Platinum Grey Leon FR TDI Hybrid - The End!

adz2k9 said:

Im down south, west of London so thats whats putting me off RSTuning at the minute otherwise I would have done it by now, but I'm not too sure how much experience AMD has had of these TD hybrids thats why i was very interested reading yours..

AMD are slightly cheaper too but they don't seem to be getting as impressive figures as Paul up at RSTuning.. its a tough one, it would be interesting to see your in action as I could directly compare it to Turkish 247bhp map, you going to going on the strip at GTI international?

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I wont be taking the car up the strip until I am 100% happy with how she is running in terms of boost pipes. If you come to the London meet I dont mind giving you a ride if you wish.

AmD have experience with hybrids and TD turbos - to my knowledge that have done as many Hybrid conversions as RStuning have. In terms of figures - dont get to hung up on them, its how the car drives on the road. I saying this because I got 230BHP at AmD and 241BHP at another RR 2 weeks later. Which is right? Who knows...what I do know is on the road the car feels very powerful and delivers the power well.

Like I said to many people who have asked me. Firstly choose a company who gives good results and secondly choose a company who can support you all the way. AmD ticked those boxes for me for the past 3 years.

RSTuning is a very well respected company and I have no problems saying if you think you will get both points in the above go for it. Just remember they are very far away.

adz2k9 said:

Fair enough, have you tried the company proalloy? Im going to get them to fabricate some alloy piping on mine too..

Wheres this london meet? Thanks for the offer, its just alot of money to spend and i'd rather get it right first time.. I think the distance factor is a big one to consider I suppose, I go up to leeds quite often to see family but I'd rather not have to travel 3 hours to fix a problem but saying that, With regards to the actual map, what could go wrong with it? I have a really good local mechanic who could sort out any problems with the car should they arise and he has done all the work on my car, but the only thing he can't do is map the car, have you had any problems with the map itself?

Very true on what you say about the figures, at the end of the day i'd like a really linear map that pulls all the way to the redline, not overly fussed on figures, i want the car to be reliable thats the main thing..

Another thing is the level of smoke, yours seems to be quite smokey right? I suppose theres no getting around that with dervs, from what ive read with different members, 220bhp seems to the barrier for zero smoke levels, anything above and the car smokes like a chimney.. I'm not overly worried about this, obviously this is the down side of owning a dirty diesel lol, but id want a map that balanced smoke levels and power ideally..

Would be good to see yours to help make up my mind.. Thanks again for the replies!

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Yea I have heard of ProAlloy and if the SFS route doesnt get sorted soon then I will get my money back and look at alternatives.

Nothing can really go wrong with mapping as such from a respectable tuner. The problem is every car behaves differently due to different modifications and how well the car is maintained. As you will read in my thread I had various problems which was caused by weak silicone piping. When the car was being mapped the mapper was almost trying to map around the problem to get the power, torque and drivability right. Its not really the case of what can go wrong with a map, its more the case how much time and effort is put into the map to get it right. This ultimately leads to how much time you have and the tuning company. If I am honest I probably could leave my car at AmD for another 2-3 days for them to tweak the map further and possible get more power but there isnt much point at the moment till i get the new piping in place.

As for mine smoking - it was smokey when I had the silicone piping as it was causing the ecu to chuck loads more fuel in. Now the OE pipes are on it smokes much much less however you are right - if you want power in a tdi you will get a degree of smoke.

As for the replies, your most welcome

Mr Wookies 11 Hour Detailing Session!
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Had the pleasure of detailing mrwookies lovely silver Leon Cupra R on Saturday. It was a hell of a job but the end result was really worth it. I really enjoyed the detail throughout. Probably best silver car in terms of end result I ever done.

Wookie has done a nice little review before I do my big one (when web hosting issues have been sorted). Take a read

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=214838&page=5

Preview

Wingnut Mod Finished
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The EGR stealth race pipe is now on the car and the antishudder valve is working beautifully. The turbo was blocked off with a Jabba EGR blank of plate so thumbs up to Jabba for providing that for me.

Initial impressions so far: There isnt any noticeable difference in performance however it seems like smoke has calmed down a bit. Will have to wait and see how the car adapts in the coming days. I think the main thing is I can drive and sleep safely knowing no soot will build up in the EGR.

When putting on my intake manifold looks a little bit grubby so that will be taken off and cleaned in the weeks and months ahead. That should also free up a few horses.

Another small change was re-positioned the cold air feed so its pointing more forward direction. Got a nice jubilee clip holding some mesh to stop small children and animals being sucked up. Car feels a tad smoother and you can hear her sucking a little more

UPDATE 16/06/2009: Haven t noticed any performance increases however I have noticed slightly less smoke. I think its one of those modifications that prevents soot build up which is always a good thing!

