Bluefox's 2003 Superb TDI

[Bluefox]

That's about it for now to be honest. Only other updates are slightly better pics:

More to follow soon, including updated camera locator, CV gaiter fix and big-time clean

[Bluefox]

Its great following your progress mate, keep up the good work.

Thanks, appreciate that

[Baker21]

Great work buddy, new rims look spot on and like the new plates.......

[Bluefox]

Great work buddy, new rims look spot on and like the new plates.......

Thanks I really like the plates, they really are top notch. The bigger wheels have made a difference to the feel, almost feels smoother now.

All that's left now is to update my sig...

[Baker21]

All that's left now is to update my sig...

Get on with it then..................

[Bluefox]

Get on with it then..................

[Baker21]

Nice sig..............

[Wardy]

Just caught up on all of your progress in one go, after clicking your 'Project Diary' link from a post of yours in another thread

Great work I must say; looks spot on

Cheers,

Steve

[Bluefox]

Just caught up on all of your progress in one go, after clicking your 'Project Diary' link from a post of yours in another thread

Great work I must say; looks spot on

Cheers,

Steve

Yay, the link works!

Thanks for the comment, appreciate that

[Captain Scarlet]

Looking mean, good job.

[Bluefox]

Looking mean, good job.

Nice one, thanks

[Bluefox]

Okie doke, time for some updates.

As I've done some work on her recently, the first thing I thought I'd do would be to update my "shopping list":

Maintenance, Winter Preparation & Problem Fixing

New legal plates to replace tired & cracked OE ones

Fit 2x new track rod ends

MOT

Grease pinch bolts

Clean K&N

Remove battery & test

Clean plenum drains & check pollen filter housing

Replace pollen filter

Update AA/RAC membership

Uprated dipped headlamp bulbs/Xeons

Uprated main headlamp bulbs

Replacement (metal cased) white LED side lamps

White LED numberplate lights

Pre-Winter detail

Short Term

Full four wheel alignment

Various paintwork repairs

Replacing damaged grille & surround

Replacing faded grille & boot badges

Parrot handsfree kit

Hard-wiring phone charger into central armrest

Sorting intermittent problem with Origin B2 camera locator

Recaro group 3 seat for Gabriella

Medium term

Turbo-back (cat bypass) stainless exhaust system

Remap (~170-180bhp)

Uprated brake pads & DOT 5.1 fluid

Long term

Cruise control retro-fit

Parking sensors

KW Variant 1 coilovers

Non-dating/private numberplate

Looooong term/pencilled in

Stainless steel intercooler/turbo pipework...?

Double-din sat nav head unit...?

Upgraded sub(s) with hidden install...?

Amplified door speakers...?

Respray...?

...er...

...that's it?!

Edited 10 September, 2008 by Bluefox

[Bluefox]

Winter preparation!! ARGH!!

Still, that at the moment is up to date. I've not really had any issues to report on (touches wood) since the pollen filter incident, other than the oil & filter change and CV gaiter replacement.

Had that done just before I went on holiday for the weekend, as the offside one had split and spat CV grease all over my wheels & arch liner.

Since then nothing to report except I forgot to reset the service indicator, so I'll leave that till my next change. I'll be doing it myself from now on, either by stubbornly using a trolley jack & axle stands or using my ramps with long planks of wood. Either that or get one of those fancy pressurised oil removers Lummox was talking about setting up a GB for.

Also, I'll be switching from the Castrol Edge TD 5w/40 to the Halfords 505.01 spec'd diesel fully synthetic - even at trade the Castrol's gone up to

[Bluefox]

MOT today! Yikes!

Will update later on tonight with progress...

[Baker21]

MOT today! Yikes!

Will update later on tonight with progress...

Had mine last week and it sailed through..........no pressure...........

[Bluefox]

Had mine last week and it sailed through..........no pressure...........

Gee, thanks... :eek:

[Bluefox]

I'm pleased to report that it's gone through with no issues, not even an advisory

I was expecting problems with the track rod ends, but that seems not to have caused a problem; and I left Gabby's baby seat in the back- the last time I did this I got an advisory as they couldn't test that belt.

