WITW - Andrew's Irish Green

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

After a trying day with one pinch bolt yesterday, today went from bad to worse

Whats the next step on after bad to worse? Something along these lines:



because the gearbox has to come off again



to fix this damn connector leaking. I've never had one of these leak before - sometimes they get a bit damp, but as soon as I plug the connector in, it starts making a puddle on the floor.





These two o-rings are in a bad way



I was thinking when I had Paul's FE in bits, I should probably add these o-rings to my routine, since they don't tend to leak but it'd be a right pain if they did and its easy with the sump off. Literally the next one through the door bites me on the **** with that exact problem

I'm quite grumpy

TPS have priority-ordered a pair of o-rings and a new sump gasket for me so this can go back together tomorrow and normal service had flippin' well better be resumed!

[HPsauce]

Oh dear.
At least you have your wonderful separating machine, or it would presumably be a whole lot more aggravating.

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

These two o-rings are in a bad way

Could it be that on a prior service someone just wrenched on it a bit and 'broke the seal'. I remember noticing my connector on my 2.8 being oily and there was a temptation in my novice head to 'tighten it up a bit'.... but in the end I left alone as discovered it was engine oil coming from above, and the fact you told me so.

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Oh dear.
At least you have your wonderful separating machine, or it would presumably be a whole lot more aggravating.

Quite so. I'm thankful that I noticed it while it was still on the machine and not after I'd put it all back in the car!

Originally Posted by strummagnet

Could it be that on a prior service someone just wrenched on it a bit and 'broke the seal'. I remember noticing my connector on my 2.8 being oily and there was a temptation in my novice head to 'tighten it up a bit'.... but in the end I left alone as discovered it was engine oil coming from above, and the fact you told me so.

I think in this case simply removing and reattaching the connector from the wiring harness moved it enough to break the seal. Its fine just sitting there unconnected, but as soon as I plugged the connector in it twists off-axis just enough for the oil to seep past the o-rings.

I'm not sure why the connector is designed to float in the casing tbh. It would make a lot more sense to me for it to be tight in there and not move which would give the o-rings a much better chance of staying sealed. Just one of ZF's little easter eggs

[MikkiJayne]

I went out at lunchtime to fit the two o-rings and put the sump back on so the gasket sealant (blue Hylomar) can flash off before this evening when I'll want to flip the gearbox the right way up again and refill it

[Ronin]

Seeing this makes me want to do a manual swap for reliability purposes, especially for the german trip, but my day to day lazy and realistic side is telling me i would start to hate driving the car

[MikkiJayne]

I prefer daily driving the Allroad to Big Red simply because of the gearbox. The auto ruins the 2.8 for me because it is so stupidly programmed. I'm not planning on taking a 5HP round Spa

Not much to report on the thread this evening. I put the oil back in the gearbox and put the gearbox back on the separating machine. Its going to spend overnight with two bellhousing bolts in and the valve body connector connected and make sure there are no more leaks before I reattach the converter and starter etc etc.

I pulled the power steering pipes off as they're pretty crusty. Hopefully I can get those off to the hydraulic shop tomorrow.

[MikkiJayne]

A good day today I put the engine and gearbox back on the subframe, but forgot to get any pics of that, then moved on to cleaning



First pass of APC



Sprayed with tar remover







Rinsed down after a second pass with APC



Nice and clean



The other side was much the same



Botang's hole needed attention, and since the interior is already out its pretty simple to take the electronics box out, and looking under here its a good job that I did! At some point in its life the water has got pretty high in here



Botang's hole just hiding there under the AC pipe



The source of the rust stains I've never seen one in this state, and tbh this is classified as 'nicht gerfingerpoken'. There are no more of these, and this is miraculously still working so I shall leave it alone. We can put it on the list for replacement when I reinvent this whole heater block



Hoovered out and there is an orange tide mark about 2" up



I attacked it with Bilt Hamber Auto-wheel, which is a first for me in this area! It immediately got to work on the iron and turned a deep purple.



Much better



The blower motor is getting replaced with a D3 version which is made considerably easier with the ecu box out as well



The D3 motor has a different connector



D2 connector spliced on to the D3 blower



Wrapped up

[HPsauce]

I've had some horrendous problems with the scuttle drains, the evidence is exposed above!
What exactly is the very rusty component that is "nicht gerfingerpoken" and is NLA but you're thinking of a solution to?
And what happens when it goes wrong?

D2 connector spliced on to the D3 blower

I like your thinking.

Presumably all a bit more comfortable to work on with no bonnet?

[MikkiJayne]

Very pleasant working with no bonnet That may become standard procedure.

The rusty lump is the water pump for the heater. Its built in to the side of the heater valve block and is supposed to push coolant through the two heater cores as the engine water pump doesn't have enough flow or pressure to get through the valve block. When the pump fails it just takes a while for the heater to heat up.

Good working valve blocks with good working motors are unobtanium now so I plan to redesign it using parts from the C7 A6 which has separate valves and pump. They're newer, cheaper and smaller. It's just going to need some creative plumbing to stick it in the space where the D2 valve block goes.

The drains are all clear now