Dan's 20v 1.8T Fabia Estate

[DanHarper]

So after removing both the drive shafts from the diff in the freezing cold gusting wind (of course my garage is full of Ibiza(s) :() it turns out its not the shafts, but the gearbox mount. I could make it creak and groan with just my thumb. Fortunately I had one in the garage from an Ibiza which was considerably firmer (though the same part code), so in that went. I think a Vibratechnics mount will be going in when I do some planned engine bay shuffling/sprucing/tarting in the spring. A horrible day to be doing it but I'm glad I found something to fix!

 

Also fitted my winter wheels now I finally have the parts required... the TD Jets need narrow bolts so I'd had to order 20 45mm tuner bolts.

 

Just a quick phone pic, don't want to take any with a real camera as its not been washed since before Combe, and it wasn't washed well then :P

 

 

I actually quite like it. With 195s the 15mm spacers are perfect where as with the 205s I think they poke out a tad on the front. Of course its just a visual illusion thing as the wheels are the same width and offset iirc. Have also spaced the rears out 15mm as they did look funny without spacers. Am liking the silver wheels on black though... maybe I made a mistake going for a darker colour on the summers :(

 

Hope that these Nokian A3s are as good in the snow as my previous Vred Snowtracs, and hopefully will be better in the damp which was a bit of a let down on the Snowtracs, they actually got better the wetter it got.

[DanHarper]

Well I'd like to say all is trouble free and happy... but its a 1.8T so I'd be telling porkies.

 

1. Losing boost... swapped the Forge BOV for a stock one I had and it feels much better. Service kit ordered... supplier sent the wrong one so more waiting. Ordered a spring kit too. Not sure what's in it now but I'll replace it with a yellow one.

2. CTS is dicky. Threw a EML last week regarding boost + CTS, not sure which threw the EML but now it tries to idle too low, shudders and settles. Going to whip the the CTS from my spares collection and fit tomorrow, when there is less chance the bonnet will blow off...

3. Got a bad vibration from the front at a few++ mph, pretty sure the wheels are not balanced properly. Will be going to a place with a clue to get them redone next weekend.

Edited 5 December, 2015 by DanHarper

[TrevorB33]

I really hope we can get all the 1.8t Fabia's together next year

Edited 5 December, 2015 by TrevorB33

[DanHarper]

I really hope we can get all the 1.8t Fabia's together next year

 

Shouldn't be too hard. Unless some more crawl out of the woodwork all the Briskoda ones on the road are Yorkshire based

[pip_vrs]

I'm not bloody Yorkshire

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[DanHarper]

I'm not bloody Yorkshire

 

Lincolnshire is just Yorkshire's granny flat and you know it.

[devonutopia]

Ahem, brands hatch 01/02/2016?   :p  Not that far - I'm going from Devon.

Edited 6 December, 2015 by devonutopia

[DanHarper]

Ahem, brands hatch 01/02/2016?   :p  Not that far - I'm going from Devon.

 

Arse end of flippin' no where that...

 

 

(Applies to Brands Hatch and Devon :P)

Edited 6 December, 2015 by DanHarper

[devonutopia]

Arse end of flippin' no where that...

 

 

(Applies to Brands Hatch and Devon :p)

 

Well I am going from one arse end to another arse end, so why not come from the other arse end making the triangle?

[Hyphons]

Sat through and finally finished scan reading through it, apologies for all the notifications you may have gotten from me liking a bunch of posts

[DanHarper]

Headlights finally replaced (were horrible, yellow and faded) with standard style DEPO ones as I got bored of waiting for projectors to come up at less than silly money. New LED bulbs as sidelights, Philips 130%+ dipped and Osram NB full beams.

 

Before/after with just the side lights:

 

 

Dipped/main don't look much different on the camera.

 

Amazing what a new set of lights does to the front end. Though it was never going to be a stunner... its a Fabia afterall :p

 

Also got round to servicing my DV. Found I had a green spring not a yellow which is what I should be using... service kit came with a revised piston too so hopefully it will behave its self a little more

 

Suffering a vibration on the front end which only seems to be when I'm accelerating hard at a certain speed window. Not engine speed related. Settles down if I cruise in said speed window... thinking a bearing? Maybe? May get some time over Christmas to throw the summers back on and eliminate it being the wheels.

Edited 21 December, 2015 by DanHarper

[pip_vrs]

Looks good that light comparison. One thing other than big brakes is a good pair of headlights [emoji108]

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[TrevorB33]

Looks good, I cheated and had mine polished lol

[DanHarper]

Looks good, I cheated and had mine polished lol

 

Lugs were broken on mine :( 

 

 

Oh I forgot a bit.... this project very nearly became a Roomster! I was soo close to buying a Cat D roomy that had its sump smashed in... fortunately I resisted clicking Bid! Too much to do, too many new parts needed and it was Derv so I'm not sure how that works re DVLA etc... would have needed a daily while I did it.

 

Boss said the Fabia is ugly enough, if I swapped to a Roomster I'd have to find somewhere else to park as it wouldn't be allowed in the works car park :P

[DanHarper]

Suffering a vibration on the front end which only seems to be when I'm accelerating hard at a certain speed window. Not engine speed related. Settles down if I cruise in said speed window... thinking a bearing? Maybe? May get some time over Christmas to throw the summers back on and eliminate it being the wheels.

 

Losing my patience with this car now :(

 

Swapped the passenger shaft for one with less play and the vibration on acceleration is gone. However intermittently I still get vibrations while driving at motorway speeds.

