Major Coolant Loss

[steamship]

Originally Posted by tc4332

Sean, Let me know and I'll pick you up from the ferry if you land up walking 'cos you are carless.

A lovely gesture Ray, but crossing my fingers and toes that it doesn't come to that... in the nicest sense possible.

Just waiting for the new one to arrive, hopefully by the weekend. That gives me a week to fit it, the alternator, flush the coolant several times, fill with G12, refit bumper cover and headlights. Get headlight alignment done, washed, taxed and MOT on 28th. All going well, that then gives me a month to drive the car to ensure everything's shipshape and hopefully get a few long drives in it prior to the meet... i.e. more than the couple of 3-4 mile round trips that I usually do.

Might even get enough time to post some pictures of my shenanigans.

[steamship]

Another update, and is the fashion with some of the latest movies, we start a third of the way into the story and then go back to the start. Well... in this case, back to post #41 where I mentioned the snapped bolt on the water pump and the oil cooler pipe change.

Pic1 shows what's left of the snapped off bolt. Ordered a tap and die set for eventually dealing with this one, but ended up using both tap and dies for almost every single bolt and bolt hole that I removed. Never tried drilling out a bolt before, so spent about an hour and a half on just this one bolt.



Moving onto the oil cooler assembly, Pic2 shows the assembly from the front with all the belts and alternator off. There are three bolts at the top and two at the bottom. As MJ has said, best way to do this is with the engine out, and for good reason, as the chassis leg blocks access to the top bolts. I managed to undo the bottom two, and with the aid of a scissor jack and disconnecting the front engine mount, I was able to raise the engine high enough for better access. Managed to undo the front most bolt and tried in vain to undo the middle one, with predictable results. i.e. not being able to keep the hex key seated whilst trying to break the seal. Tried a combination of a sharp blow, penetrating oil and freezing spray, all to no avail, so decided it wasn't going to be done... bummer.



No matter, as since the front end was off, I decided I'd do some major surgery. First objective was to take photos of the engine bay so I know where everything goes. I also have LPG fitted, and since there isn't any instructions on that setup, pretty vital I got those right, and with I had in mind, Pic3 to Pic6 would suffice. Also planned to clean things up a bit, so they would also be the before photos.









Starting with the easy stuff, I removed the intake manifold, as the flaps were a bit sluggish. MJ has mentioned in previous posts about the crud that accumulates around the manifold, as since turning the engine upside down to remove isn't an option, I spent ages making sure I could fish out every last bit of dirt and debris. I then used the guide that was formerly on the Audiworld forum, courtesy of the following PDF supplied by David's8:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...9&d=1578778374

If you look at the part highlighted in Pic7, that hammered flat part is a bracket on the fuel rail to retain the knock sensor in place. The LPG fitter obviously decided it was in the way! While it was all apart, I decided to clean it up and paint it. Not as good as getting it powder coated, but that wasn't an option. I forgot to take a photo of it, so Pic8 shows it back on the engine. The observant will notice that the knock sensor bracket is still bent, but I straightened it when I was putting all the cabling back in place. With the manifold off, it also gave me an opportunity to fit new knock sensors, in addition to the new manifold gaskets. Pic9 shows old vs. new sensor, which was all held together with a cable tie, and crumbled into about 10 smaller pieces.







With the manifold off, I also decided to renew the valley pan gasket and tidy up that area as well. There wasn't any oil leaking around the engine, but I decided to replace it while I was there. Pic10 shows what the valley looked like, and yes, as soon as I took the photo, I removed those old manifold gaskets and taped up the intakes. Pic11 shows what it was like under the cover and Pic12 shows how well it cleans up, with the new knock sensor in position ready to be secured. Pic13 and Pic14 show the cover after it was cleaned, and Pic15 shows it painted and back in place. I used the No Nonsense Heavy Duty Degreaser from Screwfix and it worked a treat on all the parts.













Now to the critical part, the chain tensioners, and no, I didn't replace with OEM ones, for obvious financial reasons. Pic16 and Pic17 show the underside of the cam covers, which aren't too bad looking, Pic18 shows how they cleaned up, and Pic19, Pic20 and Pic21 show both banks of cams and the top of the engine.













For this exercise, I relied on the PDFs in the D2 Tech dump thread, but more importantly, from the video that MJ posted here:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showpost....0&postcount=73

I watched it two or three times before I even started, and then watched a little segment, repeated it on the car, and then watched the next segment. Did this for both banks, even though they're essentially the same, and wanted to do it right. Pic22 shows how I set parts aside as I removed them, Pic23 shows the right bank with the new tensioner in place. All the relevant bolts have been torqued and marked as per MJs guides on here, and you can see how the double end cap has cleaned up compared to the other bank; Pic24; where I was just starting that side.







