And the "beater" goes on....

Made a few hundred on the 330d M in the rather short 7 month ownership, it's now gone up to Bonnie Scotland. I will & won't miss it..
I considered another mk4 yawn pd130 Golf... But I'm sick of the look of them, they are gormless looking things. Onto something uglier then...

So I've moved on, to a wee diamond Black Fabia VRS, 56 plate, running about 162hp/280lbft. ( I still wanted the PD engine). It came with a JabbaSport Dino printout (half of them are remapped) . Sensible car for tightwads, pretty fun actually and it's only done 90k. I've had it a few days, and actually growing to like it. Cheap & cheerful at its best! Looking forward to servicing it next week when I'm back from Mexico, might see if I can get it a little present The last owner had just started to "let it go" and admitted he was bored of it. Judging by the state of the Green air filter, and rear brake discs, he was. But ... work for me to do, got a good deal on it and at last I can start to tinker on the driveway. Yeehar!

What's p&ssed me off more then anything.... I've started to notice Skodas wherever I go.

 

my fabia VRS was a great car it really was and is a dare say a little more fun to drive than my BMW.

Mine was great, but its a definite step back obviously from the BMW, the BMW is leagues ahead but it should be for the price!

Haha you will notice them everywhere 90% are owned by under 25 year olds!

First thing is get rid of the air filter they do f@#k all, typically fail and actually have less surface area, throw in the bin and replace with a cheaper genuine air filter.

Check the console bushes they eat theme-selves and clean out the IC piping.

Oh and the Fabia isnt any lighter than your golf believe it or not.

Must stuff/knowledge is transferable from the golf TBH so not point telling you how to suck eggs.

 

Yep, agree with the air filter element, it will be binned. Already ordered a service kit for it, and will be changing to Castrol Edge TD from the cheaper PD oil thats in it. I fully understand the IC piping, and the o-ring design that eventually causes vapourised oil droplets to weep out the seals. I changed the entire system on my Golf, TBH I'll probably do the same but I wont be fast roading it to change to a FMIC. The side IC stays and will be cleaned thoroughly. The bodywork has the odd scuff and little dent under the ns wing mirror... easy to remedy though.
Dogbone will be changed, all discs & pads. Eventually I may go Eibach lowering, as you can fit a country inbetween the wheel arch.
65mpg to work today, better than the Golf TDi having the later Euro compliant ASZ engine (which they label BLT!).

This move may help me afford a weekender

 

Change half the dogbone mount, half poly, half OEM.

Solid racing topmounts from 034motorsport also make the steering a bit less wooly

 

Cheers for that, agree on both parts and wise upgrades for what the car is.

I'm so glad I can tinker with it. That BMW was just not as DIYer friendly & I won't miss the heavy steering, elec steering lock (stupid design IMO) and turbo lag.

 

I would put the silver quantum oil in, its Fully synth cheap and meets the Vw501 xx standard.

Yeah put wheel arch vents in, i felt you could get one go through all the gears at circa 175BHP (dyno before and after confirmed) before yout got heat soak.

I fitted a superpro 65 dogbone mount and there was hardly any difference no where near as bad as people make out, do not go for more than 65shore though.

Eibachs make the car lower but make the handling worse mate honestly don't bother folk complain on forum and i've been in one and i didnt like it, if you can afford AP coilovers for 370 they are brilliant for the money and really make a difference, don't go for JOM's i had them and they were terrible!.

Engine code will be in the boot.

Is it remapped or tuning box?, i can give you my map a hell of a lot of time was spent on it.

 

Yeah, had the JOM's on my Golf. They were woeful things, absolutely terrible. I'll look into decent suspemsion as you say, and a rear brace for it.
I believe its remapped, I cannot see a tuning box under the hood but then again, i'm not that certain what they look like if i'm honest.(Googleth will tell me I guess).
I wouldn't mind the map, would be useful cheers

Kinda weird, but the later VRS's are meant to be running about 150bhp out the box, instead of the 130 of the earlier ones. So in fact, I might just have a standard map with a rather over-rated dyno graph (which could be more likely, how many times have we seen incorrect dyno figures over the years ). Its a keen car, but not as keen as the 180 bhp/300lbft map I had on my Golf mk4 PD130.

 

Sold my RX8 on Monday, new Honda Civic arriving next week. The 1.6 diesel is supposed to be a great engine.

 

It's a nice looking car inside ... had a look at one in the showroom the other weekend but you really have to climb up the options list to make it that nice. £26k for a well specced Civic isn't on my list of bargains that's for sure!

FIAT is on holiday today, bearings and track rod ends needed doing - whilst the humming all the way to work was soothing on the ears I doubt it was doing the hubs much good

 

This Fiat sounds like Triggers Broom!