jars' 2005 Fabia vRS

[Titanium_Man]

The next issue that needed my attention was my A/C. On the way to Cornwall on a particularly hot day the airline decided it not longer wanted to be cold and changed to temp to max without my input. Not a happy wife! I remember reading posts a while back on here about the possible cause, so set aside another afternoon in the garage to rip out the heater motor flap. Took me a while to get all the various bits off the car, and although it isn't really necessary I removed all the plastic pieces from around the handbrake. Reason being I wanted it to go back in perfectly, without scratching anything. 

 

 

 

The offending part

 

.... stripped and all cleaned up with GT85.

 

 

So far, touch wood, I've not had the same issue since, but fully expect to to have to replace this at some point in the future. Given my car is almost 17 years old I happy as Larry that the aircon actually works, just needs a re-gas before next summer.

 

Whilst I was at it I removed the drivers vent as the slats were not sat as they should be. Turns out that I need a new unit as the little tabs on the gears are broken, but managed to get it into the position I usually have it in without it moving and will not touch it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 December, 2021 by jars

[Titanium_Man]

35 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Interested in those dent pullers actually. Got enough dents on mine to fill an evening (not caused by me!)

 

Loving the flames, fellow pyromaniac.

 

Worth the investment if you have a few to do as the cheapest I was quoted was £10 per dent. It does have its limitations, but will work perfectly on doors, bonnet etc.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Just now, jars said:

 

Worth the investment if you have a few to do as the cheapest I was quoted was £10 per dent. It does have its limitations, but will work perfectly on doors, bonnet etc.

 

I'll send away for one. I was quoted just less than that on "mate's rates". I only want to deal with the stupid ones such as the tailgate and rear quarter. Some others need professional attention... so not me!

[Titanium_Man]

Would your mate not do a bulk discount?!?

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, jars said:

Would your mate not do a bulk discount?!?

 

I never got that far, it was cold and I just wanted to go home.

 

Technically he's my late father's mate. He did a cracking job with my passenger mirror cover though, only cost me £30 and gouge free.

[Titanium_Man]

Been a rubbish start to 2022 and haven’t had the enthusiasm to work on my own car.

 

However, have now found some and had a Saturday in the garage, plus a couple of hours after work to make a start on the long list of things that need to be done. 
 

First up was to get a better look at the crack I found in my down-pipe when I serviced my car last, which wasn’t a surprise as I remember the moment it properly opened up …….. 

 

 

Getting the down-pipe off the turbo was interesting….. two of the three Allen bolts were accessible from the top; one was well out of sight but easy access, and the other had restricted access and was impossible to get a regular Allen-socket on it.
 

In the end I cracked it with a Allen-ball head socket from above, which wrecked the inner part of the head, then grabbed the head with a pair of vide-grips and painstakingly unscrewed the bolt from below.
 

The final bolt was easily removed, then just a case of removing the clamp on the join to the middle section of the exhaust system, which of course broken trying to undo the nuts, pulling down pipe off the two rubber hanger bushes and wriggling the two sections of the exhaust free from one another. 

 

The crack in the down pipe was actually a lot worse than I could see when it was on the car. If I knew it was this bad I would have seen to this much sooner ☺️

 

 

All cleaned up and ready for welding ….. 

 

 

I reckon the cracked happened as a result of the original welder who made this exhaust not fully welding on the flange in fear of interfering with the bolt holes, but with a bit of care it can be done 😛 

 

 

 

 

 

[Titanium_Man]

Once that was put back on I then removed the front passenger coilover out to change the top mount bearing and bush. 
 

 

The old one fell apart on removal 

 

 

Old and new together for the only time 😝

 

I also ended up changing the bottom ball joint as the dust cover had opened up during removal, which I had expected as I could see it was very cracked when I serviced my car last and had one ready to go on. 

 

I knew my rear discs had been an MOT advisory for the last couple of years, and after a full tank of diesel gave me the lowest miles by a long way (just about 300 miles by the time I needed to fuel up), I decided to change them one evening, along with the drivers side top mount bearing and bush 

 

Before the strip-down, I messed around with the handbrake mech on the back of the callipers, and wouldn’t you know it, one was sticking. After a quick clean, lube it was all free. 

The mechanic who installed the 256 rear brakes rounded the first Allen bolt of the carrier had to find another way, which meant removing the bolt from the bottom of the rear shock so I could smack on a damaged head removal socket 

 

 

I still have the original rear stone guards that protect / restrict viewing of the inner face of the disc that were removed and reformed to accept the larger disc, but I’m still ashamed that I let these get in that condition!

 

Not too bad from the front …..

 

 

but the inside face was somewhat worse 

 

 

Finally, once I installed the new Apec discs and pads, who claim their disc to be the best at reducing rusting, I put back on the calliper-return springs taken from a VW Sharan.

