Fabia Sport MK2 // 1.9TDI

[tobyelliott]

Hello,

I thought It was about time I posted a project thread for my car, that will hopefully clear up some information I found difficult to find whilst modifying my car.

So I picked up a completely stock Fabia MK2 Sport 1.9TDI 105PD back in December 2015 - The car was completely stock and even better after hunting and hunting it had the later PQ25 chassis.

The upgrades and counting:

- Rear Disc Conversion

- Cupra Rear 256mm Caliper and disc

- Cupra Rear Beam Bushes

- Tunit PD

- HID Kit Fitted

- H&R 40mm Lowering Springs

- Octavia VRS 16" Spider Wheels

- Forge 11mm Spacers

 

- The first changes I made to the car was to wrap the chrome grills with a textured black vinyl giving it a more steathly look/monte carlo look. I also de-badged all the "sport" badges on the car as these looked like some halford specials .

- Following this only owning the car for around a week my brother and I decided why not book it in for a track day at Bedford Autodrome.... So in prep for this we put brand new Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres on the front, Bled the brakes with ATE super blue, Fitted high temp brembo front pads and Brembo MAX front disc and then also after deciding the car was too soft for track use I decided stupidly to just fit H&R 40mm lowering springs, for track use these were okay but lowering springs with dampers not suited makes the car undamped on uneven road conditions so new dampers are on the list in the future. Also I purchased a Tunit-PD tuning box from a collegue at work for a trusty £40 bargain, I was not expecting much from this tuning box but was actually surprised. 

- After Tracking the fabia it really showed some of the weak points of the car, Brakes where the main factor but this was expected considering the stock fabia sports run a drum set up on the rear and a 288mm 54mm Lucas front brake setup. - Upgrading the brakes is on the list to do.

 

Skoda 16" Spider Wheels

- So my stock fabia sport 16" wheels have seen better day with all the paint flaking off in large chunks and with terrible kerb marks where the pervious owner used the rim as a kerb magnet, so ive picked up some freshly refurbed 16" Octavia Spider wheels from a Briskoda member. I decided to stick with the 16's and not to go for the 17's as I want to stay on a 45 profile tyre and keep the look of the fabia looking fairly OEM so it can be a sleeper.

Rear Disc Brake Conversion

So the next modification to do is to perform a rear disc conversion. For this a whole new rear axle is required due to the rear axle with drum brakes do not have the mounting points for the rear disc brake carriers.

The axle that will fit are any disc setup fabia axle from 2007-2014 (ideally a VRS MK2 is the easiest option), Ibiza 6J, Audi A1 and Polo 6R

 

An Item to be noticed is that a rear axle from a fabia will have the same track as the OEM drum axle, But the axle’s from a Ibiza have around a wider track of 30mm overall, as for the polo and A1 im not to sure but I assume it could be the same with a wider track.

 

Fabia MK2 Rear Disc Axle - 6Q0500051AS

Ibiza 6J Rear Disc Axle- 6R0500051B

 

So ive purchased a whole rear beam from a 6J Ibiza including the 232 solid Lucas disc brake setup, shortly followed by purchasing a rear brake setup off a Leon Cupra R so I can go for a 256 vented rear setup. The callipers I have decided to rebuild with new seals and re paint as these are common to seize. The disc I got with the brakes where in okay condition wear wise but incredibly rusty so ive blasted these back and painted them with galvabright for the time being. Ive also purchase a set of handbrake springs for the rear calliper to help with the hand brake mechanism.

 

I have also decided to upgrade the rear bushes in the rear beam to the same as a Leon Cupra R as these should be stiffer than the original bushes. I spent a while hunting around for a guide for fitting as these bushes are directional! The slot in the bush must line up with the edge of the weld on the top of the axle.    Febi Bilstein – 31744

The beam before re assembling I have blasted back the rust and bad paint and resprayed this with galvabright followed by a few coats of underseal.

 

 

 

The final part to the rear brake conversion is the hand brake cables, for this TRW GCH456 are the correct cables that can be purchased for around £8 each, a item to note when removing is that the hand brake cable ferrules press into the  aluminium channels/pipes on the underside of the car body, these can be removed with a set of pliers and some wiggling.

