Mk1 Leon FR - 2004 Compared to Today-ish.

triggby

Active Member
Apr 25, 2008
151
0
Re: Mk1 Leon FR - Cleaned!

Superpro poly bushes all fitted today (dog-bone still to come as they were sent a "petrol" kit rather than diesel). Also found that track rods needed to be replaced so they will get done with the dog-bone in a couple of weeks. Also refitted and aligned the exhaust by trimming a little from the end of the down pipe to get a better fit to my car. Sits perfect now, and without the need of any cable ties to position it! Also found that the clips on the boost hose/intercooler connection were on the wrong ends (they are slightly different sizes). Corrected and the hose is now a lot more secure.

Had it on the rollers ahead of being custom mapped to see how it was performing. Measured 202.6hp/310.7lbft on my Revo map which led AMD to suggest leaving it on Revo as at that level on a standard turbo, gains on a custom map would be minimal. Intercooler hose joint remained seated too!

Had a run in a hybrid PD150 that was otherwise pretty much factory and it was awesome. The hybrid fund now has its first £200 in it from the saving today of not having the custom map done.

Also, pulled up in a petrol station today and a van came in behind me advertising wheel refurbs. Bloke offered me a great deal as a one off on tyres/wheels etc saving another £100 on what I'd budgetted for. Hybrid fund now = £300.

My mrs opened her sisters car door onto mine and dented it. Also scraped the rear bumper. Luckily it was a panel already dented so won't cost anything when Dent Doctor or whoever does the work as they quote per panel. Rear bumper was already in plan for a respray.

Hi Mate,

Would you mind telling me how much it was to get all the bushes changed on the car? Thinking mine need doing and considering doing it myself but if it's not too expensive may get it done somewhere like AMD!

thanks

mat
 

SmokingPower!!

Guest
Re: Mk1 Leon FR - Cleaned!

Looking sweet mate, do you think it's weird that the mirrors are a different colour?? I have the same car and colour but Thought the guy before me had replaced them and not had them sprayed. J.
 

S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
Re: Mk1 Leon FR - Cleaned!

Hi Mate,

Would you mind telling me how much it was to get all the bushes changed on the car? Thinking mine need doing and considering doing it myself but if it's not too expensive may get it done somewhere like AMD!

thanks

mat

Bushes were £404 all done (look under special offers tab of the AMD site). I suspect not cheap, but there was a lot of work involved - it took about 6 hours.



Looking sweet mate, do you think it's weird that the mirrors are a different colour?? I have the same car and colour but Thought the guy before me had replaced them and not had them sprayed. J.

I don't mind the mirrors myself. I've seen them painted black and they look fine too. I guess its one of those personal taste things. It seems I'm the only person on here who hates the cupra "starfish" alloys!
 

S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
The car is off the road for a couple of days now........... the wheels are being fully refurbed. The refurb will have the tyres removed, wheels fully blasted back to the alloy, all scuffs and dings sorted, and coloured to match the darkish grey of the dash surround. All part of a subtle master plan!! I've decided to stick with the 18" RS6's that are on it as they suit the car pretty well and other than marginal "bird marks" (ie wife kerbing them) they are in good nick on the whole.

I spoke to them today, and the guys doing the work might be up for a forum discount offer of somesort so I'll let you know how mine turn out.

Took the opportunity of having the tyres off to replace the Pirelli P-Rosso's (I think they lasted about 18k miles on the front) and the Avon ZZ3's on the rear (40k). I looked at the Toyo Proxes T1-R and really wanted them after good experiences on the front of our Octy II VRS, but kept getting issues with supply of 4 from all sorts of places. Anyhow, in the end decided on some Yoko Parada Spec 2's. Got them for £104 each delivered and fitting is free since the tyres had to be removed for the wheel refurb.

Next item on the list is the dents and dings in the body work - more "bird marks"!!! They will be gone within the next couple of weeks courtesy of some kind of Dent Devils type outfit, then the paintwork to be done - only need to decide on matching the mirrors to the wheels, or doing them black. Really unsure about which way to go with them, but like the subtle idea of mirrors matching the wheels.
 

S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
Wheels done and looking good (they were done at the end of May but didn't get round to updating) in a slightly darker colour than standard - similar to the interior trim on the FR. I should have gone a bit darker still but found it hard to judge. Anyhow, two weeks in and the Mrs dinged one of them again so might be an excuse to go darker. To ensure that she don't do it again, she's now got a Mini Cooper S and I've got the Leon back as 'my' car!

This week, I've finally had the various shopping dents (and those done by the Mrs!) taken out by a mate of a mate. The body is now the straightest its ever been since it got a door opened on it the very first weekend we owned it! All of the dents successfully removed.

Next job is the paintwork - stonechips in the main and a crap Superchips front bumper blow over that needs to be completely flatted down and done from scratch. Also awaiting quotes for a "stonechip" respray of the bumper/wings/bonnet somewhere proper rather than trying to do a cheap job and getting what you pay for.

I'll do some pics, but only got back off holiday a couple of hours ago. A clean up over the weekend is due before some fresh pics with the wheels.
 

S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
The front bumper - now this is a long and winding story!!!

In a nutshell, I took it off (eventually) and painted it with some aerosols from paint4u.com and the paint came up as good as the original OEM paint. I know, because I had a go myself and like a plank painted to a masked line which gave a direct side-by-side comparison........ which as I now know, and should have probably easily predicted too in hindsight, leaves a hard paint line when the masking is removed! So, an awesome finish, but a crap job as it looked like I'd done it myself. Anyhow, I like to have a go at stuff and it only cost me the paint (about £25) and time.

