LCR Build Thread (Kennard)

[Ash-Kennard]

Hello All,

This is a thread for me to record progress of my car build, comments welcome. Some posts have come straight from another forum. Soz

My first car was this:





Managed to limp it over:



Having driven it for 6 years, and treated like ****, it was feeling quite tired and was going to cost me more money than I wanted to spend on it. So last October I fancied a change. So jumped from >60bhp to a 225bhp LCR225.

The advert:



The car as I got it:






The car is planned to go to stage 2 and has been before apparently.

The intention is for this to be a long term fast road car until I can get a company car, then it will be converted into a road legal track car/toy. So my choice in upgrades reflects this plan, even if it is my daily driver for 300 miles a week. Fortunately, my route is very much back road based, through 60's and over the Southdowns at an early enough time for there to be no traffic. Fun.

The car came with Weitec Hicon GT Coilovers, Front wishbone poly bushes, (I think) a Cobra Cat back, induction kit, 80mm cone with heat shield, FMIC, non std lights front and rear, rARB and tinted rear windows.

Things that need sorting:

Suspension has been decked by the previous owner and the adjustment is seized,
Rear Cat back is bent and dented to **** because the car is so low the exhaust is below curb height,
There is a knock in the steering at low speed large angle turns,
Missing bits of exterior trim, jacking and towing eye cover, handle for glove box,
The LCR splitter is missing

The reason I ended up with the LCR is practicality, power and price.

The 350 and 370z's I couldn't get a bike in because of the bullshit strut brace built in. The Evo's would still probably be better, but hard to live with and mega on insurance. Scoobie just doesn't look right and the handling benefits of the 4WD system don't seem to outweigh the cons of poorer fuel economy. The S3 only sends power to the rear wheels when it is needed so for me the extra weight of having it doesn't see a benefit. which only really left the Leons, Golf's and A3's that could hold a bike, be practical, okay on fuel and insurance and handle the power well. Out of those, the LCR is the best equipped and IMO the best looking from Std. I did look into the TT's as well, but could never decide if I wanted to try to squeeze a bike in and out of it every week.

There is no denying that the S3 can probably pull off the line faster at the same BHP and torque as the LCR's, and has potential to corner better, but in reality that isn't going to happen. Good tyres, good suspension set up, good weight distribution, torsional rigidity, big brakes, power and eventually aero is what everyone will need to make faster cars. I am also pretty certain the LCR's have a better aero profile than the S3's and I intend to prove it one day.

Cheers, Ash.

 

[Ash-Kennard]

First Wash

Got the car washed and got some excited pictures. Realised that I don't have a spare key, so I have to leave the window open if I shut the door with the keys inside or I will surely be locked out.

Work to be done soon:

Front Brace,
New exhaust (advice required)
Fix the drive side sill due to broken clip
Get new covers for sills and towing eyes
Fix Glove box handle.
New S2000 filter is waiting for me at GSF
Hook up to VAGCOM to see what errors we have and see if it has had a map.
Front splitter when the suspension is sorted.
Set up Coilovers properly so it doesn't drive like a sack.

Probably also going to get a spare set of wheels, with slicks and wets to switch between.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

(Jan 2015) So after hitting a pothole finally got a quote for a new wheel. £650





Also been buying the random bits of trim which have disappeared over the years. £100 worth! Need to get a new glovebox handle too whilst i'm at it. then the car will be looking basically standard again.

s3 front anti roll bar is probably my next investment found them on egay for 30-50 so not too bad.

Plan after that is a new stainless manifold, sports cat and rear end so I can get a fresh remap up to a more suitable BHP.

Got myself a cheap diagnostics kit and found a couple of fault codes, erased them and hoping they don't return, I think it was the cold and bumpy route to work that sparked them.

Put 4k though the car since owning it already fuel economy isn't so bad, thank goodness for the low fuel prices at the moment though. I am still thoroughly enjoying it and intend to keep for some time to come.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

(Feb 2015)

Hello All, Went to Mr.Prawns house today and we got lots done with his awesome pit! I had the distinct honour of using the pit for work before any other car, Good stuff.



Picked up a load of bits from the dealer before my trip over including the front splitter, new esp button, towing eye and jacking covers.

Headed over to Nicks as I have an oil level sensor problem where the oil level is fine but the light turns on occasionally.