SFS Alloy FMIC kit, Pancake replacement and Turbo outlet pipe
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In the next 2-3 weeks SFS will be down at AmD working on my car

Anthony has an alloy FMIC (60mm in width) system with reinforced silicon bends going in so should work beautifully. Furthermore he is also putting in there new pancake replacement pipe and turbo outlet pipe which is twice the size of the OEM one. Once these are all on,, the car will then be rolling roaded to see what gains have been had.

SFS and AmD are organizing this between themselves so all I have to do is bring the car there. Massive to Shaun@AmD, Ben@AmD and Anthony from SFS making progress with this.

john_tdi said:

Cool. I'm having probs with my sfs hoses. They expand loads under boost, and leak all over the flipping place.

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They just aren't up to the job full stop. Hopefully this new solution will work and it will be available to all.

Well my set was a manufacturing fault so I am not saying its all the SFS kits as I simply do not know. Best speak to SFS and find out john. Read through my thread (if you haven't already), pretty much said everything I needed to say on the matter in full

Gave the car a good clean today to top of the protection from last months detail.

I used following new products I purchased from AutoFinesse Show and AutoPerfection. Here are my mini reviews

Valet Pro - Bilberry Wheel Cleaner: I have always kept my wheels spotless anyway but having big brakes and using them every now again means I get a thin layer of brake dust fairly quickly. Really really impressed with it. I used a 5:1 dilution ration and spray it everywhere, left it for 2 minutes, agitated and then pressure washed off. Results were really good, i had a gungy area building up round the bleed nipple on the caliper which came out squeezy clean. Megs APC never really nice a good job on it using a 4:1 ration but bilberry cleaned it up nicely.

Lusso Auto bathe Shampoo: Amazing shampoo and really concentrated. You only need 1oz per 1 gallon of water. Foams up real nice and leaves nice trail of suds on the car when washing so you know where you been. So far I wouldn't say its got the same cleaning power as Megs NXT but you don't always need that sort of cleaning power. Problem with Megs NXT shampoo is it does diminish the layers of protection quicker than other shampoo's I used so the Lusso Shampoo is brilliant for maintaining the protection and leaving a glossy finish.

Lusso Glass Polish: Another amazing product by Lusso. Really concentrated glass cleaner, for example, 3 squirts does the whole front windscreen! it cuts through dirt like butter and leaves a streak free finish. Its so good that when i drive the car to take pictures in rear windscreen looks so clean it felt like I was in someone else's car...real strange feeling.

Autoglym Fast Glass Cleaner: Lusso Glass Polish is to be used on special occasions and on my "customers" cars so I purchased AG Fast Glass. It is much better than the my previous favourite glass cleaner from Turtlewax. Cuts through dirt nicely and leaves a good clean finish behind. It isnt as good as the Lusso product however for weekly use its perfect.

Dodo Juice Red Mist: This product was released by Dodo Juice to combat Zaino Z-8 Grand Finale Spray Seal. Dodo advertise this as a quick detailer but its far superior than a quick detailer product. This is definitely a spray sealant which leaves an amazing shine to top off the products you layed before it. Just wipe on and off and you get 3 weeks of protection per layer! I done the car twice over with Red Mist and the wetness was amazing! Shame the grey doesn't show well in pictures when the light is bad.

Dodo Juice Wash Bucks: Big clear buckets that fit grit guards perfectly. You can purchase Dodo stickers to label them rinse and wash respectively. Best thing is they are clear so you can see the rinse bucket getting dirty!

Valet Pro - Protectant: This product really shocked me. It is an "exterior trim protectant, a tyre dressing, an interior plastic dressing and a leather treatment". Boy did it deliver! It blew away Autoglym product I been using previously for exterior trim. Gave a super deep black finish without being too shiney. Brilliant thing is the less you apply the more matt finish you get. I have been struggling to find a decent replacement for my Chemical Guys tyre gel but again this VP product was just as good if not easier to apply as its less sticky. Just have to monitor its durability on the tyre. Bigs thumbs up and its well priced.

Shagpile Drying towel: Real thick drying tile as the name suggest. In fact it feels better than my towels i dry myself with. You can dry the whole car with this towel with no need ring out the water. Best thing is, it so gentle on the paint work you really don't ever get the feeling your causing swirls with it and your probably not.

Here are the results below. The wax I used before Red Mist went on was p21s.

Cheer Matt. Whoever get this car after me will be pretty pleased.

Husbandofstinky said:

Wow, are you already starting to talk yourself into a change Maz?

It's only a matter of time now.

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No no Lee dont get me wrong I absolutely love the car and she is running great at the moment. She wont be going anytime soon.

However I want another car to go along side the Leon. I been looking at 350z's and Boxsters recently...What I may end up doing is giving the Leon to my Mrs and me having the 350z or the other way around. Another option I been considering is getting the new Leon Cupra R if its any good, again try and keep the existing Leon.