With the old tensioners out, Pic25 shows the state of the filter from the drivers side and Pic26 shows the state of the tensioner pads. No cracks or bits broken off, but quite a bit of pitting.





New spark plugs were also fitted whilst everything was off, and just as well! These were allegedly replaced at 60k, along with the other items the 'mechanic' messed up.



Oddly enough, I had posted earlier this week in a thread that member ThisWayUp started back in June 2021, and in his first post he included a photo of the spark plugs he removed, with the comment 'before torque wrenches were invented'. I noticed the same thing as they felt like they had about 5Nm torque or less on them, with no effort at all required to remove them.

I decided to not put the manifold on at this stage as I still had the timing gear to install, and with the cam covers still off so I could check the timing was correct, so on go all the pulleys, tensioners, idler pulleys, water pump, thermostat and timing belt. I also gave the metal timing covers a fresh coat of paint, but never took a photo. Again, the large black flexible ducting pipe running across the front has the LPG pipe and electrics.



Happy with the timing, I installed the other pulleys and tensioners, along with the serpentine belt up front, and then put on the cam covers, spark plugs and coil packs. Again, I painted these to give them a cleaner appearance, but left all the wiring for the time being.



Next stage was fitting the intake manifold, and decided to fit new bolts as well, considering I was fitting new bolts elsewhere as well. Pic8 shows it all back in place, but without the wiring connected, and all the LPG gubbins are lying up on top of the plenum chamber.



At some stage along the way, I decided that the oil sump was looking worse for wear, so that came off, got cleaned and painted. Also replaced the oil level sensor, fitted a new sump plug and all new bolts. Before and after photos, having forgotten to take one after it was painted and not fitted.





Whilst the sump was off, I decided I may as well clean the sump as well, so had a bash at that as well. Bearing in mind that the car is sitting on the ground and didn't want a face full of oil and degreaser, this is the best I could manage.









Once I had all the wiring and LPG gubbins reconnected (I even replaced the pipes and clips from the LPG injectors to the manifold), it was time to put everything back together again. Started off with the washer bottle, and having replaced all the grommets in it, I then managed to break the inlet to the pump when fitting the washer pipe. Not essential at this stage, so continued with the air intake and then the front end, and also ordered a new one.

The aircon condenser had accumulated a lot of crud over the years, so that got a good cleaning with the degreaser before fitting it to the radiator assembly. The radiator itself had a very small insignificant leak (very top right corner), so replaced it with an aftermarket one, as well as a new sensor. MJ had previously mentioned about aftermarket ones possibly not being 100% accurate with alignment, but thankfully I only had a single issue with mine.

All the pipes aligned perfectly, with the only issue being the threaded stud used to attach the top plastic piece that sits just under the slam panel. It all went together fine, but when I closed the bonnet, the centre tab wouldn't retract in. For some reason, that plastic piece was sitting out about 1cm too far and the locking arm was hitting it. I removed the plastic piece and then compared the old and new radiators, and found that the stud was attached to the front of a metal upright on top of the radiator, instead of at the back. Taking a leaf from MJ, I drilled a larger hole in the plastic part so that it fitted over the stud and as they say, Robert's your father's brother.







While I was changing everything else, I also changed the original fuel filter and original aircon filter (MJ mentioned it in one of the WITW threads). Old vs. new photos.





All that brings us right back to post #43 where everything went to pot. With MJ and Mike both confirming my new issue being the oil cooler matrix having failed, I didn't have much choice in now having to remove the oil cooler assembly. This time however, I enlisted the help of someone with a bit more strength to wield the tools on the oil cooler, with me applying pressure to the end of the ratchet to ensure that the heads wouldn't strip, and with gratuitous amounts of Crack-it shock-freeze release spray, we finally managed to undo the two awkward bolts.

Pic44 shows the ends of both these bolts, and as you can see from the left one, with me already half stripping it previously, we hammered on a multi-spline bit, and that combined with the Crack-it and extra inward pressure, it came undone. No issues of stripping with the other, despite it being a pig to get going. Pic45 is the actual oil cooler matrix. I don't have a photo, but looking at the four ports on the oil cooler matrix, there appears to be what looks like an o-ring at the bottom of one of them. I might try dismantling it out of curiosity.





Since the matrix was being replaced, I was also finally able to replace the original plastic pipe. It wasn't leaking, but as you can see, it wasn't in the best of health.



