Grogee's spannering (Maestro, Avensis & Favorit). SKODA FTP and MAESTRO NEW ZORST

[Yoss]

25 minutes ago, Matty said:

Ditto. I'd love to see it back on those Ronal Turbos as well!!

Ha ha, your not having those! They're currently in the back of the garage with plans to put them on the Up! when I get round to it. 

[Matty]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

Ha ha, your not having those! They're currently in the back of the garage with plans to put them on the Up! when I get round to it. 

They are a stunning wheel.

[grogee]

Some more impressions of the Franken-Skoda:

It’s hard to drive smoothly in low gears. The combination of instant torque and soft engine mounts work against you as you try to apply power in 1st and 2nd gears. I’ve embarrassed myself a couple of times at roundabouts doing the old kangaroo routine.

I had to WhatsApp @Yoss to ask how to turn on the rear wiper. You’d think it was in my muscle memory from 25 years ago when I last had a Favorit, but no, that useful piece of data has been replaced with lyrics from songs that I hate.

I found that there are roller sun blinds that can shield you from the sun through the sunroof – wow! What a feature… And one side doesn’t stay put. It could probably be persuaded to do so with a folded up piece of cardboard though. More experimentation needed.

Talking of the sunroof, when it is closed* there’s an annoying wind whistle through it, but if you open it a crack it stops.

I’d forgotten how bad Favorit seats are. To punish the decadent Western bourgeoise, they put the hardest bit of the seat right beneath your coccyx.

On the plus side, the power steering makes this really easy to manoeuvre and drive. Such a welcome relief from my Maestro with it’s dull-witted, heavy unassisted steering.

Did I mention it’s comically fast? I looked up the weight today and it’s around 850 kg. No wonder it feels lively.

I love the bits that VW added to try and make it less Communist. Do you remember when people used to take the Skoda badges off them, and put a VW badge on instead? That was really tragic. Anyway, I don’t remember my mk1 Fav having a glovebox with a sprung lid! How ostentatious.

The HVAC is controlled via stiff, unyielding slider knobs. I can’t really make out what the symbols mean on the controls but there are three sliders. I still don’t know what they do really.

The indicator stalk is an unfortunate combination of stiff switch with a limp, weak stalk. So it engages with a clunk and usually doesn’t self-cancel.

There seems to be three switches for fog lights. I haven’t pressed any of them in case something weird happens.

Yoss supplied the car full of spare bits and pieces, and had completely removed one of the rear seats to make space for them. I don’t remember my Mk1 having that feature but maybe it did, it’s quite clever and I guess you could go for a picnic and take the seats out a la 2CV.

Offside rear door makes a comical squeak and groan when you open/close it. I sprayed some spray grease vaguely in its direction but it’s not fixed it. Luckily Yoss tells me the door cards are easy to remove, so I’ll have a look behind and try lubing up the check strap.

Generally though the Fav must have felt light years ahead of the old rear-engined Skodas. It’s a very practical and roomy design – I’ve got probably 8” of headroom to spare (though I am short).

I am considering fitting a more ‘fun’ steering wheel, if I can get hold of one (and a boss) cheaply. The standard wheel is hard, brown plastic and the car deserves a bit of a lift IMO.

I’m also considering giving the tracking a bit more toe-in. It feels a bit wandery and I’m thinking a touch of toe-in might make it more stable on the straight ahead. Have we any geometry gurus on here? 

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, grogee said:

Offside rear door makes a comical squeak and groan when you open/close it. I sprayed some spray grease vaguely in its direction but it’s not fixed it. Luckily Yoss tells me the door cards are easy to remove, so I’ll have a look behind and try lubing up the check strap.

The grandson to your car also does this. Its like there's a tuba player sitting in the back waiting for the door to open. 

[Yoss]

The uncomfortable seats are entirely down to Volkswagen I'm afraid. The seats in the mk1 are exactly the same shape but of an entirely different design under the covers making them far more French and less Germanic in feel. 

It is the check straps in the doors making those noises. I have taken the door trims off and lubricated them before and it works for a while but then the noises return. What they really need is constant use but they never got it. We rarely had passengers apart from the dog occasionally so the rear doors hardly ever got used. 

I agree it is harder to drive slowly than the standard car. With mine you can just bring the clutch up and put your foot down and its 61hp just gets you going at the same speed as everybody else. You do need more concentration with yours as if you tried that you just sit there with the wheels spinning which is just as embarrassing as the kangarooing. You do get used to it though. 