Jumped in the car with Nick and headed off to Halfords to buy some paint for the Leon's jacking and towing eye covers. Got inside, they only had red or blue for Seat. Headed to the back to have some mixed up. We looked at the code in the boot for the colour we needed L041 (Ebony Black). The girl looks on the system and is stunned to see that it is not a mix of colour, just black. Turns out they aren't supposed to mix up just black and in the 3 years she had been on the mixing section she had never had to. You would think this would be quick. Turns out it would take her half an hour to clean the machine from green paint to black. Irritating waste of time on a day that light disappears at 5. Picked up some lacquer and off we went.

Headed back to Nicks and got the car over the pit

Got under the car for the first time and could see some oil on the sump and some on the piping near by. Piping was cleaned and tightened as the jubilee clip was quite loose (hopefully some more boost please) Sump had a surprising amount of oil on the bottom, but most concerning was all the gouges in it from where the car has been lowered so much it had scrapped. Cleaned all this up and will see in a month or so if the oil returns.

Whilst we were down there we thought we would have a crack at repositioning my exhaust back box as it was severely bent where the previous owner had lowered the car so much that he managed to reverse and hit the exhaust on curbs. Bending the box downward and forwards by about 5 inches in each direction! We jack the back box upwards and positioned a scissor jack between the rear anti roll bar and the back of the back box. We then marked up in some areas with a Sharpie for reference positioning points. Gradually increasing the extension of the jacks we managed to find a 3 inches worth of movement backwards. We then noticed how loose the back box exhaust clamps were, rotating the back box by hand! Rotated it around and managed to get the exhaust pretty much back into its housing, the rubbers to the exhaust mounts are okay past the back box but the one at the very rear is still too far forward, but looks a hell of a lot better. Tightened everything up and reviewed results from above. Approval granted.






and one of prawn enjoying the action:



We then decided to fix the root cause of the problem and raise the coil overs. Nick was very shocked with the suspension in general. He pointed out that they we not cheap coilies, these were Weitec Hicon GT coilies with polyurethane bushing throughout.

The back was sat at 620mm floor to arch on the right and 630mm on the left. Gradually managed to raise them to 650mm. Sorted. Looked better and completely healed my knocking problem.

Then was the turn of the front. Was sat approx 630mm on the right and 640mm on the left, aiming to move to 650mm all round. Jacked the car up, took the wheel off, went to adjust and turns out the adjuster is made of plastic and the threads completely caked in ****. This meant the bugger wouldn't turn, the plastic kept snapping. Soaked in WD40 and went for lunch, came back, still no movement. Decided we would release the spring tension by removing the bolts at the strut. Effort! Managed to get those bolts off eventually (Super tight), so off they came but still no movement. We jumped into Nick's fiesta/rocket car and went back to Halfords to buy one of these:

Unfortunately, this didn't do the trick either, not only did the tool bend to **** but chewed the tabs up royally.

We decided to give up, order some aluminium adjusters and attack this another day as it was about 4pm.

Put everything back together, eventually, with final seating at 650mm rear and 640mm front as we had managed to budge the coilover on the threads slightly, but not enough to meet the target, fortunately we had managed to set the suspension up evenly from left to right.

Jumped back under the car to check out the sensor issue as we had kind of forgotten about it! Unclipped the sensor and gave it a good WD40 dousing, refit and left it. Hopefully this fixes the problem, but might not as it looks like it had seen a knock. If the problem persists we will change the sensor and refill the engine with oil.

Then we went out for a test drive. It felt like a different car. Had grip in corners, low and high speed, and the ride was significantly improved. We expect the handling to improve further if we can raise that front end 10 more mm.

Got back, switched out my broken ESP button for a new one. This is a job I was dreading as I hate electrical stuff. Turns out pliers and 30 seconds is all that is required. Pull out, unclip, throw away, clip the new one in and press it into place.

Then we had a crack at fixing my rear brake light where if the brakes were engaged, the side light would turn off. and no light on one side was present. Turns out it was a dodgy bulb (again), had the car 4 months now and this is it's third brake bulb replacement. There must be a root cause, but as light was not on our side we decided to call it a day. Nick also noticed that the lights were not standard at the front or rear with angel eyes at the front and random at the rear.

Said goodbye to Nick and Tori, and went home to the girl friend.

The car feels significantly better.

In other news, I am off to Wales tomorrow to pick up 5 LCR 18" rims (Bright Red ), a new glove box handle, matts and a modified Audi TT front strut brace.

Car is finally starting to get there. Needs a thorough clean, trim covers spraying and will be presentable and ready for some decent photos. We also relocated my handbrake cable as it was rubbing the rear wheel (not good) and fitted the front splitter.

Once all this is done the next plan is a new full stainless exhaust and manifold set up, fresh remap and a LiquidLeon gauge setup.