Getting the oil cooler assembly back in place is a nightmare with the engine in the car, as Pic47 shows the shape of it, and it being a tight squeeze. Even following these instructions on audipages site:

http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...reinstall.html

it still took me an hour just to get it back into place, as it's a weird combination of twist, turn, rotate, push and every other directional movement possible, before torquing all the bolts up again... without stripping them. I also replaced the oil pressure sensor while I was at it.



Oil and water was then added, with a radiator flush added to the water. Did three complete cycles like this, with the addition of a hose being used after each flush, and finally adding G12. No more oil in the coolant, so time to fit the bumper and headlights, making sure to apply aluminium anti-seize to the bumper bolts that I had issues removing in post #26, having already used my tap and die set to get these all cleaned up.

That was last Friday, so taxed it for 6 months on Saturday and went for a shortish run to ensure there was nothing unexpected, whilst constantly eying the temperature gauge, and got some petrol as it was pretty low back in December. Went for another longer run on Monday to fill up with LPG and everything was fine. Those trips also helped clean up the brakes as they hadn't been used for four months, and was sitting outside. It also didn't help that when the car was taken off the road in December, there was a ton of salt on the roads which never got cleaned off. All that was removed with lots of degreaser and a pressure washer.

MOT was on Friday morning, and it went through without a hitch. Not a single advisory, although at one point I thought the worst had happened. Here in Northern Ireland, we still currently have to exit the vehicle and stand around outside like expectant fathers. About a couple of minutes later, the tester called me over which has never happened before. Turns out he couldn't find the LPG filler (it's in with the fuel filler), which I found odd as they've never checked the LPG system at all in the nine years I've had it.

I really have to thank Michaela for the inspiration needed for me to get this done. Without her WITW threads and her willingness to help by mentioning about items that aren't in the PDFs, I would never have been able to get the job done, as no one here wants to even look at the car. I needed the F125 switch changed a year or so ago and sent the instructions to the mechanic who looks after my brother's 2011 Passat, and after two days he said he wouldn't even tackle it, so I did it myself.

I'd also like to thank those other members who have tackled jobs on their cars and posted about it, most recently ThisWayUp. I don't recall ever reading his thread until I posted in it a week ago, but from the photos, I must have as there is a lot of influence from it.

Needless to say, I now have a ferry to book for the annual meet.

[Ronin]

You have really gone to town with this, its very motivating

[HPsauce]

Well done Sean, we are not worthy! (Except obviously for MJ!)

[MikkiJayne]

That escalated quickly

Very nice work, well done

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Well done Sean. Major effort for maximum reward.

[tonupkid]

Beautiful work Sean. Must be so satisfying

[steamship]

Thanks all. As I mentioned about the F125 switch, there's no one here that will even consider working on these cars, so DIY was my only choice, and that was a tough route for me to go down at times, not taking the 'working conditions' into account.

Originally Posted by tonupkid

Beautiful work Sean. Must be so satisfying

Satisfying to get it back on the road, but on the few short runs I've been out in it, I'm still watching the temperature and listening for anything. I still need to get a couple of long runs in before the meet as a 220 mile road trip to Kelso is a bit far for a test drive.

More satisfying is the following comment. High praise indeed. We learn from the best.

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

That escalated quickly

Very nice work, well done

Yeah, it did sort of escalate, but deep down, most of it was on the back boiler anyway to do... except the oil cooler matrix. I've been buying parts for the car for years now, and had I not done this, I would never have been able to afford to do them at all.

[steamship]

So got an excuse to go for a long run yesterday. I have a niece coming over from Germany towards the end of the month. Her father suggested we take her and her partner out for the day, and Donegal was immediately on the list. The Giants Causeway is for another day.

Anyway, door to door, I did a 182 mile round trip with several stops along the way, and the car was fine. More than can be said for me, as I decided to go for a walk up Slieve League, a 2 mile hike with a 1,300 foot elevation change on a very rough track. If you're really, really bored, here's a 3 minute video of the 5+ hours of footage I took off my dashcam.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv...bZsgI3zxacv88Q

What you won't see in the video unless you go through it frame by frame is a 2009 Maybach S650 with a Northern Ireland registration (PDZ 119). MOT expired on 21st February! Here's a screenshot from the dashcam footage.

[ThisWayUp]

Great thread! Felt your pain, when I saw some of those photographs, but of course all worth it when it comes good in the end. I've got a few snagging items to bottom out, but otherwise it's going the right way.

I need to get better at browsing all the sub-forums.

Cheers,
Brian