Yesterday it was time to get Audrey acquainted with the workshop at the new house for a 6000 miles oil change and to finally sort the leaking alloy boost pipe. Looking at the mileage the car has done around 11-12k miles since I acquired it, so I was keen to have a good look around to check all is well.
I soon had the under tray off while the oil was draining and had a good look around with no other issues noted. By the way, I’m very relieved to report there was a total absence of swarf on the magnetic sump plug this time, confirming the hypothesis that the hedgehog of filings stuck to it last time must have been legacy from over the car’s life that finally got picked out when I installed it). I whipped out the air filter for a genuine one (the screws were VERY stiff, they got well lubricated via a dunking in clean engine oil before replacement! Plus I got the alloy lower boost pipe off - you’ll remember that my local garage had diagnosed a hissing under acceleration as a boost leak caused by this pipe (which is unique to the ATL / TDi90 and is NLA from Audi or anywhere else), being worn through by its clip that holds it still next to the engine’s sump by virtue of two small bolts - behold the damage:
Amazing that the car drive as well as it did and didn’t throw a warning light I think. I may try a repair with chemical metal and keep it as a spare in case of a need in future. The garage that first diagnosed the issue had said the clip that bolts to the sump and holds the pipe in place had broken - and that somehow this was the reason the pipe had been punctured - but careful comparison between the clip that came off the car with the pipe and the replacement good used one showed this to be incorrect - there is actually nothing wrong with it!
Hmmm, comparing it to the good secondhand replacement pipe confirmed that this fault must be due to a design flaw with the clip, as this pipe too showed clear signs of wear in exactly the same place:
So after a bit of head-scratching and careful alignment of the metal hose clamps, the pipe was reinstalled without the clip at all - only by deflecting it way more than normal engine rocking and vibrations would could I make it hit or rub on anything around it - so I’m calling that a good modification for safe-guarding the car’s future! I’m going to put a shout-out to TDi90 Owners to effect the same clip-delete mod ASAP, as talking with Audrey’s former owner Dave
@Special edition, WOM have noted the same issue occurring on a high number of TDi90’s coming to them for work - so this could become a real problem as I already found it pretty hard to source good used pipes (thankfully I found two so I now have a spare plus I can repair this one).
Then it was time to replace the brand new missing cam cover insulation that sits below the top engine cover that I bought from
@CreweAudi a while back - get yours now while they’re still available! They’re pretty fragile so you’ll definitely wed to replace yours at some point even if it’s still present now. It was a bit puzzling as to how it goes on but I think I got it in the end - although the piece to left above the cam cover may not be quite right - anyone know?
Then once I’d done the sump plug up having replaced the filter, I refitted the engine cover and also the under tray. At this point I’d like to say massive thanks to Andy
@Clackers for sending me a bag of spare fixings some time back for nothing, top man.
There was only one screw I couldn’t install on the undertray - one of the crossmember holes was missing its insert so next time I order some parts from a breaker I’ll need a couple of those please sir!
The drive home was smooth and very quiet - it reminded me that whilst Akoya is a very nice car indeed (and I need to repeat pretty much all of the above work as a precaution, including of course the boost pipe clip delete), Audrey is my first love and by a whisker remains my favourite. The car really does drive like a very low mileage example and just seems to be that touch more refined somehow. I can’t wait to get her back into full-time custodianship.
Only job to do before she goes for her appointment with the man from the Ministry is to reset the service indicator. Can someone post a link on how to do that please?