Decided to start a thread to keep a diary of progress and work on the S3.
The car was in a poor state when collected. The shocks were knocking, the steering was heavy and the exhaust was moving about far too much.
Here it is:
Drove it home from Kent, THEN discovered that the rear shocks were basically rotten:
I knew the fronts were on their way out, or at the very least the top mounts were, as it was rattling like hell over speed bumps. I also discovered that the tyres are 235's instead of the 225's it should have. The car needed everything doing, but I didn't realise the full extent of work needed initially.
So as soon as I discovered the state of the shocks, I ordered a set of Koni STR.T shocks with H&R springs. A couple of days passed and I was then informed that they wouldn't be here until January 24th! Great. So I then had to spend another £100 buying a set of used shocks just to run the car until then. Not really what I was hoping for.
I found out that the exhaust hanger on the passenger side was missing, so ordered one of these. Unfortunately it also looks like there are no places for a new one to bolt to...
While I was ordering stuff I also bought some LCR top mounts and new bearings for when the Konis arrive. In addition I bought a red Powerflex dogbone bush.
The eagle eyed among you will notice that the dogbone has been put back together the wrong way round in that pic
Re-attaching the dogbone was a mission in itself. Unfortunately, one of the stretch bolts threaded out the hole when I tried to tighten to the specified torque. Could have done without extra problems, but there you go. I ended up using a different bolt instead and have managed to torque that up, so that will do.
At the same time I did this, I also removed and cleaned the sump, and fitted a new oil strainer and pickup pipe. I didn't like how the car sounded, and having had a Leon Cupra in the past that suffered a seized engine due to the head being starved because of a blocked strainer, I wasn't going to take any risks.
Installing the new pipe was quite straightforward but putting the sump back on went slightly wrong. Without much space under the car, the sump hit a pipe as I was replacing it, and that managed to knock some of the sealant off. As it had been about ten mins since I started applying it at this point, I had to just go ahead and put it back on and cross my fingers.
It almost worked!
I have a very very slight oil leak from the sump now. I will have to do it again but not just yet. It's so slight that I can ignore it for now and there are more important jobs to do. I still have an idle problem to deal with, but the engine sounds much better.
I got the car with a piddly little cone filter on it, and took my chance when a nice K&N cone came up on eBay. I also bought a heat shield and fitted them both at the same time:
I changed the rotten shocks once the used replacements arrived and got the car back on the road. One of the rear coil springs had actually snapped at the bottom.
Because the shocks had been changed, the alignment was out. I took it somewhere to see if they could sort it, as I couldn't stand the thought of leaving it until the brand new shocks came. Unfortunately they said they couldn't do it due to play in the steering components.
I then went out and bought new tie rods and tie rod ends to correct the problem. I did this today and guess what? No more play! One of the inner tie rods had massive play in the ball joint. It was easily the worst I've ever seen!
Check out one of the tie rod ends:
Today has also seen me take the front bumper off and try to correct the headlight situation.
The headlights have no back covers and have been swapped out for Depo facelift style lights, with an HID kit. It has been implemented very badly, and leaves a lot to be desired. The wires are exposed and there are bits that should be connected that aren't, bits that shouldn't be connected that are, and so on.
Hopefully tomorrow I will manage to get the new lights I bought fitted, but I will have to wait a while for some new headlight washer jets. When I got the bumper off, I found that these were disconnected, with one of them actually broken. The fogs weren't connected either...
I also set about tidying up the wings around where the headlights fits. This was done badly and wasn't at all tidied up afterwards when someone fitted facelift lights. When I got it it was like this:
I have not cut some more of the bumper guide and a bit more metal away at both sides, and this evening I painted the exposed metal and touched the area up as best I could. I will take some pics in the daylight tomorrow.
Here's the washer jets:
Phew! That took some writing, but I can keep this current from here which will be great for me keeping track of what I've done.
I've missed a couple of minor things but that's the majority of it. What a mission this has turned into, the sodding money pit!
