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

 

[broccoli]

Sound deadened door, boot and under back seats yesterday (work in progress photo below) which was easy enough.. well except I forgot to put one speaker back in before the door card went on the pax side... idiot... but was sorted quick enough and had spare clips. Bought new rear mat for boot to keep it clean too.

Noticed there is a tiny 1cm triangle of plastic on the rear pax outside tail light which has been re-stuck (at bottom of the pointy bit). Hard to see but might look out for a second hand used rear light when I can work out the part number (feel free to let me know..) Put a tiny bit of helicopter tape on it today to ensure if it ever wanted to fall off I still have it.

Front lights are defo bit dirty inside and its a shame really as otherwise car in amazing condition but no doubt new lights would be expensive and bumper needs off etc so wont be doing that.

Only other thing is the VW/SEAT lockring is slightly deformed as theyve used their usual cheese metal and someone has wrecked it. Wanted to swop front and rear tyres around but rears souldnt loose. Went to local garage couldnt remove with breaker bar either (ffs..) so Ive booked it in with them to 'remove by destruction'. Contacted the dealer who hopefully will contribute but more hoping the refurbed alloys dont get damaged. Some idiot in the past way over tightened.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

Well done! How is your experience after deadening the doors?

Also: what is helicopter tape

 

[broccoli]

Havent driven it except to garage to try the wheels.. so only 0.5km and road noise test will have to wait... however I cranked up the SEAT Sound and the base doesnt resonate the driver door at all which is great. I did all three places pretty thoroughly and it took a full day except for an hour swearing at the wheels so it should be better... prob just like a normal Golf haha

Helicopter tape is just clear high quality waterproof tape... same stuff people use to wrap $10,000 mountain bikes

 

[tracktoy]

In my limited experience of Golf's they may have so called better plastic but still suffer with noisy interiors and when the 280 first came out it was £5,000 cheaper than the Golf R and certainly on the track the cars were neck and neck even though the Golf had more power but extra weight.

 

[broccoli]

Oof. Two days lost sorting two over-tightened wheel lock bolts and a damaged lock key.
Local garage removed one with chisels but gave up on the other and were thus reduced to welding a nut on as a next step. Instead drove a 5hr (!) round trip to Glasgow suburbs to a nice bloke with the skills and tools to do it manually - as otherwise there was a risk of further wheel refurb needed after marking by welding (and then dealer drama to recover costs if they were substantial). Living rurally means it’s not easy to sort such stuff when basic approaches don’t work but the drive was worth it. Sorted very quickly and costs were low (and I’m hopefully going to recover those from the dealer given they shouldn’t have let someone torque them that much…). As it happened the weather was off so the views around the city weren’t much but the (very) early morning motorway outside Glasgow was providing tarmac for car folk. Not least a BMW vs Audi 8 drag race and plenty 75 plate speed on show with 2 x M5s, various electric Porsches, Bentley SUVs etc etc. all trotting on by.

The sound deadening seems to have had a positive impact. Still plenty of tyre roar on rough road but on smooth tarmac much better and the sound system has definitely improved. Not high end Volvo/Merc etc quality sound but good enough for me.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

Probably torqued those bolts with the uggadugga

 

[Seriously?]

Also: what is helicopter tape

Also called Leading Edge Tape; used to protect the leading edge of helicopter rotor blades from debris damage.
Very strong. There are many varieties but the genuine 3M product is the best (and most expensive!)