VAG 1.8T experiences?

[MissChief]

I'm sure there are loads of people on here who have had the VAG 1.8T dragging them along in their chosen steed so I'm looking for experiences with them, specifically in the mark 1 Leon Cupra (Non-R, out of budget sadly ) and in a Mk1 Octavia vRS.

Coil packs were a problem but these should have been sorted under recall I believe? other than that, any foibles or things I should be looking at? Would be looking to buy towards the end of September.

it's one of those or an Accord Type R at the moment!

 

[rodenal]

Belts, waterpumps, abs sensors and MAF's really.

A very different car to the Accord - given the choice that's what I'd pick but I do have a soft spot for both the Leon and original octi VRS

 

[paradigm]

I think the thing to note about the 1.8T is that you will end up playing EML bingo, they love throwing up error codes for fun, and there are some inherent problems (such as the coils, which BTW will still die on you even with the latest revisions - the best thing you can do is upgrade to 2.0T coils and appropriate spacers, and always, ALWAYS carry a spare or two).

That said, it likely will never throw up an error code that leaves you stranded, it's always something daft that leaves the car in a drivable state (mine is on at the moment, it's a sensor problem).

 

[batfink]

I owned a Mk1 Leon Cupra (non R) for 4 years and never had a single problem. Best value for money car I've had.

Currently on a Mk5 Golf GTI (also owned for 4 years without a single problem) which is nicer, but not £4k nicer (the price difference at the time).

 

[Firestar_3x]

I blame my receding hairline on my 1.8T.

 

[Dup]

Is the Audi S3 the same 1.8T? I hear mentions of facelift and BAM but unsure if that means anything significant engine wise.

I might make my own thread but I've been looking at the Cupra R, S3 and ST220 but my budget it only about £3.5k which is 100k+ maybe a little rough territory. Is that too much of a risky budget?

 

[Firestar_3x]

I'd perfer a LCR over a 3.5k S3, the S3 just adds further complications and costs, and thats before we start getting onto how much you pay just for the badge.

ST220 for around the budget (if you get a bargain) would be my preference.

 

[MissChief]

Any LCR I saw for £3.5k had high mileage and no doubt will be pretty rough. I was planning on getting a standard Cupra and remapping it to around the same power as the LCR.

 

[Brookert]

Is the Audi S3 the same 1.8T? I hear mentions of facelift and BAM but unsure if that means anything significant engine wise.

I might make my own thread but I've been looking at the Cupra R, S3 and ST220 but my budget it only about £3.5k which is 100k+ maybe a little rough territory. Is that too much of a risky budget?

The 1.8t engines had a revision from apx to bam, added vvt to help with emissions, and some say the Bam engine is a little more durable.

 

[Firestar_3x]

Depending on revision you get either a forged or cast crank, different sized valves, cams, turbos, wrist pin sizes change.

 

[paradigm]

Any LCR I saw for £3.5k had high mileage and no doubt will be pretty rough. I was planning on getting a standard Cupra and remapping it to around the same power as the LCR.

Shame you won't end up with the better engine, suspension, brakes, geometry, etc etc etc

 

[MissChief]

I know but even the cheapest LCR is about £1k out of budget.

 

[Matt82]

i have a golf 1.8t and have covered about 50k miles in about 2.5 years.

it is now on 192k miles.

the car is given a hell of a lot of stick.

- i have had one (original) coil fail in that time.
- the front lambda died when an exhaust clamp failed. the exhaust sagged and broke a wire on the lambda
- the water pump decided to spring a leak
- a water flange (original) failed and leaked water.

that is all the engine work that i can remmeber carrying out on mine

if you do get one, i highly recommend the first thing you do is get the sump down, sort out the oil pump and then get it remapped for extra lolz

 

[lordrobs]

I think the thing to note about the 1.8T is that you will end up playing EML bingo,

Amen to that! My one was on at various points - intermittent miss fire (first signs of a coil pack on the way out), coolant sensor (twice), Lamda sensor, Secondary air pump, Oil level sensor etc.

Mechanically though the engine was fine up until 110k. Only times it ever went belly up from a driving perspective was twice with a duff coil pack (carried a spare so 5 minutes and I was on my way) and once when a pipe came off my newly fitted Forge recirc valve but that was my fault

Unfortunately my one went from never using a drop of oil between services to downing a litre every 600 miles and the rear end was constantly plastered in black sooty smudges. We are hoping to move house soon and were planning to drop to one car to help pull together a bigger deposit so I just gave it away at auction in the end.

