The story of Rakhsh the lion

[Armin Sohrabian]

I'll use this post to document the progress of this car. It is a mk2 leon with the 1.4 tsi CAXC engine and it is my first car. I think the end goal for it will be an engine swap - not 100% sure which one yet but perhaps a 3sge with bike carbs or a 13b renesis - but this won't happen for a long time since I want a garage before doing that (and it will be expensive). And I'll need another reliable car since I'm sure it will take a long time. I also plan on respraying it, I'm sure it'll take a couple tries to get it looking good but the paint has a lot of scratches and stuff from previous owners - I only got the car in January 2025.

So far, I have installed KW V1 coilovers, a scorpion exhaust, new headlights and soon new wheels. There's been other stuff like wheel bearings and brakes but those are the mods I have done.

Progress on this car will be slow, I've already done most the things I wanted to do to it and I won't be making it faster until I have a garage so there will be nothing major for a long time. Next up is wheels which should be arriving in May. I do have some cool little project ideas but who knows if I will have the energy to figure those out - I have a whole list on my phone of cool little ideas that I might make for it. There's also some small fixes I need to do like the headlights not having a dust cap after I LED swapped them - I think they are mounted a bit weird too since they seem to curve upwards on each side. There is a spider living inside my headlight housing somehow.

I will lightly document the things that have already been done but I don't have many pictures and don't remember little details.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

This is what he looked like at the start. All things considered he doesn't look all that different now - the wheels will make a big difference though.

When I got this car, I didn't even have my driving license. I knew nothing about cars and only bought this one because it was near my house and didn't have any problems - I had actually planned to sell it after a while and buy an audi or something (my taste in cars has changed drastically since then) but over time I got more attached to it and ended up spending way more money on it.

The first thing I did was change the brakes - I thought it was simply a brake pad change because it was making a grinding noise in the rear but when I took everything out and looked it looked like this:

Needless to say it was cooked and the brake caliper was seized.

I also couldn't get this stupid torx screw out. At the time I didn't know it was a torx either so I tried to use a regular phillips on it.

I replaced both rear calipers and pads but not the rotors (mistake I know, I couldn't get the rotors off). I ended up not being able to bleed the brakes properly no matter how long I tried (also the brake fluid was super dirty it was almost black). I ended up giving it to a mechanic my friend knew and he bled them and installed the new rotors. Alas the first time working on this car was a nightmare (and I did it all with the widowmaker jack). I'm not sure why I decided to work on it myself at first but I think it was mostly not wanting to look for a good mechanic and mechanics being expensive. Any money I spent on a mechanic could've been spent on parts so eventually I ended up doing all the work myself.

At least I had jack stands.

This car is my only car and I needed it to get to work and to go see my girlfriend so it was crucial to get it fixed over the weekend. Sometimes it ended up taking longer and I had to borrow my mum's car or ask her to drop me off. Once I got it fixed I went to london and saw this cool S15 (at the time I really wanted an S15).

Also this was all after I had my license. On the day of my driving test my ABS module died (it was the horrible one known to fail, the MK60EC1 ending in CD), but after doing this work on the car I had the tyre pressure light come on too which wasn't on before. I don't know why this light turned on randomly, when I replaced the ABS module it went away.

Back then I thought this looked really bad and rusty - it was a steep learning curve but eventually I learned swivel joints are actual gifts from god and that they make working on rear brakes so easy.

Pro tip for anyone who doesn't have a lift or much space to get a breaker bar down here, these caliper bracket bolts are easy to get out with a swivel socket. I could fit my 18" breaker bar no problem with a swivel.

That was it for this hellish nightmare - it was definitely a scary start to working on cars and it didn't get easier until recently when I figured a lot out.

