Kellaway's Fabia VRS

[coskev]

Very nice attention to detail

Lovely feeling getting rid of rattles ain't it!!!

[dan4291]

Great work! Are you from Darlington?

[kellaway86]

Great work! Are you from Darlington?

Richmond, just down the road.

[kellaway86]

Little update for today.

So i nipped down to Mansfield to collect some parts off Jamiekirk95. Came away with some used VRS mats and a big box of new suspension goodies.

Gave the mats a good scrubb with APC and a good hoover.

IMG_7313.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7319.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Old,

IMG_7321.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7322.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

New. Looking way better! Excuse the interior it needs a bloody good clean! Job for the weekend if the weather stays nice.

IMG_7325.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7327.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

The big box of new suspension parts, Top mounts and bearings, bump stops, HD droplinks, shock covers. Just got to order some new shock's for the front and a few other bits of bobs and going to refresh the front suspension.

IMG_7315.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

[kellaway86]

Went and picked up a decent spline set to add to my tool collection so i can tackle the M14 pinch bolts! Can never have enough tools!

Few more bits of x-rated German parts arrived today to add to the pile!

IMG_7332.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7333.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7334.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

[Hyphons]

Love this, not sure why I was unsubscribed to this, it was showing in my participated section on Tapatalk lol, keep it coming

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[kellaway86]

So with the arrival of another new tool.

IMG_7336.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

I decied to get cracking on changing the front struts and top mounts etc.

Old.

IMG_7338.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7342.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Lower pinch bolts looked friendly ;/

IMG_7344.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

I started first with the drivers side as this side is ment to be the hardest due to the drive shaft fowling the sub frame.

With some back and forth motion and lots of WD and a large hammer, the bolt removed.

Old v New

IMG_7347.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Whipped the vac controller off.

IMG_7349.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7350.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Used the strut splitter tool to open up the hub then hammered it down as far as it would go, do to the drive shafts the only way to get the strut out is use spring compressors.

IMG_7353.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Once the strut was removed from the hub, i had a nightmare as one of the captive nuts that hold the top mount on decided to break off..

Cue about half an hour with the mole grips and lots of swearing!

IMG_7351.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7352.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Where the captive nut should have been.

IMG_7355.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

After a bit more swearing, i have a prize!

IMG_7358.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

The broken off captive nut and the very worse for wear top mount bearings.

IMG_7359.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7361.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Got it mounted up in my 1 ton spring compressor. Your a braver man than me if you use the cheap Chinese handheld ones to change springs/struts.

IMG_7362.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

No mucking about, big ass impact to take the top nut off.

IMG_7363.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Top mount

IMG_7364.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Pulling apart.

IMG_7366.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7367.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

OLD V New, both compress and left to expand. This might be the reason for my questionable handling! New is Bilstein B4 Struts.

IMG_7368.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Rebuild back up with new Top mounts, Bearings, Bumpstops and dust covers.

IMG_7369.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Top mounting bolts cleaned up.

IMG_7373.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Big old space.

IMG_7374.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Re installation was fun....

IMG_7375.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7376.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

A combination of floor jacks, spring compressors and pure luck we got it back installed.

While the arch liner was out, gave it a quick clean. Not as clean as i would have liked but i was time limited.

IMG_7377.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7378.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Put the arch liner back in with new fasteners.

[kellaway86]

Moved on to the other side and luckily its much easier, had the strut out in about 15mins.

IMG_7379.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7380.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7381.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7382.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7383.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Yummy

IMG_7385.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Same again, this side didn't want to expand.

IMG_7387.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Fully rebuilt.

IMG_7389.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

15 minutes later and it was back in, much faster..

With the struts installed i changed the drop links to the Meyle Heavy-Duty ones.

IMG_7390.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7391.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7395.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

The finshed artical.

IMG_7392.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Not as clean as i like but had run out of time and needed the car back on the road!

Went for a test drive and wow the handling is transformed, well worth the time/effort/money!

[hutchysrs50]

Seems every update is a good detailed one!

will be worth changing the rears also if they are original like those fronts!

[pip_vrs]

Nice work. Ive never used a spring compressor [emoji23] just impact gun to buzz off nut and stand onvthe strut. Move your hand out the way as it pops off [emoji15]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hutchysrs50]

Nice work. Ive never used a spring compressor [emoji23] just impact gun to buzz off nut and stand onvthe strut. Move your hand out the way as it pops off [emoji15]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You trollin?!

How do you get the spring back on then?

[pip_vrs]

You trollin?!

How do you get the spring back on then?

Never fitted standard springs [emoji23]

Took them off to use top mounts on coilovers several times.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kellaway86]

Seems every update is a good detailed one!

will be worth changing the rears also if they are original like those fronts!

