My minor modding thread

[<tuffty/>]

Made some progress... had an issue with one of the GSF fans (new at the time of fitting the VR6 in)... I had been getting quite a large vibration from the fan when they were on and turns out that the larger fan was the culprit and the blade assembly had come loose

...so a bit of locktight later and it (and did the smaller fan too) was sorted...

The CFS rad is quite a bit thicker than the OE rad....

Also being a fabricated product the tolerances were a little out in places...

Nothing a little filing can't sort out... with all that sorted I fitted the fan pack...

Next job was to sort the PAS pipework.... I used the 20v pipework when I originally fitted the VR but due to the way the engine tilts forward its got a habit of hitting things...

Also the feed hose from the reservoir was modded as best I could at the time to try and clear the alternator that was more forward now....

I had to cable tie it out the way to clear the pulley... when I bought the 4 motion gear box I also grabbed the PAS lines... so now fitted those...

I didn't get a pic of the feed hose but the 4 motion one clears the alternator by miles now... the only issue now is that the run to the rack goes a different way to the S3 pipe... this means I need to sort a bracket out for it to secure it properly... I think I will be needing to change the PAS pipework again once I get the DSG box on but thats a problem for when that happens

During the last week I worked on the inlet manifold and headlights (as they were getting a little misty)... sanded down the powder coat...

...followed by some etch primer, Simoniz's best wheel silver and a few coats of clear lacquer...

Next up was the headlights...

Used the same lacquer on the headlights too...

Today I did some more on the car... I swapped out the fuel rail to the AN fittings one and fitted the mani...

Then came the 'fun' part.... I knew the aircon would be an issue...

...so some tactical modding later and....

I now need to mod the front clip now lol....

Ah well... joys of modding cars right?

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

I have taken some time off work to get the car into a drivable state... fitting the CFS rad and keeping the aircon has been a bit of a challenge and that challenge hasn't ended yet!...

When trying to secure the slam panel properly it was evident that some more modding was required... first task was to mod the slam panel itself.. this required a couple of cut outs to allow the repositioned dryer canister to 'fit'... (it's still jeffing tight!!!)

Once done it allowed the rad pack to fit properly into the slam panel... offering it back up to the car though highlighted another area that needed a trim...

Sorted!!... I hope this rad does what it needs to do and sort the cooling issues out lol

With the front end mostly together the final clearance issues became clearer... the larger fan is very very close to throttle body and I am hoping that the very small amount of engine rock I do have won't be an issue... the aircon pipe that the smaller fan managed to chew through before is again touching the fan... and the only other thing I have noticed so far is that the lower charge pipe is also touching the small fan at the bottom... sigh!...

Was expecting it tbh as the rad pushes stuff more than you realise back into the engine bay and the VR6 is a very forward leaning engine....

I will get the car up on stands tomorrow and address these issues along with finishing up the PAS pipework

Next task was to make up the 6AN PTFE fuel lines...

I have made up the lines from the filter to the fuel rail feed... and the return... I still need to make up the line from the tank connection to the bottom of the filter but don't have all the bits just yet...

Getting there... almost looks like a car again

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Good work mate


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[hydro s3]

Was ur temps that bad that you had to go through all this with the CFS radiator or was it once you started the job it's snowballed?

 

[<tuffty/>]

Was ur temps that bad that you had to go through all this with the CFS radiator or was it once you started the job it's snowballed?

Was seeing over 100deg driving in Mexico... Apparently the stock R32/TT 3.2 have a slightly thicker rad... I just went Rad++

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Didn't feel like I got much done today but progress is progress....

First up was to address the power steering 'cooler'... the S3 one that loops around the front of the engine forms part of the return circuit for the PAS... on most 1.8t's the return goes from the rack and straight into the fluid reservoir but on the S3 and other K04 turbo'd 1.8t's there is an extra loop for additional 'cooling' capacity... this pipe ('L' shaped) was not fitting too well as it was with the VR but now I have changed to the 4-motion PAS pipework its even more in the way (although as it turns out the 4-motion pipework needs repositioning as it hangs too low using the S3 mount point)... I plan to fit a proper PAS cooler later but I also want to fit an oil cooler at some point too so rather work out where all that lot is going to go at the same time...

