Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

[phil miller]

I have seen this happen before as a result of the scuttle panel being removed/fitted....

<tuffty/>

Ive done this TWICE removing the scuttle panel, even tho i have the correct VAG tool for the job sometimes the panel can be so tight it doesnt like letting go

 

[Prawn]

Are those wheels still 17s? I only ask because for some reason the car looks like it's got more ground clearance now. Maybe it's just the tyre size?

Still 17's yes mate, although the 235/45 profile is much taller, so it has gained a little ground clearance

For some reason, despite sitting outside yesterday all day locked up without making a sound, my alarm has been going off constantly all night I've checked both windows and both were tight up, so I can only wonder if it's somehow related to the new screen?

I've disconnected the battery for now, but I am not popular alarm has only ever gone off once before, and that's because I had left a window 5mm down by mistake

 

[Vex182]

Fault codes? You knew that was coming! Lol

 

[phil miller]

Nick as above code read it and go into meas blocks, there is a group that tells you the last 4 items that set the alarm off, there numbers so you may have to look on ross tech wiki, iirc 32 is tailgate (very common on the golfs and passats) if i get chance today i will plug a golf in and see if i can confirm the block number to look at

 

[Prawn]

Fault codes? You knew that was coming! Lol

You know what, top man! That never even occurred to me to check! I forget that vagcom does more than just the engine stuff.

tuffty just said this exact same thing to me just before you posted I've actually disconnected the battery now to avoid further hassle, but PT assures me the codes will be stored still.

Ill plug it in at lunch and scan it. My thoughts are with the bonnet catch sensor!

 

[Westy]

Could it be the dreaded alarm battery issue? I've gone through 2 alarm modules now so I've given up with the crappy alarm.

 

[Vex182]

I actually unlocked mine on Saturday and heard a beep from the rear quarter - a good churp of a noise so I reckon my alarm batteries are about dead. Yeh it should keep all fault codes plus a new one in engine because the battery was disconnected.

 

[Prawn]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, just come in from site, reconnected the battery, and thankfully the hazzards flashing all night the the siren havn't drained it. still fires up just fine.

oddly though, upon a bit of investigation, it's no longer recognising the bonnet as open or closed. Previously it wouldn't beep when I locked it if the bonnet was popped, but now it'll beep regardless, even if I disconnect the bonnet catch plug totally.

Will nip back to get my laptop in a mo and scan it and see what comes up!

 

[Prawn]

Scanned the car, autoscan failled because when it got to the aircon it went loopy as half of it is missing, excessive comms errors and it gave up.

lots of fault codes on module 35 for alarm triggerings in the past, I've never scanned 35 before. Most recent of which appeared to be ''alarm triggered by hood switch'' as I suspected.

Unplugged the bonnet catch wiring for now, and all seems good. No noises last night. happy days.

 

[Prawn]

Chaps.

My enormous 3'' exhaust is knocking on my trans tunnel under my seat, and slowly driving me insane. It currently has no centre mount here, as I've not run one for years. this now needs to change.

I had originally thought of using stainless lock wire to tension the exhaust from a few key points, to try and hold it still, but the more I think about it, the more I now want to make up a very stuff centre mount.

Had a few ideas, shown below. Key mission is not to reduce ground clearance if at all possible.

1st option would cost about 10mm clearance, which still keeps it within the circle of the centre box.

1nd option could be as little as 5mm downward protrusion below existing, so also fairly good.

Thoughts welcome!

 

[A3-Lee]

I think option 2 is your best bet mate as it gives full support

 

[Prawn]

seems like the better option to me.

My only concern was heat, I'm not sure if the heat transfer would be enough to radiate out through the steel mount and melt the rubber on the bobbins?

Was planning to use 25mm box section for the cross member, and sculpt it out to about 20mm of it's thickness then over drill the underside of the box so I can get a socket through one side and bolt up the nuts on the inside so they can't catch. if that makes sense?>

 

[superkarl]

You cant have it mounted too stiff. You have to allow for engine movement.

Option 1 gets my vote

 

[Jason.s]

Pft Ali at Unit18 has his exhaust on his S13 welded to the hangers. Doesn't move an inch but then has solid engine mounts too.

 

[A3-Lee]

seems like the better option to me.

My only concern was heat, I'm not sure if the heat transfer would be enough to radiate out through the steel mount and melt the rubber on the bobbins?

Was planning to use 25mm box section for the cross member, and sculpt it out to about 20mm of it's thickness then over drill the underside of the box so I can get a socket through one side and bolt up the nuts on the inside so they can't catch. if that makes sense?>

Sounds perfect to me mate heat shouldn't be a issue really as its only got the size of a clamp to conduct standard mount is basically a bar an that doesn't melt the rubbers and my side exit has a rubber with m8 thread into the floor an that rubber has never melted, just a thought could you not fit / modify to fit a standard centre mount? As these have great ground clearance

 

[Prawn]

I'm not even sure I have a standard mount any more Lee! Think I binned it long ago.

