What's in the workshop this week, Pelikanblau edition

[Norretal]

Originally Posted by tc4332

Compliment time.
I've been looking all my life for a good looking young lady with mechanical and electrical skills along with a good sense of humour, don't bring your wedding dress to the Annual Meet I'd be tempted.

You'd be dead before you left the house, Ray

[MikkiJayne]

Only a couple of jobs today as I had to wait at home for a courier and do some housework!

The driver's door lower hinge is missing one of the pins that holds it open. This is particularly vexing when lying upside down in the footwell and the door keeps closing on you so I fixed it.

Kaput:



A8parts supplied a crystal blue replacement



Rubbed down



Now Pelican Blue



Marked up with tape to give an alignment reference



The old hinge rotates upwards to come out





Old and new



Fixed

[MikkiJayne]

Also fixed the boot lock since it was seized completely solid

Removed via the door for for the light cluster



Disassembled the main body







The lock barrel was completely seized in the housing. Lots of WD40 and wiggling and it finally came free.



Crusty!



Started removing the tumblers





All disassembled. It took about half an hour cleaning schmutz out of the barrel with an assortment of pokey tools, degreaser and compressed air before the little door would close again!



Cleaned all the tumblers up



Reassembled prior to re-greasing



Going back together







You can see the cam which operates the central locking here via these two microswitches



All back together and ready to put back in

[David's8]

No job too big or too small eh MJ! Most would have binned it!

I feel an urgent desire to holiday in the devon area and get my 8 some of the pampering thats going into Vera's ! I am not sure there's anything wrong with my car but judging by some of the work done on these cars in the past there might be some skeletons in the closet.

And to crown it all, Vera is not bringing the car along to the annual meet to let us look at it and the work done.
Bad Vera

[Regulus]

As everyone says, it is a pleasure to follow your detailed explanation, every step of the way. To someone like myself, you are a true teacher
How many individuals will have a thorough step by step guide on their cars?
With photos covering details that only a professional mechanic might know.

I should not forget to mention that I too love the body colour on Vera's S8.

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Also fixed the boot lock since it was seized completely solid

I suspect that I have this problem on my car. But taking the lock apart looks really scary

[MikkiJayne]

Its pretty straightforward really. The two tricky bits are two circlips and the lock barrel itself. The circlip you can see on the end in the last picture needs really small circlip pliers. The slightly larger one that holds the barrel in isn't so bad.

The lock barrel needs a delicate touch to take apart as the tiny springs have a habit of first getting stuck, and then escaping when you poke them, but if you're careful and methodical its not too bad. If you keep the key in the barrel it will hold all the tumblers in place until you're ready to remove them.

A new lock is £200 or so and has to be ordered from Germany using the VIN if you want to keep the same key so its well worth taking the time to fix the old one

[David's8]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

...

A new lock is £200 or so and has to be ordered from Germany using the VIN if you want to keep the same key so its well worth taking the time to fix the old one

So there's a very good reason NOT to bin it but repair it!!

[Djinny]

Originally Posted by David's8

Bad Vera

*wince*
*nods*
Agree.

[Djinny]

The boot lock I wasn't aware of. Back then I had bought a new lock for the W12, and no it was not for free. Thank you!

I did not tell MJ about the "minor" things (=the things that don't keep me from driving, thought I had so set priorities) as I did not want to bother her. I would've been more than happy with the new engine. But now she is in my car like a drug sniffer dog finding everything that is not as it is supposed to be.

Solving the electronic things is an extra I would've never thought possible.

Mending (not: replacing) the lock of the trunk lid is incredible! I mean, who has the skills and the patience to take a lock to bits and afterwards build it together the way it's meant to be?

The hinge is a lovely extra.

The welding is from my point of view a truly happy coincidence, as is the nasty clutch hose (but the fact that another clutch hose was available is still almost untrue).

Now she has found the tyre pressure control doesn't do its job which technically means my car isn't properly insured anymore as that makes the operating licence expire because of the runflat tyres. I had always believed the big yellow OK means the tyre pressure is fine...

[MikkiJayne]

Tinkering tonight, putting things back which have been removed for fixing other things.

For some reason the perpetrator of the wiring mess ground away the inside of the switch blank hole I can't figure out why, since there was a standard foglight switch in there! With it like this, a stock blank just falls out of the panel.



Meh. We have spares!



Remove the screws and the plastic switch holder comes away from the wooden trim



Pop the switches out to transfer to the new holder. The switches at the sides will come out with the panel assembled, but the hazard switch only comes off with the plastic holder removed.



Reassembled with a blank and ready to go back in



I also got the TPMS working again. Said perpetrator had wired it to the wrong side of the hazard switch so with the switch removed for tinkering the TPMS had no power. I had tidied up the wires and just put them back where they came from, assuming (foolishly!) that the perpetrator had got it right. Alas no The TPMS was drawing power through the electronics in the hazard switch, so while it worked with the switch plugged in, it stopped working as soon as you turned the switch on!



Wired up properly, it fired straight up with the ignition. It powered up with a red light then flashed red/green for a while as it detected all the wheel sensors (presumably since the battery has been off for a while), then showed me a green light to say all was well. I tested it by letting a tyre down, since neither Vera nor I knew what it would do in response to a flat! It flashes orange at ~1.5 bar, and goes solid red at ~1 bar. If all is well it turns the green light off after a few minutes unless it detects a fault.