My '04 Octavia VRS - I call it 'The Skoda'

[Jwkb98]

Welcome to my thread about all the progress I have made and will be making in turning my Skoda into the car i want it to be.

 

It all started in 2019 when i was bored of driving a little 1.4 punto evo and started searching through auto trader for a new set of wheels. I came across my Skoda pretty quickly, it was reasonably priced, had good service history and only 20 miles away. A quick phone call to the owner solidified my interest in the car as i could tell i was speaking to an elderly gentlemen, and to me that was the car sold there and then. I arranged a viewing of the car the next day and my suspicions were correct, he was an elderly gentleman that had owner the car for the last 10 years, servicing regularly and not driving very hard - only used to tow the caravan a few times a year. It was mechanically sound, the interior was immaculate for the age however the exterior was in a condition i had never seen before, the clear lacquer had started cracking, leaving the paint looking like snake skin - as long as the car drove nicely that's all that mattered to me. Mum and I drove home very pleased, me probably more so than her, and called the owner that evening to negotiate a price. I managed to get it for £1200 which was £300 off asking, a bargain in my eyes, we went back the next day to get it and take it home. 

 

 

 

The first thing on my list of things to do was a service. New oil, coolant, spark plugs and air filter - admittedly at this point my knowledge on cars was fairly limited so the service wasn't very comprehensive. The ran well for the next 3 months before the next mod...

 

 

Lowering springs - found online at a discounted price so i quickly sent the link to my nan and that was my Christmas present sorted. Fast forward a month and it was time to fit them. 

What a ******* of a job that was - the front shocks had clearly never been removed before, paired with my novice mechanic skills, this job took me two evenings to complete. I was pleased with how it looked after a 35mm drop.

The next issue to tackle was a very oily engine bay, the rocker cover had clearly been leaking for a while along with the oil sump looking a bit greasy - after reading through this forum and watching some youtube videos i knew what i had to do. 

 

 

After re-doing the rocker cover gasket and oil sump sealant i was happy that the car wasn't leaking anymore. You can see in this photo i had stupidly replaced the standard airbox with cone filter, clearly a novice, after some deeper research into it i quickly swapped back to the standard airbox which still remains to this day. The car then stayed the same for the next year or so apart form replacing some of the perished pipework and getting some new floor mats. Fast forward to 2021, my knowledge had grown massively and i was well aware of all the issues that you would get with a 16 year old, 130,000 mile car, so i set out a plan to completely refresh it. I wanted to totally re-do the underside of the car including all new arms, bushings, struts, bearings, brake lines and hardware and make the engine run sweetly by doing the common SAI, n249 and n112 delete. I started collecting all the necessary bits to do what i wanted, once i had enough for the engine work i got started on that. 

 

 

I got it done with the help of Bowders' tutorial and the diagrams included in about a week of evenings. The engine certainly sounded healthier, it didn't have that horrible noise coming from the SAI pump on start up anymore and sounded a bit fruitier when driving spiritedly. The amount of pipework removed was incredible, the whole process was very beneficial for me in understanding how the engine worked and where things might go wrong.  Now onto the underside!

 

 

I started on the front, this took a while. Buying new hardware was the best decision i made, i had to chop some seized bolts so having nice shiny new ones to put back in was very satisfying. Surprisingly, bilstein shocks weren't too expensive considering the reputation they have, the old shocks were totally shagged so it was about time they were replaced - at present i am very pleased with the ride, hard enough but not too hard as this is my daily. Clearly i didn't think about how to tackle the front in the most efficient way, looking back i should've just removed the subframe with all arms and suspension attached and do the work out of the car, but i didn't, i wanted a challenge...

 

And now onto the rear. 

 

 

I had some help for this part which was nice. My unsuspecting friend joined me in resembling the rear beam and inserting it back into the car, i think this would've been 10x harder on my own. Along with new suspension and bushings i had new bearings, making the rear end feel so much better!

 

To conclude, I have done; the engine bay deletes, new front end, new rear end, some minor cosmetic work and new wheels and tyres. The Skoda now looks like this...

 

 

More to follow...

[absolutuk]

Doing the work yourself is much more rewarding. I look forward to the next instalment.

[octaviavrs170]

Can i ask where you got the resistors from for the deletes? Lovely motor BTW. 

Edited 4 February, 2022 by octaviavrs170

[Jwkb98]

1 hour ago, octaviavrs170 said:

Can i ask where you got the resistors from for the deletes? Lovely motor BTW. 

I got them here: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/chassis-mount-resistors/0160382

[octaviavrs170]

43 minutes ago, Jwkb98 said:

I got them here: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/chassis-mount-resistors/0160382

Cheers I thought they looked like the resistors that you can get online they American plug and play ones. Once i get my electrical issue with the car sorted out I’m doing the deletes soon. Just need to collect the resistors to finish the job. Anyway looking forward to the rest of the thread. 

Edited 4 February, 2022 by octaviavrs170

[RMDavis]

Great effort mate, makes me happy seeing another MK1 being cared for and improved upon! 

[Endoof]

Hi man and welcome! 

 

Nice to see another combi doing the rounds, looks like a stellar example. 

 

By the looks of things yours was in the same situation as mine, clearly very cared for but needed some tlc lol. 

 

Im going about things in the opposite way to yourself so it seems, doing all the breather mods and upgrades before refreshing the front and rear end as mine isnt too bad despite some strange noises. 

 

Do me a solid though and send me the links to the bushes & arms you purchased? Purely so i can have them there when its time to drain my bank account lol

[Jwkb98]

12 minutes ago, Endoof said:

Hi man and welcome! 

 

Nice to see another combi doing the rounds, looks like a stellar example. 

 

By the looks of things yours was in the same situation as mine, clearly very cared for but needed some tlc lol. 

 

Im going about things in the opposite way to yourself so it seems, doing all the breather mods and upgrades before refreshing the front and rear end as mine isnt too bad despite some strange noises. 

 

Do me a solid though and send me the links to the bushes & arms you purchased? Purely so i can have them there when its time to drain my bank account lol

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOR-SKODA-OCTAVIA-MK1-99-04-FRONT-2-LOWER-SUSPENSION-WISHBONE-CONTROL-ARMS-ARM-/161440065443?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
 

I went for oe replacement as I didn’t want the firm ride that poly bushes would give, not very expensive either