Progress Thread - My vRS so far

[mike07vrs]

Got the job done quickly

Engine bay looks top class!

Good job done. Had Powerflex bushes fitted to my wife's old Ford Puma a few years back, the difference in handling was fantastic.

Nice work mate. I've got the powerflex ones myself and theyre superb. Good to see your car's fixed now :-)

Thanks guys, would of liked to have had it done sooner but just not enough hours in the day!

Believe it or not the first time I heard about powerflex bushes was when my mate used them in his puma, still the best handling car I've ever driven!

Yeah I have to agree with how good they are, like most mods I wish I'd done it sooner

[mike07vrs]

Well its been one year to the day since I got my vRS so I thought I'd do a little write up of the changes so far and whats still to come.

When I got the car it was completely standard apart from a PD160 Intake. In no particular order these are the changes so far.

Exterior

Anthracite 16" vRS alloys.

Grey colour coded roof rail strips & grille surround.

Black colour coded number plate surround.

Facelift vRS badges front & rear.

New Skoda badges front & rear.

New wheel centre badges.

Team Hieko wind deflectors.

LCR splitter.

OEM Skoda mudflaps front & rear.

VW Shark Fin ariel.

VW Blue tinted wing mirror glass.

Sunstrip with Colin McRae tribute sticker.

VW Polo rear aero wiper.

Front aero wipers.

Philips Silvertech Indicator Bulbs.

LED number plate bulbs.

Osram Cool Blue Sidelight Bulbs.

Philips Blue Vision Headlight Bulbs.

Mufflerectomy.

Interior

VW Lupo cupholder.

LED courtesy lights.

vRS Tax Disc holder.

JVC Headunit.

vRS Footrest cover plate.

OEM Blaupunkt Rear Speaker (Not fitted yet).

Engine Bay

Seat Sport Strut Brace (Lime Green).

Samco Boost Pipes (Lime Green).

Samco Coolant hoses (Lime Green).

Samco Vacuum Hoses (Lime Gren).

Stainless coolant hose clips.

Forge Bayonet couplings.

SFS Performance Lower Boost Pipe.

Colour coded lime green Engine Cover, Coolant & Washer Caps, Oil Dipstick, Battery Cover.

Custom Fuel Filter Cover (Lime Green).

Bonnet Lifter Kit.

Black colour coded slam panel.

Lime Green Air Intake.

Black Coolant Tank.

PD160 Intake.

Green Cotton Air Filter.

Suspension

Seat Sport Strut Brace.

Whitline Adjustable Rear Anti Roll Bar.

Powerflex Console Bushes.

Powerflex Front Wishone bushes.

SuperPro Dogbone Mount (Not fitted yet).

SuperPro Front Anti Roll Bar bushes (Not fitted yet).

KW Variant 1 Inox Coilovers.

Goodyear Eagle F1's rear.

Pirelli P Zero's front.

Rolling Road Results: 145 bhp @ 4,268 rpm / 227 lb.ft @ 2,400 rpm.

Future Mods

312mm Brake Upgrade.

Angel Tuning Remap.

Powerflex Rear Beam Bushes.

Boost Gauge.

Custom OCC.

Rear Strut Brace.

Short shift mod.

Lamin-x rear lights.

No doubt there will be more mods added to that list but for now thats what I'm aiming for.

I think that's pretty much everything covered, just clocked over 70,000 miles last week.

The day I bought her

As she is now

I'll finish up by saying that the car has honestly exceeded my expectations in pretty much every aspect, I can't imagine a car that could replace it and offer the same returns this car does. Also a very big thank you to the many members that have offered advice, provided info and gave thier comments over the last year its much appreciated!

[TimVRS12]

Looks great, big fan of this and what you've done so far.

Is the front badge from a current Octavia?

[mike07vrs]

Looks great, big fan of this and what you've done so far.

Is the front badge from a current Octavia?

Thanks mate, its from the mk2 Fabia vRS.

[mike07vrs]

My mate sent me a couple of photo's he's taken of the car, being a pro photographer his are pretty damm good!

