Leon Cupra Power/Cat Issue

[Jammin1980]

Hi all,

My first post so dont rip me to bits if this has been done before, I cant find much info.

I own a 2001 LC.
I had an engine light come on about 4 months ago,
Took it to main dealer they told me I needed new cat and 2 lambdas.
(total cost about £700)

Code was - Cat bank 1 efficiently below threshold

They cleared the fault and I quickly drove away!

I started to notice a lack of power so took it to JKM

They plugged in the laptop and took it for a spin!
logged my lambdas which were ok but said the car was not pulling at higher revs. It went on the rollers to check the maf but this was ok.
The emissions on the cat were also ok.

It has since lost even more power and is no fun to drive.
I think my old Ibiza 1.8 16v was quicker than my leon is at the moment.

The current exhaust system is standard,
I am looking for some advice on what my next move should be?

Should I bite the bullet and buy a miltek sports cat and fit it to a standard backbox for the time being until cash flow allows the miltek backbox,
Or should i wait until I can afford the hole lot and drive a slow car for the meantime, or could something else be causing the power loss.

Incidentally I was driving on the weekend on quite a cold summer night and some of the power seemed to be back.

Any suggestions welcome

 

[andycupra]

hi and welcome:

ok firstly, it is possible the cat is knackered, but maybe not.

can you answer this:

what fuel do you use?
do you drive it hard?
how did they decide the maf was ok, if you know?

my advice, to elimate some other possiblilties would be this:
1. complete an ecu reset.
(reason being, the ecu may be holding back du to fuel/temp issues).
to do this:
check you have the radio code, then:
using a 10mm spanner dissconnect the negative lead from the battery.
leave for 10 mins.
then reconnect.
leave drivers door open - turn on ignition, but DO NOT START engine.
leave like this for 5 mins, (or until the high pitched whine and clicking under the bonnet has stopped). you could re-enter the radio code while waiting...

note: do this on a cold engine.

and thats it, the ecu has been reset.
see if the car is any different.

2:the maf is very hard to check if its playing up or reading a bit low.
therefore you could run with it dissconnected to see if this is any better. this will put a light up on the dash, the ecu will use default settings instead.
does it run any better?
the light will go out when you reconnect the maf.

if you dont know how to do this let us know.

ps has it been remapped?

 

[Jammin1980]

Andy,

At the moment i use 95 ron as at the moment there is no difference in performance between them, but when the car was running ok I did use Bp premium (think its ultimate 98 ron).

No I do not drive the car hard, I drive It normally to work and when my girlfriend is in it im not allowed to go fast.
I do like the odd blat but i certainly dont hammer it.

Not exactly sure why they said the MAF was ok but it went in for MoT and maf was booked in to be changed but they didnt do it as they said it was ok.
They even quoted for fitting new one but said it was not needed.
Maybe they couldnt get hold of one?

 

[andycupra]

i would recommend using super, i certainly found i got more miles from it.
most on this forum would recommend it.
however, 95 ron is ok, if you get told on here that you 'must use super' they are not correct.

the maf is pretty hard to check correctly if its just playing up. however JKM are pretty good.

how about a coil pack?

 

[andycupra]

plenty of threads to read on this subject:
http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/search.php?searchid=2829392

seems it could be a few things.
boost leak is possible and hard to trace.

 

[Jammin1980]

would these other problems cause the same cat fault to appear?
No its not remapped as yet, wanted to get it running right first.

 

[Jammin1980]

Right,
Re-set my ecu and tested my MAF.
Problem is still there.
The light on my dash went out after re-setting my ecu but has now come back on.
I think i am just going to save up the £700 for a turbo back system.