I have been noticing that after a long run or just when the car is warmer the power can be down and this has been more noticable.

Scanning the forums it seems that the Fabia VRS in general suffers from this as the intercooler is in less than ideal place. The front foglamp housing/grill does have cut aways and seems that it can provide the unit with cool airflow, but some smart bod has designed the whole thing in such a way the hot air has nowhere to go...

So, it seems that a number of enthusiasts have found a solution in the Pikey Mod that is cutting a hole in your wheelarch. The prefered method is to compliment the hole with TT wheelarch grill. I decided to use something slightly different.

Materials;

1x B&Q aluminium flush air vent trimmed to size (15mm off each end)

White sealer

13 5mm rivets

Tools

28mm Hole saw (Someone has swiped my 32mm)

5mm drill bit and drill

Rivet gun

I am sure that a big hole would provide slightly better air flow but I used the hole saw because it was neat, easy, I didn't have to take the arch off and you can use it in such a way as to not affect the ridgidity of the arch as much as a big hole would.

The ally vent using the rivets molds to the existing shape of the arch and it all fits nicely and ridgidly. I added a bit of sealer to the back of the vent to just help it initially stay in place.

I think it also has aesthetic qualities as well as pratical.

The whole process took less that 20 minutes including wheel removal and fitting. I hope some of you will find this useful and I will post an update in a few days to evaluate the performance of this mod.

good job.... have you noticed any effect?

Ill post in a few days after some serious mileage.

may do the same with my golf... just use a black plastic air vent to blend in.

Great post though... thanks for keeping the old ideas alive

Looks good that, this pikey mod is on my list for this Spring . I might be inclined to use a black vent instead, but then again your silver one does give the arch a nice industrial look...

Steve

Silver now..... but I'm sure that dirt will sort that out soon enough. Top job though !!!

Get a FMIC!!!

Get a FMIC!!!

No NO! :orb_no_no

That would be financially irresponsible :tempted:

Looks ok, look forward to hearing the results!

Very neat install, FFS, I havent even got my vRS yet, and you go and put threads like this up !

Top job.

RBW.

Neat job. BUT. Yet to be proved that it works. I will watch your posts with interest. If it does make a difference. B7Q here we come.

By the way, why white sealer? You can get black you know!

Neat job. BUT. Yet to be proved that it works. I will watch your posts with interest. If it does make a difference. B7Q here we come.

By the way' date=' why white sealer? You can get black you know![/quote']

I had been finding that after getting off the motorway, the power is down, I am confident that this should go someway to sorting this and over the next week I have a lot of miles to do so I will post what happens.

White was what was in the gun. Not the best but you can't see it when it's in place.

Firstly this is called "Pikey mod 1" not "2" and it does work.

Logs have been made IIRC and it reduces temps a bit quicker. If you look, most cars with an smic (all lorries) have this arch liner mod.

The safest way to do it IMO (most professional too) is to use the arch liner from an Audi TT, with modifications it looks good

You can also try Pikey mod 2 which is cutting an area out of the drivers fog light, this directs more air to the SMIC and reduces temps by approx 5 degrees C. With the fog light removed completely it's an 8 degree C reduction so some small gains can be had by doing this 2nd pikey mod.

Chris.

Any update on this Decron??

Mine's still fitted too. But it's kind of pointless now. Pikey mod worked well, until I moved what it was venting to the front of the car.

If anyone wants a complete TT vented wheel arch complete - I'd be happy to do a free swap, to save anyone any time and restore my wheel arch liner state back to oem.

Note it is a PD100 liner - not sure how similar/different it is to the vRS one.

Mine's still fitted too. But it's kind of pointless now. Pikey mod worked well' date=' until I moved what it was venting to the front of the car.

If anyone wants a complete TT vented wheel arch complete - I'd be happy to do a free swap, to save anyone any time and restore my wheel arch liner state back to oem.

Note it is a PD100 liner - not sure how similar/different it is to the vRS one. [/quote']

Show us some pictures of the TT vented wheel arch please...

UPDATE;

It's been around 1000 miles since I performed the mod and I have to say that it does indeed relieve the turbo fade, not all together but enough to make a difference and I have tested this in various weather conditions over the last few weeks.

You can tell it is dissapating more heat as the grill is warm after a run. I suppose a sterner test will be when the weather gets wamer mind you but we will have to wait and see.

Have many people tried this? does it really work?

Have many people tried this? does it really work?

i have this and yes it works. Pretty pointless at this time of the year tho;)

i think anything you do to increase air flow to the intercooler will make a difference as long as you make sure it IC doesnt get battered with stones from wheel should be fine i suggest abit of mesh under the vent aswell just for added protection

Good Job there mate, very smart looking.

David

i think anything you do to increase air flow to the intercooler will make a difference as long as you make sure it IC doesnt get battered with stones from wheel should be fine i suggest abit of mesh under the vent aswell just for added protection

Nothing has got through the vent in well over 50k.

I worth mod then, and a cheap 1 at that!

Yup, cheaps as chips. The only difference I made with mine is painting the grill with waxoyl before fitting it to make it blend in better with the wheelarch.

It doesn't make the car faster at all.....all it does is reduce the power fade after giving it some beans and /or using the air con.

What about rigging up some sort of water spray onto the intercooler a-la Impreza?