Obviously my experience of modern cars is quite limited but 125bhp isn't even considered that much now. I assume these days they have some way of delivering the power more evenly. You don't have a throttle cable by the way. You have a pedal from a Fabia (not sure what year) with a potentiometer. 

The three sliding heater controls are simply, the top one is for the windscreen, off to on left to right, middle is for the feet and the bottom is the temperature cold to hot. That's the stiffest. The linkage for that is on the side of the heater box under the bonnet, very easily accessible. 

There are two foglight switches, front and rear obvs, to the right of the steering wheel and head and side lights the lower two on the left hand side. The outer part of the buttons pull off really easily and as they are all the same are completely interchangeable if you want to confuse people. 

[grogee]

On 14/05/2025 at 13:00, Yoss said:

The uncomfortable seats are entirely down to Volkswagen I'm afraid. The seats in the mk1 are exactly the same shape but of an entirely different design under the covers making them far more French and less Germanic in feel. 

It's funny you should say that. As I read it I was transported into a Pavlovian memory of my Mk1 Fav, and you're absolutely right - they were much softer and springier around the derriere. 

I suspect VW chose a nasty 'quick fix' and shoved some hardboard in there or something. 

Today I drove into town for some boring phone nonsense and parked in a dodgy-looking car park. Clearly the thieves in Northampton have no taste, as it was still there when I got back. 

Then I did some more tinkering. I jacked it up, and on doing so I discovered how bloody awkward my driveway is for lifting a car. It is partially block paved but there are squares that have gravel in, so the surface isn't flat and it's a PITA for the jack and axle stands. 

Changed the oil which looked pretty dark, and threw in a set of plugs. Different to the ones I took out (which also looked tired) but 3 electrodes is more than 1 so they must* be better. 

Nice to see a little hex formed onto the oil filter, which made removal a doddle. A grudging nod to VAG for that. 

I looked for a level plug on the gearbox but couldn't find one. Anyone know where it should be? It's from a Felicia IIRC. 

Yesterday I also swapped the seat belt stalks around. They were set so that the release button was on the inside of strap which annoyed me enough to change them. Now they sort of 'clash' in the middle, so they're one in front of the other but it's safe enough and mot man won't care. 

[Yoss]

28 minutes ago, grogee said:

It's funny you should say that. As I read it I was transported into a Pavlovian memory of my Mk1 Fav, and you're absolutely right - they were much softer and springier around the derriere. 

I suspect VW chose a nasty 'quick fix' and shoved some hardboard in there or something. 

Today I drove into town for some boring phone nonsense and parked in a dodgy-looking car park. Clearly the thieves in Northampton have no taste, as it was still there when I got back. 

Then I did some more tinkering. I jacked it up, and on doing so I discovered how bloody awkward my driveway is for lifting a car. It is partially block paved but there are squares that have gravel in, so the surface isn't flat and it's a PITA for the jack and axle stands. 

Changed the oil which looked pretty dark, and threw in a set of plugs. Different to the ones I took out (which also looked tired) but 3 electrodes is more than 1 so they must* be better. 

Nice to see a little hex formed onto the oil filter, which made removal a doddle. A grudging nod to VAG for that. 

I looked for a level plug on the gearbox but couldn't find one. Anyone know where it should be? It's from a Felicia IIRC. 

Yesterday I also swapped the seat belt stalks around. They were set so that the release button was on the inside of strap which annoyed me enough to change them. Now they sort of 'clash' in the middle, so they're one in front of the other but it's safe enough and mot man won't care. 

You know it still feels odd seeing pictures of this with you. It still very much feels like my car when I see it! I assume this feeling will fade with time. 

I tend to do my services at MOT time which in this case is August so you're not far off and it can't hurt to do it a bit early. 

The gearbox level is checked and topped up through the speedo cable hole. You remove the speedo cable and use the plastic drive gear as a dipstick. Haynes manual says there should be between 4 and 11mm of oil on it, basically about half way up. Obviously you need a small funnel to top it up. 

[grogee]

10 hours ago, Yoss said:

You know it still feels odd seeing pictures of this with you. It still very much feels like my car when I see it! I assume this feeling will fade with time. 

I tend to do my services at MOT time which in this case is August so you're not far off and it can't hurt to do it a bit early. 

Let's call it "our" car. It's still yours in that I keep bugging you for information about it! 

Thanks for the oil you provided with it by the way, that's what I tipped in yesterday. 

I have a few more plans for improvements, but it's likely that I will offer this back to the forum at some point. Three cars is great, but also too many. And I am increasingly aware of being time-poor. 

