Kit's Mk1 Octavia vRS

[KitsonRis]

Recently joined and thought I would share my car.

Ever since my step dad owned a yellow Octavia vRS about 10 years a go I have quite liked them. He then bought another one last year, this time in silver. Sticking to my usual car buying habits I bought this off him! (I also own a Clio Ph1 172 track car that also used ot belong to him). It also goes down well with the family's cars as my brother has a Mk2 facelift vRS and my dad has the newest one (Mk3??), my little brother now needs a Fabia vRS!

It had 114k miles on it when I bought it in December 2016, now has 118k and have really enjoyed driving it, very comfortable, smooth and quick when I need it to be. Unfortunately these are the only two photos I have of it and the car is a little dirty. It is usually kept in a cleaner state than this, promise!!

The interior is the best bit about this particular car, as it is in very good condition (apart from the usuall rattling handbrake release button!).

There are a few plans I want to do to this car, and being a daily drive I don't want to go mental, that's why I have a track car! Plan is:

• Keep it looking smart and clean
• Need to paint a rear caliper green as it has had a replacement at some point in its life and it is silver
• Put a new exhaust on - a previous owner has replaced the exhaust for a non vRS one and it looks silly. I want to get one like my Clio's which is  a custom made stainless steel one, probably a little quieter though!
• Remap to help low end grunt, not interested in power figures
• Possible front end respray at some point??
• Get some more decent pictures of it!!

It is a bit of a long term project really. I want to keep it OEM as possible as I have a sneaky feeling they will start to hold their value soon, or even rise slightly, not mega bucks though. Possible future classic??

 

But first off is replace the engine.....the cam belt gave way last week. Had a rattling noise on tick over that stopped at about 1.5k rpm. Thought it was AUX tensioner as that was jumping all over the place. This did not solve the problem. Further digging about showed that this noise came from the cam pulley area - cam belt tensioner? Was going to phone up to book it into the garage to get the belt, tensioner and water pump changed on Wednesday but before I could do that on Wednesday morning it gave way. Great .

So going to turn this into a good thing by replacing the engine and doing so changing all the things on it while it is out - belts, clutch, mounts, water pump, oil pick up.....

Will probably be asking a lot of questions for help in removal of the engine and changing parts!! ALthough with the help of my step dad I am sure it won't be too hard to do.

 

[KitsonRis]

Spent  abit of time labelling pipes and wires tonight, blimey it is a busy and complex engine to what I am used to! Wanted to remove the inlet manifold but needed to take lots off and the drain bucket we have at home is full of coolant for some reason. Wanted to use this to drain my coolant.

 

Looked behind the cam belt cover for the first time, couldn't remove it as I needed to remove what turned out to be a coolant pipe that blocked it but had nowhere to drain the coolant, and the belt is still on the top pulley and under tension. I was expecting it to be either shreaded and a mess behind there. Cant see the tensioner though. But this doesn't mean it didn't slip and ruin the valves that way. Will have a better look Monday when I have a day off work. Would look this weekend but I am away. Also thought about putting the OBD reader on it to see if any errors were thrown, however my step dad took the battery to put in his E36 BMW track car as that is playing up.

Edited 14 March, 2017 by KitsonRis

[KitsonRis]

Took some more parts off the car tonight to reduce some jobs to tomorrow, like remove the coil packs, to one fell apart in my hand! That is one more thing to add to my shopping list. Glad this did happen as it was quite burnt and that so wasn't giving a good spark.

 

Poked a camera down the spark plug holes to see if there was any damage, as I could have got away with just re-doing the timing and was presented with this.....

 

That was on all four pistons, so the timing was well out. Damn. So that is an engine swap. Job for tomorrow

[mac11irl]

Small consolation but check the coilpacks.

They may still be eligible for the recall exchange if they havnt been changed previously...

No harm for the new engine and save a few quid if you can

[KitsonRis]

I did not know this, what was it for? There are three types of coil packs on the car - a Bosch one, two "cheaper" looking ones and an un-branded one similar to the Bosch one. The "cheap" looking one is the one that broke. Although all 4 didn't have any retaining bolts in them and were just push fitted. Drives my OCD mad that they are all different! Will check about the recall. 

[RoadWarrior]

On 20/03/2017 at 07:10, KitsonRis said:

I did not know this, what was it for? There are three types of coil packs on the car - a Bosch one, two "cheaper" looking ones and an un-branded one similar to the Bosch one. The "cheap" looking one is the one that broke. Although all 4 didn't have any retaining bolts in them and were just push fitted. Drives my OCD mad that they are all different! Will check about the recall. 

 

If I remember correctly, the old "06B 905 115 L" needs replacing with "06B 905 115 R" - I think it's actually written on the part somewhere, so if you see the first one I've listed then you can go for recall.

 

If you're willing to spend money then I'd personally recommend the ECS 2.0 TFSI Upgrade - I've had them quite a while now and I've had zero issues (some who've gone through the recall had issues down the line).

[KitsonRis]

On 29/03/2017 at 23:27, JackRockatansky said:

 

If I remember correctly, the old "06B 905 115 L" needs replacing with "06B 905 115 R" - I think it's actually written on the part somewhere, so if you see the first one I've listed then you can go for recall.

Will have a look at this when the engine goes back in. Once its working I will change the plugs and coil packs anyway, just want to get it sorted first.

 

Progress coming along nicely, havent taken many photos as I just wanted to make th emost of the time. New engine was picked up Monday. Wanted to get a few things done on it first while it was out and easy access.