Given that the VR produces less exhaust heat and I tend not to drive the car hard that much I felt ok removing the front 'L' loop and replacing it with a shorter version... I cut a piece off the old S3 PAS pipework and cleaned it up...

...mig'd beads on the end and painted it (obvs)

...then fitted it to the hoses...

This is the low pressure return side of the PAS so this should be fine and no different to how I was running the original pipework... its just shorter now

I do need to get a p-clip and fix it properly but I need the car on a ramp to do brackets for the high pressure side I replaced earlier so will sort it all out then..

While the car was up on stands I checked where the aircon hose was hitting the fan to see if I could cable tie it out the way... turns out I cannot as the angle the hose comes out the back of the pump is the reason it is now hitting

The charge pipe was also hitting the small fan at the bottom... the clearance was tight before but the rad has closed that gap to the point the silicon joiner hits it

This basically means I need to pull the front again and make some tactical 'changes' to the aircon and boost pipes... ah well job for tomorrow...

Lastly I fitted and plumbed up the vac pump...

Used rivnuts to allow me to bolt it on... then piped it up in a 'functional' manner...

I do plan to tidy that a bit now I know what I have to play with but this will work... just not that pretty

Not wired it up as yet but it will fail over to manifold vacuum regardless... the pump is designed to supplement the vacuum as required

Hoping the aircon and boost pipe issues will be simple fixes and that I can finally fill the cooling system and get the engine started... hopefully with no leaks from either the coolant, PAS or fuel systems... seeing as I have taken all three fluid bearing things apart and replaced pipes!!... lol

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Seems we’ve both had to go a step back in order to move forwards with the cars mate all be it mine was not completely self inflicted . Things we do hey! Glad to see your getting through it. Catch up with you tomorrow


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[<tuffty/>]

So here we are again... front off the car to sort out some the 'minor' problems of the aircon pipe and charge pipe clearance....

The aircon pipe needs to have a straighter exit from the back of the pump as its current angle means it just goes straight into the fan...

...a bit of tactical persuasion later....

Yay!... I then slotted the fan pack mounts a bit so I could lift it up a little higher to gain some space for the charge pipe and reassembled the front end... with a bit of jostling about of the clip mounts I got the clearance I needed for the charge pipe.. the larger fan is a little closer than before to the throttle body but clearance is clearance so I call that a win...

Topped up the expansion bottle and and PAS fluid reservoir then fired the old girl up... coolant took a bit of bleeding tbh which also involved me taking the car outside to try and dislodge any air still in the system... this however was made more 'interesting' by the power steering that suddenly decided it was no longer going to be 'powered'... oddly bleeding up was fine and there was plenty of fluid in the reservoir but it seems like the pump had packed up...

Thankfully I had a spare!

This fixed the problem so not really sure what happened to the old pump... but happy days all the same

Happy that the car is mobile again... the CFS rad appears to be doing its thing and I have so far not managed to get it over 90 degrees in Mexico... I need to do a few more tests as the CFS rads have a habit of 'over' cooling (I guess they are better in an environment where the engines being spanked all the time) but so far I get low to mid 80's just driving about and high 80's under load...

Next job will be to get the wiring in for the DSG and the vacuum pump... I have most of the bits I need but not 100% convinced on the check valves I bought... I think I will need to remove the OE one by the servo as the valve seems so restrictive that it cannot generate enough 'suck' to open the OE valve upstream...

I have a spare OE valve somewhere so will have a faff as there is plenty of vac being generated before the valve

All in all not a bad few weeks work... the CFS rad might be a little over kill but coolant and oil temps are definitely benefitting from it and the DSG cooler will only add to the heat loading of the coolant when that goes in...

The AN lines tidy the fuel delivery up nicely...

