Thai's grey mk1 Cupra R

Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Stuff that happened this week...

I did far too many hours at work including 2 consecutive 18 hour shifts with roughly 4 hours kip inbetween which gave me some bargaining power to get the Friday off to do some car ****.

So straight onto the dreaded master cylinder, seriously horrific job with the engine in situ and all because this flipping O-ring had gone walkies.

Finally I have a constant vacuum to the brake servo and no whoosing on engine shut down.
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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Reassembly of far too many bits and pieces removed to do the master cylinder included new nylon/ stainless braided fuel lines which I made up utilising the original push fittings.
Like a bellend I fitted the wrong colour one onto the wrong hose so the car wouldn't fire up initially but a quick flip over then she was sweet but it meant that they're now miss-coloured and didn't want to risk snapping a fitting as I have no spares at the moment.
Once the S3 cover goes on itll be invisible and won't matter anyway so it can stay like it.
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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Back at it today for more pain and anguish with the clutch and brakes...I f#cking hate bleeding brakes!!
Several hours going round each caliper, the master cylinder and clutch slave cylinder vacuum bleeding and topping up the stupidly positioned reservoir.
No matter what I'm still getting an abundance of air seeping out each bleed nipple and seriously had enough of it.
Even more frustrating was the fact my laptop was giving me grief and refused to run VCDS so I couldn't cycle the ABS which im pretty certain is a big part of my problem here - time to walk away from the dirty stuff and do something more interesting and fancy.

The scuttle area needed addressing and reassembling so fresh butyl rubber strip was laid beneath the engine harness interface cover, fingers crossed its weather proof.
Wiper motor, scuttle drip trays and a new oem pollen filter were fitted.

The scuttle tray itself was given a proper scrubbing then coated in loads of silicone spray and its come up quite nicely.
I also chopped out the manky old white VIN plate viewing window to allow fitment of my new 3D printed plate.
These are designed to clip into place but I went one step further and run a bead if hot glue around the backside edge to really secure it.

A cleaner set of modified VW mk4 Golf aero wiper arms finished this area up a treat.

Next up was to test out the engine cover as I'd previously modified the mounting points and low and behold it doesn't sit quite right so more fettling is required in this department but nothing major.
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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Almost forgot to mention i tried to fit some Peugeot fan spray washer jets that id acquired a few years ago but they were shorter and fatter than the oe piss in the wind jets so would have needed hacking about and still would have left a hole in the scuttle so ditched that idea.

Something else that I'd hoped to have installed was the heated washer system but after much head scratching that has now also been shelved as there's simply nowhere suitable to mount it - gutted

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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Continuing on whilst the work ethics are flowing i thought I'd do some homework last night.

Time to finally unbox the projector headlights I bought about a year ago and tucked away in the loft.

Initial thoughts were that look pretty cool but definitely cheaply put together, with this said even the stock headlights are pretty fragile units.

I'm definitely not a fan of the unnecessary 501 sidelights or additional small upper led sidelights, why you'd want or need both of these as well as the two halo rings is beyond me plus all 3 light units vary in colour so simply look crap.

Out with the tools, let's get butchering...

501 bulb feed cut off and will used to power both halos as sidelights.

LED sidelight feed removed.

All cables pulled back through the lower housing cable entrance points and chopped back and rerouted through the actual headlight as they should have been from the factory.

Standard candle light H1 headlight bulbs removed and test fitted my new HIDS4U Stealth kit with 35w 5000k bulbs for the dipped beam.
On the main beam I've fitted Phillips Diamond Vision 5000k H1 in hope of been a close match to the HIDs.

I'm just awaiting delivery of some heat shrink so ive held off from soldering the newly required connections but at least I know where things are going now.
I'll also need to drill another hole in the rear cover to allow the extra HID ballast cables and grommet to pass through.

I had to poach and transfer the headlight levelling motors and indicator bulb holders from my original oe units.

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bruceR

Active Member
Apr 11, 2005
2,538
616
Monifieth, Dundee
Almost forgot to mention i tried to fit some Peugeot fan spray washer jets that id acquired a few years ago but they were shorter and fatter than the oe piss in the wind jets so would have needed hacking about and still would have left a hole in the scuttle so ditched that idea.

