Now that I more or less fully kitted out my wife's Roomster, here are some photos of more interesting add-ons, hopefully you will enjoy them:

Sunglasses holder - not normally fitted in the UK:

Note it is worth glueing a small piece of foam tape or pad inside the holder to prevent sunglasses rattling.

Skid plate - also retrofit only in the UK, apologies for poor picture, great insurance against potholes and speed bumps, I posted install notes

here: http://www.briskoda....-install-notes/

The (not so) big red button , controls all 12V sockets always on / on only with ignition, there is also an extra hidden socket on passenger side inside dashboard, for satnav and old style Nokia hands-free. Sockets only with ignition function removes risk of discharging the battery. Green and blue buttons are for future use, green for wintery / heated options, blue for aux high beams, MDI has 16GB USB stick (the tiny thing next to MDI plug) and works very well with MP3s.

Towbar carrier attachment, hooked on flange towbar, fully relayed electrics. PCT towbar, very well made and easy to install, do not get Westfallia/Siarr flange towbars as the build quality is extremely poor (more about it here: http://www.briskoda....-best-to-avoid/)

Workshop related accesories:

lift pads on the car, you can get them from Audi

8N0803855 lift pads part A x4

8N0804853 lift pads part B x4

lift cushions for trolley jack: left one to avoid damaging the underbody sills, and right one to securely lift both rear wheels at once using rear towing beam, both cushions made out of hockey pucks (UK supply in packs of 10 from Crazy Kenny's):

Not included here are pictures of front and rear LED DRLs (selectable, front only still possible), HID low beams (set to flat beam for Europe), parking sensor buzzer disable button (when towing), twin aspheric wide angle mirrors in place of stock convex ones, and a few other things.

The only things left to install are winter options, heated windscreen washers and front windscreen heater (modified Ring RF300 with double the standard heat output, cabled to battery and relayed to rear window heater via thermal switch), but these I'll fit in a few months, not much use for them in summer. I am also thinking about aux high beams, hidden in top grille, but let's see how the car goes for a few thousand miles.

Edited 22 May, 201214 yr by dieselV6

Great work :-) Enjoying reading all the mods you have made. All Roomster has the basic, and it is interesting to read want different there is from country to country.

Here in Denmark the Roomster I got was a trim model called Style (now replaced). It has as default Heated windscreen sprayers, Climatronic, passengers airbag disabled option, heated front seats, headrest for the middle back seat, sunset tint glass, ESP. Actually ESP is mandatory here en Denmark, you cannot buy a new car with out it.

Great work!

>>Heated windscreen sprayers, Climatronic, passengers airbag disabled option, heated front seats, headrest for the middle back seat, sunset tint glass, ESP<<

Thanks. It's funny that I have exactly your list of options, though I had to pay for most of them, the only thing still waiting in the box are heated windscreen washers that I need to retrofit.

Anything "heated", or winter options is normally hard to get as standard on UK Skodas, it seems that VW UK makes winter stuff differentiator between VW and Skoda. 10 years ago, when I was buying the Octavia Mk1, you could not buy ESP equipped Octavia in the UK (ESP being most useful in winter), so I went to Ireland instead and ordered the car there. 6 years ago, when I got a Superb, it was same story with heated windscreen and heated seats, again bought the car in Ireland. At least this time I managed to get most important options from Skoda except the PTC heater. Volkswagens in the UK do come with PTC heater and of course Skoda does not have one as option, and has much weaker alternator, so retrofit is not really possible without GBP300+ cost.

Some more photos:

Liftomat, I find it quite convenient as you can open/close bonnet single-handed, came standard with my Superb, too bad I had to pay for it for the Roomster (this is Milotec one), but it's worth it. Note it is 2 person job, as during installation the bonnet is undone from the hinge at some point and it is quite heavy.

