OK, just got round to fitting the wheel arch Pikey mod to my Octy MK1. But what can I expect to see out of this? I mainly did it as I recently purchased the car from Nigel26 right here on Briskoda. He'd already done a cracking job on modding the car and keeping it in show condition, and had already purchased the grille and left it in the boot ready to be fitted.

It was surprisingly easy to fit. The only tools needed (once jacking up the car and removing the wheel) was drill and holecutter, and a screwdriver !!

It's booked into Jabbasport next week for one of their custom remaps, so maybe it'll benefit me once this is done?

Anyway, it gave me something to do I suppose

Any pics? What vent did you use or did you bodge your own?

Yep, here we go. Let's see if this works (they're a bit blurry sorry):

Oh, I snapped a picture of the engine that I would be happy to eat off

BTW - The grille is an ally one from B&Q !

lol, i was wondering how to tackle this. I think Ill do the other mod by carefully cutting lines into the plastic, heating them with a hot air gun and bending the holes out with a screwdriver. looks good tho'

Can you tell any difference at all? Itll help no doubt come remap time.

What dimensions were the vent btw?

Hi. The vent is 9" x 9" and is a Marley Surface mounting silver anodised aluminium louvered ventilator (according to the placky bag it was in). I did have to trim the one corner to allow it to follow the contour of the arch liner (see photos). As I seem to have a fetish about owning tools, I used my tin-snips, but I am sure a good strong pair of scissors would do the job just as good.

I only took it for a spin around the block to make sure the tyre was well clear, and didn't rub. Didn't notice any difference, but as per the thread title, I didn't know if I would?

It was certainly a lot easier and quicker to do than I thought it would be.

HTH

Sorry, forgot about something I meant to mention. For those who are thinking of doing this mod, I have one piece of advice (apologies to those who have already done this, not trying to make you suck eggs and all that lot).

Do not just drill the large holes straight through the arch lining without first unscrewing it. There is a large pipe that leads to (or from ?) the intercooler near the lower edge of the lining (you will see where this connects to an alluminium connecting pipe and then into the engine bay). This pipe is quite close behind that lining and could easily be punctured by a drill or cutter.

I removed 4 screws up from the bottom on the outer edge, the screws along the bottom edge, and the one near the top inside corner of the wheel arch. The panel can then be pulled away enough to allow safe drilling. The screws used are torx ones, so make sure you have the right tool before removing the wheel, or a right tool is what you'll feel like

HTH

Can see me doing this soon. I'm sure that I saw this done a while ago with a black plastic grill from another car. Have searched and have never found it again. Any ideas?

i will be doing this soon, will be using a vent from a touareg wheel arch

I spoke to Audi and they wanted £25+vat for the TT arch liner. pffft.

Any clues on what Toureg one to use?

i think it was 17 plus vat, havent sized it up but it looked as though it would fit, it was a 2.5diesel,

Thanks, I was thinking of doing the above or cutting the lines and bending them out with a tool and heat gun but wanted it to look as OEM as possible.

This cost £0 + it doesn't look too pikey'ish imo.

Bet that took a while!

:P He was playing "connect four" at the time

Been meaning to ask for a while but what is this supposed to do?

I was thinking of "Swiss cheezing" that arch liner too. On reflection, I'd only expect to get any effect when running high boost and at a fair speed, so only actually whilst overtaking.

Been meaning to ask for a while but what is this supposed to do?

The basic idea is to let hot air out of the wing inner, where the intercooler is, faster. As per my other message, I'd not expect much effect (bear in mind I've got a diesel and the turbo's hardly spinning below 50mph in top) until you get get to a high speed/high revs situation, so you'd likely not see anything on a rolling road.

On a rolling road you should see a big difference actually as after the first run it will be heatsoaking like crazy. With the venting behind the SMIC, it will at least cool down a bit quicker between runs.

I noticed massive heatsoak when it was 30 degrees outside, standard map & accelerating through the gears up to about 70 mph.

I've now got a FMIC so the problem is gone 100% even with the remap, but with aircon & summer weather you should notice an improvement, less smoke and pull for longer.

Don't get me wrong, it will still heatsoak, but it will take a little longer to get quite so hot, and it will cool down a fair bit quicker. At the current outside temperatures I would expect relatively little difference though with the SMIC

I was thinking of Doing this, however My mate Sudjested Bonnet vents, I looked at the old Astra GTI vents they are small and sexy, also the WRC skoda bonnet is vented aswell but they are huge However I expect some after market company does smaller ones?.

But that said Is my mate correct, will bonnet vents act the same as the wheel arch? heat rises after all

I was thinking of Doing this, however My mate Sudjested Bonnet vents, I looked at the old Astra GTI vents they are small and sexy, also the WRC skoda bonnet is vented aswell but they are huge However I expect some after market company does smaller ones?.

But that said Is my mate correct, will bonnet vents act the same as the wheel arch? heat rises after all

Bonnet vents will do diddley squat so far as improving air flow through the intercooler because on the standard 1.8T, this is side mounted below bumper level behind the O/S bumper grille. On the WRC Octy bonnet, the venting is there to allow air through passage once through the front mounted intercooler and radiator improving both intake temperature and radiator efficiency.

Ferzackerley so Lee. If you're retaining the SMIC then you need to either swiss cheeze or vent the OS arch liner, or you might be able to get some positive effect from wing vents like on the BMW M3. Of course, for wing vents to have an effect, you'd need to be able to fit them in a place where the air pressure inside the wing is higher than that outside, in order to get the airflow in the right direction.

Is their (im presuming their is) Metal wing behind the black plastic?

Just wondering wouldn’t you end up getting muck, salt, etc going through the holes in the wheel arch thus blocking the intercooler.

Is their (im presuming their is) Metal wing behind the black plastic?

No metal behind the plastic liner. Mostly fresh air, some Intercooler, and a pipe or two.

Just wondering wouldn

sweet chears for that