Also by this point I had influenced my girlfriend to send me pictures of cool cars she saw. Here is an S2000 she saw once (the picture was close to these):

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

Not a very interesting one next, I gave him a good clean. Started off by seeing this cool charger:

I didn't have a pressure washer at home so I went to this nearby jet wash and rinsed it, then I took the car home and did a 2 bucket wash with dish soap and clay barred the entire car. Then I took it back to the jet wash, rinsed it again and parked it to the side and waxed the whole thing. This took a good 4 hours and it was night by the time I finished but it looked quite nice at the end.

You can kinda see its a car from 09 from the damage near the fenders. Also I didn't do a great job of waxing it but hey it was the first time, looked pretty good and I was happy with the results - I had to remove some wax around the lettering the next day as it had hardened and was white - I think it was also this day where I snapped off half the S of the "TSI" marker on the side. Maybe one day if I get good at painting I will paint that on.

Not sure why I decided to do this on this day, I think this is around when I started liking this car. I went on a week trip to Denmark and ended up really missing it, the first thing I did when I got back was drive it around, I'm sure everyone knows the feeling of "I'm going to get to drive it again".

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

2 days later my new headlights arrived. I don't think the quality is great but they look really nice. The inside part of these headlight housings leaves a lot of room for improvement, I really preferred the OEM housing but these just fit the car so much better. The entire front bumper has to come off for this which was a bit of a pain with all the rusty torx screws.

Overall not a hard install, was really nice to have something easy after the pain the brakes gave me. I took it out for a little drive and took some pictures. I had to wait a while until nighttime so I could go and align the headlights properly though.

I tried to clearcoat the headlights so they wouldn't yellow over time but I underestimated how much flies like to land on them.

It was bad and the paint ran and flies decided to sit on the paint. I ended up trying to wipe it off but it had already partially dried and it was quite bad. It had a cracked texture which looked kinda bad. I ended up just living with it for a while. I eventually ended up taking them off and spending an evening wet sanding the clear down and then doing it again and it turns out much better, but still I think I didn't sand it enough and it still isn't perfect. I think eventually I'll either buy a new plastic piece and install that or get an orbital sander and sand the whole thing down really well - I was a bit lazy since it was taking so long to sand.

A couple days later was the exhaust, that is going to be the next section.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

I had ordered an exhaust the same day as the headlights and it arrived a few days later. I took the old one off (my god those rubber hangers were a pain. I ended up borrowing my friend's water pump pliers but man I wish I knew there was a special tool for this, it would've been so much easier.

I had a problem though, the new scorpion exhaust was a lot wider than my existing exhaust.

(No I didn't have a caliper. I do now though, still you can see a big difference). I ended up emailing the guys at scorpion redpower and they sent me an adapter the next day, absolute legends. Installed it and all was good, I ended up taking it for a drive and it actually sounded really good. It also looked a lot nicer than the original:

I did have the issue of this fiberglass coming out

Which I showed to the guys at scorpion and they wanted to send me a new one but it stopped after 2 days and I didn't notice a problem with the sound so I just told them it was fine and they said to let them know if that changes. Overall very happy with those guys but yea, I had some of this stuff come out the exhaust and I foolishly touched it with my bare hands (I didn't know what it was at the time) but luckily I only got a tiny cut and it didn't matter. I was very happy with the sound of it, especially since I was expecting it to sound like **** because its a 1.4 liter engine but it sounded quite nice and I've been very happy with it since. It isn't too loud and the droning on the motorway from not having a resonator wasn't too bad either. It has been somewhat inconsistent, I feel like some days it is super quiet and other days it is normal. I'm still trying to notice a pattern but I have been unsuccessful so far. Maybe it has something to do with the fiberglass that came out, I'm not really bothered though so I just leave it as it is.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

A couple days later I got some LED bulbs and aligned them properly.

I think this place was actually a bit curved but I couldn't find a better place to do this. The image is before aligning them, took some fiddling because these headlight housings are weird and I think one of the adjustment screws is a bit loose anyway.

