New to forums + few Q's

[Jaypee]

Hello everyone!

My first post here, I bought a Skoda Felicia -00 1.3mpi a week ago and am new to these. I sold my 300bhp supra and got one of these. The reason for this was the supra was becoming a moneypit and I just got into a university to study machinery. I figured a cheap, economical and reliable car is what I need right now and a felicia should be just that.

And on to the questions:

I've been thinking about installing A/C to the car (since I understand skoda has made A/C's to felicias as an add-on?). Has anyone here done this and was it expencive to do?

Since my last car was 'all go-no show', I decided to do the exact opposite to the felicia. So I'm keeping the engine bone stock but rims and springs/shocks might be on the grocerylist. I live in Finland and we have tight laws here when it comes to modifying cars, so in order to keep it legal without having to do too much paperwork, I'm gonna go with 15" alloy rims. Since I don't know anything about aftermarket rims, I need help with choosing rim widith and offset. I want the rims to come close to the side of the car so I was thinking 6,5" - 7" wide rims with offset of 20-30. You guys with more experience can tell me if this sounds nuts. Also I'd appreciate if you have pictures of felicias with 15" alloys so I'll know what it'll look like.

Thanks in advantage to anyone who even bothered to read this post thru!

[anonymouse]

Welcome

TeflonTom is the guy with tons of knowledge about Felicias - I'm sure he'll be along soon to offer help.

[vRSLen]

Welcome

[octav.ed]

hi. and welcome.. hope you get your wishlist..

[Jaymz]

welcome mate sounds like you know exactly what u wanna do

[TeflonTom]

retro-fitting ac would be a pain of a job, you need all the brackets, pipework, condensor, evapourator, etc etc. you would need to move the positions of the alternator and PAS pump too because they are slightly different on the AC models.

also you would need the switches and associated facia panels... i cant offer much help with AC systems i'm afraid but good luck with it anyway

[Stunts]

Hi Jaypee - have a butchers at my Felicia with alloys. They are VW 15" BBS alloys form a MkIII Golf Cabrio - 6.5J 4X100 with a 45mm offset and 57.1mm bore. They fit nicely - I reckon if you go to 7" rims you may have clearance problems on full steering lock - though I'm not 100%! I am more than likely going down the route of lowering the car too.

S

[KenONeill]

Welcome. I get where you're coming from. Stunts has a nice point about sizing. Tom is, as usual, right about retro-fitting a/c.

[Jaypee]

Cheers for the warm welcome, I already feel at home here!

Tom, thanks for the heads up, I knew all the parts I need for an A/C installation, but didn't know the engine bays altered on A/C models. Ironically, I removed the whole AC system from the supra to lose some weight but now I miss it. Might haveto reconcider going for it. You also might know a thing or two about powersteering? Easy enough to retro install or not?

Stunts, the rims look great on your felicia! Is that sitting on it's stock height on the picture? For me, the rear tires could come a bit more closer to the edge so maybe 7" rear and 6,5" front? Or a different offset to the rear.

And another question: You guys who have lowered your felicias, did you get just lowering springs or did you also get shocks? I've never driven a car with only lowered springs, but I recon the ride might get a bit bouncy? Feel free to correct me!

[TeflonTom]

power steering retro fit is a lot easier. you need the rack and track rods/ends. plus the pipes/resovoir/pump...

again you may need to reposition the engine ancillieries in order to fit the PAS pump... it just depends which options yours has fitted. you see there are a few different configurations... or the aircon models the PAS pump is at the bottom...

[anonymouse]

Forget to mention one thing about Tom - get him started and he's a bit of a terror-ist n't he everyone

Good to see everyone's chipping in and helping out

[TeflonTom]

Forget to mention one thing about Tom - get him started and he's a bit of a terror-ist n't he everyone

:sofahide:

that was never proven:rolleyes:

[anonymouse]

Nonetheless - in your case it is felicitous

[TeflonTom]

in your case it is felicitous

:inq:

surely yo mean fallacious:D

has this strayed off topic or did i just imagine it:confused:

[pinkskud]

holla.

i'm running a 1.6 1998 hatch on lowering springs, its not the best setup but it is only a stop gap till i can get the HP sports suspension.

as for the wheels. the rear track of the felicia os 40mm narrower than the front. how you get around this is up to you, but i'm planning on 20mm a side wheel spacers, when i get me wheels that is.

[Jaypee]

Thanks for the input Pinkskud, that info really helps me choose my rear rims offset.

[Jaypee]

Right.. I've decided to get 6,5"x15" offset 32 front and 6,5"x15" offset 25 rear with 195 - 205/50 wheels. Hopefully I'll find decent rims without having to pay too much for them. I recon 15" with 4x100 are pretty common (and cheap) these days, my only concern is wether I'll get the same rims with a different offset to the front and rear or not. I'd rather not use spacers - and theres always the option of getting 7"-7.5"x15" to the rear.

[pinkskud]

would stick to 195's rather than 205's.

205's will probley rub.

[Jaypee]

yep, I think 195's are my choise as well. As for lowering the car, I had this crazy idea of just lowering the front end of the car, what do you guys think? The rear arches are shaped so square that lowering the rear would IMO look silly as the wheels tend to hide behind the upper edge. Lowering the rear also takes the option of putting really wide rear rims.

[KenONeill]

I like a bit of rake on a car. The biggest problem is that you change the relative heights of the roll centres, and if you go too far you either get a transition beween base handling characteristics in the dry and the wet (understeer becomes roll oversteer), or put the geometric roll centre below road level, and get no roll resistance and bad understeer.

NB. The foregoing applies to front end lowering, not to jacking the rear end, which just causes roll oversteer.