Taken last night

Few months ago

Skoda S2000 at the IRC last Sunday

New footwear to match the car

[R1chard]

Looks really nice exterior wise, not a fan of the random green painting under the bonnet though

[mike07vrs]

Looks really nice exterior wise, not a fan of the random green painting under the bonnet though

Well I thought I'd go for something a little different than the standard red, blue or black approach. Obviously not to everyone's taste though

[mike07vrs]

Coilovers have been adjusted, rears wound right down, fronts have been adjusted to match. Just used a block of wood to ensure each side is even.

Also done the short shift mod, changing gear feels much more positive and is definately worth doing, only took about 20 minutes to do.

Blaupunkt rear speakers arrived today

I'm not going to bother connecting the existing tweeters as they don't sound particularly good anyway.

I've ordered my SuperPro dogbone mount, engine oil and gearbox oil, i'll get a new oil filter on friday, this should allow me to do my 70k service on monday and whilst i'm doing that i'll change the dogbone mount, FARB bushes, clean the air filter, drain the coolant and change coolant tanks so I can have another go at painting the other one black (hopefully this time it wont bubble and peel).

[grr666]

Shortening the gearknob is something I've been thinking

about recently as the shifter on the MX5 is very short

and I must say I prefer it over the Fabia.

Mind you its a pretty close box on the Mazda.

I did chop the gearknob down on my old mark 3 Golf GTI

and that made a bit of a difference.

My main concern is that the knob will twist round

too easily when held with a jubilee clip. :wonder:

And dude, you need some round nut covers in your life :p

Billy bargain

Fitted pic...

:thumbup:

[mike07vrs]

Shortening the gearknob is something I've been thinking

about recently as the shifter on the MX5 is very short

and I must say I prefer it over the Fabia.

Mind you its a pretty close box on the Mazda.

I did chop the gearknob down on my old mark 3 Golf GTI

and that made a bit of a difference.

My main concern is that the knob will twist round

too easily when held with a jubilee clip. :wonder:

And dude, you need some round nut covers in your life :p

Billy bargain

Fitted pic...

:thumbup:

I drilled a hole through the gear knob and gear shaft then used a self tapper, doesn't budge at all. Its definitely worth doing, i'm hoping after changing the gearbox oil and dogbone mount it'll be ever better!

For £9 their getting bought Cheers Garry!

[TimVRS12]

And dude, you need some round nut covers in your life :p

Billy bargain

Nice one, I've just ordered myself some!

[mike07vrs]

A few more things arrived last week;

Catsrol Edge Engine Oil 5W-40 TD (5L), Castrol Syntrax Longlife 75W-90 (2L) with free Castrol Oil Pounch

SuperPro FARB Bushes and Dogbone Mount, Wheel nut covers.

Rears wound right down, front's matching

So far I've changed the engine oil, oil filter etc. Replaced the FARB bushes and changed the dogbone mount. I'm waiting on an M16 Spline Hole Key for removing the gearbox plugs, hopefully get that done this weekend along with changing the speakers.

The only bushes still to be replaced are the rear beam, I think i'll probably go with Powerflex for them as i'm very impressed with the front control arm kit. Once they've been replaced the only other suspension mod I can think of is a rear strut brace however the cars handling is superb at the moment so not in a rush to do more.

[grr666]

Your nuts look far more presentable

[TorqueXIsXCheap]

mmmmmmm soft grass

[TimVRS12]

Looks great!

[darrenvrs]

impressive

big job, looks good mate!

[mike07vrs]

Your nuts look far more presentable

Why thank you Garry

mmmmmmm soft grass

Glad you like the erm soft grass

Looks great!

Cheers Tim

impressive

big job, looks good mate!

Thanks mate

[redcupraboy]

How do you rate the superpro dogbone mount bush mate? Much vibration inside of the car?

[mike07vrs]

How do you rate the superpro dogbone mount bush mate? Much vibration inside of the car?

Vibration has increased although not by a massive amount, I'd imagine it will die down once the bush is worn in. I wouldn't let it put you off, definitely worth doing in my opinion.