You can also see that the beam pattern is kinda U shaped, I've managed to deal with this by turning the bulbs which I thought wasn't suppposed to work because they are projectors but it helps a little. It is weird because it seems to be wonky sometimes and not others. I've never had anyone flash their high beams at me though so I assume it has been fine - might be because I have since lowered the car. When I lowered it I re-checked the alignment and it seemed better than before so I just left it.

Anyway this LED swap was NECESSARY. These headlights came with halogens and they were completely garbage. You couldn't see anything at all and they got super hot - when I removed them they were already black and that was only after a week of them being installed (I didn't even drive much).

Another car my girlfriend sent me:

Thought this one was cool. Definitely could cook a cool project car with that.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

Some time later I took the headlights off and sanded them down and clearcoated them again, it turned out much better this time:

I took them again and re-aligned them. It turned out much better than last time:

The day after this I also replaced one of the ABS sensors - I suspected it might be this that was causing me the ABS problems and wanted to rule it out before buying an expensive new module (and replacing the modules is hard). It actually snapped inside the knuckle and I got lucky I got it out. This didn't solve the problem though.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

In September (2025) I received my KW V1 coilovers. I started on the front because I assumed the back would be trivial, it was 5 bolts in the back so I thought it would be easy so I started on the front. This was by far the most painful thing I have done on this car. Combine a lack of experience and rusty old suspension components, you get a big headache. It took 2 weeks to install the front (most of it was waiting for new parts) and I completely skipped installing the rear.The old struts may have been original from 2009.

Partway through this install I saw a cool MR2 (I no longer like silvias, I want an MR2 as a project car) and thought I'd include it here.

I had a lot of trouble with various bolts. These ball joint nuts were a massive pain to get out, I had a cheap aliexpress socket set I started off with and I rounded off my deep socket. I simply couldn't get a good grip on these and I eventually gave up and bought a cheap Seessii impact gun. I'm sure its not as strong as it says but it has dealt with anything I give it and it was very cheap so I'm happy with it. Anyway, this bolt finally came out with the impact:

I had also bought a lot more tools by this point. I had 2 jacks, the low profile one was specifically for lowering the car and the ramps which you saw in the headlight section. I had a lot more tools by now (expensive, even when buying cheap garbage). Anyway, I got this out and got the steering rack out and got the new strut in. The left side was not too bad after I had the impact. I also needed new top mounts for the strut, KW V1s didn't come with any and I didn't want to take the old ones off the strut since I only had the suspicious spring compressors and I would rather just get a new one anyway.

After weeks the left side was done. I tried to to do the rear on that side but the bolt that connected the knuckle to the control arm wasn't moving - not with an impact or my 18" breaker bar - I assumed the bolt was seized to the bushing sleeve.

There wasn't enough room to fit a socket on the nut side and I didn't have enough space under the car to fit a wrench extender. I skipped the rear for now, I just wanted to drive the car.
I moved onto the right side. The top mount nut had seized to the bolt and was just spinning freely in the top mount - it would spin and not loosen. I had to drill a bunch of holes in the top mount and eventually got it out. It took absolutely forever and was a massive pain. I also needed new top mount bolts so I went to the dealership expecting to get scammed (I didn't have access to part numbers back here so I couldn't buy them off ebay or autodoc) but it was surprisingly reasonable. I think I paid 7 pounds for the 3 top mount bolts.

This is what it looked like at the end of all this, the front actually got a bit lower after a while when the suspension settled. I believe KW actually says not to lower the coilovers fully but the whole reason I got it was for the looks and I wanted the wheel gap to go away. I tried it and had no issues so I assume they said that for clearance reasons. I did have some kind of rubbing noise when steering was full lock left or right at low speeds but I believe this was the strut top mount, there was no sign of rubbing anywhere. I think I installed the right top mount in the wrong direction, I loosened it and rotated it a bit and I haven't had the issue since.