All ready changed for new genuine.

[kellaway86]

Nice work. Ive never used a spring compressor [emoji23] just impact gun to buzz off nut and stand onvthe strut. Move your hand out the way as it pops off [emoji15]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your a braver man than me. Ive diced death too many times with handheld spring compressors! Best £100 spent ever on that strut compressor, so much faster and safter!

[kellaway86]

Well I've been loving the new suspension setup so far, how ever the arch gap was bothering me.

Just by chance i came across a set of H&R 35mm Lowering Springs on Ebay that had about 2500 miles on them. Though i better call my insurance before bidding on them and see how much to add them to my policy, they wanted a grand total of Nill! Well Chuffed not even an admin fee!

So set up a sniper on Ebay and to my delight i won the auction at a steal of £67

Pics from advert

$_57 by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

$_57 (1) by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Just awaiting delivery now, and then hopefully next week will get the suspension pulled apart again and them installed

[Hardcore]

I'd be interested to see how comfy / bouncy the side is with the B4 dampers and those springs. I bought B4's for my old Ibiza FR that i never got to fit. I was considering fitting them to my Fabia (just now it's Eibach Pro Streets) but i read somewhere they're a bit softer than standard Fabia ones because they were only replacements for the lower spec, non sport models.

[kellaway86]

Im really liking the B4. Not bouncy at all with standard springs. Just need to loose the hight. Going to be cutting down the bump stops to hopefully wont bounce to hard!

[coskev]

Cutting down your bump stops? Why?

The only thing that will achieve will be nice knackered Bisteins when they bottom out :(

Also as above,if you look on the Bilstein website they don't list B4's for a VRS,I wanted some for my Mrs SE so looked into it.

I was told by a supplier on here they are too long for a VRS as they are for standard Fabias.

[kellaway86]

Will be cutting the rears down not the front. They are not b4 but new genuine oem, and from what ive been reading its adviced to trim the rears. Im going to see how i get on running the B4 on the front lowered. One thing for sure they are a hell of a improvment over my old nackard oem thats for sure.

[kellaway86]

H&R 30mm Super Sport Lowering Springs Installation.

So i won these on Ebay for an absolute steal, seam to be really recommended by a lot of people and since the VRS was looking like a monster truck i jumped on the opportunity!

IMG_7396.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7399.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr.

Got some new rear spring seats and rubber mounts as well as some lemforder rear top mounts to go on.

IMG_7404.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

So got the car in the garage.

IMG_7408.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7414.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Rear arches both removed.

IMG_7415.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7416.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Lower strut bolts still looking nice and new, buzzed right off with the impact.

IMG_7417.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Shocks out.

IMG_7419.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Changing over the top mounts and trimming the rear bump stops.

IMG_7421.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

New v Old

IMG_7422.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Removing 20mm

IMG_7424.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7425.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Re-assembled

IMG_7427.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7428.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Got the pry bars out and removed the old rear springs.

IMG_7431.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Lower spring seat, has seen better days haha!

IMG_7432.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7437.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

New v Old

IMG_7434.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

The spring cups where in need of a clean up so, i did the usual - wire wheel, krust, primer then top coat.

IMG_7436.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7442.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7448.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Finally with the new spring seats installed.

IMG_7450.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Quick attack with the pry bar and t springs where installed.

IMG_7451.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Shock back in

IMG_7452.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7454.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

All back together.

IMG_7455.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Got the wheels back on and spun the car around, pulled the fronts off. Not going to go into much detail as just changed these before.

IMG_7463.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Getting rebuilt

IMG_7464.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Both sides installed.

IMG_7467.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

Went a lot quicker than the other day, both sides sorted in about 2 hours.

[kellaway86]

So the car has gone from this.

IMG_6404.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

To this,

IMG_7468.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

IMG_7470.jpg by Daniel Kellaway, on Flickr

The handling has been transformed. With all the new parts and now the Super Sport springs its now extremely planted but still retains nice to drive as a daily

[coskev]

Sits lovely now

How the VRS should have been standard imo.

Word of warning,you are not meant to jack the car up in the middle of the rear beam.

There is a warning sticker on them from new ,but they are missing now on some cars due to the age.

[kellaway86]

Sits lovely now

How the VRS should have been standard imo.

Word of warning,you are not meant to jack the car up in the middle of the rear beam.

There is a warning sticker on them from new ,but they are missing now on some cars due to the age.

Cheers mate. i didnt jack it up on the rear beam, was used to support the beam while i took the shocks off Think my sticker on my beam is long gone!

[coskev]

Ah right

I wondered what that piece of corroded metal at the base of tge spring was when changed some few weeks ago!!!

[Outofthi5world]

Looks lovely, spotted you parked outside the cop shop this afternoon, very tidy.