It appears new fabia vrses have slighty changed gear ratios on the boxes.

Can anyone comment on where the changes are, which gears, any difference to the 6th gear?

Just curious, Ade, you seem to know all the tweaks between a 6month old vrs and a new 04 plate one

Well, not that I pay much attention, the 4krpm mark seems to come up at the following speeds in the following gears in my March 2004 model....

1st - 25ish

2nd - 40

3rd - 65

4th - 85-90

5th - 110

6th - ???

70 mph is about 2,200rpm in 6th.

Seems that they aint as long legged as the old ones..

Mine is about 1700rpm @ 70 in 6th... 80 is just below 2k.

Wow! That would explain why you got 120 mph in 4th then (was it you?), I dont think i could get near that to be honest.

Also, I did wonder why people used to say that 6th wasnt very useful, because in mine it is a superb cruising gear (with good acceleration). I guess it will limit its top speed a bit though, and possibly reduce fuel economy?

Ah... Yep, us older fabia owners have even more legged gearing. Coming back the other day on the M4, I figured out that if the car had enough power to hit the rev limiter in sixth, it would be doing about 170-180mph :eek:

I suppose the new gearing makes it slightly quicker through the gears although you probably lose out on economy when cruising at 70 on the autobahn

Would be a interesting test really to see what the difference is side by side.

Maybe they have just started using the same box as the golf/audi uses.. which is first 3 gears are longer than the fabia, the other three are shorter.

I was also expecting lacklustre performance in sixth but it pulls really well, anything from 50 onwards, do you suppose they changed the ratios because sixth was really only useful at high and I mean high speed.

My car is standard so if anyone has a standard pre 2004 model and they're going to Bruntingthorpe it'd be an ideal test platform for us.

D

Mines standard

as rule of thumb.. if i want to accelerate on motorway.. unless im doing over 80 in 6th.. ill knock it down a cog

4th is good for 110mph (125 redline.... painfully found out on the RR at the weekend)

It sounds as if 4th in yours is similar to 5th in mine. Like with des, mine pulls well in 6th from 50 upwards.

Wow! That would explain why you got 120 mph in 4th then (was it you?)' date=' I dont think i could get near that to be honest.

Also, I did wonder why people used to say that 6th wasnt very useful, because in mine it is a superb cruising gear (with good acceleration). I guess it will limit its top speed a bit though, and possibly reduce fuel economy?[/quote']

No it was me!

I also find 6th as a useful cruising gear whether mine is standard on not as it sits at 40 (where the law allows obviously;)) without any problems.

The problem with testing the gearing against a 2004 model car is that us older model owners will have run in engines (it takes about 10,000 mile appparently) where as the mewer one will still be relatively tight.

I wonder why they have changed the gearbox on it though? Any ideas?

Mine much be a new one - 70mph in 6th is ~2200 rpm.

Next question, is this a good thing or bad thing? Not that I'm going to do anything about it!

Mine much be a new one - 70mph in 6th is ~2200 rpm.

Next question' date=' is this a good thing or bad thing? Not that I'm going to do anything about it![/quote']

Everyone is talking about good or bad, the determining factor would probably be how many miles per every 1000rpm are we pulling in sixth.

If 70mph is equivalent to 2200rpm I can verify 100/105 is around the 3000rpm mark then the new gearbox is pulling approx 35/40 mph per 1000rpm. These are rough figures of course so there maybe some variation.

All we need now are the 2003 VRs guys to rec their figures.

Cheers

D

''

well 6th on mine(2003 model) 70 is just below 2k.. 80 is maybe 2050rpm

The 6-speed VAG gearbox appears to be one of the newer generation of gearboxes that has two final drives. I understand that the MINI Cooper S, and Smart cars also share this trait.

The 1:2.955 is used in gears 1 through 4. and the 1:2.407 is used for 5th & 6th.

From the AUTOCAR roadtest of the Seat Ibiza TDI sport which appears to share the "original" gearbox used on the VRS the mph/1000rpm in each gear were:-

1st 6.2mph

2nd 11.2mph

3rd 17.7mph

4th 25.7mph

5th 31.9mph

6th 38.0mph

Cheers

Martin

(potential Fabia VRS Owner)

the technical changes what i could find out are as follows:

gear ratio

current new

1. 3.769 3.769

2. 2.087 2.087

3. 1.324 1.324

4. 0.911 0.977

5. 0.902 0.975

6. 0.756 0.814

r. 4.459 4.459

max speed 127mph-current 128mph-new

Acc 0-62mph 9.6sec-current 9.5sec-new

fuel consumption

current 42.6(urban) 67.3 (extra urban) 55.4(combined)

new 39.8(urban) 62.6 (extra urban) 52.3(combined)

co2 emissions current 138 new 146

Fabia vRS Technical Data:

Transmission gear ratios:

1 1:3.769

2 1:2.087

3 1:1.324

4 1:0.911

5 1:0.902

6 1:0.756

R 1:4.549

Final Drive:

I 1:2.955

II 1:2.407

This was taken from the Skoda site early March.

Maybe they have changed the final drive ratio' date=' as two figures have been given,and the G/box is unchanged?

Grease Monkey[/quote']

Wonder if the vehicle spec. label (on the service book, inside front cover )gives any idea as the the final drive radios fitted to that particular vehicle.

Our vRS certainly pulls well in all gears including 6th, certainly not a tall cruising gear.

Dave

final drive ratio is shaft 1- 3.238 shaft 2- 2.615

So does this mean the 04 model is shorter geared then? and a little more thirsty and CO2 emitting? I never imagined that happening after only 6 months of production... :confused: :eek:

So, if my rusty maths is correct I reckon we have:-

New mph/1000rpm new max@5,100rpm limiter

5.7 28.9

10.2 52.1

16.2 82.4

21.9 111.5

27.2 138.5

32.5 165.7

Old mph/1000rpm old max@5,100rpm limiter

6.2 31.6

11.2 57.1

17.7 90.3

25.7 131.1

31.9 162.7

38.0 193.8

Why the change? Dunno really. Is it going to be shared with the forthcoming Ibiza Cupra & FR with it's sportier bias?

im quite happy with my gear ratios.. have enough traction problems already

Personally i think it was a change to streamline the amount of different gearboxes being produced, but thats my opinion.

Bit of a waste of time to gain 1 mph, .1 of a second 0-60 and worse fuel consuption and CO2 emissions!

Matt

I can confirm the 146G/KM CO2 from the log book - but adaadams ratios for 4th and 5th seem virtually the same. I'm sure there must be more difference than that.

but adaadams ratios for 4th and 5th seem virtually the same. I'm sure there must be more difference than that.

There is The different final drives that apply to gears 1-4 & 5-6 results in a marked difference in gearing between 4th & 5th.

As an analogy think of a ten-speed racing bike, with 5 cogs on the back and two on the front. The two on the front being the equivalent of the "final drive".