Hi all,
Thought I'd open a project thread to keep track of my progress.
I bought this rare beast just before Christmas. She's a 2008 Altea Freetrack 4 2.0 TSi, basically an Altea XL with Quattro/4-motion type 4 wheel drive, beefed up suspension, a higher spec level and the 200bhp 2.0TFSi engine under the bonnet. The diesel models are relatively common but there are less than 70 of the petrol models in the UK.
She had 47000 miles with full history when bought and drove pretty well. Knowing how well these cars respond to mapping, I had her mapped at Big Fish Tuning (Highly recommended) in Stokesley (middlesbrough area) resulting in 250bhp and a shade under 300 lbs/ft of torque. To say the car is swift is possibly a bit understated. It's huge fun embarrassing repmobiles in my "Soccer Mom" car.
So far, I've given the car a good service consisting of the following
Gulf Formula GVX full synthetic 5W-30 oil VW504/507 Longlife service compliant,
Oil, Air and Pollen Filters,
NGK Platinum Spark Plugs,
Front and rear Bosch Aerotwin wiper blades,
and a good all round check over.
Looking on the forums, I read about the 2.0TFSi fuel pump cam follower issue where the surface coating rubs off and eventually the follower totally wears through and the cam gets damaged by the high pressure fuel pump rod. I bought a new cam follower from TPS for £30 and replaced it yesterday afternoon. At 48000 miles, the coating on the original item was worn but there was no scratches or damage to the follower itself and the camshaft lobe is as new:
After shelling out for a Haldex filter and filter tool that I didn't need, Petrol Freetracks don't have a Haldex filter, I got the back of the car off the ground to change the Haldex coupling oil which should be done every 40k miles. I didn't have a receipt for a Haldex oil change in the service history so decided to change it, it's £22 from TPS for a litre of the Haldex specific oil. The old stuff was pretty clean and there was zero metal deposits on either the drain plug or the base of the oil pan so it looks to be in good health:
Whilst driving, I've noticed a slight droning noise at 2000-2500 revs that I thought was the exhaust to start with. From some research, it turns out that its the flexible coupling at the rear of the propshaft where it attaches to the Haldex unit. VW/TPS want £280 for this part, a rubber disc with 6 holes and a metal balancer weight around the outside. No thank you. I've sourced an OEM Lemforder part for £130 which should arrive from Germany in the next few days.
As far as exterior mods go, I've fitted a couple of highly swanky SEAT Sport vinyl decals where the Copa badges are on the doors of our other Altea. That's going to be it. I do have thoughts on some engine mods though, I think a 500bhp 4WD Altea sleeper would be pretty entertaining
More to come.
Thought I'd open a project thread to keep track of my progress.
I bought this rare beast just before Christmas. She's a 2008 Altea Freetrack 4 2.0 TSi, basically an Altea XL with Quattro/4-motion type 4 wheel drive, beefed up suspension, a higher spec level and the 200bhp 2.0TFSi engine under the bonnet. The diesel models are relatively common but there are less than 70 of the petrol models in the UK.
She had 47000 miles with full history when bought and drove pretty well. Knowing how well these cars respond to mapping, I had her mapped at Big Fish Tuning (Highly recommended) in Stokesley (middlesbrough area) resulting in 250bhp and a shade under 300 lbs/ft of torque. To say the car is swift is possibly a bit understated. It's huge fun embarrassing repmobiles in my "Soccer Mom" car.
So far, I've given the car a good service consisting of the following
Gulf Formula GVX full synthetic 5W-30 oil VW504/507 Longlife service compliant,
Oil, Air and Pollen Filters,
NGK Platinum Spark Plugs,
Front and rear Bosch Aerotwin wiper blades,
and a good all round check over.
Looking on the forums, I read about the 2.0TFSi fuel pump cam follower issue where the surface coating rubs off and eventually the follower totally wears through and the cam gets damaged by the high pressure fuel pump rod. I bought a new cam follower from TPS for £30 and replaced it yesterday afternoon. At 48000 miles, the coating on the original item was worn but there was no scratches or damage to the follower itself and the camshaft lobe is as new:
After shelling out for a Haldex filter and filter tool that I didn't need, Petrol Freetracks don't have a Haldex filter, I got the back of the car off the ground to change the Haldex coupling oil which should be done every 40k miles. I didn't have a receipt for a Haldex oil change in the service history so decided to change it, it's £22 from TPS for a litre of the Haldex specific oil. The old stuff was pretty clean and there was zero metal deposits on either the drain plug or the base of the oil pan so it looks to be in good health:
Whilst driving, I've noticed a slight droning noise at 2000-2500 revs that I thought was the exhaust to start with. From some research, it turns out that its the flexible coupling at the rear of the propshaft where it attaches to the Haldex unit. VW/TPS want £280 for this part, a rubber disc with 6 holes and a metal balancer weight around the outside. No thank you. I've sourced an OEM Lemforder part for £130 which should arrive from Germany in the next few days.
As far as exterior mods go, I've fitted a couple of highly swanky SEAT Sport vinyl decals where the Copa badges are on the doors of our other Altea. That's going to be it. I do have thoughts on some engine mods though, I think a 500bhp 4WD Altea sleeper would be pretty entertaining
More to come.
