Silver Tuna

Un4tural

Member
Hi All,

Guess it is time to call it what it is - a project and my daily really. Audi TDI 90 (2005, bought at 134k miles now at 152k). Project will be slow as it is my daily driver as well.


As i am saving for other things project will be slow, main things on agenda currently are:

1. sort out turbo piping - blew the pipe off the turbo replaced with new pipe/clips - still a boost leak somewhere (could be EGR spewing oil/crap though as it is leaking oil per #2). Suspect leaky intercooler however upon inspecting it does look alright and not bent/damaged, if weather is nice will remove turbo pipes and give it a blow to check if it does loose air (with one end sealed).

Will need to check rest of turbo piping as boost is under what is expected and running rich/poor economy.

Hopefully sorting this out will fix poor economy, as not sitting at 35-45mpg... It does not change much if i drive nice or drive like a mad man, even similar on highway...

2. sort out EGR/Turbo as it appears to be what is leaking oil - access looks to be a pain. Also Turbo

3. there is a bit of a rattle/whine when accelerating at low rpm. not sure on this one might be nothing.

Engine does vibrate a bit more than i'd like if taking off in 1st without throttle, goes smooth at 1300+ RPM so will probably do wishbone mount and then one on gearbox to see if that resolves it. Could be EGR causing it being clogged up/spewing oil and other crap in too i guess.

Will start with gearbox and dog bone mounts and see how it goes. Dogbone looked potentially original so wouldn't be surprising if that cause additional rattle.

4.Check brakes as front left disk seems like it is not wearing evenly - had post for it and have an idea what i'll need to do just need to get around to it - probably will get a sit of discs and pads and do a proper cleanup/service on the fronts. Rears look excellent so will go with the trusty if it ain't broke don't break it.

Front and rear brakes done. Rear was dragging a little but not really enough to notice, only could tell when spinning it by hand, can hear pad contact and it would slow down quickly.

5. Install an Under-tray/shield. Either plastic OEM or if a friend of a friend is willing have a metal one made. Not sure why i'd need a metal one, mountain climbing/zombie apocalypse readiness and its cool.

Low on the list this.

6. It does drink more fuel than it should by quite a bit - hopefully will be fixed with turbo/intake plumbing otherwise down the rabbit hole i go. Currently #1 on suspect list is the boost/air leaking but could be something else as well, once i rule out boost leak will go grasp at straws i guess.

That is all for the technical side really, rest are quite minor, though will try to tackle the poor fuel economy next and do the engine mounts at same time, hopefully. Will depend on weather and mood on the weekends really.

Fit Bose set and Cruise Control - Done by Timmus

Fit Leather seats (thinking normal leather rear 3 seat bench and front seats out of TT/A3 or similar, quite love the look of one in new (now ex) A2Steve's project car) Will likely go with front leather from another car and leave fabric in back unless something well prices comes around.

Will give a spin at re-upholstering door trims with leather/fabric material - still looking into options, probably faux leather/alcantara type stuff on foam backing with some glue after stripping the trim, if anyone have decent condition door cards i can experiment with would be great. Have some door cards for experimentation, will need to buy/source some material etc.

Additional sound insulation to look into.



Replace cracked front bumper (if anyone has one in good condition in what Audi call Akoya Silver, Pearl Effect i promise not to hurt it)



Replace power window switches with fully working ones - I have them I am just lazy.



Done so far:

New clutch/DMF

Remap bump to 110bhp

New tires and imaginary alignment done by Halfords so front tires will need replacing with re-alignment shortly. - now with fresh tires alignment.

Bose and CC fitted. Could do with Bose grilles but don't see them worth the price.

Tidied up plastics under the car which taken care of some of the rattles and some of the turbo plumbing, will go a bit deeper and probably replace the pipe that connects to inter cooler at the bottom for good measure and add a bit of rubber bumper to the metal section so it doesn't rub against the sump.

About 3k miles on new clutch going smooth - i could feel a little bit of vibration after swapping it on the clutch pedal but it has went away, guess wearing it in.

Sorted Brakes in case these were rubbing/causing low mpg, no improvement however braking is super super smooth now. Odd as old disks and pads looked to have over 70% left.



Sorry it's a bit scattered, just put together to serve as a list of to do/done sort of thing for crossing things off, will snap a few pictures as well when i get the chance to give her a wash, just a akoya silver sport spec TDI 90 really.

Feel a bit ashamed looking at some other members going through project cars seemingly every few months and taking me weeks to get around to slip under the car.
 
