Thai's grey mk1 Cupra R

Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
A little bit of bank holiday spannering took place today.

I'm still awaiting my guy to come round and sort the immobiliser out so still not had the bugger running which is extremely frustrating so turned my attention to the braking.


I started by removing the front brake lines as ive got a complete new set but found myself massively disappointed with them.
They come with rubber grommets instead of the metal locator blocks that can be found on the stock and the Goodridge hoses and quite frankly they're rubbish in comparison.
The strut bracket one fits poorly and doesn't really grip the hose and the body tab one is literally impossible to fit and even if I did manage to force it through the hole it'd never hold the hose securely like the oe metal one which is held in plsce with a metal horseshoe clip.
Afte much cursing I ended up removing it and putting them all back in the packet.

I'm not taking any chances and bodging anything brake related as I wouldn't be surprised if the hose moved out of position after a few full lock turns which would result in a snapped hardline!

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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
Ok, front wheels back on for now and let's have a butcher's at the rear end...

The rear brakes were looking very sorry for themselves especially after sitting outside unused for a few months.
Good job they're all coming off.

Rear beam off, usual disgusting lump of steel but no real issues until the very last bit to remove - the ******* union snapped on the nearside hardline which definitely fueled another bout of extreme audible curses.

I guess I'll need to buy a pipe flaring tool now.
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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
I'm not sure how I'd utilise those clips on the front tabs?
I intend on sending the braided hoses back and buying a different brand anyway.

Does anyone know the size of the brake hardline tubing and fittings on these cars?
Am I right in saying 3/16" copper /nickel tubing and 10x1mm fittings?
 

Scotty_b

Leon Cupra 300R
Jun 3, 2004
6,026
66
Hertfordshire
This shows the functionality, albeit in their old TDI state.



Sorry to drag up an old post, but just read through from the start, but did you try and fit the LCR foils over the black foils? Would love to have this in mine but only if I could keep the same dial face.


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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
Sorry to drag up an old post, but just read through from the start, but did you try and fit the LCR foils over the black foils? Would love to have this in mine but only if I could keep the same dial face.


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Absolutely not, I can't stand the standard clocks plus they're not compatible with the cluster board due to the lay out of the warning lights etc.

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Scotty_b

Leon Cupra 300R
Jun 3, 2004
6,026
66
Hertfordshire
Absolutely not, I can't stand the standard clocks plus they're not compatible with the cluster board due to the lay out of the warning lights etc.

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That’s a fair one, I’ve asked a foils manufacture if they can do the golf foils in the LCR style (personal OEM+ taste).

Looking on eBay I see there’s different full FIS clocks anything I need to make sure I get as I see the Audi A3 versions have the round fuel and temp so may fit better?

Lastly how hard is it to change the mileage to match my car as most are 140k plus? I will have to find a specialist to do the immobiliser but don’t want to have to switch clocks back every time it gets an MOT (plus they will be out).


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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
After being let down the local lad who was supposed to match my clocks and keys to the donor custom remapped ECU I was forced to whip the parts back out and post them back to the northern auto electrician wizard AR Ditta to resprinkle another layer of his magic on my bits!

All plugged back in during my lunch break yesterday and fired up straight away - very happy.

Not so happy bits:

Idle seemed a bit high and slightly unstable, even after the warm up period.
Revs were definitely hanging quite badly especially when giving it quick blips of the throttle.
I've discovered a small coolant leak from a hose above the gearbox.
The end of the hose appears damaged beneath the clamp which im annoyed i hadn't spotted but fortunately I have a spare here so will have to drain my nice fresh pink coolant out again FFS

After an evening of dwelling over the idle issues and poxy hanging revs I nipped back over to the barn for half an hour today to hook up the laptop.

A million flashing dash lights but no engine fault codes as such so a throttle body reset was done.
This immediately brought the idle speed down to a more acceptable pace and I think may have cured the delay and hanging BUT the idle is quite noticeably rougher at the lower RPM so obviously haven't got to the bottom of this problem yet.