So today I took it to a bloke who knows what he's doing. Under the premise that I remove all the grills, he'd do it for £80 all in. It needs some filling and sanding etc as 95k miles has taken its toll on the original paint in a big way!! (as has my attempt at it too).

Again, hindsight now kicks in......... remove the grills ? Simples, no ? Most definitely "NO"!!!!

Eventually with a combination of hot knife, stanley knife and dremil and about 90 mins of working it all out carefully, they're off. The top set were a 'mare because of the plastic welded lugs that hold it all in place. Its a PITA but with patience and persistance, relatively straight forward. The lower middle grill was more about brute force and levering with screw-drivers and all was well. I also removed the chrome badge and sanded it back as that will be painted too.

Should have it all back next week. Roll-on. If its any good, I might even get the bonnet and wings done - we'll see what the finish is like on the bumper first though.
 
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S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
I bought an S3 about 8 years ago and had that Revo'd. I loved it. At the time I had it done I went out in a Revo'd MKIV Golf PD150 and it pulled stronger than the Audi mid-range. I said then that when I changed the Audi I'd get a PD150 and map it. And that's pretty much what happened when we got the Leon. I bedded the car in from new to 5k miles then on went the map.

A good excuse to put a couple of pics of the Audi in!! It was on just under 30k miles at this point in June 2004 (the day I sold it hence the original plate is back on it) and explains my private reg and forum names :-
101MSD-DSC00588_DSC00588.jpg

101MSD-DSC00602_DSC00602.jpg

101MSD-DSC00598_DSC00598.jpg


Anyhow - back to the Leon:- Revo suits what I want from the remap especially with the Milltek. It is peaky and prior to the downpipe and decat there was a fair bit of lag, but I like some lag. I went to AMD to have a custom map done following the addition of the downpipe and after the initial rolling road, Shaun showed me the graph and where he could make changes and suggested that it would be so minor that I'd be better spending the £200 on something else instead! I reckon that's a good advert for Revo (and very honest advice from a tuner). The downpipe reduced lag and the turbo spools up about 500rpm sooner than it used to. Well worth the £130.

I like the fact that it can be switched back to stock too. I have the SPS1 switch and whenever it goes in for a service etc I tend to set it to stock.

The only downside is that its generic code so results can vary from car to car and you can't back it off to save the clutch. I knew the clutch would give out eventually but decided that it didn't bother me and that I'd just have to spend a bit more when it did go on an upgraded one.

I've heard a lot of good stuff about all sorts of remaps, but if you go custom you can at least back off the torque to help the clutch. It'll probably start to slip at some point though, but for a while you can drive around it. When mine went, I switched back to stock for about 6 weeks whilst I gathered the cash for the new clutch and in stock mode it didn't slip at all!

Ultimately its down to what you like. Revo is proven, reliable, but is peaky and doesn't suit everyones taste. A mate of mine just went custom and doesn't like it as much as Revo as its too smooth and it doesn't feel as powerful although in practise it is. He's talking about going back onto Revo.
 
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S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
Now and Then..........

I was digging through some car pics today and found some from when the Seat was newly delivered (well - the week after it had been delivered) and without the private reg on it yet. It all looks outrageously standard compared to now though. There were 1222 miles on the clock back then, compared to the approx 95,000 on it now! The leather seats are a bit shiny and there are a few stone chips across the bonnet that is overdue a respray but on the whole the car has weathered well in my view.

Thought I'd post a couple in this thread as "now and then" comparisons :-

101MSD-DSC00690_DSC00690.jpg

IMG_1099.jpg

101MSD-DSC00691_DSC00691.jpg

IMG_1101.jpg

101MSD-DSC00695_DSC00695.jpg

IMG_1098.jpg

101MSD-DSC00693_DSC00693.jpg

IMG_1104.jpg

101MSD-DSC00698_DSC00698.jpg

IMG_1103.jpg
 
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S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
Now and Then 2 .......

S3 Airvents (before and after - not very clear!!). The thumb wheels show the difference and the caps on the vent centres are chrome on the S3 version compared to grey plastic on the FR version :-

101MSD-DSC00705_DSC00705.jpg

IMG_1025.jpg
 
Dec 21, 2005
416
1
London
hey mate nice to know you still got this I wonder the old fr wheels went lol ,, gotta say its looking nice
 

S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
....and you've changed your car yet again!!! Nice wheels by the way! Needs a rear wiper conversion and you ought to look into the smoking as it might be the turbo already be on its way out. Then you can get that remap done!!
 
Dec 21, 2005
416
1
London
I know people just keep making offers on my cars like mates and stuff so I end up selling but im gonna hold onto this one, with the smoke its strange as it only smokes if its idle for a while doesnt smoke whilst driving even when driving hard. Your rs6 wheels are they made in italy and did you need longer bolts also did you have to put alot of weight on them when balanced
 

S3 AKR

livin' the dream!!!
Jun 30, 2004
1,453
1
Colchester, Essex
Not sure where they're made. They have a few weights on them, yes. They were supplied with longer bolts which is why I had all the original bolts for you when you had the OEM FR wheels off me. I need to update my pics a bit as I had them refinished in a darker colour. Not very much darker but enough to notice.
 
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