Let me know how you get on with improving your MPG, mine is quite poor too. Depronman has suggested to me that an EGR clean may help, I’ll give it a go when I have a little more time available.
 
Good luck buddy. A daily driver project is tough. I have the same and even fixing an indicator becomes a huge challenge of time management (child, work, weather, inclination - all need to align perfectly).

You’ll get there!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ARgh refreshed page and lost my whole write up update :(

Basically brakes are all done, new pads/disks all around and one new caliper left rear and one almost new rear right from previous ownership of the car. Haven't been in an A2 that stops this smooth, oddly old parts still had plenty of meat in them but just didn't perform well, seemed to be pagid parts front but with age and dust could have been a "pegid" or some knockoff i guess as visually there was about 70% meat on there still.

Rear was a mixed bag, one side had no name pads that literally fell apart when i took them off, other side had brembo pads, which again fell apart as soon as i took them off... so could be a case of "brimbo" pads off china too.

Full Adventure for brakes here - https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/rear-brake-leak.42364/ really not that difficult just bit frustrating in hindsight as could've really done better by topping up the brake fluid tank before replacing the pad as i had to bleed all corners for due course of air. Otherwise really all you need is a couple of spanners and a jack, hell sport rims are brilliant as you have just enough room to jam your hand in there for easy access to bleed nipple, didn't even need to remove the wheels to bleed them! excellent.

Otherwise gave outside a good pressure wash and a scrub, though might revisit with a further detailing for annoying bits, do not have a buffing tool but might invest in one at some point, for now it looks pretty good, applied some 9H Mr. Fix coating thingy (do recommend, though will report how well it lasts) and it does an amazing job of masking smaller scratches - from distance it looks really really good, closer up there are quite a few small scratches and chips but looks very presentable now.

Rims do need a refurb, might get some heavy de-greaser and have a go at them with pressure washer and scrubby when weather is nice and mood is good.


Next on the chopping block will be turbo and EGR, once weather is nice for both saturday and sunday, first i'll buy a lottery ticket then attack the engine bay - found a cheap turbo with low miles on ebay and it looks nice and clean for 100£, will replace current one with that, hopefully resolving poor mpg and turbo lag. Same time test intake piping for leaks what comes after turbo.

Plus engine mounts, speaking of i need to order top gearbox mount for the polo as have dogbone but forgot to order the top one!

Following that i should have a fairly sorted A2 and will see into more "luxury" features, maybe redo the whole suspension as it is getting a bit tired or explore 6speed conversion + hybrid turbo, which I'm sure would be smarter than twisting stock transmission with what from @A2Steve adventures would likely be a smart option as passat box will surely have higher torque rating, but that is a problem for future me to investigate. also will re-read Steve's project post with the hybrid turbo :)

Anyway, now it stops alright, need to make it go alright again.

I think that sums it up for the progress.
 

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Checked the intercooler and most of intake and seems to be leak proof, though pipe connecting to intercooler at the bottom looks pretty tired so will order a replacement as it is really easy/quick to get to. put a plastic bag covering the metal part and put the hose over it then gave it a blow from up top and air wasn't going anywhere.

There is quite a bit of oil in the intake though, on the inside piping so turbo/EGR definitely leaking. Makes sense as giving it the beans for a bit it stops it smoking (though boost can be delayed still on full throttle), guessing burning away/blowing through the oil.

Ordered bits i need to remove driveshaft to get to turbo now, will proceed to replace the turbo next chance i get, will allow myself a couple days just in case.

ordered some replacement screws for brake disks to retain as current ones were pretty tired too, even though don't need to be right but would hate to have to remove them in a couple years as they'll need drilling out no doubt.

Replaced wishbone mount as well while i was there.

Another thing to add to the list is i need to investigate some rattle on the engine, timing belt side. Sound like something is not quite right there.
 
Interested to know how much difference the remap has made to your car. Mine has been done and it is a noticeable difference but still not as good as my previous TDi. Economy has very slightly improved from 50 to 51 mpg ?, but it’s still no where near as good as it should be. I’m not disappointed in the remap, just in the car itself!
 
Interested to know how much difference the remap has made to your car. Mine has been done and it is a noticeable difference but still not as good as my previous TDi. Economy has very slightly improved from 50 to 51 mpg ?, but it’s still no where near as good as it should be. I’m not disappointed in the remap, just in the car itself!

Honestly didn't feel much of a difference but that's more than likely because motor needs sorting - hopefully with turbo/egr not bleeding oil it'll be happier. It's got more pep at upper end in rpm range for sure but in 4th/5th it doesn't feel much different.

