Dave B's S3 Diary

[[Dave B]]

Hi All,

After being on here for the best part of 10 years I thought it was about time I had one of these threads. It's unlikely to contain any hardcore modding like some of the pro's on here as it's still a daily driver, but hopefully it'll interest some folk

So onto the car. It's a 2003 S3 with 81k on it, I bought it off the original owner at 40k and i've added the rest over the last 7 years. Recently I decided that I'm unlikely to sell it any time soon so I thought I'd start treating it to some shiny parts. It's current spec is:

Badger5 v1 TIP
Jetex filter shrouded in the OE airbox cover
Custom code stage 1 map
008p DV
Pipewerx DP and sports CAT
Miltek non-res zorst
2L TFSI coilpacks with adaptors and re-gapped plugs
N249 bypass
Saiky Catch-can with PCV delete
Bilstein B12 Pro kit (eibach springs)
R32 RARB
Mix of powerflex and new OE bushes fitted recently
Dave's Rear Tiebars
OE RSTT's shod with Eagle F1's
10mm spacers up front and 15mm rears

...and here's a recent pic:

Ok, that's if for the intro. I've been doing some tinkering this weekend which i'll report in the next post......

 

[[Dave B]]

So, i've been tempted for a while to give the injectors a clean but never got around to buying one of the ultrasonic cleaners, then I found a deal on ANSU injector cleaning on another forum I go on. The deal was £40 for servicing including a go on the ANSU machine, new o-rings and caps and return postage, plus a report on condition. So I pulled them out and posted them off, leaving the bay looking like this:

A few days later they arrived back nice and clean and with a report showing before and after condition...injectors:

...and the report:

I didn't know what to expect really as it was a first time for me but the idle feels solid now and at least I have confidence that they are clean and operating correctly (I had an incident a while back with some melted fuel line blocking the FPR which always made me think an injector or two might be a bit blocked). Also next time it goes for mapping I should be confident on the fueling side as it's had a new pump, a new filter, new fuel hose, a cleaned FPR and cleaned injectors.

So with fueling sorted it was time to have another tweak of the air intake system...

 

[Sandra]

​This is very interesting read Dave, i look forward to reading more. x

 

[[Dave B]]

Ok, this is where I've taken a slight deviation from the norm! It's widely documented that the standard intercoolers are sh1t so I thought they should be next on the list to be replaced. The usual route for S3's seems to be either the Wellycooler, AH Fabs or Forge but TBH none of those really hit the spot for me so I opted for Wagner kit. The wagner kit normally gets discounted due to the cost but I didn't think it was too bad to be honest. Yes it's more expensive than the wellycooler and the AH fabs offering, but what swung it for me was:

- It's a complete kit, so no ordering bits from all over and nothing needs trimming
- It easily clears the fogs
- It's black, which I wanted as I wanted to keep it stealth
- Fitting it was easy, no trimming of anything, it just needed three holes drilling (2 in the crash bar and one in the bottom of the rad surround)

Whilst £650 is no doubt expensive for a FMIC kit it certainly seems a quality kit. Anyway enough yakking, here are the pics.

How the goodies arrived:

The cooler:

Core thickness:

Pipework and fittings:

So let's get started! Bumper off:

Old gubbins off and cooler mounted:

From the side:

From the top, she's a snug fit!!

Bumper back on, where's that cooler?

There it is:

And finally all covers and pipework back on and ready for a test drive:

I haven't measured AIT's yet as I was starving and tea was calling. I did take it for a quick drive to make sure everything stayed where it should and no boost pipes blew off which was a good start. I'll post up intake temps when I get chance to get vagcom plugged in.

Thanks for reading! :thumbsup:

 

[[Dave B]]

​This is very interesting read Dave, i look forward to reading more. x

Thanks Sandra, I've got a few more mods lined up to try and keep it interesting

 

[Jersey]

nice thread and car, I will enjoy reading whats to come!

 

[s3mad_dude]

Ahh a stealthy modder - my type of modding!! Interesting read, keep the updates coming.

 

[Sam_]

Awesome. I was weighing up about the Wagner when I was going to do mine but wasn't sure how it'd pan out with the GTX30. It does look like a great kit and like you say, stealth.

 

[jojo]

Just need a set of 19" Porsche rims to finish it off Dave!

No seriously, the inter cooler looks a tidy bit of kit, hope it's all beneficial, depending on how far you are going with the engine tuning!

 

[[Dave B]]

Awesome. I was weighing up about the Wagner when I was going to do mine but wasn't sure how it'd pan out with the GTX30. It does look like a great kit and like you say, stealth.

