Hutchysrs50 - Red MK1 Fabia VRS

[hutchysrs50]

The Start

-------------

Im very 'Picture Happy' so will have pictures of everything, might make some how to guides with more detail if people need them.

This will getting added to bit by bit so bare with me.

The car looked like it had been abused and was in need of a new home. Didnt look like it had seen some warm soapy water and a sponge in a very long time, The wheels were damaged and the interior was awful. It had seat covers on which were held together with duct tape (better than nothing i guess) bulbs were off, had a terrible loud wheel bearing noise, bits of rubbish in the car, boot light smashed, passanger side door light missing and various other bits and pieces.

[hutchysrs50]

TLC, Wheel Bearings and Driveshafts

---------------------------------------------------

So after a good clean and T-Cut the car came out rather nice.

The Spec on the car seems quite good despite all the down sides. It has factory fitted cruise controll, tinted windows, and all the usual vrs thing.

Bought a new wheel bearing and had it fitted in under an hour, sorted. The other side was also changed so has two new front wheel bearings, cost about £36 for them both iirc. After the wheel bearings were changed a noise was still on the car so 2 new driveshafts were also fitted, again... a nice easy job, takes about 30 minutes per side.

[hutchysrs50]

With the seat covers removed and the interior givin a good clean, they came out like new... and i mean like new. They have zero marks and wear (bearing in mind the car has over 100k miles) Another member of the forum with 60k miles seen them and wants to buy them for his car. Im guessing its had a different interior fitted for most of its life by a pervious owner. I've got no pictures of the front seats yet as they still havnt been wet vaced so will take pictures of all the interior then. I plan on removing all the interior including the two front seats and wet vacing it front to back and all the seats, so pictures will be added in due time!

 

[hutchysrs50]

Pressed Plates

---------------------

The number plates were starting to look abit sorry for themselfs so decided to get some pressed plates made up. Ended up costing me £18 for the plates then went with some surrounds as i didnt like the idea of drilling and screwing them in place, sort of spoilt the whole idea of the "clean look" in my opinion. The plate surrounds cost an extra £8 for them both so didnt work out to bad.

I removed the old plates, cleaned up around the bumper, put some sticky pads onto the back of the plate holder (to stop any rattling or noise) then screwed it in place. I then did the same when putting the plates into the surrounds so the plates are held on rather well with the frame getting a hold on them, then the sticky pads from halfords as well as two blobs of no nails... just to make sure!

Before:

After:

I've got no before pictures of the rear but here's an after one anyway!

[hutchysrs50]

LED Lights

---------------

Between Job's i thought it buy a few of the little bits and pieces from ebay so took pictures of what id bought.

I've always liked the look of the led lights so bought a couple of cheap ones to see how they lasted and never went off. This time i invested a little more money but it shouldbe worth it.

Various led lights:

if you look at a previous post i had already fitted two of them to the reg plate bulbs at the same time as fitting the pressed plates.

The interiour ones came out like this, altho the pictures do give a false look about them. The side ones are actually quite blue and the middle one is just a bright white.

Switched on:

[AdsVRS07]

Top job i love to see a vRS get resurrected and not left for dead well done I'll look forward to seeing this one progress

[hutchysrs50]

New wheels have been purchased, got them from another member from here but didnt catch his username. Watch this space!

[vRS19TD]

Starting to get back to her former glory, congrats.

[Dark_Hero]

Great project so far. Keep it up

[hutchysrs50]

Aircon Regassed

------------------------

Thought i would treat my car by having its aircon serviced and filled with nice fresh gas. Also changed the pollen filter at the same time to get the most out of it, its been perfect in this weather.

Took a few pictures of it being done

[hutchysrs50]

256mm Vented Rear Brakes

---------------------------------------

Also got round to fitting my 256 Vented rear brakes, Had them for a while sitting on the top of my toolbox, painted them with red hammerite heat paint to freshen them up, also cleaned and replaced any damaged seals and cleaned up the sliders so they should all be like new! I had a set of discs and pads that have only done about 5k miles but for the sake of £30 for new pagid ones i thought i might aswell just fit new ones again, i always like the look of new discs and pads with nice cean calipers!

