WITW - Barn-find Final Edition

[S81]

I really dislike when you start a relatively straightforward job and then end up with a real nasty job to do so you can complete the straightforward one

[MikkiJayne]

Last few bits this round from earlier in the week.

I replaced the wiper trim, and changed the brake fluid



The electronics box was a mess - connectors dangling and most of them broken, and one power wire just twisted together This was all tidied up and put back together properly and I replaced the missing and broken inserts and fitted new screws on the lid.



Back home on the driveway



The drive home went well - the engine is nice and quiet now, the gearbox shifts smoothly, and the suspension doesn't sound like its about to fall off! There's still a slight knock through the steering which may well be the rack so that needs a bit more investigation. Also the ESP is still in a grump with a whole pile of errors so that needs more work too.

Its now going to sit on the drive for a few weeks while the next project is in the workshop.

[MikkiJayne]

Forgot to add the totals:

60 hours

Parts used:

PS hoses (refurb, £200)
PS hose brackets (used)
NSF upper rear arm (used)
NSF lower rear arm (used)
NSF wheel bearing (used)
CV boot (£12)
Suspension brace (used)
Boot lid (£150)
FE wheels (£500)
Window motor (£50)
Headlight level arm joints (£15)
Radiator (£300)
Belt idlers (used)
Accessory belt & idlers (used)
Snub mount (£60)
Air filter (£6)
Wiper mechanism & motor (£120)
Air box trim (£10)
Intake duct (£10)
Bumper (£200)
F125 (£1)
Exhaust clamps (£30)
Boot grommets (£15)
Brake fluid (£20)
Wiper trim (£50)

[27litres]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

This bumper is completely trashed as the upper is scratched and damaged, and the lower has actually split along the flange where it attached to the upper. My donor bumper has the same problem but I have a few spares so I'm hoping I have a good one in the pile.

After purchasing the FL1 valance (which was supposed to be FL2 and therefore of no use to me) I had my original valance repaired by a local plastic welder.
Mine had cracked down the join flange area like some of yours and also had a crack/tear near the wheel arch end. After the repair (which went very well), the plastic welder had said how nice the Audi plastic was to work with.
The only down side of this whole process for me was the cosmetic look of the repair to the crack/tear section, which required the valance to be painted.

Also, while I think about it Michaela, I would assume my bumper and valance are original to my car. My valance has the lower lip. It looks to me like it adds some structural rigidity to the whole assembly?

[MikkiJayne]

Barnfind back in the workshop now Mark's is done

Gave them both a bath



As I mentioned before, the ESP was in a grump reporting 'G200 lateral acceleration sensor implausible'. There was a broken sensor in the footwell, and a replacement with a Prestige stock number on it in the centre console so I thought I'd pop the passenger seat out and have a crack at that today.

I was slightly annoyed by what I found:



The carpet has been torn up to get to the sensor There's a 3rd broken sensor here, and some hacked up wiring



No idea what all the gravelly stuff is - its some sort of plastic crystals, possibly dessicant? I vacuumed all that up and got a closer look at the hacked wiring. I have no idea why this is all mangled since it seems to still have the original connector



I cut a good connector off a scrap harness and used heat-shrink crimps and Tesa tape to repair the harness, then fitted the Prestige sensor in place



Unfortunately, this wasn't actually the problem - even with two known-good sensors the fault remained, so I swapped the ESP ecu and the fault was gone It needed coding and the steering angle sensor calibrating, and now all the drivetrain modules are clear of codes except for the ecu reporting 'crash signal implausible' which I think is the airbag unit so I'll swap that tomorrow.

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Barnfind back in the workshop now Mark's is done

I was slightly annoyed by what I found:



The carpet has been torn up to get to the sensor There's a 3rd broken sensor here, and some hacked up wiring

In the nearside passenger footwell on mine, the PO had cut a neat rectangular section out, presumably to suck out the water ingress. I never noticed it until pushing the carpet and the water squishing past. Not a great solution I guess but very convenient for getting to the water ingress without removing the whole interior.......

[MikkiJayne]

What appears to have happened with this is that someone took the passenger seat out and changed the sensor, which didn't help, so instead of taking it out a second time they just hacked it up, which obviously still didn't help.

The ebay listing for this car claimed that it had been worked on by someone called 'Audi Doctor', which several people thought was me. Said Audi Doctor works more to the Harold Shipman standards of care than my 'OEM+' approach Witness this next heinous bodge:

Why is the driver's side belt tensioner not plugged in but not showing a fault code?



Oh, because someone has bypassed it with resistors



Mike came over today so we stripped the interior out. Quite a lot has to come out in order to get the airbag controller out, and then its fairly trivial to get the centre console out, at which point the carpet can be changed. Its so much easier to clean everything properly when its out of the car anyway.





All the wood trim will get polished while it's out



and all the leather cleaned up



Its been smoked in and smells quite bad so I've left the Aromatek running for a couple of hours to see if it helps. If not, I'll change the headlining.

[MikkiJayne]

I cleaned up the replacement carpet tonight

Halfway through



All done. This can dry overnight and will go back in tomorrow.



I replaced the driver's seat belt reel with a good one and plugged it back in properly, and then replaced the airbag controller which solved the 'crash signal implausible' stored in the ECU. Implausible - crashed and not crashed at the same time? More likely it just got damp.

The replacement airbag controller is showing almost all the codes it knows about with the interior being missing, but its not showing a code for the driver's seat belt tensioner so thats good.

[MikkiJayne]

Deep cleaning the interior while the seats and carpets are out.

The ends of the dash are a little grim



Much nicer



The door cards clean up pretty well

[tintin]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Deep cleaning the interior while the seats and carpets are out.

The ends of the dash are a little grim

Impressive results on the dash end plastics What did you use to clean those with?