She's home

[notorious]

>> Well, swapped the Engine ECU, and made absolutely no different to anything.

no errors with the new ECU ?

[goglawrie]

Good that your getting things done .I never had problems with fuel senser and
Cluster always keep it near full

[IT]

So, probably time for an update, just in case you thought I'd given up.

In fact, I nearly did. About 3 weeks ago, this car got far closer the scrap heap than ever before, it was definitely touch and go.

The problem I'm having is that every 'simple' job is taking 10 times longer than it should. I know / knew this car. Very well. I know where every nut, bolt, clasp, hook, clip should be and the method for installing / removing all the interior trims.

However, for every piece of trim I diligently remove in order to gain access to sort something, it turns out that trim is broken, missing some clips, missing all clips, missing the holes where the clips should be, squashed in, squeezed in, shoved in, and worst case stuck in permanently with expanding foam filler. (I'm pretty sure that's what the yellow bubbly stuff is)

Yes, I can get access to a lot of these parts, but not there and then. So every time I start a job, within 5 minutes I've ground to a halt because I'm immediately missing loads of bits that I'll need to do it /// properly ///

Now, given this Goran level of extreme weight reduction, The last thing I expected to find was two door knobs in one door. Having just prepared, and refitted the passenger front door card, expecting nothing short of a silent Germanic thunk when I shut the door, instead I was greeting by the intense rattling of something very loose inside the door.....

So, door card back off and spend 20 minutes scouring the bottom of the door to find a loose bolt. No, can't be found anywhere. Eventually concede to removing the top half of the door to get better access, which in turn means I'll now have to re-align the door (for a 2nd time) which in turn means I need the door card out of the way, so I have to restrip all the electrics out of it. Joy.

Removed the upper door, and had a hunt round in the now exposed lower door - nothing. Shook the door and no noise. Picked up the upper door - shook that and yes, there was something rattling around *inside* the upper door.

With some more wiggling, I got it to pop out of a hole:



And with some pliers, then removed it:



So, it seems somewhere in the last 5 years it was easier for someone to obtain a new door knob, than to simply find the one they had misplaced somewhere...

But fitting the door card was really the last step in a very long journey. The D2 door card clips are 1 time use. You cannot remove a D2 door card and refit it properly without buying new door card clips. Simples. And do you think the likes of autoglass stock em?. Doubt it.

Anyway, I had hoped (stupidly) that this would be a simple case of popping the door cards back on with some new clips. Job done. But no.

Round the edge of a D2 door card are some foam strips. They are vital to sealing the door, and keeping that draft off your arm that sucks through the interior door handle. Over time, they lose their stick. And worse still on extended leather, the bottom of the door collects water, the leather unsticks and as it peels the foam no longer sits where it should.

So long before even getting near the fitting stage, I had the door cards on the bench, re-gluing the leather, so once straight, the foam can be reattached (although I had to obtain a load of foam as bits were missing)

You can see the foam round the edge here:



Another vital ingredient to getting this all correct is the plastic baffle that sits on the door, before the door card is installed. Its a facelift only item, which fortunately a8parts went to effort of stocking as my drivers door one was missing completely



Anyway. So after that long, and harrowing chapter, the doors now shut. Yes folks. All that effort, just so the doors shut properly. Do you see now why I so nearly jacked it in ?

To further infuriate me at this time, my engine ecu swap experience had an annoying side effect. As the cluster was also swapped, the VIN inside the cluster changed. This isn't usually a problem on a D2, as long as the ECU/Cluster/Key all match. But I have an RNS-E, and the clever little sod talked to the cluster and decided it was going to go into safe mode unless I entered the PIN. Er. Wheres that then.....

2 Pins in the paperwork. They didn't work. 1 pin retrieved from a specialist company who have, with 100% success rate got the correct pin for any stereo in the past, and that didn't work. Finally, and against staggeringly poor odds, I found a photo from 2009 of the RNS-E when I bought it, with the pin code in the photo. Which worked. Hurrah.

