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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:55 pm Reply with quote Back to top

I've been wanting to take my S2 off the road for a fair while and my recent increase in mileage to work has pushed me into looking for a decent TDi to smoke around in and save some cash for the S2s refurb. Sadly I didn't find a decent one and bought this off ebay instead.

Driving it home from collecting it I couldn't help but feel it's missing quite a few of it's 140hp as it's a bit sluggish and didn't want to go much over 80. Apart from that I really like the car and can't wait to get the many small jobs it needs sorted. I'm off up to Chesterfield next Thursday to see Bladerunner and get the full rundown of what it needs. A cambelt swap is going to be the first job though as I took a quick look under the belt cover and found the belt has lots of little cracks in it. I'll be driving the S2 for the moment.

So far the list of jobs I can see that need doing are as follows
1) Urgently needs a cambelt change
2) New stereo required
3) Secondhand Passenger side wing required
4) New Sunroof seal required
5) New battery required
6) Rear discs and pads need changing
7) Bodywork needs mopping and polishing as there are lots of scratches
Cool Climate needs recharge or repair
9) Rear bumper could do with replacing
10) Engine slow to start - may be glow plugs or pump timing
11) Oil and filter service needed

When all this is done and I know how much I've got left in my budget I'll look into a sport steering wheel, lower springs, bigger alloys, a decat and chip but for now I'll just be getting the niggles sorted.

Cheers

David



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Duffelcoat
Camped on the site



Joined: Jan 31, 2003
Posts: 270
Location: Dorset

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:39 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Stick with it, these can be really good when you get the odds and ends sorted out!

Mine was a like this when I got it and a year later I am still sorting out bits, but with everything that is tackled it is one less thing to do.

We need enthusiasts to take cars like this on and keep em going!

Cool

ETA mine was the same about 80mph, but I have since had it up to 120mph - a good engine flush helped a lot too.

See my project thread 'Ocean Magic'
 
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:03 am Reply with quote Back to top

Further jobs to add to the list,

12) Drivers door lock needs attention/replacement
13) Drivers seat bolster collapsed.

Changed the power steering fluid yesterday and gave the car a thorough hoovering to tidy it up.

When I picked the car up the seller had mumbled something about the locking wheel bolts so I had a look. The first hub cap I took off revealed a very badly mangled bolt that 'luckily' was only in finger tight. The other three wheels were only held on with four bolts so job number 14 -

14) New locking wheel bolts

were quickly sourced from Halfords in Derby. The trip to Derby also included a trip to GSF where I picked up the rear brake discs and pads and air and fuel filters which I'll get fitted over the next few days.

Cheers

David
 
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jas11n
Site ADMIN
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Joined: Nov 21, 2003
Posts: 14191
Location: Durham, United Kingdom

PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:02 am Reply with quote Back to top

Hello Dave,
How's tricks? I'm still running your original design caliper brackets on the S2.
Seems like an age ago over at Grahams farm. Wonder where he's at now.
Anyway, I digress.

In answer to your PM, I use Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner, an assortment of different paint brush sizes and a spray bottle with clean water. Oh, and some copious amounts of elbow grease.
To finish, Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care squirted everywhere, then left to dry over a few hours.
You'll be amazed when you open the bonnet.
Avoid powerwashes or hose pipes. Risk of water in areas that are sensitive is too much. BTDT and paid the price.

Jase..
Cool

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2004 A4 Avant 1.8T quattro Sport LE..

1995 S2 Coupe - sold
1995 A6 Avant TDi - sold
1993 80 TDi - sold
1990 90 2.3 auto - scrapped
1989 Coupe 2.3e - sold
1990 cq20v - sold
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 8:26 am Reply with quote Back to top

jas11n wrote:
Hello Dave, How's tricks?


Hi Jason,

With the exception of my recent enforced relocation into the 'deep south' everything is pretty cool. The wife is happy, the S2 is still drinking like a fish and I'm looking forward to 45mpg+ motoring from the BGB.

