I'm hoping to buy a Fabia 1.9TDI estate fairly soon, coming from a Fiesta mk6 1.4tdci. The Fiesta's only got 67bhp and 160Nm torque, and it feels slower than that, so I think a remapped fabia will feel quite quick in comparison.

 

However, while the Fiesta's slow, it handles really quite well (understeers like mad with the cheap tyres I've got at the moment, but that's just the tyres). How much would it cost to get a Fabia estate to handle at least as well as the Fiesta, and what do I need to get it to that stage?

 

Cheers,

Toby 

You're going to struggle in all honesty to get the Fabia (Be that Estate/saloon/Hatch) to handle anywhere near as sweetly as a modern FWD Ford.

 

It's a case of making the most of whats there, better dampers, slightly lowered springs, decent rear anti roll bar, but not much you can do to get the steering feel of the Ford etc.

 

Don't go mad with the lowering, Good uprated dampers and springs will be enough, retain some suppleness and suspension travel.

 

I'd spend money on vRS front hubs and a 312mm brake upgrade first as a mapped 100pd will soon exhaust the capabilities of the standard 288mm front brakes!

A Fabia estate is mostly setup for comfort out of the factory.

 

A rear anti-roll bar and a decent set of shocks and springs can make a huge difference to the Fabia and how it handles.

 

Don't forget other cheap things like bushes on the existing front roll bar, and the front suspension wishbone (console).

 

Changing the dogbone (gearbox) mount can also make a huge difference to how the gear change feels.

Sounds reasonable, going to be a while before I can do dampers as well as springs, but a RARB and bushes is all round is definitely on the to do list. 

 

Will I be able to do the bushes at home with a vice, or should I get someone else to do them?

 

The reality is this is going to spent a lot of it's life on the motorway, but I'd like to be able to throw it around a bit on the A and B roads - especially as I visit Wales a lot!

 

Regarding the dog bone, how much does this affect vibrations in the cabin? Also I'm not sure I really understand how changing it improves the gear change?

Get the Eibach Pro kit spring set, they work very well with the standard dampers, will drop the car 25-30mm and make a huge difference for the money, personally I would replace the front dampers at the same time since the struts have got to come off anyway, a pair of Bilstein B4 dampers won't break the bank and will work better than new. If you're on a budget then skip the RARB for now and just do the console bushes and the springs and front dampers for the best bang for your buck.

 

Get decent tyres, cheap tyres are such a waste of money.

What do you think of the Eibach's combined with B4's, instead of the stock dampers? I'd probably do front and back at the same time, not a fan of doing things by half! Looking at prices they seem more reasonable than I was expecting for all four B4's + Eibachs (looks like I could get a kit for about £300?). In which case I'll probably do bushes, RARB and suspension all at once.

 

I'm not bothered about lowering the car much - a few of my friends live down farm tracks, and a lot of the roads round here are pretty terrible. Saying that, it needs to go down a bit because it looks awful standard 

 

Agree totally with the tyres, the ones on the fiesta at the moment have convinced me of that! First thing I'll do before anything else is put new rubber on each corner.

I totally agree with you, not worth doing things by halves, there are two different B4 models, one for stock springs and one for sports springs, the difference versus stock is night and day (the stock dampers are Sachs), I have this setup and the only shortcoming is rebound damping on bumpy roads at speed, a set of B6's would sort this, I found the ride and handling to be noticeably worse with 16" VRS alloys so I now have 15" A3 pepperpots, I also have the Whiteline RARB fitted on the middle setting but may go to the softest setting when I can be bothered since I'm lifting the inside rear wheel on dry flat corners.

Thanks for the info. Do you know how AP's compare to the B4's? I was considering putting some 16" alloys on eventually so it's interesting what you say about that. 

I find the 15"s much better on rough roads (the norm rather than exception around here) than the 16"s, but sadly changed a lot at once (from 205/45/16 Federal RS-R semi slicks on 16" steels to 205/50/15 Vredstein Sporttracs on 15" TD 1.2s and lighter aluminium brakes) so can't make a fully conclusive decision as to what made the difference.

 

Of course you can't fit 312 brakes underneath 15" wheels.

 

The problem you may find with just a damper/spring setup is that the rear will sit lower. I have the battery in the boot and a petrol engine up front and have left the rear collar all the way up. The front is about half way down on the APs adjustment and it sits level.

Do you think stock brakes and 15"'s would be okay with a remap, or will I really need to look at upgrading the brakes? 

 

I never really thought about the fact it might sit lower at the back, is that because it's an estate and the springs are designed for the hatchback? I'm tempted with coilovers but they're a bit more expensive and might be overkill for what I need.

Do you think stock brakes and 15"'s would be okay with a remap, or will I really need to look at upgrading the brakes? 

 

I never really thought about the fact it might sit lower at the back, is that because it's an estate and the springs are designed for the hatchback? I'm tempted with coilovers but they're a bit more expensive and might be overkill for what I need.

 

Stock brakes with good quality discs and fast road pads will be just fine, you can get a spring kit specifically for the estate, it's called a combi in europe, chassis code is 6Y5. It won't sit lower at the back, mine doesn't.