My 2002 TDI - Brilliant Black

wilco184

Member of the year 2015
Hello all,

I have taken some photographs of my MY2002 brilliant black TDI. The car is of SE spec, but has many of the options from the sport including DIS, sports seats, three spoke steering wheel, sports gear knob and handbrake as factory fit options; and the 17 inch sport wheels fitted by myself.

I purchased the car in December 2014, and previously drove a brilliant black FSI. Both great cars.

Hope you all enjoy! :)

Regards,

Matt.







 
Looks very clean Matt. What became of your FSI? Did you keep it in the end?

Hi Steve,

We still have the FSI, yes. :) It is being stored at the moment ready for when my younger brother can learn to drive.

Regards,

Matt.
 
Hi Steve,

We still have the FSI, yes. :) It is being stored at the moment ready for when my younger brother can learn to drive.

Regards,

Matt.

The A2 is a great car to learn in, the only problem is the slight visibility problem on sides near the front screen, but other than that they are perfect.
Good clutch operation, small and manoeuvrable, light steering and high up visibility.

Your brother is lucky.

We are planning to do the same for our eldest grandchild, he is 15 and is already looking forward to getting his hands on an A2 to learn in.

Steve B
 
The A2 is a great car to learn in, the only problem is the slight visibility problem on sides near the front screen, but other than that they are perfect.
Good clutch operation, small and manoeuvrable, light steering and high up visibility.

I couldn't agree more, Steve.

I myself learned to drive in the FSI, and the slick gear change, light clutch and easy controls were certainly appreciated when compared against my instructors diesel Corsa. Whilst the Corsa was fairly easy to learn in, the FSI just seems more 'refined' for a young driver. :)

Regards,

Matt.
 
The A2's been to Scotland! :)

I hiked Ben Nevis last weekend, whilst visiting a couple of film locations from Harry Potter and Skyfall whilst I was there. The weather on Ben Nevis was appalling, especially near the top, but a great weekend none the less! :p

Anyway, some photographs!


The A2 at the base of Ben Nevis.




You may recognise the above photograph as a scene from the film 'Skyfall'. Certainly very good to see.





Some really fantastic scenery. 782 miles done over 3 days, all entirely comfortable and without fault. The A2 has done well. :cool:

Regards,

Matt.
 
Excellent. Welcome to Alba. :D

fantastic pictures. That's balmy weather for Ben Nevis. You can see everything!

I love the way the A2 eats the miles up. It's a positive aspect to me living so far from any of our social gatherings that i get to drive for hours in the wee car.
 
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Great pictures Matt, I could drive on them sort of roads for hours!
Glad the car never missed a beat, it looks superb! The scenery isn't bad either lol!
Cheers Jeff
 
I changed both front suspension top mounts recently, and so I thought I'd document it here. :)

I'd noticed with the wheels off the ground that the near side shock absorber had a small amount of play at the top. It can only really be the top mount at the top, and so I purchased a pair ready to fit. The replacements are OE equivalent, and are manufactured by KYB - provided by my local motor factors.

After removing the wheel, the shock absorber bottom pinch bolts were removed. Here, one was badly corroded to the point that most uncovered threads were unrecognisable, and the other was so corroded that it snapped on removal - admittedly with a lot of force! Anyway, with the strut bottom removed I could undo the top mount bolts (3 each side). The near side isn't too bad to access as the coolant reservoir is easily moved, but the off side is a pain as it's helpfully hidden behind what's pictured below.



I got it all back together eventually and the slight metallic click is gone over bumps - it makes the car feel a lot more 'solid' again. :)

Here is a picture of the old top mounts for reference.



Worth mentioning that the strut bottom pinch bolts appear to collect water and were quite severely corroded!



Regards,

Matt. :p
 
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I changed both front suspension top mounts recently, and so I thought I'd document it here. :)

I'd noticed with the wheels off the ground that the near side shock absorber had a small amount of play at the top. It can only really be the top mount at the top, and so I purchased a pair ready to fit. The replacements are OE equivalent, and are manufactured by KYB - provided by my local motor factors.

After removing the wheel, the shock absorber bottom pinch bolts were removed. Here, one was badly corroded to the point that most uncovered threads were unrecognisable, and the other was so corroded that it snapped on removal - admittedly with a lot of force! Anyway, with the strut bottom removed I could undo the top mount bolts (3 each side). The near side isn't too bad to access as the coolant reservoir is easily moved, but the off side is a pain as it's helpfully hidden behind what's pictured below.

I got it all back together eventually and the slight metallic click is gone over bumps - it makes the car feel a lot more 'solid' again. :)

Here is a picture of the old top mounts for reference.

Regards,

Matt. :p

Just seeing that first photo brings me out in a cold sweat with flashbacks of my suspension overhaul :) Good work Matt
 
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Hi Matt,
You have my sympathy, I recently changed the front shocks on my TDI, the near side was 1.5 hours start to finish the off side was over 4 hours :(
Not helped my one of the captive nuts in the off side top mount, well deciding that it no longer wanted to be captive, ended up with an angle grinder to remove the bolt head - still brings me out in a cold sweet weeks latter.

My top mounts didn't feel worn, but as they where on the garage floor and stripped down, I cleaned and re greased them. The pressed steel race on one side was ever so slightly pitted, but this cleaned up with a small grindstone in a dremmel.

The A2 feels really good now over bumps and road holding is certainly better than it was, not surprising in that the shocks had done 280K miles and didn't have much 'shock' left in them.

Cheers,
Paul (Depronman)
 
The familiar sound of the locks cycling when switching on the ignition was becoming very annoying, and so I attempted a repair. :p

I have repaired a rear lock before, by disassembling the mechanism and identifying dry and cracked solder joints on the circuit board. These poor joints lead to an intermittent connection, causing the cycling locks and relevant fault to be registered in the CCCU. This thread is useful for referencing during a repair. I had previously checked VCDS for fault codes, and it had identified that the passenger door was at fault, with the 'won't de-safe' code stored. I figured that the procedure would be similar, though the window frame would need to be removed as there is no room to remove the lock.

To start, the door is stripped down and the lock mechanism is revealed.







As there is no room to manoeuvre the lock out, the window frame must be marked for alignment and then removed.



The lock can then be removed from the car and disassembled to reveal its internal circuit board.





With the soldered joints reflowed, the lock reassembled and then reinstalled in the car, I could check the function using VCDS and switching the ignition. Another successful repair!



Regards,

Matt. :)
 
Nice job with the lock! I did this to all of my locks recently. BTW, the window frame does not need to be removed completely. It's enough to undo the bottom 2 screws and loosen the top screws. The frame can then be tilted outward enough to get the lock out.
 
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