Thanks for the tip on the under bonnet cleaning. I'll invest in the appropriate products once the wallet has recovered from the trip up to Jons tomorrow.

Work on the car rumbles on slowly with little jobs each morning before setting off to work. Yesterday the air filter and locking wheel bolts were fitted and today is fuel filter change day.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:16 am Reply with quote Back to top

Took the trip up the M1 a week or so back to see Bladerunner for a cambelt change. With a cold 8am start I was immediately very impressed with Jonathans knowledge, huge tool kit and thoroughness in his work. After a quick check on VAG.COM and an oil flush and change we got the car up on the ramp for a look underneath. It all looked good with no rust or damage apparant and the fuel and brakes pipes and the exhaust all looking good. This was good news as it means that apart from the cosmetics and backlog of service items it looks like I've got a good strong car to work on bringing back up to it's former glory. We did find a couple of things though so the list of jobs gets longer.

15) Two tyres have damaged sidewalls from having been run flat
16) Front shocker leaking

Inspection finished we got on with dismantling the front of the car for the belt change. The cam belt was worn and not too bad but the auxiliary belt was falling to pieces and would have snapped soon. The fuel pump belt was also done as I intend to keep the car for quite a while and want to establish a base line of knowing things have been done As well as the three belts Jon replaced the waterpump, all the tensioners, thermostat and regreased the viscous fan bearing. A little money was saved by using a secondhand newest spec vibration damper that Jon had in stock that had done less than 1500 miles.



One surpising thing we noticed with the waterpump off was that the inside of the block looked like a brand new casting with no corosion at all. Clearly previous owners have at least made sure the anti freeze concentration has been kept up to spec.



With the front of the car put back together we moved on to doing a decat. The cat that came off was almost completely blocked with soot and a test drive afterwards showed that a few more of the original horses have returned. It's not perfect yet as it still runs out of puff at about 4000 revs rather than reving up to the red line but it's much better than the 3000 max that it would do before.

After a long, cold day we called it a day around 7.30pm. It was an expensive day out due to the cost of the parts but Jonathans hourly labour rate works out very competatively and I would give a very positive recomendation to anyone wondering whether to use him. I know I'll be going back soon.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:33 am Reply with quote Back to top

I was off last Thursday so I thought I'd make some space in the garage and get on with changing the rear discs and pads. Both discs were really bad but this one really takes the biscuit as the worst disc I've ever seen. The slider bolts had seized so that the pads were only working on the inner side of the disc, nothing unusual there, but the friction surface on the outside of the disc had started to break up and fall away. Very nasty.



One of the caliper pistons was a bit graunchy as I wound it back in so I'll have to keep an eye on it in case it needs replacement but it all went nicely back together freed off and Copaslipped up. The two flexi hoses looked quite badly cracked so another job pushes it's way to the front of the queue

17) Renew brake flexi hoses

Another small job taken care of last week was

1Cool Tailgate lock actuator leaking air

I went to see a 2.8 A6 Avant in LZ6U that is being broken near Sutton Coldfield. Sadly most of the good stuff has gone and the rear bumper that I wanted was just as bad as the one on the Big Green Bus but I picked up a couple of bits of trim, a good actuator and a set of clocks that should help to get the next job in the list sorted as well as working out how many new bulbs I need.

19) LCD display in Autocheck pixels damaged

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:50 am Reply with quote Back to top

And finally for todays update a couple of pictures of the corrosion on the car.

Firstly the passenger side front wing. It's got laquer peel on the top surface and the arch is quite crusty. Much worse than it looks in the photo but not dangerous to pedestrians quite yet. If anyone has a rust free wing in LZ6U please get in touch.



And secondly the passenger side rear quarter and tailgate. I've seen a few A6s with rust here so it seems to be a common place for them to go. I'll leave it over the winter and have a crack at it next spring. You can see just how bad the rear bumper is here as well.



