hopefully that gets it nice and sorted mate cars looking good and it looks like you have got some top plans for it as well.
Rainbird's LCR
- Thread starter rainbird
- Start date
Cheers Fozzie. Yours looks smart - loved the way my old Leon sat on the CHs.
In one of your other threads it looks like you were replacing the downpipe/turbo gasket - don't suppose you happen to have an OE part number at all? May be needing one in the near future for new toys...
In one of your other threads it looks like you were replacing the downpipe/turbo gasket - don't suppose you happen to have an OE part number at all? May be needing one in the near future for new toys...
i dont mate but i am picking it up tmorow and i will see if the place in falmouth i got it done at has kept the number as they have got one direct from seat.yeh i love the CH's its just a shame i had to take it off lowering springs but it was too low for driving about with my nipper and the long haired admiral in the car so i had to go back to standard
Yeah I can imagine! I could do with dropping mine a touch but it already scuffs enough in the lanes etc so we'll see. If I find some dirt cheap springs maybe I'll get involved, else I'll look into some decent coils down the line.
Keep me posted on the gasket, would be a massive help
ive still got my 30mm drop springs in the garage if you are interested.made by cobra and in good nick.ill ring the guys tmorow and see if they can keep the part number to one side for me and ill send you a message but its whether they actually remember to do it
Nice one Luke all looking good!
Curby was an excellent day. can't wait to get back. reckon I can do a day without a puncture? that would be nice.
Glad you are resolving your power issue, should make everything much more enjoyable.
Ash
Curby was an excellent day. can't wait to get back. reckon I can do a day without a puncture? that would be nice.
Glad you are resolving your power issue, should make everything much more enjoyable.
Ash
Power problem still ongoing, despite a new MAF, N75, coilpacks, plugs. Going to try and play with the actuator in case that's weak next.
That's annoying though, let's sort out an easy fix instead...
Previous owner thought the HG was on the way out, turned out to be a dead oil cooler. The seals on these seem to dry out and crack and the internals can have issues too – as you’ll see shortly, this was clearly the original from when that car was new so 100k later it’s time for a replacement.
Drained the coolant, was left with some wonderful gunk in the expansion tank:
Removed the expansion tank, plugged a hose directly into the system, opened up the bottom of the rad and flushed through with water to remove as much of the gunk from the hoses as possible
‘til it came through clear
Purged the expansion bottle with boiling water and dishwasher shiz, followed by sitting in a load of coke to remove the baked-on crap
Post-detergent, pre-coke
Post-coke:
Connected back up, flushed through with a load of Holtz purge stuff. Looking good.
Drained all the oil out. This is the oil (leaf not form the sump!) I put in after getting the car home 1500 miles ago…
New cooler and seal ready to rock:
Pulled the old cooler out:
Lines etc were minging, so threw another load of cleaner through it and flushed with a few gallons of water.
Old vs new:
New one fitted and bolted up:
Purged through with another load of coolant flush just to get the last of the **** out of the system. Removed cooler had certainly seen better days:
Coolant topped up with the proper shiz
Fresh oil, all cleaned up and good to go again. Beauty. Now back to hunting for the lack of power…
That's annoying though, let's sort out an easy fix instead...
Previous owner thought the HG was on the way out, turned out to be a dead oil cooler. The seals on these seem to dry out and crack and the internals can have issues too – as you’ll see shortly, this was clearly the original from when that car was new so 100k later it’s time for a replacement.
Drained the coolant, was left with some wonderful gunk in the expansion tank:
Removed the expansion tank, plugged a hose directly into the system, opened up the bottom of the rad and flushed through with water to remove as much of the gunk from the hoses as possible
‘til it came through clear
Purged the expansion bottle with boiling water and dishwasher shiz, followed by sitting in a load of coke to remove the baked-on crap
Post-detergent, pre-coke
Post-coke:
Connected back up, flushed through with a load of Holtz purge stuff. Looking good.
Drained all the oil out. This is the oil (leaf not form the sump!) I put in after getting the car home 1500 miles ago…
New cooler and seal ready to rock:
Pulled the old cooler out:
Lines etc were minging, so threw another load of cleaner through it and flushed with a few gallons of water.
Old vs new:
New one fitted and bolted up:
Purged through with another load of coolant flush just to get the last of the **** out of the system. Removed cooler had certainly seen better days:
Coolant topped up with the proper shiz
Fresh oil, all cleaned up and good to go again. Beauty. Now back to hunting for the lack of power…
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Hey dude.