 

 

 

Now the beam is fitted I can happy say the brakes are better for sure. When I decided to carry out a rear beam conversion there was not a lot of information on the internet and instead plenty of “the rear brakes do nothing, a rear disc conversion is pointless” What I can feedback from the upgrade is the rear disc brakes get no way near as hot as the drums, this is mainly because the drums are steel whereas the rear callipers are aluminium so they are better at dissipating the heat. Also another thing I noticed is the pedal feel was much better and I believe this is down to the hand brake mechanism, as both disc brake callipers have their own auto hand brake mechanism whereas the drum brakes are adjusted manually in a pair so therefore the adjustment is never even across the axle unless everything is the same tolerance either side, this means that the brake shoes one side might have to travel further to come in contact with the drum causing further pedal travel. Also another problem I used to have with the drums is that after hard driving they would become glazed over easily and make the brakes feel poor so hopefully the conversion should stop this.

Any Questions regarding the rear disc conversion don’t hesitate to ask as i have most the part numbers.

 

 

 

Edited 27 April, 2017 by tobyelliott

[tobyelliott]

So ive decided I want to upgrade the front brakes, I thought about a 312mm brake setup of a Octavia but ive decided to go down a different cooler route.

 

Ive purchased 11mm forge concentric wheel spacers for £35 brand new from forge and some M14 X 1.5 Radius 40mm long wheel bolts to suit the wheel spacers.

 

Just started to mock up clearances as its going to be a tight to fit the calipers I want to fit under 16" but I believe it is doable!

 

Just a preview of the setup ive got with the wheel just pushed up to check the caliper will clear! The calipers are not in a fresh condition so these will be stripped, repainted and rebuilt.

[richyoung]

They should fit, my original 16's fit over 312's with a credit card clearance, find out who does sand blasting for your callipers

[Slotty]

Nice One Toby...!!! I'm also due to change my rear drums and replace it with discs, still doing some research and may have few questions. I have all parts and also some people confirmed to me that axles with Drums and Discs are the same: 

 

I have everything and all that's stopping me is above and dilemma whether I need the axle or not......

 

Matty  

[hutchysrs50]

They arnt the same despite others telling you they are.

PM me if you get stuck, I've done plenty now.

[Slotty]

7 hours ago, hutchysrs50 said:

They arnt the same despite others telling you they are.

PM me if you get stuck, I've done plenty now.

Thank you Bud. I guess new rear axle should be on my list then...

[martinwf5]

hiya ,this might sound a bit strange, im not all clued up on the fabia's yet as ive only had mine under a year, but mine is the 1.9tdi , and it has rear disc brakes, so why would'nt yours?

 

 

[S27VEJ]

On 27/04/2017 at 19:33, tobyelliott said:

Hello,

I thought It was about time I posted a project thread for my car, that will hopefully clear up some information I found difficult to find whilst modifying my car.

So I picked up a completely stock Fabia MK2 Sport 1.9TDI 105PD back in December 2015 - The car was completely stock and even better after hunting and hunting it had the later PQ25 chassis.

The upgrades and counting:

- Rear Disc Conversion

- Cupra Rear 256mm Caliper and disc

- Cupra Rear Beam Bushes

- Tunit PD

- HID Kit Fitted

- H&R 40mm Lowering Springs

- Octavia VRS 16" Spider Wheels

- Forge 11mm Spacers

 

- The first changes I made to the car was to wrap the chrome grills with a textured black vinyl giving it a more steathly look/monte carlo look. I also de-badged all the "sport" badges on the car as these looked like some halford specials .

- Following this only owning the car for around a week my brother and I decided why not book it in for a track day at Bedford Autodrome.... So in prep for this we put brand new Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres on the front, Bled the brakes with ATE super blue, Fitted high temp brembo front pads and Brembo MAX front disc and then also after deciding the car was too soft for track use I decided stupidly to just fit H&R 40mm lowering springs, for track use these were okay but lowering springs with dampers not suited makes the car undamped on uneven road conditions so new dampers are on the list in the future. Also I purchased a Tunit-PD tuning box from a collegue at work for a trusty £40 bargain, I was not expecting much from this tuning box but was actually surprised. 

- After Tracking the fabia it really showed some of the weak points of the car, Brakes where the main factor but this was expected considering the stock fabia sports run a drum set up on the rear and a 288mm 54mm Lucas front brake setup. - Upgrading the brakes is on the list to do.

