After selling my 5th Leon 1.8T last year, I was getting the hankering for another 1.8T. This came up on UK MKiVs and I swapped my Golf TDi for it.
I've put a lot of work into it so far. The car was absolutely filthy inside and out when I got it but I thought there was the makings of a good car lying underneath all of the grime. The car itself is a Bora 1.8T Sport with heated cream leather Recaros, APR Stage 2 map, Milltek turbo back exhaust with 200 cell sports cat, ECS Stage 1 clutch and flywheel, AP Coilovers, Forge 007p, Carbonio CAI and various small mods.
My first job was to clean all of the grime from dirty hands and feet out of the interior. This involved shampooing the carpets and cleaning the interior surfaces with solvent cleaner and then dressing them, then cleaning and conditioning the leather with Gliptones products. This process took about 2 days. I then removed the "twin halo angel eye" headlamps that were on the car and replaced them with standard items, I can see where I'm going in the dark now. Next up was the fitting of my US Spec 18" R32 alloys (VW Omanyt) and Toyo Proxes-4 tyres. I picked up a 3 button flip key courtesy of ebay, swapped the transponder over with one from the spare conventional key and programmed the remote central locking by myself. Timpsons cut the blade for £5 so it made for a total cost of £32.50 compared to the £160 VW wanted for a new key, cutting and programming.
I then turned my attentions to things of a mechanical nature. The K&N cone on the end of the Carbonio hadn't been cleaned since it was installed 2 years ago so that came off for a thorough clean and a Powertec SL1 pleated stainless mesh induction kit was fitted whilst the Carbonio was being cleaned. I love the sound of the Carbonio, there is nothing else quite like it. I changed the oil, oil filter, air filter and pollen filter and in doing so realised that some buffoon had thought it a good idea to attempt to tighten the sump plug to hand tight plus 15 turns, stripping the thread out of the sump drain in the process. I finally fitted a new sump yesterday.
On doing some logging, I noticed that the car was not performing as it should have been. With some help from DPJ and others, I deduced that this was due to the engine running lean and pulling back on the boost as a result. I fitted a new MAF, fuel filter, thermostat and coolant temperature sensor and reset the ECU flash ROM to allow it to forget its fuel trim settings. The car pulls much better now recording a figure of 180g/s over the MAF, this equates to about 230bhp which is about right for the mods and state of tune the car is running.
I still have lots of jobs to do on the car, I'm not 100% happy with the way the APR map produces its power so I'm looking at some custom mapping options to get the car running the way I want. My last Cupra was stronger at lower revs and with the Bora having an ECS clutch and flywheel, it could certainly handle a more agressive power delivery at lower revs. The APR map is very smooth but its not as punchy at the bottom of the rev range as the Jabba Custom map I had on my last 1.8T, R Tech and a local tuner with years in the business are looking good to me at the moment. Failing that, I'll be making the trip south to Peterborough and Jabba's premises.
The previous owner had an Oettinger spoiler on the car. This had rubbed and has left some paint damage on the bootlid and rear quarters, this will be my next job. I want it done properly so I've had a quote from a respected spray painter locally. £300 is steep but worth it for a quality job that will last.
I'll update the thread as I go along, here are some photos in the meantime. All comments welcome:
I've put a lot of work into it so far. The car was absolutely filthy inside and out when I got it but I thought there was the makings of a good car lying underneath all of the grime. The car itself is a Bora 1.8T Sport with heated cream leather Recaros, APR Stage 2 map, Milltek turbo back exhaust with 200 cell sports cat, ECS Stage 1 clutch and flywheel, AP Coilovers, Forge 007p, Carbonio CAI and various small mods.
My first job was to clean all of the grime from dirty hands and feet out of the interior. This involved shampooing the carpets and cleaning the interior surfaces with solvent cleaner and then dressing them, then cleaning and conditioning the leather with Gliptones products. This process took about 2 days. I then removed the "twin halo angel eye" headlamps that were on the car and replaced them with standard items, I can see where I'm going in the dark now. Next up was the fitting of my US Spec 18" R32 alloys (VW Omanyt) and Toyo Proxes-4 tyres. I picked up a 3 button flip key courtesy of ebay, swapped the transponder over with one from the spare conventional key and programmed the remote central locking by myself. Timpsons cut the blade for £5 so it made for a total cost of £32.50 compared to the £160 VW wanted for a new key, cutting and programming.
I then turned my attentions to things of a mechanical nature. The K&N cone on the end of the Carbonio hadn't been cleaned since it was installed 2 years ago so that came off for a thorough clean and a Powertec SL1 pleated stainless mesh induction kit was fitted whilst the Carbonio was being cleaned. I love the sound of the Carbonio, there is nothing else quite like it. I changed the oil, oil filter, air filter and pollen filter and in doing so realised that some buffoon had thought it a good idea to attempt to tighten the sump plug to hand tight plus 15 turns, stripping the thread out of the sump drain in the process. I finally fitted a new sump yesterday.
On doing some logging, I noticed that the car was not performing as it should have been. With some help from DPJ and others, I deduced that this was due to the engine running lean and pulling back on the boost as a result. I fitted a new MAF, fuel filter, thermostat and coolant temperature sensor and reset the ECU flash ROM to allow it to forget its fuel trim settings. The car pulls much better now recording a figure of 180g/s over the MAF, this equates to about 230bhp which is about right for the mods and state of tune the car is running.
I still have lots of jobs to do on the car, I'm not 100% happy with the way the APR map produces its power so I'm looking at some custom mapping options to get the car running the way I want. My last Cupra was stronger at lower revs and with the Bora having an ECS clutch and flywheel, it could certainly handle a more agressive power delivery at lower revs. The APR map is very smooth but its not as punchy at the bottom of the rev range as the Jabba Custom map I had on my last 1.8T, R Tech and a local tuner with years in the business are looking good to me at the moment. Failing that, I'll be making the trip south to Peterborough and Jabba's premises.
The previous owner had an Oettinger spoiler on the car. This had rubbed and has left some paint damage on the bootlid and rear quarters, this will be my next job. I want it done properly so I've had a quote from a respected spray painter locally. £300 is steep but worth it for a quality job that will last.
I'll update the thread as I go along, here are some photos in the meantime. All comments welcome:
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nice car. The photos don't do the work on the seats justice. They're lovely.
