Today I.....

After fitting new disc & pads in the front, new drums & shoes in the back, thought I try the little LED side lights I had bought ages ago, put them in & what a joy, they changed the look of the headlights, not sure if the picture shows how good & bright they are but have a look anyway.
Have a lot do yet on this car, the most important all the oil leaks:mad:
Cheers,
Ami

IMG_4118.PNG
 
kp 115 said:
Hi Rusty911,
Sounds promising I would check the rear drums & handbrake adjustment re the coasting I also changed my top & bottom rear spring seats for new febi items & it eliminated the annoying rattles the car has had for sometime.
Cheers
Keith.
Click to expand...
As part of its reburb I have indeed had the brakes apart, cleaned and adjusted at the drum via encouraging the drop wedge down (after a drum de-lip), plus cable adjustment. There is no drag from rear brakes.

You make excellent point on lower spring cups, they did look very poor.

I'm always a bit careful refurbing cars like this: unknown, untested. Easiest thing in the world to throw cash and parts at them before you've tried the car. There's a danger you do this only to find actually it's fundamentally flawed in some way. Therefore I make sure it's safe, make sure it can't damage itself (oil, timing belt etc), do anything that can be mended for free or nearly free and start to use it. Often things you thought were shot are OK, and you find other bits that need doing. The headline is you can't do everything you'd like in the first sweep just in case car turns out to be a no-hoper.

In this case, I'm sufficiently encouraged to buy it a pair of spring bases :)

Edit: ordered, thank you!
 
Rusty911 said:
(Yes)today I took the silver TDi for maiden voyage. It's had years of being pottered around the back lanes of Kent. With this in mind I fed it some premium Esso diesel (£1.50 a litre!) and gradually drove it harder on the first 70 mile leg.

No temp reading until I came to Reigate Hill on the M25. I gave it some beans up there and all of a sudden noticed the temp had limped up to 70 or so, only to drop back with in a few miles. Now suspect new thermostat is duff. Was a known aftermarket brand (Borg and Beck I think), but it'll have to come out and be tested in the saucepan of doom.

Other things to report: suspect tracking out as tyre pressures good but wheel a fraction off and it doesn't seem to coast quite as well as expected. Will get the Dunlops out and check.

Really nasty rattle from underneath and really hard to tell from which end. As front will be up in the air for thermostat I'll just go from front to rear checking everything, which is never a bad thing to do on a 'new car anyway.

Economy looks poor but see thermostat and tracking above. Pulls ok so confident my timing is alright.

Overall though, I really like it: it has an old used car honesty about it: sold to me 'shame to scrap it' for £300 so expectations healthily low.

Pics to follow at some point ...
Click to expand...
I’ve a genuine thermostat you can have for £25 posted Barry if needed.

what time were you on the M25, I was there around 1:30 yesterday, perhaps we passed each other!
 
Last edited:
Today I fitted the refurbished headlights to snotbox
5BF11AD9-118F-4B11-B5D7-99BE3E93A0AE.jpeg

I’ve also started tidying up the bodywork, at some point in its life it was keyed and badly touched up, so the first thing to do was wet flat the paint back and try to fill the low spots in the paint with lacquer

999F032E-9F47-4446-9C65-C439D6340086.jpeg


531CD986-9236-41D1-8894-091DD5EDE653.jpeg


finally after a about an hour of flatting and then polishing it was more presentable, the only way to get 100% would be to repaint the affected panels

C32EF5C2-9958-44FA-999B-B6A84627FB8E.jpeg
 
Today the two 1 litre bottles of Jaso FC spec two stroke oil I bagged on eBay for £6 arrived.

Time to debunk the myth and see if any improvements in noise and / or economy can be gained - I’ll post my findings in my blog when I next borrow Audrey for a long trip.
 
Rusty911 said:
Yes, will do that, thank you. I have to say it's a new thermostat and a new sender (Febi) and gauge is no different to before so clearly there's a curveball in there somewhere!
Click to expand...
Checked this out: there is about a 7 degree difference between instrument and ECU readings, but ECU is getting the higher reading. Even so, my gut feel is this is Febi tolerances rather than failure of a new part.

On the other hand, with the revs wedged at 1500 or so, almost straight away the top hose started to warm up. With the car sitting on the drive with raised revs, the temp gauge eventually got to 70 on a sender reading of 65. Other than a pound up Reigate Hill, that's the only time I've seen it move. I have no doubt had I driven up the road on this chilly evening the gauge (and temp) would have dropped again.