The painted mani now matches the rest of the silver items in the bay... along with the obligatory OE sticker of course..

...and recently fitted a Funk Motorsport wastegate blanket...

All in all I am well happy with the engine bay now... while obviously not as OEM as the 20v it has the clean OE look I had envisioned...

...and on the subject of OEM and DSG...

...its not perfect and not 100% sure how the lever will align given the tight space of the trim panel vs the practicalities of getting the display and gaiter in but happy with the result and of course I have a plan 'B' and a plan 'Z' too just in case

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Really smart what you’ve done with the DSG shifter and 8L trim. Hopefully it’ll all be good once fitted!


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[Ian W]

Quality of workmanship on this looks so good, keep up the good work.

Definitely will need some sort of YouTube video when done so we can all hear it and see the performance.

 

[<tuffty/>]

I plan to sort a few vids once the DSG is in...

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Thought it would be a good idea to crack on with sorting the brakes as it seems a fairly good idea for a 1.5tonne 500hp car to have some

Made up the loom for the vac pump...

Routed the cabling through the main loom to pick up where I had wiring for the second MAP sensor I had originally planned to use for the Color MFA...

...and spliced the MAP wiring in..

The sensor wire is already next to the ECU so I just need to add that in and configure the input to be able to see the vacuum in the servo line... I have not done that as yet as I need to route a few more wires to and from the ECU so will do all that in one hit later on...

Next up was to clean up the tubing and remove the OE check valve from its location next to the servo to relocate near the vac pump... and it was then that I realised what the braking issue was!!!

..ah!... if only I had access to a smoke tester or something!

Soooooo... I replaced that with silicon vac hose and rejigged the pipework by the vac pump...

I have also relocated the WMI nozzle as the route my charge pipe is now meant the old location would have been pre FMIC...

A bit more off the list... next I plan to get the rest of the wiring I need to do to get the DSG loom in and all the other odds and sods I need to get the additional electrics squared away...

...after I have sorted this little gem that greeted me this morning...

*sigh*

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Grabbed some time in-between playing BF 2042 to hook up the wiring for the vac pump MAP sensor...

Added the senor input to ECU pin 11 as a User defined input

This then popped up the relevant menu item in the sensors section and scaled it to be the same as the main MAP sensor (they are the same 3bar sensor)

....and took a quick trip to Mexico to get some data and also to check the coolant temps now the CFS rad is on...

Obviously the main fix to the brakes was fixing the split pipes and ultimately the vac pump is more to support the DSG box going forward... looking at the data from the logging I have done so far it seems that on average the vac holds at about 30/35 kpa... even on a full foot off deceleration where measured vac hits 20kpa (sensor reads down to 17kpa) it will climb back to 30 ish without using the brakes...

I can report that the brake issue has now gone... I don't have the pedal jump up on letting off the throttle and the brakes feel much much better braking hard from speed..

Its at this time that one could question why I would need a vac pump at all but because I plan to go DSG and during the gear changes the throttle doesn't close nearly as much as it does changing gear with a manual box there is the potential to lose vacuum when driving in a spirited manner being on and off the brakes and with little vacuum available during acceleration the vacuum would take longer to build back up... this of course is not the best scenario with a 1.5tonne 500hp car

I will wire the output to the pump later when I do the rest of the wiring I need for the DSG etc...

As for the coolant temps... as you can see it hit a max of 81.6deg during the run... this is around where the stat opens (82 deg stat on a VR apparently) ... the max temp I hit was 85 deg on the whole log (some 20mins worth of data)... so what I think is happening is that the engine will come up to temp... the stat opens and the substantially increased cooling ability of the CFS rad is just too good to allow the coolant temps to get much above the stat's rating...

Happy enough with that tbh as I will be adding more heat soon from the DSG cooler so nice to have that over head...

