Well, this morning despite it being a bit nippy in the SW, decided to install my pikey mod vent!

First job was to fix a crack, most likely which happened when the car crashed the arch came from. Super glue and a couple of tiny cable ties and job's a good'un. The cable ties make an appearance below.

First job was to roughly scribe in where I want to dremel out the hole. First cut

and then there's my hole. First offering up of the vent soon revealed width was a bit short, but height was spot on

If I were doing this again I think I would avoid using a 9x6 map vent as the width is a little bit too much when allowing for the curve in the vent. Still, this bend was not under serious stress, so I think it should be fine.

and finally from the inside. After this shot I also dremeled off the ends of the screws to tidy it up a bit. I did try going the other way but having the liner the other side of the vent was necessary to get the screws to bite. One small side effect of having pre-drilled holes in the vent itself. Top line wasn't very straight but provides a good lip to the vent, to prevent crud seepage behind.

Just started bloody raining, but sun on the way so shall be installing it later on.

What does it do?

In stock form, on the fabia vRS this allows air coming in to vent the side mounted intercooler to escape quickly, compared to just milling around behind the arch liner. I have a front mount now, but my oil cooler is positioned in the same spot, so it will vent that for me. At this time of year though its pretty pointless. Should help when doing any trackday work in the summer though.

Jason, can you post up a picture with the wheel back on also? - Always wondered how much of this is 'visible'. TIA.

Looks rather pikey!!

Would have been better rivited from the wheel side! And a steady hand when cutting out

Steady hand in this cold was not an option

I am expecting a fair amount of it to be visible, which is why I painted the vent black to start with

Wondering now if I can screw in from the opposite side, but use something to screw into like some tiny blocks of timber or something. Hmmm, I shall have a think

Nut and bolt or rivits!!

I'd got nut and bolt

Out of interest, hot hot does it go in the summer/track work?

Well, before I got the oil cooler I was seeing oil temps of 110 degrees (in the sump!) and since fitting the mocal, its been at most about 95 degrees. (Castle Combe)

I've since been out and tidied up the top edge on the inside, and fitted another reinforcing screw from the opposite direction, with a pilot hole driven in by a pointy screwdriver tool thing. Should hold.

I have also decided it is too cold to be outside so am inside warming myself up again.... If I feel suddenly spritely again, I might brave it and install it later this afternoon.

OK - I got a bit of a sprite on in the afternoon so went out and fitted the two liners...

Gotta love KW coilies. Rear wheel basically went as high as the front one

Hole evident in the passenger side liner once removed. Bit sliced out the top as well, near the wing

Driver's side liner installed complete with new pikey vent installed

and this is a shot with the wheel back on and me using the phone's light to try and light it up a bit. (I blobbed some black touch up on the screw ends to mask those a bit )

and from a small distance.

what size of vent been used? and where from?

I get my one from screw fix for 2 quids, cant remember size, but I think Its too small

I got it from Amazon for about £3 or £4 delivered. Its 9" x 6" which would be OK if the height was 9", but 9" wide is just a little too much sadly. If there were a 6" square one, that would probably fit easier.

You could try put other way round not 6x9 but 9x6,

Looking good jason. Here's my...really pikey one lol.

You can't even see it so I'm not fussed about it being neat. Can notice a different on standard cars though.

Looks better than i thought it would! Heres my pikey vent albeit for a different reason (now has vent mesh glued to the inside!)

And in situ......

Does the vRS not have this as standard?

Really surprised as my Cordoba has a vent in the wheel arch.

Phil

Does the vRS not have this as standard?

Really surprised as my Cordoba has a vent in the wheel arch.

Phil

Nope not standard on the vRS.

I've done a similar thing to Jason and stuck a £5 B&Q louvre vent on, that I did over with with some matt black paint

Bloody cheap skate Skoda!

Liking the pikey vents though... nobody wanted to use one of these for a bit of bling:

Dont look to bad, I think when you have a little more time is to glue some sort of edging strip round it to tidy it up a little. But the grill its self looks good.

Big fail found today. At slow speed I could hear a rubbing noise on full left lock. The right edge of the tyre is rubbing on the vent slats ... Not sure if this is due to the wider wheel/offset/tyre, but its bloody annoying!

Big fail found today. At slow speed I could hear a rubbing noise on full left lock. The right edge of the tyre is rubbing on the vent slats ... Not sure if this is due to the wider wheel/offset/tyre, but its bloody annoying!

The rubbing is getting worse with the track wheels on! Proper scrapey scrapey on full left lock, especially backwards when I guess the tread fouls the downward pointing slats more!

On the lookout for another offside front wheel arch liner now (and a narrower vent which won't distort the shape of the liner... :(

Question: How are these with snow? Anything happen?

The rubbing is getting worse with the track wheels on! Proper scrapey scrapey on full left lock, especially backwards when I guess the tread fouls the downward pointing slats more!

On the lookout for another offside front wheel arch liner now (and a narrower vent which won't distort the shape of the liner... :(

Remove, heat, bend, re-install?

@Robshaw - fine. Been running mine for almost 3 years with no problem.

Remove, heat, bend, re-install?

Hadn't thought of that. Car is in the garage most of next week, so shall consider this an option. Might even be able to heat and bend a bit whilst in situ.... Knowing me I will melt something.