Ill get under the car on Saturday and see what's possible

 

[A3-Lee]

I may be able to get hold of one if ya struggling mate just let me know althought idea 2 should be fine

 

[RobinJI]

Option 2 for me as well. Plan for it makes sense with keeping the bolts out of the way. Not sure I'd like it if it's somewhere likely to get hit though. Mk3's have a little brace about there and I've seen a few get literally ripped off on speed bumps, pulling the studs out of the floor pan. They are pretty exposed though. I wouldn't worry about melting the mounts, should be fine.

The only other option I can think of that might work and be quite simple would be to get or make one of these:

And then just use a normal hanging rubber and add some studding in the tunnel to hang it. It'd depend on how much force it'll take to stop it knocking though, you couldn't pull on it much with one of those, just support it.

 

[Prawn]

Cheers Robin, that's basically what I'll be making really

The new mount will still sit higher than the line of the centre box, and above the chassis rails further forward, so it should be OK

Just took the car out for a blast, first time this week, and it's absolutely FLYING, it really does seem to wake up after a few minutes on the power and up it's game, holding a nice clean 22psi this evening, and scarily quick.

Very happy indeed, new suspension setup is feeling amazing too, cannot wait to get on track a week tomorrow!

 

[bigal 1]

You know, I'm really not sure if it would be of any use on this thing!

It's currently on michelin Pilot sport 2's, not the most grippy tyre in the world, but it really struggles to put the power down already out of the bends with just 230bhp. I think having 300bhp+ in a FWD track car would probably be pretty pointless.

Chances are, it'll end up with a CRT04 ko3/4 hybrid turbo, which should see it to around 280bhp. it's a fairly low cost upgrade needing just the turbo, MAF, and injectors over what I've got already.

Just got back from town in the A3, 21 miles of awesome cornish B roads. My god it's fun!

Those were the days eh.

 

[Prawn]

Funny how things change ey Dad? where it is now it's about perfect

Made a start on the new exhaust mount today:

Cut the bar I was going to use, and drilled it out to make the second half of the clamp around the exhaust:

Went up to the max 12mm drill bit I had, then used a burr to enlarge it so I could get a socket inside:

Shaped the steel to fit around a 3'' pipe, and offered the clamp up. Next issue:

Easily fixed by running a dye down the clamp to extend the thread:

Finished clamp, nice and low profile:

Offered up into place:

Just waiting on my cordless drill to charge, I've got the car right up high on stands but my 240v drill it too big to get in under the car to drill the pilot holes for the mounts.

 

[666markyboy]

Spot the piece of broken CV joint in photo 6

looks good btw

 

[ReDBull]

Not checked you thread out for a while its moved on some. I've been thinking about fitting the caster increase bushes but have been warned out as they difficult to get right. You make it look easy!

Considerably so Paul!

cast wishbones, roll centre corrected hubs, quicker steering rack. Strut mounted arb (considerably more effective than wishbone mounted on the a3) additional brace on the Subframe.

Ive got all the s3 parts on mine, although most are uprated further from s3 spec

Have you thought about taking it a step further and re shelling to an S3 shell. Ditching the awd but keeping the independent rear suspension?

 

[Prawn]

Not checked you thread out for a while its moved on some. I've been thinking about fitting the caster increase bushes but have been warned out as they difficult to get right. You make it look easy!



Have you thought about taking it a step further and re shelling to an S3 shell. Ditching the awd but keeping the independent rear suspension?

Caster bushes were dead easy mate, take your time and line it up with a stringline and a square and you can't go wrong.

S3 shell and IRS has been considered, but the work involved in a re-shell would be horrific, and unless forced upon me, it won't be happening

 

[Prawn]

I removed the new exhaust mount after test fitting, and prepped it for paint, then started getting on with the first ext system again.

I removed the wiper motor and scuttle tray, and opened up the box where the main car loom passes through the bulkhead:

Routed the pipework through a grommet in the lid of the box, and plumbed it all up:

I also routed the footwell pipe around behind the pedals and steering rack, and joined the two pipes. All I have now is a simple run to the extinguisher tomorrow and it's done.

In between that I painted the exhaust mount, I didn't have any satin black paint left, but plenty of orange

Fitted the new mount, fits really well and no danger of any knocking now:

With that done I went to refit the wiper motor, only to realise I'd completely done the fire Ext piping the wrong way!

haha. Fail. I sorted that out and re-routed it to clear everything, then swapped out the engine mounts for some spares, and filled my INA mounts with Tiger seal, Ala Jardo style!