 

Swapped the wheels back to the summer ones and removed the spacers on the rear (one was broken so both had to come off anyway) and still the same.

 

Thinking front spacers off today and back out to the motorway to test tonight. Not sure if its just on certain surfaces, need to do a few more passes with that in mind to determine that... driving me crazy!

 

If its the spacers then its not so bad, I don't need them for the summer alloys. But winters won't even clear on the rear without 5mm and the front needs a minimum of 15mm I believe :( May need another set of TD1.2s!

[Skoda_Saint]

Yes try without the spacers, I dislike their use, however each to their own. I put standard wheels on my Octy a while back, from 18s with spacers and it drove remarkably better.

[DanHarper]

Yes try without the spacers, I dislike their use, however each to their own. I put standard wheels on my Octy a while back, from 18s with spacers and it drove remarkably better.

 

I beginning to feel the same regarding spacers... finding the rear one broken was annoying... If I'd been on the road side with a puncture I'd be a bit boned.

 

May be that I'll just need to fork out for a new set of TD 1.2s as the only 15"s that come up are priced as new anyway. I do like my winter tyres (when winter comes...).

[DanHarper]

Spacers off, problem fixed!

 

Now to find some winter wheels :(

[pip_vrs]

How were the spacers affecting it??

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[DanHarper]

Must have put something slightly out of alignment. Been like that since just before the winters went on, which was when the front spacers went on.

 

Did 50miles this evening over the same stretch I've been using for testing all weekend, including the big climb on the M62 which was where it was most pronounced. After taking them off its spot on. No vibrations at all even with 1 finger on the wheel.

 

Was hoping it wasn't them hence why they were the last things to swap out.

[devonutopia]

I hate spacers now - except perhaps the really good ones like Eibach make.  I go out my way now to ensure I only get wheels which clear my brakes without any assistance.

[pip_vrs]

Strange. I've got the same spacers as you on front and rear of both my cars and no issues.

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[stevobeavo]

I dislike the use of spacers anyway, they put more load on the wheel bearings

Keep up the good work dan

[DanHarper]

Step one of the engine bay rethink/tidy up: Install standard airbox. 

 

I've grown sick of the noise from the S2k. Yes its fun sometimes but really... when you're commuting or just driving in traffic it gets a bit tiresome bbrrrrrrm ttssh bbrrrrrm ttssh...

 

Simple job right? Yeah... right.

 

Got the airbox on after some fiddling and chopping on the battery box and, put the intercooler piping back together (didn't see that the battery box came apart so broke it up to thread through the big hole I'd cut in the box), fuse panel safely shoved in the battery box and off for a test drive. Hmm why is my high beam light flashing when I indicate right? Spin round and back home to look at it out of the rain.

 

All sorts of weird things going on with the headlights and indicators... indicate right and everything but the repeater works. Indicate right with the side lights on and the LEFT repeater flashes as well as the left dipped beam bulb although faintly. etc. Given the weirdness I figure I must have caught the loom when fitting the battery box. So out that comes. Hmm looks fine. Maybe its my connections on the passenger headlight? Chop chop... no not that (*******s now I need to redo it for no reason!). No signs of loom damage after removing some more intercooler piping to get a better look... so out comes the airbox. Hmm I moved the loom to refit the bracket, perhaps something around there. Oh, this earth point nut is a little loose... Yep, all down to a dicky earth! Took me well over 90mins messing around (fyi earths to the lights tested fine, thinking it was earth to something else), then had to redo the headlight connections in the dark... I hate cars :(

 

 

Going to tidy up the fuses at some point and refit a battery box lid somehow... may need to wait until the intercooler piping changes are done. I've got a Ibiza Mk3 1.8T boost pipe which I'm hoping will make the jump across the engine tidier, and the DV will go back over that side if it can to make the pipe work neater.

[DanHarper]

6 month service weekend. Oil change and a clean up of the brakes. As the Wilwoods have no rubber boot on the piston they need attacking with a toothbrush and some brake cleaner every 6months or so. Whipping the pads out is so easy on these callipers, remove the retaining pin and then pull the pads out, simple. However the inner pad on the passenger side was dripping in a black substance with the consistency of brake fluid, the grove on the pad was packed full of crap and all round the pad was caked in oily like dirt. Whipped the calliper and disc off to take a proper look and the back surface of the disc looks pretty bad too, lots of corrosion compared to the front and again covered in a film of fluid.

 

Thinking that I may have a faulty calliper I moved to the other side, only to find the same thing. The only thing I can think is that its road grime/dirt that has built up because of my lack of splash guards. I'd not noticed any reduced braking performance but the brakes had become increasingly noisy at the start of the journey, even if the car had only been sat for a few hours between drives.

 

My pads are probably best put in the bin now, but Wilwood pads are hardly something you can pick up in the shops, so I've cleaned them up, given the faces a light sand, cleaned the disc up, reinstalled the splash guards and cleaned up the calliper as originally intended. DS2500s come in at £60 a set for these callipers so its not too bad.

 

Also found a small hole in the passenger side CV boot had been throwing out a little grease so in went my old shaft, which I'd swapped chasing a knocking noise.

 

All assembled and out for a test drive, I had lost some braking performance, just obviously missed it due to it coming on gradually. Much quieter now too after giving them a few miles to clean up. My knock/click which could come at any point during braking and sometimes from both sides has now disappeared, so down to brakes as that's the only thing I've touched bar the shaft.

 

Wish I'd got a picture of the pads as it really did look disgusting. Hopefully that's the end of it... unless someone has been spraying oil on the back of my brakes in an attempt to kill me