Thanks for reading, been a great day and learnt a lot from the VAG King, Prawn

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

5 new wheels

(Feb 2015)

Drove 380 glorious miles in the Leon to South Wales, my god the work nick and I did made a difference. Certainly in a good way.

Not bad for £410 total including a free tyre and glove box

New bits:






Don't worry they won't be this shitty red for long. That strut brace will have some work done too.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

New bits on and cleaned

Car is clean and finally starting to look tidy, rear sus raised 30mm, lights working all round and exhaust is in the (close to) right position. Finally got that splitter on there, a real LCR again!











Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Curborough

Some pics, I really didn't have the phone out much. Either way, all the Vags together.






Jardo's Golf:


Luke's LCR:


All of us together:



Me driving on track with Luke in the passenger seat:


Next steps in the plan are:

Sorting out Ferodo pads and EBC discs. trying to get them at abit of a discount as £704.44 delivered is making me wince. I know what I want, just looking for best price. So far that is demontweeks.

I have also just installed brand new jacking and towing eye covers. Yay, car now has all it's trim.

Next will be full exhaust setup and TIP then straight to stage 2 where it will stay for quite some time.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Liquid Gauge

(May 2015)

Bought and fitted this bad boy!




This guy came to help:


I have also bought a ko4 manifold in ceramic coating and fixings. New ferodo brake pads and ebc discs all round. And a badger5 tip v2.2.

Next is dp, sports cat and cat back. Then a map.

Excited!

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Discs and pads

(May 2015)

Fitted new discs and pads, couldnt have happened any sooner!



Ferodo DS1.11 pads Fronts
Ferodo DS2500 pads Rears
EBC Ultimax slotted discs front and rear

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

****!

(End May 2015)

So, my car work plan this holiday has completely changed after hitting a deer on the way to Nick's before Curborough. Headlight dead, bumper paint missing (No cracks found so far), fog light grill section smashed, Arch lining ripped out, and I found out today my tracking is quite wrong.

I think I got quite lucky with it to be honest.

Came off a round about ~50mph, then into the 60, spotted a deer on the other side of the road so slowed right down to 40ish then from my side of the road a deer bolted out of the bushes straight into the car, no time to brake even with Uber brakes, no time to swerve properly. Completely blind sided me.

The way I found this out was picking up my freshly powder coated rims and 235 Kumho tyres. Fitted and the LH side, where the deer hit, now scrubs over any bump on the arch due to the significant toe out (Ewww) and unfortunately all the roads near me are shite. So that is a lot of scrubbing.

Took the car to a good local tyre place and the rears have camber in the same direction, not good. The fronts are impossible to set evenly. ****.

On the plus side, I'll be fitting new lights, including wiring in the angel eyes hopefully, fitting new fog light grill, fitting new arch liner and vinyl wrapping the bumper as I was quoted £492.92 for a bumper respray :S I will also be bleeding brakes, changing oil level sensor, new air and oil filter and fresh oil.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

New light





As you can see to replace the headlights is a fair amount of effort.

Most of that effort is the disassembly, removal and then the subsequent reassembly and installation of an old bumper with bits of broken plastic, bent under metal and the snapping of 50% of the rusted fixings.

Had to insert several threaded rivets throughout. Had to replace plastic locators with drilled and angle ground spacers and aralditing them into place. Basically a huge ball ache.

However, lights are in and aligned, angle eyes are wired in, new S2000 cone, brakes are all bled and working well (No more double braking YAY).

Also had the wheels aligned as best as possible after new tyres caused a rubbing. This is the best they could do:



So my wheels are basically all over the place with no adjustment at the rears and all possible adjustment used on the fronts. Great. Can I get top mounts for my Weitec Hicon GT's? If so, where and how much? The guy also managed to snap a bolt on the hub to wishbone connection, but replaced it for me which was nice/good/appreciated.

Still need to dump the oil, replace the oil filter and level sensor and refill the oil. Also lots of effort on a car this low. A pit would make life much easier. I might be able to persuade that if I'm lucky!

Also, picking up my new arch liner tomorrow and might have ago at a vinyl wrap of the bumper. Fingers crossed the black of the vinyl matches the car's faded black.

Then I can finally start looking at the fitment of the manifold and rest of the exhaust, but this will require TIG welding so may be on hold until I find someone who can do that for me.

So progress is slow, but is happening.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

New arch liner fitted. Once I get the vinyl wrap on the bumper it will be like the car never even saw the deer.

