Suspension upgrade

The time of suspension tuning is come.

I decided to improve a bit my Cupra's road behaviour. The goal was to get less body rolls, more precise response to steering wheel and as result - get a quicker cornering speed.

Eibach B12 Sportline kit and APR anti-sway bars became my choice.

The set is ready for install

Front suspension installed

 Each anti-sway bar has 3 rigidity settings that can be adjusted according to the driver requirements. I wanted to reduce a car's under-steering a little, so as an initial setup I putted a front bar to its soft setting and rear to the middle rigidity.
After testing this setup on the track I decided to leave these settings. They are perfect for the daily driver.

Rear suspension installed

Before

After

The car response to steering wheel is much more precisely now, especially in high speed cornering - it's just going to the desired direction and perform this almost without any delays. Its allowing a slight sliding inside the corners and it easily controlled with accelerator and steering wheel -  the car is continuing to advance into the right direction. Car responses to the direction change is quite fast.
Driving comfort almost not affected, comparing to the stock suspension: it's slightly shaky on bumpy road, but not so much. Also, I think that the overall car look is better now.
Now it is much more fun to drive it on winding roads. Also surprisingly, the car is very calm now in the straight line on high speed.

In conclusion:
This kit is a solid addition to the car's road grip ability. I'm more than happy with this upgrade.

Odometer: 42,500 km.

40K service

We're passed 40K km.
This is the regular oil change service, but it was done with some little additions.

Oil: Engine oil (Valvoline SynPower 5W-40, VW 502 00).
Filter: Mann HU 719/6x.

Also, the cam follower was replaced with the new one.
I'll show you comparison, that may be interesting for the 2.0 TFSI car owners. Two cam followers, that you can see in the picture below, passed 20K km.

Cam followers after 20K km.

The left one worked harder, because of HPFP upgrade. In general, the higher fuel pressure leads to the higher wear of the cam follower. The right one was installed prior to this upgrade and worked with the stock fuel pressure.

The brake fluid was changed from standard DOT4 to ATE TYP200 DOT4.

ATE TYP200 brake fluid

 Its advantage is higher boiling point, then stock fluid, that critical in the hard working conditions. Also the suggested change interval for this fluid is 3 years as opposed to only 2 years for the stock DOT4.

The brake lines was changed to stainless steel ones from HEL performance.  

HEL brake lines

This line kit eliminate that 'spongy' feeling often found with rubber hoses under extreme braking condition. 

That's all for now.

VWR Quickshift Gearchange

This is the simple modification, that will bring you another level of changing the gears. It may shorten the travel of the gear-lever by around 25% for quicker and more accurate changes.

VWR Short Shifter. The box.

The short shifter fits on top of the gearbox, replacing the stock gear selection mechanism.
It looks very similar to the stock shifter. The difference is, that now you may adjust the gear-level travel from 0% to 25% shorter than the stock shifter. This is "shift-travel" alignment is achieved by adjusting the position of bolt #3 in the picture below.

Package content

You may shorten it travel up to 25% or leave it as is in the stock. The point is, that even if you leave it "as is" before it'll give you more accurate gear change, probably because it comes with the metal sideshift plate #2 in the contrast with the stock sideshift, which comes with the shitty-plastic plate (Hey! SEAT, WTF?) as you may see in the picture below:

Stock gearbox shifter

I like this small, but very nice upgrade. Changing the gear has become more clear and fun then before.
More info about this quick-shifter: Volkswagen Racing website.

 Odometer: 33,100 km

30K service

The car is passed the next milestone: 30,000 km.

It's a service time! So what has been done?
Engine oil (Valvoline SynPower 5W-40, VW 502 00) , oil filter, cabin filter. I use the Mann filters.

Mann oil filter package

Engine air intake filter was changed at 19K km, so it was no reason to touch it now.
The spark plugs changed to it's performance version: NGK 2667 BKR7EIX

NGK BKR7EIX  iridium spark plugs

Also the coils are changed to the R8 coils: 06E905115E.

R8 coil pack

These, in pair with the NGK iridium plugs is suitable for powerful TFSI engines and capable give very stable spark especially at high engine RPM's.

PCV valve was changed to the latest (at this moment) revision: 06F129101R.

PCV valve for 2.0 TFSI

 Odometer: 30,020 km

New tires

It wasn't in my plans to change the tires now, but due to the puncture that was very close to another one on the same tire, I decided to move to the new tires set.

The Nitto Invo tyres has been choosen. They have a reasonable price and very good road performance at the dry and wet.

Nitto Invo. The page from the catalog.

Nitto Invo. Just before the install.

Nitto Invo installed on my Cupra.

And after the ride of 2000 km I would say, that they worth the money.

Odometer: 28,600 km.

Engine Oil change

Oil and original oil filter were changed. The service was done in official SEAT garage.

Valvoline SynPower 5W-40, VW 502 00

Oil filter

I change engine oil at least each 10,000 km. At this time, the gap between the changes was 7,800 km.

Odometer: 21,500 km.

Audi TTS engine cover

After the Volkswagen Racing cold air intake has been fitted, the original engine cover became unsuitable, since it has integrated factory intake system and therefore interfere with the new air intake.

Cupra R factory engine cover

I don't like to view the exposed engine each time without a special need. Furthermore, without an engine cover it's a chance to get coils and other small electric parts wet when raining.
So I decided to fill this gap and bought engine cover from Audi TTS. This car utilize the same engine, that my Cupra R, but it has another air intake system straight from the factory, that comes separately from the engine cover.
And last but not least: it's suitable to use with the Volkswagen Racing air intake by it's dimensions.

Audi TTS under hood

And the result is:

Cupra R with Audi TTS engine cover fitted

Now, the car's under hood has a nice and clean look.

Odometer: 19,500 km.