Advice for buying a facelift Cupra

dohc52uk · Jun 29, 2017

Hi All,
can anyone kindly summarize the weak points of the fl cupra please.
I am thinking of buying one, '59 reg in black (would this be a metallic or solid paint?) with fsh 54k miles, up for £7500.

I've read about abs pump failures, air con condenser failures, wheel bearing & tracking issues in general, top mounts, high oil consumption, noisy engine (diesel sounding) on tick over & start up, water ingress into bonnet underside causing issues, pipes to wiper mechanisms popping off & causing trouble, & boot leaks.
Also I'm confused about chain issues (I know it's a belt driven engine but believe there's a chain at the other end & thinking along the lines of what maintenance may lie ahead,I'm querying this because in some'for sale' ads I see folk with belt driven engines claim they've had the chain done).

I'm hoping someone will say many of these issues were resolved on the fl version,any advice regarding the list above would be most welcome & much appreciated

It would be great to know what questions to ask the seller re. which of these issues have already been sorted, so I can get a clearer picture of what big bills might be on the horizon.
Cheers,
Jon.

Legojon · Jun 29, 2017

dohc52uk said:
I've read about abs pump failures, air con condenser failures, wheel bearing & tracking issues in general, top mounts, high oil consumption, noisy engine (diesel sounding) on tick over & start up, water ingress into bonnet underside causing issues, pipes to wiper mechanisms popping off & causing trouble, & boot leaks.

But aside from that otherwise fine?

I'll do my best until someone more technically minded comes along. When I bought my 2011 the first thing I did was change the cambelt / waterpump. I'd check if they have / haven't been done and when. The water ingress is an issue with all mk2s afaik. Luckily the previous owner of mine already sealed the bonnet (theres a guide). Because my FR was terrible, but the fix has worked for my Cupra.

Can't say I've had any of the above issues... it does consume oil. But I don't find it excessive. I had it serviced 2 months ago and the oil was to the max. Its dropped by the gap between the word max and the top shaded part of the dipstick. At this rate, I probably won't need to top it before the next service.

The engine is quite noisy.... even compared to my diesel FR. But, I have a radio, a sub in the boot and somewhere north of 300bhp... so don't really care

But I did have a spell of taking it back to the garage for all kinds of sounds which they assured me were normal. I just kind of got used to it.

Yup, it has chain and cambelt... the cambelt / waterpump is serviceable. I think the chain rattles as it gets older. I did mention to the garage and they said not to worry about it. But, if the chain needs doing, its not cheap (over 1k I was quoted). But from what I gather it shouldn't for a long time.

I figure since its got a FSH, chances are the previous owner looked after it. As with any new car, I'd always budget some for repairs or serviceable items (an actual service, tyres, brakes, etc). Unfortunately I got hit for cambelt, service, brakes, air con... but none of it I would call a weak point. Just another day owning a car.

dohc52uk · Jul 2, 2017

Hi, many thanks for the reply, very informative, overall you sound happy with yours.

I'm going to see this tomorrow, I spoke with the seller & he said it's had literally no issues at all, been good as gold in his 5 year ownership.
Alarmingly the cam belt & water pump have never been changed though, & it's mileage is now 54k & it's a '59 reg.Neither has the cam follower had any attention to his knowledge.It's a mid 50's man selling it, & apparently his wife has been the main driver...I'm kind of pleased about this tbh.

I'm now about to read up on what in particular I should look out for when seeing/testing the car, any advice very welcome.
Thanks,
Jon.

Legojon · Jul 2, 2017

Yup I couldn't be happier, I've just cleaned mine today... just walked round it and tucked it into bed!

Hmmm, well if I recall originally cambelts were mileage based... and then Seat just made it a stock 5 years. But when I bought mine, it was just over 5 years old and I panicked cause the garage couldn't fit me in straight away! Owner reckoned some cambelts they do are 10 years old+. But worth knowing if you are planning on bartering the price... it'll be around the £350 mark from an Indy garage.

Cam follower... I dunno, some cars seem to get through em, some don't. I think its regarded its associated with mapping and the higher the map, the more wear on the follower. I don't know which side of the debate I fall on but think I paid £35 for parts and labour to have it changed. So its a worth doing just to have piece of mind.

Not sure what to advise to check on it. I'd make sure the aircon blows cold. And try both a little throttle and make sure theres no hesitation or jerking. And if the opporunity arises, boot it and make sure the power puts a smile on your face and again, no weird sounds or hesitation.

As I said, mine was 5 years old when I bought it, I've only done preventative and routine maintenance on it so far. I suppose you'd want to have a look at the tyres and brake pads and see how much is left on them (you can visually see the pads if you look from the right angle). 18" (or 19" in my case) tyres aren't cheap. Worn / rusted discs / pads will also set you back (think I paid £175 for rear discs and pads).

dohc52uk · Jul 4, 2017

Hi, thanks again for the reply & advice.
I read your car thread, wow what a beaut you have, & you really have lavished lots of care & attention on it! Not to mention how much dosh! It does look amazing & in the best colour imo.

