1.9 TDI MK3 Ibiza (Arctic Grey)

[DHDavy]

Davy's 1.9 TDI MK3 Ibiza

So the morning after the sale, Basically whilst cleaning the melted glacier mints off the floor. i scouted out Broken/Missing/KIA things.

The list currently includes:


-Missing centre console rubber mat
-Left headlight bulb clip broken
-Pollen filter plastics missing
-Seats are loose and wobble allot
-Seatbelts retract very slowly
-Right mirror adjustor does not work
-Left mirror cap is cracked
-Wipers only work on fast setting and will stop anywhere on the windscreen depending on -when u switch them off.
-Wiper motor is very noisy
-Turbo cuts out power randomly.

New damage for this month is:
-Steering wheel does not come off due to torx bolts spinning inside.
-Trying to fix this in turn broke the horn switch in steering wheel.

Things I’ve fixed/modded

-New centre console mat
-Vinyl wrapped pillars gloss black
-Seat rear mud flaps
-Beam blade rear wiper
-Stumpy drivers mirror
-New left mirror cap
-Ultra bulbs
-Cupra spoiler
-Leon splitter

Plans...
-Cut out lower front bumper & add mesh
-Colour code lower bumper
-Colour code mirrors
-Colour code rear lower bumper
-Paint inside of front lights black
-Nice wheels
-Tow bar for bike
-Lower

 

[DHDavy]

Update:

So I went to a breakers last night, got a new wiper motor, fitted it and its great!
Nice and quiet...yay
The guy also mentioned that the air flow meter is probably what's causing my turbo to fail?

Unfortunately the wipers still only have one setting. Luckily I took the stock and attempted to fit it tonight....To cut a long story short I couldn't get the steering wheel off. I got one torx bolt out.

The others seem to be spinning inside as I was trying to unscrew theM for an age. I then called in the big guns (aka my dad)

This was a bad idea: because when trying to remove the steering wheel we damaged the horn switch, Now the horn is basically constantly on....if you turn the wheel it does go off, Then goes on again.

So the steering wheel is now broken....and i cant even get it off lol

To top it off, the stalk doesn't work as we plugged it in too....

Im going back to the breakers tomorrow and trying what i think is the wiper relay....hopefully this will fix my bloody wipers....at the same time if that's the case it will be quite annoying to think i have destroyed my steering wheel for nothing and now i cant get it off.

Opinions and advice please....

 

[sssstew]

you have a 90tdi, so it wont have the variable vane turbo, so that wont be sticking and causing the turbo issue. Most likely a boost leak somewhere, so you will need to check all the hoses. But if you get VAG COM or VCDS onto it then it can tell you why it goes into limp mode.

And no it wont be the MAF causing the turbo issue, they just generally slowly die and cause a drop in performance, not a sudden turbo issue.

 

[Seatmann]

Hi there DHDavy, you'll have pretty much the same as me except mines an estate, the torx bolts on the steering wheel take about 1-2 turns or something then the centre bit pulls out, they're bloody wierd and took me a bit of figuring out, I just had mine off.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=310183

If you want to take the steering wheel off there's a plug behind the column plastics that you need to disconnect first otherwise the airbag clockspring wiring will be everywhere lol

You can see the little yellow plug on this pic

I doubt it's the maf, my wastegate was stuck shut causing the car to overboost but replaced all the vacuum lines as they're cheap as anyway, just do them one at a time though or it'll end in frustration. It might be worth taking the inlet manifold off too and giving it a clean out as it's probably full of gunk, really helps the higher revs. Here's a good how to

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a4/clean-intake-manifold-VW-TDI-carbon.htm

A set of the nozzles like I've fitted give the car a good kick up the ass too, love them. You'll need a socket and chip if you want a remap because we've got crap ecu's lol.
The seat belts are s**t on mine too.

