ARES Tuning Limited

2019 DNU OPF Cupra unfortunately came in with catastrophic damage.. extremely low miles too!

I’ve said this before, but a very common denominator is their Continental injectors - we can see cylinder 2 has melted the side of the piston before it subsequently seized in the bore and the rod exited the block 🙈

About my 6th GPF engine with this damage - all around 40k miles

Anyways, replacement block, crankshaft, oil pump and lower girdle with sump - and the engine was rebuilt. Luckily his head and camshafts where undamaged

Few weeks later he is now back on the road with fresh injectors! And a fresh new engine…

😎👌🏻

Ryan’s Cupra in this week!

Another very interesting one this… came on the back of a truck severely misfiring on idle, burbling on decel, smoking extensively out of the exhaust.

lots of various faults for lambda, misfires, Hyde cylinder and rich codes - it’s been to a lot of garages with no joy on a solution, so sleeves where rolled up!

Was quite testing this one!

Firstly, TMAP readings where everywhere - so a replacement TMAP was fitted which then stabilised, diagnostics points out a stretched timing chain, so we started there - as you can see his tensioner had extended extensively, so new timing chains tensioners and guides sorted. Somewhat to be expected as the vehicle had hit 94k miles

Spark plugs 1&4 were heavily sooted up indicating a rich condition, to which we removed the injectors to have a look - not in a great condition! So new injectors fitted, whilst we where there we walnut blasted the soiled intake valves back to like new

All back together… idling almost perfect now, almost…. However!

Rich on idle fault code still present, along with lambda sensor 1 negative lead open circuit. It was clear a new lambda had been fitted previously, but we have plenty here at the unit so a replacement was installed an all was then well

So! Off to Unicorn for tuning as he originally wanted a stage 1 tune at another garage but received it back still misfiring, so it was flashed back to stock… or was it??

GTI performance software had been flashed on the ECU, which will run - but it is quite different to Cupra software! That doesn’t help

Rick flashed a stock Cupra 280 file on and began work tuning, and all was going fine until intake temps rose above 40c and then “BING” management light and a rich condition fault code, along with a negative lead open circuit lambda fault

So tuning was halted, and back to the unit

Sure enough, lambda was sooted up as was cylinder 1 & 4 plug - was it wiring to the lambda? This was checked previously at the plug and connector, and the loom was untouched.. so what was occurring?

Looking at the fault logs present and previous there was a smoking gun, 41c! As soon as the intake temps hit 41c the faults would occur and the lambda negative would short out. This was obviously because the lambda was contaminating until it no longer gave the ECU is 0.2-0.9v signal

So what happen to air as it warms? It becomes less dense, less oxygen rich meaning less fuel is needed to target its AFR - so something wasn’t either being fed back to the ECU correctly or something wasn’t performing as the ECU was asking…

Hmm…. I’d previously checked the oil for signs of fuel contamination as a leaking high pressure pump will cause rich condition codes, but oil was fine, but let’s just look at the regulator duty

Sure enough, as soon as it hit 41c on intake temps that regulator pegged at 89.99% so wiring was then checked.. and there I found the 5v TMAP signal wire with a corroded break - but still some continuity to actually feedback something! 🙈

Wiring repaired, replacement high pressure pump for good measure.. lambda cleaned up

Perfect. Good idling for over an hour, logging all good and a good kicking up the road and it’s now moving like it should!

Ryan can finally enjoy his car again 😎👌🏻

Thank god it’s Friday…..

Always awesome to have nice messages about work!

We built this engine in January this year after a very unfortunate situation this customer had

We received the engine in three boxes as someone had taken it apart previously but it was left in that state

Unfortunately it had suffered a catastrophic failure in such a way that most of his parts where unusable

We made a start rebuilding and replacing what was needed and then the car was dropped off with us

Back on the road all fresh and smooth!

But thank you for the message! It really goes a long way ❤️

Another recommendation from Rtech! (Commission is in the post 😂)

Poor guy had been from one “specialist” to another spending ££££’s with no repair or soloution

Vehicle was misfiring from cold, better as it warmed but then would chug constantly with a really strong fuel odour - once warm low oil pressure on idle to top it off!

We fist checked oil pressure and found it on its arse at below 0.5bar once at 85c oil temps, very rough on revving so straight away could tell the balance shafts where not timed properly

We found exhaust cam timing was incorrect, so timing side was stripped down to which we found a stretched chain aswell as incorrectly set timing. Balance shafts timed correctly, replacement main drive chain fitted. Cambridge replaced and Buckets of sealant found around the old timing cover so sump was removed and a terrible amount of sealant removed from the oil pickup, new lower timing cover installed

Fault codes for lambda - running rich on idle, and also running lean on idle… now, it cannot be both! Unless… the lambda or the wiring was at fault

Someone had crimp repaired both lambda plugs - this is a big no no where lambdas are concerned, they operate using resistance signals to feedback to the ECU, crimp joints adversely effect resistance in this circuit

Both lambda plugs and wiring was removed from the ECU and a new un-molsetered replacement was wired in direct from the ECU pins to the lambda sockets

And 8hrs later?

Perfectly running engine with no faults, rough running, misfires or oil pressure lights!

He’ll be pleased come collection! 😎👌🏻