Late to the party: new to me Seat Cupra 280

[broccoli]

Hello all. Hope youre well
More than a decade late, but I picked up this for the school run.
Completely stock, lower mileage with 100% full SEAT dealer maintenance with water pump done. Has most of the upgrades one could buy from factory. Wheels were refurb'd just before collection. To be honest I've joined the forum to get some tips for when (not if) it goes wrong as I'm no mechanic but would prefer to do simple things myself so thanks in advance. I've been checking out the refresh work some have done and the mods etc already. I'm going to keep this original (except for boot/backseat/front door sound proofing) so no tuning etc. I suppose it will be an unmolested/un-improved (depending on your point of view) unicorn before too long as dont see that many advertised in factory form these days with a full SEAT history.
Guess I better buy an OBD11 or similar and strap in though...bound to break sometime or another.
Have a nice weekend.

 

[Rob66]

That's a beauty congratulations. I'm on the look out for something similar but most decent ones seem to have disappeared.

 

[broccoli]

Yes I was lucky but it took a long time to find something half decent and relatively cheap. I have had a search on Autotrader for a 'manufacturer approved, over 250hp, hatchback or saloon, under 60k miles' and left the search as 'by lowest price' for a good while. Wasnt much popping up at the cheap end of that market but this came up. I wasnt wedded to a SEAT but it seemed okay. Was a very long journey to get it including an overnight stay. In reality of course their 'approved one year warranty' prob isnt worth the paper its written on, as being over 10 years old it's not a SEAT scheme but a SEAT 3rd party add on. Bit of sly advertising I guess but expected as it was the same on an 9 year old approved used Audi S3 I enquired on a couple of months ago. I passed on the Audi back then as although Id prefer 4wd I wanted something completely and utterly plain/anonymous and Audi of course wanted 50%+ more money which seemed a bit much as the car wont get a lot of use. Anyway ... we'll see how it goes. It drove well getting home although the spare wheel well and doors will benefit from silent coat and foam. I actually got 40mpg on it driving at 70mph in the shocking rain for 4.5 hours according to the dash which was nice to see. My phone plays spotify through the bluetooth so thats okay. Seat sound is okay, but insulation should make it a bit better....

 

[tracktoy]

Welcome to the 280 club they are in my biased opinion the best of the range. 40 mph is normal on motorway drive and the front diff is a joy. I have had mine for 11 years and will never sell it

 

[broccoli]

Welcome to the 280 club they are in my biased opinion the best of the range. 40 mph is normal on motorway drive and the front diff is a joy. I have had mine for 11 years and will never sell it

thanks. all well so far. like it
Ive put in individual mode when tootling around with the engine in the relaxed position but steering in 'cupra' to make it a bit of a tighter feel, Normal seems bit soft, but I have no prior experience of this car/its clones and nothing recent to compare it too (except a mini countryman I also tried out which was precise without DCC).

 

[tracktoy]

I would suggest one mod, get yourself a stop start memoty module, they remember last setting so you can have stop start on or off

 

[broccoli]

Not had any issue with it so far with the DSG. Seems to work fine on the roads by me. Looks like there is a disable start/stop on the dash - but haven’t had occasion to use that as yet.

 

[tracktoy]

Yes there is a button but it resets every time you turn off ignition. If your happy with setup nothing to do

 

[nd-photo.nl]

@broccoli Congratz! I have a ST 280 in Dynamic Grey. Check out my RR, as I also have maintenance stuff documented, next to my modifications (which you can skip ).

Disable the start-stop indeed, unneccesary strain on components and the car will be happier without. Also check if the DSG oil & diff oil have been done and you are set

 

[broccoli]

Thanks. Seen some of your info. Very helpful. Yes both done but will need doing again next service I think. Just had new front brakes so that’s good too. Nederland? Lived in Hague for 10 years when I was younger. Had no car there though…lots of great trains and a plastic death rocket mbike were enough.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

Haha yes, but I live more in the south of the Netherlands

 

[broccoli]

Ah right… not far though really haha . I used to head out to Germany pretty often and it never took long on the bike to leave NL.

Just a quick question if I may. Any links or on threads on here re: misting of these mk3 headlights? I’ve searched and can’t find anything conclusive but seems not uncommon?. It’s not bad but equally never happens on our family car. Weather wet around here pretty often and it’s also been cold. When filling up with fuel today there was a bit of headlight fog (bottom 2-3cm of the lights) and I wondered if there was a well known fix? Thanks.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

At this moment I also have some headlight fog (at the bottom of the units), usually when I have driven quite some distance