Borrowing "The Pit" this evening to dump the oil, change the oil sensor, oil filter and refill oil.

Got some adjustable top mounts en route. They will be tricky to fit as I will have to fit the new coilover plates that are currently stuck on the threads first otherwise it will drop another 10mm or so.

Not sure when I will find the time to do the suspension, either got to be done on a sunny weekend or in a months time when I have a week off.

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Been an interesting car week.

Got new tyres on my freshly powder coated rims. Love it! Anthracite for Road, Red for Track.




Made some badass hub caps!



Hit 80k at 88 miles, nice.



Went to leave work today, got my keys out of my bag to find this...Ffs. Tried the key with plyers, turns out there must be a current running through the key from the fob for the immobiliser. Got the f**ker home though! It's times like these I wish I had a spare!



Next hopefully a new key!

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

New Key

Cheap Ebay fob replacement, less than a 5er to fix it all:



Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Bumpers

Got new body kit! Thank you Dom from Potters Bar, bargain.



Yet more car parts in the flat!

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Vinyl

So had ago at fitting vinyl to an LCR front bumper. Bought a hair dryer just for the occasion.

Not easy as it turns out.







Dad, Helping...









And done:






And the colour match to wing and bonnet...Also, Angel eyes yay.




I then drove up to Worcester to collect a rear beam, £80 with hubs and superpro bushes.

Got a photo of the tracking of the car the beam came from:



Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Rant

(July 2015)

The plan was, get handling sorted, add power, LSD

This is what has happened.

Basically the order this last month or so has been:

Buy parts for power upgrades,

tryed to adjust coilovers to raise ride height as it was decked, collar seized and all the plastic clips broke off in the tool,
bought new collars,
removed strut, still wouldn't budge
Get all wheels powder coated,
New tyres,
New brakes,
hit deer,
fixed lights *Yum angel eyes*, fog grill, arch liner
went to get tracking sorted, the front is out of adjustment LH & RH so they cannot be set equally, Rear one has negative camber, the other positive,
bought second hand beam in Worcester with poly bushes
bought top mount bearings and adjustable top mounts to fit with the coil over collars, to fix the front tracking,
vinyl wrapped the front bumper as it was only paint that came off, the wrap was a risk, took a punt, didn't pay off, now the damage is hidden, did a good job, but the sun has killed it and de-laminated it in obvious areas.
purchased second hand LCR body kit, needs some work as I will get the front properly done then get some clear protective wrap like heli-tape, but better visibility through it.
took car to a garage to fit the new rear beam, means I am borrowing their C1 racecar. (its unfathomably slow) it the next step up from having to walk
turns out brake lining is a bit corroded and the hand brake cables needed replacing,
They also had to remove the rARB and had to cut the fixings to do it...
got car back with new beam fitted, rear tracking done!
Now for the fronts, booked in for today to have the hoses, cables and front suspension collar replacing and the adjustable top mounts, Yay front tracking done!
Nope, they couldn't do the work because the front suspension has rock, probably from the deer, maybe from a pot hole, maybe from braking hard, who knows.
They suggested it buy another set or get the currents refurbished, I'm leaning towards buy more and then refurb these and sell them on (or not refurb them if someone wants them cheap)
But they did manage the brake hoses and handbrake cable,
They also managed to identify that the LH ball joint was shot so it probably the root cause of my steering knocking at low speed, big angled turns.

Probably more bullshit to come.

I now have lots of parts that I can't fit because things aren't ready yet and I've already invested now. What was to be a few upgrades and a general service has gotten very expensive very fast! It is also massively frustrating as it is looking worse and worse for Track day

Once it's done, it's done. So I am kind of biting the bullet now, as I know I want this car to be mine for quite some time.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Bc br

Bought new suspension, BC BR to replace the Weitecs. So they can be refurbed, fit the new collars and then sell them on.

BC BR have adjustable damping and independent ride height adjustment, really very nice to look at too. Shame they will be hiding behind the wheels.

Also Silver Project top mounts, new bearings, and new ball joints.










Work Begins:









Thank you again Nick for the pit and the time.

Next step is tracking on friday as the steering wheel is well off and the car feels like it on tip toes.

Cheers, Ash

 

[rainbird]

Good stuff, Ash! Rather envious of your BC setup, should be spot on for what you're after with occasional/progressively more track work. Other than those we're still looking dangerously similar on the spec sheets, need to get them both back to Curborough once they're back to full health and see what difference it's all made

 

[Ash-Kennard]

Agreed, I might even have the manifold and exhaust on by then! I like that we are doing similar things atm.