Project Shed - Big Refresh!

They were there when i fitted the turbo 2 years ago, and dont appear to have got any worse. The whine is a new symptom, so i guess thats probably wishful thinking.

Progress today has been slow. Was raining first thing, so i went out to the shed and to get the shafts sorted out.

Rebuilt the driveshafts with the new outer CV's, and stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the inner joints. However one of the new outers has more play in it than the ones i took off! I've opened a case with the seller, and i think i'll probably clean up and refit the better of the original two CV's for now.

I got the engine properly mounted up, tightened all the engine and box mounts, and started the process of reconnecting all the wiring and pipework. Removed the leaky coolant flange and got ready to refit that, then went for some lunch.

Now its started raining again...

I think i'll go sort out this duff CV while its raining, and hopefully it goes off and i can get some more done!
 
Well no pics today, progress was slow, and visually not much has changed.

Got the subframe torqued down and the engine and mounts torqued down as above.
Most of the engine bay wiring is back in, two plugs need extening as they are in different places on the new box. Discovered one of the long bolts that holds the starter motor together had come loose and wouldnt go back in, so i ended up changing the starter for my spare. Coolant and charge pipework is installed, front panel is back in.

Swapped the CV over in between rain showers, and pulled off the arch liners to replace them with non-broken ones i've had knocking around for ages. Discovered my Screenwash bottle was leaking, so i've left that arch liner off for now and will sort that before it goes back on.

Started putting the new arms on the drivers side then it got dark so i packed up and called it a night.

Things still to do:

Front suspension
front brakes
Add Oil, Coolant, PAS Fluid
Bleed brakes and Clutch
Fix screenwash
Remove prop and rear diff
Sort gear linkage
Install new prop and rear diff
Refit bumper

I'm very tempted to get a couple cheap cans of gloss black paint and spray up my spare bumper and nail it on seen as its sitting there and the one on the car is wrecked. I should probably just wait and do it properly though...
 
Yeh i could, but the cars paintwork is already a mess due to crashes in a previous life.

It really needs both front wings, bonnet and bumper painted, and the passenger side front wing replaced.
 
yeh, previous owner used rattle cans on the bonnet and bumper and its all chipped and peeling, hence why they need redone. Passenger wing and bumper corner is scraped where the missus took offence to the garden gate, drivers wing i replaced when i got the car, but i used a brilliant black one, rather than ebony, so it doesnt match the rest of the car.

I have a spare ebony black wing that i could use to replace the scraped one, but its got some storage damage on it. Will give it some thought this week and decide what to do.
 
So spent a few hours on it the past two evenings. Only got about 2 hours of daylight after finishing work, so i've just been getting stuck in straight away.

Got most of the front suspension on, passenger side is fully built up, brakes etc all fitted and everything torqued up. Drivers side is all together, but still needs the brakes fitting and everything torqued up. Glad to discover that my 4F A6 calipers worked as i had hoped they would.

Discovered that the plastic covering on the brake hose on the passenger side has a split in it, so i'm going to have to get that replaced. I've also had an "uhoh" moment after putting the drivers side together, because i cant remember if i torqued up the drive flange onto the box. So i'm going to have to whip the driveshaft back off tomrrrow, and check the flange is tight. It probably is, but i know if i ingore it then it'll fall off at some inopportune moment!
 
aragorn said:
So spent a few hours on it the past two evenings. Only got about 2 hours of daylight after finishing work, so i've just been getting stuck in straight away.

Got most of the front suspension on, passenger side is fully built up, brakes etc all fitted and everything torqued up. Drivers side is all together, but still needs the brakes fitting and everything torqued up. Glad to discover that my 4F A6 calipers worked as i had hoped they would.

Discovered that the plastic covering on the brake hose on the passenger side has a split in it, so i'm going to have to get that replaced. I've also had an "uhoh" moment after putting the drivers side together, because i cant remember if i torqued up the drive flange onto the box. So i'm going to have to whip the driveshaft back off tomrrrow, and check the flange is tight. It probably is, but i know if i ingore it then it'll fall off at some inopportune moment!
Click to expand...

pictures ?? :)

glad to hear your getting there !! Hows the clearance on those brakes with the 7J boleros ??
 
Clearance should be fine, they're just 312's, but have the big caliper spacing. Luckily the base spec C6 A6's all run 312's as standard, so the calipers only cost £47 delivered for the pair.

I took a few pics will upload them in the morning.
 
Forgot to upload those pics!

Been working on it today.

So far, i've sorted the wiring tweaks and plugged in the reverse light and the speed sensor.
Bled the front brakes and clutch, though i'm not convinced the clutch feels right, so that might need some more bleeding.
Filled engine with oil and coolant, and filled up the PAS reservoir. Started filling the gearbox with oil.
Removed the propshaft, and partially dismantled the rear suspension to enable me to pop the rear driveshafts out.

Still need to drop the rear diff out, slot the new diff in, reconnect the shafts and reassemble the rear end. Fix gearlinkage, and then install new propshaft, and probably some other minor bits and bobs.
 