I'm calling either thermostat or faux-pas on the installation, ie coolant flowing around outside of the 'stat. Not end of the world, I need to jack car back up to change the gear oil (dreadful gear shift so will do the quadruple set of lube tower (again), lube cables, strip / clean / silicon lube shifter mech, plus that oil. Worked on Cobalt II which was nearly as bad but now as good as it can probably be.

Assuming install was OK I'll introduce thermostat to saucepan and digital temp reader, mainly to get refund plus costs if faulty.
 
Erlingtheelder said:
Today I had a most enjoyable drive down to Aberdare to collect some bits from @A2Steve having stopped off in Swindon en route to pick up some wheels from @tipomark Great meeting you both.

Feels like the world is starting to get a little more normal and hopefully some proper get together’s can happen again soon. ??
Click to expand...

Thanks for collecting the wheels for me Erling. Sorry for jawing you’re head off about all things car related too ?
 
Today I popped over to the other side of Marlborough, to collect a Platinum Load Cover for Spud... at last.
Then across to @A2Steve to collect yet more bits and pieces, destined for Jelly. Hopefully get the spare AMF rebuilt and pepper up this summer.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
 
Jellybean said:
Today I popped over to the other side of Marlborough, to collect a Platinum Load Cover for Spud... at last.
Then across to @A2Steve to collect yet more bits and pieces, destined for Jelly. Hopefully get the spare AMF rebuilt and pepper up this summer.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

And for once it wasn’t raining ? Always a pleasure Bob.
 
Rusty911 said:
Checked this out: there is about a 7 degree difference between instrument and ECU readings, but ECU is getting the higher reading. Even so, my gut feel is this is Febi tolerances rather than failure of a new part.

On the other hand, with the revs wedged at 1500 or so, almost straight away the top hose started to warm up. With the car sitting on the drive with raised revs, the temp gauge eventually got to 70 on a sender reading of 65. Other than a pound up Reigate Hill, that's the only time I've seen it move. I have no doubt had I driven up the road on this chilly evening the gauge (and temp) would have dropped again.

I'm calling either thermostat or faux-pas on the installation, ie coolant flowing around outside of the 'stat. Not end of the world, I need to jack car back up to change the gear oil (dreadful gear shift so will do the quadruple set of lube tower (again), lube cables, strip / clean / silicon lube shifter mech, plus that oil. Worked on Cobalt II which was nearly as bad but now as good as it can probably be.

Assuming install was OK I'll introduce thermostat to saucepan and digital temp reader, mainly to get refund plus costs if faulty.
Click to expand...
If 7deg difference is the best Febi can do then I will not be using one of there temp sender units
The Audi ones are normally max 2 deg difference
 
Here's one of my daft questions again guys, sorry.
Can these be bench tested before they are fitted?
Told you it was a daft question.
 
Rusty911 said:
Checked this out: there is about a 7 degree difference between instrument and ECU readings, but ECU is getting the higher reading. Even so, my gut feel is this is Febi tolerances rather than failure of a new part.

On the other hand, with the revs wedged at 1500 or so, almost straight away the top hose started to warm up. With the car sitting on the drive with raised revs, the temp gauge eventually got to 70 on a sender reading of 65. Other than a pound up Reigate Hill, that's the only time I've seen it move. I have no doubt had I driven up the road on this chilly evening the gauge (and temp) would have dropped again.

I'm calling either thermostat or faux-pas on the installation, ie coolant flowing around outside of the 'stat. Not end of the world, I need to jack car back up to change the gear oil (dreadful gear shift so will do the quadruple set of lube tower (again), lube cables, strip / clean / silicon lube shifter mech, plus that oil. Worked on Cobalt II which was nearly as bad but now as good as it can probably be.

Assuming install was OK I'll introduce thermostat to saucepan and digital temp reader, mainly to get refund plus costs if faulty.
Click to expand...
Barry, check with Opie Oils but I think Redline’s MT-LV gear oil might be suitable - it will help with the gear change - lower viscosity but better wear protection.
 
From the video, the closer the readings from each thermistor is to the other then the difference in temperature values are smaller. Ideally both read exactly the same on the meter at whatever temperature you have the sender immersed in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top