Leon 1.9 TDi SE 110 (03 Plate) Various Problems =)

[Israar]

Hello guys and gals!

First major thread here and hopefully a good one for you lot and myself, hahaha!

I'll jot down my list of problems that I've noticed shortly, and I'll try and to make it as simple as I can so it's easy to read!

Firstly, Saturday just gone, my battery warning light came on. I suspected either end of life battery or alternator. Looking through the booklet I have as I have a few SEAT booklets which came with my car when I purchased it in march~

That stated that the battery was not charging. So after a few searches and reading, I came to either end of life battery, alternator or slipping belt? I spoke to a mechanic and he told me to test my battery while the car was on idle (ticking over) and see if I'm pulling around 14.5v with a multimeter. I tested it and while the battery light was on, it was fluctuating from 6v~ to 12v~ with nothing but the engine ticking over. No lights, audio, fans, etc. All off. That very night driving back home the warning light went off. So As I stopped, I did my usual of leaving the engine running for about 2 minutes before turning off, though this time I left it running a good 10 minutes to see if the light came back on, it never did. The following morning I started up the car to see if the light would come back on, it never did again so I tested the battery volts again and this time with the fan and heater on 24 to demist the windscreen it was pulling 14.27v and 14.29v steadily. I had the car booked in to have the alternator looked at, though I revoked the booking since it would be a week and the car was running as normal. Instead of going to a garage I decided to get it looked at electronically, it's booked in to be seen to on the up coming Monday at 10am, I'm in work 6am-2pm though will drop the car off just before 10, it's just around the corner from where I work the garage that will look at it. I am right in believing a diagnostic check (costing £45) is to do with the vag-com checks, or what ever it is where they hook up a terminal to the car adapter in the car?

Anyway, I'm going to ask them to give me all the logs so I can post up what errors and such it might have for me so I can relay that here so both myself and you guys/gals can point out a few things to me so I don't get fobbed off?

On to the problems I've noticed since having the car!

Just to note, I have searched through these forums, and looked through some of the FAQ's before making this post, I will state to what I know of from the forums though some I've been unlucky as my searching skills are not the greatest haha!

1) Water Leaks in the footwells (mostly passenger side) -- Solution found: DubSteve's Guide (can't post URL), won't be doing this until it's warmer and dryer! :)

2) Turbo issue's -- Sometimes it kicks in, sometimes it doesn't. I have not got the slightest clue on this at all so hopefully the diagnostics will show something up for me

3) Speaker issue -- When listening to my music via AUX cable (after market radio was installed before I bought the car) it randomly jumps from speakers and sometimes only certain speakers play sound, sometimes static, then sometimes all work fine. The radio seems loose and I suspected cable so got a new one and still same problem so possibly radio itself or wiring issue?

4) Mirrors -- Some guy punched one mirror off (tapped it back on for now, passenger side) the other has a cracked housing (drivers side), I'm guessing this will fail MOT when it comes to it? Not 100% sure on if it will pass or not though I will have pictures tomorrow hopefully?

5) Dashboard Clock -- I can't seem to find how to alter my clock, newbie indeed and my searches are coming up with blanks. Clock is waaaaaaay off :(

6) Dent in the bodywork (drivers side read) -- Picture to come of this and I was told T-Cut could solve it, before going out to buy T-Cut I was hoping to get a second opinion with someone who has used T-Cut or know's on whether it will work

7) Cup tray -- Not working, doesn't want to come out, it can be worked out with assistance but has no push to it, once back in it stays there.

I do have more issues, just right now I can't think of them. I will have to get back to you lot with them at some point.

I've looked in to a few things I do want to have done too, for my own purpose so to spice up the car a little bit and make it look that little bit more dashing to the eye even if it is only for me?

A couple of things to note about the car, it's a SEAT Leon 1.9TDi SE 110, reg is GN03 CWC and I will upload pictures hopefully tomorrow so you can see a few of the things I have mentioned above. I love this car, and I want to make it last me a long time! I know it is an 03 model, it has just over 70,000 miles on the clock. When I bought the car, I had the water pump, timing belt kit and a full service done, I will post up a picture to show what was fully done too so it gives a little bit more insight in to what has been done since I've had this little beautiful diesel! =)

Thanks for taking the time to read my essay of a first time post and I hope it wasn't too much of an eye sore! Take care and I hope that everyone is all well and healthy!

--Lee

 

[mbernardes]

Hi there, and welcome.
Also got a VP 110 Leon.

hope i can give you a hand.

Turbo issue, Probably need to be cleaned, when you run for low rev´s all the time the geometri(don´t know the coorect name in English) gets plugged and doesnt work properlly, might try to do some speeding in 2 ou 3 gear to try and get some coal off, if it doesn´t work, will need to be serviced.
Verify the speakers connection for bad contact.
For the clock, with de ignition power on, turn the thing in the dasboad that you use for miles reset, tun left for a second ou two, four hours, and turn right, for minutes.

MOT i can´t help, since i´m from Portugal.
The cup tray is a bite hard to take off as it need to be open to remove.

Hope it helps.
Chears

 

[Israar]

Hello mbernardes!

Thank you for the swift reply, any help even the slightest will help and will always be appreciated!

I generally run low rev's due to it being a run to and from work and to see my children, the only time I give it a proper good run is when I go from the West Midlands back up to Manchester to see my side of the family, then I get to give it a bit of a throttle. I'll give your suggestion a whirl today, though for cleaning them I haven't got the slightest clue on how to do that. I'll have to give it a look up later on when I get back from work as I am on 2pm-10pm this week. If it needs servicing how would I go about that? Better to post in the Turbo section of the forums maybe?

I'll have to check the speakers more on a weekend when I have chance to actually look in to it properly and hopefully it isn't wet or too cold!

Clock will be done as soon as I'm ready for going out too, I'll finally be able to see the right time rather than judge the hours based on x:24 haha!

I can always find out when I get some pictures as it might be a little easier to know whether they will fail or not with the mirrors. As for the cup tray I can open it, I'll just have to find out how to take it off and refurbish it, shouldn't be too hard but will be nice to see it work! =)

Thank you so much for the reply and suggestions, I'll get back to this later on tonight on the clock!

--Lee

 

[Israar]

Hey peeps, sorry I've not got back yet with any pictures.

I've had the car go through the diagnostics today, the mechanic said that the car was not able to read any faults, so I take it that there was nothing to report?

With that in mind, because he could find no faults through diagnostics, he did a battery and alternator check both seem fine although he noticed that the alternator case was damaged, from what he said he's unsure. (I'll try to get a picture of this when I see it myself)

He also replaced a vacuum pipe that was split (two pipes I have on me that are split), I have some pictures of this but can't post images until my post count is higher and I become a full member on here! So they will have to wait for now!

Upon this, he checked my turbo as I mentioned what was happening concerning my loss of power, and found that the wastegate is starting to seize up. I was advised that I can drive the car for now but would need to look in to getting a new or re-furbished turbo and wastegate. More so the wastegate at present due to it starting to seize up. I've tried to find out about the wastegate on google but can't seem to figure out what it is? I've read a post from a search and it mentioned a wastegate arrangement? As I said I don't really know what a wastegate is, and after finding that there is also a wastegate arrangement I'm puzzled now haha!

Can anyone enlighten me as to what this wastegate is and what it is all about? What it is for and why it is needed? Sorry if I'm asking for too much with that question!

--Lee