I am hoping turbo is the last of issues relating to motor(and well finding that rattle as I don't think it's supposed to be there, should make a recording someone more familiar with songs of tdi might be able to tell right away)
 
Ok so didn't do the turbo as it seems well ache without taking engine out, there was a ton of oil in the intake plumbing though, seems to be coming from breather pipe so i reckon i'll chuck an oil catch can in there.

After cleaning all the oil and piping as well as breathing tube and MAF it is running great again, less vibration too... Seems to have stopped smoking as well but there is a lot of oil still leaking, at this point suspect the EGR leaking oil that is being pushed through from turbo, will run as is for now and see how it goes.

It has been running great for about 2 days anyway, seems crank sensor is planning a retirement, luckily she started back up after about 15min in parking at the shops, kept just cranking over and not starting, once it cooled down it fired right back up... code for crank sensor and symptoms match up to other posts on forum perfectly... thus it seems oil cooler and stuff will need to go off to replace. I am not impressed.

otherwise tidied up wiring etc. gave it a bit of a clean and it's pretty smooth now, economy reported is about 50-60mpg on average now at DIS which is far more on point but will be to be seen next fill-up, after repairs drove about 1/4 of tank and it was about 1l per 10miles driven.

seems to be a small drip from i am guessing water pump... timing belt done 15k miles ago by previous owner, so i am not impressed, but not surprised either, cant imagine even the cheapest pumps would last this short a time...

Next on list crank sensor and see how she runs, maybe put blanking plate on EGR if i can fit a spanner and my fat hand in there

Edit - not to bump without much of an update, crank sensor replaced.

Update after a week is it with fresh crank sensor and she hasn't missed a beat or made a beep yet so seems a success. New sensor is OEM with audi/wv markings on it, one removed seems to be a smooth skin with nothing at all to identify it by. This car's history perplexes me, some things seem to be quite well taken care of whilst others and arguably quite important bits are unidentifiable pieces of shait presumably from china...

I should do them glow plugs really as one of them has been reporting a fault since i got the car...
 
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Right minor update, it does look like turbo is fine, though i'll need to pop in the oil catch in breather tube to stop that dumping oil into the intake and re-evaluate.

ordered a BMW part which seems funky and wanted to see if i can make do, plus it has return tube to shoehorn in rather than a can that needs emptying. Apparently from BMW X5 series - Engine oil separator 1705237. will go get some hose to plumb it in too.

Have a replacement rocker cover from Steve as well - can't tell if there is a valve etc. that is broken causing all the oil to be dumped into intake, there is certainly too much oil there though. Seems to not be serviceable part so will dig further once replacement arrives, ordered replacement seal for the cover too.

Turbo as it turns out rebuilt in 2012 by Turbo Technics and still looks as new having a peek inside, would be surprised if it was indeed leaking oil into intake at this point, though if it is i can now go hybrid turbo route at some point as have a spare atl turbo :) Had history from 2009 with the car, but turbo replacement/rebuild was not mentioned...

It runs a bit rough again, presumably due to oil making way back into intake as there is a bit of dribble where intake hoses connect on top of engine again.

Still need to replace glow plugs - will carry on procrastinating on this i think.

Probably to add to list will be to give engine bay a cleanse to rid of all the oil - got a bottle of de-greaser so hopefully can get to it before summer is over.

Oh also the cheapo "ceramic" coating off ebay still working alright, though i haven't washed the car since it still has a fair bit of shine after rain washes the dust off - not keeping as well on the windows as those are back to normal since a while ago. - if you have the time to go over the car methodically to apply it (quite therapeutic) definitely a recommend, at 4-5£ for the bottle.


Edit:

small update, oil level sensor gone kaput so replacement inbound, gave it a clean and fault on dash still comes back after starting engine. It is very easy to access but in case anyone needs the part number - A2 TDI 90 ATL uses 045907660D for oil level sensor - just next to accessory pulley, held in by single bolt - had difficulty finding for sure which sensor was needed so had to make sure and take the wheel off, while there figured might as well try cleaning it.

Have few small bits to do, oil leak is fairly better now - EGR still leaks oil that makes its way through the intake, however fiddling about noticed turbo return line nut was finger tight (and i don't mean HULK finger tight) so tightened it which reduced amount of oil by a fair bit, but still have some making it's way from EGR.

ordered required clips and hoses for oil catch dinky, but still need to figure out where to install the return line - will try and plumb it to the oil fill hose from the front maintenance hatch.

Wondering now if there is a too much blowby on cylinders or something forcing more oil up through breather tube... as one of old invoices did have a note in lovely red pen stating "NO OIL!".
 
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