Actually it's not cost me much at all really. I think the running total is currently in the region of £1750, including buying the car! Which headlight problem do you mean, the fact they don't sit quite flush? If so it's just where the tabs have broken. You can pick up a repair kit on eBay for around £10-15 or so; nice and easy!
Long, boring update post coming soon...
Actually it's not cost me much at all really. I think the running total is currently in the region of £1750, including buying the car! Which headlight problem do you mean, the fact they don't sit quite flush? If so it's just where the tabs have broken. You can pick up a repair kit on eBay for around £10-15 or so; nice and easy!
Long, boring update post coming soon...
You'll need a cuppa and/or a crate 'cause this could take a while:
If anyone has actually read through the boring drivel so far, you'll be aware that I've been having some power issues. To date I'd replaced the MAF numerous times, coilpacks and plugs as well as several fresh doses of fluids and filters plus a new oil cooler as above.
This was all stuff I wanted to get done in the next 6 months anyway but chasing lost ponies forced my had a little to doing it earlier than planned. Anyway, as a result the car was running well but still not right and it was doing my head in. Most people were telling me to get it booked in with a specialist and pay to get it sorted once and for all, but this car is a bit of a learning curve for me and I'm keen to do as much to it myself as possible (plus I'm a stubborn, tight old *******...)
I got in touch with Gareth over at GHE Tuning here in Plymouth and he offered to do a bit of logging with me and pop a standard map on there so that at least I knew for sure what I was working with/towards. As much as reducing the power on the car wasn't exactly the most appealing strategy ever, I was keen to get the car back as Seat intended so I can move forward and improve upon it from there.
I arranged to meet Gareth after work on Wednesday just over a week ago. Pulled up at his place and spotted his Cupra sat across the road. From a brief chat about it it's running a K04-001, 3" Cobra/Blueflame setup, FMIC and custom map and is pretty pokey. Didn't have time to go for a spin unfortunately.
Gareth plugged the car in and we took some logs on a stretch of private road. N75 signal was intermittent and looked horrendous, lambdas were all over and (as I'd previously found) boost wasn't meeting the request from the ECU by a fair whack. Got the lamda sorted nice and quickly then he had a quick snoop under the bonnet for anything I might have missed. I was pretty certain I'd checked everything thouroughly and fortunately nothing else turned up. Nice to have had a second set of eyes cast across things though for sure!
Next up, double checking the map that was on there. The previous owner had said it was a Revo, but had no proof at all - I'd emailed them to see if they had any record of the car/ECU but they hadn't. After a little faffing about, Gareth was able to read the existing map and confirm that it was Revo code. Much like you'll see on various forums/threads, Revo are a pain in the backside in terms of putting read protection on there to stop people copying their code which makes sense, but as much as their official statement says otherwise they lock the ECU into Valet
Mode once they detect a read. This results in a car that won't boost at all and is incredibly restrictive - logs showed a mere 99bhp and a very boring drive!
At this point we both had things to be getting on with, so I headed home. We fast forward to Friday next as Thursday was filled with too much work and house viewings.
This time, Gareth popped out to my place and got the car plugged in again. 5 minutes later, the car was no longer on the Revo map and back to stock. We went back out with VCDS for some more logging and whilst figures weren't a million miles off, the car was still underpowered and the N75 still wasn't right. Either way, I now knew what I was working with for sure. Gareth reluctantly accepted some beer tokens and biscuits for his time and headed home, but has kept in touch out of interest in the car. I'd definitely recommend him for anyone in the Plymouth area needing a hand - http://www.ghetuning.co.uk - tell him Luke sent you
Fast forward a week to Friday just past and I had an afternoon to play with the car again. First job; double check that everything was in order under the bonnet.
Checked over all the boost hoses, TIP, N75 connections and so on. All spot on. Pulled the charge pipe off to have a proper check of the actuator; spot on. Connected the actuator up to check its opening pressure; ~10psi as usual. Checked the turbo; minimal play etc. Finding this issue wasn't easy at all!
Right then, if the problem can't be found under the bonnet and it's not code, something else is iffy.
I'd seen a little info on sketchy tuning boxes and electronic boost controllers. As much as there was nothing obvious, this car has been full of random poor aftermarket wiring so I wanted to follow this avenue and see if there was anything along those lines at play. Good bloody job I did...
Dash pulled out, torch out for a snoop. What's this then? Doesn't look standard...
