My A2 'blog'...

[<tuffty/>]

Total respect for some stunning photography......

Thank you

...So checked for leaks from the CTS earlier today... all seems to be good and dry so result...

There does seem to be a bit of diesel leaking from the vac pump though so will add new gaskets to the list of jobs to do on the next service

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Thank you

...So checked for leaks from the CTS earlier today... all seems to be good and dry so result...

There does seem to be a bit of diesel leaking from the vac pump though so will add new gaskets to the list of jobs to do on the next service

<tuffty/>

Spoke too soon... still leaking so maybe its the iffy hose

Will have another look this weekend...

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Seems that the leak is getting worse... particularly on my 60 mile round trips to work...

Had a poke about at the hose coming from the back of the coolant housing on the side of the head..

There was coolant evident here and the hose is reeeeeealy soft so have ordered a new pipe and housing from TPS and will do that as soon as I can...

I have chosen to replace the housing simply because past experience with these (on 1.8t's) has proven that they tend to be quite fragile once disturbed... its clear that diesel is leaking from the vacuum pump (part of this channels fuel into the head for the injectors so I will need to replace the seals here soon) and has softened the hose enough to leak... I'd be fairly sure the housing has suffered too and they tend to get brittle and crack as soon as you touch them

Still... not surprising given her age and mileage and can live with changing items like this... rubber bits do perish over time... so meh

Still not got around to touching the S3 yet though lol... rather just get the A2 in a happy place before I gear up to tackle the S3

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[<tuffty/>]

Day off from work to sort this coolant leak out... having topped up the reservoir twice this week I was glad to get it sorted..

New parts...

Had to remove the anti shudder valve and spacer piece to get to the clip... which was still a complete c-unit to undo..

Drained the coolant from the bottom hose... official way is to remove the radiator fitting but they are a pain and the o-rings can leak if disturbed... so pulled the sensor out as I knew that I had a spare for that one..

Removing the housing proved interesting too... nice little bracket for a clip hiding the lower stud that needed to be removed

Hose was nicely swollen...

..as was the two hoses that go to the oil cooler... didn't expect that...

TPS didn't have one to replace it until Monday... not much use for me tbh seeing as this is my only car at the moment so needed to do something...

Managed to dig out a few hoses removed from other cars in for builds etc and replaced the dodgy bits... have ordered a proper replacement set too now which I'll change when I do the vacuum pump seals...

What an actual pain of a job which I need to revisit once the parts arrive... still, that should be it for another 200k miles lol...

I then moved on to the next task...

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[<tuffty/>]

I have had a knocking from the front for a while... just never had the time or inclination to sort it... I knew what it was... its was the drop links...

A little annoying as I have replaced one when I did the antiroll bar bushes...

Had to get the disc cutter to the other one...

New TRW ones... hoping these will last a little longer...

And done...

Can report that all the knocking is now gone and checked for leaks and the coolant level when I got home...

So far so good...

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[<tuffty/>]

Coolant still seems to be staying in rather than leaking out but it now appears that the leaks were the result of a fuel leak from the tandem pump...

Looking at it this weekend and the hose I replaced it looks like its started to swell again!!!...

Disappointing so just as well I had ordered up some more bits...

Replacement hoses for the ones I had to cobble together, o-ring seals for the tandem pump and a new grommet for the wipers... hopefully that will fix the leak issue through the wiper mech

I had a very long discussion over the replacement seals for the tandem pump... early versions had the o-ring seals... later ones had a metal crush gasket... I gave TPS my reg and the part number of the pump (as printed on my actual pump) and they sent the o-rings... turns out they were wrong

Nothing I can do now until Monday (will take a day off to get it finished) so cleaned up the head...

...noticed that the hose going to the expansion bottle is going soft too so will sort that seeing as I can get to it..

Nothing left I could do but I needed to manoeuvre the car out the unit so thought I had better disable the fuel pump so it wouldn't pump fuel out (I have clamped the hoses but you can never be too careful)... however... stupidly (my excuse is I am not a diesel person lol) I didn't realise that the plug I had pulled thinking it was the fuel pump actually wasn't as my A2 didn't have an electric pump at all!! DOH!

This plug is not actually the pump on my TDi... its simply the fuel level sender!! lol oh weel

Will deal with that tomorrow... so that kinda left me with a problem... I had no car!!!... luckily my S3 was already at Bills after I had broken her just before christmas and the parts for that had turned up too..

The centre CV of the prop had exploded...

...so nice new one fitted..

All in all a bit of a day of ups and downs but felt good to be in the S3 after nearly two months... as much as I love my A2 the S3 is a tad more exciting... even in the rather rubbish rainy weather

<tuffty/>

 

[Mustang-owner]

Another marvellous write up with some great pictures and advice.

