Hello from Russia! ;]

Would like to post some stuff about my Octy. A bit of the history though: I've used to own Mazda3 2.0 6MT (150 hp), which looked something like that:

Really liked this car, but unfortunately, it died in an accident (it was the other driver's fault, not mine). It took some time to get the money from the insurance company and then it was time to decided what car to buy. Actually, I had only two options: buy Mazda3 again or go with Octy, as I didn't have a lot of money to add.. and I don't quite like other cars in the class for that price.

So I decided to go with the Octy because it has turbo engine :]

Octivia I is sold as 'Octavia Tour' in Russia. I've got a WTS trim, meaning it has: RS rear spoiler, RS front and rear bumpers, climatrinic, sporty steering wheel and front seats... so basically all the essential stuff is there.

One more addition to the Russian Octavias is a so called 'Package for bad roads': it has some spacers under front strut mounts and it has longer rear spring, which makes the car approx. 2-3 cm higher than European version and it also makes it so unpleasent to drive!

The first thing I've tryed to do it to fix Work CR Kai 18" wheels from my Mazda, as they had dual bolt pattern, and on of them was 5x100.

Unfortunetelly, they don't match... I don't know what kind of bolts they require... maybe they work only with lugs, I don't know. So, I had to put them off. BTW, you can see how high the car is: you can put your entire hand between the arch and the wheel

The first mod was to color-code moldings and place B pillars (I think it improves a look of the car greatly):

The first 'hardware' mods were a short shifter from audi TT and JOM (damned) suspension. Audi TT shifter makes speed chanding really great. And as of a JOM suspension... it was a fail. I've created a thread about it somewhere on a forum.

The car looked low and cool, but it's because rear springs were designed for Golf, not octy, and they didn't work right. I could not go fast because of that so it was like I have 1.4 not 1.8T

Meanwhile, I've ordered Forge Splitter to make rice pssshhh sounds

Edited 5 September, 200916 yr by Novel

Then I realized that I'm owning the car for about 6 month and don't have any sound system yet! So I've installed JVC AVX820:

Then I've bought some used R32 18" wheels and bought a new set of Yokohama Advan Sport V103 225/40/18 tires:

Few days ago I've finally received a set of H&R -30mm springs and did some suspension upgrades: replaced rear JOM springs with H&R ones, also installed urethane rear coil spring isolators from ECS (don't know if they make any sense tbh):

and also installed ECS dogbone mount kit, which is a good mod in my opinion (better acceleration and shifting), though it adds some vibrations.

With the following mods car feels much better and more pleasant to drive. BTW, car's mileage is only 2300 km now

Plans for the near future are: replace oil with Motul X-cess 4w40 (waiting for it to arrive) and also install S3 upper/lower strut bars and weichers rear bar.

Car is looking good mate .

Nice work

Nice - love the R32 wheels.

Top work so far, liking the subtle looks.

Are you going to need some winter specific wheels and tyres (thinking of Russian winters: snow and freezing temperatures)?

Top work so far, liking the subtle looks.

Are you going to need some winter specific wheels and tyres (thinking of Russian winters: snow and freezing temperatures)?

You're right, there's a lot of snow and it's cold in winter in Russia, usually something about -10 - -15C, sometimes -20C or less, but it's not quite often. Actually, last several years winters are getting wormer and wormer (global warming, heh?).

As you can see on the Mazda pictures, there's a lot of snow around it Works + Nokian Hakkapellita 5 (225/40/18) was a winter set of wheels for Mazda. I haven't sold it yet, so I'm going to install winter Nokian tires on the R32 wheels for Skoda (and sell Works).

