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We need to set a date mate as its coming to a year since the car has been corrected.Well done maz, you can use some of them new products on my car soon then
Anything is achievable mate.honest unless something goes wrong its a dead cert before the AMD RR day in september
i going to be working flat out on her to get her looking right so i wont be ashamed to have the bonnet up anymore
and with your help i thinks its achieveable
All hail Dholdi for posting me a ballast. Top guy!
I hadnt noticed this before, glad to of helped out.Nice to have met you at the show and well done on a deserving win.
Thanks and was good to meet you too.
Nice to have met you at the show and well done on a deserving win.
Hi mate,
Thanks for the kind words. Umm to be honest everything is in my thread. Best thing to do is get down to a meet in London or the AmD RR day and I can talk through things with you.
Minor Update
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Car is running beautifully at the moment. I took her out last night for a spirited drive down some twisties. Car felt great however I always get the feeling the front is a little heavy being a deisel and all. Mainly notice it when you go from a long sweeping bend, heavy breaking then accelerate into a tighter corner.
Hearing the positive results from Robdon he has with his VF Engineering droplinks and reading small reviews I am convinced that they will make a nice different to the front. Possible reduce a bit of roll on tight turns and tighten things up. On the flip side they may not make any difference at all and this would mean that I have now exhausted nearly all the options for the handling side - basically maxed out the handling potential of the h&r shocks and springs. The only option left would then be coilovers.
On Saturday popped round to DKs (carbon boy) and he done a nice little tidy up mod for the engine bay. Will put picture up in coming weeks.
This weekend I may be detailing kenny@AmDs 500bhp cossie which should be fun.
In terms of future mods....Nick and Probee have kindly willing to lend there assistance with doing a twin cold air feed. Whilst that may be happening I should be detailing Nicks or Aarons cars, looking forward to that! Before that happens I have ordered some HID H3 Fogs to put in.
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Car is running beautifully at the moment. I took her out last night for a spirited drive down some twisties. Car felt great however I always get the feeling the front is a little heavy being a deisel and all. Mainly notice it when you go from a long sweeping bend, heavy breaking then accelerate into a tighter corner.
Hearing the positive results from Robdon he has with his VF Engineering droplinks and reading small reviews I am convinced that they will make a nice different to the front. Possible reduce a bit of roll on tight turns and tighten things up. On the flip side they may not make any difference at all and this would mean that I have now exhausted nearly all the options for the handling side - basically maxed out the handling potential of the h&r shocks and springs. The only option left would then be coilovers.
On Saturday popped round to DKs (carbon boy) and he done a nice little tidy up mod for the engine bay. Will put picture up in coming weeks.
This weekend I may be detailing kenny@AmDs 500bhp cossie which should be fun.
In terms of future mods....Nick and Probee have kindly willing to lend there assistance with doing a twin cold air feed. Whilst that may be happening I should be detailing Nicks or Aarons cars, looking forward to that! Before that happens I have ordered some HID H3 Fogs to put in.
Worth looking at the front end geometry. How parallel are the track rods to the ground in both neutral and compression situations?
Have you been on a decent laser alignment system? It may be worth checking how its setup against Seats specs.
I know you're not saying its not sticking, just that its heavy, which it is, but if it's possible to tweak the geometry a little, it should help that whilst also maintaining or improving the turn in.
Minor Update #2 - Car performance observations
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Right took my best friend out today in the car (he drove the car) around some twisty roads. He has a modded LCR so he knows what the handling characteristics of a Leon are, obviously he is aware it is a diesel, diff etc....
Things he noticed were that the nose is a little nose divey when pushy the car. He didn't think it was as much of a problem as what i thought but agreed with me that the drop links may help the issue. He also mentioned that he noticed the rear end getting quite light under heavy breaking on some challenging A roads. Wondering what peoples thoughts are on this? Will getting the LCR vented setup on the rear help? Maybe just better rear pads? My friend suggested possible altering the break bias?
He loved the performance however we were both in agreement that the smoke (certainly not as bad as a lot of other modded diesels I have seen) is a bit much low down. I might take it in a get the mapped tweaked a little. Kenny@AmD suggested trimming 5% less fuel on the lower end of the revs but leaving the same fueling at the higher end. This may ultimately mean less power but so what if I lose 5bhp? Of course I can keep the map and trial the other map.
Todays drive reinforced the fact that the falken 452s need changing for more stickier tyres. Although the grip was there it has been harder to tell when they are going to give. What I have noticed is past 50% the falkens do loose traction more...
This all leads me to think that if the above cant be resolved then coilovers may be the only option. The biggest problem I have is the car is driving lovely, not crashy over bumps but still quite sporty and stiff. I don't want to ruin that.
Do you think that I just reached the limit of what shocks and springs can achieve on my current setup? Just too much power now?
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Right took my best friend out today in the car (he drove the car) around some twisty roads. He has a modded LCR so he knows what the handling characteristics of a Leon are, obviously he is aware it is a diesel, diff etc....
Things he noticed were that the nose is a little nose divey when pushy the car. He didn't think it was as much of a problem as what i thought but agreed with me that the drop links may help the issue. He also mentioned that he noticed the rear end getting quite light under heavy breaking on some challenging A roads. Wondering what peoples thoughts are on this? Will getting the LCR vented setup on the rear help? Maybe just better rear pads? My friend suggested possible altering the break bias?
He loved the performance however we were both in agreement that the smoke (certainly not as bad as a lot of other modded diesels I have seen) is a bit much low down. I might take it in a get the mapped tweaked a little. Kenny@AmD suggested trimming 5% less fuel on the lower end of the revs but leaving the same fueling at the higher end. This may ultimately mean less power but so what if I lose 5bhp? Of course I can keep the map and trial the other map.
Todays drive reinforced the fact that the falken 452s need changing for more stickier tyres. Although the grip was there it has been harder to tell when they are going to give. What I have noticed is past 50% the falkens do loose traction more...
This all leads me to think that if the above cant be resolved then coilovers may be the only option. The biggest problem I have is the car is driving lovely, not crashy over bumps but still quite sporty and stiff. I don't want to ruin that.
No problem.Look forward to reading the review on the twin cold air feed, make sure you get loads of pics as im thinking about this too
Good points and thanks for the info. Alignment was last done when I got all the bushes changed and the factored in camber with the superflex bushes I got. They have a new machine now so may be worth getting it checked.
Do you think that I just reached the limit of what shocks and springs can achieve on my current setup? Just too much power now?
With regards to weight, have you relocated your battery to the boot? There's a good 5-10kg there which you can stick to the rear of the car, I don't know if you've already done this though.
If you can find somebody with access to a proper set of corner weight scales then all the better, stick it on the side which needs the weight the most.
I don't know what brakes you're running at the front, and it won't be that cheap to change, but putting on a set of proper "rotors" with alloy bells will also help remove some unsprung mass from the front end. 312/323/330's are heavy buggers if solid steel, much less if rotor/bells. I'm sure Martin @ Reyland or Bill @ Badger5 can supply/advise.
I can't see an uprated droplink kit doing a lot, unless it somehow preloads the arb. If anybody makes a stiffer arb that would be worth considering. Or get a new standard one and get powder coated, the baking for the powercoat will stiffen it up some. Compared to a used one it'll be quite a bit stiffer.
A front upper strut brace is also worthwhile, if a lower one can be fabricated too (unless somebody makes one already) that would help ensure the geometry stays as intended.
If you decide to go for coil overs, fit some eccentric top mounts too, then you can properly setup the front end, although I don't think you'll find a lot of gain here, certainly not on the road.
For dry tyre performance I've found Kumho KU31's to be unbeatable on my Ibiza (same front end weight issue) and had a similar issue with the back end going light (onto 3 wheels going into a roundabout) although totally predictable. All you can do really is stiffen up the front suspension so it dives less, increasing the braking power at the rear will just lock them up as they go light, so thats a bad idea.
KU31's are good in the wet too, and for around £50 a corner you can afford to stick a set on to see how they perform on the heavier Leon, but I'd be suprised if you didn't like them. If you don't then you can sell them on without losing too much.
If you can find somebody with access to a proper set of corner weight scales then all the better, stick it on the side which needs the weight the most.
I don't know what brakes you're running at the front, and it won't be that cheap to change, but putting on a set of proper "rotors" with alloy bells will also help remove some unsprung mass from the front end. 312/323/330's are heavy buggers if solid steel, much less if rotor/bells. I'm sure Martin @ Reyland or Bill @ Badger5 can supply/advise.
I can't see an uprated droplink kit doing a lot, unless it somehow preloads the arb. If anybody makes a stiffer arb that would be worth considering. Or get a new standard one and get powder coated, the baking for the powercoat will stiffen it up some. Compared to a used one it'll be quite a bit stiffer.
A front upper strut brace is also worthwhile, if a lower one can be fabricated too (unless somebody makes one already) that would help ensure the geometry stays as intended.
If you decide to go for coil overs, fit some eccentric top mounts too, then you can properly setup the front end, although I don't think you'll find a lot of gain here, certainly not on the road.
For dry tyre performance I've found Kumho KU31's to be unbeatable on my Ibiza (same front end weight issue) and had a similar issue with the back end going light (onto 3 wheels going into a roundabout) although totally predictable. All you can do really is stiffen up the front suspension so it dives less, increasing the braking power at the rear will just lock them up as they go light, so thats a bad idea.
KU31's are good in the wet too, and for around £50 a corner you can afford to stick a set on to see how they perform on the heavier Leon, but I'd be suprised if you didn't like them. If you don't then you can sell them on without losing too much.
Only problem i can see is front spring weights, if the car is diving a lot under braking then it's going to feel heavier - combination of coilovers and stiffer topmounts helped mine but it still wasn't as precise as an LCR - fairly sure they have different subframes and a slightly different front geometry setup. If i'd kept the Leon, i was going to look into replacing the front subframe with an LCR one and then getting LCR coilovers.
It is an option but then why spend money on different subframes - might aswell get coilovers? I think trying the top mounts and drop links maybe the solution. Problem is few have done this on the deisels if any? So hard to gauge what results I will get.
Battery Relocation - Not really considered relocating the battery. I have a full LCR spare wheel so I wouldnt want to get rid of that to put the battery in the boot. I would want to hide it nicely if I was to do that.
As for brakes, I have ATE 4 Pot break setup which come with rotars (326x30mm) so I am saving weight through those.
I have done the upper strut brace, lower strut brace and a rear strut brace aswell. I also have Eibach anti roll bars that are 25mm thick.
I have consider the 034 topmounts as they got positive reviews from Pat. Looks like I will have to purchase these which makes sense if I was to get everything realligned. Would be an idea also to do the drop links at the same time.
As for tyres - I feel like going for the Toyo's. Not many bad reviews if any about them and seems the safer bet for the moment.
No you misunderstand, the LCR subframe has a different geometry to the LC one - that's why it has different droplinks, different struts etc. Think the lower arms may also be slightly different too althoiugh IIRC the physical subframe is a direct swap.
If you've driven a well sorted LCR there's a marked difference in steering feel especially under load on corners.
I think that marked difference is due to the steering rack, as when i had my steering rack replaced due its failure, i was asked by my mechanic if i wanted the LCR steering rack instead as he said that it was short and different geomentry but a straight fit if I wanted it
Pat/Slick
So are we saying then that this heavyness I am having can be resolved by
1) Topmounts and Drop Links
or
2) LCR Subframe and steering rack?
Logic suggest it should be solved my topmounts rather than droplinks? In terms of getting the geometry checked out - worth doing this once topmounts are in?
If your topmounts are worn ( which they probably are) then they need replacing, tbh even standard LCR ones will be better than what's currently in there and yes, you'd need your geometry checking once you have new ones fitted.
Heavyness is due to the weight of the engine lump, there isnt much you can do about it really, except trying to minimise the movement of the engine as much as possible, therefore keeping the weight balanced, and not transferring the weight constantly over the chassis via, braking, accelation and cornering.
But as you know Maz, the moment you start on the track, your be vibrating all the way down the road like me... lol
Topmounts, droplinks can all go towards the cause of perfecting the handling.
The steering rack i wouldnt really change to, as what Lloyd said to me, the TDI one is made for that engine weight, the LCR one isnt, and cant really tell if the engine weight would shorten the life of the steering rack.
As i still blame the engine and Diff to the failure of the steering rack, even thou the accident did speed that process i think ultimately the steering rack didnt like the counter steering the diff would force onto it on round abouts and corners etc, alot of the time fighting "against" the diff, means more stress on the steering rack holding the car in the line i want and not the diff...
Food for thought thou, not always right... lol
But as you know Maz, the moment you start on the track, your be vibrating all the way down the road like me... lol
Topmounts, droplinks can all go towards the cause of perfecting the handling.
The steering rack i wouldnt really change to, as what Lloyd said to me, the TDI one is made for that engine weight, the LCR one isnt, and cant really tell if the engine weight would shorten the life of the steering rack.
As i still blame the engine and Diff to the failure of the steering rack, even thou the accident did speed that process i think ultimately the steering rack didnt like the counter steering the diff would force onto it on round abouts and corners etc, alot of the time fighting "against" the diff, means more stress on the steering rack holding the car in the line i want and not the diff...
Food for thought thou, not always right... lol
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