So silent in the Roomster projects that I decided to start a thread for my car. Bought the car about a month ago as the cheapest available with the optional equipment I was after. Few days I've been driving around and looking through what is neccessary to do. Interior is light beige and turned out to be in quite nice condition after a full wash with textile washing machine. Ac-maintenance was made in a shop and Climstronic seems to function fine. That's about everything easy. Steering bearing is absolutely wasted and front springs make awful snapping sounds while turning tighter and brakes in every corner are stuck some more wome less. Tried to fresh them up with some lubing and cleaning but yeasterday non driver sides front brake stuck again, so it's going to be the time for few new parts and a bit deeper overhaul.

 

While waiting for the parts to arrive, I made a flexfuel conversion as I had a eFlexFuel control box as a leftover from a crashed Toyota. Needed to order a wire set and some assembly parts for 8mm fuel line from the factory, but those arrived in two days. Otherwise the work was straightforward, but finding a nice sturdy place for the ethanol sensor was a bit of a hussle, as original fuel line jums straight from the cavity in right fender to the fuel rail. Sensor is very light, but won't survive long by hanging jus on the line. After a while I mounting to the intake box. Two 6mm holes on the dirty air side should not make any differences as there is even more draining holes. Like that: 

 

Control box is mounted to the left fender next to ecu, don'have pics of that.

 

I don't know if the bts-engine is ever made multifuel from factory, there is 1.6 multifuel Octavias I think, but someone can maybe tell if it's the sama engine. If it could be done via different ecu with ethanol sensor, it would be much more sophisticated, this aftermarket set is installed between the original injector connector and the injector itself, so the fuel consumption numbers from cars computer are not going to be right anymore.

 

Next I'm going to work with the brakes, front shocks and some bushings. After that some outside make up work, little bit endless fight with corrosion, maybe headunit upgrade, micro camping equipment and so on. Bit by bit, let see how and when.

I'm still very tempted by a Roomster, if conversion to EV power or any modifications were allowed in my country I would have one in a heartbeat!

Google;fr'ing has revealed to my shock that our government has been forward thinking and pro-active regarding retrofitting ICE vehicles to EV power, I would even qualify for a €6000 subsidy, that alone answered all the questions that the revelation created, it can only be done by a licensed professional (someones Brother in Law) and the cost will be 5 or more times higher than it should be.

 

The French have always been pigeons for spend €20K on this insulation, heat pump, solar panel, condensing boiler etc worth €4K and we will refund you €5k that you would have paid in taxes , and they never learn, its been going on for generations, its how the government keeps the economy turning.

 

Then they take the money back because the scammers (sorry I meant licensed installers) went bankrupt before even installing hence the dossier was not signed off or they wrote the wrong number on a form or an invoice.

It's quite a same here in Finland, there is some financial supports payed for purchasing a ev or hybrid. Even these conversions are going to be supported again from 1st of July so I'm going to get a massive 200€ support from our government. Gas conversions are getting 1000€s. But while taxing is planned to encourage people to buy evs, now they have to rise taxes from trafficing because people have bought those thingies. Still cheapest over ten years old used Leafs are something like 7k€ and I'm quite sure that there is not a lot diy maintenance you can do with ev.

 

Ain't the e85 fuel very cheap there in France? I've been told that it's always been something like 1€/l there. In Finland it follows the price of petrol, always that 30% cheaper. Wouldn't it be very unfair to let some diy cheapos drive a bit cheaper with their old junks.

First week of summer vacation, giving some attention to the car. Quite everything of front suspension was more or less in the end of lifespin, so lot of stuff to take apart. For example right side absorber had decided to let all of the oil go:

 

 

And as you know, in over 15 years in northern conditions, there is no place that's free of corrosion:

 

 

Beside the ordinary hand tools there vere a lot of hammering, grinding and little bit of foxtail saw here and there to take everything out, it took the most of the time.

One of the hardest job was the steering bearings. My first car of this generation of vag cars, so I didn't know about the nice structure of nuts, where they are somehow molded in that rubber ring and welded on an extremely thin plate inside the molding. While the are exposed to the conditions inside the fender, of course they will be stripped away from that plate while a innocent diy-guy tries to take them apart. I should have noticed that something is wrong as I saw this:

But I didn't. So a bit too much force and not enough patience and I too sawed those bolts off. Don't recommend that to anybody, it sucked. Construction is like that:

There you can see bolts that are cut. Nuts spinned freely in that rubber thing. After the foxtail saw and a bit frustraited owner the area around those bolts looked quite rough, so I did a bit of make up with steel wool, and rattle cans, first zink primer then black:

I like it, but now everything around needs some attention too, to match, maybe.

Brakes were very much stuck, rear calipers weren't saveable, so there is new calipers, rear needed just some cleaning, lubing and new seals and they are ready to go. Handbrake cable seemed to be new, but the problem was in the lever, I hope that they will stand some year or so after this refreshment before they are stuck again.

 

As every car enthusiast knows, the colour of the brake calipers is crucial for the performance. Paint them red to increase performance or green to increase fuel economy, a well known fact. As this is not going to be a track day vehicle, I chose green - it's in the Škoda logo too, so nice match (should order new badges thou, to have that green).

 

And then with cleaned oe wheels:

 

 Now I'm just waiting some construction guys with a digger to get out from the yard road to have a test drive to see that everythings working. At least I have to visit a friend with a correct machine to clear the error codes.

Last week I made a light sleeping equipment to be added to Roomster as needed, and during the midsummer I made first three nights fly fishing trip to north east. Everything worked quite ok, middle frame wasn't sturdy enough so little bit of wobbling while climbing in, and the bed plane didn't stay levelled. Bed was straight enough for sleeping, so not a biggie. Because the car is used mainly on other duties, the camping equipment should be easily removed and stored, so I made it mostly foldable.

 

The parts are attached with one gargo cloth and few zip ties, so its quite fast to put on and take out. With everything on, there is plenty of room for sleeping and stuff needed. Bed is comfortable for one, maybetoo for two very small persons or persons who like to sleep very close together. 

Main area is 100cmx140cm and the add on on the passangers side is 60x70cm so it's quite nice. I wanted to make it driveable while the bed is on full size to avoid hassle while changing locations, and you don't have to do a lot of setup. The add on is foldable to give normal room to your right shoulder while driving. I'm going to make some little upgrades, but the basic idea is good enough now.

Little something here and there.

At last I had some inspiration for make up, have to admit that I managed to fake it look better than it is. There is some rust on the skirts which I brushed with rust off and then old trick with Black Magic Turtle wax and rotary machine:

Headlights should be polished and licence plates and Škoda-badges replaced with new ones to refresh the looks a but more. To bring the infortainment system to the date I installed Eonon VWX7 Android head unit:

This seems to be quite good for the price, don't know for the long run. It was cheap, so I don't have extremely high exceptations, but it' s definitely an upgrade for the ease of use, like fast connection to phone, large screen for navigation and handsfree calls with working steering wheel controls.

I've ordered some bushings for front and suspension rear, to get rid of some annoying noises. AC have leaking pressure switch, that's one thing that I don't have tools and knowledge to fix, so that's going to be a visit to a shop next week. Hope it's not going to be very hot until that.