So by this point, the only upside is that I've fixed 2 doors, and got a pin for the RNS-E which was only not working because I was looking at the engine problems.

I also had to drill out and replace the rear light cluster to unlock the boot as the battery went flat and having swapped the ignition barrels over with the ECU and cluster, the only key I had that fitted the locks mechanically was sat in the glovebox. Doh. Wont make that mistake again.

Oh, and after fitting the doors, took it for a test drive, hit a giant pot hole and split the sidewall of one tyre..... Its like someones trying to tell me to give up here....

I've done a few other bits to cheer me up, which has saved it from the scrapper:

Replaced the sunroof control, handbrake trim and given it a decent vac out. Removed some of the s8 logos that were stuck on. Pleased to see they are coming off relatively easily. Front armrests have sorted themselves out. Removed most of the rear seat entertainment permanently to gain access the battery that was forever going flat. Screens are coming out shortly along with the butchered headlining to fit a new one. Replaced the threadbare 18" alloy with a pukka 20" with a useable tyre on it.

Fitted a new battery eventually as it was really annoying and my god its starts fantastic now....

Probably the biggest success I've had though is engine wise. Its not perfect, but its so much better than it was. It now pulls like an S8 should pull. It was definitely down on power before. MPG has gone from 13 ish to more like 17, which gives some idea of how much better its doing. I don't know really if its the brand new coils, service, ecu, or a combination that has done it.

It does still have a rough idle though which is proving hard to isolate. Any ideas welcomed on that one

[Architex_mA8tey]

My god Ian! thats a tale of continued woe. . . . but fair do's and congratulations for pushing on and saving what is really a one-off car with all that you did to it before.

You'll be telling me that youre going to clean and detail it next if youre not careful!!

[Goran]

Originally Posted by IT

Now, given this Goran level of extreme weight reduction, The last thing I expected to find was two door knobs in one door. Having just prepared, and refitted the passenger front door card, expecting nothing short of a silent Germanic thunk when I shut the door, instead I was greeting by the intense rattling of something very loose inside the door.....

I'm not sure my level of weight reduction is extreme enough. Long way to go yet.

Two door knobs, some people do strange things. My driver's door rattles when shut too, I wonder what I'll find in there when I start swapping to black door cars.

I'm glad to hear you haven't given up on this car. I'm now inspired to carry on the black interior swap and Bose upgrade.

[Norretal]

Originally Posted by Architex_mA8tey

You'll be telling me that youre going to clean and detail it next if youre not careful!!

Ian's task is to fix it Neil, Bushido and me have the cleaning and detailing covered

[tintin]

Well done Ian - I read that with a mixture of gasps and laughter. I'm not sure anyone else would have stuck with that the way you have. I certainly wouldn't - and I must admit, my nearside side indicator is held on with chewing gum

[IT]

Originally Posted by tintin

chewing gum

its seems your auto correct has had a fit and changed 'all the correct fastenings' into food stuffs.... You should get that looked at before someone inadvertently throttles you

[MikkiJayne]

Wow. I feel your pain - there have been quite a few points where I've simply had to down tools with mine otherwise I would have stripped it to a pile of bits and listed them on ebay.

What on earth possessed Audi to use one-time clips to hold the door cards on? The hooks in the A4 and A6 work perfectly. Why would you change that? Still, I say that virtually every time I look at the damn thing. I maintain that the A8 was designed by a completely different bunch of sadists to the 4 and 6, and while they stuck to the Audi design language, they re-invented virtually every aspect of how it works, often in spectacularly dumb fashion...

[IT]

The D2 is very different I agree. I've always put it down to the fact it was hand built, and some things, like the door cards are really quite fiddly and take some care.

In contrast, the other models, and the D3 etc, really have that mass produced identical feel to every part. They are a lot more 'simple'.

The thing that really irritates me on the D2 is the door electrics are part of the main loom. Makes doors / door card work even harder than it needs to be !