While i was fitting them i thought i would fit some caliper return springs to give the handbrake a nice feel. (i ended up fitting some i had from a ford galaxy rather than the new ones in the end..)

some pics of them being fitted, could possible turn it into a guide but its straight farward enough anyway.

Discs and pads with the calipers and carriers before fitting.

Normal standard rear brakes, Had been suffering from the usual sticky calipers every now and then, other than that perfectly serviceable.

Five minutes later the handbrake cable is off, enough to move the caliper over to one side while i build the rest up. New disc and carrier fitted.

New padgid pads fitted, i always clean the edge off with a file just to make sure they are a loose(ish) fit. Also put some copper slip on the contact points.

Note: The garage i work at doesnt allow copper slip to be used but im not botherd on my own car)

Sicky pads removed from Both pads and the caliper fitted on its own. I then fit the handbrake cable which takes two minutes, then remove the banjo bolt from the old caliper and put it straight onto the new caliper, just saves any mess or loosing to much brake fluid.

Picture of the calper return springs. The two new ones are from a golf and the older ones are from a ford galaxy. This shows the difference between the "stronger springs" and the "weaker springs" that people have mentiond. As you can see i have the stronger spring already cable tied ready to fit!

After messing about for about 30 seconds i just fitted the older style galaxy springs as it takes about 10 seconds and noc able ties are needed. They are more than strong enough to release the handbrake and have given me no problems in the past.

Banjo bolt fitted, handbrake cable in place, new bolts in the caliper sliderds and the galaxy return springs fitted.

With everything built up and in place the only thing left to do is bleed the brakes. Although i didnt take any pictures I also fitted 312mm front brakes about a week earlier giving them the same treatment as these. Having new brakes fitted all round and having 4 new calipers i thought i might aswell do a full brake fluid change with a power bleeder.

So thats fitting the 256mm rear brakes and doing a full brake fluid change with a power bleeder, i did all four calipers with this to make sure its new fluid in the whole car.

[kevberlin]

Good stuff. Like it. Good post.

[hutchysrs50]

Osram Night Breaker Plus

------------------------------------

Decided to change the bulbs on the front of the car, i've went for bright white led side lights and osram night breaker plus H7 headlights. Im a little disappointed in both really, they look better than standard but the orsam night breakers are still very yellow and the led side lights look very blue when you have just side lights on there own on

The side lights are normal 501 LED's, the ones circled are the ones i used.

Osram headlights new in box.

Left light in the picture is with both new lights and right of the picture is both standard bulbs.

[hutchysrs50]

Spare Key

---------------

I only got 1 key with the car so fancied a spare.

I got a key laser cut to match the original rather than going to the dealers, mostly due to price. The downside to this is if the key is worn, you'll end up with two worn keys. Fortunately the key i have is perfectly fine so have no problems with getting another one cut.

Picture of the machine cutting the new blank key blade.

Picture of the new key fob shell with a blank blade still attached and the new cut blade beside it. They are both HAA key blades.

All the keys together, including the original one on the right.

First remove the badge off the back of the key, then remove the small philips screw.

With the screw removed the key will pull in half and then in half again on each side. One thing to watch for is the spring inside the key that makes it "flip" when you press it.

The key bit comes in two parts, they are held together by a split roller pin. I removed the pin with a snap on mini pointer and small hammer. like so..

With the pin removed you should be left with this. If you look at the bottom of the key you can see a small slit, This is where the pin sits to hold the two parts of the key together.

New key blade sitting in the correct place with the pin half in.

Key put back together, works perfect for what i need. I added the internal parts from a spare key i had so the key will work for central locking off the key and locking / unlocking the car etc... a transponder hasnt been coded in so it wont work for starting the car.