Nothing connected to the 3.5mm jack, but the other wires seemed to head to the fuse panel for power and the ECU. Smells fishy, let's rip it all out!
Fuse side pulled out, removed the nasty snap connectors that he'd used and sealed up the leftover wires.
Removed from the earthing point under the dash.
One wire left, heading out through the firewall somewhere. Time to get chasing...
Out through the grommet under the scuttle panel.
Joined right up to the ECU. This could be awkward!
Pulled out the ECU connection, stripped back all of the non-standard wrapping.
Now, I'm no electrician and have next to no experience in this sort of thing, so if I cocked it up this was going to be pretty fatal. I'll make it very clear that I wouldn't reccomend anyone does this sort of thing themselves unless they're confident in their own abilities - Don't screw it up as it'll cause a world of pain!
Fortunately, I didn't balls it all up and managed to remove all the offending additions. It seems that the tri-core cable was intercepting the signal from the N75, running it to the tuning box where it was reduced/amplified then sent back to the ECU. I patched everything back up (had to use one set of connectors to give a little more reach where one wire was shortened) and secured/sealed/insulated and put it all back together.
At this point I didn't know if I'd reconnected everything, shorted anything or even killed the ECU itself so was a little apprehensive about firing the car back up. Screw it - I'd come this far. Held my breath, turned the key and...
...straight into action. All nice and smooth on tickover, bingo.
Before popping the dash back together, I figured itd make sense to finally wire in the mic for my hands free setup. Pulled out yet another badly-fitted electronic gizmo in the process.
And some more (I think this one was a switch for the light on the old boost gauge)
Unfortunately, there was a little bad news to come however fortunately it's a fairly minor issue. In an excited hurry to get everything back together for a drive I thre on the wipers and sheared one of the mounts. Mong!
Will have to rock a single wiper for a couple of days until I can sort it out. Hoping that a JB Welded thread on the top should be solid enough but may need to replace the entire pin itself. I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it.
Pissed off, I went for a test drive to see if things were working as they should again.
Hell. ****ing. Yes!
Ok, so being on the standard map power was down to ~210bhp but the car was boosting properly and pulling really well. Most importantly though, the N75 logs were finally doing the right thing for a change.
So that's this thread all up to date for once. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing new, but this car is now on the right lines to move onward and upward and get to playing...
If anyone has actually read through the boring drivel so far, you'll be aware that I've been having some power issues. To date I'd replaced the MAF numerous times, coilpacks and plugs as well as several fresh doses of fluids and filters plus a new oil cooler as above.
This was all stuff I wanted to get done in the next 6 months anyway but chasing lost ponies forced my had a little to doing it earlier than planned. Anyway, as a result the car was running well but still not right and it was doing my head in. Most people were telling me to get it booked in with a specialist and pay to get it sorted once and for all, but this car is a bit of a learning curve for me and I'm keen to do as much to it myself as possible (plus I'm a stubborn, tight old *******...)
I got in touch with Gareth over at GHE Tuning here in Plymouth and he offered to do a bit of logging with me and pop a standard map on there so that at least I knew for sure what I was working with/towards. As much as reducing the power on the car wasn't exactly the most appealing strategy ever, I was keen to get the car back as Seat intended so I can move forward and improve upon it from there.
I arranged to meet Gareth after work on Wednesday just over a week ago. Pulled up at his place and spotted his Cupra sat across the road. From a brief chat about it it's running a K04-001, 3" Cobra/Blueflame setup, FMIC and custom map and is pretty pokey. Didn't have time to go for a spin unfortunately.
Gareth plugged the car in and we took some logs on a stretch of private road. N75 signal was intermittent and looked horrendous, lambdas were all over and (as I'd previously found) boost wasn't meeting the request from the ECU by a fair whack. Got the lamda sorted nice and quickly then he had a quick snoop under the bonnet for anything I might have missed. I was pretty certain I'd checked everything thouroughly and fortunately nothing else turned up. Nice to have had a second set of eyes cast across things though for sure!
Next up, double checking the map that was on there. The previous owner had said it was a Revo, but had no proof at all - I'd emailed them to see if they had any record of the car/ECU but they hadn't. After a little faffing about, Gareth was able to read the existing map and confirm that it was Revo code. Much like you'll see on various forums/threads, Revo are a pain in the backside in terms of putting read protection on there to stop people copying their code which makes sense, but as much as their official statement says otherwise they lock the ECU into Valet
Mode once they detect a read. This results in a car that won't boost at all and is incredibly restrictive - logs showed a mere 99bhp and a very boring drive!