Still, no worries this time so I'm back on the road!

Now, what to do with that Furby VRS I borrowed...

[Baker21]

I'm pleased to report that it's gone through with no issues, not even an advisory

I was expecting problems with the track rod ends, but that seems not to have caused a problem; and I left Gabby's baby seat in the back- the last time I did this I got an advisory as they couldn't test that belt.

Still, no worries this time so I'm back on the road!

Now, what to do with that Furby VRS I borrowed...

Good news........

[Bluefox]

I've dug out one of the older articles I wrote on another site and thought I'd add it here, although it is slightly out of place - one of my posts ages ago cited this report, on one of those eBay tuning box things...

I did this as an experiment - I'd got some money from an Xmas bonus from work, and as I was running a diesel forum at the time I wanted to put an end to the debate once and for all... and as it effectively cost me nothing, I didn't have much to loose.

This is post #1. Read on...

I've noticed that there was a lot of debate on other forums about these TDi Tuning Boxes; most of which are sold on eBay or similar. I was actually searching for some other parts when I stumbled accross a particular seller who offered a tuning box for my car at a reasonable price. To this end, I decided that I was going to look into the whole debate, and settle the argument once and for all, more than gain anything for myself.

I, like most of you on here, had been looking into remaps for my car. Upto 50bhp extra for costs ranging from

[Bluefox]

Post #2 started to prove just how bad they really are:

Hmm.

It's a couple of months since I installed the tuning box on my Skoda Superb TDI. All was well... until two weeks ago when a light came on my dash.

The Skoda manual... well, here's an extract from my blog.

"well.

i've been to the Skoda main dealer today, to diagnose my "Emission or Power Control" warning lamp that's been on my dash for a couple of weeks.

you guessed it.

it's that fuel temperature sensor. which is okay, i mean it's only

[Bluefox]

The final conclusion, in post #3, was after a couple of weeks of somewhat heated email conversation with the seller.

As I said, it was an experiment - and one which proved there's no such thing as a free lunch. This is possibly the reason I'm skeptical even of Dragon Digital tuning boxes, although clearly these are a different kettle of fish.

Anyway, conclusions... and of course comments are welcome

Well, it's all over. I got my refund, as promised, via Paypal today.

All in all, it's cost me

[Wardy]

A lot of good info for people that. Personally, I'd create a separate thread in General or perhaps 'Ask a Tech' and maybe ask a mod about it being made 'sticky'.

Steve

[Bluefox]

Well, the "winter prep" didn't quite go as well as I'd hoped. The weather was a little shocking, plus doing the family thing over my birthday took a little more time than I was planning for! Also, the money situation didn't help...

Anyway, I managed to get her waxed if nothing else, and the in-laws have bought me a new buffer so the pre-spring detail will now be challenging Baker...

At the moment she's got a layer of Meg's Clear Crystal Step 3 with a layer of EGP over the top and it's still beading nicely. No pics for now though, it was a fairly generic effort

The one thing I did manage however is to upgrade the headlamp bulbs...

[Bluefox]

A lot of good info for people that. Personally, I'd create a separate thread in General or perhaps 'Ask a Tech' and maybe ask a mod about it being made 'sticky'.

Steve

Ah, I've just spotted your post...

Thanks Wardy. I'll digest it into a smaller post later tonight and post in the appropriate section. Thanks for your thoughts

[Bluefox]

So, as we all know the headlamps on the Superb aren't fantastic unless you're got Xeons. I am, unfortunately, not one of these people. So, I've got to make do with the H7 dipped beam.

I've tried the Halfords Super Brilliance last year. +30%, so they say, and in honesty they performed quite well - lots more light and as they're usually on buy one get one free at this time of year they're pretty good value for money. However they didn't last long and all through the summer I've been using standard H7 bulbs. However when it started getting darker, quicker... I started looking around for better bulbs or other options.

This isn't the place for the discussion of the aftermarket HID kits; although I was looking at them for quite a while. Regardless of the debate however they're too expensive for me at the moment so a bit more research revealed that Orsam Nightbrakers were probably the ones to go for. 90% more light, E-market and fully legal, and about