Oil temps seem to be ok too at the moment and saw 91deg max in the log... this is quite promising as I still use the OE oil/water heat exchanger and it seems that the oil's heat is neither influencing the coolant temps nor the coolant temps influencing the oil temps in the way they were before so will keep an eye on that too for the time being

I also took the opportunity to hook up my boost gauge... I was going to hook up the WMI pressure switch too but tbh I think I will use Ignitron to switch the WMI as I am not sure the boost switch has the resolution to operate at the lower boost pressure I currently run...

One last thing I noticed on the log is how rich the AFR is on full chat... I must admit I hadn't really done much to the lambda target table under boost conditions as the default settings are pretty decent but looking abck at a few other logs it is definately running richer than I need given my EGT's measured at the hotside of the turbo are less than they were on the 20v measured at the downpipe (where they are generally cooler)

I have made some tweaks to the lambda target map and will do some logging in the week to make sure nothing untoward happens as a result but pretty confident in where I have it so should be reet...

Progress

<tuffty/>

 

[Welly]

Dude, that VR is as tight as a gnat's chuff in there. Looks like it's coming together fairly swiftly now though, what's your ETA for completion?

 

[<tuffty/>]

Dude, that VR is as tight as a gnat's chuff in there. Looks like it's coming together fairly swiftly now though, what's your ETA for completion?

Technically 'complete' but as you know these things are never 'finished' lol

Next things on the list will be prep for the DSG fitting so wiring and sort the box out....

I also have a brakes update to do which includes pads all round, new rear calipers (one is sticky), new pipes and hoses for the rear and a fluid flush... now the brakes are "working" again its evident that the sticky rear caliper is messing with the stability under hard braking...

I need to change the precharge pump on the haldex as I think this is contributing to the low speed lock up I am still having (goes away once the car has been driven for a bit)

Engine wise its 'done'... looking to do a bit of fine tuning on the dyno at some point to get the torque curve where I want it

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Bunch of parts that have turned up this week for sorting stuff out on the car...

A pair of brand new TRW rear calipers (with audi logo's as they are an OE supplier) that cost £35 each in the Autodoc Black Friday sale.... new pads for the rear (just std Brembo jobbers), Mintex M1155's for the front, new rear brake lines, RBF600 fluid, brand new aircon pump, brand new aircon dryer and a cabin panel filter

Just need to find the time to do this lot lol

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Couple of little jobs done over the past week....

Painting the new rear calipers...

Doing a bit of tweaking on the map and adding in timing up the top of the rev range while fine tuning the VE table..

I changed the view from kPa to PSI as I think this tends to make it a little more relatable so as you can see I am currently running a mere 16psi... the reported power is a little unbelievable tbh, it really doesn't feel like 560hp but I plan to get the car back on the dyno for another few runs so I can check my changes and make any further tweaks to get the engine where I want it

Further to preparing for the DSG swap I have sorted a panel for the fuses and relays I will need...

This will attach to the car using a couple of rivnuts...

...thusly...

...and clears the filter nicely...

...of course the panel was painted

Waiting on some crimp terminals then I will start wiring everything in including the DSG gearbox loom and all the other bits I need to drive the starter inhibit and reverse light etc..

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Happy new year etc blah...

Great start for me as I tested positive for Covid!!... I shall be a free man tomorrow though (11th day) and tested negative this morning so happy days!

Nothing more to report other than a little bit of coverage on youtube from our very own Prawn....


Once the weather is a little more favourable I shall be cracking on with the DSG wiring... probably not going to be up at Bill's for a few weeks just to make sure I am 100% covid clear as that wouldn't be fair on anyone...

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

I’m not running away…… honest good to finally meet Nick after all these years. That VR does sound epic mind! glad your testing negative now mate.


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[<tuffty/>]

So I was a little bit bored and decided to take a trip to Mexico for a few map tweaks... I had originally imposed a 1bar limit on myself but in fairness I have already broken that at the top end to achieve 500hp... not by much of course... whats 100kpa between friends

Anyhoo... I am getting close to running out of injector duty at 3bar and due to the fairly soft wastegate spring I am using I am close to maxing out the N75 duty too... obviously those things can be addressed but I am kinda ok with it as it means I can impose a hard limit on how much more I can tune the standard bottom end...

to that end... this was my previous boost map...

