Hey

Looking to buy one of these in the next few weeks after selling my Clio today. I know a few people have owned them on here so was wondering if you have any decent buying advice etc. Ill be looking to buy one with around 60 - 70k and the maximum i want to spend is ?7000. I'm going to look at buying one which has had a few mods inc the remap as i don't really want to spend much money tinkering.

Look forward to hearing some responses

Cheers

Sam

Did you ever go out in Paradigm's?

Good cars, ridiculously overspecced brakes, reasonable inside.

The engines have a tendency to nuke themselves if you corner too hard with a less-than-full stock sump though.

Yep but that was a very long time ago, i remember the speedo climbing very quickly but it not feeling "that quick" They have the same interior as an old A3 dont they ?

I will want to do a few trackdays, is it a good idea to invest in a baffled sump then

Do they? I don't think I've ever heard of a 1.8T suffering from oil starvation. That said, a baffled sump and a keen eye on the oil level is always a good idea for regular track work.

Well unless you want to fork out for a new engine, then yep!

I'm definitely no expert on these cars but I've picked up a few bits and bobs over the years - they don't handle dump valves very well, so avoid any cars that have had one fitted. There is an uprated recirc valve IIRC, can't quite remember what it particularly helped with.

El's was remapped to ~260bhp and never developed any issues as a result afaik.

EDIT:

Happened to Paradigm on track, I believe it is fairly common due to the design of the sump - the pickup design doesn't allow for full oil pressure to be maintained during long high speed corners.

Sam why did you sell your Scooby and now the Clio?

So it happened to one person? That could have been down to oil level, the oil used or any number of things. A local chap took his LCR on a locally run trackday at Combe recently with no issues - surely there is more to it than just a bad design, otherwise I'm sure you'd hear a lot more about the issue.

I get bored quickly I lost not a penny on the clio and made a grand on the scooby so its not as if im losing money.

I presume we're talking about Mk1 Leons here?

Can't comment on what's under the bonnet, but regarding the rest of the car, there's not really anything serious in particular to look out for.
If it's raining, check for water on the door sills, they're prone to leaking and fixing it means dismantling the doors, etc..

Check out the forums over on SeatCupra.net
Very, very useful, even if a lot of the owners tend to barry them up


There's also a 'secret menu' in the CC, which takes readings straight from the ECU. Quite useful!

http://www.wak-tt.com/tt/climatecontcodes.htm

Don't think I'd go from a 182 to a Leon-R? Won't it be a fair bit more "meh"?

My Mate just got a Mk3 Leon Cupra 2 weeks ago. Few mods and a remap and its putting out ~230BHP. VERY fast little car, Defenatly underestimated little things.

Best place to ask would be www.seatcupra.net

You got 50K like minded SEAT Drivers to ask

This is what I thought.

I can assure you it never had anything other than the recommended oil, and I even slightly overfilled for the trackday.

Obviously check for oil changes, should be done atleast every 10k. The pick up gets blocked up quite easily especially if its had long life services!

Nope

As said i will be looking to buy one that has had a few modifications therefor it will be a fair bit quicker than the clio. 270 / 300 bhp should be more than entertaining for a while

Ah I recall that day well!

Before...


Infact just noticed Adam is in the car on this one, so possibly taken seconds before the failure!


After



At that time it was all smiles until the extent of the damage was known!

Pretty sure the worst thing from my mouth that day was a James May "permission to say ****".

Sooo can anyone give me any buying tips, you know things to look out for when giving it the once over. What are the issues with the car running a BOV, surley if its a high quality bov its not going to cause massive issues.

Sam

Go to SeatCupra.net and all the info you will need will be found there.
FAQs and posts, reposts, threads, and re-threads.

The cars don't want to vent to atmosphere, regardless of the quality of the BOV or not. It still meters the recirc air, and so you can cause a myriad of ECU issues by running one.

Check for water leaks, I'm fairly certain all Mk1 Leons suffer the same problem around the door seals, look for damp footwells and musty interior smells.

I have a Forge 007P re-circ valve. I think its the most popular one to get.

I've had mine for 3.5 years now with relatively few problems. They're not cheap to run though so I'm thinking of changing to something cheap and boring (the joys of home ownership). Here's a few things to look out for

The door seals can go resulting in water in the footwells. Happened to mine on the passanger side. However it was simply fixed by removing the trim from the door and squirting some silicon sealant in the gap. I've also heard it can happen if the pollen filter isn't fitted properly.

Coil pack failure is also pretty common but aren't too much to replace. I've never had that problem though.

Although not a common problem an issue that crops up quite a bit is the slave cylinder on the clutch failing. It's a gearbox-out job to fix. Mine is in the garage at the moment having this and the clutch replaced.

From reading around on the seat forums, people don't say a baffled sump is essential for track use but I had it done just to be safe.

The biggest gain on a standard car is getting it remapped. Expect around 260bhp. This puts more stress on the already weak diverter valve so make sure it's replaced with an aftermarket one. I have a turbosmart valve on mine which I can adjust to allow some air to go back into the intake and some into the atmosphere. If you don't allow enough air back into the intake it can start overfueling and run rough. In extrmeme cases go into limp mode.

Handling wise fitting a rear anti-roll bar makes a big improvement as it cuts out a lot of the understeer.

Also on the track I found fitting coilovers made a big improvement in cornering speed. I went for KW V1's although much firmer the ride over bumps and potholes is no worse than the standard setup.

Running costs aren't cheap. I average about 30mpg on super unleaded. Brake parts are expensive, I payed ?250 for front discs and pads. Servicing costs aren't too bad with intervals at 10k miles. Also make sure that the cam belt has been replaced at 4 years or 40k miles. It says check at 60k in the handbook but they brought it forward.

There were 2 versions, 210 and 225bhp. All the mechanical bits are pretty much identical and remap to the same figures. But with ?7k I'd expect a late 225.

There's only a couple of options availiable. Recaro seats and sat-nav (very rare). The recaro seats on the 210 were in the front and rear while the 225 was only in the front. I have them in mine and although looking pretty much identical in the front I found them much more comfortable.

Cheers Guys :-)

with paradigms, was the oil pump pick up checked after it blew up? due to pikey service intervals they love to block the oil pump with burnt oil. i end up cleaning them on a regular basis

It was checked both pre and post incident, and was found to be clean on both occasions. And it certainly didn't have "pikey" service intervals.

The problem was literally the oil sloshing away from the pickup (why it's not in the center of the sump I have no idea), which in turn lead to piston 3 seizing due to a spun cap.

Trying to think back on my LCR it has had:

• 3 coil packs go (fourth replaced for good measure). This was all within 2 weeks.
• Water pump was totally busted, this was replaced while the cam belt was done

Never had any major problems. Check my Fuelly page to see my fuel usage.
Back windscreen wiper is RUBBISH. Still need to change mine for a Fabia wiper.

Platinum grey is the best colour!

Agreed. One of the best mods I did was fit the labia rear (aerotwin) wiper.

Truth!

what were the intervals for those cars or did they avoid AVS long life servicing all together?