Rydal

I have recently bought a 2001 Octavia VRS and am enjoying the performance of the car. However, not having owned a genuinely fast car before I don't think I am getting the best out of it because I'm worried about over-reving the engine and causing either damage or premature wear. Just how hard can I safely push this car?

TaviaRS

Hard as you like

Mine, I used to use all the revs, and more

So, what colour? What mileage? Where from?

Oh and welcome to the site

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A jolly sensible Mercedes E class saloon in a rather fetching bluey grey colour. No it isn't fast, no it isn't modded, and yes, it will still eat your Fabia for breakfast.

Official mobile chicane for Briskoda trackdays

robmawer

Pretty hard to over-rev the engine, as it has the rev-limiter to stop you from doing that.
The engines are pretty sturdy and should last a good length of time under moderate-to-high abuse. Obviously if you rag it constantly then it will suffer, but you'll notice other components failing before the engine.


Rob.

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DGW

Welcome, Rydal. Nice question, but take some of the answers you will get with a pinch of salt - not least that from the honorable member who put a conrod through the side of his engine. (He has graduated to a diesel now to try and keep his block intact).

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Denis

2002 Octavia 1.8T 4X4 turbo Estate - rebreathed on by Jabba ... 31.93mpg
2007 Fabia vRS - CC, ESP and full leather trim by Seat Surgeons ...48.57 mpg...

JoeW

No point in having a quick car unless you use all the revs. I've been red-lining my other car for three years and 40000 miles and it's still in great shape.

One tip - drive gently until the car is properly warmed up - until then the engine is not properly lubricated.

And I also make sure my cars are running on clean oil - I change it twice as often as recommended. i just don't believe oil lasts 10,000 miles... and £15 of oil in between services is good value if you want to keep the car and do big mileages... (or maybe I'm just wasting money but it makes me feel better.... :-)

DGW

JoeW, what oil are you putting in at £15 an oil change?

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Denis

2002 Octavia 1.8T 4X4 turbo Estate - rebreathed on by Jabba ... 31.93mpg
2007 Fabia vRS - CC, ESP and full leather trim by Seat Surgeons ...48.57 mpg...

Rydal

Thanks to all of you for your replies, please keep them coming. The car is red with 26,000 miles. So I shouldn't be worried about hanging on to each gear up to 5,500rpm or so, or changing down to 3rd or 4th from relatively high speed (70-80mph) to overtake?

TaviaRS

£15 for 4.5 litres of oil? No thanks, I'll stick to the expensive stuff, that is VAG approved, and change it half as often as you.

Denis, MAF degradation is not symptomatic of hard driving

Rydal, acurate answer, you don't need to go all the way to the redline. Change up at about 5500-6000, there is very little benefit in going to the limiter, in fact you will more than likely lose performance as the power curve will drop off after 6k, unless you are mapped to go higher or you are in a situation where holding a gear is more advantageous in performance termnes than changing up then back down again. Won't do it any harm though, although holding it at the limiter for 5-10 seconds will result in an error code to the ECU with the message "Maximum engine revs exceeded - WARRANTY VOID".

Better answer Denis?

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A jolly sensible Mercedes E class saloon in a rather fetching bluey grey colour. No it isn't fast, no it isn't modded, and yes, it will still eat your Fabia for breakfast.

Official mobile chicane for Briskoda trackdays

HongKongPhooey

8ollox

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Chris.

ncarring

Rydal - when it sounds and feels right, it generally IS right. Change up when you start to feel the engine straining or you don't feel it's giving any benefit to push it any harder. Then you'll get back into the power band for the next gear up.

I'm trying to say the same thing as Jon, really, but putting it in seat-of-the-pants terms rather than rev numbers.

The VRS engine supposedly pulls all the way to the redline - yours might be a teeny bit tight still at that mileage, but 5500 should be NO problem at all.

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Nick

North Wiltshire RoADAR

redbaron

just leather the **** out of it..... it will take it 7000rpm is no prob... just use good oil.. VAG spec for a VAG spec engine... better for a better spec engine.. and enjoy.. Jons engine did fail but it was down to a faulty MAF not being driven hard... and it had covered the equiv of 300 000 miles.....

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Some times I just feel like smiling.

