Hi all,

 

Due to getting another dog, my time with my Mk1 fabia VRS was cut short but I was really impressed by that little car so I thought I'd try an Octavia VRS diesel.

 

Unfortunately my budget didn't stretch to CR but I found a chap on ebay looking to trade for a smaller car and we ended up swapping with some cash his way. The highlight is I've 71,000 mile octavia vrs estate with xenons for £5,500

 

<Here's where the pic's would be if I wasn't such a donkey and not uploaded any to photobucket yet>

 

But here's a link to the advert:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191637734439?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

So its a '07 yellow pre-facelift estate with: 

71K miles

Xenons,

What I'm lead to believe is an upgraded stereo... the advert mentioned a 10 speaker stereo lol,

Uprated ARB (Not sure if front or rear, or what brand, or what thickness, fingers crossed for rear and I guess about 22-25mm from experience),

 

Unfortunately it's been modified in other ways:

JOM coilovers - which I was pleasantly surprised with until I hit the motorway and then their cheapness shows through, the ride is very busy at 75,

BBS LM reps, 19X8.5 et 40 with 235 35 19 tyres which look pretty cool but with how low the car was they rubbed pretty bad when pushing on even a little bit and I dont do reps.

Painted front grille.

 

The first thing I've done is raise the ride height by about 20mm and my plans revolve around making it a better daily/dog mobile.

So:

Getting rid of the cheap coilovers - probably replace with a Bilstien B12 damper kit or similar (maybe even standard if it's not massively expensive) with as little lowering as possible, because it needs to be able to deal with the odd bumpy car park when taking the dogs for a walk.

Getting rid of the replica BBS LM wheels and picking up a standard set of 18's and probably spacing them out a bit on the rear, I'm quite surprised there's so few sets of standard wheels on ebay.

The painted grill is starting to chip so I'll get it wrapped.

Cruise control retrofit.

And finally give it a good polish to give the paintwork a lift.

 

So if anyone is interested in a wheel swap let me know

 

Impressions so far of the car are good - seems quick enough, gets good MPG figures and the boot is cavernous! It's just a shame I cant push on due to the suspension/wheel combo.

Edited 29 July, 201510 yr by Damo

Looks tidy.

Spotted it has the new Skoda badges, so you wont get the white worm that the old ones got 

 

Did you ask about belt & water pump change ?-  As the miles / age look like they are past its due by date.

 

You are also aware that you need to ensure that you are doing a few long journeys as this engine had a DPF added, and can be a pain if you have to do a regen run ?.

 

I personally found my Octy vrs ride was perfectly suited to my needs on std setup, but a few people wanted the ride just a tad stiffer to allow the bit of fun cornering.

I had a CR engined Vrs, but got a PD as a loan when mine was in for servicing, of the 2, I personally preferred the PD lump.

 

Have fun with it 

Looks tidy.

Spotted it has the new Skoda badges, so you wont get the white worm that the old ones got 

 

Did you ask about belt & water pump change ?-  As the miles / age look like they are past its due by date.

 

You are also aware that you need to ensure that you are doing a few long journeys as this engine had a DPF added, and can be a pain if you have to do a regen run ?.

 

I personally found my Octy vrs ride was perfectly suited to my needs on std setup, but a few people wanted the ride just a tad stiffer to allow the bit of fun cornering.

I had a CR engined Vrs, but got a PD as a loan when mine was in for servicing, of the 2, I personally preferred the PD lump.

 

Have fun with it 

 

Thanks mate,

 

Cambelt and water pump and tensioner done last year

 

DPF wise once the suspension is higher it'll get a good run on some country roads pretty regularly to get it nice and hot and if that doesn't do enough then I'll do the standard procedure that I've read up about.

 

Yeah I'm a bit passed owning low cars - I'd rather not have to worry about speed bumps etc. and just drive the thing.

Suspension wise I was thinking Bilstien B4's (55mm if I'm to believe the search button) and OEM springs.

 

Anyone run this set up or similar?

Quick photo after I'd lifted the front up last night

Edited 29 July, 201510 yr by S4Dane

Very tidy that mate could be a nice sleeper.

Very tidy that mate could be a nice sleeper.

The fabia was booked in for a remap at the end of August so I'll take the Octavia along instead

 

The real sleeper on the drive is this:

 

 

The Octavia could be tidier when you get up close but that gives me things to work on. I'm still getting used to the colour lol.

