What's in the workshop this week?

[Dezzy]

[quote=MikkiJayne;134195]
Mike's Trader's 8 in at the weekend for a propshaft swap, annual service and MoT prep QUOTE]

[MikkiJayne]

I was planning on just updating this one thread tbh. Some of the cars will only be in for a day and I don't want to litter the forum with loads of little threads.

Is an index to each car in the first post a good compromise?

[tintin]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

I don't want to litter the forum with loads of little threads

201 replies and >5000 views so far on this one car . I think these will probably will continue to qualify as "big" threads MJ

[homer simpson]

Did I miss the 'finished' pics?

[Spanker]

Originally Posted by homer simpson

Did I miss the 'finished' pics?

I'm just penning a reply for the thread now

[HPsauce]

Dean, you probably know this, but something went wrong with the picture uploads.

[Spanker]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Dean, you probably know this, but something went wrong with the picture uploads.

Thanks Andrew
I'll upload again

[Spanker]

So, I left Devon last Sunday with Big Red after she had undergone her transformation.

The idea was to drop down on Saturday morning in the blue car (Big Blue) and leave Saturday afternoon/evening in Big Red (Big Blue wasn't destined to come home with me ). But best-laid plans and all that....
So, a second day was spent crossing off the jobs that Big Red kept throwing at us over the weekend.
Rocky Road's, Jaffa Cakes, Chunk Pies and tea/coke (the drink!!!) were all that was needed to keep us fuelled for the tasks ahead. And if I use the term "we" below then it's fair to say that it probably means "MJ" as I was definitely the labourer on the job.



The existing exhaust was an aftermarket stainless affair that was a little too noisy for my tastes. The plan was to take the stock exhaust from the blue car as a donor part. The only fly in the ointment was that once the stock exhaust was on the workshop floor, a small crack was noticed. This didn't faze MJ and up on the bench it went. Out came the grinder, the area was prepared, and a new piece was cut and shaped from some tubing.







20 minutes later, and after some welding by MJ, the stock exhaust was good to go





But it didn't quite look that great with its rusty and sooted tailpipes...



and thankfully I’d brought down some chrome tips with me. But they weren't the best fitting accessories and the screw method to affix them would have resulted in rattling further down the line.
So, MJ quickly cut them down and welded them in place for a very pleasing result.





The rear tray under the boot was re-attached and an engine under-tray was fitted from the blue car with new fixtures instead of the existing cable ties. Everything has got to be right and proper with MJ. No botching. Perhaps a little bit of fabrication, ingenuity and lateral thinking, but no bodging. And that's very reassuring

(Prior to tray fitting. Oil-free!):




Whilst round the rear we had another "little" job to attend to. The rear parcel shelf brake light had broken on one of the screw-in posts, so it wouldn't stay in place for too long and would swivel out of alignment. So out came the rear seats, rear speakers and rear parcel shelf to gain access. The solution was to replace the unit with one from the donor car. The only problem with the old brittle plastic was that it’s prone to cracking and this is what happened to the replacement when it was screwed in place. Of course, MJ had one hanging around and this third one made the job good.

Still at the arse-end, the fuel pump was re-seated and fell into place first time with a promising "clunk". However, upon testing the engine later on Sunday we noticed something decidedly wrong with its running. Fuel starvation.

A trip with a jerry can to the local Tesco garage for fuel put that issue to bed for the meantime but it looks like a new gasket kit will be needed and the pump re-seated again to stop air being drawn into the pump. But for now, the car just needs to be driven with the fuel above a certain level. Whilst tootling back from Tesco in the S8, MJ's previous life as a BTCC driver came to the fore as she overtook two country plodders on a country road with a car coming in the other direction. Having not experienced the true power and acceleration of an S8 before, I quietly braced for impact. In reality though, the manoeuvre was actioned with such swiftness that we could have done it twice in the time allowed without anyone batting an eyelid. Oh me of little faith. And MJ did this whilst simultaneously demonstrating the bone-rattling bass from her boot-mounted amp and subwoofer that put my Bose to shame.



Back at the workshop, the next job was a full coolant drain followed by the aircon. Despite being re-gassed a few months ago, this refused to work. Replacing the fuse/relay (or actually putting one in place to start with!) didn't "seem" to give the desired results so out came MJ with the multimeter to check for breaks in circuits. When this failed to pinpoint why the relay wasn't clicking, she tried her S8 and that exhibited the same behaviour, so we crossed that job off the list. If it did what the S8 was doing, then it was done.

The passenger door catch wasn't closing correctly so a new part had been ordered. It just needed a simple fitting, but this meant the top of the door frame (and glass) needed to be removed. Thankfully MJ had broken the back of this task by the time I had arrived so I helped as much as I could by suspending the upper door frame whilst it was reattached. Then those lovely door clips needed to be put back in place. What a great design they are. Not!