This has now been tweaked (including upping integrator max a bit) to this...

I am not bringing it in with a wallop but instead still trying to get that 'big engine' feel from the tune...

This was the power run from the 502hp map...

These are the logs from tonight...

Obviously pinches of salt all round but while the actual hp/torque figures may not be 100% accurate due to various reasons it does show relative gains and in fairness the car feels much like she did back when the 20v was at 620hp...

In fact if you look at the graphs from the 20v runs you can get an idea of what the VR is doing on the same turbo for much less boost and RPM... (17psi essentially at the top end rather than the 32psi I ran on the 20v)

No replacement for displacement

Will get the car on the dyno as soon as I can to validate where she is

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Hehe, knew it wouldn’t take long! 573bhp is pretty dam good even though it’s on Ignitron. Look forward to seeing it on the dyno mate . You thinking of maybe having an all balls out map, with 87% duty cycle is there much headroom to get more out of it? Get you to a true 580-600bhp maybe?


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[<tuffty/>]

Have put the car on stands.... there is a decent reason for this... it stops me driving the car and gives me a reason to crack on with the current list of things I need to do...

First up...

I need to replace the top mounts as mine appear to have started to collapse... these Billy B8's are the first mod I did to the car when I first bought it and while they are still working fine they are showing signs of age (13yrs of age)...

So while they are off I am going to clean them up and give them a fresh coat of paint... hopefully keep them decent for a while longer... it was just as well I decided to do these now as it turns out...

...the joy of potholes

Another issue that has manifested itself is the scourge of most 8L S3's these days...

This is a little disappointing but not unexpected... I will need to pull the sill covers off and see what needs doing

I have also got an issue with the drivers door... it will struggle to shut and when it does it will sometimes pop open while I am driving... in anticipation of this I bought a new latch some time back but never got around to fitting it...

These are now obsolete (like a lot of parts for our cars these days) but they are listed on Audi Tradition... however due to Brexit they are currently not shipping to the UK!!...

On the subject of obsoleted parts I decided to pull my old haldex controller apart to see if it could be refurbed...

Internally there is not much to it... some electronics (that use a jelly like potting compound) and stepper motor... I need to pull the valve out of the case too as I think its possible that this along with maybe the stepper is what is causing the issues with them being the only mechanical part of the controller...

I need to do a bit more clean up and I think I have found a bit out about the stepper motor but I need to pull that apart to see what type of encoder it uses as this could be why its causing an issue...

If I could find a way to 'fix' these then that would be a nice little win...

Other things on the to do list include fitting the new rear calipers I bought recently and all the new brake pipes... then bleed the brakes using fresh RB600 fluid...

Last things to do (for now) will be to fit the DSG loom and connect it all up so I can test it all with the box plugged in and to dual port the wastegate replacing the N75 valve with a MAC valve...

this should hopefully give me a bit more duty back at the higher boost levels so I can run a solid 1.2bar (220kpa/17.4psi) at the top end of my rev range... currently I am at 90% and its still struggling to get there so pretty sure there is nothing left without changing the spring which I would rather not do at this time...

Not in a rush to get this lot done but as I am doing it outside the house and the weather is pants it may take me a while

...means I get to drive the A2 and actually have some money left at the end of the month from the saving on fuel lol... so I can buy more parts obvs

<tuffty/>

 

[mrsingh2u]

The oil temps with that CSF Rad are impressive! What were the oil temps like when you were running the stock rad?

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[<tuffty/>]

The oil temps with that CSF Rad are impressive! What were the oil temps like when you were running the stock rad?

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Rubbish LOL...

Coolant would hit 100+ under load as would oil... now coolant rarely goes above the stat opening temp of 82deg and oil tends to be a little higher... oil still gets into the 90's as there is not 'active' cooling so I probably will add an oil cooler at some point but waiting to see what the DSG oil temps end up being and decide an approach from there

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Have had the dreaded raised top of the strut for a little while which is typically the sign of the rubber top bush sagging... as I have LCR top mounts I was a little surprised they had gone as bad being harder rubber but I have had them a while now so in anticipation I bought poly replacements with new bearings and spring cups

I took the opportunity to swap out the rear calipers...

