At last some decent progress to report on this, and another D2 S8 back on the road.
The list of work that's been completed is now fairly long:
1) Brembo's refurbished, new front discs & pads fitted
2) MJ refurbished PAS hoses fitted and working well
3) Transmission fully rebuilt
4) All drains and Botang's hole attended to
5) New horns fitted (now with added sound)
6) Wheels refurbished - PC primer, metallic wet coat then PC lacquer
7) Full set of tyres
8) Interior stripped out, and carpets shampooed
9) Full engine service (belts, water pump, etc..)
10) Cam timing variators renewed
11) Bonnet struts replaced
12) Boot lid struts replaced
13) Headlamp mounts repaired
After all that, the car is up and running, and finally adding some miles to it. It's been a fairly protracted process owing to various factors, but I'm happy it's now roadworthy.
There are of course a few issues still to address as I shake it down:
1) Slight weep from rear final drive output shaft
2) Transmission shows a 'Supply voltage issue - P1750-35-00 too Low
3) Intermittent engine oil pressure warning - level is fine, filter is new, oil is the correct grade, and topped up. Will prioritise this one for sure.
4) Rear parking sensors - two need replaced
There are some other minor items but nothing of major note.
Cosmetically it's reasonable - fresh wheels, tyres and callipers brighten it up.
There are some areas that need improvement.
Enough words, here are some photographs of the story so far.
As mentioned previously the engine had a top end rattle when starting up, and the variators for the camshafts were sounding likely culprits. On dismantling the wire mesh filters on both sides were completely or partial missing as documented by many others.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ovyJvP]
The engine was duly reassembled after what felt like quite a significant spend.
On the run up to Christmas 2022 I had the transmission rebuilt. My ideal was to take it to forum favourites Mackies, which I duly did, only to discover they could not source all the parts for the rebuild, and hence declined to do the job.
Plan B was needed. That was either find another transmission builder or consider a 6-speed conversion. The latter is something I really quite like the idea of, but I wasn’t sure it was in the spirit of the S8 and what it is. After some thought I put it to another builder – more on this later.
Early January things looked like this:
The engine and transmission were re-assembled, and ready to go back in – weather permitting. Working outdoors is a pain.
I went through a process of cleaning sunroof drains, attending to Botang’s hole (or so I thought).
Starting to look more normal
The car always suffered from excessive creeping when sat at the traffic lights. It wasn’t quite clear if this was torque convertor related or perhaps the front callipers. On examining the front callipers it did look like the stainless steel plates were lifting. So, off they went to be rebuilt. This turned out fairly expensive once the a few pistons had to be replaced too.
The results speak for themselves
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ovBXf8]
Likewise the wheel were fairly grotty and really needed tidied up. The tyres were also budget and showing their age. I’d actually been surprised how poor they were in the wet, hence new tyres were added at the refurbishment stage.
The PAS pipes as noted in an earlier post were in pretty poor condition, so MJ kindly undertook this work and provided me with a splendid, refurbished set of hoses.
Usual knackered bits
Brakes built up and bled
This was initially troublesome. The ns wouldn’t bleed properly, and I ended up returning the unit. It was duly checked, cleaned and then bled up fine. Frustrating, but from a customer service perspective it was handled well.
The ac fan was somewhat knackered and had been for some time. I bought a replacement ages back but hadn’t fitted it until now.
Things were inching forwards and I finally had the car in a reasonable state of assembly, however this identified some more issues.
The ABS had not liked being dormant it seemed, and the yaw sensor had seemingly died. This was of course the curse of Botang’s hole.
Out came the interior – which I wanted to do at some stage, just not right now.
Once rather drowned yaw sensor. The acceleration sensor looked okay, but this had fried itself.
In for a penny… The carpets were shampooed and jet washed and required the usual long duration to thoroughly dry out. On the plus side the interior is much better.
The broken ashtray was fixed too, which looks much smarter.
And then reassembled
And this is how the car looks now
Coolant topped up!
It’s a 10 footer in some ways, but much better than at the start of the thread.
It also has it's S8 wing mirrors reinstated along with the grille which it was missing when I purchased it. (Engine code was correct though)
A few areas to address, including a weep from the rear final drive which I really need sort out, along with the oil pressure.