Let's see how it gets on at MOT time, it looks sound but I'm a bit worried about the emissions palaver. I will be taking it to my friendly tester just in case. 

[grogee]

@Yoss - @Andyrew was asking me what spec the Fav was originally? I couldn't remember. 

Andy very ably assisted me on Thursday evening trying to balance the wheels - the high speed vibration is better though not perfect. 

Next I'll try swapping fronts to rears and seeing if it changes, then maybe a Paid For wheel balance. Who knows, might chuck in a couple of 185/55 15s as well. 

[Yoss]

I think four cars is too many but three is just the right amount. 

I always carry spare oil and water with me in any car (admittedly not in the Up! yet) and that 10w40 is no good for any of the cars I have here so I thought I may as well chuck it in. This is a throwback from running Triumphs as daily drivers. Always be prepared. 

Regarding the emissions there may well be other sensors I haven't changed. I'd assume it has a MAF sensor somewhere, I know my 1.6 Felicia did. But there is no way to manually adjust it, it just does what the ECU says. 

The car was originally a GLXIe Flairline which was the absolute top of the range at the time. The GLXIe had stuff like alloys, sunroof, tachometer, ceiling mounted clock and veloury seats over the base. The Flairline added a centre console and central locking on top of that. 

[grogee]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

The car was originally a GLXIe Flairline which was the absolute top of the range at the time. The GLXIe had stuff like alloys, sunroof, tachometer, ceiling mounted clock and veloury seats over the base. The Flairline added a centre console and central locking on top of that. 

<low whistle>

Maybach levels of luxury. 

I swear I saw knicker elastic twitching as I drove through Northampton town centre, it must have been the centre console. 

Love it though, power to weight reminds me of my old 205 GTI. The noise(s) reminds me of my Mini 1275 GT. And the ride, come to think of it. 

I am dreaming up a hare-brained scheme to brace the engine using a torque mount from something, bracing between the engine hook and the strut brace to try and reduce engine rock. 

[Yoss]

That would almost certainly be more effective than the bits of rubber I have jammed in to the nearside engine mount but might add even more vibration. 

[grogee]

I've ordered a new gearbox mount for the Skoda, the existing one looked a bit ropey and has probably suffered trying to restrain the massive* torque of the VW engine. 

Plus it was only £17 and looks easy enough to bolt on. 

I've also treated myself to a pneumatic jack, mainly because my 'normal' jack is a PITA to manoeuvre around the drive but also because it's leaking vital fluids so I think it's kaput. 

[Tickman]

That mount looks well past its best.

[Yoss]

11 hours ago, grogee said:

I've ordered a new gearbox mount for the Skoda, the existing one looked a bit ropey and has probably suffered trying to restrain the massive* torque of the VW engine. 

Plus it was only £17 and looks easy enough to bolt on. 

I've also treated myself to a pneumatic jack, mainly because my 'normal' jack is a PITA to manoeuvre around the drive but also because it's leaking vital fluids so I think it's kaput. 

It can't hurt as it's a cheap and an easy swap but most of the work is done by the upper mount and it's not really up to the job. Even Škoda knew this and modified it for the Felicia, even the lowly 1.3.

I've just taken these pictures of mine. You can see it under the brake lines. 

Closer.  The rubber bush sits in a round hole that is part of the gearbox end housing. 

 

But the Felicia has this big square lump on top of the hole for the bush. 

And this sits in a bracket with a square hole in it. This is lined with rubber pads that limit the forward and backwards movement as the engine rocks. 

These are all freely available. Unfortunately that square plate with hole in is mounted to an extra bracket that has been welded on to the chassis leg. 

So unless you have a scrap Felicia lying around it's not going to happen unfortunately. Which is why I ended up jamming extra bits of rubber in between the existing mount. Crude but effective. 

Your previous idea of an extra mount between the strut brace and lifting eye seems like a more professional solution than my bits of rubber. 

 

[grogee]

40 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Your previous idea of an extra mount between the strut brace and lifting eye seems like a more professional solution than my bits of rubber. 

Thanks, all useful stuff. Incidentally the HBoL arrived for it today, I mainly bought it to find where the fan resistor lives (looks like it's attached to heater fan unit). 

Nice of you to say my solution will be more professional! I very much doubt that. It'll be a Heath Robinson collection of bolts, clevis pins and some cheap donor dog bone mount. 

Incidentally I notice that Felicia has a strut brace. I'd assumed the one on "ours" was aftermarket but now I'm thinking it's OEM??? Pretty advanced stuff! 

