Burnzybubbles A8 thread

[Mechcanico Lee]

Good job man , we used to do alot of this type of work , heads off vehicles that know other garages wanted to take on , there just so long winded though and it was hard to get your hours out of the job , loads of time is cleaning faces and getting old gaskets off and so on as you know , well done for sticking at it.

With the glow plug issue , do the glows actually do a timed flash when the engines cold , loads of the common rail stuff especially with piezo injectors they don't even do a flash or don't flash until the temp goes under -6 degrees or such like , I believe they can flash on the over run or for use when the engine goes into regen modes , suppose if you want rid of the flashing glow light they would have to be done or pull the reporting wire out of the glow relay .

We have a mobile engineer bloke who we call out if we get snapped glow plugs or other broken studs and the likes ,don't know whether you ever worked on Merc cdi diesels , they have a great long 6mm diameter torx key that hold the injectors in , it's about 80 mm long , there a bassa for snapping off in the head , I've seen him drill all the way down it stepping up sizes till its at the original thread , if I tried it would just be broke drills jamming up the hole !

Good post , keep us informed how it settles down

[Burnzybubbles]

Originally Posted by 47p2

Get of the forum and go out and enjoy then

I took your advice and we popped out and enjoyed it some more, also Saturday I got it out again and went to scarefest at Alton towers in it, it made the journey so much more tolerable, you just melt in the 8's seats

Originally Posted by Mechcanico Lee

Good job man , we used to do alot of this type of work , heads off vehicles that know other garages wanted to take on , there just so long winded though and it was hard to get your hours out of the job , loads of time is cleaning faces and getting old gaskets off and so on as you know , well done for sticking at it.

With the glow plug issue , do the glows actually do a timed flash when the engines cold , loads of the common rail stuff especially with piezo injectors they don't even do a flash or don't flash until the temp goes under -6 degrees or such like , I believe they can flash on the over run or for use when the engine goes into regen modes , suppose if you want rid of the flashing glow light they would have to be done or pull the reporting wire out of the glow relay .

We have a mobile engineer bloke who we call out if we get snapped glow plugs or other broken studs and the likes ,don't know whether you ever worked on Merc cdi diesels , they have a great long 6mm diameter torx key that hold the injectors in , it's about 80 mm long , there a bassa for snapping off in the head , I've seen him drill all the way down it stepping up sizes till its at the original thread , if I tried it would just be broke drills jamming up the hole !

Good post , keep us informed how it settles down

Thanks

It's very time consuming, it swallowed up 5 long days and even though I could of skipped quite a bit and fitted it back dirty, whilst I was doing it I may as well of got it all cleaned up too, and it'll help it run better in the long term as your aware

The glow plugs I was under the impression they where used for a cleaner start up and also "afterglow" so continue to run for a few minutes once started, I'm not sure though, I'm apprehensive of taking out the other side as if one does break by accident the other head will more than likely come off, either that or a bore scope and a vacuum with a small hose attached but it's not guaranteed to get everything out.

I have all the new beru plugs at home waiting to be fitted, and a can of plus gas and I'll just take my time, I was going to do it the weekend but I was tired and I need to be 100% on the ball to do this job, I can't live with the flashing light, and I couldn't just trick it to thinking it's ok neither, so new metal plugs and a software flash are my only options

[Mechcanico Lee]

So the glows do do a flash, fair enough, im sure you will get them glows out , folk say get the engine hot and try but i found with the vauxhalls with the fiat engine there a bassa for snapping in the head , i found a stone cold engine was better for getting them out , its just 'feel' thing and work them back and to if they start to fire up in the thread coming out .
You have taken heads off it , sure you will do the glows no worrys

[Burnzybubbles]

Still not plucked up the courage to do it yet, plus iv been really busy doing nights and other stuff, iv got the plugs sitting in the house at the moment all ready for fitting

[Burnzybubbles]

Well time for an update, I got the courage together and got all the glow plugs changed, I was bricking it as the last thing I wanted was the car off the road again, I pre soaked them in plus gas a few weeks ago, when preparing to take them out, I took the car for a nice run and got it nice and hot, ran the glow plug circuit with VCDS to try and burn off any deposits as per the tech dump, re soaked all the plugs in plus gas and set my 1/4" torque wrench to 20NM and crossed my fingers, they came out without a hitch surprisingly easy too, I back them in a couple of times just for piece of mind but I probably didn't need too, anyway got them all changed for new BERU metal plugs and spoke to midlandVW who quoted me £60 for the software update to remove the dash light and get my glow plugs working again, they are currently disconnected as the voltage differences can kill the new plugs supposedly.