 

* Changed the rocker cover gasket - the front of the engine was quite minging so hoping it was rocker cover gasket

* Changed the oil pick up pipe, the old one was a bit tired looking so hopefully a new one will be better

 

Took the rocker cover off and the oil was a bit sludgey....the car hadn't been used in 9 months so thought it was just condensation and not the head going. Took the sump off and the oil in there was very clean, used but still clean and no sludge.

 

Picked up a new Sachs cluth kit, 52% discount code from GSF, had to be done! New cam belt kit bought. I bought a new AUX tensioner and belt for my old engine a week before it went so I have taken that off and need to fit. Hope to get this all done Sunday afternoon as I am taking my Clio on a track day tomorrow. Annoyingly I am working away most of next week and might be working away for a few months so progress may halt a bit, which isn't ideal as I got used to driving a sensible car every day and not a track toy!

[KitsonRis]

Bit of a slow progress due to working away from home in the week and then being away n the weekends.

However took the other day off with my step dad and dropped the new engine back in. Bolted it all up and then got the fluids and that and fired it up. Started second time, most likely due to lack of fuel pressure. But it run very smooth and is a lot quieter than the old engine. My brother thinks it runs better than the old one. Just needs to be used to get it all working fine as the donor car hadn't been used in 9 months. I know it isn't an exact science but wonder what the fuel consumption is like compared to the old engine, as surely a better engine will be better on fuel???

 

So the engine has had new:

• Cambelt, water pump and tensioner
• AUX tensioner and belt
• Rocker cover gasket
• Clutch kit
• Oil pick up pipe
• Coolant, power steering fluid, engine oil and filter
• Air and pollen filter
• Few breather and coolant pipes
• when it is working and running well I am goin g to replace plugs and coil packs as piece of mind

 

Was missing a few parts, like the speedo drive and the air con doesn't work, but this doesn't stop the car from working. Speedo drive did turn up this morning so I fitted that.

 

Noticed I have a coolant leak, not ideal. Seems to be coming from THIS so I have ordered one and hoping it arrives before the weekend. Then it is all good to go!!

Shame about the weather tonight as it really needs a clean as I was avoiding doing it so it made me want to get it fixed.

Will be driving it close to home to start with just in case.

 

So hopefully next month I can start doing the things I wanted to do to it before I had to change the engine.

[KitsonRis]

So a lot has happened since the last update....the car is now working!! Did have problems with it once it was working as I had this noise that I couldn't figure what it as coming from. Coming from the drivers side of the engine bay and got worse under load. Sounding a bit like pinking/knocking so that got me worried as that could suggest timing is out. But could have been a faulty exhaust gasket. After lying under the car in the pouring rain I got fed up and took it to the local VAG specalist in Stonehouse (A1 Motor Services) as the next tool I was going to use was a match and a can of petrol, I really had enough! They looked over it, complimented on the work that was done, checked the timing and found it was the turbo to manifold joint wasn't fully done up whoops. They did it up, re-gassed the air con and it has been flawless ever since. Even drives better than it did before the engine swap!

 

So I have started to do some proper tinkering on it. Bought some Skoda green caliper paint to paint the random silver non-vRS rear caliper I have. When that turns up I will crack on with that job.

Also tidied up the front slam pannel as some how it had a lot of surface rust on. Rubbed it back and painted a few coats of hammerite on with another smoothing down between each coat. It looks miles better and not like it has been neglected

Before:

After:

 

Booked in for a new centre and rear sections for the exhaust at Infinity Exhausts. All custom made too and I can choose the tip choice; just going to have a twin tip to fit into the umper cut out. They are good guys there, they made my track Clio's exhaust and I was very impressed with that.

 

Next job is to sort the slight surface rust/discolouration in front of the back wheels on the sill line before that develops into something worse!

[KitsonRis]

Painted the rear caliper. Before:

After:

Much better!! Makes me want to go around all the brakes and give them a spruce up. Might do that if I get a spare weekend, which are becoming rarer for me!

 

Noticed I have a small leak from the sump plug. Bit annoying as the oil is less than 1000k old! Not sure I can swap the plug without losing too much oil, as I sort of want to check why it is leaking.

[KitsonRis]

Not much has happened since the last update. I have just been using it and keeping on top of it all really. The biggest thing is that I got the exhaust sorted out. Got a centre and rear sections made by Infinity Exhausts. Second time I have used them and will be using them again.

Their service is great. As it is all custom made you say what sound/noise level you want and how you want it to look and they make it there and then for you. I didn't want anything too loud, it is just louder and a bit more grumbly than standard, and I don't think many people will notice the difference when sat in the car. But the look of the back end is much better now the exhuast cut out has something in it.

Replaced my grill badge:

Gave the car a very good clean this weekend, made the most of the good weather. I use the Autoglym range. I am not a "detailing" kind of person tbh, I would rather use the car! But Ihave got into the habit of having a clean car. Their Rapid Aqua Wax is pretty good stuff - easy to use and gives a really good finish. And if used often it builds up a nice layer which helps to keep the car clean and make it easier to wash. So this is all the stuff I used on Saturday:

Couldn't get a good picture of the finished product as the sun was really in the way, but this is the best picture I have:

 

I have also made a purchase....not quite Skoda related but definately car related. I sold my Clio trak car as I was getting a bit fed up f maintaining a modified car that got some serious abuse, plus the next stage for it was an engine rebuild with cams and throttle bodies which I couldn't justify that expense. Shame. So I was tempted ny my friend to by his second car as he didn't use it much....

Its a very good condition E34 535i. Just needs a few finishing touches here and there and then my mark putting on it. This was also the Skoda's fault as I got used to driving a nice comfortable car when I bought the Skoda and getting in the Clio was starting to get a little tiresome.