Hi, after looking around for a while, have just bought my first skoda, a 01 black Octavia vRS. Must say i am very impressed, coming from an older Subaru legacy turbo, previously had an impreza, owned 5 Integrales! (still have one of the last Evo2's), so most of my driving time since the 80's in in 4wd cars. The vRS seems to have nice front end grip ( less understeer than the subarus), feels very refined, and decently fast. One thing i have noticed though, is the car feels a bit 'floaty'(technical term!) over high speed bumps. Could this be that the cars suspension is a little tired after 64k ( although it feels very good in all other situations), or do they all do that, sir! Do not want to loose the decent ride/ handling balance, but wondering what people have tried in the way of suspension mods? i know on my impreza, i put eibach springs and koni sport struts, and the ride was actually a bit more refined/controlled than the standard set-up, but handled so much better.

Another totally different point, are there any other (cheaper ) sources for the 6-disc CD magazine, as i dont have one. Skoda wanted

Regards the CD-changer, keep a lookout on ebay. May even pick a whole CD-changer for that price.

As for the suspension. Most people tend to go for v2 or v3 KW coilovers. Dont think anyone has a mad word to say about them. If our thinking of changing just the springs then dont. The standard springs are stiffer then any of the aftermarket stuff. You could try changing just the dampers but as found out by another member dont go for knoi's as they are designed for the golf and the rears can't cope with the increase in weight.

Member also recommend thinkers anti-roll bars front and rear.

Do a search theirs loads of info.

The CD changer is made by Panasonic, Just checked the panasonic website and they are 30 +VAT +Delivery on there.

Regarding the suspension, it may well be getting tired now although obviously not bad enough yet to effect the overall ride. I changed mine at 37K for KW Variant2 suspension, much improved handling resulted. KW make different variants depending on what you require from the kit.

KW1= Height Adjustable

KW2= As 1 + Adjustable Bump setting

KW3= As 1 + Adjustable Bump and Rebound settings.

The CD changer is made by Panasonic' date=' Just checked the panasonic website and they are 30 +VAT +Delivery on there.

Regarding the suspension, it may well be getting tired now although obviously not bad enough yet to effect the overall ride. I changed mine at 37K for KW Variant2 suspension, much improved handling resulted. KW make different variants depending on what you require from the kit.

KW1= Height Adjustable

KW2= As 1 + Adjustable Bump setting

KW3= As 1 + Adjustable Bump and Rebound settings.[/quote']

Thanks for the replies, did'nt want to go down the coil-over route, hoping there was a slightly uprated spring/damper combination. Are the later model year vRS's on the same rated suspension?

My next question was who makes the CD changer, thanks for that. As mentioned, did a search briefly last night on suspension, lots of threads, but did'nt come away with anything conclusive, other than the KW set-ups are highly rated and others have found the standard suspension slightly under damped.

Thanks all, mark

I was looking around www.vagparts.co.uk and I remember seeing they sell the cd changer cassettes...

Order number: 3B0mag

The price: 21.58 GBP

40.12 USD

plus 17.5% VAT

is it cost that is stopping you go down the coil over route??

i found an auction on ebay that hooked me up with a set for under

Hi, after looking around for a while, have just bought my first skoda, a 01 black Octavia vRS. Must say i am very impressed, coming from an older Subaru legacy turbo, previously had an impreza, owned 5 Integrales! (still have one of the last Evo2's), so most of my driving time since the 80's in in 4wd cars. The vRS seems to have nice front end grip ( less understeer than the subarus), feels very refined, and decently fast. One thing i have noticed though, is the car feels a bit 'floaty'(technical term!) over high speed bumps. Could this be that the cars suspension is a little tired after 64k ( although it feels very good in all other situations), or do they all do that, sir! Do not want to loose the decent ride/ handling balance, but wondering what people have tried in the way of suspension mods? i know on my impreza, i put eibach springs and koni sport struts, and the ride was actually a bit more refined/controlled than the standard set-up, but handled so much better.

Another totally different point, are there any other (cheaper ) sources for the 6-disc CD magazine, as i dont have one. Skoda wanted

The CD changer is made by Panasonic' date=' Just checked the panasonic website and they are 30 +VAT +Delivery on there.