It does seem to be a well designed kit from a fitting perspective and the bumper went straight back on with zero issues thankfully. You're probably right to avoid it for a GTX30, I've no intention of changing the turbo for a good few years yet so hopefully it'll be man enough to handle up to 300bhp. When I have AIT figures I might add the info to the FMIC sticky for info as I have loads of pics...

Ahh a stealthy modder - my type of modding!! Interesting read, keep the updates coming.

Yeah OEM+ is the intended route. I say intended, TBH there's loads of OE mods on there already, mk4 golf aero wipers, polo stubby ariel, ambient lighting etc etc, its only when you write them down that you realise only half of the car is still original

Just need a set of 19" Porsche rims to finish it off Dave!

No seriously, the inter cooler looks a tidy bit of kit, hope it's all beneficial, depending on how far you are going with the engine tuning!

That reminds me, I have some pictures for you, I'll get them hosted today and send you the link

 

[superkarl]

Nice work dave.
I love that intercooler, looks awesome and SO EASY. Its goota be on par with AH V2 in size, and you'd imagine the quality and the results to be the same. Futureproofed for sure.

 

[[Dave B]]

Nice work dave.
I love that intercooler, looks awesome and SO EASY. Its goota be on par with AH V2 in size, and you'd imagine the quality and the results to be the same. Futureproofed for sure.

Cheers Karlos! I can understand why people buy the Wellycooler and AH fabs as they're proven and keener on price, but if someone's in the market for a full kit in one go I can't understand why anyone would buy the Forge kit these days? It's more expensive and IMO looks cack by comparison. I also prefer the way the wagner kit has less joins in the pipework, less chance of me introducing boost leaks

 

[Westy]

Good to see you've finally started a thread Dave. Lovely looking car.

 

[voorhees]

Stealth coolers ftw,good work/thread Dave :thumbsup:

 

[[Dave B]]

Cheers gents, more to come later this week....

 

[s3mad_dude]

I spy your Miami blue 205 GTi....I had one of those back in the days! Still my all time favourite car and colour combination.

 

[[Dave B]]

Well spotted dude, that's the car that reminds me what a hot hatch should handle like!

 

[s3mad_dude]

OMG (excessive dribble) *faint*

Awesome

 

[[Dave B]]

So it's come round to the time of year when she's due an oil and filter change. No pictures of that process as it's all pretty boring, however I did get a picture of the oil can, mainly as I'm not used to buying oil in this quantity:

It was on a deal at TPS recently for about £50 (I think someone posted it on here) which seemed like a bargain, and given that both my wife's polo uses it and my sister in laws leon uses it, buying in a larger quantity seemed like a good idea.

Oh and as a teaser of what's coming in the next few weeks:

 

[Jersey]

Loving the 205 Dave, i had to sell mine to buy the S3. Still miss her lol but the S3 makes up for it

 

[[Dave B]]

View attachment 21040 View attachment 21041
Loving the 205 Dave, i had to sell mine to buy the S3. Still miss her lol but the S3 makes up for it

That's lovely, looks clean to. Shame you had to sell it but all good things must come to an end...although I'm hoping to never sell mine lol.

 

[s3mad_dude]

I'm going to have to buy another Miami blue at some point - I have vowed it to myself. Although I'm living in France currently and I saw a Griffe the other day. First time I've seen one in the flesh and it was top banana.

 

[Sam_]

Yeah those Griffes were awesome. I had 205s for a while too on ITBs, Quaife box etc. Awesome cars but I feel safer in the S3!

 

[smurfworth]

that cooler looks sick, awesome build quality. Never heard of them before, looks like it was worth the extra money to get it to fit like that.

 

[[Dave B]]

I'm going to have to buy another Miami blue at some point - I have vowed it to myself. Although I'm living in France currently and I saw a Griffe the other day. First time I've seen one in the flesh and it was top banana.

Do it, and do it soon before the values rise even further! Griffe's are lovely, in fact any GTI in Laser green does it for me TBH. It's the only colour I'd consider trading the Miami for.

Yeah those Griffes were awesome. I had 205s for a while too on ITBs, Quaife box etc. Awesome cars but I feel safer in the S3!

Your 205 was a bit of a beast People say you feel most alive when close to death, that's the true appeal of a 205

that cooler looks sick, awesome build quality. Never heard of them before, looks like it was worth the extra money to get it to fit like that.

