Looks are deceptive then!

BTW, that CTR thread got removed lol

I thought it might have lol.

I got a letter from Simon H ad responded with a long diatribe .

Ill post them up when I get them. Back in the UK Monday so hopefully pick it up before the end of the month if I get time.

I thinking of doing either Snetterton, Bedford or Oulton park early December then Donnington at the end of the month. Need to confirm some other dates though as my wife has planned a busy december for me.

I'm tempted to keep the car till at least feb though because I'm moving up north and will be 15 mins from Croft circuit

You will have to let me know when you go to Donnington, as it would be nice to see the Fabia in action.

well the wheel alignment was pretty far out after the springs were fitted.

Alex managed to get some more castor as well which is good.

Ive not driven it yet, but Alex said he gave it a good testing today in the wet and its handling really well now and has loads of feel though the steering now.

Looks good, should have fairly neutral feel with good cornering on flat and good high speed stability.

Rear Right looks funny, what's with that positive camber? you may have a witch rear end on right hand turns.

Looking at the original alignment it would explain your bad torque steer, that caster bias was rather hefty! Looks like set for NASCAR oval lol.

Looks good, should have fairly neutral feel with good cornering on flat and good high speed stability.

Rear Right looks funny, what's with that positive camber? you may have a witch rear end on right hand turns.

Looking at the original alignment it would explain your bad torque steer, that caster bias was rather hefty! Looks like set for NASCAR oval lol.

The right rear is slightly out(only 18 minutes different) which is something i will address but its not a huge difference, but its definitely not positive camber.

Reference torque steer, its been present since stock and become more notable as the power has risen. In all honesty i hardly pay attention to it anymore anyway, so whether it became worse after fitting the springs i dont know. No doubt some geo work can alter it to a certain degree but its a fundamental problem with the chassis and can only be masked to a certain degree by the geo etc.

I wouldnt pay much attention to the original castor settings either. They will not be reflective of the stock car. Im running the increased castor/anti lift Superpro front bushings which allow you to run higher castor. Cant remember how much extra it gives though.

On my last car i the front wheels toed out and reduced understeer quite substantially. So much better when initially turning into a corner. It wasnt the best at higher speeds like that though, it got quite nervous. I ended up with zero toe was was a nice compromise. I dread to think how the Fabia would respond to toe out lol.

Well, im not going to be collecting the car tomorrow. The Fabia gremlins have jumped up and bit me in the arse.

Lost compression cylinder 1. For obvious reasons warranty is off the cards, and now were looking into either replacing them with the newer revised pistons/rings ( my preference) or going to an aftermarket variant.

My main concern with the current aftermarket options is that they will have been designed from the original outdated pistons/rings, so potentially could suffer the same problem.

Not best chuffed tbh, but hey ho, not much we can do about it tbh.

Not best chuffed tbh, but hey ho, not much we can do about it tbh.

Sorry to hear that, but I'd have expected better from the tuners, especially bearing in mind how long they've had it :(

yep, for this to happen at this stage is a kick in the ****. They were doing the final dyno runs when they noticed the power had dropped to about 230hp, so they did a compression test and then phoned me. My missus is going bonzai at me about it because she had all these things planned, so im now going to have to rent a car to keep her happy. This is exactly why she wants me to get a second car for trackdays instead.

To be fair, this issue is a widely know problem on this engine, so i guess it was kind of expected, its why not many of us have faith in the engine and partly why ive been considering getting rid for a long time. Its happened now, so i might as well keep it i think.

Ask the to check the turbo and valves for any damage from rings debris. I assume obvious things like valves and head gasket were chanced and turned OK? It is a bit of a downer especially when you in the country so infrequently and need the car to be working...

gutted for you. ive been looking forward to how well this wee beast goes on a daily basis!

im sure itll be on the road eventually!

:| that's a ****er, bet you aren't happy one bit! Surely they should provide you with a courtesy car?

We should have a solution/plan sorted this afternoon.

Im reluctant to go for the current aftermarket solutions though because they were developed before this new Revised piston setup was released, so if the older pistons were used as a base to develop the forged pistons, then maybe they will also be flawed.

CTHE engines have different piston rings and even the previous CAVE motors had new piston rings released recently.

Did you see the failed pistons/rings/cylinder yet, have any photos?

nope not yet. APR will be dealing with it all. Im just paying for it

Sorry to hear about this Sy.

As they are doing development work will they cover the repair cost?

Hope so, as if not it's a nasty shock before Christmas. :(

Fair 'nuff I'd still be interested if only to try and learn something

I think BossFox has a point there.

Not sure tbh. Question is, is it a result of the development or just a **** engine design? Anyone know what the cost of stock pistons/rings will be?

You wanna change the lot of them? This sounds like an engine rebuild...

hopefully it is just pistons and rings that need changing

it would be stupid to change just the one though.

Absolutely, unless you just change for the exactly the same rings, piston is not damaged, bore doesn't need honing and there is no debris damage anywhere else in the engine. I am sure they will check it all if they are worth their salt.

If I could afford it I'd change all pistons, rings and honed all bores properly. Run it in on special synthetic low viscosity oil and then run on 10W60. With your power, uprated cooling for water and oil and no consideration for fuel consumption that would transform the engine

Forged = more power? (silver lining maybe if the gearbox can take it)

They are in the process of stripping the engine. If its scored i guess we'll have to bore it out then go for aftermarket. Hopefully know bythe end of the day. We have found some aftermarket wossner pistons already, not too badly priced. Loads of places have the stock outdated pistons available. But the new ones are on back order. OEM pistons are £118/piston+VAT which is pretty reasonable.

Have this urge to sell it and buy another Octavia lol