8bit's Mk1 Leon Cupra R. Scarlett - as in Johansson...

[Ibiza125]

Cheers bud, is that easy to do as in a halfwit without a spanner licence like me could do it? Does it involve getting the engine bay and my trainers covered in spilled petrol?

haha No you won't spill much fuel. Unless of course you turn it over with the injectors out!!

Honestly I think it is 2 allen key bolts and then give the fuel rail a tug and out come all the injectors. I think you can replace the seats that the injectors sit in too.

Infact I have some injectors seals sitting in my garage if I remember correctly!

 

[8bit]

Had a search for injector seals here, think I can probably manage to do that Will give that a go before the car goes into the garage then. Question is, do you reckon that would be leaking enough to be causing my lean running issue?

 

[Ibiza125]

Had a search for injector seals here, think I can probably manage to do that Will give that a go before the car goes into the garage then. Question is, do you reckon that would be leaking enough to be causing my lean running issue?

Not sure, to be honest I wouldn't think so. Can't hurt to try it first though.

Not sure if it has been mentioned but it may be your lambda sensors.

 

[8bit]

Hmm, I wouldn't have thought so either, unless it's more that at higher RPM the broken seals or seats are letting air in, causing lean running that way, rather than letting a significant amount of fuel out? Either way it needs sorting so will get on on the case on that one.

First time Allen logged/scanned the car for me it showed up a couple of lambda sensor codes, one of which had brought the engine management light on. Cleared the fault codes at the time and neither have come back since, but I'm not sure how those work, so maybe it could still be lambdas, I guess. Will see what's up next time I get it scanned.

Looks like the seats are a bit trickier than the seals, they involve some special tool to remove so think that'll be one for the garage. That way if they drop some bit of plastic into one of my cylinders it's their responsibility rather than mine

 

[8bit]

On a slightly happier note today... Happy Birthday Scarlett

 

[Ibiza125]

God damn it. I thought when I opened the thread from my email that it would be a sexy picture of herself...

 

[8bit]

Nooo, her birthday isn't til Nov. 22nd But I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone so...

 

[Ibiza125]

 

[8bit]

Well just got her back from the garage, had:

New gearbox oil
New brake fluid
New fuel filter
New spark plugs
Replaced injector seals
Visual inspection of turbo and intake/outlet hoses

Brakes feel more solid and responsive. Idle has smoothed out a bit, less transmission whine on coast down in 1st and 2nd too. One other thing I noticed, there's a particular hill I go over on my drive home from work. The speed limit is 40 there and usually the car struggles to do it in 5th there but tonight on the way back it managed no bother so there's either more power from the engine or less resistance from the transmission, or a combination of both.

A good service seems to have helped, hopefully be able to get it logged again soon and see if the lean running condition problem has gone or not...

 

[Willie]

Great new Niall
Happy car again

 

[8bit]

Well it certainly feels a bit refreshed for the service stuff, keeping my fingers crossed that some combination of the injector seals, plugs and fuel filter have fixed my fuelling but not counting any chickens yet Want to get that sorted, then have a month or two not having to spend any money on the car besides fuel, then I'll progress with my modding plans.

Next on the list will be to acquire a rear ARB to go with the mk4 R32 front ARB in my loft and another pair of 15mm hubcentric spacers to go with the ones I already have, also gathering dust in the loft...

 

[Willie]

Yup, good idea to hang back a bit.
Then you can buy some stuff in the January sales and drive the prices down

 

[8bit]

Just a wee update:

Have a clean manifold again Pic was taken last week after I got the car back from the garage but I checked the other day and it looked the same so at least I'm not leaking fuel all over the (potentially quite hot) intake mani.

Guess I've got a car that needed a bit of TLC that it didn't get from the previous owner. The last registered keeper on the V5C was a lad from Buckie, if anyone knows someone up there that used to own a red mk1 LCR until Feb this year at the latest let me know.