Regarding the suspension, it may well be getting tired now although obviously not bad enough yet to effect the overall ride. I changed mine at 37K for KW Variant2 suspension, much improved handling resulted. KW make different variants depending on what you require from the kit.

KW1= Height Adjustable

KW2= As 1 + Adjustable Bump setting

KW3= As 1 + Adjustable Bump and Rebound settings.[/quote']

Thanks for the replies, did'nt want to go down the coil-over route, hoping there was a slightly uprated spring/damper combination. Are the later model year vRS's on the same rated suspension?

My next question was who makes the CD changer, thanks for that. As mentioned, did a search briefly last night on suspension, lots of threads, but did'nt come away with anything conclusive, other than the KW set-ups are highly rated and others have found the standard suspension slightly under damped.

Thanks all, mark

p.s thanks for the ebay tip, wife tracking some now!

Thanks, its not cost (although its always a consideration) that put me off the coil-overs, but the fact that i want to keep the car fairly standard, been down the modified route with various cars and its quite nice having something pretty refined as well as quick, so dont want to modify heavily. Coil-overs seem a bit overkill for what i'm trying to acheive.

cheers, mark

I am breaking a VRS

T'is a sad day indeed when you read words like that. If the owner crashed it, all they deserve is to drive something French...

Thanks' date=' its not cost (although its always a consideration) that put me off the coil-overs, but the fact that i want to keep the car fairly standard, been down the modified route with various cars and its quite nice having something pretty refined as well as quick, so dont want to modify heavily. Coil-overs seem a bit overkill for what i'm trying to acheive.

cheers, mark[/quote']

have a look for anti roll bar upgrades on the forums, i'm sure there are a few on here that have upgraded the ARB and got very decent results with the handling without having to change the standard suspension.

upper and lower Audi S3 strut braces are a favourite too and can be had for very reasonable money from any friendly audi dealer.

Thanks Nigel up-rating ARB's seems a sensible way to go, did the same on my Impreza, made a big diference.I,ll do a search, thanks for the advice,

mark

Right, now had the car all of a week, but clearer what i would like sorted on the suspension front. Thanks primey for the tip on the S3 strut braces, did a search and found lots of info, and in terms of bang for buck, seems a must. On badly maintained Suffolk back roads, car seems very bouncy and unsettled, very underdamped . I have a route home that has a nice long approach to a hump back bridge, in other performance cars i have taken on this route (Subaru impreza, a few Integrales) they take of, and on landing the suspension feels very well damped and controlled, and gets on with it with the minimum of fuss. In the vRS, seems like i'm right on the bump stops, and car takes a time to settle. As mentioned earlier, dampers may be a bit tired, but others seem to report similar findings.

What i would like is to keep the standard springs , dont want the car any lower, but fit better quality up-rated dampers (possibly adjustable) like bilstein or spax(NOT coilovers). I have last years Demon tweeks catalogue and they list these for the Octy, but cannot find any reports on anyone who has fitted them. Lots of people seem to favour KW, as said earlier, dont want to go down this route, as all the adjustability seems overkill for fast road driving. perfect for track days though, i should think.I know some people say not to mix sport dampers with standard springs, but i have done this in the past with an 8V Integrale(Koni sport dampers and standard springs) and it worked very well on suffolk back roads( and 8V integrale springs are long!). Interested if anyone got any experience with using a better quality sport damper on the Octy,

cheers, Mark

Reading through this i'm in the same position- having just popped a rear damper on my vrs (don't think there that happy going around near there weight limit permenantly)

Does anyone do an uprated damper for the VRS??

Hello Anton, if you can wait a few weeks i'll post my findings. Basically i have always had good results with koni, being a nice well damped ride, but definatly sporting.they also have special valving that improves low speed ride. I was initially ruling these out on the VRS as general consensus was that the rear dampers were developed for the Golf, and with the extra weight at the rear of the VRS, this is,nt ideal.I have checked with my local supplier and the rear dampers are a diferent stock number for the octavia, compared the the golf, or anything else for that matter.Maybe the situation has changed recently, or someone bought the wrong ones, i dont know. koni say these are developed and valved specificaly for the skoda. This does,nt suprise me, as Koni spend a lot of time and money on R&D.

Anyway, i have now ordered 4 koni sports dampers, adjustable ( rears have to be adjusted off the car), to be fitted to my vRS when i,m on holiday in a week s time.Price was