The car was in a poor state when collected. The shocks were knocking, the steering was heavy and the exhaust was moving about far too much.
Here it is:
Drove it home from Kent, THEN discovered that the rear shocks were basically rotten:
I knew the fronts were on their way out, or at the very least the top mounts were, as it was rattling like hell over speed bumps. I also discovered that the tyres are 235's instead of the 225's it should have. The car needed everything doing, but I didn't realise the full extent of work needed initially.
So as soon as I discovered the state of the shocks, I ordered a set of Koni STR.T shocks with H&R springs. A couple of days passed and I was then informed that they wouldn't be here until January 24th! Great. So I then had to spend another £100 buying a set of used shocks just to run the car until then. Not really what I was hoping for.
I found out that the exhaust hanger on the passenger side was missing, so ordered one of these. Unfortunately it also looks like there are no places for a new one to bolt to...
While I was ordering stuff I also bought some LCR top mounts and new bearings for when the Konis arrive. In addition I bought a red Powerflex dogbone bush.
The eagle eyed among you will notice that the dogbone has been put back together the wrong way round in that pic
Re-attaching the dogbone was a mission in itself. Unfortunately, one of the stretch bolts threaded out the hole when I tried to tighten to the specified torque. Could have done without extra problems, but there you go. I ended up using a different bolt instead and have managed to torque that up, so that will do.
At the same time I did this, I also removed and cleaned the sump, and fitted a new oil strainer and pickup pipe. I didn't like how the car sounded, and having had a Leon Cupra in the past that suffered a seized engine due to the head being starved because of a blocked strainer, I wasn't going to take any risks.
Installing the new pipe was quite straightforward but putting the sump back on went slightly wrong. Without much space under the car, the sump hit a pipe as I was replacing it, and that managed to knock some of the sealant off. As it had been about ten mins since I started applying it at this point, I had to just go ahead and put it back on and cross my fingers.
It almost worked!
I have a very very slight oil leak from the sump now. I will have to do it again but not just yet. It's so slight that I can ignore it for now and there are more important jobs to do. I still have an idle problem to deal with, but the engine sounds much better.
I got the car with a piddly little cone filter on it, and took my chance when a nice K&N cone came up on eBay. I also bought a heat shield and fitted them both at the same time:
I changed the rotten shocks once the used replacements arrived and got the car back on the road. One of the rear coil springs had actually snapped at the bottom.
Because the shocks had been changed, the alignment was out. I took it somewhere to see if they could sort it, as I couldn't stand the thought of leaving it until the brand new shocks came. Unfortunately they said they couldn't do it due to play in the steering components.
I then went out and bought new tie rods and tie rod ends to correct the problem. I did this today and guess what? No more play! One of the inner tie rods had massive play in the ball joint. It was easily the worst I've ever seen!
Check out one of the tie rod ends:
Today has also seen me take the front bumper off and try to correct the headlight situation.
The headlights have no back covers and have been swapped out for Depo facelift style lights, with an HID kit. It has been implemented very badly, and leaves a lot to be desired. The wires are exposed and there are bits that should be connected that aren't, bits that shouldn't be connected that are, and so on.
Hopefully tomorrow I will manage to get the new lights I bought fitted, but I will have to wait a while for some new headlight washer jets. When I got the bumper off, I found that these were disconnected, with one of them actually broken. The fogs weren't connected either...
I also set about tidying up the wings around where the headlights fits. This was done badly and wasn't at all tidied up afterwards when someone fitted facelift lights. When I got it it was like this:
I have not cut some more of the bumper guide and a bit more metal away at both sides, and this evening I painted the exposed metal and touched the area up as best I could. I will take some pics in the daylight tomorrow.
Here's the washer jets:
Phew! That took some writing, but I can keep this current from here which will be great for me keeping track of what I've done.
I've missed a couple of minor things but that's the majority of it. What a mission this has turned into, the sodding money pit!
Last edited:
