Gear Changes & Turbo - Newbie needs help please!

[RS6]

Hi I have just recently bought my leon cupra r thursday evening and have been trying to find in the owners manual what is the best RPM to change gear, im not always hearing the turbo kick in the car is very quiet & im not sure if i am changing gear to early on and missing the boost?

some days it seems to have have lots of power other days im not sure, bare in mind it could be my driving it wrong i change at about 3k

can anyone point in the right direction as to where the turbo is in the engine bay and where boost pipes are so i can check they are not cracked or split

if i was to rev the engine with the bonnet up would i be able to hear it kick in, im just a bit parnoid

thanks all!

im taking it in for a cambelt change in jan as i think its best to get it done as i am the new owner

 

[danny20vt]

Get it round to the red line and hold on tight! The turbos on these are located behind the engine and are fairly small so you dont get much lag, around 3k rpm your driving relatively economical and boost comes in at around 2k rpm (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
If you want to hear the turbo more, take the lining from under the bonnet, remap it, induction kit or drilled and smoothed airbox and silicone hoses all help
As for looking for hose splits just check them all as any can affect performance, I had a split in a vacuum hose and lost around 20bhp which I only found out about by going to a rolling road day.

 

[DJ-LIAMC]

Get it round to the red line and hold on tight! The turbos on these are located behind the engine and are fairly small so you dont get much lag, around 3k rpm your driving relatively economical and boost comes in at around 2k rpm (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
If you want to hear the turbo more, take the lining from under the bonnet, remap it, induction kit or drilled and smoothed airbox and silicone hoses all help
As for looking for hose splits just check them all as any can affect performance, I had a split in a vacuum hose and lost around 20bhp which I only found out about by going to a rolling road day.

He has a cupra r so the turbo is bigger than a cupra and kicks in (on mine) at about 2750 rpm. So if you want to feel the turbo change a bit later than 3k, 6k?

 

[RS6]

thanks all for your replies would there be an error light on the dash if the turbo was not working?

in your leon cupra r is the turbo really noticeable noise wise or is it pretty quiet

are there any pictures of the engine bay with everything labelled i see there is no haynes manual for the car

 

[Shaunyboy]

thanks all for your replies would there be an error light on the dash if the turbo was not working?

in your leon cupra r is the turbo really noticeable noise wise or is it pretty quiet

are there any pictures of the engine bay with everything labelled i see there is no haynes manual for the car

You would know if the turbo was kaput it would have no power and using excessive oil. Turbo usualy comes in arround 2500-2750rpm. Best place to change is just before the redline or you will hit the limiter. You have to get used to a turbo car really as N/A and turbo cars drive alot diffrent.

 

[DJ-LIAMC]

turbo isnt that loud but you can definately hear a spool up between 1.5k and 2.5k then a whistle after 3k up to redline when flooring it

 

[vwbassett]

Sounds like you should have bought the diesel , only kidding. You should definitely notice a more rapid surge of power than from anything below 2500rpm, with the radio off there is a noticeable whoosh/whistle sound as the turbo spools. Bear in mind if you are plodding along at low revs in high gears you are putting more load on the clutch than at higher revs which can be detrimental to the clutch and that will be a big bill along with a dual mass flywheel

 

[RS6]

thanks for the replies people has made me feel alot better

i will try and get some pics up of it, i have waxed it twice over the weekend and hoovered it out as it needed tidying up but the weather has been really bad at the mo,

i've got lots of parts on order, New set of matts, cupra r 225 badges (as i plan to remap it at some point to over 225bhp) new gear knob sporty one from seat, wind deflectors, cupra r seat belt pads, and a new front splitter as my one could do with replacing

in jan with the cambelt im going to get a service done and a green cotton pannel filter, i suppose it would be a good idea to get a turbo guage fitted?

im also going to fit the chunky 225 steering wheel and in time get the wing mirrors as well

 

[AntneeUK]

You've got a 210 too have you? I've just bought the old 210 badges for mine (ie black, rather than red Cupra logo). I was going to put the teardrop mirrors on, the red Cupra logo etc, but then I figured that anyone who would know what to look for to distinguish between a 210 and 225 would also know that a 52-plate would be a 210 anyway, so I didn't bother I'm not ashamed of my 210, with its Recaro front and rear

 

[RS6]

no im not ashamed! yeah its the 210 i just figure in the long term it will be pushing more than 225bhp so i'll get the badges ordered now!

i think you should get a private plate to hide the 52 plate status! no one would know then

is the 52plate the last of the 210's?

 

[andycupra]

as standard the turbo is quiet sedate and smooth, so there isnt a point at which you suddenly get a turbo boost.

If you rev it with bonnet up, you wont build boost up as there is no load onthe engine and the ecu etc knows this.

IMO you dont need to red line it, or get anywhere near that even when you want to get about quickly.
5,500 rpm is plenty.
I find that the cupra R doesnt feel as quick as it is.

 

[AntneeUK]

I think there were some 03 plates, I forget

 

[AntneeUK]

Andy, I took a mate out in mine the other day and asked him to guess how fast we were going. In 3rd in high revs he thought we were going a lot faster than we were, but in 6th at 90mph he thought we were doing 60. I would agree that the LCR can feel slow, but only at low revs. At high revs it generally feels fast IMHO

 

[Gubien]

LCR 210 should have 270nm at 2100 rpm and the 225 should have 280nm at 2200 rpm.

So the turbo should kick in before???

 

[andycupra]

Andy, I took a mate out in mine the other day and asked him to guess how fast we were going. In 3rd in high revs he thought we were going a lot faster than we were, but in 6th at 90mph he thought we were doing 60. I would agree that the LCR can feel slow, but only at low revs. At high revs it generally feels fast IMHO

i didnt make it clear i meant that the LCR doesnt feel that fast or seem to shout about it as much as the cupra does. (so if you drive a cupra, then an R you will think 'i was expecting more of a difference'..)..

How you didnt understand this from my comments i dont know...

 

[AntneeUK]

I understood that you meant that the LCR is faster than it feels, as in you don't realise how fast you're going. I was agreeing that I don't think that the LCR feels very fast when you're at low revs but high speed, whereas I think that mine feels fast at high revs and low speed. That wasn't what you were saying?

Can't compare to an LC as I've never driven one

 

[RS6]

one other thing i was going to ask guys is

is it normal for the fans to kick in all the time i see there are two! it never goes over 90 which i assume is normal

I had a look under the engine cover tonight but the plastic screws snapped great!

anyone else find the clutch really stiff, really bad crawling in traffic lol

 

[DJ-LIAMC]

yea my clutch is stiff but im used to it as all of my cars have had a stiff clutch.

 

[vwbassett]

I find the clutch super soft compared to my previous older cars 306 gti and golf gti's. its hydraulic and they should all really feel quite similar so maybe its a difference of opinion and what youve come from?

 

[DJ-LIAMC]

Yea my previous car was a 306, very stiff clutch