Made a tiny modding purchase this month too:

Some 15mm hubcentrics. These are the ebay ones from "justwheelsuk", DannyC87 recommended them. I have another, second hand pair I bought off here a while back but wanted to wait to get another pair before fitting them.

I'm not 100% on them yet, some say they're just for looks but some swear they reduce bodyroll. I have an R32 front ARB still in my loft which I know will help a lot more than spacers but again I want to wait til I've got a rear ARB (probably a Whiteline, £100 cheaper than Eibach etc.) to put on as well as I don't want to upset the balance of the chassis. End of the day, they were about £80 in total and if I don't like em I'll be able to move them on no bother. If I do like them then I may get them powdercoated the same colour as the wheels, but that's just my OCD talking

Hopefully I'll get these spacers fitted tomorrow, so long as (a) it stays dry long enough, (b) I can find a flat bit of ground to jack the car up on (my street is on a fair slope) and (c) I get through the list of errands the g/f left me with while she's swanned off to Glasgow on a girls weekend...

 

[GlanzaV]

Hi mate! Wondering if you've had a chance to re-log your car to see if the injector seals made a difference to your AFR? Got a similar problem after I dyno'd my standard un-mapped LCR. 1st run I was hitting AFR's ~13.7 second run ~13.9.

I need to do some logs but I'll need to dig my vagcomm out a box in the loft first!

 

[8bit]

Howdy, no not had a chance yet, myself and the guy who kindly does VAGCOM stuff for me (Al) have both been too busy lately but hopefully will get it done soon. Are your injectors/seals leaking at all?

I'm not 100% convinced this will have fixed it but changing plugs and fuel filters were due anyway and the seals needed replaced so started with these cheaper possibilities first then going to try more expensive things like FPR, fuel pump, lambdas later, altho I'd have thought all of these would throw fault codes if there was an issue and I haven't had any really for ages.

 

[8bit]

New shiny bit...

Seems to keep engine bay heat away from the filter altho i know it's debatable whether this affects intake air temps or not, but it looks better than having the cone just hanging around and keeps it in place, which is a good thing since vibrations etc. kill MAFs.

I'm a sucker for water beading and thought it looked nice, day after washing it last...

Car's going to have to go back to the garage again soon, seems to be losing oil - lost about 1/2 a litre in 3 weeks. Appears to be coming from the passenger side of the engine, possibly rocker cover gasket. Just what I need, more garage bills

 

[8bit]

Hi mate! Wondering if you've had a chance to re-log your car to see if the injector seals made a difference to your AFR? Got a similar problem after I dyno'd my standard un-mapped LCR. 1st run I was hitting AFR's ~13.7 second run ~13.9.

I need to do some logs but I'll need to dig my vagcomm out a box in the loft first!

GlanzaV, not sure if you're still subscribed to this thread, I got some news from Bill on this "issue" - he reckons the OEM map doesn't richen up at higher revs, this is a technique employed on aftermarket remaps. See here - http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=285129&page=7

Obviously that's at odds to what you and I have been told before but to be honest I'd be more inclined to accept Bills view on this over the chap that told me it was running lean - the guy in question, while a respected and well-known tuner around these parts, isn't a VAG specialist whereas Bill is.

Still haven't had a chance to log it again since fixing the injector seals amongst other things but I will post back here. Feel a bit happier now I know I don't actually have a fuelling issue after all. Now, to choose a remap...

 

[8bit]

Back in the garage again Gearbox covered in oil, seems to be coming from right-hand side of the engine, think it's the semi-circle shaped bit and the camshaft position sensor (black tube with white plug near the front passenger side of the block). Also bad throttle response, probably just needs TB cleaned and reset but thought they may as well do it while it's there.

This thread is becoming a catalog of common faults with Leons...

 

[Willie]

Mine has been leaking like this for this for 3 years.

 

[8bit]

Mine has been leaking like this for this for 3 years.

Mine was losing about 1/2 a litre of oil every 2 weeks, the top of the gearbox was absolutely swimming in the stuff! How often do you have to top it up?