What's the s4 like on fuel(3.0tfsi I take it)? Stupid question I guess   . I know the 'official' figures are known to be a joke. I really like the Audi A6 (c6) and from the facelift on they did a 3.0tfsi (de-tuned compared to the s4) and it's becoming an itch I wouldn't mind scratching. I had a Vectra B v6 before the VRS and on the sort of driving I did it averaged about 27mpg. The vrs now only averages about 42mpg, mainly down to doing mostly short (5-10miles) rural journeys and drive it like I stole it as I don't want to choke up the DPF/EGR tickling it around. I only do about 5k a year so if the 3.0tfsi could 'real world' get around low to mid 20's I could live with that. :peek:

What's the s4 like on fuel(3.0tfsi I take it)? Stupid question I guess   . I know the 'official' figures are known to be a joke. I really like the Audi A6 (c6) and from the facelift on they did a 3.0tfsi (de-tuned compared to the s4) and it's becoming an itch I wouldn't mind scratching. I had a Vectra B v6 before the VRS and on the sort of driving I did it averaged about 27mpg. The vrs now only averages about 42mpg, mainly down to doing mostly short (5-10miles) rural journeys and drive it like I stole it as I don't want to choke up the DPF/EGR tickling it around. I only do about 5k a year so if the 3.0tfsi could 'real world' get around low to mid 20's I could live with that. :peek:

Yeah it's the 3.0 TFSI, it's surprisingly good on fuel but that might be because I came from a 525bhp B5 RS4 that did 16 to the gallon lol. 

 

Real world, pre-stage 2 upgrades so 330 bhp, at 85 the whole way through France travelling to the Alps I averaged 26mpg with a roof rack and skis.

 

 

The car is now 487 ps courtesy of MRC stage 2 package (belt, pulley, remap and intake 4 hours and about £1800) and on a motorway drive to Cornwall I average 27mpg which I reckon is completely acceptable. Over 300 mile to a tank of petrol, 0-60 in a number starting with a 3, and enough space for the dogs/stuff my perfect car. The only problem is a drive it too much

 

I don't love it like I loved my B5 but it's so ruthlessly good.

Thanks for that. The bigger A6 should reasonably be expected to see a similar MPG then I'd assume, given that it's in a lesser state of tune as well.

Thanks for that. The bigger A6 should reasonably be expected to see a similar MPG then I'd assume, given that it's in a lesser state of tune as well.

I haven't really noticed very much of a change in mpg to be honest, but yeah I'd expect it to be similar.

 

It's worth noting that the tfsi engines aren't immune to coking up in the same way that FSI engines do, the boosted engines seem to keep the carbon at bay better but short journeys won't help - the simplest solution is to boot it a few times every time you drive it.

Bilstein B4 dampers and 20mm Eibach springs ordered to get it back to a sensible ride height just need to find some 18 inch zeniths and I'm golden.

 

I'm pretty much at the end of the threads on what turns out to be Pro sport coilovers and the ride height has barely changed, I was hoping I'd get enough adjustment out of them but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Love the colour!

Thanks - I wasn't really fussed about what colour it was as long as it was a good spec.

 

I've got a great deal on a set of Bilstein B8's so I've gone with them instead. 

 

SO 

 

Suspension and service next week

Remap the week after

New grille surround ordered from TPS for Wrapping imminently 

 

All I need to do now is have a look at how difficult it is to do a cruise control retrofit and the car is sorted 

Looks really nice in yellow, but personally I think the LM's suite the car really well.

 

Looks really nice in yellow, but personally I think the LM's suite the car really well.

 

Thanks mate,

 

I like the LMs too it's just I don't trust repilca wheels - a friend of mine had one fail in a big way:

 

 

And as a result I'm not overly keen lol, especially given the state of the roads near me and it's not even winter yet.

 

Some 18's will give me a bit of extra sidewall for the comfort of driving to work every day and protection when going for hard to access dog walks etc.

 

In exciting news my springs turned up already!

20K service done yesterday, 

Eibach springs and Bilstein B8 dampers going on today. 

Genuine R32 Omanyt 18's won on eBay and being delivered today. 

Conti sport 5 tyres being fitted tomorrow. 

So I should a normal ish car by lunch time tomorrow!  

Anyone want some bbs lm reps or cheap coilovers? lol

Due to a complete ape installing the coilovers I needed new top mounts so the suspension swap didn't happen on Friday.

But I got my new wheels on:

OEM R32 Omanyts 18x7.5 et51 wrapped in conti sport 5's. Currently with an 8mm spacer on the back but I'll get some larger ones for the rear and put those on the front.

Gave it it's first proper wash and seal at the weekend and the new suspension went on yesterday - looks like a proper car now!

 

Washing the car was a night mare - I've never known crap stick to a car so much! There wasn't even a hint of protection on the paint so a pressure wash barely removed any of the larger debris. So it's now been sealed with some Werkstat stuff I had laying around, it now beads up nicely and it seems to have evened out the multiple shades of yellow a bit which makes it look smarter too.

 

 

Sold the old wheels too just need to get shot of the cheap coilovers now.