Well, had a really busy christmas, my liver probably aint my best friend but ill blame the car for all the drinking...
After i had it MOT`d i still had a few little niggles to sort out, but i thought at least id get some miles on the car. How wrong was I...!!
So anyhoo, the few little problems were the brake pedal switch which was just a bit sticky. Thats freed off perfect now and works great so no worries there. I had a sidelight bulb out but that turned out to be a loose connection. The low signal fault from number 1 knock sensor turned out to be a totally disconnected sensor. I opened the bonnet to find the connector hanging under the inlet manifold. Result! Mustnt have connected it till it clicked, or i might even have not connected it....
lol cant remember now but its connected and fault free now so all good.
I decided i was going to drop the oil and then get the wheels aligned on the friday before christmas, and at least the oil drop went smooth. The magnetic sump plug even collected a little gloop of metal filings....
All to be expected of course so no worrying there. Whilst my head was under the bonnet i found a loose bolt here...
which again is to be expected with the newly heat cycled piping. Aslong as its just these and not the pain in the **** ones you cant easily reach then ill be happy. Most of the connections are nut and bolt with Nordlock washers however the wastegate connection as shown is tapped on the wastegate body so its only a bolt. This got retightened, and ill check them periodically to ensure it remains that way! lol
So after the little mini service i was supposed to take the car for its wheel alignment, however i only got 1/2 mile down the road when the clocks turned themselves off, and all the warning lights came on!!! Buzzers went and the engine died. I literally shat myself there and then and coasted to a stop to have a look at what had occurred. Luckily everything appeared to be fine, and the only code that showed up on the liquid gauge (did i mention how good the liquid gauge is...?!!) was a voltage limit exceeded code. So it appeared to be some sort of voltage spike which i confirmed when restarting the engine as the battery warning symbol showed up. I drove the 1/2 mile back home and whipped the test meter out to find that the alternator had just chucked its dummy out!!
No charge voltage present with all the wiring and alternator fuse in place and correct. So the alternator had most probably blown a diode in the rectifier box, and surged when it did so causing the voltage limit exceeded fault code.
Not the end of the world but i had hoped of enjoying the fruits of my labour before pulling it apart again. This was the nail in the coffin with regards to much of the festive driving that i had planned, so it got parked back up in the garage and left with me needing to find an alternator.
This turned out to be an easy task as me pal had one as a spare on his shelf, however after i got it home i span it round a bit, and it appeared to have a noisy bearing. I could have put up with this but to be honest there isnt a squeak/clunk/rattle (apart form the SMF of course) coming from the new engine, it purrs lovely so i didnt want to disturb the peace with a humming alternator. Lucky for me but not for me pal Chris (EddyS3), he managed to damage his motor so is breaking it, so i snaked in and whipped his off when i went up to his to pick up some shiny bits for me mates mk4 golf. So today i got it on and decided to do the swap!
Now this would have been much easier on a "normal" S3, as the engine bay metal boost pipe connects to a rubber item which then feeds down behind the offside headlamp. This being rubber allows you to remove the alternator and tensioner and have good access to the fan belt assembly. However i have replaced this pipe with a hard aliminium pipe when redoing my boost piping, so to take my alternator and tensioner off i had to remove the inlet manifold, and practice my exceptional dexterity...
It was relatively easy with the manifold off so worth it and still easily do-able.
So after that was all back together i finally got it for its wheels aligned...
Now,... the car felt good from the garage, as i had spent some time aligning by eye, but my my, after correct aligninment it feels ****** fantastic!!!
Nice and smooth, no knocks or rattles, goes where i point it and it all feels really good. The engine has freed off some more and appears to be a bit more revvy, and the pickup from low RPMs is much better than from when i first started it. Theres obvious lag of course but it still feels a little pokey and builds the speed well. As soon as 3-3.5krpm comes the boost builds and by 4-4.5krpm it has hit the set pressure of 0.5/6 and holds it lovely. It appears to be taking off at them levels which lets face it is only a smidge of its planned capabilities, but im happy it feels good at least.
So ive had it around the doors this afternoon but that got interrupted by my daddy duties so ill endeavour to do some more tomorrow and in the next coming weeks.
EDIT... it appears ive went on a touch...lol