Well I've never had something of mine described as 'sick' before, I feel like I've graduated, cheers fella :thumbsup:

It was worth the extra for me as I didn't want the hassle of the other 'kits', but it depends on your requirements really. The build quality is certainly there, just the IAT's to check/confirm really.

 

[Sam_]

Your 205 was a bit of a beast People say you feel most alive when close to death, that's the true appeal of a 205

Heh cheers! I do miss it, I found a couple of vids of it the other day. On ITBs: https://selz.com/items/media/523c1909a1416c106809202f and on Carbs: https://selz.com/items/media/523c1ce3a1416c1068092071 Induction noise++ The Quaife box was a joy too.

Excuse the full screen vids, stealing works bandwidth + transcoding and sorry for the 205 hijack!

 

[[Dave B]]

That noise is just sex, I need ITB's in my life so badly it hurts. The plan is to fit some jenveys to the 1.6 8v over the winter, assuming the S3 doesn't consume all disposable income!

That brings me to my next update, it looks like she needs a new additional coolant pump as it's being temperamental. That puts sexy new brembo's and a new map on hold for a while

 

[Sam_]

Good man, that will sound awesome. Who's mapping it? Do yourself a favour and take it down to Sandy. I first met him ages ago when he built and mapped his own Rallye with a 1.6 16v and now he's building engines/cars for his full time job. He's really knowledgable.

It does sound like your pump is gone. I just took mine out again and it was running afterwards.

 

[[Dave B]]

The plan was to go the DTA route and have Wayne at Chipwards map it as he is literally 10 minutes from where I live, but I have heard lots of positive things about Sandy. Lots of time to decide yet though as it's coming off the road for 6 months on 1st October for hibernation/tinkering.

Following the discussion in the pump thread I decided to bite the bullet and fit a new one. It needed fitting before 1st October so that ruled out trying a latvian pump due to delivery lead times. I tried TPS and they wanted £110+Vat

Rang ECP and they had a Bosch one in stock for £70+Vat.

Was a bit concerned that it might be a knock-off part but to my surprise it was a genuine Bosch item and fitted perfectly. It's much quieter than the old one and comes on with just an ignition turn. Haven't checked it after a run yet, I'll do that this weekend.

 

[vrbob]

Pump looks like the Latvian one i am waiting for (any part numbers on it?)

Am guessing this is the definitive answer to after run pumps then is that they should run no matter what for approx 10mins even if the ignition is just turned on (no engine start) if your does not do this then invest in a new pump as its keeping your turbo healthy.

Still good work fella whats the plans for the 6 months its off the road?

 

[[Dave B]]

There are Bosch part numbers on it but I don't have them on me, they're on the box at home so I'll post them up later. I expect you're right that they should come on every time, I didn't get a definitive answer from anywhere else, I'd just lost confidence in the original pump and it was bugging me.

The S3 is actually coming back on the road on 1st October. It's been off the road for most of the summer whilst I use the Pug as a daily, it's given me an opportunity to do the intercooler, PCV delete, catch-can, service etc. I've still got some more mods coming up this weekend and would still like to do the Brembo's and get a new map before Christmas but money is tightening at a rapid rate!

The Pug is coming off the road for winter for some attention to the body work and maybe ITB's in the new year

 

[vrbob]

Ahh thats cool I have fond memories of my old 1.9GTI 205 was a good little go kart

Nice so the S3 is the winter wagon then, wish I had the time and cash to keep 2 cars but had to flog my Mk2 MR2 when I got the S3 as downsized form a big soot chucking A4 (had the MR2 as weekend toy) as the S3 became the fun and commuting car in one.

I have been meaning to get my car to B5 or R-tech for over 12months now but as you say cash flow can be an issue and so far this month am £1300 worse off due to needing 12month tax and a new clutch, DMF and gearbox! So once car insurance is sorted next month I think I will be back on to looking at custom remaps again.

 

[[Dave B]]

Ahh thats cool I have fond memories of my old 1.9GTI 205 was a good little go kart

Nice so the S3 is the winter wagon then, wish I had the time and cash to keep 2 cars but had to flog my Mk2 MR2 when I got the S3 as downsized form a big soot chucking A4 (had the MR2 as weekend toy) as the S3 became the fun and commuting car in one.

I have been meaning to get my car to B5 or R-tech for over 12months now but as you say cash flow can be an issue and so far this month am £1300 worse off due to needing 12month tax and a new clutch, DMF and gearbox! So once car insurance is sorted next month I think I will be back on to looking at custom remaps again.

Aye it is a winter wagon, the 4WD comes in very handy getting out of works car park.

