Hello, just purchased a Fabia vRS last month (What a car !!!!!) so getting into this Skoda thing. Looking forward to getting it run in (any tips on how many miles this will take would be appreciated) and then having some serious fun.

Welcome

Running in is a huge topic. Some think treat it gently others think drive it like you stole it. As for performance you'll start to feel the benfits at about 1k but at 2k it'll be really nice

Welcome :orb_wave:

Book recommends approx 1000 miles @ no greater tha 3/4 max rpm. that works to around 900 miles, no more than 3000rpm.

Aftr that gradually work rpm up.

2k miles is prob good before you start to use the power.

Cool avator Steve - very funny. :orb_cool:

Must admit when I drove the Furby the main thing was to get those brakes bedded in - they'll scare the living cr*p out of you otherwise, did me anyway...

The fuel economy has improved a bit, gearbox a little smoother, generally the car is now settled a bit better

Mine was pretty settled at 2k miles I reckon, thinking back. I definitely didnt trash it in the first 1k miles, although I did max it out on a private road once during that time. The first 250 miles I was very cautious, not quite babying it but not trashing it hard.

Done a few minor things to the car to tidy it up, PD160 air intake, green filter, strut and the sound proofing have all made it a little better compared to standard.

I'm still happy with the way it behaves, cruising at whatever speeds I've been able to safely and legally drive on here & abroad has been good.

One thing also recommended is to just drive it at varying engine revs, perhaps work the gears a bit, all those things help loosen it up.

I pretty much just fuelled it up, drove it around on some A & B roads, avoiding the cruise control - refuelled it and drove it some more

Let's face it, you'll probably wanna show it off a little so might as well hehee

Thanks for that, approaching 1k now. Have kept the revs down, although I've found you don't really have to rev it that high to make it shift, have taken it over 3k rph on a couple of occasions briefly but hopefully no harm done.

So far I'm very impressed with the car, how have you found yours?

Nah won't do any harm. The main thing is to take it a little gentle whilst it's warming up. Once the gage shows the normal temperature it will be pretty safe

I've just crossed 8k today and a lot of it is motorway/A-road, but a fair bit of overseas driving and B-roading too (when I have a bit of time ).

Got a whole bunch of extras in our Furby and the soundproofing makes it more 'refined' I suppose, Parrot for safer mobile use as I can get called anytime really.

Generally it's worth remembering it's got a turbo, and a massive amount of torque. If you are in a higher gear, don't blat that accelerator down below 2k, some say 2.5k rpm. My biggest 'joy' I suppose is how you can just drop speed and then accelerate back up to speed, unlike my previous car, which would take minutes (and that in turn would annoy me a lot more).

When you feel like having a good blat in the car, you can too, and it sounds pretty decent for a diesel too

Easy to live with day-to-day, and plenty of potential for a bit of fun when you want it.

(must back away from the keyboard now - going on a bit It's a fine car for what it is, not the best at everything but a decent compromise for the dosh )

Cheers WW, one last opinion (then I'm off here), if you don't mind. Thinking of getting it superchipped (Car I test drove had been chipped to 180 bhp, pretty impressive) and fitting a K&N Filter element, any views? Whats the score with these PD160 jobbies?

Have a look in the technical guides for the Fabia for more specifics, but basically:

PD160 intake is from a Seat - it allows substantially more air to flow from the hole at the front of the grille to the airbox (bigger pipe & hole in the bit that goes in front of it). Effect appears to be that the engine is more free-revving (goes higher without it being restricted by lack of air). If you get a remap then it is pretty much essential as otherwise you'll end up with bags of smoke.

K&N for some reason isnt quite as popular for the vRS - mainly as it's a little more oily than the Green filter replacement, which you can just drop in as a replacement for the standard paper filter. I've got one and it does increase airflow a little again, which again for a remap is probably not a bad thing.

Superchipping next - loads of tuners out there, AMD, Revo, Custom Code (JBS) amongst them. There are some group buys to be had, and there are others like StarPerformance who are definitely worth a look too.

A Dragon digital tuning box is also pretty popular and works well.

You will probably get pretty noticable heatsoak with a remap due to the small intercooler with bad 'hot air escape route'. You'll find the Audi TT arch vent modification and also a fair few posts about FMICs (front-mounted intercoolers). That's getting pretty expensive though

It's worth considering the clutch in all this - the custom code remap is tuned in such a way as to avoid clutch slippage, so it's fairly smooth torque-wise. Other maps like Revo tend to have a bigger torque spike which will drive different, dunno if it's faster or not, but they can require a bit more user control to avoid going through your clutch

Best bet is to do a bit of reading in the tech guides, and do a bit of searching in the Fabia forum section, most of these things have been covered there on several occasions

Welcome to Briskoda I hope you are enjoying your Furby