More to report on that tomorrow

 

[Prawn]

Another cracking day, I've got loads done this weekend, very happy indeed.

I started the day off with something nice and relaxing, applying a few stickers:

After that I set about fitting a sunstrip to the new windscreen. No pics of this as it was an evil and thankless task. Didn't like it, looks crap, but OK from a distance

I then set about mounting the T-handles in the scuttle for the fire ext and the battery cut off. I used two existing holes and enlarged them slightly, although as the panel wasn't really firm enough, I reinforced it to spread the load with some 3mm steel plate:

First handle going in:

Both mounted:

At the cut off key, I wanted it removable so I could remove the key totally to immobilise the car further, so I looped the cable through a snap off hook, and joined it with a blue cable crimp joiner:

A bit of heatshrink neatened it up nicely:

Stickers on the bonnet to show which is which:

I also plastic welded my scuttle tray back together with a soldering iron, it's been hanging apart for years and causing all sorts of leaks, so I've welded it all up and refitted it correctly. Hopefully this will stop the water leaks!

As well as this, I refitted my tiger-sealed engine mounts, a quick fix for now but I've got some other ideas to address that further in the future.

 

[<tuffty/>]

Good work dude... only a week to go and then I will have some cable for yah

<tuffty/>

 

[Lewis583]

Completely irrelevant but

The Queen on acid approves of this car, lol

On topic, nice work as usual Prawn :thumbsup:

 

[Prawn]

My god that's freaky!!!!

 

[bigal 1]

My god that's freaky!!!!

THE ROYAL seal of approval. I knew you would get it one day. Fantastic work.

 

[smurfworth]

Would it be annoying if someone pulled those handles while you we're sat in traffic? The only flaw I see in it hah

 

[Prawn]

Everyone has said something along those lines. It's such a shame when we live in a society that's so predictably pikey that I have to engineer in 'Anti-****-' features

The fire ext has the pin in for road use, it's a thick 3mm steel pin, so they won't be triggering that, and the cable stop isn't stupidly tight, so if you really wanted to be a knob you'd probably just pull the cable through. I've left 2'' of slack in the fire ext cable as well, so the majority who would pull it for a prank will feel it lift 2'', assume it's not worked, and give up.

The cut off switch being switched whilst I'm in it isn't such as issue, as I can just switch it back on whilst still strapped in, and remove the key when parked up

 

[ReDBull]

Good work on the kill switch and extinguish.
I'm interested to see how you get on with the inlet manifold. I've bought a AGU inlet manifold with the thought of eventually doing something similar.

 

[Prawn]

2 days until Abingdon

Excited!!!!

 

[Prawn]

Early start today, just having my standard Pasta N Sauce Hybrid breakfast, then loading up the car and making the short trip to Abingdon

 

[Gops]

Car is looking sweet prawny :thumbsup:

 

[Prawn]

Absolutely AWESOME day.

Car is epic. No other words for it really, totally different machine to last time it saw a track. so happy with it.

One minor issue though.....

Whipping it off now, found someone local to weld it up, new gasket from TPS tomorrow at 8am, refit, test drive, then off to Donington!

Did wonder why I was getting a few flashes on the A34 also on the way back, then it dawned on me.....

 

[phil miller]

Bad luck on the exhaust dude

The plates look awesome tho

 

[Lewis583]

Sounds like you had a cracking time. Any videos to share Prawn?

 

[Prawn]

Got a few videos yea, but Big Bad Al forgot to empty the memory cards before the day, so not got any decent footage from later in the afternoon when I was really getting the tricky section dialled.

I followed a mk2 golf race car through the tight technical section at the back of the circuit, and realised that I, and every other car I'd seen go through there had the wrong idea, After seeing that and replicating it I was gaining on others by about 2 seconds per lap just through that section! Felt amazing.

We loaded up at 7am this morning, car filled to the roof as is standard practise for those of you who've ever been anywhere with BigAl:

Car sitting pretty low after 54 litres of Shells finest!

We arrived, and as is typical with airfield days you think you might be in the wrong place at first:

As we got closer it seemed like it might be the right place!

One for Jardo, we know how much you love these:

As well as the competitzione jobby, he also had another red abart with 6 pot brembos and a small garret BB turbo putting out well over 200bhp. Pretty cool, if a little different!

Track time was going very well indeed, although near lunch with Dad driving I started to notice a rough sound from the engine at times, inspection before lunch and I decided it was probably the manifold that had cracked underneath, but I couldn't find anything.

Once it cooled down it became pretty apparent:

Ohps.