If like us you need a bigger battery (we often carry a fridge/freezer, need to be able to start the car after 6h-8h of continuous use at ~8A), Exide EA770 has 77Ah, or 25% more capacity, and more than double CCA rating at 760A, which means you can discharge it considerably further than stock battery before it won't start the car. It does fit in standard battery tray. I use an even bigger Exide EA852 in the Superb.

Front DRLs, I find factory ones way too strong, and no doubt you will find lots of drivers flashing at you if you use them in the UK. So I put LEDs in.

These LEDs look very good both on and off, got them from superbrightleds. They are strong enough, even on a sunny day they are clearly visible at a distance.

I have the same LEDs only red version in the rear fog lights, these are set up as rear DRLs (at much lower power, 1/5th of max power), twin rear fog lights (for use in the UK and abroad), and as additional brake lights (5-brake light mod) because they come up faster than stop lamp bulbs. You need 3 Schottky diodes and a 150Ohm resistor per each rear LED to obtain all these functions, plus repair wire to one fog as only one is wired up from factory. Note there might be better multi-element red LEDs available somewhere that will fill the rear clusters with light better, but I find that most other LEDs just do not produce enough lumens to be used as fog/stop lights.

Anyway, I hope you can make use of these photos and description if you need to upgrade your Roomster a little

Edited 24 May, 201214 yr by dieselV6

very good read well done with all the extras you have fitted but would it not have been less trouble to just buy a superb 4x4 estate..then you would have even more extras and room?.

bill

Hi

Just came back from a 2500+ mile half-term trip in a Roomster. Quite OK, the car drives well at speed, good cruising at 100mph-110mph, though of course nowhere near as fast as the Mk1 V6 Superb. One interesting discovery was that on long flat autobahn runs the engine would quite happily accelerate to over 115mph, but it appears it is electronically limited to 118mph or so. Fuel consumption is good, though air drag at speed costs. I still think this car is handling way better than Mk1 Octy at any speed.

Answering the question why not Superb 4x4, my initial thought was to replace Superb Mk1 and make it the new shopping trolley. However, Superb Mk2 is not as fast and not as comfortable as the Superb Mk1, and considerably less refined (no V6 diesel).

Even after retrofitting a few extras into Roomster, Superb 4x4 is nearly double the price (no special offers on diesel Estate Superbs), and still has only unrefined 4-cyl diesel or a ridiculously thirsty petrol V6. I could even stand the thirst of the V6, but I cannot stand the small fuel tank as it would force me to stop well under every 2hrs on my trips abroad. The other problem would have been delivery times, the estate Superbs have been quoted double the Roomster.

Also, Roomie is a lot more practical than Superb in everyday life, during my holiday I helped my parents to take a few items to the recycling centre, and converting Roomster to a van takes under a minute, and unlike conventional estate/hatch the rear tailgate opening is large enough to take a washing machine upright. Or a washing machine and a fridge...

As a side note, after driving a 6-cyl diesel, I will rather downgrade to 4-cyl turbo petrol than buy any expensive car with 4-cyl diesel engine, 5+ cylinders transform diesel as the low and mid rev ranges do not suffer from vibration and harshness anymore. I had my heart set on Audi A6 3.0TDI quattro 6-speed manual, but Audi in their infinite wisdom removed that offering from market leaving only autoboxes. I guess they do not want my money...

Roomster is a budget car, and a 4-cyl diesel fits it well, especially that the belt replacement interval is 130k miles, and my engine used no oil at all over 3.5k miles. Quite a positive difference from 1.9TDi (0.7l oil / 1000miles). Fuel consumption wise, it's about the same as the old 1.9tdi, which is good enough.

Finally, given the 9 or 10 build quality (fit and finish) issues I had with a new Roomster, and that the Mk2 Superbs are made in the same factory, I would not commit my funds to any premium Skoda at present time. I am buying new cars to drive them fuss free, not to spend time at a dealership waiting for warranty fixes.

Quality issues listed here: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/239313-roomster-build-quality-issues/

Edited 10 June, 201214 yr by dieselV6