My early Christmas present this year, to end a chaotic year on a high. While this probably isn't really a project as I don't expect to be doing too much besides maintenance and maybe some small changes, I thought it'd be nice to have a thread as a sort of diary that I can look back on in future. 😊

 

So introducing my late 2014 (was a 64 plate car originally first registered in the UK in December '14) Octavia vRS DSG Combi in white. The car had 2 owners in the UK and came over to Ireland bone stock in 2019 with 42000 miles on the clock. It now has just shy of 70k on it and I bought it from the guy who imported it and carried out the changes.

 

The car was originally supplied with;

Black pack (grille, mirrors & roof bars)

Winter pack (heated seats, mirrors & washer jets)

Full leather

Amundsen sat nav

Cruise control

Rear parking sensors

All important DSG gearbox

 

 

 

 

 

The interior photo was saved from the For Sale advert as I haven't taken any yet. 

Modifications so far include;

Stage 1 remap to 217.2bhp

Maxton V1 front splitter 

Maxton roof spoiler add on lip

Audi-style dynamic mirror indicators

SuperSkoda black badges front & rear

2020 vRS badges with red glow

Exhaust trims powder coated gloss black

Led front fog light bulbs

Led number plate bulbs

EBC Grooved front brake discs with EBC pads

H&R lowering springs

Flat bottom steering wheel

Front & rear moulded mud flaps

Various OBDEleven tweaks like oil temperature display, rear hazards on when boot is open, start/stop disabled

 

The car came with spacers (15mm front & 20mm rear) in the boot so I'll be fitting them fairly soon. I also have a pair of led park lights on order for my last car so hopefully I might be able to fit them to this one. Other than that the immediate plans are to fit a set of wind deflectors, reversing camera and hard wire in a decent dash cam. I'm also strongly considering putting the standard springs back on for the less than forgiving roads i sometimes travel as I find the H&R springs a touch too stiff and the car can jolt over bad road surfaces.

 

Wishlist 😁

Led interior lights

Footwell lighting

Auto fold mirrors with puddle lights

Maxton side skirts and rear side splitters 

Reiger rear diffuser or Maxton rear splitter

Bigger stereo screen (which probably means an MIB2 upgrade)

Flappy paddle extensions

Minor cosmetic changes

 

So there we have it for now. Hope you all like. 👨‍🔧

 

Edited 6 January, 20215 yr by Combi_Bob
Missed bits

Very nice,to be honest looks great as it is.

Any performance mods planned?

5 hours ago, Teeesaye said:

Very nice,to be honest looks great as it is.

Any performance mods planned?

I knew I'd forget some things 🙈

 

Nothing planned as its already remapped to a safe 217bhp which i failed to include above. It also has the blank fitted to the intake, though I don't know if the airbox has been modified. 

18 hours ago, Combi_Bob said:

I knew I'd forget some things 🙈

 

Nothing planned as its already remapped to a safe 217bhp which i failed to include above. It also has the blank fitted to the intake, though I don't know if the airbox has been modified. 

Airbox is easy enough to check.

Even in standard form they go well so @ 217 bhp it must pull very well.

I've never driven a standard one. Closest comparison would probably be a friend's Superb with the 170bhp diesel, and yeah, it's fairly lively compared to that 😁 The Superb was a big factor in deciding to get a Skoda, just found it a bit too big for my needs. 

So, exactly a week since it arrived on our driveway, I've now carried out my very first mod - led park light bulbs to enhance the eyelashes and also tie the front end together well all bulbs a similar light colour. 😁

 

The bulbs were actually ordered about 4 weeks ago for my other car, but between Christmas and Brexit chaos they only arrived today. 🙄 still, all that really matters is that they arrived, they also fit the Skoda, and they're canbus error free so no coding or dash warning.

 

Yeah, it's only a tiny mod, but gotta start somewhere 😂

 

Before

 

After

 

And all tied together and matching

Really nice, i just bought a very similar car in the last 2 weeks too, mines is a petrol version of the White VRS though, but as we're in lock down i've not been able to collect it (which is frustrating to say the least!). How did you find swapping out the bulbs? I was reading that the indicator bulbs are a nightmare to swap out, were these ones ok?

cheers

Blair

 

I hear you about the frustration of lockdown - we reentered it just over an hour ago here in Ireland. 5km travel limit except for essential travel 🙄

 

Fitting was easy once I figured out how to remove the bulb holder. I watched a couple of YouTube videos which said to give it a good wiggle which didn't work for me, so I carefully utilised a flat blade screwdriver just to give a little leverage on the top side while my finger levered from under. One it popped out it was simple. As it was an led I tested before pushing the holder into is home position. Total time (once I figured out how to get the holder out) couldn't have been more than 5 minutes 😎

Got the spacers fitted last week - H&R hubcentric, 15mm on the front and 20mm on the rear. Wheels filling the arches nicely now 😎

 

White isn't usually my first choice of colours but looks so good here with the black trim and badges, and the newer style vRS logo with the red is just perfect!

Hi Combi_Bob,

Mind me asking where you got the remap done in Cork? I have the non-VRS 1.6 diesel and was considering it.

A guy I worked with used to take all his cars to KC Systems up in Watergrass Hill, there's also a crowd out in Fermoy I was looking at once to do a DPF delete on my previous car a Peugeot 407 that do re-maps.

 

I like the badges, was considering it too as mine is Candy White but I reckon I'd need to change the grill surround to black too. Slippery Slope 

Heya Iway

 

Car was remapped by previous owner. He got it done by Joe at TDR Performance in Dublin/Kildale.