Cheers

David

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1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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sdk778
Audifans.net trade Specialist



Joined: Sep 17, 2008
Posts: 1350
Location: Sunny Cotswolds

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:33 am Reply with quote Back to top

Credit to Jon, he sure knows his way 'round these cars.

I also can vouch for his expert knowledge and all round helpful nature.

I was lucky enough to buy a car from him last year and the way it ran and performed spoke volumes from being looked after by Jon.

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Sidrick
Needs to get out more



Joined: Jun 11, 2008
Posts: 183

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 7:02 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Looks like a good project. Great to see the pictures and updates.

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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:11 pm Reply with quote Back to top

The haul of parts from the V6 breaker formed the next few jobs.

The trim parts mainly went on well but the bit that goes between the rear door and wheelarch was a no go due to the bracket being broken, should have got the one off the breaker.

The tailgate lock actuator was a simple remove trim and replace job. The old one had gone on the boot that fits around the operating rod. Seems strange that the boot is the vacuum seal as well as being the dust shield but hey ho.

The LCD display should have been a nice easy job too of dismantling the instrument panels and swapping over the display unit. Very straightforward as long as you are methodical. Unfortunately it turned into a monster of a job as I noticed a couple of wires had broken on my instrument PCB. Thinking the V6 board would be the same I swapped the LCD display back into it's original position, fitted the diesel speedo and rev counter and recoded the panel in VAG.com from V6 petrol to 5 cylinder diesel. This resulted in a set of instruments that said I was doing 1800 revs at over 80mph, getting 17mpg and displaying 50k miles more than the car has actually done so it all came back out again and the good parts went back onto the slightly broken diesel PCB. A swap around of bulbs gave me illumination in all of the places it should be. To finish a frustrating day I then managed to ruin both temperature display units by messing up fitting new bulbs from Maplins. So I now have a working Autocheck LCD display but no idea of the outside temperature and still need to repair or replace the PCB. Not my best day of doing 'quick' jobs.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:29 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Following my discovery of cracked brake flexi hoses when doing the rear discs a couple of weeks back I booked up to visit Bladerunner again to get the job done. Previous experience of doing this type of brake job is that you always end up having to make up new brake pipes and it always ends up being a horrible job so I decided to let an expert do it instead.

While we waited for the parts to arrive we had another look into why the Bus is such a sluggish starter. A good trawl through VAG.com didn't give any clues so Jon undid one of the injector pipes and connected a spare injector to it. With it safely inside a jam jar we found that the injector didn't spray until the engine started. The inference being that the injector pump is struggling to create enough pressure to crack the injector. Whether this is due to a pump problem or the tank pick up being blocked is a subject for even further investigation another time. For now I've found that unplugging the white two pin temperature sensor on the top of the engine has helped starting no end.

After lunch we got on with changing the brake flexi hoses. Jon changed five out of six for new ones as the sixth one looked like it wasn't going to undo without wrecking the hard line. Luckily the hose looked to be in fine condition so I'm happy to leave it for now but we'll get it soon. A full brake fluid change and bleed finished off the day before I headed off home. Initially I thought the brakes were a little spongy still and maybe needed a further bleeding but they seem fine now.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:47 pm Reply with quote Back to top

A small gift from Jonathan as I was leaving his place was a lock barrel from his spare stash. It was no use to him as it was the early type rather than the later type with the flip key that he has on his car.

My drivers door lock barrel had sheared in half allowing the outer part to pull out when removing the key. After removing the door inner trim panel and window frame following the Haynes manual to the letter I released the circlip holding in the inner part of the broken lock barrel, swapped over all the tumblers into the 'new' barrel (they just pull out but don't lose the tiny springs) and put it all back together.

This being a typical Waveydavey job it couldn't go completely smoothly and the front drivers side window switch chose this time to decide it would now only let the window down but not up. As it was starting to rain I took the easy way out and swapped it with one of the rear switches until I can sort it out properly. I used to have a couple of spares but now I need one of them they've done a disappearing trick on me.