I finally have some time coming to tinker. On the list:

Fit fan resistor

Fit DAB splitter (in lieu of antenna)

Connect ignition feed to radio (otherwise I DEFINITELY WILL flatten the battery) 

Tidy wiring

Route speaker wiring to rear shelf 

Make rear shelf out of ply for speakers

Change gearbox mount

Measure up for additional mount

 

In addition I've got a new zorst coming for the Maestro so looks like I'm going to be busy. 

 

[Yoss]

All later Felicias had strut braces and I think it coincides with when they started fitting anti roll bars. But it doesn't say much for the rigidity of the bodies because Škoda wouldn't fit them if they didn't think they were essential would they? 

[JMotor]

This is a bit of a bodge.

Get a tube of PU sealant. Tiger Seal, PU18 or even CT1. Fill all the voids in the rubber mount. Leave to set and fit back on.

Totally won't affect the NVH at all...

🙃

 

[grogee]

Well I didn't get very far yesterday but I did tackle the gearbox mount that was pretty tired. 

The one I fitted seemed to have a different 'offset' but it sort of fit, plus it's rubber anyway, so it's fine*. 

I lifted the car using my new air jack. It's a lot bigger than I expected, this is good and bad. Good because it's sturdy but bad because it's sometimes hard to get an axle stand in where it's needed while the jack is in place. 

I also pulled the dash apart for shits and giggles, I'm looking for an ignition feed for the radio. The fan must have one because it only works with ignition on. 

Also I pulled out the heater blower to get at the resistor. It was pretty crusty so I cleaned it up and refitted it. 

Before: fan only works on 3 (12v straight to motor). 

After: fan works on 1, 2 and 3, BUT... it's always on max setting no matter where the switch is (off is still off, though). 

Weird. I do have a Felicia fan resistor which I could wire in if I could work out the pins. 

The HBoL was no help at all, it completely lied about getting the motor out by forgetting to mention the two nuts that hold it to the car. And the electrical diagram was total shit, bad photocopy, too small with stuff missed off the page. Twats. 

Anyone got any tips for cutting straight lines in ply with a reciprocating saw? The parcel shelf is largely square so I'd like to cut my 'speaker shelf' as straight as possible. I'm using 1/2" ply. 

[auntiemaryscanary]

35 minutes ago, grogee said:

Anyone got any tips for cutting straight lines in ply with a reciprocating saw?

You'll struggle with a reciprocating saw, they aren't great for fine work as the blade tends to wander. I tend to use mine for hacking up stuff (our old sofa bed 2 weeks ago inc metal frame) or on tree branches.

You could try clamping 2 bits of wood to the ply with a gap as wide as your blade to act as a guide but you could end up cutting into the guides. A circular saw will be much better.

[Sunny Jim]

Measure distance from saw blade to edge of foot and then screw a batten to the waste piece of ply and use it as a guide/fence for the foot of the saw + don't use a coarse blade 

[grogee]

Just now, Sunny Jim said:

Measure distance from blade to edge of foot and then screw a batten to the waste piece of ply and use it as a guide/fence for the foot of the saw + don't use a coarse blade 

Good idea. I was slowly coming round to a similar conclusion. Not sure if I have a batten but I've got a spirit level that might do it with some washers etc. 

[Bmwdumptruck]

Maybe time to get to know some of the new neighbours.  Ask around and see if any have the skills and tools to help? 

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Well I didn't get very far yesterday but I did tackle the gearbox mount that was pretty tired. 

The one I fitted seemed to have a different 'offset' but it sort of fit, plus it's rubber anyway, so it's fine*. 

I lifted the car using my new air jack. It's a lot bigger than I expected, this is good and bad. Good because it's sturdy but bad because it's sometimes hard to get an axle stand in where it's needed while the jack is in place. 

I also pulled the dash apart for shits and giggles, I'm looking for an ignition feed for the radio. The fan must have one because it only works with ignition on. 

Also I pulled out the heater blower to get at the resistor. It was pretty crusty so I cleaned it up and refitted it. 

Before: fan only works on 3 (12v straight to motor). 

After: fan works on 1, 2 and 3, BUT... it's always on max setting no matter where the switch is (off is still off, though). 

Weird. I do have a Felicia fan resistor which I could wire in if I could work out the pins. 

The HBoL was no help at all, it completely lied about getting the motor out by forgetting to mention the two nuts that hold it to the car. And the electrical diagram was total shit, bad photocopy, too small with stuff missed off the page. Twats. 