Actually, for the next spring I want to buy some forged wheels and leave R32 wheels as a winter set. R32 wheels are kinda heavy, about 11-12 Kg or something like that, while forged wheels would be 8-9 Kg I guess.

well done nice car but one thing i would do is take that dumpvalve off the 1.8t engines dont like them and will run better with a fully recurculating valve instead..

lots of people put that on and a few weeks later put the old one back on as the ecu reads a certain amount of flow back into the inlet and your removing that air that it thinks is there.

only going by what i have seen here in the uk good luck

well done nice car but one thing i would do is take that dumpvalve off the 1.8t engines dont like them and will run better with a fully recurculating valve instead..

lots of people put that on and a few weeks later put the old one back on as the ecu reads a certain amount of flow back into the inlet and your removing that air that it thinks is there.

only going by what i have seen here in the uk good luck

Thanks for the message! Actually, it's not a dump valve, but a mix of dump valve/recirculating valve, here's more details on it:

Home Page > Search > Splitter > ES#8288 Splitter DV / BOV - Black - FMDVSPLTR

Actually, it's possible to configure it to become recirculating only valve and I will do it if I notice any performance problems.

Minor updates: got pedal covers installed:

Part number for those are: 8N1 064 200, costs about 30-35$. Now researching options for dead pedal as audi tt dead pedal costs about 60-70$ I guess it's a bit expensive for just a simple plate... Anyways, I will definitely get some dead pedal as pedal covers looks rather incomplete without it.

Also got 13cm aerial installed:

Most likely I will not be able to catch signals from aliens from Mars with this, but I think it looks better than OEM.

Looking nice:thumbup:

When I saw your pics of the car I thought It was mine, but with different wheels:rofl:

They look so much better with the mouldings/rub strips colour coded don't they:D

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm wondering why they're not color coded in stock...

very nice buddy

but why has someone put your steering wheel on the wrong side:P:rofl:

Oh, it's on the wrong side indeed. Hm... I've probably broke something when was installing these pedal covers =(

As the car passed 2500 km already, I decided it's time for the first oil change, so the oil was replaced with Motul 8100 X-cess 5w40:

Now ordered S3 upper and lower strut bars, ETA is about 2 weeks, very long =(

Meanwhile thinking about the next mod, considering mainly two options: either buy Weichers rear strut bar like that:

and finish with the suspension for a while (don't want to bother with sways bars until the next spring).

Other option is to get Miliotek 448 04 side skirts + LCR splitter + color code grille (to get rid of the chrome).

Edited 18 September, 200916 yr by Novel

Looking good mate.

The rear strut brace looks nice, I wonderif it's actually a worthwhile mod?

I'm interested to see what you do with your grille, I'm thinking of tackling mine soon too.

Looking good mate.

The rear strut brace looks nice, I wonderif it's actually a worthwhile mod?

I'm interested to see what you do with your grille, I'm thinking of tackling mine soon too.

Thanks.

Well, as I can see RS has some reinforcements behind the rear seats, but it's not a brace, well, you probably know that better than me. My car is not RS, so I don't have such stuff. I've read that people installed these reinforcements from RS and they gave a good effect. I wasn't able to find any feedback about wiechers rear braces, but I have an impression that they should be a biff stiffer than the RS ones, but eat more trunk space. As I don't care much about trunk space, I've decided to try the wiechers brace... Hope I will like it

And yes, I've decided not to order side skirts and LCR splitter for a while and go with the brace. Hopefully will make an order tomorrow.

So, the strut bars were delivered (took quite a lot of time =( ): upper and lower S3 bars and rear Wiechers bar.

Alas, I will not be able to install it in the next couple of weeks due to various activities at job.

Get these bits fitted yet mate?

Got S3 braces installed:

Nothing esp. new. Sorry for the dirty under the hood space, the weather is not very good now to wash it.

Rear brace wasn't installed for the following reasons: I was searching all over the internet and wasn't able to find any reports of people using it. And as it requires drilling, it's not very easy to remove. I decided to wait for spring with installing it.

good work so far, good english too! much better than many english people!

Octy in snow

Edited 14 February, 201016 yr by Novel