Even though it would be nice for your cars not to have any issues, it's really nice reading how you go about resolving the problems you find.

Thanks for keeping this blog going, it's a great read

Cheers
Jeff

 

[<tuffty/>]

Over at Bill's for just after 9am to make a start on the A2... rang TPS to order the new gasket which was on the shelf but I had apparently missed the morning delivery!!! was nearly tempted to see if GSF had one but decided to stick to an OE one to be sure its not going to give me problems..

So cleaned the tandem pump in the hot tank...

Took the pumps top plate off to try and seal it as I think fuel was leaking from there too

Proper gasket then arrived...

Refitted the pump

Then moved on to the next job... replace the wiper grommet...

Used a silicon based grease too in the hope this will help seal and repel water

Put everything else back together then tried to start the engine... took quite a bit of cranking to get the fuel circulating again but after what seemed like an age she fired up!! phew!

After bit of creative car shuffling and a lift from my daughter I now have both the S3 and the A2 at home... quick check under the bonnet and its all looks dry so far but I'll hold off being 100% confident after I have been to work and back tomorrow...

Pretty sure it won't leak from the OE gasket but not sure if reusing the top gasket even with sealant will hold long term... if not there is a relatively cheap repair kit available (not an OE part as they just say to replace the pump!!) or will try and source a low mileage secondhand one as the same pump is used on later cars across the VAG range

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

So it was oil change time again this weekend which gave me a reason to remove the bonnet and check to make sure the leaks were gone...

All looks good... no wet spots or swollen pipes... coolant level was the same as I had left... finally!!

So on to another issue that popped up when I was doing some random logging...

Basically speaking the torsion stabilisation value is showing a negative value indicating the cambelt timing has drifted out a bit... a better explanation can be found here..
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/c...lue-adjustment-on-vw-and-audi-pd-tdi-engines/

So took the top cover off to have look at it...

To get the figure back to zero I needed to retard the cam a little so undid the three 13mm bolts that clamp the pulley to the cam boss... I then used an 18mm spanner on the centre cam bolt and tapped it anticlockwise a small amount and retightened the three bolts to 18ftlbs and rechecked... I had to do this a couple of times to dial it in but got there in the end...

Next oil change could well be a milestone... given my current mileage I suspect she will roll over to 200k by the time I am ready for the next change

As an added bonus to the day these little beauties drove past the workshop... not the best shots as it was a case of quickly grabbing the camera out the boot of the car and poke the lens through the fence...

I'd love another Mk2 Escort

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Was out in the early hours this morning doing a little astro photography... thought it only fair to include the A2 in the shot

...and a panorama which was the shot I was there to get...

Need to find a less light polluted place to take these but clear nights happen at such short notice its tricky to just scoot and shoot

<tuffty/>

 

[Darren C]

Stunning photography as always; hats off to you.

 

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Wow,just read the whole thread from start to finish.What a superb read and pictures!! I think i've learn't a hell of a lot from this single thread. Loving the serious photography too,are you self taught? keep up the good work!! Erm,....could you buy an A2 with the 1.4 petrol engine so i can see you work on that,strip it down etc etc. Lol

 

[<tuffty/>]

Stunning photography as always; hats off to you.

Thanks dude

Wow,just read the whole thread from start to finish.What a superb read and pictures!! I think i've learn't a hell of a lot from this single thread

Glad you got something from it mate... blogging my antics with my cars in this way started some years back with my S3 when I was doing the big turbo conversion... the internet can be a wonderful place but information varies from non existent to ambiguous so decided to write up the work I did on my car hoping it will at least give others an idea of whats involved and I use lots of pictures as it helps make visualising the work easier... if you fancy a somewhat longer read check it out..
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/my-minor-modding-thread.76389/

Loving the serious photography too,are you self taught?

Yeah... I don't get out taking pictures nearly as much as I would like to and I don't have a specific genre I stick to either... I like the technical challenges in certain genres of photography and the I take shots of subjects I like... only thing I don't really do is people (other than the occasional candid shot)... I am not a 'people' person lol... I would never do a wedding either! lol...

keep up the good work!! Erm,....could you buy an A2 with the 1.4 petrol engine so i can see you work on that,strip it down etc etc. Lol

Ironically I did consider getting a petrol A2 to build into a car I could use on track but was looking to put an ABF valver engine in it on throttle bodies lol

...the wife has told me I can't have any more cars though so the S3 would have to go before I got another and if the S3 went it would be replaced with either a Mk1/Mk2 Escort or an Aston Martin v8 Vantage

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Have had the pad warning light come up randomly recently... I knew that the pads weren't an issue as they weren't done that long ago...

Took the wheel off and it would appear that the sensor plug had seen better days...

So I just removed the damaged plug and cut the plug off the pad...