Anyone got any tips for cutting straight lines in ply with a reciprocating saw? The parcel shelf is largely square so I'd like to cut my 'speaker shelf' as straight as possible. I'm using 1/2" ply. 

When it left here it had speeds 1 and 3 working but 3 came on with the switch in position two. It had always been like that but I considered that sufficient so I left it alone. My other car is a Triumph which also only has two speeds so any more just seems decadent. 

I'd often wondered if it was possible to transplant an entire Felicia heater system as the part of the dashboard it sits in is the same on both cars (or at least looks it) and the view under the bonnet also looks the same but I bet its not that simple. It would be a useful upgrade, the Felicia twisty knobs have a much nicer feel than the sliders on the Fav. 

[auntiemaryscanary]

21 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Measure distance from saw blade to edge of foot and then screw a batten to the waste piece of ply and use it as a guide/fence for the foot of the saw + don't use a coarse blade 

That's what I was trying to suggest but in a less articulate way. And by recip saw I mean these things and not jigsaws

[grogee]

Skoda FTP! I got into it this morning with the intention of shuffling the Skoda into my Southam lockup and bring the Maestro home. 

But it doesn't run. It starts, fires up but immediately dies. 

On Friday I was a bit concerned about a stray bare ended wire flapping about near the battery area. I think I might have dislodged this when I removed the battery to tinker with the heater fan. The wire also had a bit of heatshrink over it, suggesting it was once attached somewhere. 

The non-running behaviour feels like the ECU is looking for a "I am running" signal, and if it doesn't see it, it shuts down again. 

Next step will be to see if there is a signal or 12v on this wire in the various ignition positions. 

There's nothing obviously amiss with the other wires but I need to pull out those fuses and stuff to have a proper look at the wiring around there. 

[grogee]

Also today I went to visit the ever helpful and knowledgeable @Andyrew, who is rapidly assuming the title of Autoshite Fairy Godmother. 

The loud exhaust on the Maestro was driving me spare so I took the plunge on a Moto-Build one. Disappointingly, it was shown as £275ish on the website but that turned into £320 when I placed an order. 

It was actually a bit of a faff getting it, poor communication from the seller and probably two months of messaging back and forth before I actually received the product. 

On the plus side, it seemed nicely made with decent quality welds and reinforcements between the silencers and the pipes. 

Unfortunately it didn't fit. I am kind of used to this, most exhausts I've tried to fit have needed some tweaking, but this wasn't really viable. The centre silencer was a hard foul to the exhaust tunnel, so that wouldn't have helped the noise problem. 

Andy first tried heating and bending it but that didn't work so he broke out the big guns. There was a donor bit of exhaust bend in the spares pile so he chopped this up and used it to splice a three piece set of collars and pipes that could be nudged around to get a good position, then tacked, then removed from under the car and properly welded. 

Annoying that we had to resort to this type of surgery on a so-called performance part, but Andy did an absolutely magical job splicing the bits together. 

While all this prep was going on, I used the opportunity of Car Raised Off Ground to drain the oil. 

Unfortunately one of the oil containers I'd brought was full of shite old oil and acetone, instead of nice fresh 10W40 I thought it contained. Luckily Andy had a drum of the same Mannoil stuff and could donate the couple of litres I needed. 

Check out the NOS oil filter! AC Delco - remember them? 

The results? Night and day! I can hear myself think, I can hear the radio and I don't need earplugs to drive the damn thing. Thank you so much Andy, it's been transformed! 

[Matty]

I bought a Maniflow fast road system for mine. I didn't buy the lcb manifold as well as I already had one and theirs was £££s. This necessitated the welding in of a modern flexi. Aside from that it fitted straight out the box. I was astounded. Reading this I can remember why I was astounded.

Well done @Andyrew for being the shiters shiter.

[IronStar]

On 22/05/2025 at 21:19, Yoss said:

 

 

 

 

 

These are all freely available. Unfortunately that square plate with hole in is mounted to an extra bracket that has been welded on to the chassis leg. 

So unless you have a scrap Felicia lying around it's not going to happen unfortunately.

 

Want a cutoff? Still quite a few around in scrappies over here, and shipping shouldn’t be too bad. It looks like 10 minute grinder job. 

[grogee]

49 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Want a cutoff? Still quite a few around in scrappies over here, and shipping shouldn’t be too bad. It looks like 10 minute grinder job. 

That's very kind, I may take you up on that. 

I'd like to see how my home-made upper torque mount goes first, I've bought some bits for it. The cheapest, shittest mount I could find. Next will be a series of ball joints and links which will look very much like a bodge but will actually be fine engineering...