Diesel Monte's 2001 Skoda Fabia "Project vRSDI"

DieselMonte · 23 June, 2022

Changed doorcards yesterday:

Found out why the audio on this was so bad.

Comparing the old ones to the new ones

And done

Have more parts on order for this, should be here next week.

DieselMonte · 23 June, 2022

Should have posted yesterday but, when I was doing the rear doorcards I fixed the rear carriers. Hopefully means water and mould won't be such an issue now.

Had to remove the rear door lock flags as the new doorcards don't have the hole for them, they simply hook out so it wasn't a big deal at all.

Nice the rear doors have small pockets now.

This was a very messy job, but necessary.

Obligatory taking it for a run pics.

AnnoyingPentium · 23 June, 2022

Getting there! Bonus points for the Brisky sticker on the rear window being like mine!

DieselMonte · 23 June, 2022

It mimics a dealer sticker placed like that I think.

Oh and ignore the plate lights hanging off

One of the plate lights on the Monte went out just before I left for England so I had to grab one from this.

DieselMonte · 1 July, 2022

Been working on something for this, a way of improving handling without buying a rarb. Did some research and came up with some ideas on how to brace the rear beam. I liked this idea the most as it's very cheap to make, easy to fit and not permanent.

The idea was to make a clamp out of some threaded rod and strips of metal to limit how much the beam flexes when cornering.

I used the old drum axle off the Monte to try make a prototype.

It's a Metre long M10 Threaded bar. Because it's so long I could use the length as leverage to bend the bar as I needed.

You can sort of see what I'm trying to do.

I drilled some flat stock to use to tie the top and bottom part of the clamp together.

This stuff was a bit thick, a pain to drill through and not easy to fit onto the clamp, so I got thinner flat stock to use.

To test these I fitted 2 to the rear beam on the Monte, even with the rarb it made a noticeable improvement.

I'll make a few more to use on the mk1, working out a LOT cheaper (think a fiver at most for a clamp) than a rarb and still gives a similar effect. I think honestly you don't need to bend them like I did, maybe some large exhaust clamps would do the same job.

AnnoyingPentium · 1 July, 2022

Would you happen to be making these to order?

DieselMonte · 2 July, 2022

15 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Would you happen to be making these to order?

I'll send you some If you want mate. Wouldn't take money off someone for these because it's a bit hacked together.

AnnoyingPentium · 2 July, 2022

5 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

I'll send you some If you want mate. Wouldn't take money off someone for these because it's a bit hacked together.

If you're sure. I'd be happy to give some a bash. Thank you very much.

DieselMonte · 10 July, 2022

Not an actual update but I want to post something related to this up.

I've not been able to get out to work on the cars since but I've been gathering parts up.

For this I've got new plates

New Track Rods, inner and outer as well as new ball joints.

Nothing glamorous but stuff that needs doing if it's to even have a hope of passing NCT.

Also have got a quote for this car insured with me as the main driver (and no named drivers) for around 1100 euro, which is actually fairly decent compared to what I was getting before.

Was hoping I'd have everything I bought for the car done to it this week but that wasn't happening.

DieselMonte · 20 July, 2022

Another "not a proper update" update.

Yesterday I went to see about a job lot of fabia parts for the mk1. Ended up with a lot more parts than I expected, including some that I absolutely need for this.

Boxes full of parts all for 50 euro which I'm thrilled about.

This box and some other bits are off a 1.9 sdi leon, wasn't originally part of the deal but a lot of this stuff can work on my car.

Sorted things this evening, and this is the parts I've got together to go onto the mk1 first. Notice the alternator, that was off the aforementioned leon, spins free and should be a suitable replacement for the wonky one on the car.

Track rods I had, washer bottle I had too.

And this is the amount of stuff I now have lying in the shed with little use for, probably stick most of it up on ebay or marketplace, but I think there's still a few odds and ends there I could use either.

(A fair bit of this pic is stuff I had beforehand)

Notably I now have an sdi starter and an abs pump off the Leon the other sdi bits were off. Imagine they would be worth something to someone.

Few other odds and ends not pictured, sensors and the likes. This is the bulk of it however.

DieselMonte · 20 July, 2022

Seems I'll have quite a bit more free time on my hands to work on both fabias, and I have plenty of parts stocked away to keep me going for now.

DieselMonte · 27 July, 2022

Had tried to change the stalks today and the airbag would not come out.

Gave up and made more clamps for this car.

Firstly, I've realised that I could have just used some 80mm exhaust clamps.

Anyhow.

Fitted the ones I made up, easier to fit onto this than the mk2 for some reason, more access.

Took it for a few runs and it seems to have made a bit of difference. Seems like it's giving a similar effect to a proper rarb, but to a lesser extent.

Driving really well this.

DieselMonte · 29 July, 2022

In the process of changing the track rods this evening.

Inners were going to be a pain with the subframe in so I dropped it

All came apart easy since It's all fresh, took not even 10 minutes.

These take a 32mm spanner to get off

Might be able to use vice grips, but I had a 32mm spanner luckily.

Quick video of the old one vs the new one.

Have new Bellows and clips to go on.

Will probably use heavy duty zip ties on the large end though, just easier.

Will go back together next day.

DieselMonte · 30 July, 2022

All back together, went back together easily.

Bit of weirdness with the ball joints but got it sorted. They were as bad as the track rods.

Drivers side ball joint was a nightmare to get out. Had a ball joint fork bought, and it needed to be forced in with a sledgehammer to separate the balljoint.

