S8 (No longer) FKD
 

Picking up from where Frankie ran out of steam, this rescue mission has taken a lot more time (and money) than hoped, but I promised to save it, and I'm glad to report she is running well again. Very well in fact.


The initial Big issues:

• No MOT
• Very rough idle / hard to keep running
• Oil leaks

Work done:

• Replaced bonnet cable as it snapped on day 1. What a joy of a job that was breaking in.
• Replaced oil separator as it was split, sucking in air and coating everything with oil inside and outside the engine.
• Smoke test - revealed a 50p piece size bung in the front of offside head was completely missing, sucking in more air, and spitting out more oil. Scratching my head as when/how that went missing - Replaced
• Replaced all 10 spark plugs $
• Replaced all 10 coil packs. $$
• Replaced all 10 injectors $$$
• Replaced the failing water pump, aux belt and pulleys
• 2 new MAFs
• Carbon clean
• Manifold clean
• All new gaskets for above
• Oil + filter change
• PAS fluid change
• Brake fluid change
• A/C regas
• Air filters
• Fuel filter
• Replaced bluetooth module as existing one was dead
• Replaced a failed parking sensor
• Unblocked sunroof drains as all 4 were blocked solid

One of the biggest issues with this car was the 'manifold flap delete'. I understand why people do it, but 'coding out the flaps' it would seem basically equates to 'turn off all the error logging on the ECU' which makes troubleshooting issues an absolute nightmare.

The hardest thing to troubleshoot is misfires, when you have 10 cylinders to go at, and no misfire counters to work with, hence why we ended up just swapping everything.

On the plus side though, its a bit easier to get an MOT as the engine warning light will never, ever come on no matter how badly it is running !

Crikey!

Can you get a stock map reloaded on to it and then map out the flaps properly?

I possibly could, now.

The issue at the time, was having no MOT, made carting it around places to get stuff like that done, even harder as it would need trailering. Combined with mechanical air leaks and other issues, asking someone to alter the coding at that stage I think would have led to even more confusion over what was working and not.

I'm pleased with the ultimate outcome, as replacing everything has made it quite fresh and potent :D

I'm guessing that this is Ollies blue S8. If so, beautiful car in a great colour and unusually well specc'd. Great to know its been recovered from what was beginning to look like terminal decline.

The one and the same. Far too good to let it get parted out, although there were definitely some very frustrating moments when it got close for sure ;)

Any up to date pics Ian? What do you have planned for it now it's in better mechanical health? Keeping or flogging?

Agree with what Nick said. I was eyeing this one up when Ollie had it for sale, but didn't have the funds at the time. Great save. +++

Still a few outstanding jobs first, then It needs a dam good clean.

The plan was to use it as a runaround until my new Tesla arrived (which it did last week). My head and bank account both say it should be sold, I'm struggling to let go. The various rumbles/burbles/roars/screams from the V10 are so addictive, as the V10 owners/exowners will know. :D

To say on paper this is only supposed to have 25% more BHP than the D2 S8, I start to question if this thing has picked up some sort of minor remap along the way as it just has way more pickup than I'm used to the D3.

Despite reading the full post, turns out I was thinking of the wrong car. It was the blue 4.2tdi that was up for sale just before the Suzuka grey S8.

One of my favourite S8's owned on here. It was one I wanted to buy for the spec, but was not in a position to do so at the time. Happy with mine though, got a decent specced on few years back.

As for the engine map, my flap are deleted and the engine light does come on if there is a fault, so makes me think of a bad remap. Regarding the power, when mine was done VRS said that these rarely hit anywhere near stock figures from the factory and a remap usually puts that back and sometimes more.

Bit off topic but didn't this one have a heated windscreen? If it does (and if you have the time IT), can you take a picture of where the wiring comes into the engine bay area near the washer bottle reservoir please? I'm contemplating a retrofit but there is very little info on this. The module and wiring is not a problem, I just need to figure out if it comes through the bonnet release cable area or through the wing and up past the washer bottle. Thanks