 

[Oj 89]

Aye up Davy. Good to see you on here You going to do anything with the bump strips? Might look good colour coded... as your doing the bottom anyway

shame you've got so many problems with her. Keep at it, she'll be worth it in the end

 

[DHDavy]

Aye up Davy. Good to see you on here You going to do anything with the bump strips? Might look good colour coded... as your doing the bottom anyway

shame you've got so many problems with her. Keep at it, she'll be worth it in the end

cheers man, yeah its a shame, but for every bad point i could name a good one about the car. i mean i couldnt have got a better base to start on... it was this or a 306 d-turbo lol

So I'm working away at fixing the broken stuff, The wipers are now fixed, I installed am iPod connector on sunday, and have a towbar fitted as of yesterday....some of you may cringe at the sight of a tow bar, but its that or dirty bikes thrown into the boot/back seats, and that's just not going to go down good lol.

and being an older TDI it sounds like a tractor... so realistically a tow bar goes hand in hand lol

Colour coding shall be taking place this Sunday, and i have some wobble bolts on their way so I can fit some nice wheels

any pics of other mk3s with the bump strips done? would be cool to have a look first.

 

[markmeus]

Here's how you can fix the lights on buzzer:

Lights on warning not working. First place to look is the door switch situated on the car body and contacted by the bottom corner of the door well below the latch. Your interior light may be working well but that means nothing. This is a double switch 1 part for light 1 part for the buzzer. Remove the rubber cover that looks a bit like a door stop, then carefully prize out the black round switch, it has 2 plastic spring retainers.
There are 3 wires, center red wire is to buzzer. Release the connector and you can check the switch. I found mine was not switching to the center pin. NOW heres the good bit go to passenger side and take out the switch there, it will only have 2 wires on SEAT HAVE USED THE SAME SWITCH and it has 3 pins check it if you wish but just give that middle pin a quick clean as it has not had a connector on it and swap the switches over pop them back together with the rubber covers and turn the lights on and check for the beep when you open drivers door. KEY NEED TO BE OUT OF IGN.. BINGO BEEP BEEP just like road runner. Job done! I f you have a 4 door 2 more chances of finding a good 2 part switch.

 

[markmeus]

And heres a random sample of Ibiza's with colour coded bump strips that I found:

 

[Oj 89]

@Davy: Good attitude mate. a 306 Diesel would be a bit desperate... Looks like you and mark need a bit of a competition, see who can have their car looking best quickest

@Mark: Ta kindly TBH, I think smoothed bump strips only work on monochromatic cars... On mine, it OBVIOUSLY looks good But thanks for doing the leg work

 

[markmeus]

@Mark: Ta kindly But thanks for doing the leg work

Anything other than revision! Last exam ever! tomorrow morning lol.

And yeah I'm glad to have the competition, takes me forever to get stuff done, but I can't be seen to be lagging now!

 

[DHDavy]

Haha competition you say ? i reckon mark will walk it... i mean the guys minted lol

Onwards and upwards... Some pics of the mess i had to make to get the towbar on:

Some vinyl wrapping i experimented with:

And some wobble bolts arrived today so i fitted one side of my azev wheels to see what i was working with....

They need painted badly and one has a big slice out of it which will need professionally repaired...But nontheless i dropped her a little in photoshop...

I shall be painting them dark grey, so i thought id do a mock up whilst i had the photos in photoshop...

Sorry about the poor quality of pictures.

 

[Oj 89]

Mark, I've been lowering/not lowering my car for the past year and a bit! Beat that

Okay, competition time then. Who can get their car looking how they want it quickest?

DAVY! You got Azevs! They look awesome! Get some better pics up of them, the look very good

 

[DHDavy]

Here's how you can fix the lights on buzzer:

just did it there now!...AND IT WORKS !

great find...thanks bro !

 

[DHDavy]

Update time again,

So I tried to spray the inside of my headlights which went horribly wrong in accordance with my new car modding policy (i say this because I’m the kinda guy who can do DIY jobs to a very high standard 99% of the time) Yet with this car I seem to be making a lot of silly mistakes. lol

Long story short i snapped up a set of cupra headlights on ebay and fired them in, so it’s alll good now
I fitted a stumpy ariel, no problems with that - phew
some led number plate bulbs
a red interior light. Kinda like the inside of a submarine now lol
Got some 20mm spacers and some wobble bolts
Fitted my azev wheels, which fit perfectly. However i had two blow outs in a month so i threw in the rag and i now have the old wheels back on, The azev's should be referbished and painted by this time next week and with new rubber too, no more blow outs YAY !
I painted the bottom of the front and rear bumper, fitted some racing mesh to the front, and attached a LCR splitter.