On shutting the engine down im pretty sure I can hear a hissing on the drivers side so maybe there's an air leak somewhere down there?

What has literally just dawned on me whilst typing this out though is the fact I still have the same half a tank of unleaded petrol that I stuck in the car when it blew up last August so I can't imagine that's exactly ideal.

I think the next step is drain the tank, replace the fuel filter and refill with some premium fuel.
I'm also going to regap the spark plugs as after checking the other day I may have them a bit wide for the engine spec?

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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
That’s a fair one, I’ve asked a foils manufacture if they can do the golf foils in the LCR style (personal OEM+ taste).

Looking on eBay I see there’s different full FIS clocks anything I need to make sure I get as I see the Audi A3 versions have the round fuel and temp so may fit better?

Lastly how hard is it to change the mileage to match my car as most are 140k plus? I will have to find a specialist to do the immobiliser but don’t want to have to switch clocks back every time it gets an MOT (plus they will be out).


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Apologies, I've only just noticed that I hadn't replied to your questions.

You can't use the A3 cluster foils or boards, they differ considerably due to the warning light lay out and boards have 3 plug sockets instead of the 2 found on the mk1 Leon and mk4 Golf/ Bora.
Only the S3 8L cluster bezel can be used with the mk4 board for a direct fit on the mk1 Leon dashboard which has the round fuel & temp gauges unless you customise the mk4 Golf or Passat bezel to suit which certainly isn't a 5 minute job.

Mileage correction isn't difficult but does require specific software and OBD cables eg. Vagtacho, Vag Commander
As for the immobiliser, you'll just need the cluster recoding to match the ECU which requires VCDS.

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Scotty_b

Leon Cupra 300R
Jun 3, 2004
6,026
66
Hertfordshire
Apologies, I've only just noticed that I hadn't replied to your questions.

You can't use the A3 cluster foils or boards, they differ considerably due to the warning light lay out and boards have 3 plug sockets instead of the 2 found on the mk1 Leon and mk4 Golf/ Bora.
Only the S3 8L cluster bezel can be used with the mk4 board for a direct fit on the mk1 Leon dashboard which has the round fuel & temp gauges unless you customise the mk4 Golf or Passat bezel to suit which certainly isn't a 5 minute job.

Mileage correction isn't difficult but does require specific software and OBD cables eg. Vagtacho, Vag Commander
As for the immobiliser, you'll just need the cluster recoding to match the ECU which requires VCDS.

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Thanks mate, need to find a specialist to code it and swap to the full colour MFA as I’ve sorted the foil (colour) issue as I can get custom white ones made.


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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
All the cluster talk has just reminded me that my custom ones have returned this time with updated firmware and a plethora of additional features I need to play with yet.

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Thai-wronghorse

Self proclaimed Cupra R addict & butcher!
Dec 3, 2015
2,195
1,037
Kent
Not a great deal to report as I'm kind of limited to what work I can carry out at the moment due to TPS not been able to sell me parts until 1st July and the powder coater not been able to take my pile of scabby old bits for at least another week or two.

I had to run over to the barn to grab some sold parts yesterday so thought I'd utilise the visit to have a bit of root around to pinpoint some issues.

Engine fired up instantly but still isn't running quite right didn't want to run it for too long as ive now discovered 2 tiny coolant leaks over the gearbox end and a few droplets of oil on the turbo.

First coolant one is from beneath the clamp onto the main metal coolant pipe that.
A spare was pulled out...damaged in the exact same spot FFS!
Second miniscule leak was found once run up to temperature and pressurised and is coming from the coolant temperature sensor housing and appears to have cracked along the moulding seam.
Another spare was pulled out that looked spot on so carefully picked the old flattened O-ring and the ******* lip snapped off so must have been very brittle, I guess ill be buying another new one of these as well then.
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