ChoonDoode's VRS TDi

[Petunet]

Excellent. I may try those...

[ChoonDoode]

Right, I've been having a reassess on where to go with regards to 'fiddling' with the car. Something to keep one's mind occupied whilst it's sat waiting for me.

 

I've kind of steered away from wanting to touch the brakes now. In certain respects, your brakes are only as good as your tyres. From that, I feel before I were to touch the brakes, a new set of tyres would be of advantage to try first, to see how they made the braking behave, until I considered throwing a big brake kit on.

 

Which leads nicely to alloy wheels........and I've got my eye on getting a set of Neuspeed RSe102 19 inch 8.5j's. If I've done one's calculations correct, they will fit the wheel well out nicely, without the need to get wheel spacers. Plus with them being the 8.5j width, I'll be able to put 235/35/r19 tyres on them. Which again, should improve the braking. And accelerating. And handling. Just have to brace myself for paying £175 a tyre!!!!

 

I'm still having an umm and an arr whether or not to be saving up for a decent set of coilovers, or whether to just get a set of lowering springs. I'd talked myself out of them, but at the end of the day, no pockets in your shroud.

 

I've got my heart set on the KW DDC coilovers for 2 reasons. The first being the damping adjustment and the second being the ride height adjustment. It would be of great advantage being able to raise the car by an inch or 2, certainly at the rear, when I'm towing the bike and with having all associated hoo har in the boot. On my Hyundai i20, the handling was improved dramatically by throwing a set of 25mm lowering springs in, but it's behind was perilously close to the floor with the trailer on and the boot full. It's the old case of head versus heart in this one. As I've said previously, I've driven an octavia with the damping control fitted and I was impressed by it, so it would be nice to have. But it's 200 odd quid for lowering springs and 2500 odd quid for ddc coilovers. Plus the fitting.

 

Any advice folks? Please.

[JohnnyType2]

they will have a blueish tinge, i could only find one supplier and he was local to me that has H8 led in 4500K.

 

[ChoonDoode]

In between having a cool beverage or 2, I've been doing a couple of tweaks to the car. Forgive the script..........

 

First on the list is fitting my dashcam. I feel these are starting to be seen by insurance companies as a necessity for getting a cheaper quote, plus you're getting the benefit of a bit of security for yourself. I've not pushed the boat out too much, only bought a relatively basic Nextbase 312GW, but they do get a decent review and I was able to get an unused, open boxed and 'shop soiled' one from ebay for £45 delivered. Add a wiring harness and delivery and it came to just on £55. Result!!!!! Installation of it didn't prove overly difficult to be fair, just the usual swearing whilst putting the glovebox damper back on.

 

The next tweak I've done are swapped the horrible, yellow, awful, hot, power wasting incandescent bulbs and put in a set of nice, white, tidy, cool, power saving LED bulbs to make the interior look that little better than it already does. They're nice and bright, but not stupidly bright. The one thing I do like from these LED's are they dim down when the lights are going off, so they fit in with how the original bulbs were. A lot of LED's I've used in the past were either on or off, so this is nice. Only issue I had was on the door opening lights and the boot lights, as these LED's were just a little too big to fit in comfortably into the metal holding pins, so I had to bend them a bit. No major issues. These bulbs, due to their size (3mm too wide) weren't able to fit into the sidelight slot. Which leads onto the next mod.

 

The last upgrade I've done are the sidelights and the number plate lights, which again are the old, horrible, yellow filament bulbs. They look daft next to the DLR's and stick out like a sore thumb. With the rear number plate being yellow, you can't notice the colour there, but they're gone regardless. The physical fitting of them wasn't an issue, but the digital side of things sure threw a spanner in the works. Turning the ignition on brought up an error with the number plate lights (expected) but didn't bring an error up about the sidelights (unexpected). Coding them on VCDS both to  '6 - LED Lichmodul' got rid of the number plate error, but instead brought up 'Fault: vehicle light' on the screen. A bit of searching later and I found a post which advised instead of using '6 - LED Lichmodul' for the sidelights, use either '43 aligemeine LED' or '40 aligemeine LED'. I changed it to the 40 setting and I still had an error. A night's sleep and a google later and I changed the number plate setting to '40 aligemeine LED' as well. Error messages have now gone!!!

 

Pictures to follow.......

[ChoonDoode]

[mumphie]

4 hours ago, tunedude said:

The next tweak I've done are swapped the horrible, yellow, awful, hot, power wasting incandescent bulbs and put in a set of nice, white, tidy, cool, power saving LED bulbs to make the interior look that little better than it already does. They're nice and bright, but not stupidly bright. The one thing I do like from these LED's are they dim down when the lights are going off, so they fit in with how the original bulbs were. A lot of LED's I've used in the past were either on or off, so this is nice. Only issue I had was on the door opening lights and the boot lights, as these LED's were just a little too big to fit in comfortably into the metal holding pins, so I had to bend them a bit. No major issues. These bulbs, due to their size (3mm too wide) weren't able to fit into the sidelight slot.

