j0hn's Hybrid Mk2. MOAR BRAKE!

[darren9]

That looks great. The ride height/wheels/brakes make it look like a touring car.

[Lloyd55vrs]

Mmm yummy brakes

[j0hn]

Cheers chaps, the brakes are certainly a bit tasty when you have to step on them!

[rob_e]

they look great under your wheels - i have brake envy!

are those carriers from vagbremtecnic (or whatever daveb's outfit is called?)

[Jonny5ive]

Cheers chaps, the brakes are certainly a bit tasty when you have to step on them!

Best I don't follow you down next Friday then. I'll lead!!

[j0hn]

It's still me that has to press them!

they look great under your wheels - i have brake envy!

are those carriers from vagbremtecnic (or whatever daveb's outfit is called?)

Yes that's VagBremTechnic kit Rob, I saw a post on mk5 from Dave suggesting that he was not going to make any more due to the companies that have cloned his kits, so I decided to get one - that was the biggest factor in my BBK decision.

[j0hn]

Took a trip down to London for a meet with another forum, took a few pics and have a couple of shots of my car.

DSC_6755 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

J0hnsRS by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Most recently, replaced interior lights with LEDS thanks to Johnny5ive of this parish.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Got a proper VAG 12v blanking cap (I am very excited about this) to replace the crap one from another unidentifiable car

photo by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Fitted one of these:

327074_x600 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

These dogbone mount inserts make a lot of difference and power seems more immediately useable and there is definitely less wheel hop. I reckon this in combination with an anti-lift kit would make a significant difference.

Then I spied a Race Blue FL car outside the house and had to take a shot, except I couldn't stand far back enough on the other side of the road to fit it in.

As commented on Flickr, is the blue one a 4x4?  :grin:

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Lastly the knackered locking bolt finally succumbed to a Dynomec tool, 14lb hammer and brute force. I think this is probably the only way to go with these ABC type wheel bolts, but it came off, I think if I'd lost or damaged the key, I would have tried a master set before writing off all four wheel bolts but as this one was shagged anyway, it was less heartbreaking.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Doing a bit of shopping in the next week or so, will update as and when.

Thanks for reading.

[rob_e]

looking good.

how much was the dogbone?

[TrevorB33]

Love it mate, where'd you get the ECS insert from, do they do two types? As power flex ones do two different designs for earlier and later cars, much more vibes on idle?

[j0hn]

The ECS dogbone inserts are normally £36, mine has been used for a few thousand miles and came to me for the cost of postage so I thought it was well worth trying. Trevor Awesome GTI sell the ECS mount in the UK, there only seems to be one type. I did expect there to be some vibration on idle but so far absolutely nothing at all, just a better drive really.

[TrevorB33]

The ECS dogbone inserts are normally £36, mine has been used for a few thousand miles and came to me for the cost of postage so I thought it was well worth trying. Trevor Awesome GTI sell the ECS mount in the UK, there only seems to be one type. I did expect there to be some vibration on idle but so far absolutely nothing at all, just a better drive really.

thats good to know cheers its on my list :-)

[pz1811]

hey, my facelift is in the shop getting the b14s fitted ... wanted to know .. how easy/difficult is to adjust the ride height ? does it need to be on the ramp ?

also when I bought the kit i noticed the black ring for adjusting the front springs but i forgot to see the adjustability for the rear dampers in my excitement ... do they also adjust the same way ?

Thanks

[j0hn]

Doesn't need to be on a ramp but you'll need it off the ground and will almost certainly have to take the wheels off to adjust.

Easy to adjust the rears, very similar to the fronts tbh. You'll need the OE top mounts on the front and the OE bump stops on the rear. If you want it low, wind the adjusters down before you fit it all on to the car.

[pz1811]

thanks for the reply ...

Just got my car back today .... Havent driven a lot about 20-30 kms ... but the back feels a bit too bouncy to me .... have you experienced this ?

Is it because the suspension is new and would need a few kms to settle down ?

Thanks

[j0hn]

It can be a bit bouncy yes, I'm still sorely tempted to go for a set of Bilstein B8s and a set of H&R -50mm springs on this now though.

Not much to update, well there are a few things but I'm keeping them under my hat for now!

I swapped out the scabby looking wheel bolts for the ones Team Dynamics sent me when I bought the wheels via W8. Mainly because the new locking bolts were shiny and highly polished/plated and mainly because it's getting quite difficult to obtain the wheel bolt covers for ABC type locking bolts - the original locking bolt stretched the previous covers so they were too loose a fit over the new ones.