Just as well I changed the lines as they were looking pretty scabby...

Bought myself a fancy pressure bleeder as Bill uses a similar one and quite frankly just makes it real easy to bleed the brakes on your own

I used RBF600 fluid too as its pretty decent stuff and never had any problems with my brakes when hauling up the VR6 (or 20v) anchor....

Pressure bleeders are brilliant and it didn't take long to get the brakes bled... I bought 3 bottles (1.5ltrs) to make sure that I could push all the old fluid out plus this bleeder needs a bit of a reserve in the bottom of a 100/200 ml to ensure that no air gets passed through the bleeder..

Once done I just needed to pull some fluid out with a syringe as pressure bleeders will leave the reservoir brimmed..

With all that done I could spend some time on the struts... I used gel based paint stripper to get the old paint off...

It wasn't the most fun in the world but some scraping, sanding and aqua blasting later.... they were ready for some rust treatment for the remaining bits..

...and I decided (for no other reason than I could) to cold blue the top of the strut in a vain attempt to prevent corrosion..

Etch primer next...

...and Rustoleums finest matt black...

....yes... BLACK!!!... in all honesty I did paint one yellow... but... the paint was very thin and took many many coats to get it looking half decent to the point that the finish was full of runs and the paint was still soft after a few days drying... so I flatted it all back and went 'stealth' black instead

Actually looks ok and is in keeping with my general theme..

I also managed to break out one of my favourite tools that I never use... my vortex pass through socket set...

Not driven the car as yet so need to test the brakes and once happy I can start tuning the boost map again for the dual ported wastegate..

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Epic work there mate good as new!


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[<tuffty/>]

As the weather has been reasonably nice I took a trip to Mexico so I could set up the boost control now that the wastegate is dual ported... Ignitron is such a breeze to use and didn't take long to get the PID control dialled in...

Overall I am hitting the 220kpa I am asking for in the specified boost map for 10% less duty than when in the single port setup which never quite made 220kpa top end... happy days

I have next week off to do some more bits to the car such as the aircon pump and DSG wiring... I am also replacing the oil pressure switch as that appears to have gone faulty as I am randomly getting the 3 beeps of doom when driving even under load where I can see I am getting 5bar of oil pressure... looking back at the build pics I think I used a Febi sensor for a 20v and it seems that they are rated differently to the VR6 for a start and I guess the Febi part is not as good as the OE part... who knows... either way I have a genuine switch to replace it with...

If Bill is able and willing I will try and get the car on the dyno this weekend or during the week maybe... be nice to see where she is now I have spent a little time tweaking the map and running a little more boost

The figures IECU report can be fairly accurate but in my experience tend to over read... the car feels very fast and based on the below...

...the car took 6.93 seconds to get from around 1500rpm to around 7000rpm in third gear... I have nothing to gauge that against but she feels fast so can't complain

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

This is very exciting stuff PT! Sucks that I won’t be coming to B5 this weekend. Got other commitments that needs my attention.


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[<tuffty/>]

So this happened!

...which resulted in...

The difference in the boost plots looks quite a bit... but other than I have brought the spool/mid range in sooner the actual difference top end is around 0.1bar which is about 1.5psi and the spool/mid range is a lift of 0.9bar to 1.1bar below 5k rising to 1.2bar request up to redline...

I am happy with the top end power figure... not really interested in chasing figures but the OCD in me would like to tackle the slight wobblyness after 5.5k purely to smooth it out a bit...

This is only the third time the car has been on the dyno since having a VR6 fitted so pretty happy with the tuning I have done so far...

Next big task will be the DSG...

