Hello, 

 

I have a Fabia VRS from UK, and I love the car, it's in very good condition and I will keep it for a long time.

 

But, I must frequently visit down a dirt road, it is unpaved, even without concrete, with some wear from other cars passing. Many other small cars can make it ok, but Fabia VRS it's too low by a bit. It's annoying because I will take some tools, food, water.

 

I am searching for an easy way to gain some height? I am good with tools, machines, but I haven't done something of this before, in the end if it needs fabricating, I will pay it.

 

I will also fit steel protection for the oil reservoir.

 

If you have thoughts, please message me. I know it will change the driving of the car, but it's ok for me.

Firstly hello and welcome to the forum.

The Fabia vRS has slightly lowered 'sports' suspension compared to a normal one, changing the suspension to a normal Diesel fabias suspension will raise it a little. What wheels and tyres are on it? Going for a higher profile tyre would marginally lift the car higher. Would a previous owner have put lowering springs on it? If they had then you'd want to put some original springs back in to raise it. 

What part of the car is too low? It could be that the undertray is not sitting right and is dragging along some rougher parts of the road. I know of a car locally that kept bottoming out on our dirt roads and it turned out that the previous owner had fastened the undertray to the car with zipties! 

Good luck with the car, from my experience with my own mk1 (non vrs) they can absolutely tolerate rougher roads, my car put up with me constantly thrashing it through fields and its still going. These cars are built tough even though they might not look it on first glance.

1 hour ago, DieselMonte said:

Firstly hello and welcome to the forum.

The Fabia vRS has slightly lowered 'sports' suspension compared to a normal one, changing the suspension to a normal Diesel fabias suspension will raise it a little. What wheels and tyres are on it? Going for a higher profile tyre would marginally lift the car higher. Would a previous owner have put lowering springs on it? If they had then you'd want to put some original springs back in to raise it. 

What part of the car is too low? It could be that the undertray is not sitting right and is dragging along some rougher parts of the road. I know of a car locally that kept bottoming out on our dirt roads and it turned out that the previous owner had fastened the undertray to the car with zipties! 

Good luck with the car, from my experience with my own mk1 (non vrs) they can absolutely tolerate rougher roads, my car put up with me constantly thrashing it through fields and its still going. These cars are built tough even though they might not look it on first glance.

 

I'm sure it isn't lowered more than normal, and wheels are 205/45, it's standard. 

I have considered to 205/55, but I'm not sure if it will be fine. I should aim for stock suspension first and then 55 next time I need a tire. it could work and will be easy, with real parts not modifications.

 

It drags like you said, but even the front bumper, it's scratches, and on incline I worry even the exhaust, we have too many rocks. I'm too worried for the oil reservoir as this is very common here.

 

I only need it's modest increase, so I will search for normal 1.9TDI suspension. Do you know how much is the difference of height when installed?

 

Thanks! It's very helpful.

 I think its only about a 15mm difference. If I'm not mistaken there was optional bad road suspension available for the fabias that raised the car another bit over standard. AFAIK my mk1 was just standard suspension and it coped fine on some very rough terrain. Mine didnt have an undertray on it and the sump never got a mark on it.

If you are still worried about oil pan damage it should be possible to buy risers to go onto the engine mounts and lift it higher in the car. This sort of stuff is usually used by lowered cars but would work in your situation too.

Edit: When I think about it, the vRS kit would lower ground clearance as the bumpers sit closer to the ground, my car now has a vRS bumper on it and it looks like it could reduce ground clearance. Not saying you should go so far as to replace the bumpers as that could be a bit OTT, Standard springs or the bad road springs would be fine most likely.

As I said before welcome to the forum, if you are going to be keeping your car a while why not make a thread over in the projects section? I myself love seeing what everyone else does to their cars, great for giving me ideas of what to do to my own.

Edited 1 May, 20215 yr by DieselMonte

My car comes with the aforementioned rough road suspension, it has served me well over potholes and nasty roads in the countryside. I would advise to go back to stock configuration first if you suspect the car has been lowered, they do it for the looks rather than function anyway. You could get bits from the 1.9 TDI which are going to give more clearance than the VRS ones while still being rated for the same weight, preferably from a 1.9 with the rough road package. 

10 hours ago, alessa said:

 I should aim for stock suspension first

Well yes, but my other method of navigating rough roads is to be careful and drive on the side of the ruts rather than down the middle of them where they're deepest.

There's a lot of reasons the VRS doesn't do well on bad roads and mud. Dad has a standard SDI, and it's far better than my VRS on bad terrain. The VRS bumpers are lower, the wide, lower profile, tyres don't dig and grip like his 185's, but just scrabble on the surface instead. 

If I will find a rough road package, it would be the best. Unless I can buy it new, I don't find any from online, but the salvage yard who knows. If some other manufacturer has something like this, I can't find it! I think most other manufacturer new suspension is going to lower it even if it isn't mentioned.

 

I agree about this method. I am in the habit of driving on this road, but in of some parts, it's not possible even with the best driving, without risk of scraping. I will take a photo the next time. It is a road more of rock, not very bad soil. We have an incline of rock, with ruts, it's make it hard work.

4 minutes ago, StevesTruck said:

There's a lot of reasons the VRS doesn't do well on bad roads and mud. Dad has a standard SDI, and it's far better than my VRS on bad terrain. The VRS bumpers are lower, the wide, lower profile, tyres don't dig and grip like his 185's, but just scrabble on the surface instead. 

 

Maybe I must find someone the city to make some exchanges with  

 

11 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

 I think its only about a 15mm difference.

 

As I said before welcome to the forum, if you are going to be keeping your car a while why not make a thread over in the projects section? I myself love seeing what everyone else does to their cars, great for giving me ideas of what to do to my own.

 

It might be enough maybe, with this a small difference can make a big difference. I will create it to a project yes!

11 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

If you are still worried about oil pan damage it should be possible to buy risers to go onto the engine mounts and lift it higher in the car. This sort of stuff is usually used by lowered cars but would work in your situation too.

 

I had not imagined it. I prefer to heighten all corners, but it's for consideration.

That Thread title got me hooked straight away ....  Anything that involves rough roads and im in !! 

 

Welcome to the forum and good to see an Italian without a Fiat ..! You wont regret a Mk1 Fabia vRS 

 

I went with this set up 4 months ago and it has made mine a right riot to drive - And it will handle the rough surfaces no problem 

https://www.dcperformance.co.uk/uprated/bc-racing-v1-series-coilovers/skoda/fabia.html

 

As the lads have said above the standard TDI springs will give you that bit of extra clearance - Put in decent quality shocks while you are at it as I suspect that these will be shot with the car lowered which is causing her to hit the sump . Maybe 15" steel wheels with a taller profile tyre might help ? 

 

There might not be any call for a sump and tank gaurd just yet....!

 

1 hour ago, VanhireBoys said:

Maybe 15" steel wheels with a taller profile tyre might help ?

This might be complete nonsense; what alessa wants to do is increase ground clearance, and the only way to do that with a wheel/tyre package is a larger rolling radius, which doesn't require lower diameter wheels.