Seat Leon Cupra 1.8t
Discussion
Hi all,
So after 6 years driving I've finally bought something a bit more interesting than just a white goods car.
After much deliberation between a lease Fiesta, 130i and MK5 gti I settled on the cupra.
I paid 1600 for an 84,000 mile example with some history and 12 months MOT with the plan to get stuck in and do some work on the car.
The winning factors were the price, the lack of hefty depreciation, parts are easily available and so are the guides.
I find that the greatest luxury of a car is one that you don't worry about, if this can last me 8 months I've broken even on a lease with a fiesta and I dont have to worry about curbed alloys, parking dings and limited mileage contracts.
I wanted a car I could just have fun with and not cringe when a gritter goes past (that happened 3 days after I picked up the car!)
A quick list of the jobs I want to get done:
Full Service
Bushings
Shocks & Springs
Replace tired gearknob
Rear central locking sticking
Intercooler
Tires
Cambelt and Waterpump
With the age and mileage the cars at I'd like to think that its had its belt and pump changed but the lack of any receipts for it isn't reassuring, it'll be good to do some proper work on the car too and not just a few small niggles.
So it is on the night I picked it up and after the all important PH sticker was put on.
So after 6 years driving I've finally bought something a bit more interesting than just a white goods car.
After much deliberation between a lease Fiesta, 130i and MK5 gti I settled on the cupra.
I paid 1600 for an 84,000 mile example with some history and 12 months MOT with the plan to get stuck in and do some work on the car.
The winning factors were the price, the lack of hefty depreciation, parts are easily available and so are the guides.
I find that the greatest luxury of a car is one that you don't worry about, if this can last me 8 months I've broken even on a lease with a fiesta and I dont have to worry about curbed alloys, parking dings and limited mileage contracts.
I wanted a car I could just have fun with and not cringe when a gritter goes past (that happened 3 days after I picked up the car!)
A quick list of the jobs I want to get done:
Full Service
Bushings
Shocks & Springs
Replace tired gearknob
Rear central locking sticking
Intercooler
Tires
Cambelt and Waterpump
With the age and mileage the cars at I'd like to think that its had its belt and pump changed but the lack of any receipts for it isn't reassuring, it'll be good to do some proper work on the car too and not just a few small niggles.
So it is on the night I picked it up and after the all important PH sticker was put on.
it appears to be no more according the the mot history checker Y204BAA 
i changed the wheels on mine for the newer cupra ones.
Thanks everyone, I'm happy with it as a cheap fun daily driver.
AntiLagGC8 said:
That's a lot of car for the money bud!
You've made a smart decision in buying something you own rather than renting a car.
So where would you like to go with the car ultimately?
I'd like to make it so I've done everything I can in terms of reliability but some track supporting mods and a few track days with the emphasis on the tuition as I have no formal training. A track ready daily driver is how I'd describe it!You've made a smart decision in buying something you own rather than renting a car.
So where would you like to go with the car ultimately?
I owned one of these for year, mate at the time had a mk4 golf gti so was nice to be able to compare the 2.
I'd suggest a decent service (as its common on golfs and these to clog their oil strainer) always worth getting the cambelt done, if theres no reciept assume it hasn't been done!
first mod i made was to polybush the dogbone mount very quick mod and stops the enginer/gbox lurching so much. I bought some springs and dampers for it too but never fitted them (sold to mate with the gti) it made a nice difference to his car without ruining comfort. dont get involved with pcv deletes and bypass valves they dont work and require alot of stuff removed. a decent cone filter improved the induction noise a bit if thats your cup of tea.
i had many plans for the car but it turned out to be a complete dog, i enjoyed my time with it but for varying reasons it turned out to be the worst car i've owned to date =(.
hopefully yours fairs well; they are pretty quick and quite solid but are a step below the vw in terms of quality.