Think I bent the brake shields, they're scraping a bit now. Not the end of the world.

Looks a lot fresher than the old stuff.

Drives a lot better, feels a lot tighter and took out a knock this car had in the steering.

Even tracks fairly straight.

Suspension stuffs sorted now atleast.

DieselMonte · 23 August, 2022

Replaced alternator this evening,

Was very easy to do and there was plenty of access.

Old alternator was missing its plug and the 8mm nut was missing.

New alternator is in better shape, looks a lot fresher.

Have a video of the old one compared to the new one.

New Belt to go on aswell, old one looked a bit rough.

All went back on very easy too.

Also replaced the stalks, fixed the wiper problem but the new stalks are missing a few things, good enough for now but I'll need to get a different wiper stalk eventually.

Needs to be put on the charger before I can drive it, hopefully the last time it'll need charged.

DieselMonte · 8 September, 2022

Got a new negative cable made

And done a bit of painting on the slam panel and some 232mm carriers.

Really nice to have a working charging system for once int this car. No problems cranking it, and the battery itself is holding a charge just fine seemingly.

A major annoyance with this car finally sorted.

DieselMonte · 17 September, 2022

First off, Holy ****.

Now that's out of the way, I've bought this lovely vRS today. Still even has MOT for a few days.

Bullet points:

-216k miles

-A hybrid turbo that's blown

-Egr delete

-Decat

-Pop and bang limiter (wonder why it blew)

-2 ecus, a standard pd130 ecu and the 230hp one in it now

-Coilovers

-Decent Service history and a wad of reciepts

-2 keys

etc etc.

Went up not expecting much, battery was stone dead but started from a jump start. Engine fired over very easy, engine itself sounds fine. Drove it onto the trailer even.

Got it home and washed it, wasn't bad even though it sat outside for 3 months after the turbo went.

Can't drive it for long but it does drive perfect all things considered.

Whatever wheels are on it, they sit very wide on the car, no spacers here. They have vw caps on them and the guy I got it off reckons they are vw wheels but I don't think they are. If anyone knows what they are I'd love to know.

Ream of paperwork with it.

Set to work removing the seats and such, its pretty dirty inside and the front seats are quite worn. The doorcards are quite rough too. Happily I have sport seats and matching doorcards already.

Came with a full-size spare too, took it out.

More coming

AnnoyingPentium · 17 September, 2022

So what's the plan for it? Do it up? Without a turbo it's basically an SDI at the moment anyway...

DieselMonte · 17 September, 2022

Wheels up to check out the coilovers, hoped they would be free enough to adjust up, no luck.

They're the same coilovers as what's on the mk1 already, FK ones. But these are quite a bit rougher and set far too low for me.

Exhaust has slipped out can see the pool of oil out the exhaust.

It's a bit rough underneath, the plastic cladding is broken in a few spots from the car being too low.

Put penetrative oil on the collars just to spin them up a bit. I probably won't use these. The droplinks on this are fubar.

Took the bumper off to have a look see.

There is no crashbar thanks to the front mount, think an ibiza crash bar is the one to get for these (?)

Took all the intercooler piping off and it is flooded with oil, so the turbo is absolutely ****ed. Saying that, it's not grenaded and sent shrapnel into the engine, I think it might be able to be reconditioned because it just seems like seals are gone in it.

Looking up around the turbo shows a lot of oil.

Sort of aside from this but I'll include it on the same post, some photos of the slam panel I painted compared to the one on this car

12 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

So what's the plan for it? Do it up? Without a turbo it's basically an SDI at the moment anyway...

I'm torn between doing this up and reshelling it into the mk1. This shell is quite rusty. Sills, rear quarters, A pillars and the roof are showing rust through. The A pillar is the one that worries me the most as I know that is quite a structural part of the car especially in a smash. I'll get photos of it next day. I think it can be fixed, but it would be an awful lot of work to do it right and you'd probably be spraying the whole car at that point.

The sdi has the hit at the front but it is rust free. I'd have to have it sent off to get the chassis pulled proper though.

Then there's the issue of tax, I'd be easily over 5000 euro importing that vrs, I payed 500 for it. Could just not import it but I do not want the hassle of worrying about customs, they're always around my area.

I plan on either refurbing this turbo or getting another hybrid, and putting it in this car to make sure it all works properly. If it all works well then I might just plop that drive train into the sdi.

Would be cool to have a cayenne metallic "vrs".

AnnoyingPentium · 17 September, 2022

Reshelling into the cayenne would definitely be interesting to see. I'll have a wee look at the photos whenever you get them up if you need a second opinion, remove the rear arch liners on the new one too. Mine is beginning to rust in there.

Also while I remember, I've got the rear crash bar in the back of the hut for you to collect next time you're over, no rush as its no longer in my way.

DieselMonte · 18 September, 2022

Forgot all about the arch liners!

Yeah I'll definitely need to check them out, it has a Blackpool council parking disc on it so it's been by the seaside for some of its life.

I appreciate you holding onto that bar for me

Have the feeling this one will be quite crusty

AnnoyingPentium · 18 September, 2022

1 minute ago, DieselMonte said:

Yeah I'll definitely need to check them out, it has a Blackpool council parking disc on it so it's been by the seaside for some of its life.

I think it's a Manchester registration originally so I wouldn't be surprised. It's also a pre-facelift vRS by the looks of it.