well the hunt for a replacement inner rear light is proving fruitless..... it WAS just the lens which needed replacing until one morning a ping on the dash..... rear bulb out (where's the OMG emoji?)

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yup, half the LED's said goodbye and shuffled off.... bugger and bugger a bit more. The cost of a new replacement made even my eyes water. there are next to no secondhand ones on the market, and the small number which are are either nearly the new cost, or next to scrap..... so rebuild time it is...!!!

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a quick Google and an order later and a small bag of 50 straw hat 5mm LED's arrived....

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started removing.... and now on hold as ran out of time.....

once i've got the boards rebuilt i'll split the lens to rebuild that and sort out the "melted" are and clean up and reseal.

In other news a new battery arrived as the old one was not holding charge and not wanting to over work the alternator. Again a quick Goole and an order later...

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locate the old one

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remove and replace

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of course you can't just fit them, the fact that aftermarket batteries don't come with the required BEM code etc a cheat is required..... so after going onto module 61 Battery reg, all i did was change the suffix on the part number to the next letter and the coding i increased the last number up 1.... then it's just a case of accept coding.

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and now a healthy 14.6V on charging, where previously it was sat at 12.2V

Regarding the battery could you give me a quick run thru on why it needs updating on vcds,it's purely a matter of interest,i've seen numerous posts but still don't understand,i'm guessing it to do with the relationship between the alternator and the battery ,(ie as the battery gets older it reduces the alternator s output voltage ?)

The reprograming of the power module with the serial number and part number of the new battery is required because the part number tells the ecu the capacity in Ah, and the change of serial tells it to reset all parameters such as various counters, present charge state, ageing effect etc...

You may get away without doing these things, but it could result in an undercharged or overcharged battery and inaccurate battery meter reading, as well as premature or postmature entry into power saving stages and the new battery having a shortened life expectancy.

The coding instructions are on the Ross-Tech website, i also found this Spanish site useful, once it's been translated lol

https://www.audisport-iberica.com/fo...r%C3%ADas-vag/

Thanks ,i'll have to give it to Audi they really know how to over complicate things

Make sure you check current running through LEDs and that it does not exceed replacement LED specifications. I used 20mA LEDs on mine an they were only lasting 2-3 weeks. When I finally checked current it was 23mA so last time I replaced them I put in extra resistors in series to get it down to just under 20mA and they have been fine for about 5 months, the cooler weather also helps, will see if they last through next summer or if I need to drop current a bit more.

well Sunday was spent looking at the light PCB

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there is an issue which is still preventing it to illuminate, it will need further investigation and not currently having the time during the week and needing to have a fully functioning light array on the back of the car i took the plunge and bought another light.
It's in reasonable condition, but at least

a/ it works fully
b/ it doesn't look like it's melted internally in the reverse lens area

viewed from certain angles the plastic outer lens has some internal fracturing, so at a point in the future on a far drier day than currently i'll remove the outer lens from the original light and swap them over.....

but at least i have working lights again....

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interestingly, with the defunct lamp unit plugged in it registered a fault on the warning system on the dash, without it plugged in, absolute nothing..... i found that strange

When I reattached the outer lens to the rear inner light on my D3, I used a flexible sealant. I figured that perhaps the reason these lenses become detached is due to expansion/contraction causing the stiff factory glue to fracture.

waking up this morning to a bizarre strange glow in the sky, it couldn't be the sun could it....!!!

so with SWMBO shuttled out with the kids it was time to tick off a couple of jobs. I'd been waiting for a sunny day so i could get the new front and rear brake discs protected. I always prefer to do a zinc rich primer and a satin black mist coat to protect the unswept areas. It keeps the brake discs looking a lot better, for longer.....

a recent delivery of Bilt Hamber's brilliant Zinc primer arrived in the week

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All 4 discs were thoroughly degreased and allowed to gas off in the sun

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and all done, i'll leave the paint to cure overnight and weather permitting tomorrow the car is going in the air for all brakes removal, wheels off and getting the tyres changed and wheels protected etc...

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either my hands have really shrunk or these front discs are huge lol

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and a cheeky shot at night showing the new LED effect

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gives a better spread of light when getting in

when i originally out the spacers on the passenger side rear hub, 3 of the threads which the wheel bolts went into really didn't feel that good... it niggled and a new hub was needed.... not wanting to spend hours following the workshop manual it is possible to remove the hub without having to replace the wheel bearing.... sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.... i had nothing to lose....

it involves removing the hub bolt, and using a slide hammer to drift the hub out... sometimes it'll pull the inner race of the bearing with it..... i hit lucky....

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the hub drifted out lovely, leaving all of the bearing intact, which was good as i didn't have a replacement on the shelf lol...

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new and old n crutsy.....

and all back in... total time, 30 minutes

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whislt in the the arches and everything was looking yucky....

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a splash of TFR later and much better.... all 4 corners all done....

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and the day ends with all the calipers stripped off and being dismantled for cleaning etc..... i keep telling myself it's not a restoration....

jobs for future, rear ARB drop links, the bushes are not the best.....whilst removing the brake lines, some of the unions had seized in so to get them off you need to sacrifice the spring retainers... so tomorrow sees some of them being ordered for the rebuild.....,