Something else that I'd hoped to have installed was the heated washer system but after much head scratching that has now also been shelved as there's simply nowhere suitable to mount it - gutted

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Mate, I fitted the fan jets from a focus a few years ago. Good fit and great spray


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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Sunday afternoon saw me playing around with the laptop for a while and eventually got VCDS up and running again which meant I could have another bash at the brakes on Monday.

Well Monday came and after several more hours tearing the remnants of my hair out over air in the system I've finally thrown in the towel and admitted defeat.

Some other poor b*stard can do it as I've run out of time, patience and inclination to carry on messing with them.

It's now booked into a local garage for them to bleed the clutch & brakes again, re-gas the air conditioning and get the MOT test done.

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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Just done a little tweak to the Badger5 heatshield after never really being entirely happy with its security and also noticed a slight resonance on high revs.
Fingers crossed this extra mounting point should cure it.
I may also paint the whole thing satin black as well but I'll make a decision after I've made sure it's solid enough.
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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
A bit more frenzied piecing it together whenever I could squeeze it in over the past few days but we now have a complete car...with lights and bumpers and wheels and trims etc.

All headlight wiring finished
heatshield refitted with extra mount point
Arch liners & undertray scrubbed up and fitted.
Front bumper on
Bonnet catch scrubbed and repaired
Inside of wheels cleaned before refit
Brand new genuine number plate light units fitted.

Basically panic set in and the car is going to the garage tomorrow so HAD to be done!

There's still plenty of bits i need to go back to but at least it drives, albeit with barely any brakes so my 2.5 miles tomorrow morning should be interesting and somewhat sketchy.
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Sparkie

Angling Adict.
Sep 25, 2009
2,541
779
Middlesex
Good stuff. Nice to be rolling I bet.
Could I ask? How much were the number plate lights? Need to order one for mine too.


Badger5 Custom Map + TIP,
3”Custom exhaust, FMIC, Bosh 550’s, BC Coilovers, ARB’s +loads more.
 

Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Good stuff. Nice to be rolling I bet.
Could I ask? How much were the number plate lights? Need to order one for mine too.


Badger5 Custom Map + TIP,
3”Custom exhaust, FMIC, Bosh 550’s, BC Coilovers, ARB’s +loads more.
Oh yeah definitely, I took it around the farm yard a few times to check how drivable it was and everything apart from the brakes seemed spot on so far fingers crossed.

As for the number plate lights I know they weren't expensive, maybe £7 or £8 each from TPS but I can't honestly remember now as I've had them so long.
My old ones are quite weathered plus a bulb had gone anyway so made sense to just replace them both with new.

The part number is 5P0943021

I'd hoped to swap over my rear view camera whilst there but simply run out of time, I'll try again tomorrow.

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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Forgot to mention I've also shelfed the Audi S3 battery cover for the time been.
It's simply far too much agro to fit and make it look decent, especially annoying seeing as I really wanted it plus I spent about a year tracking down the correct and undamaged battery box mounting cradle.

It sits way too high on and ive already hacked the cover up to nestle against the existing slam panel trims.

I may revisit this again next year...who knows?

For the time been ive refitted the stock fuse tray holder and battery cover which oddly doesn't fit properly now either as the boost pipe is holding up a fraction which I cant fathom as it's still in its factory location?

Out with the grinder again lol
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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,036
Kent
Big day yesterday and what can I say apart from huge disappointment

I collected the car from the farm early in the morning to drive it the 2.5miles to the garage who were undertaking the work.
This in itself was quite the hair raising experience considering I barely had any brakes so it was basically 15mph max the entire journey.
Fortunately hardly any other cars on the road as it was only 7am and quite rural.

Quick pit stop at my workshop to give it a much needed wash seeing as it's been at least 18 months since it was done.

Dropped it off looking pretty nice if do say so myself. (Lost my photos though as my phone SD card spazzed out ffs!)

Did my day at work and received a phone call to collect the car around 4pm

Here's where it goes downhill...

AC system tested and regassed
Brakes were apparently bled 3 times
They took it for an off site MOT and unsurprisingly it failed.

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In regards of the lack of cat, im not really surprised and thought I'd take a gamble on it but the braking issue has got my stumped.
I replaced virtually every part and whats remaining was all functioning perfectly prior to taking the car off the road.