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

That’s incredible results mate! You must be over the moon with that, throughout the entire rev range. Well done! Did you happen to video the dyno run? Would love to hear it on full chat


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[<tuffty/>]

Ta and nah... I was in the car at the time... Luke was running her on the dyno so thought I would support him by making him extra nervous

...apparently she does sound good though

<tuffty/>

 

[mrsingh2u]

Plenty more area under the curve!! Bet that feels sprightly on the road mate, spot on!

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[<tuffty/>]

Plenty more area under the curve!! Bet that feels sprightly on the road mate, spot on!

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she is definitely a tad on the white knuckle side... should be even more impressive when the DSG goes in

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Ta and nah... I was in the car at the time... Luke was running her on the dyno so thought I would support him by making him extra nervous

...apparently she does sound good though

Love it!! Goes to show how well the VR responds to having a turbo slapped to it!

Look forward to hearing her on song when I’m next there.


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[<tuffty/>]

Had a few days off to get some little jobs sorted on the car...

First job was the aircon...

I have a new pump and dryer as the old pump is leaking PAG oil and makes sense to change the dryer too...

Not the most fun job ever but easy enough tbh...

I have also had an issue with the low oil pressure warning popping up randomly at any rpm or time it felt like... I know I have pressure as Ignitron picks that up and all the times the three beeps of death have popped up the pressure is over 2bar minimum... (IECU also records when the switch is triggered too)

So bought a brand new OE VR6 switch...

...and so far this appears to have fixed the issue

I also took a punt on a set of H7 LED bulbs for the main beam...

Combined with bi-xenons main beam is pretty much daylight now so should make the late night trips to mexico a little less scary

I had planned to fit the DSG wiring but... I bit the bullet on a job I have been putting off for some time...

...yes... the dreaded corrosion behind the door blade... full send it is then...

Thankfully while I was quite late to the party I did catch it before the door became toast...

I found a pinhole by the particularly bad bit...

...so I will weld this up later when I get to borrow a friends MIG for "another" job and blend actual metal in rather than use filler...

While I was at it I attacked the wings too...

...then use Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 to treat the rusty bits that was left...

I then masked up the car using masking film (brilliant stuff)...

..and etch primed the door and arch...

Sadly I got a little over confident with the knife cutting the film for the arch and added a nice score mark... good job I am wet sanding it and painting huh lol

Edges are nicely feathered rather than a hard edge which will make blending for paint easier

I am not 100% on the amount of rust I got out so I have a cheap ebay sand blaster attachment on the way and will try to get the rest of the rust out of the door with that before I apply a finish to the 'repair'... I am not expecting much of a match even though the paint was 'matched' to my actual paint rather than just the paint code but its more that I have treated the rust areas to at least have some actual metal to be able to paint when the time comes for the full respray...

The passenger door on the face of it looks ok but I will have the blade off that after doing this side and go from there..

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Decided it was about time to level up my man status and acquired the following items...

A 50ltr, 9.6cfm air compressor....

A MIG welder...

...and a cool welding mask to at least give the impression I know what I am doing....

First job was to fabricobble a stand for the gas bottle....

The broken spring from my A2 and a 1.8t cam pulley will do the job....

...tada!!!!!

So... filled with confidence and looking cool in my awesome helmet (fnarr!) I undertook the job I had been dreading....

The skirts come off pretty easily tbh... I removed the rear end cap (4 screws) and you have to kinda pull it off as its velcro'd at the top... then work your way along the underside of the skirt removing screws plus a few in the front wheel arch... then with a suitable tool you can unclip the sill step trim from the top of the sill cover... its essentially push fit into it and does bend up out the way... just don't pull to hard or force it...

Once done you can pull the skirt away... the front of the skirt is clipped into a plastic moulding so pull away from the car..

There was a load of dirt and rust in the skirt

...in fact I removed the front wheel arch liner and cleaned all the accumulated crud (of which there was a lot!)... this looks to be something else thats getting added to the yearly maintenance list once the bodywork is done

I was not surprised at what I did find... just a little disappointed...

The rear faired a little better....

Scabby for sure but no real rot... I need to clean up and straighten the pinch weld at the back but it looks at least like I won't need to replace any metal...

