I've bought a dog.... How best to groom it?

[Rob1977]

Hiya folks, any help however obvious will be greatly appreciated. 

Basically my luck with cars stinks and I've just bought a 56 plate fabia vrs thats described as rough but mechanically good. 

121k 4 previous owners and Skoda main dealer up to 100k miles. 

Test drive was good (far faster than I remember from years ago?!) apart from It was pulling to one side and made a banging noise on startup, so I paid a grand and took it to a local garage for the tracking and and engine mount check.

The garage owner phoned me to say it was basically a wreck and he wouldn't work on it, but charged me an hour's labor to put a list together of what's wrong. I've no problems with that at all, at least he was honest and gave me a starting point.... 

1. Fuel filter incorrect, too tall so hindering bonet closing.

(I can fit the correct one so no bother for £30)

 

2. Entire radiator insecure and leaking.

(It's just propped behind the bumper with no fixings at all, bu the small leak is just a clip, so I can replace it and bolt it in place. No bother)

 

3. Battery insecure and casing insecure. (The casing is in tatters and the battery glued /araldited in place. I'll put up with it until I need a new one)

 

4. Aircon pipe onto pump missing. (I'm not fussed about air con).

 

5. Solid air intake pipe onto turbo insecure. ( It's loose and unclamped so I can just reclamp with appropriate fittings).

 

6. Anti shudder valve not bolted, just butted up. ( I can fit M6 bolts so no bother).

 

7. Exhaust sleeve not clamped. ( I'll buy a new one and fit it).

 

8. Tyres, Front and rear, left to right different sizes. ( Swap around so 225x45 are on the back and 205x45 are on the front).

 

9. Near side front wheel arch liner missing, exposing wiring. ( Replacement from a scrapyard to sort).

 

10. Near side front and both rear wheels have 1x stud missing. ( Scrapyard for wheel studs).

 

11. Turbo noisy. ( Not surprised with all the leaks, but it pulls like a train, even with them).

 

One of the mechanics followed me out and said he thought it had had a big turbo tuning job, but all the good stuff removed, and the stock stuff not fastened properly or correctly. It pulls strongly past 4.5k so the remap was still on it. He advised to sell it on.

 

If you've got this far, then thank you for your patience! Apart from the above, the engine etc seems good, smooth and 56 to the gallon.

My question is.... If I fix the above bits and bobs, yet it has a map for a big turbo, could it blow the apparently (I don't know if it is?) Standard turbo by asking for too much boost? 

It only stands me at a grand, so I'd like to keep it and put it near right, but should I be looking to get a normalish 160 to 180 bhp map put on to save my stock turbo?

 

Also, in the boot I have a turbo and manifold which appear good, a good egr and MAF sensor?

 

Any help, advice, tips or anything would be great, as I'm scratching my head as to what to do?

 

Thanks for your time and best regards.

 

Rob.

[Smudge_VRS]

Hello. I would fix the list you have that you can do yourself. Then I would see about getting the map adjusted as you may be correct an pop the turbo. Or get your boot turbo sent off and rebuilt as hybrid and then get it mapped