On the bright side though I've managed to source a new rear bumper in the correct colour and possibly also a pair of front wings.

Cheers

David

_________________
1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:26 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Not much to report lately as xmas and the cold weather have put a stop to doing much work on the car.

Last week I fitted a 3 spoke airbag steering wheel obtained from Spink. The new wheel had come off a 96 S2 and fitted straight on, only requiring me to swap over the airbag retaining screws from the old wheel. No pictures of this but you can see pictures on Jas11ns A6 and Bladerunners cruise control fitting thread if you need a visual.

This morning I've ordered Meyle-HD suspension arms from Quattro Corner and have diagnosed a dodgy track rod end. These will be fitted in a couple of weeks and I promise to take some photos of the job.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:19 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Off this week so on Monday I set about fitting the new Meyle heavy duty front suspension arms and track rod end. Despite other people saying the thin walled spacer tubes should just pull out mine were stuck fast so after a deep breath I came to the conclusion the subframe was going to have to come out. Not too bad a job actually as it only involved undoing four more bolts for the subframe and gearbox mounts and a couple of smaller attachments at the front.



The arms that came off weren't too pretty as the rubbers had started to tear and the ball joints were well past their best.



The rubber bushes for the anti roll bar were in a similar sorry state.



The most difficult part of the job turned out to be getting the ball joints out of the struts as they were both stuck fast and took a fair bit of persuasion to come out.

All back together now and feeling slightly more precise handling than before. Nowhere near as sure footed as the S2 but heading in the right direction. The next big step will be fitting a Weitec suspension kit and it's well needed as both front struts have been leaking due to having no protective belows fitted. One is so bad that it doesn't even move smoothly any more. The MOT isn't till July so I've got a while to sell off some junk from my garage to raise funds for the new parts.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:25 am Reply with quote Back to top

Anybody know what I've done wrong with the images that should be in the last post?

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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spink
Bandwidth Buster



Joined: Aug 12, 2006
Posts: 803

PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:20 pm Reply with quote Back to top

not sure why that hasnt shown up,seems to be the same way as it appears when i use photobucket to do the same thing
 
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Mikes2
Site Moderator
Site Moderator



Joined: Jan 31, 2003
Posts: 9144

PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:17 pm Reply with quote Back to top

sorted the images for you.

You were using the image address from the toolbar in your browser which is incorrect.

You need to right click on the image and use copy image "location / address" to get the correct path
 
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:15 am Reply with quote Back to top

Thanks Mike,

I wasn't too sure what you were saying but I've just managed to successfully post a picture into a thread on the C4 A6 forum so it looks like I'm sorted.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:14 pm Reply with quote Back to top

People with 1.9 TDis say you must do it but some with 2.5 TDis say it's not so important. Yes, I'm talking about blanking off the EGR.

I got my blanking plate for a fiver plus postage from ebay. It's the one intended for Land Rover 300 TDis and fits like a charm although I did have to take a wheel off and drop the undertray after dropping one of the gaskets into the engine bay. If I hadn't done that it would have been a five minute job but even so it still only took about 20 minutes to fit. While it was all apart I stuck my finger into the inlet manifold. It had a coating of soot but didn't feel constricted with the hard build up of soot that I've seen photos of on here. No need to take the inlet manifold off for cleaning out then.

The test run, my journey to and from work last night, was a revelation. The car will now rev quickly and cleanly all the way up to the red line whereas it used to run out of steam at about 4k. It now feels considerably faster which makes me think either the EGR valve had stuck open or I had a boost leak in the EGR circuit. Either way I'd have to say this is the cheapest 'performance' mod available for diesels and, for the price, you'd have to daft not to fit one.

Definately a two thumbs up job.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 2:42 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Lots of updates to put up here including the fitting of the Weitec suspension kit, heater flap motor repairs etc. I'll try to put some of them up here next week.