 

Which interior LEDs did you use?

[ChoonDoode]

9 minutes ago, mumphie said:

 

Which interior LEDs did you use?

 

On my interior I used these

 

ebay LED 5w sidelights

 

Like I said above, you needed to bend a little bit of the mounting chassis on the ones which you'd pull the lighting housing out (door light, boot, glovebox)

 

I probably should have got a full set on these. These are the ones I used on the sidelights and number plate lights because they're narrower. Still fairly bright to be honest.

 

ebay LED 5w sidelights narrow (I got the 5 SMD ones, as I was worried about the length)

 

Ignore the 'canbus error free' as they do flag up an error regardless.

Edited 1 July, 2018 by tunedude

[ChoonDoode]

I've taken a couple of the dash cam. It was hard to get a decent picture whilst the sun was glaring down.

 

I feel it's in a brilliant position, as from where I have the seat, I can't see it. This is a bonus as it does have a light on it, which may require some tape in the darker nights. It only catches a very small corner of the mirror mount, but apart from that, it gets a clear view.

 

 

 

Edited 1 July, 2018 by tunedude

[ChoonDoode]

Right, again I've been having a fiddle with bulbs and this time it was the rear clusters' turn to be brought up into the 21st century.

 

I've been having a look for indicator bulbs for a while now and I had seen a few on ebay and other car parts places, but I've always been a bit concerned about need to fit resistors because of turbo flashing. Now a few member on here have pointed me towards aliexpress, however a lad in my work bought the following bulbs for his Audi A4 and I was impressed when I saw them; very bright, fairly cheap and no error messages)

 

It's a shop on ebay (mkauto) and these are the bulbs - MKauto Rear Led Indicators

 

I also bought the reversing leds - MKauto Rear Led reverse lights

 

and the fog light bulbs as well - MKauto Rear Foglight Led

 

I was still sceptical when I saw the 'CANBUS ERROR FREE', as this does usually mean a faff to get them either coded or resisted, but these bulbs went it with no errors!!!! Made up!!!

 

I've done a video of one set of bulbs on the left (LED) and the other set on the right (filaments)

 

Rear LED Comparison

 

I'll do another video later on in the evening, just so you can see the difference in the dark

 

Here's a picture of what the LEDs look like as well

 

 

 

All in all, a great purchase for £40.92!!!! I'd certainly recommend these.

 

[ChoonDoode]

As promised, a video of the indicators in low light. I am very impressed with them. Mkauto indicators in low light

 

I am also made up with the reversing leds, as they illuminate behind the car so well.

 

[fat4l]

SO man I bought the same fog bulbs from argocity. I think the colour is a bit off...they are a bit more whiter/yellow than I would want them to be. They are missing this .."xenon white+blueish" colour.... They are maybe 4000K-4500K or around there, definitelly not 5-6k. DRL strip has some "blue" tint in it and these have 0.

Its these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H11-Cob-Led-Smd-Super-Bright-White-Headlight-Headlamp-Main-Dipped-Beam-Fog-Bulbs/132769884249
Cant fault the price tho, 20£ for 4 is a good price! I can also confirm H11 fits in with no mods needed.

 

However still thinking  of replacing these for these : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-H8-H11-Cree-LED-6000K-100W-20SMD-Super-Bright-Fog-Headlight-Light-Bulb-White/223341532789

 

[ChoonDoode]

Right, been looking at doing this for a while and here it is at last.

 

This mod I've done is basically a mod to the existing in air filter intake to allow the air to enter the intake easier (by opening the blocked off section on the right hand side), but I've blocked off the through gap on the back of it.

 

This picture shows the issue. Cold air can freely come in and go out into the engine bay from the intake, rather than all of it going through the filter and into the engine.

 

 

Apparently it's there to help keep the engine cool. EH? Isn't that what the radiator is for?

 

I was originally looking at getting a revo carbon series cold air intake for my car, HOWEVER, that was the thick end of £350. If it were on a petrol car with advanced tuning, then perhaps. On a diesel with limited power increase from tuning........sod that for a game of toy soldiers!!

 

What I've done I originally saw has been done to a golf gti. On the page I saw, it involved using a blanking plate........but again the part and the screws required were costing approximately £35 excluding postage.

 

Now what I've done is probably not the best, but I've taped over the back outlet with duct tape and it's been superglued in place. I heated the chassis's plastic a bit and also scored it a bit to ensure maximum adhesion. It appears to have worked so far as it's able to hold water. FIngers crossed it'll hold.