My girlfiend found more cool cars

I drove the car like this for a long time. The car is kind of pointed downwards which I expected to cause me to have more grip in the front but the rear springs had a lot of travel so when accelerating hard from a stop the wheels would lose grip a lot. When I lowered the back I noticed far less slipping. This isn't a fast car by any means, it is 1400kg with 123bhp and probably less since it is from 2009 but that was an unexpected side effect of this setup.

I probably would've left it like this for longer but the car needed an MOT and the tyres looked almost bald so I decided to buy the new wheels I was planning on getting and putting new tyres on before failing an MOT. I thought since the car wouldn't be usable until the new tyres, I might as well fix all the little things like putting on new brakes, the rear coilovers, the new ABS module and new rear wheel bearings. I had replaced 3 of the wheel bearings before (I paid a mechanic since it sounded intimidating, in reality it is super easy and I regret paying someone to do it) but the noise had kinda come back so I assumed it was the 4th one that wasn't replaced - the car hit 100k miles and I think that's roughly when the wheel bearings tend to go bad.

Anyway, the fun of this is in the next post.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

The fun of winter 2026​

I had a new job and was working longer hours and sometimes on Saturdays. I didn't want to spend my only day off working on the car - it was always difficult and annoying and I was always too tired - so I had to work on it after work in the dark, often in the rain. I'm surprised I managed to pull this off but somehow I could force myself to do so - it was either this or it wouldn't get done and honestly I get really depressed when I can't drive this thing.

I moved all my tools down to my car and left them here so I could minimise the effort needed to work on the car as much as possible. I started off with the brakes and wheel bearings in the rear. I also ordered new brake shields since the old ones were cooked. I found the brake rotor screws to be quite easy to get off with a manual impact surprisingly - it really felt like I had progressed since that first brake job. I was removing things easily and while I had some problems (like the hub bolt) I ended up finding solutions quite fast. It felt like I had finally learned and could do things properly now. I removed everything and once the hub was off, I managed to get the rear spring out and install the rear coilovers. This did all take about 4 weeks, I had to wait on parts a lot. I replaced a ton of bolts because they were old and rusty and new bolts just made me unreasonably happy.

I saw a cool kei truck

I also found out cars have this random tube in the back for the AC. It was scary seeing a random tube in the back but I googled it and found the answer pretty fast. Wonder if I am the only one to have been scared by that.

A lot of the torx bolts were in bad shape, things like this one

I found you really need to be careful with these. If you strip them you're in for a bad time. My strategy was to wire wheel them a lot and then go straight to the impact screwdriver. It worked for all but the one in the image, that one I took a chisel and just lightly tapped it in a counterclockwise way and it came out.

I had finally defeated the rear spring and I was super happy. This one problem had caused me so much stress trying to think of a way of getting it out. I thought about using a spring compressor to compress it and slide it out but the one I had wouldn't work like that and I didn't want to pay 1000 pounds for a dealer grade one. I put a random glove on the knuckle to protect it since the new hub hadn't arrived yet and I finished it the next day.

Very shiny and new. I got zimmermann coated disks and brembo's street ceramic pads. The disks seemed ok but are already starting to rust a bit - I will probably go with brembos next time since I think they'll probably look new for longer - honestly this brake change was so I could make the brakes look ready for the new wheels. I expected it to look really ugly if the new wheels had thinner spokes than the original and the brakes were old and rusty, so I decided to buy new ones since I would need them eventually anyway.

I also replaced the rear left brake caliper - I was expecting to need to bleed all the brakes after the ABS module so I checked all the bleed nipples. This one was completely stripped and it was a cheap amazon brake caliper anyway. I replaced it with a TRW caliper.

I also remembered I used the wrong nuts on the front ball joints, they were random stainless steel nuts that I bought from screwfix before I knew any better. I replaced most of them but there were 2 I couldn't get back off - they would just spin. I figured if I can't get them off they aren't going to get removed by themselves, I'll come back to them later and extract them somehow.

There is at least one correct nut holding and it seems to be fine so I left it - but its pretty high on my to do list of things to fix on this car.

