Power steering pipes?

[The_Laird]

MJ, you are a saint!

No, they’re not leaking, ‘just’ corroded. Let me know how the exchange works as I doubt swapping them is within my pay grade and I can’t park the car off road. Would pipes from prestige do for the exchange?

Or perhaps an earlier than planned visit to Devon might be on the cards if you can fit the subframe work in as well?

[MikkiJayne]

I'm not convinced corroded PS pipes is a fail - I can't see anything in the MoT manual for that, although we may need Adrian to comment further. It sounds like they fancy some extra cash for xmas. I see the MoT is still valid at the moment - was this a pre-test or an actual test with a fail notice? Afaik an early fail is still a fail so overrides the current MoT.

It would be a pretty advanced DIY job as there's quite a lot of stuff in the way (see the Tree Find thread) although can easily be done in a few hours if one is familiar with the job.

If you had a suitably trusted garage (ie not the MoT tester) to do the work, I'd send you a set of pipes to have fitted, and then you just send me the old ones back afterwards, and I can write some notes on how to swap them. If you don't, then a day trip to Devon may be prudent. I'm not ready for the subframe unfortunately as I still need to source and test the Polish rear bush kit which Ronin found recently.

[The_Laird]

Lots of questions - the testing station didn’t want to do the work, so I don’t think the fail was a way in for more income.

And it was a test, and on an MOT extension, so it’s definitely a fail. I think a day trip to Devon might be pushing my luck, so I’ll accept your kind offer of a set of pipes. Please PM me the cost and I’ll pay straight away.

For at least the hundredth time, thank you so much Michaela - I would have given up on my much-loved S8 a while ago if you hadn’t stepped in so often.

[The_Laird]

I confirmed that my local Audi indy will ‘have a go’, but they close on 18th December. So, if I can have the replacement pipes teleported to me, I’ll book the car in as soon as they arrive.

My day has turned around from totally cr*p to not so bad at all.

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by The_Laird

I confirmed that my local Audi indy will ‘have a go’, but they close on 18th December. So, if I can have the replacement pipes teleported to me, I’ll book the car in as soon as they arrive.

My day has turned around from totally cr*p to not so bad at all.

An Audi indy will be able to do it no problem at all, especially since I did all the suspension arms so the pinch bolt will come out. I'll jot down a few notes having just done the job on Gareth's

Cutting a little fine on time but I think we can get it done assuming my hydraulics guy is still working.

[GH77]

Hi Jim,

Sorry to hear the horrible PS pipe issue has got you.

Looks like MJ has you covered but just in case you need a backup plan and also for others' info I went down the Audi Tradition route and got 4D2422893H which is for pre-facelift. Very expensive and risky option (mine's face-lift) but, at the time, there was no alternative so the car was effectively a write-off. My friendly guy at Audi Hamilton took pity on me and brought them in for 0% profit, which was very kind of him. For the other pipe I got a very good second hand spare from somewhere in Germany.

https://shops.audi.com/en_GB/web/tra...-4d2422893h-10 - looks like the price has come down. Think it was over £300 when I got mine

The only difference as far as I can tell is that the PF pipe has the bracket welded on and FL has a removable bracket. So, carefully cut off the PF bracket and use your FL bracket in its place. The welded bracket is annoyingly within mm of being in the right place!

Looks like they have the FL in stock for around that price at the moment though. here

The job is definitely not engine out. The most tricky part in all honesty is the 10mm bolt to secure the aforementioned bracket to the rack. My solution was an extra long ratchet spanner with tape underneath to stop the bolt falling through.

Reckon it's do-able in a couple of hours without a lift. But then I had plenty practice after an initial abortive attempt (in constant rain) using seemingly good second hand spares I happened to have. They just burst under the pressure of parking 10 minutes after 'victory' had been achieved.

Not sure what the talk of pinch bolts is about? I'm sure I didn't have to remove anything other than the wheels?

Frank / MJ - I'm leaning towards the idea of offering myself up to test any made-up pipe kits you are working on. I know I can do the job relatively quickly and am also in the fortunate position of knowing (hopefully) that my PS pipes are in good enough condition to come off easily and go back on. I know my pal Brian is needing his S8 PS pipes done and he's just round the corner so we could possibly combine the short-term test on mine and longer term fitting on his or something? Just thinking out loud now.

Good luck with getting resolved, Jim, before the annual Festive Lockdown!

Gregor

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by GH77

Not sure what the talk of pinch bolts is about? I'm sure I didn't have to remove anything other than the wheels?

I remove the spring and damper to ease access to the pipes, especially the little bracket to the body, per this pic:



If the pinch bolt is free then the easy way to do it is pop the two upper arms out and lean the upright out of the way. If they aren't then the lower arm comes off. I also take out the small vertical bracket which is still in place in this pic, and the driveshaft so I can reach up behind the downpipe to get at the M8 bolt holding the pipes to the rack. This stuff is trivial in the workshop on the lift so its faster and easier to remove parts to ease access than it is to fight working around everything.

My replacement hoses are remanufactured using the good parts of the originals and are £250 exchange for all three (to forum members). That includes postage and a £50 surcharge on the old hoses which will be returned if the old hoses are suitable for recovery using the same process.

I'm using the original rack-end fitting with new hose and wheel-well-end fitting:



The original front hose is cleaned up, de-rusted and repainted if needed, and the new hose attaches to it in the wheel well as before.

The return line is also re-sealed, and then all the crimped joints are covered in heat-shrink sleeve to protect them from the elements

The parts to do it are relatively inexpensive, assuming one has a savvy hydraulic specialist to hand (not the monkeys from Pirtek!), but it is very labour intensive to dismantle the hoses, recover the good bits and then reassemble, hence the price.

Tbh, given that Tradition have the original rear part of the pressure hose for £300-ish, and the front part is usually ok, its probably just easier to buy the genuine one. That one listed is new old stock I think based on the description, rather than brand new production, so once it's gone, it's gone!

[David's8]

Originally Posted by The_Laird

....

For at least the hundredth time, thank you so much Michaela - I would have given up on my much-loved S8 a while ago if you hadn’t stepped in so often.

Damn, I was wanting your cill covers and pedal set......