TaviaRS

Chris, trust me, it does do it! I know of several that have had that code come up, one of which has no rev limiter. Take it past 7500 or 8k and it does do it. First time mine did it was holding second through Breidscheid at the Ring, second one was maxed out in 5th down the Autobahn. Doesn't affect performance, but if your dealer spots it, you could be in trouble.

I'll bring my VAG-Com along on Saturday and will reset your ECU for you, if you want to try it.

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A jolly sensible Mercedes E class saloon in a rather fetching bluey grey colour. No it isn't fast, no it isn't modded, and yes, it will still eat your Fabia for breakfast.

Official mobile chicane for Briskoda trackdays

HongKongPhooey

Cheers Jon.

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Chris.

CupidStunt(Boro

changing down to 3rd or 4th from relatively high speed (70-80mph) to overtake?


The car flies upto 100mph in third so 70-80 is just a walk in the park for the engine.

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Howard


proud to be a smog monster


"Back off Brussels!" - Al Murray, The Guv'nor, never confused.

ncarring

I wish mine did - it's had enough by about 85 in third.

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Nick

North Wiltshire RoADAR

TaviaRS

IIRC from my RS days

1st - 48
2nd - 78
3rd - 118
4th - 138
5th - 170

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A jolly sensible Mercedes E class saloon in a rather fetching bluey grey colour. No it isn't fast, no it isn't modded, and yes, it will still eat your Fabia for breakfast.

Official mobile chicane for Briskoda trackdays

HongKongPhooey

2nd, actually ...

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Chris.

JoeW

Sorry about the oil comment - I was referring to my other car - Ford Puma - the Ford spec Shell semi-synthetic costs me £18 from Ford Rapid Fit with the filter as well. And thats including labour. Not bad value... Cheaper than buying it from Halfords and doing it myself....

From your comments I suspect I'm going to have a nasty shock at VW oil prices :-(

TaviaRS

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A jolly sensible Mercedes E class saloon in a rather fetching bluey grey colour. No it isn't fast, no it isn't modded, and yes, it will still eat your Fabia for breakfast.

Official mobile chicane for Briskoda trackdays

Nigel26

went to halfords recently in search of a litre of oil to top up the vRS (not a full litre needed of course), found the vRS from 2002 onwards in the book and then the oil recommended for the car and the VW p/n for it, went round to the shelf... £40 for 4 litres and just under £15 for a litre... ahh well.

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Sea Grey Mondeo Titanium X

DGW

Rydal, ignore my comments about the con rod! I think it fair to say that the 1.8T engine is pretty much unbustable in normal use, and can be tuned to quite healthy power figures too without causing problems. This article on chipped 1.8T durability should help set your mind at rest.


£40 is not a bad price for 4 litres of spec VW 503 00 oil.

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Denis

2002 Octavia 1.8T 4X4 turbo Estate - rebreathed on by Jabba ... 31.93mpg
2007 Fabia vRS - CC, ESP and full leather trim by Seat Surgeons ...48.57 mpg...

Stuart_J

It wont break no matter what you do apart from maybe changing down by mistake when at full revs. Run it to the limiter accasionaly to find out where it is then try & change just before. I had the limiter remapped slightly higher & its still OK

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Speed is an addiction for which thankfully there is no cure

HongKongPhooey

... taken from the webpage that Denis mentioned above ...

" ... successfully ran 424 crank hp on a totally stock block ..." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Chris.

KLB

One of the pleasures for us with auto transmission (ok, just me, then )
is kicking down and watching the needle on the rev counter shoot up exactly to the red line before the transmission shifts up.

Sad, or what?

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Mike

RipRock

Dont ever think of buying a VTEC honda if your scared of reving to 7000 rpm!!! (9000 RPM is SERIOUS reving ).Seriously though like everyone says no real advantage going much over 6200 ish RPM cos the power band is dropping off,so when "determined" progress is required changing at 6500 TOPS should see you right.

Most important is to keep it below 4000 rpm when driving from cold start.In fact changing around 3000-3500 at most for first 5 mins or so of journey is a nice way to let the engine warm up a bit,10 mins and you should be well warmed up enough to give it FULL BEANS .

Lastly,dont worry about it.Like someone mentioned earlier not much point in having all those revs and power in a performance car if you aint gonna use it .

Yours

Dash