I also tried looking for a short throw shifter for this car but it has the weird LHY transmission and no short shifters are online for these.

Anyway, the last thing was the ABS module. The ABS module was easier than I expected, I just took the battery out, took the intake out and removed it. It really helped that this car has a small engine, access in the engine bay was easy. I re-coded it and had an issue with the G85 sensor, but once I found the correct basic setting procedure for it for this car it was also fixed. I checked the tyres again and they had about 2.5mm of tread left - the 20p advice is somewhat incorrect and you should use the tread indicators (as I found). I took it for an MOT and it passed, I found out it has a slight oil leak in the front but honestly I haven't noticed the oil level dropping even though I check it regularly so I think that is fine too.

I bled the brakes with VCDS and had no issues. This was the first time in a year that the car didn't have 4 dashboard warning lights, it was a very happy moment.

This new ABS module also has a sensor for hill hold assist but that needs the coding to be modified and I have been too lazy to enable it. Maybe one day I will be bothered to enable it - there have been 2 times were I really wished I had it. London has some very steep hills that sometimes have horrible traffic.

I saw a cool mk1 Leon. I don't know anything about their engines but it sounded cool.
This is what he looked like with the rear lowered too

There is a little more before this thread is caught up to present day Rakhsh.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

Random things in February/March 2025​

There were a couple random things I did in February/March. My girlfriend got me a mochi for valentines day - I saw an ad for these on instagram and thought it would be a cool little addition to Rakhsh and she got it for me, she also got the liberty walk hat which was limited edition at the time which looks cool.

Ended up installing it here near the window, originally I planned on hard-wiring it at some point or maybe even integrating it into a boost gauge holder for the driver's side AC vent but this spot was just too good to pass up.

We went on a trip to Cheddar Gorge because we always find cool cars there - the b3135 is very popular as you may know - but it was the first sunny day in a long time so tons of motorcyclists and sports cars showed up so police shut down the road. Still was a cool trip and it felt great to drive, the car really has no issues anymore and doesn't feel like the cheap shitbox it used to be.
Definitely recommend checking out Cheddar Gorge and the B3135 if you haven't.

When I first bought the car, I bought a cheap shift knob and boot from aliexpress. I installed them but the adapter made the shifter taller than before. This makes the throw longer and also feel a bit worse. The threaded shifters also have a tendency to come loose over time and this is not ideal. I ended up buying a momo anatomica shift knob - it it exactly what I wanted. It has some weight to it, it feels like its made of quality materials and it looks nice and simple too. I also bought a shift boot from stitch boots that was super easy to install. If you've ever messed with these shifters, you know installing them isn't the most straightforward. Some shift boots will need to be stapled onto the mounting bracket - I sewed it on with some string before but this time the stitch boots one had an elastic part at the base that made it super easy to fit. I got one of these to fit underneath the top of the shift boot to prevent it from sagging:

I didn't install it in the usual way because it would look weird, I wanted it to be flush with the shift knob so I just installed it under the shift boot entirely just to hold it up. In the end it looked like this:

(excuse how dusty the car is I really need to clean the entire thing) This made a huge difference to how it felt to drive. Big fan of this shift knob and stitch boots, would totally recommend.

I took my car to meet with a friend and when I got back in it to drive home it wouldn't start. The battery was on its way out. I checked fuses and all was fine so I concluded the battery was dying. I fiddled with it and got lucky and the car started. I got home and tried it again and it was fine but when I tried it again that night same problem - the battery wasn't keeping charge. I ordered a new one and on the bright side I now know when it was replaced.