...and twisted the wires together on the cars wiring loom to make the dash happy and crimped them to keep it secure and finally taped it all up... (do this a lot on cars when fitting performance pads as they never have pad wear wiring)...

Seeing as I change the oil every 6 months I always check the brakes anyway so I am comfortable disabling this... at some point I will try and get hold of a replacement plug or something to reinstate it but this will 'fix' the issue for now...

Not looked under the 'bonnet' for a little while so thought it would be a good idea to check that the leaks I had previously fixed were still holding up

All looks good... no wet bits, not loss of coolant or derv... happy chappy...

While I had the car jacked up I pinched my mates Ibiza Cupra wheels (17's) to see what they looked like...

Not too bad tbh... tried some spare RSTT 18's on there too...

...maybe a bit too big lol... but kinda like them as they are the same wheels I have on my S3..

Then I remembered I still have my old S3 Avus 17's kicking about doing nothing... found a pic (off this site as it happens)

I kinda like them tbh but maybe with the car a little lower than it is pictured... I will dig mine out and get them cleaned up and sling them on to see... may as well seeing as I have them laying about doing nothing...

And as is the way a couple of recent pics to finish up with...

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[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Glad all the repairs are holding up and all is very dry under the bonnet,a great thread this one,oh and the photography's a massive bonus!

I like the 17" Sports wheels but have to say i'm also liking the S3 alloys,very nice indeed.

Keep up the good work. �� = Thumbs up!

 

[Pinkythelabrat]

Just read this blog. Love it! Thanks Buddy for all of this. An amazing resource. Look forward to hearing about any future work you undertake but I hope all runs well for you for a while at least.
Ps. My brake-wear connector was giving faults and I seem to recall I opened it and pushed in new pins to the corroded holes. Wish I'd just cut you it like you as it only lasted two years.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[<tuffty/>]

So as is typical the old girl decided to make my life a little more interesting...

Climbed in the car to go home from work ready to lavish in the lovely cooling air-conditioned air and.... no blower!!!... nada... nothing... zilch... not impressed...! had to drive back with the windows open for 20 motorway miles nearly deafening myself trying to get a fine balance between a cooling breeze and stopping my ears from blocking up from the pressure difference... not driven with my windows open since I had my Mk2 Golf!! lol

Checked the fuses just in case and all was intact... ******... so dropped the glove box to have a look

It looked tight in there... but I gave it a thump and bingo, fired into life again... thats something I guess but clearly the brushes are worn
so needs replacing... at first I thought it would be a simple case of undoing a few screws and wrestling it out...

...no way was that gonna come out easy so decided to leave the glove box off for now as I have a trip to our other office tomorrow and I am away for a week next week so at least this way I can get it going with a bit of gentle persuasion.

Thankfully the part seems a fairly standard one fitted to Polo based chassis cars so SEAT Ibiza, Polo, Fabia etc (6Q2820015 E and other various letter suffixes)

As I was gathering up all the bolts and glove box to put away for now I noticed the glove box switch 'trigger' had broken... again!...

So... don't know if any of you guys have had to do this before and can give me any pointers... having found this on the onliine workshop manuals..
http://workshop-manuals.com/audi/a2...oving_and_installing_the_fresh-air_blower_v2/

...although my fan looks more like this one from a Polo...
http://workshop-manuals.com/volkswa...sh_air_fanv2_(version_2)-_remove_and_install/

...it looks straight forward but I couldn't see to get the top bolts of the fan and it looks like the airbag is in the way... in which case it would be battery disconnected and pull the airbag out for room and safety

I'll have a search about but if you know of a way to do this without removing the dash I'd appreciate some input

**EDIT**
Have found this...
http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?12524-Cabin-heater-fan-motor-not-working/

Hopefully should be a bit more straight forward so will try cleaning contacts etc first then order a new fan if all else fails... I suspect the fan has seen better days though... have seen a few go on other cars including my Mk2 Golf...

Joy

<tuffty/>

 

[Pinkythelabrat]

The top bolt to remove the fan is through a little hole in the crossbeam as far as I remember. I used two extension bits and a socket with tape on it to get a long enough reach to go through the hole. Once I'd made the tool it was easy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[<tuffty/>]

The top bolt to remove the fan is through a little hole in the crossbeam as far as I remember. I used two extension bits and a socket with tape on it to get a long enough reach to go through the hole. Once I'd made the tool it was easy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cheers dude... will have a proper look later and see about sourcing another fan... wouldn't normally bother me if all I had to do was go to work as I can do that from home... bl*ody cars!!

The S3 is supposed to be the problem child lol

<tuffty/>

 

[spike]

We know a man who can fix the glovebox light problem - http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?30491-GloveBox-light-not-working&p=255551#post255551

Cheers Spike