Excuse the state of the wheels, but I think that looks much better.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I also fitted the metal pressed plates following the group buy I arranged on here. Much better than the scabby old plates and rusty screws.

KU07 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

And in Boss Fox's group buy, bought a Blackvue camera.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I wanted to wire it in so it switches off when I turn the ignition off, it does have a parking mode but I'm not overly concerned about that. I bought one of these and one of these and with the help of a couple of members on here, connected it all up and hid it away inside the fuse box.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I've got another couple of things to do in there as I would like to try and run power for an iPod to the storage box on top of the dash. I know how I'll do it, it's just a matter of finding the space.

The camera fits quite neatly behind the mirror

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I'd been thinking about an anti-lift kit for a while but had put off going for Whiteline because of the stories I had heard about this happening (following pics all nicked from AKS):

8a28f6f5 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

16334b65 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I was at AKS when I decided to go for the Superpro alternative as they are kept as stock items and available for less than I was going to pay for them elsewhere too. Comparing the Whiteling and Superpro side by side, the quality of the Superpro looks to be much higher than the Whiteline items, the Superpro inner bushes are also metal and presumably aren't going to suffer the same fate as the Whiteline items and they were also a bit cheaper to boot.

20121109_204254 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I also found the time to have the car dyno tested again and as they had the old dyno plot from the previous Motech remap, they plotted the two on to the same graph.

KU07 Test 2 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

That's 244bhp and 283 lb ft. APR quote 252 and 303 "TQ" (which I assume is lb ft and not Nm) for a stage 1 car running 98 RON unleaded. I suppose 244 and 283 isn't bad, but is a little way off what APR are advertising, although their figures are probably from new cars on their own dyno and not that far off taking into account dyno accuracy.

Much better then the previous map I'm sure you'll agree.

KU07 Test 1 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Ignore the fact that the lines haven't been smoothed by whatever method various dynos use (like the DD rollers for example), the APR map looks to have a much better curve than the previous, the power and torque are both stronger especially through the midrange. I also didn't hear all the chattering and whooshing from the ITG that came from the old Code:Red intake I had fitted, which suits me down to the ground.

Furthermore, if you compare the blue line to the shape of APR's power result below, it's sort of pleasing to see the two graphs are about the same shape, which must go to show the car is doing something right!

20tfsi_trans_stage1_93_engine by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Then the obligatory snow picture, this is after I'd cleared 6 inches of snow off the car to use it and it all came back in Tesco's car park.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

And then I went shopping (not in Tesco's - well I did, but not for these):

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Nokian WR A3 in 225/40/18. I'd spent too long trying to decide between 16s and 18s - it strikes me that most people opt for 205/55/16 winters because they're cheaper than buying 17s or 18s and there are a plentiful selection of used OE 16" wheels available. I found it difficult to make my mind up on a set of 16s that I knew would go straight over the front brakes so when I saw these come up for cheap, I jumped on them. The depth gauge read 8mm when I first looked at them and they still had all the rubber dimples found on a new tyre. Made a huge difference in the remnants of snow that we had and I wouldn't be without a set now.

I needed to do something about the engine bay as, even though you don't spend a great deal of time looking at it, I really wanted it to have an engine cover.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

It's filthy and I am a bit paranoid of getting water anywhere near the coil packs. Other than aftermarket engine covers (carbon and suchlike) there aren't really many other options to fit onto the top of the engine as the standard cover incorporates the airbox, which obviously I no longer need. I didn't like the Code:Red carbon engine cover I'd previously fitted, which you can see in much earlier posts in this thread.

When I visited ITG last year, they mentioned that the TT-S engine cover fits straight on presumably because (like the Golf R), the engine is based on this TFSI design and not the later TSI, except with a separate airbox. 5 minutes on the phone to TPS and this is ready to collect the following day:

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

But that's not enough, I still needed something else and managed to get hold of some black washer and coolant caps and an Audi R8 oil filler cap (these are everywhere, I bought mine from somebody else but they're only £30 from Awesome).

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Put them all together and what've you got (bibbidi bobbidi boo)?

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

The only issue with the R8 oil cap is that, in order to orient it correctly (ie oil can symbol in a straight line with the engine), you need to disassemble the two parts of the cap and snap it back together so it lines up when it's fitted. Sounds more complicated than it is and takes about 5 minutes in practice.

Now I can't be driving round in a Skoda with an Audi emblem on my engine cover. The plan is, when the weather warms up and there is less moisture in the air, to remove the silver 4 rings emblem, take the black plastic centre section out, fill the space and either wrap it or paint it black before reassembling and applying a Skoda graphic. Job done (hopefully). And clean the engine bay of course.