I'd suggest a decent service (as its common on golfs and these to clog their oil strainer) always worth getting the cambelt done, if theres no reciept assume it hasn't been done!
first mod i made was to polybush the dogbone mount very quick mod and stops the enginer/gbox lurching so much. I bought some springs and dampers for it too but never fitted them (sold to mate with the gti) it made a nice difference to his car without ruining comfort. dont get involved with pcv deletes and bypass valves they dont work and require alot of stuff removed. a decent cone filter improved the induction noise a bit if thats your cup of tea.
i had many plans for the car but it turned out to be a complete dog, i enjoyed my time with it but for varying reasons it turned out to be the worst car i've owned to date =(.
hopefully yours fairs well; they are pretty quick and quite solid but are a step below the vw in terms of quality.
Like the colour. I had one of these in red. The previous owner had thrown a lot of ££££ into it at awesome gti. It had Apr stage 2 remap with a full milltek. Cda induction. Ko3s turbo etc. It had coil overs which ultimately ruined the car. Previous owner said it was making 240 bhp it certainly went well. Only problem I had with mine was a leaking manifold/ cracked. Things to look out for on these are boost leaks and something to do with the oil pipe/ pump. If you make yourself a member of the seat/golf/ vag forums info on these 1.8t is plentiful. Enjoy your car
I really like these, probably due to the fact I had two early X plates both in Azalea red metallic. First one was a proper early cupra with leather seats, auto dim mirror which they often didn't come with after they changed them to a 20vt sport on the log book.
I would recommend NEVER fitting Koni lowering springs, the ride was horrible after that. Miltek exhaust sounded great though.
Things to look out for I had on both of mine is the rear door cards like to let water in to the rear foot wells, the door car needs to be removed and you will find there is an inner door card which hold the speakers etc, and its the seal on these to the door card which lets water in. As the door seals often get dirty and stop the drain holes in the doors letting the water out.
Both of mine needed the clutch changing at the 100k mark you will normally need to change the dual mass flywheel at the same time and well as the clutch slave cylinder, on the 6 speed box this is inside the gearbox so makes sense to do this now, bearing in mind the clutch and flywheel change will not be cheap (circa £700)
The clutch itself wasn't slipping but the activation when cold gets lower and lower until you cant even choose a gear!
I had no other problems in the 60k miles I did in the two I had, also when you do change the waterpump, make sure you get one with a metal impellar not the standard plastic ones.
Coil packs are also a know failure point, but there are upgraded versions available.
If you look on the top on the engine you will see an 3 digit engine code on a small tab, all of the Leon engines except the APP code (both of mine were theses) will have the K03s turbo so will boost better than the APP coded engine which just had the K03 turbo.
I never drove mine overly slowly and this resulted in averaging around 27mpg most of the time!
Hope you enjoy the car though and this wasn't meant to be doom mongering!
I would recommend NEVER fitting Koni lowering springs, the ride was horrible after that. Miltek exhaust sounded great though.
Things to look out for I had on both of mine is the rear door cards like to let water in to the rear foot wells, the door car needs to be removed and you will find there is an inner door card which hold the speakers etc, and its the seal on these to the door card which lets water in. As the door seals often get dirty and stop the drain holes in the doors letting the water out.
Both of mine needed the clutch changing at the 100k mark you will normally need to change the dual mass flywheel at the same time and well as the clutch slave cylinder, on the 6 speed box this is inside the gearbox so makes sense to do this now, bearing in mind the clutch and flywheel change will not be cheap (circa £700)
The clutch itself wasn't slipping but the activation when cold gets lower and lower until you cant even choose a gear!
I had no other problems in the 60k miles I did in the two I had, also when you do change the waterpump, make sure you get one with a metal impellar not the standard plastic ones.
Coil packs are also a know failure point, but there are upgraded versions available.
If you look on the top on the engine you will see an 3 digit engine code on a small tab, all of the Leon engines except the APP code (both of mine were theses) will have the K03s turbo so will boost better than the APP coded engine which just had the K03 turbo.
I never drove mine overly slowly and this resulted in averaging around 27mpg most of the time!
Hope you enjoy the car though and this wasn't meant to be doom mongering!
Its great to see loads of advice already, thanks everyone!!
After 18 days and 1,000 miles I've got some thoughts on the car.