I went to see the car last night, looks a good genuine car but I won't be buying it, I was going to, but it was borderline.....I was not 100% happy with the service history, one receipt said 10/40 LL oil was used (from an independent) which I don't think is the optimum grade, there were stamps in the book but not many ticks in the "what's done" boxes, only 1 actual detailed invoice was present.
A couple of dings, which I didn't mind, to be expected in fact, but one in particular would need a bit of cash to fix at dentmaster (or similar).
Then of course the £469 needed for the belt & WP, the front tyres were pretty low & budget brands,the back had 3mm tread, not great....No record of any brake fluid change... all the above would have been ok & easily remedied I guess (with £1k plus spending) but what put me off is I noticed the steering wheel was not centered.Dunno if that's normal, I very much doubt it though.
When driving straight ahead the wheel was at about 4 or 5 mins past the hour if that makes sense (not too clued up on degrees).
And with the steering wheel dead centered, the car would steer to the left.To be fair it drove great & the tyre wear was even on all 4 tyres, so maybe a simple fix, but also the potential to be a pita which I don't need.
No rush to buy so will wait for a more suitable car, with better history & less needing to be spent.
I think I need to budget on £8.5k to £9.5k to get what I want, but would rather have car with everything already done.

Edit.I forgot to ask if your fuel consumption had improved, I was shocked how bad it was, also does your car need the oil topping up frequently, it seems this is quite common that they can use a lot, which is rather worrying.

Legojon · Jul 4, 2017

Cheers

yup, I've spent a fortune on it. Mostly my choice as they are performance / handling upgrades. I'm trying to be good for a few months now before I go Stage 2+.

Hmm, ye, if it doesn't feel right you are best to walk away. I used 5w30 in mine when I first got it and have switched to 5w40 now. Mine had all dealer stamps and mostly consisted of oil changes and little else. No brake fluid, cambelt was supposed to have been inspected but no written record of that. I concluded dealer services aren't worth the stamp.

I agree, doesn't sound that well looked after. Tyres are my personal bugbear. Its a basic and if they can't be bothered with that then whats the rest of the car like. Ye, the steering wheel should be straight. When I got mine aligned its one of the things they do. So likely they've been driving round with it out of alignment for however long.

One of the deciding factors in mine was it already had lowering springs and Miltek catback. I later saw one which was already Stage 2 for a bit cheaper than I paid.

I'm currently getting around 220 miles to a tank. But its a lot of short journeys and a lot of rush hour traffic. I always have the aircon on and like the sound of the revo intake going whooooooosh. I suspect my mpg may be correct. But am changing some bits that tuners recommend for Stage 1, 2, etc. As for the oil, I've owned it 7 months now. I bought 4.5l of Castrol edge... and I still have over 4l of it left. I've now ordered some Fuchs 5w40 Pro, but just 1l of it. I'm pretty sure that will last me the rest of this year at least.

SteA · Jul 5, 2017

The only issue I had with my 2010 LCR was door lock solenoids failing, that was only on 40 odd thousand miles too, so it's worth locking then unlocking the car and checking all the doors are unlocked. Very common on this platform apparently, our local garage is well practiced with all the VAG cars of a similar vintage. I think it was about £180 fitted per solenoid.

Mine used less oil than our 2010 S3 and both sounded like a bag of gently rattling spanners at idle.

brilliant car, I loved mine.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

dohc52uk · Jul 5, 2017

Thanks for the replies Gents, very good tip to look out for the door locks all behaving as they should, I'll add that to my check list for the next car we see, I didn't do such a check on the one recently viewed.
Legojon, 220 to a tank sounds like a big improvement from 12-14 mpg.
I too think the dealer stamps are sadly lacking, some of the boxes to be ticked (or not) in the service book had neither a tick in the yes or no squares, so without a detailed invoice one is not very well informed at all as to what has or has not been done.

Apart from your mechanical maintenance & upgrades, which look impeccable, I was really astonished to see how much care & attention you've given to the interior & paint!

Puts me to shame, as maintaining the aesthetics of a car have never been my strongest point.

I've have however always been mechanically maintenance minded (do everything on our cars except timing belts), also rust prevention minded (my '94 Rover 220 Turbo has virtually zero rust,& has had far more applications of wax(oyl) to the underside/cavities than than polish-wax to the paintwork, & it's on 145k now with original mechanical everything,except about 3 abs sensors,& a replacement gearbox- & the gearbox is a known weakness of these cars).