 

I’ve noticed an immediate and obvious improvement in the fuel economy shown on the dash, but will wait and see what is shown on the proper calculations after the next full tank has been used.  

Edited 5 March, 2022 by jars

[Titanium_Man]

Not done much to my car this week as I’m waiting on some small parts to arrive, but have really enjoyed having my car driving well again after the recent repairs I’ve done. Happy boy  
 

That said, the car still sounds a bit blowy, so took a other look at the down pipe repair and no black soot, so not blowing there. Not happy with this I looked back through the pictures I took and did notice the below 😱

 

 

 

…. what looks like a nice crack in the turbo manifold 😞 So I grabbed the KKK turbo that’s sat on my shelf in my garage and it doesn’t look like air could escape from here, but gonna have to take a proper look when I do the head swap & cambelt change in the coming weeks. 
 

I did quickly clean up the valves I removed from the head off the doner engine, cleaned more rubbish off the gearbox and that’s about it 

 

 

But, just for a change I was on Brisky the other day at the right time and place to come across some rocking horse p00p, but I’ll just leave the below picture for now…..

 

My car is due it’s bi-annual interior strip and clean, which I’m gonna make a start on once I’ve finished my coffee in a minute …..

Edited 5 March, 2022 by jars

[Titanium_Man]

Quick hoover and wipe down of all plastics complete
 

 

 

Even managed to make the very grubby passenger seat much better on the eye… not bad for a 2 minute scrub with a microfibre and all purpose cleaner

 

 

Also brought some work into the house 😇 🤫 if I’m lucky Zee might not notice!

 

More on these later in the week …..

[Titanium_Man]

Haven’t gotten as much done this week as I had hoped…. Had a heart monitor that I’ve gotta wear for the next 12 > 36 months inserted under my skin on Monday, which was a very weird experience, and was my wedding anniversary on Wednesday. 
 

 

I was very lucky to be trawling Brisky back on the 24th February when a very nice bloke started a thread asking what was the interior from the low mileage Fabia vRS he had just bought his son was worth. 
 

These types of threads usually end up as the OP trying to sell their bits without Freedom membership. However, after exchanging messages with @Owainsdad it was clear he wasn’t trying to sell them, he just wanted them to go to a good home as he had managed to pick up an SE interior from elsewhere. What a top bloke   
 

After sending me the link to the car he had just bought, I could not only see just how to today they looked, I also spied heated seat controls on the centre console ….. what an unexpected surprise! I was initially settled on removing the seat covers from the new seats and sticking them in the washing machine, then put the new, clean covers on my heated seats, but no need! 

 

I popped over to Newport last Saturday and on initial inspection these were in amazing nic, which was as hoped given they came from a 60k car! No tears, fag burns etc in any of the seats, just grubby with the odd darker marks
 

 

The faces of the rear bench are possibly a little more stained than my current rear seats, but the centre seatbelt has a habit of playing up just before MOT time ….. 

 

But it’s the fronts that I need! As you can see, just a bit of work needed to clean them up…. Most importantly; no tear in the drivers seat 

 

 

 

 

 

All I need to do is swap over the seat belts from mine and re-attach the heated seat plugs as these used to have the OEM under seat CD changer that has been removed, so the plugs are just dangling around. 
 

Like most, the front door carriers have clearly been leaking on the car these came from …..

 

 

….. I’ll sort the runners out before I install. 

 

On Thursday I made a start to the strip down and clean. Having done this many times, I was pretty confident that I could get these pretty much brand new. 
 

Plastic trim all removed and ready for a decent clean…. This was nice and easy; removed the several T15 torx screws  from underneath, remove the two T15 torx screws from the height adjuster and pull off, then prize off the recliner wheel. Simples

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I’ve Vax’d my interior before I used Scotch Guard, scrubbed in with a microfibre then used some Vax carpet cleaner solution to wet-vac the seats. However, I’ve run out of scotch guard and only had some AG interior shampoo to hand. 
 

 

I started to clean up the front headrests

 

 

To my frustration, despite the addition of the Flash all purpose cleaner to try and get out these grubby marks, they’re not coming out as well as I hoped 😞   Maybe I’m using less of the Vax carpet cleaning solution, maybe the AG shampoo is not as great as people make out. I dunno. 
 

So. As a last resort, I brought home some neat Autosmart G101 all purpose cleaner from work yesterday, which is the ****z, and currently waiting for the headrests to dry out to see if they’re any better. 
 

The last resort is to remove all the covers and put them in the washing machine as I really want these to be perfect before I put on the Dodo Juice fabric protector and the new seat cover that I’ve bought in an effort to keep them mint! 
 