Earlier this week I took another trip up to Bladerunners place. Since I got the car sluggish starting has been an issue. It's always started but has taken a good deal of churning. The performance has always been poor too although it has got better following the removal of the particle filter, EGR delate and a special present from Spink. On previous visits to see Jon we had become convinced the fuel pump was struggling and found that I wasn't getting full boost so the aim of this visit was to see what could be done.

A secondhand fuel pump obtained from Gunman was fitted. At some point the fuel union on top of the pump had taken a knock which had damaged the threads on the pump lid so the one from mine was swapped on. with everything timed up we found the new pump wasn't priming so Jon hooked up a vacuum gizmo that sucked fuel through the pump. We also tested the glow plugs and removed the injectors for a polish of the nozzles with T-cut. They weren't too bad but they cleaned up very nicely. With this done and everything back together the engine started without a problem. A quick test run proved that many, many of my lost horses had returned. The engine revved very keanly all the way up to 5k and the car felt much faster than before.

Attention now turned to the boost issues. Both the boost hoses were in good order so attention turned to the N75 boost control valve. The valve turned out not to be correct for the A6, looking like it had come off some a VW, so it was swapped for a spare that Jonathan had in his spares stash. The electrical part of the N75 was swapped too for a known good one for the sake of completeness.

With a quick check of the pump timing and an adjustment to the idle IQ we went out for a test run and to do a boost log using Vag.com. All was well with the car performing like a scalded cat when required recording boost of up to 1.1 bar so we called it a day and I headed off home.

On the way up to Jons in the morning I'd recorded a 'driving miss daisy' 60 mph cruise fuel consumption of 46.3 mpg so I tried to do the same on the way home and got 62.8mpg. A huge difference although I did start the return journey with a hot engine and it's mainly downhill coming home. I expect the actual improvement will work out somewhere around 5-7mpg.

All together a very good day. I've come home with a car that is significantly quicker and more fuel efficient than before. A true win/win situation.

Cheers

David

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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steveh
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Joined: Nov 30, 2007
Posts: 97
Location: Kinross

PostPosted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:30 pm Reply with quote Back to top

waveydavey wrote:
Lots of updates to put up here including the fitting of the Weitec suspension kit, heater flap motor repairs etc. I'll try to put some of them up here next week.

Earlier this week I took another trip up to Bladerunners place. Since I got the car sluggish starting has been an issue. It's always started but has taken a good deal of churning. The performance has always been poor too although it has got better following the removal of the particle filter, EGR delate and a special present from Spink. On previous visits to see Jon we had become convinced the fuel pump was struggling and found that I wasn't getting full boost so the aim of this visit was to see what could be done.

A secondhand fuel pump obtained from Gunman was fitted. At some point the fuel union on top of the pump had taken a knock which had damaged the threads on the pump lid so the one from mine was swapped on. with everything timed up we found the new pump wasn't priming so Jon hooked up a vacuum gizmo that sucked fuel through the pump. We also tested the glow plugs and removed the injectors for a polish of the nozzles with T-cut. They weren't too bad but they cleaned up very nicely. With this done and everything back together the engine started without a problem. A quick test run proved that many, many of my lost horses had returned. The engine revved very keanly all the way up to 5k and the car felt much faster than before.

Attention now turned to the boost issues. Both the boost hoses were in good order so attention turned to the N75 boost control valve. The valve turned out not to be correct for the A6, looking like it had come off some a VW, so it was swapped for a spare that Jonathan had in his spares stash. The electrical part of the N75 was swapped too for a known good one for the sake of completeness.

With a quick check of the pump timing and an adjustment to the idle IQ we went out for a test run and to do a boost log using Vag.com. All was well with the car performing like a scalded cat when required recording boost of up to 1.1 bar so we called it a day and I headed off home.