Ouch on the clutch, DMF and gearbox, but it happens to all of us - money-pits!

I've got an update coming from this weekend after doing some fettling, just waiting for the pics to upload

 

[[Dave B]]

Sooooo, it's back on the road tomorrow so this weekend was spent doing muchos cleaning and sealing.

First off was to clean the throttle body as it's never been done as far as I'm aware. Here it is pre-clean:

And here it is after some carb cleaner, a rag and a few cotton buds:

All fitted back with a new gasket and she's now running as smooth as silk

Next up was to give the car a thorough clean and seal before winter sets in. As I had plenty of time, the wheels were replaced with my spare set of TT comp allys, this meant I could spend some much needed time on the alloys, both inside and out!

Pre-wash with the TT comps on (I have to say that I am quite fond of these rims):

In the back of this pic you can see the inside of the RSTT's, they were proper mingin! The wheels then went through the following process (with rinsing in between each step):

- Snow foam
- Wheel cleaner with shampoo and agitation
- Tardis De-tar
- Korrosol Fallout remover
- Polished with SRP
- Sealed inside and out with Swissvax Autobahn

They really need a refurb as they have corrosion in places but as funds won't stretch that far a good clean had to suffice...and I think they came up ok. It's good to know there's some decent protection on them as well.

A neighbours cat even popped in to check out the progress:

After fitting these back on, next came to polishing up the paintwork and getting a decent layer of protection on the body. After machine polishing some swirls and RDS out I layered her with Colly 845 for protection. Tonight she'll get a top coat of something, maybe Colly 845 again or maybe Blackfire paste wax. I'll also finish treating the tyres, exhaust tips and trims etc. Didn't get loads of pics as the light isn't great in the garage but I did get some, mainly of the arches, god I love fat arches!

Remaining jobs on the list now are:

- New timing belt (this'll be it's third)
- Brembo's
- Custom map

Hope you're enjoying the read

 

[[Dave B]]

Right, managed to get some logging done tonight, with some interesting results. 2 runs in third gear from 2kish to as close to the red line as I could get:

Run 1:

Run 2:

So, the positives:

- The intercooler seems to be doing its job as IAT's are down on boost
- Timing retardation is now 0 across the board which is good. Before the cooler, catch can and PCV mods it was hitting 3-6's on all cylinders
- It looks good on power, using the 0.8 rule its about 269

...but the negatives:

- For some reason it's requesting mega boost. This I just can't understand and TBH is starting to frigg me off.
- It's making the mega boost, and probably overshooting the sensors capabilities

For those who know the history it once had a jabba map which basically meant massive boost request across the board. This led to mega EGT's, and a knackered N75. To rectify this I had a Custom Code stage 1 map done which had lower boost request together with a new N75 valve. Logs after that work show lower request and actual boost. Since then nobody's touched the ECU or valve and its done about 15k miles. Now for someone unknown reason it's requesting more boost and making it!! As well as the above I recently used unisettings to reduce the load to 95%, this was due to the turbo surging on WOT in higher gears.

It feels like this over boosting should be connected but I am now clueless. Could it be hardware related, but if so then why is the ECU requesting max boost? What could cause the ECU to request mega boost other than the map? I've logged N75 duty cycle, how does this look? Normal for a stage 1 mapped car?

VCDS log experts...1.8T wizards....can you help?

 

[Essflee]

Your command boost looks fine, it only tops once to 2550 where it may go above the sensors limits, looks good to me.

Nice thread by the way, your car looks and goes how mine should do, I'm lazy.

 

[badger5]

the boost plots would make more sense to me if the axis were rpm on x and pressure on y, so you can see the requested vs actuals against the rpm base on which the load sites are controlling via

 

[[Dave B]]

Your command boost looks fine, it only tops once to 2550 where it may go above the sensors limits, looks good to me.

Nice thread by the way, your car looks and goes how mine should do, I'm lazy.

Cheers fella, but I'm not keen on boost spikes TBH, they give me rod nightmares! (if you know what I mean).

the boost plots would make more sense to me if the axis were rpm on x and pressure on y, so you can see the requested vs actuals against the rpm base on which the load sites are controlling via

I've still got the spreadsheet so I'll do this tonight and upload, cheers Bill.

 

[Essflee]

Cheers fella, but I'm not keen on boost spikes TBH, they give me rod nightmares! (if you know what I mean).

Totally understand that mate, got the T-shirt.

I'm no expert mate, just thought your logs looked ok...

 

[Essflee]

Your boost never actually goes beyond what the map sensor can see which is a plus.