With regards to the Octavia vRS specifically... while the engine itself was generally ok (apart from when the oil sensor shorted out taking out a fuse, melting a chunk of wiring loom and left the car running like poop) the rest of the car wasn't afraid of falling apart at various points. Multiple springs, track rod ends, drop links, steering racks etc. soon got annoyingly costly. It also rattled like an old van at the back end, was quite embarrassing to give people lifts in it. That said, maybe I was expecting too much coming from my 306 which needed nothing more than a rear brake cylinder between 63k and 117k miles.

 

[DogsBody]

Is the Audi S3 the same 1.8T? I hear mentions of facelift and BAM but unsure if that means anything significant engine wise.

I might make my own thread but I've been looking at the Cupra R, S3 and ST220 but my budget it only about £3.5k which is 100k+ maybe a little rough territory. Is that too much of a risky budget?

S3 & ST220 vastly different cars.
My favourite ever car I owned was my S3, but I now own an ST220 and I love it.
Really depends what you want from a car.
The S3 is a (relatively) small hatchback, and the mondeo whilst techinically a hatchback is more of a saloon shaped/sized car. It handles well enough but not as well as the S3 (mine did have handling mods though)
S3 also has haldex 4WD and whilst I am told it is not as good as the real thing provided me with enough giggles when I had one.

The S3 was constantly going wrong though, like others have said with stupid niggly things that leave the car still quite driveable. But end up expensive with the VW tax.
rear refurbed non genuine brake caliper was over £100 Plus VAT.
MAF sensor
3 coil packs went, but I had bought 4 in total, when I sold the car one gave up on the guy the next day, but as I had left the spare in the car it was easy enough for him to fit.
Audi also in there infinite wisdom fitted the ECU in such a position that all of the water that drains off the windscreen drips directly on the plug, a previous owner/mechanic had "rolled back" the seal ever so slightly this was allowing water and causing all sorts of errors that we couldn't track down, in the end I discovered a post on the Audi Sport forums from 2 years previous with the same fault and we managed to find the problem, unfortunately corrosion had already run its course and 3 of the ecu plug pins snapped when removing the plug, Audio wanted £600+ for a replacement ECU so we went with the option of soldering the wires direct to the ECU board, it ran faultlessly for 3 years of ownership after that.
longitudinal/lattitudual sensors - ABS/TCS lights on when giving it the beans will only reset after car is restarted, cost about £60+VAT each, hour job tops if doing for the first time.
MAF sensor - £80+VAT
coil packs - ~£40 each
thermostat
radiator temp sensor

One I heard of but never suffered with was the oil sump pickup getting clogged up and lunching the engine due to oil starvation.


Other than that it wasa great car, but probably getting a bit long in the tooth now for the 8L models (2000 - 2003)

 

[Brookert]

^ From what I hear of the 1.8t tt's, it's the same story. Nothing really goes wrong that it stops you driving the car, just silly things that get annoying.

 

[olv]

I've never had the engine light come on with either of my TTs but then I hardly do a lot of miles. The 007p valve (have I got that right?) was replaced on my current one just before I bought it as I think that's a weak point on the engine along with the spark plugs but apart from that I'm not sure it's ever had the coil packs done. I'll look through the paperwork tonight.

It was faultless over a 1600 mile trip around Scotland this month and averaged 38.5mpg according to the trip which I thought was pretty good.

 

[paradigm]

The 007p valve is a replacement diverter valve made by Forge Motorsport. The standard diverter valve (DV) is a weak point (especially for remapped cars), but isn't known as a 007p.

 

[DogsBody]

The 007p valve is a replacement diverter valve made by Forge Motorsport. The standard diverter valve (DV) is a weak point (especially for remapped cars), but isn't known as a 007p.

Funnily enough that is something I never had a problem with on mine despite it being remapped. It was in my list of plans to replace it althugh looking back I do think some of the claims people made were mostly placebo.

 

[paradigm]

Funnily enough that is something I never had a problem with on mine despite it being remapped. It was in my list of plans to replace it althugh looking back I do think some of the claims people made were mostly placebo.

Well my experiences were a drastic inability to hold boost pressure (remapped Leon Cupra R - BAM), to a lesser extent I had the same problem with a 007p on a green spring, changing out to yellow (and reversing the 007p) solved this.