At this point we both had things to be getting on with, so I headed home. We fast forward to Friday next as Thursday was filled with too much work and house viewings.
This time, Gareth popped out to my place and got the car plugged in again. 5 minutes later, the car was no longer on the Revo map and back to stock. We went back out with VCDS for some more logging and whilst figures weren't a million miles off, the car was still underpowered and the N75 still wasn't right. Either way, I now knew what I was working with for sure. Gareth reluctantly accepted some beer tokens and biscuits for his time and headed home, but has kept in touch out of interest in the car. I'd definitely recommend him for anyone in the Plymouth area needing a hand - http://www.ghetuning.co.uk - tell him Luke sent you
Fast forward a week to Friday just past and I had an afternoon to play with the car again. First job; double check that everything was in order under the bonnet.
Checked over all the boost hoses, TIP, N75 connections and so on. All spot on. Pulled the charge pipe off to have a proper check of the actuator; spot on. Connected the actuator up to check its opening pressure; ~10psi as usual. Checked the turbo; minimal play etc. Finding this issue wasn't easy at all!
Right then, if the problem can't be found under the bonnet and it's not code, something else is iffy.
I'd seen a little info on sketchy tuning boxes and electronic boost controllers. As much as there was nothing obvious, this car has been full of random poor aftermarket wiring so I wanted to follow this avenue and see if there was anything along those lines at play. Good bloody job I did...
Dash pulled out, torch out for a snoop. What's this then? Doesn't look standard...
Nothing connected to the 3.5mm jack, but the other wires seemed to head to the fuse panel for power and the ECU. Smells fishy, let's rip it all out!
Fuse side pulled out, removed the nasty snap connectors that he'd used and sealed up the leftover wires.
Removed from the earthing point under the dash.
One wire left, heading out through the firewall somewhere. Time to get chasing...
Out through the grommet under the scuttle panel.
Joined right up to the ECU. This could be awkward!
Pulled out the ECU connection, stripped back all of the non-standard wrapping.
Now, I'm no electrician and have next to no experience in this sort of thing, so if I cocked it up this was going to be pretty fatal. I'll make it very clear that I wouldn't reccomend anyone does this sort of thing themselves unless they're confident in their own abilities - Don't screw it up as it'll cause a world of pain!
Fortunately, I didn't balls it all up and managed to remove all the offending additions. It seems that the tri-core cable was intercepting the signal from the N75, running it to the tuning box where it was reduced/amplified then sent back to the ECU. I patched everything back up (had to use one set of connectors to give a little more reach where one wire was shortened) and secured/sealed/insulated and put it all back together.
At this point I didn't know if I'd reconnected everything, shorted anything or even killed the ECU itself so was a little apprehensive about firing the car back up. Screw it - I'd come this far. Held my breath, turned the key and...
...straight into action. All nice and smooth on tickover, bingo.
Before popping the dash back together, I figured itd make sense to finally wire in the mic for my hands free setup. Pulled out yet another badly-fitted electronic gizmo in the process.
And some more (I think this one was a switch for the light on the old boost gauge)
Unfortunately, there was a little bad news to come however fortunately it's a fairly minor issue. In an excited hurry to get everything back together for a drive I thre on the wipers and sheared one of the mounts. Mong!
Will have to rock a single wiper for a couple of days until I can sort it out. Hoping that a JB Welded thread on the top should be solid enough but may need to replace the entire pin itself. I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it.
Pissed off, I went for a test drive to see if things were working as they should again.
Hell. ****ing. Yes!
Ok, so being on the standard map power was down to ~210bhp but the car was boosting properly and pulling really well. Most importantly though, the N75 logs were finally doing the right thing for a change.
So that's this thread all up to date for once. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing new, but this car is now on the right lines to move onward and upward and get to playing...
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Good read mate! Glad you got to the bottom of the boosting issues too! Subscribed.
What's on the cards for it next then?
What's on the cards for it next then?
Lol! Looks like you're in the same boat as me as i've just bought a house with my missus too. That's next on my list too.
That's next on my list too.
Click on the blue 'Project Blueshift R' in my signature mate... i'm a bit rubbish with updating mind you as i'm on a few local forums which i spend more time on.
i'm a bit rubbish with updating mind you as i'm on a few local forums which i spend more time on.
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