Roomster 1.9 Tdi modifications

[Julian Edgar]

New intake....



New muffler...



New intercooler...



Custom reflash...



Forge short shift...



Also: Vento 16 inch wheels, driving lights and scanning radio (it's a country car).

Soon to come: 312mm Audi TT front brake upgrade, manual climate control (I don't like the auto system) and rear sway bar.

[Greg Roles]

You're not THE J.E. associated with Autospeed are you?

I'm a major fanboi of that guy.....

[mikinoz]

Nice to see the 1.9 TFI getting some tuning love! Good on you.

[CanberravRS]

You're not THE J.E. associated with Autospeed are you?

I'm a major fanboi of that guy.....

I can vouch for him.. yes thats him.. And great to see your still being a real tweaker of cars Jullian.

[Julian Edgar]

You're not THE J.E. associated with Autospeed are you?

yes I write for AutoSpeed. We'll do a major series on the Roomster modifications this coming year.

[Greg Roles]

Well a huge welcome to the forums Julian, this is a big deal for me.

All my tinkering in the diesel section is largely due to your influence, and I'm stoked that the master tinkerer is in the house.

I've followed your work since the FF&R days, and have been drilling holes in perfectly fine cars ever since.

Oh and on that, I roughly calculate you are indirectly responsible for me blowing up several engines, turbo's, drivetrains, diffs and even being banned from my surf club back in my youth when I sooped the bejesus out of the rescue rubber ducky outboard for my mate who raced them. There's also the matter of all those many , many unused Jaycar parts.......you've a lot to answer for! : )

THANKS for all the fun mate, you've been an inspiration, and I've had SO MUCH fun over the years having otherwise ordinary looking cars that have performed well above their station, and upsetting all those in flashier cars at the lights has been worth every "BANG!!".

21st Centuary Performance is looking a little ratty these days, but I'm still leafing through it on my quest for diesel domination : )

Welcome!!!

[onyertod]

Good stuff. Thanks for posting. Roomster info is rare.

Is there anything worthwhile that can be done to get more out of the 1.6 petrol Roomie?

(Apart from leaving the back seats in the shed) : - )

[Julian Edgar]

Is there anything worthwhile that can be done to get more out of the 1.6 petrol Roomie?

I guess as a standard Volkswagen (etc) engine there are off the shelf mods avalable, but I don't know anything about them.

Some of what I am doing (or have done) to my car applies to all Roomsters - new horns, new headlight bulbs (in addition to the driving lights), coming new front brakes, coming improved rear roll stiffness, Vento 16 inch wheels with larger tyres.

[K1W1]

I can see the price of now rare used Roomsters increasing. Maybe the people who purchased the dirt cheap run out ones are on a winner.

[Julian Edgar]

New front brakes.

312mm slotted RDA discs, Audi TT calipers, Audi TT caliper mounts, EBC 'red' pads. (16 inch Vento wheels)

Initial impressions very positive.

[CanberravRS]

Ahhh i love it!!! Sweet, simple and effective.. Thats going to be one awesome Roomster.. did you want to show a bunch of us the vehicle at the drive day we have planned for FEB? There is a thread going about it.. its likely a Sat or Sun in mid to late Feb.. I think many of us would appreciate some insight into whats possible once warranty is over.

[Julian Edgar]

did you want to show a bunch of us the vehicle at the drive day we have planned for FEB? There is a thread going about it..

Sorry, can't find this thread

[CanberravRS]

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/f86/...s-52034-7.html

[Julian Edgar]

On the road the brake upgrade results are excellent.

The brake bias is clearly more to the front, but this is noticeable only when reversing down a steep gravel driveway, where the fronts will ABS earlier than before.

The ability of the brakes to pull the car down from high speed with progression and feel is superb – vastly better than with the standard brakes. On a back road (hmm, I mean the track) you can drop from 150 to 60 km/h with literally a gentle push of the centre pedal – and do it corner after corner. In an emergency stop the ABS operates as it did with the standard brakes.

Downsides? There are some.

When the brakes are dead cold (in my normal daily drive I arrive at a roundabout after 30 kilometres of country driving that has had literally no brake applications at all) the pedal needs a distinctively firmer push. In normal urban braking that doesn’t occur (the brakes must retain some heat) and in spirited driving the pedal effort is clearly lower than with the standard brakes.

Each new disc has a mass that is 1.4kg greater than standard (interestingly, the new calipers and pads are 200 grams lighter than the old ones) and the Roomster is a car where the 1.2kg increase per side in unsprung weight can be clearly felt. When I went from 15 to 16 inch wheels, the latter fitted with larger tyres, I could feel the increase in unsprung weight, and the same has occurred with the new front brakes. The result is that over lumpy bitumen, the car does not ride as well.

Overall? Very impressive.

[monkeysrus]

Well done on the braking mods.

I have a set of EBC Reds to go into the Octavia. When i ran them on my previous car i found i required a slightly firmer push of the pedal on the first stop of the day then they were fine. During spirited driving they were much better at handling the heat then the stock pads. Stopping distances felt shorter too. Not sure why when the tyre is the limiting factor?

I also found then to be quite gentle on the rotors which is great for a aggressive pad. I had them in for 40,000k's before i changed the front pads. Front rotors were still ok.