Anyway a picture of the offenders, note the white ring and wider tip that denotes they are ceramic, also with the fact that even the slightest knock means they are scrap, the other metal plugs are from the cylinder head I replaced.



Not done much else to the car to be honest, now it's not my daily i'v been gagging to give it a good valet and whack some poorboys black hole and seal it in but not having the car at home at the moment makes it more difficult unfortunately

Be nice when I can finally have it on the drive and actually get to use it more

[Norretal]

Another good bit of work done, glad it went well for you, I enjoy your updates

As for doing more to it and getting it looking nicer, wrong time of year fella, save it for spring. The important thing is you're using it daily, and loving it. Just remember back to the period it was off the road and be thankful your efforts and perseverance paid off. There is the whole of 2016 just round the corner to start making improvements

[Burnzybubbles]

Originally Posted by Norretal

Another good bit of work done, glad it went well for you, I enjoy your updates

As for doing more to it and getting it looking nicer, wrong time of year fella, save it for spring. The important thing is you're using it daily, and loving it. Just remember back to the period it was off the road and be thankful your efforts and perseverance paid off. There is the whole of 2016 just round the corner to start making improvements

Thanks it's a pleasure to update as I enjoy reading over the stuff iv done too

Yea, unfortunately I'm not using it as a daily, has its plus and minus points, I don't get to enjoy it every day, but I do get to keep it looking smart and not destroying it with work (I'm an electrician) so filling it with tools and having dirty clothes in it was slowly destroying it, plus I put 15k on it in 6 months.

[Burnzybubbles]

Update, still haven't been using it much but gave it a wash and been starting it up every now and again to warm up the cabin and get the engine bay dry.

I bought swmbo a new motor a Zafira GSI, lovely little motor and quick, little project car to keep my busy so it's taken up some of my time, I had to renew the alarm unit that had burnt out on it, I replaced the unit then came up to a problem with not having the security code, looking into it I realised my only cheap option was to desolder the EEPROM chip from the unit and resolder it to the new unit bringing along the security and key data with it.

Anyway I practiced on my old passenger seat module for the A8 that had a corroded PCB where liquid must of fallen onto the connector, I removed the EEPROM from it to practice before starting on the Zafira module, I replaced the EEPROM on the Zafira unit and all went well, then I got thinking, the new unit in the A8 still had component protection on it and swapping the EEPROM will turn the new unit into a copy of the old one and save me £60 for removal of CP

So yesterday I got my iron out and set to work swapping EEPROM chips, put it into my car today and CP is gone and I now have memory functions back on the seat

Some pictures as they paint a thousand words

Old PCB with previous repairs on it and EEPROM removed



EEPROM chip removed from old board



I didn't take a picture of the board when fitting the new EEPROM but I have a picture of the new EEPROM on the Zafira PCB



Next on the list is the webasto I think, oh and to get the glow plug software updated for metal plugs.

[Burnzybubbles]

Having taken it out a few times in the past months and probably not even covered 200 miles since the mot, it's not been used much, tomorrow I'll be taking it to midland VW and having the glow plug software updated for metal plugs and then I'm going to sell the car it's not all doom and gloom though, i'v been having fun with some petrol turbo cars and fancy scratching the flat 4 itch, but during that time I'll be keeping my eye out for a SWB W12 I think the diesel is just wasted on the low mileage it's now doing and it's just not fast enough to tickle my tastebuds as a weekend car plus I think I was always gutted I never got the 4.0tdi or 4.2tdi instead.

I'll update tomorrow how I get on, they are a highly recommended garage in the midlands so I'll be in safe hands

[Burnzybubbles]

Well things have gone full circle, had the engine ecu updated by midland VW and now I have no glow plug errors, driven the car a bit the last few days and it's been fun but change of plans means the car is now for sale and I'm going petrol for a while, the skip that is commonly known as a tdci Mondeo has been great for work so Iv been on the lookout for a toy for the weekends, I'll keep you updated on what I get, if anyone is interested in the A8 then feel free to contact me through here, it's on the usual car selling sites so won't be hard to find anyway