I had some major rust on the passenger side at the mud flap and on the inside of the drivers door sill, so i buffed down the areas, treated it all

The I blew in some new paint, the colour match and blending is PERFECT, how this did not go wrong i will never know.

Obviously in accordance to the modding policy a major problem had to happen, this came in the form of the passenger mirror, the paint kept reacting, i must have sanded it down and re painted at least ten times. Finally i thought it’s time to start again. So i stripped the paint with Nitromoars, Now at this point some of you are cringing, “is he mad? Nitromoars and plastic ?”

yes ...and it works fine, (in small amounts on the areas I tested anyway) however being very impatient and getting very fed up with the paint job that had spread out over two weeks of every free evening I had, i decided to lash this stuff on, and in turn i came back to what looked like a fetus, yes it turns out that too much Nitromoars will melt your mirror turning it into a total mess.

To be honest i just laughed it off, i should have been more careful and allot more patient, but the worst situations make for the best story’s. And this one always gets a laugh.

Finally i got my new mirror cap, decided to paint this one with rattle can because i couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of the compressor for one mirror. And it turned turned out great, so that was that, and here I am.

I also had her decatted, (thank you daddy, for i cannot weld...yet, heh-heh) there was a hole at the cat so i thought i may get the whole thing cut off, the weight of it too, probably saving a fortune now lol !

The wheels sit out nicely...

Also did the vw wiper arm mod, which looks pretty nice...and I added one of those little exhaust tips, a simple mod, sure its not as fancy as a new exhaust but it does the job for me

and i also wrapped the badge black

oh and i got a cupra spoiler for it from ebay, but that mod was done not too long after i bought it!

 

[DHDavy]

Major problems that i need to sort. The limp mode/turbo problem is very annoying....An interesting and slightly dangerous solution (when driving at night) is to switch off the ignition and then start the car again.

It works like a treat and has pulled me out of some sticky situations, however i need to sort this, i just do not know where to start, as Im not very good with engines and stuff.

Side view....

The other thing is getting the car lowered, im thinking lowering springs will do my job fine, but how much and what make ? Surely apex would be good, i have heard about them being very very firm on mk3's ?

 

[Seatmann]

Eveyone I've read using apex wether it's springs or coilovers says there a hard ride.

 

[DHDavy]

Eveyone I've read using apex wether it's springs or coilovers says there a hard ride.

any piks of your car with the 40mm drop?, im wary about going too low as i live in the country and the roads are rubbish. Plus i enjoy driving down these rubbish roads with a reasonable amount of pace lol

 

[Seatmann]

Not sure how it compares to the Mk3 ibiza for standard height but mine sat way high compared to now.

 

[sssstew]

Major problems that i need to sort. The limp mode/turbo problem is very annoying....An interesting and slightly dangerous solution (when driving at night) is to switch off the ignition and then start the car again.

It works like a treat and has pulled me out of some sticky situations, however i need to sort this, i just do not know where to start, as Im not very good with engines and stuff.

Side view....

The other thing is getting the car lowered, im thinking lowering springs will do my job fine, but how much and what make ? Surely apex would be good, i have heard about them being very very firm on mk3's ?

re the limp mode, get the code read and let us know. Probably a small boost leak somewhere, as it wont be sticky vanes as the turbo on the 90bhp in the mk3 is a fixed vane one.

 

[Seatmann]

re the limp mode, get the code read and let us know. Probably a small boost leak somewhere, as it wont be sticky vanes as the turbo on the 90bhp in the mk3 is a fixed vane one.

Depends what engine it is bud, the 110 has a vnt, the AGR and AHU have a wastegate, the ALH if it's in the Mk3 is a vnt also.