Front Bumper Dilema
 

Hi There,

I had a bit of a silly accident/parking error / laps of judgement - Ikea MK, parked up, decent day of shopping, got in, reversed and the car had dropped onto the raised curb and ARGHHH.

I noticed the under tray scraping a few miles later on and hooked it back as best, also lost the windscreen washer as caught a pipe and cracked a small hose. Hooked back up on the drive way later on

Drove to funeral and passenger side of the tray came down, pulled off got the tray removed, it had been damaged another time, in a suit and needed to get places so they binned it for me.

Got back and noticed a missing fog light, the passenger side inner arch liner had become damaged too. Got a new one.

Up to oil change time, car was low, so couldn't jack, popped in to local garage and took about 3 weeks of faff to get in, also got suspension checked and looked like a weak compressor. Rebuild kit lasted 3.5ys so not bad, just done again and working fine.

Looks like bumper set-up is slowly disintegrating as lower valence part is not best and noticed it low, strapped up, but I think the front bumper is on it's last legs and the sensible thing is new front bumper, there's previous damage on a corner from pre-me anyway.

It seems it's all linked as one....Irritating, but also the grills and stuff kinda hold it in shape and the tray too, so without it's not been doing the best

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-A8-D...YAAOSwEMddFMK6

£200 - inc grill and loads of extra bits. Looks reasonable too. BLUE LY7R

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A8-D...8AAOSwdLpc2pai

Forum guys, good guys. £160, but needs all the other bits. LZ7Q Oyster Grey


Car is LY7H Akoya Silver - Though previous owner has blacked roof and wheels.

180k miles and more a work horse than show car. There was a big scratch down the passenger side which has been badly touched up. Car isn't really worth much and after 3.5ys and 60k at £4.5K it probably doesn't owe me much either. I often consider swapping, particular when i'm close to bonus season, though quite what would actually tempt me away for reasonable money.....i mean B&O would be nice, massage/ventilated seats would tempt the GF, My Old S8 was fun, but D2 is a bit old now and the D3 S8 is still £8-10K and loses LPG

Hmm

I hear your pains..!

Similarly had my D3 (2007) for 6 years now, and it's never skipped a beat.

Previously had issues with a binding rear caliper (was actually the motor which had suffered water ingress - perfect opportunity for the 'specialist garage' to rip me a new one at £1200!).

Also had the compressor fail, which I manage to fix myself with the help of people on here and a local friend.

Aside from theat never had a problem with it. It's a 3.0 TDI and since the last 2 years or so, the engine does sound quite 'tappety', but drives fine.

Sometimes the gears don't change as soon as they should do (auto), but that seems to depend on how cold the car is and the weather?

Going on to the bumper issue you mentioned, I'm currently having to remove it now to get the alternator out, as I think it's died. Christmas before last I took it out in the snow and was having a whale of a time, till I lost control and had a minor altercation with a signpost in the Asda car park!! that caused some minor damage to my front bumper.

I've recently been considering getting another D3 as i've loved driving this car and I think it's awesome. All the newer cars seem too 'plasticky' for my liking, whereas these D3's are just oozing solid build quality.

Hope you manage to get it sorted either way. Thanks for sharing.

Actually had a caliper issue a couple of times, always the parking brake bit. I've taken it off and it separates and water gets in the back, and the helical gears get gunk and bind up. One side had a crack and i've patched over it with aluminium tape for water repair stuff. Cleaned and lubricated and then properly sealed it's been good for a couple of winters. Irritating as i rarely ever use the parking brake, as autos have engine brake etc!


The bagpipingandy kit, ebay £25. Did 3.5ys and just sorted it again. So long as the motor is good, it fixes most of them back to working saving hundreds!

I had a bit of an issue there, rear seal leaks over time. A gearbox oil swap or actually just a top of up made a BIG difference. It's one you fill til it spills so you can't check, just top up from underneath. Changed from feeling changes and the the odd error, to smooth as anything and no issues for 2 years. Sure the seal could do with replacing, but, on taking two years to get a bit notchy on changes, i can live with it!


I think i'm probably going to have to get a bumper....Maybe spray which would mean a strip down. Silver, black or just live with the mismatch.

To be honest as "Budget" luxury cars, they're stunning value, they have been since my early D2 S8 because the market drops like a stone for 100k+ miles, 10yrs+ on a £70k car. Who buys them....perceived as too rich for families and company directors want new!

Skimming through the listings for the blue one.....I saw a LY7W - Akoya Silver bonnet!!!

A few messages, and a listing with Akoya Silver....No need to paint. £199 and all the grills, fogs and parking sensors. That should work reasonably....Particularly as I have a couple of iffy reading sensors on the front and a lost fog grill!

So I removed the motor attachment from the caliper for now with a view to hopefully being able to repair it. I bought a cheaper one for a Passat - it is slightly different in that there is no cable coming out of it, rather it has a 2 pin plug. I was hoping to bas***dise it and somehow either use the components from within it or retrofit it in place of the original. The problem seems to be that the original caliper motor thingy for the A8 is much more dearer than these for the Passat model? Anyway that is a project for another day, in the meantime I have no EPB, but like you - I never use the damn thing anyway!

Yeah luckily my piston was okay, it was just one of the brushes that had come loose, I managed to tie it back up with some thin copper wire, put the thing back together and hey presto it was fine!

I did do some reading on this, and ideally I would like to give it a go with a top up. Any links to how this is done? I don't even know where to look under the engine for where this is to be fair! Was it easy enough to do? I must admit that this is the only other thing that isn't running smooth on my car. Any help would be greatly received.

I couldn't agree more! these cars are amazing to own and given I paid £10.5k for mine in 2013 when it was 6 years old and had just under 100k on it with a full comprehensive dealer history, I'd say it was exactly that - a budget luxury car!

Ahhhh....I was wondering about a similar style of DIY fix. They certainly look very similar. Maybe keep the powered motor part from the Audi. I've opened mine up a couple of times and free it up. Sealing them is the tricky bit so it doesn't get water in and gum up again. Typically the motor senses the jam and then raises the fault so it would surprise if the motor is dead!


Ideally needs ramps and the car to be secure with the motor running and changing gears. Remove the plug and squirt the correct oil up until it over flows, change gear, repeat etc.
I've gotten a local small garage i'm friendly with to do it. It's a bit messy and you need a pump bottle. My garage made a manual one kinda like a bigger one of these with a hooked end
Use the correct gearbox oil though!

So the plot thickens a little....

Got the second hand silver bumper. Looks a good match. Has 4x parking sensors, 2 x fogs and grills. Reasonable condition with the odd wear and tear, but WAY better than mine and it's all in one piece too

WINNING.....well almost.....In the rush to buy I missed a semi-critical point. No headlight washers :(

The rear of the bumper seems to have the mountings, and I have the headlight washers on the original bumper and then I'm guessing it's cut a close to hole size, but a touch smaller with a dremmel and file to the correct size. The flip mechanism is all in the washer unit. Shouldn't be too bad. Maybe some touch up paint to dull the bumper black plastic around the holes?

Alternatively don't bother and delete the washers. Car has Bi-Xenons, is 2005 and having a look at the MOT gubbins, most the lega stuff is regarding cars later than 2009 - Obviously *IF* a car has something, it has to work, but a factory style delete would avoid even the question of if it has them!