On a daily driver stand point its great, averaging 30mpg with a high amount of foot to the floor moments, I love 6th gear as 70mph is about 2800rpm but no need to downshift to over take, takes a little bit to build up power but that's what I expect but it's worlds apart from my 77bhp punto.
Im really happy that I'm content with the car, I thought I'd buy it, get bored with the power and be stuck with it.
Niggles:
Steering wheel pump makes a slight noise when going over a full turn, smell of damp but no soggy carpets, needs investigating!
Work todo:
Servicing, I'm happy with changing the plugs, oil and filters but the breaks is something I've not done before. I've watched many videos and do think it seems straight forward so I'm going to give it a go.
Aside from euro car parts, does anyone have a recommended place for servicing parts?
Cambelt and waterpump
This job needs doing asap and I want to tackle it myself but I don't believe I'd be able to get it right first time and that would have some expensive ramifications, I contacted VAGtech as they're local and it looks like I'm going to have to just take a hit on the cost, I knew this before I got the car but having it done myself at a reputable place is worth it rather than just a random garage over 10,000 miles ago.
Gearknob
OEM are £60 which is too much on ebay, I found just the leather cover but the description says 5 speed only....
Tyres
It had some dunlops all round but when it came to getting its last MOT the fronts were knackered and the seller put some "Achilles" tyres on, I usually stay away from mis matched tyres but these were put on for the sale so it's not too bad. I always wanted some Toyo R888 but they seem over kill for this car, any suggestions?
I couldn't get the launch right but it pulls nicely through the gears!
After 18 days and 1,000 miles I've got some thoughts on the car.
On a daily driver stand point its great, averaging 30mpg with a high amount of foot to the floor moments, I love 6th gear as 70mph is about 2800rpm but no need to downshift to over take, takes a little bit to build up power but that's what I expect but it's worlds apart from my 77bhp punto.
Im really happy that I'm content with the car, I thought I'd buy it, get bored with the power and be stuck with it.
Niggles:
Steering wheel pump makes a slight noise when going over a full turn, smell of damp but no soggy carpets, needs investigating!
Work todo:
Servicing, I'm happy with changing the plugs, oil and filters but the breaks is something I've not done before. I've watched many videos and do think it seems straight forward so I'm going to give it a go.
Aside from euro car parts, does anyone have a recommended place for servicing parts?
Cambelt and waterpump
This job needs doing asap and I want to tackle it myself but I don't believe I'd be able to get it right first time and that would have some expensive ramifications, I contacted VAGtech as they're local and it looks like I'm going to have to just take a hit on the cost, I knew this before I got the car but having it done myself at a reputable place is worth it rather than just a random garage over 10,000 miles ago.
Gearknob
OEM are £60 which is too much on ebay, I found just the leather cover but the description says 5 speed only....
Tyres
It had some dunlops all round but when it came to getting its last MOT the fronts were knackered and the seller put some "Achilles" tyres on, I usually stay away from mis matched tyres but these were put on for the sale so it's not too bad. I always wanted some Toyo R888 but they seem over kill for this car, any suggestions?
I couldn't get the launch right but it pulls nicely through the gears!
Have fancied one of these for years, and mooched around the forums a lot for them the jobs that seem to be recommend are take the sump off replace the oil strainer with an updated version clean everything and refit as well as replace the oil pressure sensor, as well as belts tensioners and water pump.
Apart from that most people are pretty happy with them, they do a few mods to the boost valves and some remove one valve thing that is supposed to make it drive better but not everybody agrees, coilpacks are a known weakness and did have a recall on them.
Remaps are pretty popular as well as retro fitting parts for the VAG group you can have OE level stuff everywhere including proper flat blades, factory style xenons cruise control i think as well. cupranet is a great forum.
The prefacelifts are a bargain for the performance, once got some lovely bills out the way will be getting rid of my Vectra and getting one of these(maybe the toledo 1.8 for a more left field or if lucky an R) I think since does me for the performance and opportunities to faff around and tinker ( no can bus or similar s
te) and since is a decent size 5 doorcar with a good sized boot keeps the other half happy as well.
