First car for son....

listershaun

Member
Yesterday I acquired this little fella, very cheap but needing some work to make it as it should be. It is a surprise Christmas present for my lad, he's 17 in February, I've fallen for it though so could end up being mine!

So, today saw me get moss, lichen, road grime and all kinds off it, looks better already. Tomorrow will be the interior, got the Bissell upholstery cleaner at the ready and hopefully have it smelling slightly better. It's pretty mucky, should be fun.

Cambelt is booked for next week, it will be getting a full service, thermostat, and I've just ordered a set of JOM Blueline to rectify the suspension knock, will change the top mounts too as the driver's side is seized and is terrible.

There are plenty of imperfections but I hope to get it more than presentable to hide the 198k miles ?
 

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Great little first car for him, I’m sure he’ll be over the moon. With a bit of hard work they usually come up well as the paintwork and interior plastics/trim are all good quality materials.
 
Lovely present for him.

Can I suggest fresh number plates as well? Rear looks a bit worn.

Doesn't need private plate unless that's your plan, but fresh plates help lift a car.
 
Yesterday I acquired this little fella, very cheap but needing some work to make it as it should be. It is a surprise Christmas present for my lad, he's 17 in February, I've fallen for it though so could end up being mine!

So, today saw me get moss, lichen, road grime and all kinds off it, looks better already. Tomorrow will be the interior, got the Bissell upholstery cleaner at the ready and hopefully have it smelling slightly better. It's pretty mucky, should be fun.

Cambelt is booked for next week, it will be getting a full service, thermostat, and I've just ordered a set of JOM Blueline to rectify the suspension knock, will change the top mounts too as the driver's side is seized and is terrible.

There are plenty of imperfections but I hope to get it more than presentable to hide the 198k miles ?

Remember seeing this for sale, can't remenber the seat colour but as you are close I have a full set of black seats in great condition that you can have.
They may be in better condition than yours and it would save them from the rubbish tip.
 
Isn’t the JOM kit a lowering kit? In which case a 17 year old with lowered suspension is a very bad idea insurance wise.
even tinted rear windows will put the premium up hundreds.

Ian
 
Hope your son likes it Lister.
These little gems can be a bit marmite with some people. I still have people asking me “why?” I’ve given up trying to explain.
It’s a nice thing you’re doing ? I hope you all have a bit of fun with it, they become pets!
 
Thank you everyone.

Pressed plates are on order, as are some surrounds. Seats are black and are surprisingly good, I will see how they come up though, thank you for the offer.

JOM is indeed a lowering kit, it'll be close to standard height though, if he can't get insured with them then it'll have to be my second car, win win ? I'm into OEM+ style as a maximum, it'll not stray far from standard and will generally have genuine/quality upgrades hopefully.

It's made a friend in me already and I've only owned it for a day, I hope it proves to be as good as I hope. I did forget to mention it's a TDI 75 SE. Currently on track to be sub £800 all in with purchase, major service, full cambelt kit and suspension upgrade/repair. You can't argue with that.

Again, thanks for the input ?
 
Just as an aside, it is possible to remap the Tdi75 both for increases in performance (the usual one) - and decreases : I have a winter map I use on my project car that maxes out around 60hp with an elimination of the 1800-2300rpm torque spike - it has a completely flat and linear response that means it won't break traction abruptly/unexpectedly if the conditions are slippery but can still go up to and sustain dual carriageway speeds (but gets there a bit slower than normal).
 
Our little A2 is for my son,..... who turns 17 in February too!

Its a good hidden first car option and not many 17 year olds can say they are in an Audi. A quick insurance check made it £17 a year more expensive than a 2008 Fiesta 1.25 Zetec 5dr.
 
Just as an aside, it is possible to remap the Tdi75 both for increases in performance (the usual one) - and decreases : I have a winter map I use on my project car that maxes out around 60hp with an elimination of the 1800-2300rpm torque spike - it has a completely flat and linear response that means it won't break traction abruptly/unexpectedly if the conditions are slippery but can still go up to and sustain dual carriageway speeds (but gets there a bit slower than normal).
Interesting, I knew about performance maps but didn't know you can also underclock the engine. How important is it for you over the winter months? Did you find you were breaking traction regularly with the standard TDi 75?
 
Our little A2 is for my son,..... who turns 17 in February too!