 

Skoda 16" Spider Wheels

- So my stock fabia sport 16" wheels have seen better day with all the paint flaking off in large chunks and with terrible kerb marks where the pervious owner used the rim as a kerb magnet, so ive picked up some freshly refurbed 16" Octavia Spider wheels from a Briskoda member. I decided to stick with the 16's and not to go for the 17's as I want to stay on a 45 profile tyre and keep the look of the fabia looking fairly OEM so it can be a sleeper.

Rear Disc Brake Conversion

So the next modification to do is to perform a rear disc conversion. For this a whole new rear axle is required due to the rear axle with drum brakes do not have the mounting points for the rear disc brake carriers.

The axle that will fit are any disc setup fabia axle from 2007-2014 (ideally a VRS MK2 is the easiest option), Ibiza 6J, Audi A1 and Polo 6R

 

An Item to be noticed is that a rear axle from a fabia will have the same track as the OEM drum axle, But the axle’s from a Ibiza have around a wider track of 30mm overall, as for the polo and A1 im not to sure but I assume it could be the same with a wider track.

 

Fabia MK2 Rear Disc Axle - 6Q0500051AS

Ibiza 6J Rear Disc Axle- 6R0500051B

 

So ive purchased a whole rear beam from a 6J Ibiza including the 232 solid Lucas disc brake setup, shortly followed by purchasing a rear brake setup off a Leon Cupra R so I can go for a 256 vented rear setup. The callipers I have decided to rebuild with new seals and re paint as these are common to seize. The disc I got with the brakes where in okay condition wear wise but incredibly rusty so ive blasted these back and painted them with galvabright for the time being. Ive also purchase a set of handbrake springs for the rear calliper to help with the hand brake mechanism.

 

I have also decided to upgrade the rear bushes in the rear beam to the same as a Leon Cupra R as these should be stiffer than the original bushes. I spent a while hunting around for a guide for fitting as these bushes are directional! The slot in the bush must line up with the edge of the weld on the top of the axle.    Febi Bilstein – 31744

The beam before re assembling I have blasted back the rust and bad paint and resprayed this with galvabright followed by a few coats of underseal.

 

 

 

The final part to the rear brake conversion is the hand brake cables, for this TRW GCH456 are the correct cables that can be purchased for around £8 each, a item to note when removing is that the hand brake cable ferrules press into the  aluminium channels/pipes on the underside of the car body, these can be removed with a set of pliers and some wiggling.

 

 

 

Now the beam is fitted I can happy say the brakes are better for sure. When I decided to carry out a rear beam conversion there was not a lot of information on the internet and instead plenty of “the rear brakes do nothing, a rear disc conversion is pointless” What I can feedback from the upgrade is the rear disc brakes get no way near as hot as the drums, this is mainly because the drums are steel whereas the rear callipers are aluminium so they are better at dissipating the heat. Also another thing I noticed is the pedal feel was much better and I believe this is down to the hand brake mechanism, as both disc brake callipers have their own auto hand brake mechanism whereas the drum brakes are adjusted manually in a pair so therefore the adjustment is never even across the axle unless everything is the same tolerance either side, this means that the brake shoes one side might have to travel further to come in contact with the drum causing further pedal travel. Also another problem I used to have with the drums is that after hard driving they would become glazed over easily and make the brakes feel poor so hopefully the conversion should stop this.

Any Questions regarding the rear disc conversion don’t hesitate to ask as i have most the part numbers.

 

 

 

 

Do you have a part number or link fir the return springs your using for the hand brake. I'm sick of having to free mine off every few months!

[NcioxDSG]

will you be using porsche 996 rear caliper for your front brakes 312mm??

[Johnfabiavrs]

On 27/04/2017 at 19:44, tobyelliott said:

So ive decided I want to upgrade the front brakes, I thought about a 312mm brake setup of a Octavia but ive decided to go down a different cooler route.

 

Ive purchased 11mm forge concentric wheel spacers for £35 brand new from forge and some M14 X 1.5 Radius 40mm long wheel bolts to suit the wheel spacers.

 

Just started to mock up clearances as its going to be a tight to fit the calipers I want to fit under 16" but I believe it is doable!

 

Just a preview of the setup ive got with the wheel just pushed up to check the caliper will clear! The calipers are not in a fresh condition so these will be stripped, repainted and rebuilt.

What size would the center caps be on these cheers