I also did my first ever oil change - I had been putting it off for about 2000 miles (I'm aiming to do one every 5000 miles - I know this car has a recommended service interval of 15k miles but I redline it every time I drive it so I'm going to give it frequent oil changes at least). I was procrastinating it because since I lowered it, the car doesn't go up my ramps anymore, they are too steep. I eventually tried just jacking it up and surprisingly I get enough clearance to the drain plug. I did the change and found a random set of grips under my engine cover (I took it off to clean a small spill)

No idea how this got here. I also planned on changing the spark plugs but I only have a 1/2 inch torque wrench so I left that alone, the last spark plug service was about 30k miles ago anyway so I should still have time for that. I actually had a problem with this though - it seems the oil filter you need for this engine has a little spring mechanism at the end (I believe to keep oil in it so the engine fills with oil faster on startup) but the one I received didn't have this.
The one I got looked like this:

Whereas it is supposed to look like this:

I drove the car a bit and the low oil pressure light came on. I pulled over and the light went away and I checked the oil level and it was a little low - I drove back home and as I was parking the light came on again. The light was on probably 3 seconds total so I don't think I damaged the engine (hopefully). I got the new filter and I took it to an area that was definitely level and checked the oil level - it was too low so I filled it up. I haven't had the issue since so it was either the filter or the low oil - probably the low oil but I will be careful with the filters too from now on.

And that concludes all that has been done to this car. I learned everything I know about cars on this car and I'm so glad I didn't sell it. I don't plan on ever selling it. I have a set of wheels coming soon but after that progress will be slow, there isn't much left I want to do to the car, I'm really happy with how it looks and drives. One day I will make it really fast but I'll need more experience, money and a garage for that. Until then I will probably get an actual project car and mess around with that.

The next thing on the list is a really good detail, but I'm waiting to buy a pressure washer for that.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

Backstory for the name:
Rakhsh is the horse of the mythical persian warrior Rostam. Back when I was a kid, my grandad used to all me Rostam so I named this car Rakhsh. Funny thing is I named my cat Rostam too because he was a very brave kitten.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

I thought you didnt have lots of pictures We love picture heavy threads, so keep doing that. I document everything I do on my car, take a look in my build thread someday.

And I applaud you for taking on things yourself, you will learn a lot and you will save a lot of money, which you will directly spend on tools haha

A garage will be a gamechanger, I also started out on the street and was able to work in a garage when we rented our house. Then a couple years later we bought our house and a garage was included (happy me!). I worked with jack stands and a garage floor jack, but one day my Mercedes CLS55 slid of the floor jack and I was lucky not to be under it. That was the day I stopped wrenching and I invested in a mid-rise scissor lift.

I would advise to not do an engine swap and just buy a faster car/version. A swap most of the time is not straightforward and usually there is not much information to go on. Just my 2 cents

The small tube in the back is the overflow tube for the gas filler neck. The small hole you see (usually directly below your gas cap) is connected to this tube

(random pic)

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

I thought you didnt have lots of pictures We love picture heavy threads, so keep doing that. I document everything I do on my car, take a look in my build thread someday.

And I applaud you for taking on things yourself, you will learn a lot and you will save a lot of money, which you will directly spend on tools haha

A garage will be a gamechanger, I also started out on the street and was able to work in a garage when we rented our house. Then a couple years later we bought our house and a garage was included (happy me!). I worked with jack stands and a garage floor jack, but one day my Mercedes CLS55 slid of the floor jack and I was lucky not to be under it. That was the day I stopped wrenching and I invested in a mid-rise scissor lift.

I would advise to not do an engine swap and just buy a faster car/version. A swap most of the time is not straightforward and usually there is not much information to go on. Just my 2 cents

The small tube in the back is the overflow tube for the gas filler neck. The small hole you see (usually directly below your gas cap) is connected to this tube

(random pic)

Haha yeah I just went through my photos and said whatever I remembered. I remember struggling a bit more but I forgot and didn't have a picture to remind me, I'm sure I left something out.

You're 100% right about the engine swap but it's not meant to be smart, just a fun way to make the car a bit more unique. I'm sure I'll regret that in 10 years or however long until I actually attempt it though.

Also good to know about the tube, I just read it was something to do with the AC and didn't look into it further but yeah that's good to know.