Alright lads,

I will be starting a new job in a month or so, so i need another car. Didn't want to spend too much but the fabia VRS fits the bill, i always liked the looks but the interior is terrible but hey ho. I will be getting a 2004 model.

Anyhow i wont beat around the bush i WILL be modifying it but on a budget, as i have a quick petrol car as a fun car.

I have spent quite a while reading and TBH my head is turning into smash! - so please bear with me i am new here. A few questions if you may? - I'm looking to spend around 1k.

I would class myself as a careful easy going driver/mechanical sympathetic but like an occasional 'booting it'

1. I will be fitting a EGR delete any differences in products? and decat, would a straight through backbox help? - do these help with power?

2. Will be getting a remap but keeping standard clutch and turbo - where is best in the north west/north east?

3. What lowering springs do folk recommend and how much lower by? does it actually help the handling?

4. How can i tart the interior up cheaply? - was thinking about 3m Carbon fibre stuff.

5. How can i improve the handling/stopping without spending a bomb? - i read about a rear ARB?

6. Are intake systems a waste of time, i read that some folk say a pd160 intake is good, other a waste of time. Are there any others?

7. With the above mods will i be able to make 180-190BHP/300 ft-lb torque on standard turbo? - taking into account bolt on's to not hammer the turbo too much.

8. Would be buying an headunit are the standard speakers **** or do they need upgrading?

9. How much is a lower front splitter? and can you fit them FIY?

10. Can anyone recommend any cheap but good 5000HID kits?

Anything else i should consider?

Apologies for the questions

Thanks lads

Edited 8 February, 201214 yr by FabiaVRSAJ

Ok, Firstly all your questions can be answered using the search, but I'll give you the 'trusted briskoda factorial'

1. EGR delete, is what it is. Think De-cat makes a little bit of difference, couple of bhp maybe

2. 180/90 bhp max, 290 Lb ft max on standard turbo/clutch, cannot recommend a tuner in your area

3. Either Eibach lowering springs on Standard dampers, or weitec GT coilovers. Most popular

4. Spray your vent trims or wrap them, Blue led kit, not much you can do

5. Jabba sport RARB, Seat sport strut brace, Rear strut brace (search it, someone was making them) coilovers and 312mm brake kit off ebay

6. Stick with standard filter, PD160 intake will probably help with a remap dont think its essential

7. yep

8. Standards are not to bad with a bit of messing with the settings, set the fader to fronts (max) to cancel the rear tweeters. Can upgrade but is a pain (search for more info) 65mm depth is the limit for new speakers

9. About £35-40, do a search there's a tutorial on how to do it

10. Hids-direct or car mod shop. 2 year warranties. Members recommended

On a budget of £1K I'd suggest looking into some of the "pikey mods" as a way of keeping the cost down. Anyway I can answer a few of your questions.

1. EGR Delete is generally only used on BLT engines (05 onwards IIRC), a 2004 model (like mine) will have an ASZ engine, the key difference is the ASZ engine comes with the EGR valve and ASZ (anti-shudder valve) combined so removing the EGR removes the ASV valve which means when you turn the engine off it will "shudder", this could lead to wearing out the engine mounts etc. There is a lot of topics covering this, probably best to have a good read into yourself.

2. From what I've read Shark are very highly rated however there is a fairly long list of tried and tested places, again reading other people's reviews is probably the best way to decide.

3. Eibach springs will lower the car by 25mm, obviously coilovers mean you can set it to your own liking, a few people are running the likes of JOM coilovers which can be picked up for about £200-£250. I'd recommend sending a message to Damian@DPM who can offer you some suggestions that will suite your budget. Eibach Springs

4. Paint the interior plastic's is probably the cheapest and easiest way, have a look at Tech1e's fabia. Also adding LED's is fairly cheap and simple.

5. To improve the stopping power go for the 312mm brake upgrade, I just done it last week and is a huge improvement. Handling wise if you were to go for coilovers and had them set fairly low I'd probably skip a RARB however the Whiteline RARB is a fraction of the price of a Jabba RARB and essentially does the same job. Brakes, Whiteline RARB

6. PD160 is good for the reason it is like an OEM+ upgrade however at £90 new is a bit of a rip, second hands one come up every once in a while but can still go for silly money. In the interest of keeping cost down a length of ducting from the intake to the airbox will do the same job, there is a few examples on here.

7. Yes, however 300 lbs.ft is the limit of the standard clutch, 290 lbs.ft would be as high as I'd push it on standard clutch simply to keep it reliable as ruining the clutch would be rather expensive to fix. Some people have run 300 lbs.ft before however so your choice.

8. The standard front speakers are okay, upgrading the headunit will probably be the most noticeable improvement. There is Blaupunkt OEM rear speaker upgrade's for sale on ebay that most people have opted for (myself included). Speakers.

9. SEAT Dealer will have them for about £40, dead easy to fit and as mentioned there is a Guide.

10. No idea don't use HID's, but plenty of info on them.

If you want to stick to your £1K budget then there is a few things you will need to miss out, either that or spend more money.

Hope this helps

I joined this forum because im looking at getting a Fabia VRS very soon and wanted to learn more about the car before buying one. I will be keeping an eye on this thread

Superb, excellent info thanks.

legend.

Does the brake disc bolt right on along with the standard calipers?

Does the brake disc bolt right on along with the standard calipers?

Would you care to elaborate? :wonder:

Sorry LOL.

Are the brake discs a direct replacement and do stock calipers work with the bigger discs? - or is this a caliper and disc replacement.

Edited 9 February, 201214 yr by FabiaVRSAJ

Does the brake disc bolt right on along with the standard calipers?

If your talking about the 312mm brakes you replace the calipers, carriers, discs and pads

If your talking about the 312mm brakes you replace the calipers, carriers, discs and pads

Ta-da! 312mm brake kit

Ta-da! 312mm brake kit

There is a link in my original post at 5. which is for the same kit but unpainted, which is £30 cheaper, cost of paint about £5. Couple of coats of paint and you've saved yourself £25.

If I were you I would probably put the extra 1k towards a newer fabia with the facelift and possibly less miles. Just a thought really.

If I were you I would probably put the extra 1k towards a newer fabia with the facelift and possibly less miles. Just a thought really.

Nice discussion but it makes some sense in that the newer cars came with, for instance, slightly stronger bushes. This was revealed to me the other day when I had my car serviced and the MoT guy had another older VRS with more miles on the clock needing a fair amount of work with the older crappier standard bushes. I was replacing some rubber around a joint and he showed me the evolution from early VRS’ to later versions like mine.

Another claim by yet another MoT inspector (I have used two garages in the last ten years) and a guy that had one of the first examples many years ago, is that later cars came out of the factory with a bit more bhp because cars were getting quicker and they needed more oomph. This from the very same garage that mapped my VRS and hence mine easily mapped to 182bhp with no problems at all after 18 months. People will argue about these points but I trust a 38 year old MoT inspector and another younger MoT inspector of the other garage who used to bragg about his VRS’ back in 2004 when I had my Peugeot Rallye!

One of the reasons I moved from Peugeots to the Fabia, wanting a cheaper route to speed than the £4K it would have cost me to get one of my GTi6s or the Rallye to 230 bhp via a super charging route.