 

I've seen some of the Irish VRS owners also highly recommending JTK in Waterford too. Never hard anyone reverence KC Systems so can't comment on them. 

 

And you're right - can be a very slippy slope 😂

Another small change - Team Heko wind deflectors arrived and fitted 😊

Some more practical additions this week, sourced through my local dealer. Worked out cheaper than buying online when postage was taken into account. So genuine boot mat, netting set and jack kit ticked off the list. Hopefully picking up a spare wheel this evening so the gunk can be dumped. 

Well I now have a full size spare wheel, but I'm not very happy with how much its raised the center of the boot floor. I'll have to revisit when the weather is better, at least I have it for now. 

 

Ordered the RS specific kit direct from my main dealer - item number 5E0 093 860C

 

 

Kit came with wheel brave, Jack & Jack handle, strap and nut for securing the wheel. 

 

 

Picked up a spare Gemini alloy off a fellow VRS owner last night. 

 

 

Standard kit into full size wheel won't go

 

 

So out came the Stanley blade and hacked off loads of the sticky out bits

 

 

Insert now fits into the wheel, though it's quite proud which I didn't realise would have such an impact on the boot floor

 

 

On to fitting, removed the existing floor piece

 

 

Wheel in and bolted down

 

 

Tool kit repopulated and strapped in. Couldn't see a neat way to fit the screwdriver or towing eye - anyone tell me what I'm missing?

 

 

So now floor is raised considerably (impossible to show in a photo). Weather is crap so it'll stay as its for now, but when it's a bit drier I think I'll take it out again and cut a bit out of the base of the kit holder so it sits lower in the wheel 🤔

 

And yes, I realise the kit is sitting backwards 😂 Though I don't see it really matters much. 

I've placed an order for a reversing camera, so I'm now thinking of investing in an OBDEleven Ultimate pack to help with coding it to work, and also possible future tweaks and diagnostics. With that in mind I thought it would be a good idea to get on to the previous owner of the car to get a list of what coding he's already done. He was only too happy to oblige so I now know that he carried out the following;

 

Auto Start/Stop disabled

Headlight washers disabled

Oil temperature on Maxidot activated

Lap timer on Maxidot activated

Rear hazard lights illuminating when boot open

Skoda logo on stereo start up screen replaced with VRS logo

Rear numberplate led lights coded 

Front led fog lights coded 

CH/LH lights function on

Static cornering lights on

Traffic sign recognition off 

Throttle pedal response changed from Standard to Responsive

 

I need to investigate further to see if the sound aktor is disabled or just broken (i think these cars all came with them?)

Also need to check rear fogs as both work and I was under the impression that from factory only 1 worked?

 

In other news my new Bosch front wiper blades arrived today. In over 25 years of motoring these have to be the easiest ever to change! Packaging was another Amazon fail 😂

 

Easy enough to raise the floor to fit level with the spare wheel, using some dense insulation foam board under the boot floor. Although you may struggle to access the tie down loops at the side if it goes too high...

1 hour ago, pist0nbr0ke said:

Easy enough to raise the floor to fit level with the spare wheel, using some dense insulation foam board under the boot floor. Although you may struggle to access the tie down loops at the side if it goes too high...

That'll be Plan B. 😊

 

Plan A is to cut some of the excess out of the base so it sits lower in the wheel. 

 

Could end up with Plan C, which will be A and B combined - we'll see 😁

17 hours ago, Combi_Bob said:

Plan A is to cut some of the excess out of the base so it sits lower in the wheel. 

 

Andy (Auric) got an 18" Gemini sitting flush:

 

 

Gaz

Thanks for the link Gaz. That's plan A confirmed so. Gonna hack it out of the bottom. 😁

 

Any idea where the towing eye and screwdriver are supposed to fit in the insert? There's no obvious indent for them 🤔

On 13/02/2021 at 21:29, Combi_Bob said:

Thanks for the link Gaz. That's plan A confirmed so. Gonna hack it out of the bottom. 😁

 

Any idea where the towing eye and screwdriver are supposed to fit in the insert? There's no obvious indent for them 🤔

 

From memory (no longer have an Octavia) yellow arrow is screwdriver, under the jack handle, red arrow is the threaded end of the towing eye, it fits on its side:

 

Lovely. Will try that 😊

Had a bit of slate time in work the other night, so decided to attack the tool kit holder. Cut nearly 20mm out of the base and it now sits much better. With the floor mat fitted on top you can't notice any difference from standard. 

 

 

This morning my cheap AliExpress led boot lights arrived in the post. Couldn't justify the expense from SuperSkoda when it was just something I wanted, rather then needed. Time will tell how I get on with them, but first impressions are positive. Didn't need the supplied wire connections, just unplugged the old ones and plugged in the new. Bit tighter fitting in the holes in the trim, but nothing that needed attention. Before and after photos below. 

 

 

 

 

 

For once plans worked out, and today I got my reversing camera fitted up and working. Relatively handy job, though I will admit i was paranoid about damaging trims and clips so it's not quite how I wanted it with the route for the wire. It can't be seen though which is the main thing, so I'll probably leave it as its. 😆

 

New camera replaced old handle.

 

 

Biggest headache was feeding the cable through here. Of course I ran a lead for a rear dash cam at the same time since I had the trim surrounds removed, and just because 1 lead wasn't enough misery 🤦‍♂️

 

 

Unexpectedly discovered that it all worked once connected up. I had expected it to need coding to the car. Added bonus was the moving guide lines 😎

 

Nice Mods so far. Good Job!