Its a good hidden first car option and not many 17 year olds can say they are in an Audi. A quick insurance check made it £17 a year more expensive than a 2008 Fiesta 1.25 Zetec 5dr.
Seems us Dad's/Mum's have good taste,mines for my son when he turns 17 in march.
We've used it for nearly two years so, after leasing previously so owes us nothing now.
Its been hidden in plain sight for 2 years ,still hasn't twigged
 
Interesting, I knew about performance maps but didn't know you can also underclock the engine. How important is it for you over the winter months? Did you find you were breaking traction regularly with the standard TDi 75?

It has been argued the 75Tdi is underclocked as it is, mind you - it is a fundamentally robust engine family across the board (including the 1.9Tdi)

With my original 75tdi as standard, fitted with a pair of nearly-new ditchfinder fronts (with older Conti rears), there is a local T-junction where I had zero traction at all for the first 3 months I had the car if the road was anything less than bone dry, and even when fully dry the traction control was being activated on a couple of corrugations (not quite pot-holes) about 20 yards after pulling away - you needed to give it some welly as there are cars coming off the local dual carriageway a wee bit over the 40mph limit and at morning commute times the gaps were small and infrequent. I had previously used that junction in my Yeti 4x4 and subsequent 2.7T quattro, and you could give it the beans with ~2-3x the power from a standing start to make any gap you wanted - so this was a bit of an eye-opener! I changed onto a set of Nokian winters that November, and it was a revelation in the A2 - grip and go even in heavy rain. As luck would have it, the beast from the East was the following spring and they were still fitted in deep powder snow, no trouble at all. Having proven the importance of decent tyres I got a set of Uniroyal Rainsport 3s swapped onto the rims at changeover time and they are dramatically better, even after having a decent remap.

When I got my project car, again there were mystery tyres although they were not as bad in the wet as the ones above (now also replaced with Uniroyal RS3s all round). However once I'd resolved other issues (steering fault), I had become interested in the question of whether it was possible to detune a 75Tdi as easily as it was to enhance it somewhat to pretty well whatever performance characteristics possible given fitted parts, and having the freeware software, refurbished skip-rescue PC laptop and Ebay cables, I was able to tinker with the software until I started generating predicted torque curves that were distinctly less aggressive than standard or conventional upgrade maps. I should acknowledge @depronman for having supplied me with a check-summed non-original map that I was able to adapt on one code bank with a detune and keep the other map either standard or enhanced that could then be uploaded again and tested for comparison - and found that the performance and behavioural characteristics on the road matched the predicted graph. The result was the winter map I have at the moment - around 60hp max, linear torque curve. It is fine for commuting - over a few months it averaged about 3mpg better than normal, and it isn't the most exciting, but by the same measure, knowing that you aren't going to get a surprise as the turbo spools up if the conditions are iffy was quite reassuring. I also managed to source a full set of winter tyres on steel rims for this car back in February just before Covid hit Scotland so when it comes back from the turbo replacement this next few days it'll get the winters on and the winter map swap (I can do this in 30 seconds using my ODB reader), and that will be that.
 
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HI @listershaun,

Nice to see another Lancaster-based member on A2OC.

I've been working on A2s for many years and think it's safe to say that I know the model fairly well. You can get an overview of the services that I offer in this thread...

I'd be happy to meet up and have a nosey around your A2 whilst we chat.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Hi Tom, I'm not far away, in the seaside resort of Heysham ?

The car is currently up in Cumbria in hiding, don't want to spoil the surprise.

I've found a few little niggles that maybe your thread will help me with, fuel release, part missing from bonnet (access panel) catch, in the meantime it's a cambelt and water pump and a good service. I thoroughly enjoyed my drive in her the other day, I'm tempted to keep for myself bit that would be mean.

Anyways, not much progress to show, and I didn't take any before pics ...

IMG_20201029_152231.jpg


Doesn't do it any justice, it was bogging ?
 
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Worth taking all the rear seats and boot out also to give a good clean and check for water. Looking nice though. Your son is going to be very happy and lucky to have this as a first car.?
 
Hi Tom, I'm not far away, in the seaside resort of Heysham ?

The car is currently up in Cumbria in hiding, don't want to spoil the surprise.

I've found a few little niggles that maybe your thread will help me with, fuel release, part missing from bonnet (access panel) catch, in the meantime it's a cambelt and water pump and a good service. I thoroughly enjoyed my drive in her the other day, I'm tempted to keep for myself bit that would be mean.

Anyways, not much progress to show, and I didn't take any before pics ...

View attachment 72258

Doesn't do it any justice, it was bogging ?
If you are in sunny Heysham you are very near the great guru @timmus. I'm in Carnforth, there is a few of us in this neck of the woods, hopefully next spring we can have a mini meet up if we are allowed.
Good luck with the car, what a good dad you are?
 
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