'd like to know that it's operating as well as possible. As for the original question about remapping, I'd echo the general agreement that it's worth doing. I know my car has had a lot of modifications and a lot of money spent on it but you don't need to do that, a good quality Stage 1 map will transform the car. When I had my original Mk1 from new back in 2006 I had a Stage 1 remap with no other engine modifications. It ran absolutely fine for years so I'd say it's worth doing as the vRS is way too slow as standard. One word of caution though, I'd personally go with what Dean says and have a custom map done on a rolling road. I went for the generic laptop map first time round and it cost me dearly. The map might have been okay but my actuator wasn't so the turbo overspooled and destroyed itself. I had to have a new turbo fitted which cost me around £1200 in total at the time - my £200 remap didn't look like such a bargain after that. Lesson learned I went to RS Tuning in Leeds for a custom map and the car was spot on for many years. For the sake of another couple of hundred pounds on top of a generic map, I'd be much happier with a custom setup.

Yep. Yet again the car proved itself to still be relevant, useful and economical 18 years after it was first registered.

Right. Bit of an update on the car. Since my last post it’s had the timing belt, tensioners, water pump & thermostat done. I also had the oil pickup pipe replaced and the sump cleaned out as well as some Millers Nanodrive NT+ put in to see how it goes with a different weight of oil. I also wanted to see if the more expensive and different spec oil would make any difference to the consumption over the next few thousand miles. It had a good run over the weekend with a trip up to Knockhill for the BTCC - a round trip of around 460 miles from here in Scarborough. The car performed really well and the combination of everything that had been done meant it cruised up and back with no issues at all. The cruise control really came into its own and is well worth it for longer journeys. I nearly made it there and back on one tank of fuel but admitted defeat as we got into Whitby. The trip computer said we had another 30 miles in the tank but I didn’t want to risk dredging up any crud from the tank, so we filled up with V Power. I managed to get 411 miles out of the tank which I was very pleased with. We sat in race traffic for two hours trying to get into Knockhill so the MPG would have been better had we not sat for so long. At one point on the way back I had a theoretical 500 miles out of the tank but again, congestion brought that down a bit as there was a lot of traffic after Newcastle heading for the North Yorkshire coast.. The indicated 48.5 mpg was what the car was showing me on the way into Whitby on the way home on the journey from Edinburgh. The journey into Knockhill showed an indicated 29 mpg so overall that worked out as an average of 41 mpg for the whole weekend. (Just in case anyone is worried about the photo being taken on the move, the Mrs took this from the passenger seat - I had both hands firmly on the wheel.) I emptied the catch can when we got back as it’s done about 1200 miles since the last time I checked and it was pretty full. The orange colour in the liquid is coming from the wire wool in the can and it was less colourful in real life, not quite as Tango as it looks here. So nothing much to report other than we saw some amazing racing up at Knockhill and as always, it’s worth the effort of driving up there. Also, it gave me a good excuse to give the car a really good run and to simply enjoy having a vRS to drive up there and back.

I wouldn't worry too much about doing those three mods. I managed and if I can be successful then I'm sure you'll be fine. I followed Bowders' guides for all three whilst looking on the other 1.8t forums for any pitfalls that might be out there. As long as you've got all the bits needed before you start then it is all fairly straightforward. My car passed its MOT last week without any issues so if done correctly then the 1.8t engine still runs fine. If you want to know anything before you start, just ask and if I know the answer I'll help.