Hi, I've just had all four coil springs on my 2002 VRS replaced with Partco (unipart) replacements sourced using the car registration. The car now sits very high & looks very wrong. The gaps from top of tyre to bottom of wheel arch are - front 70mm & rear 60mm.

Handling is terrible when pushed, it wallows on corners & the inside front wheel loses grip bringing in the traction control. I feel that the new springs are for a non VRS Octavia with higher ride height but Partco say as all parts are identified using the registration there is no mistake. They also say they cannot now identify spares from a car make & model only from the reg hich seems strange to me.

The mechanic who fitted them agrees the car looks wrong but says when buying from a motor factor the replacement parts may not be exactly as per Skoda replacements.

I say they should either supply a direct replacement or tell customers they don't have the springs for that particular model.

I'm now £250 down & have a VRS the height of a Octavia 4by4 with poor handling.

Anyone had a similar experience?

Who's to blame & where do I go from here? Any advice welcomed thanks.

Sounds like these are the wrong springs,have you priced OE springs from Skoda dealer,or you could get H&Rsprings which are correct for vRS, and are available here

H&R / Springs / Skoda Octavia RS Saloon + Estate, 2002- (177BHP) Type: 1U, Only RS 1,8l T 2WD, 132KW / Euro Performance Car Parts

or I think Awesome do them,but I don't think they are on their web page.

some one had done that on the back of mine when i got it so i changed the lot for a set i knew were for the car now it sits a bit lower than standard get them taken off and sent back if they dont meet manufactures specs then they realy cant sell them as vrs springs

After a quick measure of my Elegance and a mate's vRS, I can confirm that you're running a non-vRS arch gap.

Surely if they supplied them as the right items it's their problem not yours. They said they are right and there not.

They should give you a refund and pay for the re-fitting I reckon.

Surely if they supplied them as the right items it's their problem not yours. They said they are right and there not.

They should give you a refund and pay for the re-fitting I reckon.

Absolutely f*cking spot on Dave! Get in there and kick some butt!!!!!

Thanks very much for all the excellent info guys. I don't know anyone personally with a VRS so I find it priceless. I've emailed skoda uk for a point of measurement for ground clearance as it's given in the 'Technical Data' book as 119mm (15mm lower than the others except for four-wheel drive).

I phoned another Partco depot & they were very helpful. They gave me part numbers from my cars make & model without the registration number (like the good old days!). It is listed as an Octavia RS which a Skoda dealer confirmed is the VRS.

I was quite surprised to be given the same part numbers as those just fitted.

I drove the car harder today to see if it would settle down. It felt slightly better cornering.

I'm going to reserve judgement until I make a 'ground clearance' measurement after a little driving. 15mm isn't much (difference between VRS to other Octavias) so I suppose I need to check it.

Kind regards,

Wuzz:thumbup:

I had a front spring snap on my vRS. An independent garage replace both fronts for me with supposed vRS springs. The car looked like it was taking off and the handling was awfull. I was convinced they were wrong, but the missus said I was just being fussy as usual. I waited for them to settle, but they never did. Got fed up of driving around looking like an idiot, so I used it as an excuse to replace the springs for a full set of H&R's and the frankly appalling standard shocks for Koni FSDs as reccomended by many on this site.

Never looked back! Much much better.