4937Liam - FR+ Cupra TDi (Lots and lots of updates 11/08/2013)

[RLyons]

Lovely motor! I have the same plans but you obviously have more money than me as I've not got far yet!

Did you get to the bottom of the brakes / wobble issue? My FR is doing it too! I thought it was warped discs but they are fairly new and I haven't done anything that could warp them since the vibration started!

 

[4937Liam]

Brakes are finally sorted and they are back to their very best - Really beggining to feel the benefit of the 312mm upgrade at last. Full update with pics soon.

 

[RLyons]

How did you sort them? I am reluctant to invest in 312mm if the wobble isn't cured!

Glad to hear its a good upgrade though!

 

[4937Liam]

I simply needed new disks and pads in the end. Also the vibrations were partially down to me and the garage that fitted the 312mm upgrade initially.

Firstly there was too much paint on the caliper carriers (basically I had painted too close to the threaded areas meaning it couldn't sit fully flush) and secondly when the new EBC disks were fitted the hub was not fully cleaned contributing further to the vibration problems.

So above all lesson learned (the hard way) but I am loving my new stoppers so much that im not really pissed off with things any more.

 

[RLyons]

Sound! Thanks for the advice (sorry you had to find out the hard way)

Is it a diy job? I've not worked on brakes before but seems fairly easy.

Hopefully I have sourced some carriers so just need discs and pads. I'm thinking vag discs with some greenstuff pads?

 

[4937Liam]

Honestly I am no mechanic! and when it comes to something as important as brakes i'd only trust a fully qualified mechanic who knew exactly what he was doing. (Its just piece of mind really).

In terms of parts (If your looking to simply upgrade to the 312mm setup) brake disks may as well be either standard VAG parts or perhaps mintex and pads I would recommend Mintex once again (I went for 1144 which is just a fast road use pad) - avoid EBC their awful in my personal opinion and recent experience.

 

[RLyons]

That's a fair point! Do you know how many hours labour it was for you? My garage charge £30 per hour.

I'll go for those pads then! Got a good supplier?

 

[4937Liam]

Updates!

Well over the last three months I have had a nightmare with my 312mm front brake upgrade but now finally things are sorted and I am loving the new stopping power.
The original probem turned out that the EBC Yellow stuff pads were just eating the standard disks I had chosen to go with them (they had warped the disks within weeks! Also When I firstly painted the new caliper carriers I had painted too close to the threaded holes resulting in the carrier not stting flush with the caliper/hub).

Anyway AmD did not dissapoint me and it was money well spent with them once again.

Zimmermann drilled front brake disks.

Mintex 1144 fast road use brake pads.

An instant improvement! From the moment I got in the car I was finally beggining to get my confidence back into the cars overall braking ability.

Also with the correct bolts finally turning up from DPM Performance I could now fit my 12mm H&R rear spacers.

Very easy to fit and a nice little gain in terms of the overall handling (The rear feels alot more planted on the road if that makes sense). It looks very Cool too

 

[4937Liam]

Finally a bit of a change in direction for the car.
A mate who is a window tinting specialist by trade is moving into the carbon wrapping scene and he was looking for a bit of a guinea pig car to practice on - Having so, so many stone chips I was happy to let him loose on the Leons bonnet.

Its far from perfect in certain places but it cost nothing and its something quite different so I was game. Also with some spare carbon wrap he also asked whether he could wrap the wing mirrors caps:

These came out quite well:

Back on photoshop I tinted the clear part of the lenses on the rear lights:

Unsure about this idea but maybe one day...

Also while on Photoshop I tinted the rear windows (70%) and the fronts (30%)

This is something I am seriously considering in the future.

Thats it for now

 

[MrBen2k7]

Mirrors look nice. Wanted this done on mine.

I want the 312mm upgrade. Just need to decide between them or new head unit...

 

[4937Liam]

Get the brakes done mate - now my new setup has completed the bedding in process it's virtually a necessity!

 

[4937Liam]

Finally time for some updates...

Over a month or so ago I payed another trip to AmD to have a 100k service and my Upper S3 brace fitted - obviously you cant see what a service looks like but here are some pics of the brace fitted. I was fully confident AmD would do a top notch top and i was not dissapointed. Cars now running super smooth with fresh oil and although I did have some advisories in regards to leaky boost pipes and worn bushes It still feels and runs great.

Recently I have had the rear three windows tinted which I am also very happy with.

Painted my wheel bolt caps red to match the colour of the car

And within the last week 4x new centre caps from my local Trade Parts Specialist.

 

[4937Liam]

Updates... Flood!!

After having another new windscreen (two in six months)! within a week of having it fitted after heavy rain fall my passenger footwell was completly saturated. After some research on the forum it appeared the pollen filter had not been put back in correctly - This has now been rectified by the windscreen company in question.

Anyway while at GTi International I picked up a VAG pedel set and a dead pedal to match.

It quickly became apparent the accelerater pedal was too big to slip over the metal pedal tightly (and i did not want to use any form of glue) it looked much better down in the footwell but certainly not finished. After studying Jonjays RR his pedal set was originally designed for an Audi TT - I noted down the part number and went back down to the TPS in Cambridge. £15.00 later the replacement pedal was on order...