 

 

 

The right hand side section has been removed to allow air to enter more freely. I didn't intend to open up vertical slats, but I was a bit eager when opening it up.

 

 

It does look a little rough there, but I've since filed it down and it's a lot smoother.

 

Now the theory is because the back outlet is now blocked and the right inlet is now exposed, this should happen.....

 

 

I'm not expecting anything dramatic to happen with it because it's still going through the same air box with the same K&N filter and then through the same tubing to the turbo, but it's just more to aid the air getting there a little more easier. Some have described it easier for the turbo to spool up as it's not struggling to get the air into it...............we'll see, but I very much doubt I'll be thrust back into the seat from the huuuuuuuuuge increase in horsepower 

 

On the golf page, they did install a baffle on the right hand side intake, however that covers the intake by about 60%. Why bother cutting out the extra intake and then partially blocking it again. The main reason for the baffle is because it is supposed to dampen down the increased rush of air (really?) but people have been saying it aid's stopping stones and water getting into the filter. If don't see that to be a necessary part as the intake would be partially obscured by the front grill any way and the air filter intake is on the bottom of the filter box and you'd need a hell of a lot of water for it to even get up to where the filter is. And it's got to get past the filter.

 

I shall report back with ones' findings on how this has got on. 

Edited 6 May, 2019 by tunedude

[Petunet]

I did that same mod to my vRS two years ago.

Just remember to check the filter box periodically, dirt gets there much easier now.

There's a pipe at the bottom of the filter box and mine got blocked from dirt. I had to remove the box and clean it thoroughly. 

[ChoonDoode]

4 hours ago, Petunet said:

I did that same mod to my vRS two years ago.

Just remember to check the filter box periodically, dirt gets there much easier now.

There's a pipe at the bottom of the filter box and mine got blocked from dirt. I had to remove the box and clean it thoroughly. 

 

Good to know it's a thing other people have done.

 

One other thing which I found when I was having a look for that pipe you were talking about was another plastic 'filter' underneath the actual filter. Again, I can only assume this is a baffle as dust and other particles are getting past that and trapped in the normal filter.

[Petunet]

My dealer told me that is to prevent the snow getting into actual airfilter, I'm not sure if he was being serious...

 

[ChoonDoode]

4 hours ago, Petunet said:

My dealer told me that is to prevent the snow getting into actual airfilter, I'm not sure if he was being serious...

 

 

I saw a video before about the golf gti and they were changing the whole air filter for one of the racingline ones and it is apparently a noise baffle to reduce 'the noise generated by the air in the chamber coming in fast because of the large intake of the turbo'.

 

Our diesels' are rattly as hell so I very much doubt I'll hear a difference.

[ChoonDoode]

An update on the above mod.........

 

As already predicted, there's no difference in the noise from the engine when I put my foot down. Well, not which I'm able to hear anyway.

 

Now one thing which I've noticed, however, is there's no longer a lag in the acceleration. Now I don't know whether to attribute this to the intake mod (because more or air or it's less restricted) or to the fact I've started using the 'green' map on my DTUK box (a confident guess would be the latter).

 

Due to a job swap, my car has gone from being my after work / weekend vehicle to a daily. The sport settings (certainly the sport plus) are little to aggressive for your day to day driving I feel. I've also switched my pedal box to the 'green' setting and I've found these setting to be somewhat surprisingly good.

I've found the power to be there when I need it, but it doesn't come all at once. It sounds daft, but driving it in these dumbed down settings has made the car even more comfortable to drive, but still just as fun when it needs to be.

 

Another thing which I've noticed which I'd assume would be due to the intake mod, is the engine is getting up to temperature that bit quicker. The temperatures over the past week have been consistent and I've found the car has got up to temperature that bit earlier on my journey into work. Normally it's only just creeping up past 65'c by the time I get onto the motorway (which is just over 2 1/2 miles from my house) and then it only gets up to 90'c after I'm up to motorway speed. It's now getting to around 75 - 80'c by the time I'm joining the motorway.

 

I drove with my VCDS plugged in (and my poor dad trying to fathom what he's looking at 😂) and on the run we did, which included motorways and a bit of 'spirited' countryside road driving, the highest the coolant temperature was seen to reach was 94'c and the highest oil temperature was 104'c. So the blocking off of the air duct part into the engine bay doesn't appear to be causing any issues.

 

It was raining I was out on the jaunt, but by the time I'd got home it had stopped. So just taking the belt and braces approach to ensure I wasn't causing a problem with water getting into the airbox, I took it all apart and sure enough, it was all dry. Happy days, especially as it did throw it down when I was on the motorway.

 

All in all, I'm happy with the subtle tweaks which I've done.