The garage recommended that I should unbolt both rear calipers, wind them back, refit and pump the pedal up.
Once this was done I should reset the handbrake cable again as neither of the levers were sitting back at their stops oddly so may have been causing the extra travel.

Well I did just that this afternoon and it's barely any different and quite frankly horrible to drive.

I still think there is air in the system tbh and rather annoyed that I'd paid someone to resolve this and I'm no better off.
I guess I'll be ringing the garage again on Monday.

As for the cat, im currently trying to source a 3" Milltek sports cat so it's a straight swap for the decat pipe but it's proving more difficult than I expected so may have have to buy a decent universal one and have that welded in place.
More time and money i don't particularly want to part with this side of Christmas though.

Anyway MOT bits aside... and admittedly ive not been able to drive it properly yet but it feels slow and I have no idea why?
First gear feels really lethargic and it really shouldn't considering the spec.
No engine fault codes, no leaks that I'm aware of so further investigation is needed here but braking is priority at the moment as you can't go fast until you can stop.

Another gripe whilst I'm at it, 1 friggin wash and headlights are full of major condensation and look sh!t.
I suppose I'll be taking those back off as well to reseal them which is piss poor considering they're brand new


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bruceR

Active Member
Apr 11, 2005
2,538
616
Monifieth, Dundee
What about a dummy cat welded over your downpipe??
Oh and not good news on the brakes, hope you get it sorted

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Yellow fr

Gone to new owner so seat less for now
Sep 6, 2018
1,547
1,062
Sandbeds West Yorkshire
Big day yesterday and what can I say apart from huge disappointment

I collected the car from the farm early in the morning to drive it the 2.5miles to the garage who were undertaking the work.
This in itself was quite the hair raising experience considering I barely had any brakes so it was basically 15mph max the entire journey.
Fortunately hardly any other cars on the road as it was only 7am and quite rural.

Quick pit stop at my workshop to give it a much needed wash seeing as it's been at least 18 months since it was done.

Dropped it off looking pretty nice if do say so myself. (Lost my photos though as my phone SD card spazzed out ffs!)

Did my day at work and received a phone call to collect the car around 4pm

Here's where it goes downhill...

AC system tested and regassed
Brakes were apparently bled 3 times
They took it for an off site MOT and unsurprisingly it failed.

036c70032fa2adf28f85cbdbe76c02bc.jpg



In regards of the lack of cat, im not really surprised and thought I'd take a gamble on it but the braking issue has got my stumped.
I replaced virtually every part and whats remaining was all functioning perfectly prior to taking the car off the road.

The garage recommended that I should unbolt both rear calipers, wind them back, refit and pump the pedal up.
Once this was done I should reset the handbrake cable again as neither of the levers were sitting back at their stops oddly so may have been causing the extra travel.

Well I did just that this afternoon and it's barely any different and quite frankly horrible to drive.

I still think there is air in the system tbh and rather annoyed that I'd paid someone to resolve this and I'm no better off.
I guess I'll be ringing the garage again on Monday.

As for the cat, im currently trying to source a 3" Milltek sports cat so it's a straight swap for the decat pipe but it's proving more difficult than I expected so may have have to buy a decent universal one and have that welded in place.
More time and money i don't particularly want to part with this side of Christmas though.

Anyway MOT bits aside... and admittedly ive not been able to drive it properly yet but it feels slow and I have no idea why?
First gear feels really lethargic and it really shouldn't considering the spec.
No engine fault codes, no leaks that I'm aware of so further investigation is needed here but braking is priority at the moment as you can't go fast until you can stop.

Another gripe whilst I'm at it, 1 friggin wash and headlights are full of major condensation and look sh!t.
I suppose I'll be taking those back off as well to reseal them which is piss poor considering they're brand new


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The hand brake cable may be over adjusted back it off and see if the arms sit back on the stops
As for the brakes I would top the fulid level up start at the rear offside open the bleed with a bottle with some fulid and a pipe in it and the other end off the pipe on the bleed nipple and open it then turn the piston back in and see if you get any air out off them repeat for the other rear and then move on to the front with the Brembos start with the outside bleed nipple and push both the pistons back home and then do the inside bleed nipple leave something in the outside to stop them from moving back out and same on the other side front till you see no air coming out off any the calipers re pump the brake pedal back up amd repeat if air was seen if no air was seen is the pedal now better too the fulid level back up


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