While I was off work last week I decided the more I studied the rear of the car the more I was unhappy with the exhaust - You can see way too much of the rear silencer and not enough ephasis is on the tailpipes.

Satin black very high temprature paint was applied to the areas of the silencer that could be easily seen behind the tailpipes. (2 coats covered it very well).

Seems to blend in much more with the black section at the bottom of the bumper now and this little mod cost me a total of just £6.50 for the paint.

 

[4937Liam]

And finally just a few recent pics of the car after a clean and top up of dodo red mist...

Spoiler was initially machine polished but I am still unhappy as it has been simply enhanced and not currently fully corrected (still learning with my new rotary)

Current plans:

1)Re-badge the back of the car, central C U P R A badge (with genuine SEAT TDI badge)
2)Paint some areas under the bonnet (Washer bottle cap, Power steering cap etc..)
3)Paint the rear hubs as they have gone rusty.
4)Hughes Engineering rear brace (This is proving difficult to get my hands on)
5)Milltek Large bore downpipe to complete the exhaust system.

Thats all for now.

 

[jonjay]

Nice updates Liam.

Painting rear hubs is something I must do. Driving me nuts!

 

[MrBen2k7]

Looking good mate, keep it up!

 

[4937Liam]

Well its been such a long time i cant quite remember in what order I have carried out my modifications in so here goes...

Well first things first I was a little fed up with too much red going on around the wheels/brake areas so I decided to paint them black - this helps the brakes to look more subtle and the red wheel bolt caps stand out and look much more individual.

Two/three coats to fully cover the old red paint. The rear brakes were re-painted also (no pics though).

My work mates ST in the background he was doing the same thing to his calipers.

Was meaning to paint the rear hubs for a while as they had rusted up and were generally letting this section of the car down - two coats job done.

 

[4937Liam]

Now this may seem completly crazy to some people but the Leon Cupra R rear bumper is not my favourite rear bumper for the Mk1 Leon so When a genuine FR rear bumper appeared on ebay I wasn't prepared to let it go.

It needed re-spraying (although the colour match was very, very good its minor scuffs and scratches meant it was either perfection or nothing for me really) After a couple of days at the bodyshop it was back in my position and ready to be fitted.

Pics:

Bumper is not dull its got Super resin polish curring on it.

Below however is the problem - One main reason I decided to 'downgrade' to the FR bumper is the fact its fatter, rounder and the exhaust recess is slightly bigger. The Milltek twin pipes never fitted nicely with the Cupra R rear bumper so once ive visited an exhaust specialist to carry out some minor adjustments it will be looking much more symmetrical.

More pics to come once rear silencer has been adjusted.

 

[4937Liam]

Time for some much needed updates.

Well the exhaust system was adjusted ages ago and now sits like this within the bumper recess.

Lamin-x'd the front fog lamps:

Colour coded wing mirror caps:

And finally within the last couple of weeks I have had the car re-mapped at AmD

Car achieved about 190bhp (unadapted) which hopefully means the figures will go up a little more once the car has got used to the new set-up. Also I had the large bore downpipe fitted so the Milltek exhaust system is fully complete.

Initially impressions is that i have a new car basically!! Pulls amazingly well and seems so much easier to drive just in general. However the only downside is that the clutch is now slipping, I pretty much knew this was a gamble with the car covering 107k on the original clutch and flywheel.

Apart from that the car is running great and im just enjoying it right now.
Plans for next year if my pockets are deep enough:

Sach uprated clutch and replacement oem flywheel (£1k+)
110k service (first priority @ £200+)
Cambelt and waterpump replacement (£312 supplied and fitted)
Full front end re-spray (£500-600)
Alloy wheel referbisment (£200)
Front and rear anti-roll bar upgrade (£250+)

So an expensive list but this will be well spread out throughout the year hopefully.

Thanks for looking - Liam.

 

[4937Liam]

4937Liam - Leon PD150 (Mapped/LED sidelight bulbs/Headlamp protectors).

January updates:

For some time the sidelight bulbs have not really worked alongside the Osram dipped bulbs ive currently got fitted so after a bit of research and a visit to hids4u.co.uk I picked up a pair of LED sidelight bulbs for £16.99.

Old yellow ones: (not the greatest of pics)

New LED sidelight bulbs:

New LED bulbs at night:

Along side the Osram 5000k dipped beams:

Also new GB number plates accomponied by new plate surrounds:

And finally something i have been after for a while some genuine Seat Leon Mk1 headlight protectors. These were firstly machined via the rotary to cut out some of the deeper scratchs before being refined with some Ultrafina on 3M blue pad.

Pics with them all fitted:

Next up is a full service at 110k - This is my first priority. Clutch is still slipping and getting really quite bad now so can barely enjoy using the map anymore! Just being gental with the car now as I dont want her to go bang!

Hopefully when I can get some proper time off work a full exterior detail will be carried out too. (The car is currently half corrected and half swirlly)

Thanks for reading - Liam.