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Well, didnt quite get things finished. Diff came out easy enough. Detached the prop and tidied them away and got the new one out. Bit of wrestling around and i got it under the car and ready to lift into place, then noticed that in the process of removing the drivers side CV joint, i'd managed to overextend it and it was at a jaunty angle. Grabbed hold of the CV and the outer and half the balls fell into my hand.

So i thaught, i'll just pop the circlip out and remove the inner CV, clean and reassemble on the bench and off we go. Got the circlip out and the joint was stuck fast on the shaft. Probably come off easy in a vice, but its not coming off with what small area i have to work with under the car. So i figure i'll need to undo the outer, and take the shaft off completely and fix it. One look at the hex drive told me that wasnt happening, completely rusted out. Tapped in a 14mm hex and put the bar on it and sure enough it turned into a round rusty hole.

I think i'm going to have to pull the whole upright off the car and replace it for another one or something. Having got thoroughly ****** off by that, i decided to ignore it and press on with other tasks. Wrestled around with the diff and got that mounted up, Got the passenger rear shaft reattached and put the suspension back together and refitted the wheel.

Decided i couldnt be ***** doing the propshaft today as it was getting late etc, so i filled up the gearbox oil and put the plug back in, Pressure tested the charge system and couldnt find any leaks bar one tiny leak from the IAT sensor due to a duff o-ring.

Then i decided to have a change of tack and removed the scraped front wing. Dug the two wings out the garage and realised the black one was a bit rough, so if i was going to paint one up i'd be wanting to paint the silver one anyway. With that in mind i decided to nail the black one on the car as it is. Its a bit rough, but isnt all smashed in so should look better. Got it all fitted, then got the grinder out and put a polishing head on it and gave it the once over with Menzerna 203s. It came up a treat and apart from the scratches and marks from transportation, it looks much better.

Finished bits and bobs around the engine bay so everything in there is done.

So tomorrows jobs are:

Fit gearlinkage
Fit propshaft
Fix drivers rear upright/driveshaft somehow
Fit exhaust
Fix screenwash bottle.

And that should hopefully be it!

I will need to take it and get the tracking setup as it'll be away to **** seen as so much has changed.


Uploading pics now!
 
Last edited:
Mostly complete engine bay, with new radiator and coolant reservoir:
IMG_20131010_183415.jpg


Passenger wing, and front suspension, minus wheel, washer bottle and arch liner. You can see the marks on the wing above the side repeater, and also a mark just behind the indicator, but overall it looks good, unlike the bonnet, which is a ****** mess!
IMG_20131010_183213.jpg


Overall view of how the cars sitting now:

IMG_20131010_183402.jpg


I'm thinking of ditching the orange, tone things down a bit, i've got the original black mirrors which i can refit. I also need to sort the headlights out, as they're badly tarnished on the lenses.
 
Well got it all sorted and finished yesterday.

Good news is it started and drove without problems.

Bad news is theres an odd load related whine most noticable in 3rd gear.

Didnt drive it too far, so i'm not sure exactly where its coming from, could be the rear diff, or it could just be a function of the fact i've made the subframe and gearbox mounts far too stiff...

Gonna give it a few miles and see what happens. If it doesnt go away, i'll try swapping the gearbox mounts out for standard rubber ones and see what changes. I REALLY hope its not a faulty part, but at the same time i have a sneaking suspicion that when craig had the S4 we changed the rear diff oil to try (and failed) to cure a whine, and knowing my luck thats what this noise is. I dont remember craigs ever being this loud, but i guess the stiff mounts will transfer more noise.

Also the starter motor i swapped in is sticking (i was about 90% sure the starter was doing this, but it was the only spare i had, so on it went). I'll need to get another one and swap it over, unless i can fix the original one.

Few little minor bits i need to finish, like the exhaust mount on the gearbox doesnt line up, so i'll have to modify that and make it fit somehow.
 
Hopefully nothing too major, did you go enough to try your extra cog? I've got a starter I can send up if you can't source one locally.
 
Took a video:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/97yyr1edqcl77u3/VID_20131012_145603.mp4


Its not the clearest in terms of how the noise actually sounds (it almost sounds like exhaust noise in the video), but its really clearly noticable from about 5 seconds onwards, and fades away around 15seconds when the speed gets up over about 55mph.



Yeh i drove over to dobbies this morning, drove quite happily in 6th gear.

Starter seems to have got better, but i'm fairly sure this is what it was doing before, sometimes it would stick when you let off the key and other times it would work normally.
 
Ill try get a sound clip of my load related noise see if it sounds similar !

how did you find the stiff mounts in its short road test ??
 
I didnt fit the stiff diff mount in the end, left stock one in for now.

Only installed the subframe and stiffened gearbox mounts. First impressions are it feels quite harsh, dash rattles and the car vibrates more than before. Its not entirely unpleasant, but its hard to tell with this whine overlaid on top of everything wether its too much or not.
 
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