A quick picture of the inside with the circuit board in place as well

[bowen]

Great thread so far Hutchy!

[hutchysrs50]

Skoda Tax Disc Holder

--------------------------------

When i got the car the tax disc was held on with two pieces of electricians tape. Needless to say this had to be changed. I didnt fancy one of the chrome/metal ones most people get so went with a nice skoda one i seen on the bay!

Got the glass cleaner out and cleaned all the windows inside and out before sticking it on.

And one from the inside (spot the prize!) Looks great i think, seems to blend in very well with the black dash and interior.

[hutchysrs50]

Aero Wiper Blades

--------------------------

Same time as doing the tax disc holder and cleaning the windows it made sence to fit the new wiper blades.

I got a pair of bosh aero flat blade wipers, sizes 19" and 21" which fit fine. Cost around £6.50 each so wasnt worth going with crappy no name ones.

Wiper blades new in the box: (with some earth cable on the right, just checked the glow plugs, all fine!)

Before: Normal wiper blades, cleared the screen fine but just dont like the look of them.

After, new wipers fitted:

[hutchysrs50]

Engine Service

---------------------

When i bought the car (about 150 miles ago) the guy claimed it had just been serviced and had filled and stamped the book to prove it. Never the less i thought i would service it myself just for piece of mind, especially with people having alot of problems with wrong oil being used etc..

I went with Euro car parts for the service bits and opted for the more expencive filters on every choise, most seem to be bosch so cant be that bad.

And my choice of oil was Triple QX 5W-40 Fully synthetic PD specific oil. It was that oil or longlife, longlife is cheaper (and ment to be a higher grade of oil) but i always like to stick to an oil thats been designd around my exact engine.

Heres my findings of the filters...

Air filter:

Oil Filter:

Pollen filter:

[hutchysrs50]

Alloy Wheel Refurb

--------------------------

Bought a set of vrs wheels from a member of the forum, like i said earlier i didn't catch his username but nevermind.

They were just standard vrs wheels and pretty much needed four new tyres. I was going to order four budget to keep the price down for now and get some decent tyres at a later date. As it happens i ended up with two goodyear eagle F1 on the front an two mid range tyres for the rear.

I recently had my ibiza fr wheels soaked in acid to strip them back and then powdercoated in a machine with four new tyres so didnt want to pay that price again, so this time went with just a respray. This was all done mobile in the back of AlloyFix's Van, Can not rate them higher!

They were the standard silver so had big plans for them! i planned on doing them a very matt black with as little shine as i could get, similar to the bump strips even with texture if possible. They came out very nice and exactly how i wanted them, just need to wait for the pasty boy center caps to finish them off how i want. Anyway, the bit people want to see.. pics!

Before:

During: getting sanded down.

More during: after a coat or two of black

Between coats:

couple pics of the brakes while the car was jacked up.

256mm vented rears

312mm vented fronts

Quick one of them fitted, doesnt do them justice at the minute. The colour and texture are a perfect match to the bump strips on the doors.

Next up was the dust caps, i'll start another post as its quite pic heavy as well.

[hutchysrs50]

Dice Dust Caps

----------------------

So the big plans for the alloys wasnt just spraying them black, I wanted custom badges in the middle from pasty boy, so have picked the 2013 Skoda logo, With all black background and all red centre, hopfully should set the wheels off perfectly.

The other choise on the wheels was dust caps. I always had in my mind sticking with normal black plastic caps untill i started looking on ebay and seen some nice red dice, thought id try them to see how it looks on the black wheels and i love them!

of course i didnt stop there so fannied on with the dust caps to make them abit more secure.... was an excuse to use the new tap & tie set i bought for £3.99!

How they came, normal dice nice and new

Drilling the middle of the five side out, gave a perfect guide for the center of the dice.

After drilling out, time to put some threads in!

Tried to get as much detail as i could in a picture to show the threads.