[ek4charlie]

hi i think your vrs looks great ive just bought myself a vrs .. yours makes me wish i held out to buy a black magic owell .

do you have a link for where you got the number plate light bulbs from please ?

[mike07vrs]

hi i think your vrs looks great ive just bought myself a vrs .. yours makes me wish i held out to buy a black magic owell .

do you have a link for where you got the number plate light bulbs from please ?

Hi mate thanks, I think there is a link a couple of pages back, will try and find it and pm it to you.

[ek4charlie]

cheers if you could i just re -read the build thread but couldnt find it if you could p.m me a link that would be great .

[mike07vrs]

Well first update of 2012, I think its been about 4 months since I last done anything with the car. Sad too say nothing much has happened, however I've added a few more things and have a couple more bits and pieces to do.

Got a set of 312mm refurbed TT brakes purchased, they came with EBC discs and pads which I wasn't expecting. £220 for the lot which I would say is a very good deal considering it would cost about £110 to replace the standard discs and pads. I haven't fitted them yet but they are currently being painted and should be on fairly soon.

I've got new droplinks too fit when I'm doing the brakes as they are creaking quite badly and are the only thing I haven't replaced up front so might as well get it done.

Also got round to sorting out the flickering courtesy light LED.

Other than that I replaced the headlight bulbs with Ring Xenon Ultima with a claimed 120% more light. Must admit they are much better than the previous bulbs.

Gave the car a good wash last night as it desperately needed some attention. Just a coating of snow foam then hand wash using Dodo Juice Born to Be Mild Shampoo, the car hasn't been polished or waxed in over 8 months I think but still comes up great after a decent wash!

Once the 312'are fitted it'll be remap time and I'll be content. I've decided not to go for Stage 2 power as I can't justify the cost of it, next year I could be insured on a standard mk2 S3 for £150 less than i'm paying for the vRS at the moment. There will no doubt be a few little mods along the way but nothing big. I do quite like the "Coming Home" lights that Korban has put together so I think that might be something for next month's pay check

[mike07vrs]

Got the 312's fitted yesterday along with some shortened droplinks as the originals were shot, infact one snapped when I was removing it! Anyway some photo's;

Old vs New Disc

Old vs New Droplink

Brakes fitted

Also got some good shots of the lights;

Sidelights

Headlights

I noticed yesterday that I'm going to need 2 new tyres fairly soon, so on top of road tax and mot I'll need to do them, preferably before the mot as I hate getting advisories!

The only few things I have left to do are rear beam bushes and remap, once thats done all the original bushes, droplinks, trackrod ends etc have been replaced.

[mike07vrs]

Spent all day Saturday trying to find the source of this creaking noise, long story short I haven't.

I got the wheels off, checked all the bushes, which still had plenty of copper grease from when they were fitted, even the ARB bushes so gave them some more and moved on.

I then cleaned the coilovers and found the driver side spring had been rubbing as the underside of the spring was worn to the bare metal.

I put some plastic pipe over the spring below, taped it all up then greased the entire spring. Upon checking the passenger side there it is slightly worn but not as heavily as the driver side. I greased that side aswell and wound the coilovers up 2 threads.

I then had a look at where the droplinks were catching the wheel arch liner and trimmed it so they would no longer catch.

Turns out the driver side droplink has somehow burst so had to take it off, regrease the ball unit and secure the rubber.

Only fitted them last weekend!

Anyway went on to check the PAS fluid, just under halfway and fluid seemed okay so didn't need to do anything there.

I had hoped that the sound might just have been the spring scrapping but appears not, certainly it isn't as loud when manoeuvring but it is still present when moving at low speed in a straight line.

Bearing all this in mind does anyone have any further suggestions?

On top that I had another go at fitting the oil catch can, got it mounted fine but the hoses weren't playing ball so will do some changes and try again, got a few pictures;

It fits perfectly bolted to the airbox however I'll need to adjust the bracket slightly and find some larger diameter hose.