I knew this was there... I didn't know how bad it was and if I hadn't managed to put the jack through it the other week it may have even retained its shape...

Will be attacking the rust and cutting sections out to get back to the good metal then make up patch panels and weld them in... I may take the passenger side off next to see how that looks...

Oh the joy of 20 yr old cars

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Love that spring/bottle holder mate! You have deffo caught it at the right time by the looks of it, another year or 2 and it looks like it would be a whole different ball game.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[s3mad_dude]

That spring/cam holder is genius! Love it.

Ohh the rust…noooo....I’ve already had my front arches done once but I’ve never removed the actual lower sill. Based on your pics I’m dreading to think how bad it could be down there.

Great work and posts as always.

 

[<tuffty/>]

Cracked on with operation rusty POS today..... cut some more metal out...

Started cleaning up the floor pan area by the jacking point damage...

Then pulled the rear arch liner out and cleaned up the end of the sill to see if I was going to be doing work there too... thankfully it was just surface rust with minor pitting...

So cleaned up a few other obvious areas while I was there...

I have wire wheeled the cr@p out of the rusty areas and used rust treatment (Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80) to sort the remaining bits... now I know the end of the sill is sound I'll come back to that when I prep for doing the tough liner coating I plan for the inside of the arches and the bottom of the sills...

So I was originally going to use steel from a spare body panel I have but a mate of mine had an A3 pattern part sill that he never used for his (same issue as me on his S3)...

The lower part of the sill is the same profile as the S3 but as you can see the S3 is much squarer as it has the plastic sill covers where the A3 does not...

Not a problem as I only plan to go part way up the sill as that part is not rotten

I used the rear part of the sill to fabricate the repair panel... as the sill did not have the front part of the sill I had to get creative with the hammers

Prepped and painted the inside of the panel and sill with weld through zinc primer...

...and started tacking it on...

...it was at this moment I realised the gas wasn't 'gassing'... not sure what the issue is as its a new regulator and bottle but after a quick look it seems the regulator maybe faulty... disappointing...

So dressed up the "welds", sprayed some zinc primer on and called it a day...

Quite happy with the results so far given I have not done this type of work before and I can't actually weld...

I still need to sort out the repair panel for the floor pan area but that will have to wait until I get the gas issue fixed...

Nice collection of 'bits' left over though

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Been a few weeks but I have made some progress... was having a fair few issues with gas... the little bottles are a bit of a pain and don't seem to last very well welding outside so I man'd up and got a proper bottle...

Added a 3mm thick piece of bar to replace the rotten part of the floor pan lip...

Welding underneath the car is a royal pain in the rear too especially as I don't have much room to work with and I don't bend like I used to in my younger days..

Not pretty but its solid and actual metal now...

Have added another bit of 3mm bar to add a bit more strength...

This will be painted and fully seam sealed to stop water ingress

Addressed the rear jack point next...

Removed the wing to reveal yet more tin worm...

Cleaned it up to reveal a hole

...so added new metal

It was at this point I removed the plastic sill panel (with the aluminium S3 insert in it)... kinda wish I hadn't....

Wasn't the most fun I have ever had but needed doing before it got worse...

Masked everything up and etch primed the whole sill... I had also dug all the factory underseal from the other side of the pinch rail and etch primed that too...

Lastly I broke out the spray gun I got with the compressor...

...using this I gave the sill a few coats of high zinc content black primer... it was rather good fun... (apart from cleaning the gun afterwards)

I need to clean the inner arches at some point so I can de-rust and apply the zinc paint... once all done I can look to finish off with the bed liner coating I have...

I had to brush the zinc primer onto the inside though as I couldn't get the gun in and working as the reservoir kept hitting the floor pan... Just need the primer to dry properly and I can then seam seal the flip out of it...

had a look at the wing while it was off... seems a common rust point on these...

Will attack that once the sill are done.... I also need to give the old girl a serious clean... the grinder dust is making the paint rusty

<tuffty/>