Got some grub screws that fitted the hole, might have been m13 possible but cant remember tbh!

and screwed down into place, All done! might use some tipex as a touch up to hide the black so its not as noticable.

[hutchysrs50]

TRS Tow Strap

---------------------

So the tow strap arrived in the post today, wasnt sure on the best way to fit it, I know not many people like them but i bought it for looks rather than being practical but wanted it so if it was needed, it could be used.

Tried a few different things and looked at a few different towing eyes.

The top one is the standard Fabia one and the lower one is from a MK4 golf, same fitment but just different lengh.

In the end it wouldnt have mattered very much as i still drilled a hole through it then put some threads in.

End results, very pleased with it!

The bolt alone is more than enough to hold it in place but put a nut on the other side just as an extra measure. Im not sure how stable it will be if its ever needed due to the towing eye being drilled through and not knowing the strengh of the nut and bolt.

And it fitted, Sneak peak at the fly eye on the fogs as well!

[hutchysrs50]

Fly-Eye'd Fog Lights

----------------------------

 

So i decided to buy some of that Fly-Eye tint film stuff, shame i had to buy about 3m of the stuff knowing i only needed a very small amount just to tint the two fog lights. I've never used it before but found it very easy to apply and seems to work well.

 

The prep.

 

Fitted with the lights on and off.

 

 

 

Overall, it looks quite good and looks like a full tint from a distance, the holes in it arnt very noticable unless you look close, will possibly opt for more of a tint film in the future as its only for the fog.  Dont think i'd use this product to tint my headlights though.

[hutchysrs50]

Project De-Tango

------------------------

 

Next up was to De-tango the headlights! nice easy job to do since the indicators on the headlights come on a tab you just twist and remove.

 

 

Before picture of the headlight

 

 

After

 

 

Also thought i would take a couple of pictures showing how the bulbs work and still flash orange when used.

 

 

[hutchysrs50]

Gearbox Oil Change

----------------------------

 

Having over 100k Miles i thought id best change the gearbox oil, asuming it had never been changed before in its life.  The problem then started on what kind of oil to put into the gearbox. Autodata and a few people on the forum state 75w90 synthetic oil, others say 75w80. Everywhere you look somebody says somthing els, even the oil supplies cant decide.

 

I phoned Eurocarparts and got them to deliver what they thought was listed for the correct gearbox oil for the pd130 6 speed vrs gearbox and this turned up. 75w80 semi-synthetic, cost about £9 for both bottles iirc.

 

 

 

Still unsure i phoned the dealers for advice. They say they dont know what type of oil goes in or what grade of oil should be used, they only work off part numbers.  I asked what oil is used for my car giving them my reg number and they said the part number is "G052157A2" This costs  £22.76 + vat for 1 litre coming to around £82 for 3 litres. This sounded a little bit expensive compared to what other people have used.

 

Again i went in search of a different oil, Using a reg number for a different PD130 6 speed gearbox the dealers came back with a different part number "G052171A2" this costs around £7.40 + vat for 1 litre, so this is the choise i went for, which is the same part number akta suggested as well (confusing, i know!) I also orderd a couple of sump plugs and both gearbox bungs as well.

 

 

So what i ended up with!

 

 

The correct security torx bit needed to remove the sump plug

 

Draining the oil, it doesnt look very clean!

 

 

took a small sample of each oil to show the colour difference.

 

 

I removed about 1.8 liters of oil in totall, The oil that came out was quite dirty and a very thin oil, but on the plus side, had little to no metal filings in it suggesting i dont have much wear on the box. When filling back up it took about 2.2 litres to get the fill level coming back out so thats good enough for me knowing it should be 2.3 litres from completely empty.

 

It was easy enough to drain, just went for a quick drive up and down the motorway using all the gears and making sure it was up to temperature before draining. I also removed the filler bung on the gearbox first so the oil would drain oil from the drain bung faster. I left it to drain for about 15 minutes or so untill no more drops came out.

[Holmesie]

how much was the bluepoint torx?