The 20mm wheel spacers were all polished up before the wheels and a replacement donor O/S rear wheel arch were put back on for the test drive. Such a shame to cover up those newly refurbished callipers et al.



There was one job that I proudly did all by myself. I installed a Dension Gateway Lite BT for playing Spotify from my mobile. And it works a treat. It can be installed in less than 5 minutes BTW.

All in all, I counted around 54 items on the whiteboard (after we had added some more over the weekend) that were crossed off. That's a mammoth list! Small things (so you would think) like adjusting the rear boot lid for a better fit as MJ did at the weekend, to larger tasks like a cambelt change. And some things done by others such as sill welding, wheel alignment, MOT and numerous small dent removals. But 99% was accomplished by one very talented person. If you ever get a chance to drive your motor into her workshop, then there’s no reason why you won't be driving out with a grin on your face.

Unfortunately, though the car had the last little laugh.
Big Blue had two niggly little faults over the last few months. One was an intermittent O/S ABS sensor and an intermittent oil level sensor. So, I've been driving around for months with 2 yellow lights on my dash.
When Big Blue pulled into the workshop and came nose to nose with Big Red I think that through some form of car osmosis, or car telepathy the two small niggles jumped from one car to the other.
On the final test drive for Big Red when the daylight was failing, the damned ABS light on her lit up. I pulled her back into the workshop and the wheel arch was removed to check the connection. It was sprayed with WD40 and vigorously coupled-decoupled to alleviate a connection issue, but the light still stayed lit. So a job for another day.

And finally, on the way up to Gordano services the oil sensor light came on. No leaks of oil or anything like that. The engine is running perfectly. Bloody D2’s! They just don’t want to remain perfect for too long.

For those 2 little niggles to appear AFTER the job has been done must be annoying to say the least for MJ, especially after sinking 200hrs into the project. But apart from the aforementioned, the car runs extremely(!) well.
The suspension gives a great ride! The car is so well planted.
The steering is perfect. Not too light now but not heavy like the non-servotronic. I much prefer it and driving home to Northamptonshire on the M5/M42/M6/A14, it was like driving on rails.

The engine had quite a flutter/pulsing before MJ got her hands on it. When I took it for a test drive on the Sunday it had just the faintest of flutters left. But after a few days of running the issue has gone completely. Result!

So thanks to MJ for having the patience to carry this off.

A very pretty D2 has been saved and will be joining a few blue S8’s (diplomat 2.6 and ainarssems) tootling around Rushden for a while to come.

Originally Posted by HPsauce

You should both try and get to the regular AudiSRS Buddies breakfast meets at Towcester. https://audisrs.com/buddies-meet-sun...17-t70371.html
Next one is 9am (latest!) Sunday 12th November and there will be a Nogaro Blue A8 there (plus my green S8). The red one as well would be stunning.

And if I am available I am going to try ang get across to Towcester to catch your S8 Andrew.

And finally, here are a few pics from today when my son and I drove to the local aerodrome. Enjoying the car like it should be done:







PS. The main pics were from Sunday. I didn't have the foresight to take any on Saturday

[HPsauce]

Dean, not sure how you uploaded, but "normally" all the uploaded pictures appear at the end of a post.
To embed them inline between paragraphs of text, as you appeared to be trying to do this method works. There may be others of course .

1. Create the text of the post and prepare all the pictures and then post, attaching ALL the pictures.
2. Go back and edit the post, inserting each picture individually where you want it by using the picture icon (little mountain) and editing in the image location FROM YOUR POST by doing a right-mouse click for properties to get the picture name (which will be an attachment ID in the forum).

Ah, you seem to have done it OK. Awesome car!

[Spanker]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Dean, not sure how you uploaded, but "normally" all the uploaded pictures appear at the end of a post.
To embed them inline between paragraphs of text, as you appeared to be trying to do this method works. There may be others of course .

1. Create the text of the post and prepare all the pictures and then post, attaching ALL the pictures.
2. Go back and edit the post, inserting each picture individually where you want it by using the picture icon (little mountain) and editing in the image location FROM YOUR POST by doing a right-mouse click for properties to get the picture name (which will be an attachment ID in the forum).

Ah, you seem to have done it OK.

Yes. The effect I was wanting was to remove all the attachments from the end of the post as I prefer to see them embedded in the body and not at the end. I've done it before but my memory told me that the way to do it was to just remove the uploaded images from the post after I had the URL's.
Silly me. That actually removes the URL's completely.
But nevermind. I shall keep the attachments at the end.