Tom5190's Dolphin S3 8P
 

Hi, I bought this S3 at the beginning of the week. It was far from immaculate so I put it in my unit straight away and got to work on it. Today I finished and put it on the road. There's no before photos but it was pretty neglected in its previous ownership. I've got a list of things that need doing to it but I did get it for a very reasonable price so it was expected. Here's what's been done to it since Monday:

Plugs
Air filter
Oil Filter
Pollen filter
Fuel filter
Oil
New tax disc holder
Cruise control stalk installed
LED side light bulbs

After that it got a clean, not a full detail as it needs some paintwork so that will come after winter. This is what was done:

Rinse
Snow foam
Hand Wash
Iron-X full car
Hand wash
Dried
SSR 2.5 Hand polish
2 x Dodo juice layers
1 x Collonite 845 (front end)
Wheels removed - arches cleaned, hubs painted
Wheels cleaned with Iron-x & Bilberry
Trims treated with Auto-finesse
Plastics/panels/engine bay treated with Aerospace 303
Tyres dressed
Final wipe with Meg's last touch
Full interior leather clean D.R leather products



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Looks really nice Tom.

Cheers mate, took a lot of effort to get it semi clean like. It does need a full correction after winter though. Took me and JAM pretty much 8 hours today on the cleaning side of it

Haha you know my thoughts on cleaning sounds like a full detail to me ;) my saxo needs to be in the corner of that unit :(

Ahh Tom, Cracking choice! love that colour S3, and the black leather! :D think you need to come on a road trip to show me it ;)

Looks good fella, enjoy!

Lovely car, I want one of these next. Great colour too, did you get it cheaper due to the condition it was in?

Very nice. My cousin has one the same colour. Love it!

Getting It remapped?

Love it mate

I'm after a new car and I was torn between the facelift one of these and TTS, but I decided I don't need practical so I'm just waiting for a nice TTS to come up with all the options am after. What made you go manual over DSG?

Haha, the interior needs some more attention and it will need some rotary magic from Jam. Its a bit smaller than we thought, however my saxo may end up going completely if it does then there will be space. We need a catch up mate!

Cheers mate, this was my second choice in color I ideally wanted the dark blue they do but seem to be as rare as hens teeth!

Cheers mate!

The asking price was quite a bit lower than some others around and I managed to get a further £700 off that. So I'm essentially happy to spend £700 on it from the start for what needs doing which should cover it all. It has full audi service history and it was stamped from just over 3000 miles ago but that was over a year ago too so I thought id best get all that done. The engine & turbo have only actually done 12,000miles they were replaced in 2011 at an Audi dealership.

Plans are to get a stage 1 revo map sometime around march I imagine. I want a new HPFP & filter setup first. Im torn between what to do because from there a turbo back system can see me to a stage 2 map but for a little over 1K for a Miltek turbo back that might have to wait. Revo claim 300-310hp at stage 1 that should be enough to entertain me for a while! Then I can get some suspension etc sorted.

TTS is an awesome choice! I would of gone for one if it was in my price range. I've driven a few DSG and I wasn't hugely keen, plus I've seen a few have problems with them and the initial price seemed to be higher too. It is quite awkward to get quickly through the gears by the time you take your hand of the stick to grab the wheel its time to change again. Although I imagine a lot of that is down to me not being especially good with it at the minute I missed 4th today completely and ended up in 6th ha.

Don't worry worry chances are I won't get my saxo up I need to buy a full gasket kit then my engine is ready to go but super skint atm I was gonna come up and visit this Month but I have to pay tutuion fees so that went out the window :( its my birthday later this month might sort something out

Sort something out mate I'll come down

Well I have driven a manual TTS and TT TDi and was happy enough with both, being used to manual and all that.
But I think back to when I used a Golf GT TDi with the DSG and I was quite happy with it. Reading a few forums they say with a DSG flash it helps it hang onto gears a little better.
I know what you mean about price range, but they are coming down quite quickly at the min with the Mk3 due late next year. Im just waiting for that right moment. I will be quite mad if I buy one now and then in another 4/6 weeks they drop another £1/2k

Looks a good car though mate. Very nice indeed! Like you said S1 is 300 plus ponies, plenty to keep most occupied for a little while.

Really like these cars, the colour is awesome, my old man had a 1.6tdi this shape nothing fast but that was nice to drive and was pretty much base spec.

Grabbed some better photos of this today, only things since last time are:

LCR splitter
Silver-tech indicator bulbs front and rear
Nokia E51 Car phone holder
LED DRL's

Plans over winter are:

Wheel re-furb
2 x continentals to replace the rears
Cruise control activated (VCDS)
MTC CAI


DSC03755 by T.walker5190, on Flickr


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Looks well that tom, Possibly the best colour audi use.

Looks good mate. I have a stage 2+ meteor grey S3. Got any better pics of the LCR splitter?

Has the Haldex service been done?

What mileage is it on if you don't mind me asking?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

Test drive one in Derby that was a spit of this. Felt nice, but wanted imola yellow or solar orange:y:

Looks good!

Cheers matey

I'll have a look through I think I have some better ones of it. Yea Haldex was done however the engine in this has done 12,000 miles. It had a replacement at an Audi dealership in 2012 along with a turbo and a load of other stuff.

How much change in MPG have you seen at 2+? Is it a Revo map? Im planning a stage 1 in march from Shark.


Imola yellow is awesome like I would love one in that colour. I went to see a solar orange one but it didn't have sat-nav or heated seats.

Love this, want one for my next car too!! If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay and what milage? noticed the Sat nav does it have the bose system to?