Apart from that most people are pretty happy with them, they do a few mods to the boost valves and some remove one valve thing that is supposed to make it drive better but not everybody agrees, coilpacks are a known weakness and did have a recall on them.
Remaps are pretty popular as well as retro fitting parts for the VAG group you can have OE level stuff everywhere including proper flat blades, factory style xenons cruise control i think as well. cupranet is a great forum.
The prefacelifts are a bargain for the performance, once got some lovely bills out the way will be getting rid of my Vectra and getting one of these(maybe the toledo 1.8 for a more left field or if lucky an R) I think since does me for the performance and opportunities to faff around and tinker ( no can bus or similar s
te) and since is a decent size 5 doorcar with a good sized boot keeps the other half happy as well.Lovely colour Imperial Blue!
I had my LC for ten years and miss it, still get a twinge of sadness when I see one. It was a brilliant car that went everywhere and covered over 100k miles under my ownership. Yes, I had the usual leaky doorseals, but a couple of hours with the butyl rope from ebay resealed the doors perfectly.
Mine ended up with 310bhp thanks to a big turbo swap and supporting mods (FMIC, injectors, intake, Milltek) and was a great deal of fun, especially as I kept it on the stock 16" wheels
The modding bug can bite pretty hard with these cars as there is always another mod or upgrade you can do!
I also upgraded the front wishbones, hub carriers and ARB to those from the Cupra R, as they provide better geometry from the word go. Again these bolt straight on.
I now have a garage full of the parts I took off when the car went to the scrappy, including a set of 17" facelift alloys that I never got around to fitting (same as the ones posted above).
Hope you enjoy the car mate, I certainly loved mine and it was a brilliant all-rounder
I had my LC for ten years and miss it, still get a twinge of sadness when I see one. It was a brilliant car that went everywhere and covered over 100k miles under my ownership. Yes, I had the usual leaky doorseals, but a couple of hours with the butyl rope from ebay resealed the doors perfectly.
Mine ended up with 310bhp thanks to a big turbo swap and supporting mods (FMIC, injectors, intake, Milltek) and was a great deal of fun, especially as I kept it on the stock 16" wheels
The modding bug can bite pretty hard with these cars as there is always another mod or upgrade you can do!I also upgraded the front wishbones, hub carriers and ARB to those from the Cupra R, as they provide better geometry from the word go. Again these bolt straight on.
I now have a garage full of the parts I took off when the car went to the scrappy, including a set of 17" facelift alloys that I never got around to fitting (same as the ones posted above).
Hope you enjoy the car mate, I certainly loved mine and it was a brilliant all-rounder
Edited by csd19 on Monday 28th December 19:19
Love the colour OP! 
I too have a soft spot for these. I bought an X-plate one in early 2004 in Black Magic (wouldn't have been my first choice) but it had the optional leather with the electric memory seats. Lovely car!
I kept it the best part of 2 years and did 15,000 miles with it during which time all it cost me was a service and a cambelt change - mind you those 2 jobs cost me the best part of £600 at a main agent (it was still in warranty at the time).
Mine seemed to go really well, but it seemed to struggle for front end grip in corners if the road wasn't dry. It averaged just under 30 mpg - could have been better but I liked to hear the turbo!
Hope you enjoy it.
I too have a soft spot for these. I bought an X-plate one in early 2004 in Black Magic (wouldn't have been my first choice) but it had the optional leather with the electric memory seats. Lovely car!
I kept it the best part of 2 years and did 15,000 miles with it during which time all it cost me was a service and a cambelt change - mind you those 2 jobs cost me the best part of £600 at a main agent (it was still in warranty at the time).
Mine seemed to go really well, but it seemed to struggle for front end grip in corners if the road wasn't dry. It averaged just under 30 mpg - could have been better but I liked to hear the turbo!
Hope you enjoy it.
csd19 said:
Yes, I had the usual leaky doorseals, but a couple of hours with the butyl rope from ebay resealed the doors perfectly.
I wonder if that's what is causing the damp smell in the OP's car? If they have to take the door cards off to do the rear central locking it may be worth checking the rear door seals?Nice car OP!
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