[MarkyG82]

I was going to ask about the condition of the filter/box but then you told us at the end. Good work. In may try it myself.  I wonder if the turbo doesn't have to work so hard as in theory the inlet temp should be lower and possibly the pressure higher (very very very slightly).

Are you going to keep an eye on the filter more than normal?

[ChoonDoode]

1 hour ago, MarkyG82 said:

I was going to ask about the condition of the filter/box but then you told us at the end. Good work. In may try it myself.  I wonder if the turbo doesn't have to work so hard as in theory the inlet temp should be lower and possibly the pressure higher (very very very slightly).

Are you going to keep an eye on the filter more than normal?

 

I'll keep an eye on it but I'm not going to be dismantling every week 😄.

 

I did have the intake air temperature getting monitored as well, but it was way above ambient temperature.  I'm not sure if I had it set on the right reading, but it's something which I'll keep an eye on. Next time I've my dad in the car, I'll get him to drive and I'll have a fiddle with which temperatures are being read.

[smokeyshiva]

Bob on thread. Gonna steal some of these ideas! Especially the lighting.

 

What made you go for a tuning box instead of a remap/dyno?

 

Also, are you planning to do anything to the (terrible) DSG settings - i.e the terrible 4300rpm gear changes in sport mode?

 

[ChoonDoode]

2 hours ago, smokeyshiva said:

Bob on thread. Gonna steal some of these ideas! Especially the lighting.

 

What made you go for a tuning box instead of a remap/dyno?

 

Also, are you planning to do anything to the (terrible) DSG settings - i.e the terrible 4300rpm gear changes in sport mode?

 

 

3 main reasons why I chose a tuning box over a remap. The first being the horsepower and torque figures are that little bit higher on the tuning box. Best example of that is the superchips map which bumps your car up to an estimated 215hp and 480nm of torque, compared the DTUK CRD3 box which gives an estimated 237hp and 500nm of torque.

 

The second reason is it's adjustable. With a remap it's that map, like it or lump it. On most tuning boxes you've the ability to switch and adjust the maps to how you want the car to respond to how you like to drive. My CRD3 box has 21 adjustments which can be made, same as the pedal box.

 

The third and most important reason; once removed it's undetectable. Even after you revert back to the standard map on your car, the remap is still detectable by Skoda.

 

My car is a manual. I have a disliking for automatic gear boxes on the road. I test drove one before I bought my car to see what the score was, but it wasn't my cuppa tea. If the DSG box had the ability to stay in the gear which I choose...........then that would be a little better, but I still find changing the gear when I'm ready and to which gear I choose to be much more satisfying. Don't get me wrong, I've driven on track in cars with auto boxes of some description and I've found it complimented the cars. There's a time and a place for everything........

 

You may wish to have a butchers at the DTUK page for your car, as there's 3 things you're able to get; the tuning box, the pedal box and the DSG box flash (which apparently isn't detectable). I can vouch for the first two products, but obviously not the third. Skoda Octavia Mk3 TDI 184HP - DTUK

[ChoonDoode]

Just another brief update on the air intake mod. The car has been driven through both dusty and damp conditions, but I've had the air filter box open this afternoon and I honestly can't say i can see an increased dirt presence, nor water presence. This has been after a bit of normal commuting and a 450 mile trip to and from London.

 

The one thing I've been searching for on here (and I'm struggling to find) is what the additional beading which you're able to stick to the driver and passengers' door frames are called. I've found some online, but I can't decide if they're the ones which go around the doors themselves. I can't say I can hear a wind issue on the driver's side (but I am a bit mutton in that ear) but certainly at motorway speeds, you can hear it.

 

Someone point me in the right direction for what I'm after please.

 

[fat4l]

And have you considered RaceChip ? I should be buying either RaceChip or DTUK in July when I will be changing my insurance but I'm not sure. Are you happy with DTUK chip ? Racechip is 217PS only... thats downside as well. Then tunes like from Superchips are 215PS like you said. So I wonder how come DTUK can produce 235HP :) Isnt the engine running on the edge or something ?

[ChoonDoode]

Yeah I'm satisfied with the DTUK box.

 

The only issue with a map is unless you've got the car on a rolling road and you're testing it there and then, it's a bit of a one size fits all scenario. At least with the DTUK boxes you've the ability to adjust it to suit your wants depending on the situation.

 

It also can be removed and no trace of it left.

[MarkyG82]

14 hours ago, tunedude said:

 

It also can be removed and no trace of it left.

 

This has been discussed a number of times and is untrue. If enough investigation carried out then the evidence is there. Agreed that it's more hidden than a map but in the case of an accident you may be unlikely to be able to remove it.

It does give the option of removing if selling the vehicle and then either reusing the box on another car or selling to get a bit back.