jars' 2005 Fabia vRS

[TimVRS12]

Great work mate!!

 

Loving (and slightly envious) of the progression of the garage, sweet setup

[Titanium_Man]

I've not posted up a picture of the actual car for a while.... 

 

[Titanium_Man]

(OK, so I did take one picture of a car at this weekends South-Central New Forrest Meet :p )

[bowen]

Nice read this.

 

Good to see my xenons went to a good home!

[Titanium_Man]

Cheers Lloyd

Yeah I love the Xenons, awesome addition

Will be a major update in the next 2 weeks ....

[Titanium_Man]

OK, so the update didn't last two weeks :p

 

I've now had my new turbo on since the 21st April this year, just a couple of weeks into my new job and how things change! 

 

Before I first decided I was going in two footed with the vRS, I did spend a fair while um'ing and arr'ing over the same question everyone who considers spanking more than what they originally spent on their car, customising it... is it worth it? If you asked me either before or just after the fitting of the turbo and remap it would be a simple YES. But here we are just 3 months in and I'm now finding myself changing my mind :(

 

The main reason for the about turn is the fact that I now have to drive to work, a mere 5.7 miles each way. I spend every day commuting in my car and I reckon it's taking the sheen off of it so I have decided to do something drastic... replace it with this..... 

 

 

Isn't she a beauty! Ford Fiesta 1.4 petrol Zetec She's on a T plate and has 6 months mot and has one purpose... cover the rubbish miles my other car hates   The short-term plan is to tidy her up a bit to make her a little better on the eye (no mods :p ) also going to machine polish it to get some technique back as it's been soooo long since I picked up my Rotary, although have been toying with the idea of getting a DA polisher. Either way, I will be rubbish and I'm more than happy to risk it on this piece of **** before taking it to the Furby.

 

But of course I'm not getting rid of my Fabia   although she will be taken off the road for a wee while whilst I sort some bits that I have been meaning to do but couldn't be without my own wheels as Zee lets her mum borrow her car. The overall plan is to re-paint my flaking calliper paint on the front brakes, paint the guard behind the rear brake disc that my mate kindly re-shaped to fit the bigger disc rather than me cutting it off (show some respect for his free man hours ) give a lick of paint to the rear beam, install my catch-can and possibly attempt to remove my coilovers for a clean and re-set as I'm still not 100% happy with the height and possibly look at the wiring for the my coming home lights as it's a little intermittent.

 

The last time I adjusted the height I was only able to raise it a couple of full turns before I started to damage the plastic with the spanner so I couldn't get it right then and I am determined to get it right this time. Yes I could pay and put it in my mates garage for him to free the adjusters, but I would only have to go and pay for the alignment to be checked as well so I have now decided to try and save the money I would have paid in professional fees and get my wheels refurbished In all honesty I have slipped off a kerb in the last week and made some decent marks on the spokes. That's twice now 

 

What I really need is a companion or helper. Well in truth, someone who has done it before! Any takers local to me fancy lending a hand for some food and supplies and beer tokens?!

 

Naturally, Since putting the turbo on I have been keeping an eye on the fuel economy and I have to say it's not bad considering 

 

This is from the point I installed the coilovers and Brembo's to the fill up before the turbo change- 42.19mpg overall 

And this is from 21/04/14 to date 44.33mpg overall

 

 

 

Fairly happy with that, although that would include one full thank that was used almost entirely on the motorway with the cruise set at 70 on dash and was 51 over all for the tank... not so happy with that :think: Although the stats suggest things have improved, my own opinion is that it hasn't. I've still not managed to complete a full tank without hitting the motorway for at least 100 miles, so no proper stats for town only driving. The closest that I got was down to the light pretty much with 350odd on the trip and had to fill up as I drove to Devon and at a guess I would have finished the tank with around 370 odd miles to a full 45ltr tank. 

 

Whilst I am the suspension I am going to have a good check around down there as I am convinced there is something causing friction as every time I step off the gas to change gear or even just to coast, the car makes an very obvious slow down movement (unless I am driving with conviction) but we will see. 

 

The final news of the day, this arrived 

 

'til next time ......

[DanHam]

Is your map smokey mate? I was getting about 48 mpg from that turbo but with minimal smoke

[Titanium_Man]

Yeah it is a little, although nothing really to compare it too :p

[grr666]

Yeah it is a little, although nothing really to compare it too :p

[Titanium_Man]

Plick

[grr666]

Mind you mines been a bit 

 

 

lately so I can't talk.... :p

[Titanium_Man]

Yeah but your back-up is a lot better than mine (well, one of them is )

[Adamweal]

caught a little view of this parked up at the new forest meet in the pub but didnt manage to have a proper look (more concentrating on going inside for a drink!) looks good! do miss both my fabia's :( haha next time i see it i will stop and have a proper look

[Titanium_Man]

so, after taking a break due to illness, I've started to get things moving again now I'm well on the way to recovering

 

I bought the Festa with the intention of carrying out some maintenance to my Fabia during the winter and made a start in October/November but illness got the better of me and I didn't do half the things I had planned :(

 

The main things I wanted done was to clean the inlet manifold so that I could install the catch-can that I have had in my garage for ages, adjust the height of the front suspension as it had settled lower than I wanted, and to remove the coming home lights and make better all the connections as they were coming on intermittently.

 

All I have managed to do is clean the inlet mani and adjusted one of the two coilovers as the passenger side was seized :p

 

I originally removed it back in October/November and the plan was to soak it in paraffin for a wee while and jet wash it all through. 

 

Dirty ... although not bad for 100k I guess;

 

 

Oily EGR delete and boost pipe

 

 

... and as you will see, I installed the pipe clamps that came with the FMIC kit and the EGR boost pipe kept popping off, so purchased some Mikalor hose clamps to replace a couple that I had access too whilst I was at it.

 

Boost pipe to turbo has never popped off, but I wasn't happy with how it looked once I have removed the manifold and turbo intake pipe, so that was to be replaced;

 

Anyone who is considering this, the clamp of the right of the two is a PITA to get at! I tried from the top but that didn't work as (A) the car is on Axel Stands and i'm not overly tall, and ( the clamp was positioned it such a way I had no choice . Either way, this type is a pain and there was little space to work in and is a little awkward to get the tool in the right position and get some leverage.

 

All removed;

 

My attempt at keeping things tidy :p

 

Once the mani was all cleaned up (sorry no pics) I started to put things back together again, starting with replacing the cruddy boost pipe to turbo connector

 

Next up was the PITA clip that caused me so much trouble getting off... if it was a PITA to get off, it was waaaaay more than that to refit! After 3 hours of trying various different positions, tools and swear words, (I'm a stubborn git!) I gave in and turned to ye-old faithful... cable ties

 

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I read of many posts where the lower boost pipe keeps popping off and although the crappy supplied claim for this had so far caused me no trouble, I replaced it 

 

Eventually I was able to get the pipe on and used a stanley knife to cut them off once in place...

 

It sat like that until I came out of hospital when it was time to get my car back on the road before I was signed fit to return to work, so over the last two days I have connected the airbox/filter pipe pipe back to the turbo intake pipe and replace the crappy EGR boost pipe clamp with another Mikalor clamp. 

 

She has been sat in my garage for a while now and have not turned her over as the mani was off, so once all was put back together again I did try to turn her over but was dead as a Dodo (as expected really) so borrowed a battery charger off my go-to man and stuck it on charge. Fired her up the next day with no issue what so ever

 

MOT is booked for tomorrow where the suspension will be adjusted and fuel filter replaced as it's not been done in my ownership :wonder: Will also have to replace my tyres as they are on the wear indicators. Gone for Kuhmo KU39's this time as the only place I could find the Sessanta's I usually run and love are more than I can afford to buy right now and have more important things to sort before I plough money into the Fabia and I have used them before and found them pretty good for the money. 

 

I will tackle the other things when things get a little warmer!! 

Cheers for looking

[Titanium_Man]

It has not been a good afternoon for me :( 

 

Went into my garage just to make sure i had put everything in my car that my mate will need to MOT my car, locking wheel nut, coilover spanner and the two arch liners that I haven't put on as the passenger coilover needs adjusting and have lost one arch liner and now I can't find my log book so I can tax it.  

 

Top top this off, I have noticed a problem with my boot door. It will pop open using the key fob but not using the button on the boot itself unless I have just used the fob to open the boot... but it only works the once 

 

The battery was flat as can be, so do we think it could be that? Or something more else??

[Toxicvrs]

It has not been a good afternoon for me :(

Went into my garage just to make sure i had put everything in my car that my mate will need to MOT my car, locking wheel nut, coilover spanner and the two arch liners that I haven't put on as the passenger coilover needs adjusting and have lost one arch liner and now I can't find my log book so I can tax it.

Top top this off, I have noticed a problem with my boot door. It will pop open using the key fob but not using the button on the boot itself unless I have just used the fob to open the boot... but it only works the once

The battery was flat as can be, so do we think it could be that? Or something more else??

Is your rear wiper pipe leaking on to boot switch like mine was?

[Titanium_Man]

Ha, one more for luck... blew the intercooler pipe off the turbo when I was on the way to drop her off for her MOT this evening

[Titanium_Man]

Is your rear wiper pipe leaking on to boot switch like mine was?

 

Never seen any evidence TBH. 

 

Will check the fuse tomorrow and then take the handle out to check if it isn't that.

 

That said, when I took her out of my garage to drop her over to my mates garage, it was working properly again.... first time without the fob!

[Titanium_Man]

After nearly six months, she's back on the road!!!!

MOT passed with flying colours, fuel filter changed and the one coilover not adjusted by myself, now all sorted

Jesus I've missed her.

Zes's Fiesta S felt spritley until I got back behind the wheel of mine.... She made the same remark. :p

[Titanium_Man]

Cheeky update, although nothing exciting.....

 

Had new rubber put on earlier this week. Gone with Kuhmo KU39's again as I couldn't find my usual Vredestein Sessanta at a reasonable price and given I'm still off work I couldn't justify the extra £100 odd :(

 

Whilst they new tyres were being put on, the tyre fitter magically found a hole in a CV boot (funny that!) although it wasn't there on Friday when I had my MOT. Back o my mates garage, £40 and I learnt how to change a drive shaft

 

 

During my visit, my Skoda had some familiar company

 

Anyone want to guess what the blue one was in for?!?

 

That's it, I said it was nothing exciting

[iiPaul]

Nice project you have going on here! Good read, nice car

[Titanium_Man]

Cheers dude.

Hopefully can get some more things done in the coming weeks

[Titanium_Man]

I had a few hours spare today so planned to sort out my splitter as I have previously caught it whilst driving through a field If you look at the first picture on this page, you can see the splitter is sagging in the middle. So I decided to take the bumper off and make it more level and secure.

Guess what I lost... the stupid little plastic rod at the rear of the front bumper... grr!

Just the one screw was used in each of the middle prongs, despite there being two and which looking back was a bit of a silly idea as I was always going to hit something with the splitter in the early days of it being on.

Once the bumper was off I did try to use an assortment of different sized screws to secure the front part and lift the front of the splitter, but all the heads of the screws were far to big. So out came the angle grinder and voila

Before

After

OK, maybe not that obvious at this distance, but will get a wider shot and you will see :p

Since the MOT and replacing the full filter, my fuel consumption has been about 10mpg less than before, so I decided to disconnect the battery to see if it makes a difference I'm not sure if it will, but thought I would try. Anyway, whilst undoing the earth lead, I dropped a spanner between the battery and the windscreen washed pipe and my hands were too big to get at it. Thankfully, after dropping my keys between the bumper and FMIC, I bough a telescopic magnet just in case something similar happened again :p

That's it for now..... oh, and I managed to find the annoying little plastic bit for the bumper

[iiPaul]

Have you noticed a difference in mpg or haven't you been for a drive to notice yet? As mines the same, struggling to get 35+ :(

[Titanium_Man]

I haven't done a brim to brim calculation as I've not done anywhere near enough driving, but I've owned the car for four years now and I would normally see 40+ on the dash driving as I have and it's been down at 30.

To be fair, she's been off the road for 6 months s we will see.