As the car was so flipping filthy and the weather a tropical 8 degrees, it was a good opportunity to give it a clean.

A right state:

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

And then.....

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Post snow winter clean (iPhone) by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Nothing special here, just a citrus pre wash through a pressure sprayer, wheel cleaner, shampoo and wool mitt and dried with a plush drying towel. I had a new clay to test, so clayed the bonnet followed by a paint cleaner and a layer of the limited Edition 89 wax from Definitive wax, which is rather nice.

I had hooked the car up to VCDS recently and saw that it was registering misfires on cylinder 3. Yesterday I swapped coils 1 and 3 over to see if that made any difference and it was still the same. It's only really missing at idle as well, rather than when driven - I've read up a couple of posts on other forums and it does suggest that an injector could be the culprit. I'm off to AKS on Tuesday so I will have a chat with Alex about it.

It was also insurance time and as the renewal from Skoda seemed a bit high, I started ringing around. To be honest I only got as far as ringing Brentacre and Greenlight, the latter gave me a price for all mods declared that was too good to turn down, I just took it there and then. Well done Greenlight! Can't fault Neil's customer service although when I started sending in docs for NCD, driving licences, etc it seemed that the information given to me by the previous person didn't meet the criteria of the next person. All sorted now after a call to Skoda to get an actual NCD certificate so happy enough.

I've done a few other things recently, but I'm keeping those to myself for now. I'll write another post shortly after I've collected my various thoughts (and receipts).

[mark_eire]

Nice work, love the camera, is the TTS engine cover a straight fit?

I was planning to hack up my original engine cover as I was similarly worried about having the coilpacks etc exposed,

Looks like a nice simple solution....

[j0hn]

Yes Mark it's a straight fit, you have to replace and fit two new mounts at the rear and a mount on a self tapper into the inlet manifold, but yes clips straight on.

[Jonny5ive]

Tidy install on the black vie j0hn. I'll have a gander next time I see you as I'm sure I can make a tidier job of wiring in my phone cradle and I like the ignition on/off option.

Looks good

[rob_e]

Hi John

Looks good

The "add a circuit" things are great aren't they? I have one in mine (and SWMBO's mini) powering my electric gate opener.

Are your winters on your old zeniths? or did you mount those on the TD's?

Interesting idea you have ref the H&R springs with B8's - I'd be very interested in feedback if you went ahead with that. FWIW H&R make two "cup kits" with the -50mm springs, one is classed as "sport" and the other "comfort". I've not got the specs on the two kits but i'd guess that the comfort springs are going to be softer. H&R however only list one spring at -50 so that may be the harder of the two?

Another alternative would be to get some different springs to mount with your bilsteins? Maybe check with bilstein to see what they could do?

[j0hn]

I mounted the tyres on the TDs Rob as I sold the Zeniths some time ago though kind of wish of kept hold of the heavy buggers now.

I'd like to try and find somebody locally who is running a set of the H&R springs to see what they feel like although I'm interested in your comments that the Bilstein's spring rate is possibly too high.

Any idea what it should be?

Tidy install on the black vie j0hn. I'll have a gander next time I see you as I'm sure I can make a tidier job of wiring in my phone cradle and I like the ignition on/off option.

Looks good

Anytime Barrie, I've got a spare 'add-a-fuse' you can have as well, you'll just need the 12v socket to wire onto it.

[j0hn]

Not much to report. Actually, there's plenty to report, but I'm only going to write about fitting Rob W8's old wheels, putting me back into summer mode for the time being and show some pictures!

photo 2 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

CVRwheels by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Cleaned and sealed with Race Glaze's Nano Wheel Sealant. I am not a massive fan of this and will be looking for some Nanolex or GTechniq to replace and use on a 6 monthly basis. I very nearly bought some ArmorAll Shield the other day but seems to wear out after 4 weeks.

photo 1 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Beading from Definitive Wax's Synthetic Edition

Beading by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

photo 21 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

And finally got around to fitting some Czech dealer number plate surrounds.

photo 5 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

[j0hn]

No words needed....

H&Rs! by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

[rob_e]

have you driven it yet?

[D@z]

looks good, why the change from the Coils to the H&R springs?

[danny p]

I know this drag strip style peace of road, Asda is at the end on the left side. I've heard of plenty of people losing there licences down that road!

Video quality is good, I will have to keep my eyes pealed for your octy!!