This all seems like a lot of effort, but I can’t stand looking inside my car at the minute 

 

 

 

 

Edited 12 March, 2022 by jars

[Titanium_Man]

Not much progress with the seats…. Grrrrrrr! It seems like the Vax is pulling what looks like red mud or possibly even rust? out of the foam base, so I’ve decided to take the covers off and put them through the washing machine. Just waiting on some hog-ring pliers and rings to come. 
 

I have now managed to replace both of my tailgate struts as mine have been goosed for a wee while now. Found two on EBay for £15 that come with a life-time guarantee. Decided on these as I’ve fitted several different brands from differing motor factors at work and I’ve never really been impressed with how they felt…. A little cheap to be honest. 
 

Gotta say, the eBay ones feel really well put together and strong. 
 

I also went to replace my passenger door mirror as some **** smashed it, but the numpty seller sent me the drivers side. Not even apology from them! Gonna be few days for another one arrives, from a different seller!

[duck]

I would be cautious putting the seat covers through the washing machine, I did that and it totally ruined mine, the thin layer of foam that is embedded in the seat cover disintegrated and the seat covers came out of the machine nice and clean but all lumpy were some of the foam had been washed away and some had survived.

 

They were so bad I ended up scrapping them and buying some Mk2 VRS seats as I could not live with how they looked!

[Titanium_Man]

12 hours ago, duck said:

I would be cautious putting the seat covers through the washing machine, I did that and it totally ruined mine, the thin layer of foam that is embedded in the seat cover disintegrated and the seat covers came out of the machine nice and clean but all lumpy were some of the foam had been washed away and some had survived.

 

They were so bad I ended up scrapping them and buying some Mk2 VRS seats as I could not live with how they looked!

Not gonna lie, I’m not 100% sure or confident that I will be able to get the cover back on exactly as is was before.

 

Your experience has given me more food for thought as I don’t wanna ruin a perfectly usable interior chasing perfection….: especially given I’m still not 100% sure that I’ll be keeping them now 🤗

[Titanium_Man]

Been persevering with cleaning the seat in situ rather than remove the covers, which has been driving me mad to be honest! 
 

Some serious muck is being pulled from the seat foam  

 

 

 

….. but getting there slowly but surely 

 

 

Not gonna lie, the Vax does leak and make a bit of a mess 😛

 

 

 

On a more positive note, my fuel economy has much improved since the exhaust and off-side rear calliper was freed up. 
 

Before - 263 miles from the tank and we’ll into the red with just 5 miles showing as remaining until empty;

 

 

After - 263 miles driving again but fuel gauge over a 1/4 tank and dash showing 120 miles remaining

 

 

 

 

 

[Titanium_Man]

Done naff-all on the seats since the above as Zee and I took her mum away for her 76th birthday at the weekend. 
 

That said, last Thursday I finally got the head down to the machine shop so to replace the valve guides & get them to check it all over before I replace the head on my daily with this one. 
 

I can hear you all now …. Why has it taken so long!! Well, after dismantling the head last year I came to the realisation that my cambelt was due April this year so might as well wait ‘til closer to the time as a year early on a cambelt change seemed like a bit of a waste to me. 

I got a call the following morning asking me to pop the valve stem seals down to the engine shop as he’ll fit them with the new guides. Managed to pop down during a test drive early afternoon and was surprised to see it was ready for collection 🤘Even fitted the valves and springs for me, which I didn’t ask for and actually wanted to put it all back together myself. 

 

As I was in work time and was out on a test drive I couldn’t hang around and chat about the work, which was a shame. 

 

Anyway, ended up with a truth-skim, re-angled the seat face on the valves as they were the wrong angle (not exactly sure how that happened. Perhaps I was a little heavy handed cleaning them up in the bench wire wheel?!) injector bores checked as the engine guy has apparently seen many PD130 cylinder heads where the injectors were not torqued correctly causing them to move around damaging the bores, which results in diesel to leak. Was also pressured tested, just to be sure. 

 

 

 

 

Once I got back to work I had a spare half hour or so until my next job was dropped off, so I grabbed the injectors from the doner engine to fit the Bosch seal kit….. I could have got a no-name kit for half the price but I didn’t fancy skimping here and have to pull it all apart again. 

 

That said, I’m taking a bit of a gamble putting these injectors in as they’ve not been used in 5 or more years, but I need working injectors for later and won’t cost me anything to rips these out if they are fubar other than my time. I even have a spare injector seal kit that came with the head gasket set if I need to refit my current ones  
 

So, a nice and easy job…..

 

 

I used some small Vise grips to remove the copper washer, after spraying them with GT86 and leaving them for 10 minutes. I used a small pick for the rubber O-rings. 

 

The washer is actually held in place by a very small ring. These were, of course, replaced with the new ones in the Bosch kit. 

 

 

As you can see, there are two big, black O-rings, one of which has some grey markings on there. All four red rubbers were very brittle and broke on removal but the black ones still felt pretty good.
 