On the way up to Jons in the morning I'd recorded a 'driving miss daisy' 60 mph cruise fuel consumption of 46.3 mpg so I tried to do the same on the way home and got 62.8mpg. A huge difference although I did start the return journey with a hot engine and it's mainly downhill coming home. I expect the actual improvement will work out somewhere around 5-7mpg.

All together a very good day. I've come home with a car that is significantly quicker and more fuel efficient than before. A true win/win situation.

Cheers

David


Nice one always satisfying when fixes make such a big difference Very Happy
 
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waveydavey
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Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:39 pm Reply with quote Back to top

One of the little niggles I've had with the car is that even with the rear wheel bearings adjusted properly you could still wiggle the wheel around quite a bit. Even replacing one of the wheel bearings for the MOT last year didn't do much to cure the problem. Bladerunner diagnosed worn spindles so I bought two sets from a German ebayer, one set for me and one for Jon, and then forgot about them.

A couple of weeks back I finally got around to fitting my pair along with two new wheel bearings and twelve new bolts obtained from Ben at TPS Coventry. I could have also fitted new discs and pads but they were fine having been replaced just over a year ago.

[img][/img]

Not too difficult a job apart from three of the spindle securing bolts needing a bit of warmth from the blow torch to get them to undo. Hardly surprising considering where they are located in the line of fire of all the road muck. I think I may have tightened the bearings up a tad tight so I'll probably check their adjustment after a couple of weeks.

If anybody wants the spare pair of spindles that I had bought for Jonathan let me know and we can sort out a deal.

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1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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waveydavey
Needs to get out more



Joined: Feb 26, 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Middlesbrough, UK

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:16 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Another much bigger job done in the last few weeks is the fitting of S6 front wings and bumper. With the passenger side wing having rust around the wheel arch I had been on the look out for a decent wing in LZ6U since buying the car. I did find one but it arrived badly damaged and the dodgy breaker I got it from wouldn't entertain admitting they had damaged it before poorly wrapping it for the courier. 85 quid wasted. Luckily I noticed Raymor over on the S2forum had the urS6 wings and bumper for sale at a great price so a deal was done and he even managed to bring them down from Glasgow to Loughborough for me as he was in the area on business. Unfortunately they were in Ragussa Green rather than Emerald and they picked up a couple of scratches in transit so I figured a quick tidy up of some surface rust on the insides of the arches, some dents and the scratches, a coat of primer and they'd be ready for professional painting. This plan changed when I thought how much a pro paint job would be and how much it would show up the rest of the car. My A6, lovely as it is, is very much a ten yard car. It looks good from a distance but up close is covered in small dents and bigger scratches. Ebay was my friend again and I bought five cans of LZ6U and four cans of clear top coat from a firm in Ireland. Had a bit of a panic when applying the laquer as the paint went from looking the right colour to looking ten shades too light but it's ended up looking just about OK. I'll be the first to admit the quality of my bodywork isn't brilliant but once the paint has hardened for a few weeks I'm hopeful a good T-Cut and polish should even things out a bit.

With the whole front of the car in bits I took the opportunity to fit a new condenser and reciever dryer to the climate system. Also on the list of new parts fitted were a set of S6 arch liners and a proper set of undertray fittings, once again sourced from Ben at TPS Coventry. Once the wings were bolted up the were given a good coat of Dinitrol cavity wax followed by Dinitrol underbody wax as I don't want to be redoing this job again next year.

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Although the extra width of the wheel arches looks cool it makes the wheels look too far in. I'll either need to fit some spacers, 20mm should be about right, or upgrade to HP2 struts. One thing I do like most is the new bumper looks deeper and gets rid of the boat hull look the car had with the standard bumper. I have a SEAT Leon Cupra splitter that I'll fit when I have time that will improve things a lot more.

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Cheers

David

_________________
1994 16v Coupe - Sold on but sadly missed
1994 S2 Avant - Lightly warmed up
1995 A6 Avant TDi - Big Green Bus  
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audioc
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Joined: Jan 17, 2003
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:21 pm Reply with quote Back to top

looking good!
 
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