The above is why I noticed the oil grade & was not happy.The 220 gets 5w/40 fully synthetic & is changed every 3k,the wife's octavia 1.8t also gets the same oil as mine, so 10/40 in the more particular Cupra cannot be the optimum, nor do I think it wise to even allow a garage to put that in, or not check what they were going to put in & query it.

Whilst on the subject of oil, thanks both of you for the info, my mind is a bit more at rest in that regard now.

SteA · Jul 5, 2017

dohc52uk said:
Thanks for the replies Gents, very good tip to look out for the door locks all behaving as they should, I'll add that to my check list for the next car we see, I didn't do such a check on the one recently viewed.
Legojon, 220 to a tank sounds like a big improvement from 12-14 mpg.
I too think the dealer stamps are sadly lacking, some of the boxes to be ticked (or not) in the service book had neither a tick in the yes or no squares, so without a detailed invoice one is not very well informed at all as to what has or has not been done.

Apart from your mechanical maintenance & upgrades, which look impeccable, I was really astonished to see how much care & attention you've given to the interior & paint!

Puts me to shame, as maintaining the aesthetics of a car have never been my strongest point.

I've have however always been mechanically maintenance minded (do everything on our cars except timing belts), also rust prevention minded (my '94 Rover 220 Turbo has virtually zero rust,& has had far more applications of wax(oyl) to the underside/cavities than than polish-wax to the paintwork, & it's on 145k now with original mechanical everything,except about 3 abs sensors,& a replacement gearbox- & the gearbox is a known weakness of these cars).

The above is why I noticed the oil grade & was not happy.The 220 gets 5w/40 fully synthetic & is changed every 3k,the wife's octavia 1.8t also gets the same oil as mine, so 10/40 in the more particular Cupra cannot be the optimum, nor do I think it wise to even allow a garage to put that in, or not check what they were going to put in & query it.

Whilst on the subject of oil, thanks both of you for the info, my mind is a bit more at rest in that regard now.

I meant to say before, mine was remapped by Rtech to 315 bhp (no other engine mods) and my long term average was 28mpg including trackdays, lots of fun and not that many long journeys. I usually got 300+ to a tank using Tesco 99 Momentum, so economy really isn't bad

Legojon · Jul 5, 2017

SteA said:
both sounded like a bag of gently rattling spanners at idle. brilliant car, I loved mine.

Exactly how mine sounds! I took it to the garage 4 times... on the 4th time they refused to check over my car again. And this is coming from a diesel. But... I've just gotten used to it.

dohc52uk said:
Legojon, 220 to a tank sounds like a big improvement from 12-14 mpg.

Apart from your mechanical maintenance & upgrades, which look impeccable, I was really astonished to see how much care & attention you've given to the interior & paint!

Puts me to shame, as maintaining the aesthetics of a car have never been my strongest point.

I've have however always been mechanically maintenance minded (do everything on our cars except timing belts), also rust prevention minded (my '94 Rover 220 Turbo has virtually zero rust,& has had far more applications of wax(oyl) to the underside/cavities than than polish-wax to the paintwork, & it's on 145k now with original mechanical everything,except about 3 abs sensors,& a replacement gearbox- & the gearbox is a known weakness of these cars).

Well, after the new diverter valve I gained another 2mpg (woo). And I've tried driving some of the journeys with the aircon off and got another 2mpg. So I'm currently sitting around the 24mpg mark. But my longest journey is 5 miles

Going to try the new coils and pcv if they ever arrive.

Cheers. Its weird cause I wasn't a car person. I had a mondeo for 10 years. In that time it had 1 service and 2 cleans

But its amazing the difference it makes when you love the car you drive. I just started with some autoglym shampoo, a sponge and a bucket. Washed it and thought this looks pretty good... now I have in stock about £300 of cleaning products at any one time. I hate washing it, but love driving a shiny car!

I'm the opposite though. First time I changed a tyre I destroyed my alloy. I do basics now like check oil, tyre pressures, etc. But am trying to become braver. Diverter valve was too easy. Coils if I don't break em, but still really easy. PCV, again easy, if I don't wreck the car. I'd love to get more into the mechanical side but am worried about trashing my car.

SteA said:
my long term average was 28mpg including trackdays, lots of fun and not that many long journeys. I usually got 300+ to a tank using Tesco 99 Momentum, so economy really isn't bad

Ahh, that makes me feel better... I'm currently sitting at 240 miles to a tank and 24mpg. I've got a few long journeys coming up, so will give me a chance to see what my real economy is. I just can't keep my foot off the accelerator though!!

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Advice for buying a facelift Cupra

dohc52uk

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Legojon

I only wanted a remap

dohc52uk

Active Member

Legojon

I only wanted a remap

dohc52uk

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Legojon

I only wanted a remap

SteA

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dohc52uk

Active Member

SteA

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Legojon

I only wanted a remap

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