 

When fitting the new O-rings it is wise to fit the middle / first black with the grey markings on it first because if you try to fit the top, plain black one first it will obviously sit in the middle ring recess. If this happens the temptation would be to grab the small pick to hook it out, which may damage the new O-ring. 
 

After replacing all the O-rings, I pushed on the copper washer and the small, metal retaining ring. 
 

Once I was finished I was left with three bits from the Bosch seal kit; a small rubber O-ring, the little bishop and the clamp bolt, which were put away for another day. 

Edited 31 March, 2022 by jars

[Titanium_Man]

“Another day” was a half hour after work this evening, which would have been last evening if I had found the injector wiring loom! I quickly convinced myself that it found its way into the bag of engine bits I took home last year. Had a decent look at home…… Actually turns out that boy looking is really a thing and was at work all along 

To start, I put the head on a stand and cleaned up the side of the cylinder head where the loom connector is bolted to with a used scotch cloth, then cleaned up the engine cover bracket with a wire wheel and put a light smear of copper slip on the locating dowel. 
 

It didn’t take long to re-feed the wiring loom back into the cylinder head as the retaining clips aren’t working against you when refitting, which was nice! 
 

Before pressing home the injectors, I dipped my finger in some fresh oil and lubricated the bore. The injectors were pressed into their home whilst trying to twist at the same time. Once they were fully seated I grabbed the injector clamps and new bolts, fitting only as far as getting a thread on each bolt for now as the computer had been shut down and couldn’t get the torque down info without a big effort. 
 

Had just enough time to pick out and replace the small O-ring in the top of the injector and fit the new bishop on to said hole by simply pressing in. 
 

 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Good work on this.

 

Maybe further than I'd dare going...

[Lofty]

Good to see progress again. The seats can be tiresome to clean but they are SO worth it when they are mint, plus soon hardly any vRS's will have original seats in them.

 

I second the post above about the covers disintegrating in the wash, the outer cloth rests on a thin layer of foam called scrim foam, then another thin cloth underneath sandwiching the scrim foam, the foam is what breaks down with age, sunlight etc, and can be seen when wet vaccing the seats, as the action of being wet and then vaccumed strongly can break the foam up into tiny particles, you'll see what looks like tiny dark dots in the weave of the top cloth. 

[Titanium_Man]

Cheers dude. Feels nice to be at it again to be honest. 
 

Part of me wants to keep the original seats but the sensible side of me says to get them proper mint and sell them. Time will tell what I end up doing with them!

 

 

[Titanium_Man]

On a other note, I want to shame myself into sorting out the below bits that need my attention;

 

Feint fluctuation from front brakes 

Swap out the Powerflex ARB bushes for new, normal ones as there’s slight movement when on the MOT shaker plate - slight knock

Drivers window regulator has a broken slider (Is there such thing as a repair kit for this, and if so, these any good?!!?) Repair or replace

 

Weld front crash bar and paint 

 

Sort front end alignment 

 

Re-gas Aircon and deploy aircon bomb

 

See to the rust rear arches and sills below front seats

 

Take the 5th Spider to work and check if wheel is buckled 

 

Replace 1x map light bulb 

 

Other bits that need doing;

 

Refurb Brembo 4-pots - keep or sell?!

 

Refurb spare 256 rear callipers & carriers 

 

Fit my splitter and sort undertray 

 

New ballast for Xenons 

 

Pull off rear reg. plate surround and re-centre 

Paint rear stone guards 

 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, jars said:

Re-gas Aircon and deploy aircon bomb

 

"aircon bomb"??? Should I be confused or concerned?

[TMB]

19 minutes ago, jars said:

Drivers window regulator has a broken slider (Is there such thing as a repair kit for this, and if so, these any good?!!?)

 

Yes, repair kits are readily available. Never used one as I've always bought the whole panel assembly so don't know how good they are. Example....

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121660367677?fits=Model%3AFabia&hash=item1c5385e33d:g:ebYAAOSweW5VYmPi

[TMB]

Also you can buy just the clips.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361414051301?fits=Model%3AFabia&hash=item5425f4c5e5:g:EYsAAOxyOalTYCNp

[Titanium_Man]

1 hour ago, TMB said:

 

Yes, repair kits are readily available. Never used one as I've always bought the whole panel assembly so don't know how good they are. Example....

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121660367677?fits=Model%3AFabia&hash=item1c5385e33d:g:ebYAAOSweW5VYmPi

Ok cool. Think I’ll just replace it then. Gives me an excuse to replace the door rivets with a better solution  

[Titanium_Man]

1 hour ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

"aircon bomb"??? Should I be confused or concerned?

Aircon deodoriser 👍

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303081767194?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=UtC3VvnORl6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=EtYD1QsGRvq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY