Another day over and some more jobs now completed.

[Charlie Farley]

So another day is almost over and I've had a very productive session today, well weekend as I started yesterday afternoon .
Finally managed to win the struggle and get the OEM cat out and the new high flow one in so that's over with.
whilst the car was up in the air I did an oil and filter change , ripped out the air box guts and manky perished foam and installed a 034 TIP , also cleaned the K&N airfilter as it was really dirty , amazing how dirty they can get in only a few months.
So some good old jobs done there , another job I did was to pull of the intercooler pipes and see how much oil had accumulated in them , yet again a fair bit of nasty black treacle , not as much as the last time though.
Also upgraded the engine under tray fixings, got rid of the audi twist fixing and replaced them with more user friendly and better quality Dzus that can be undone by hand or flat head driver, so much better now .
Ran VCDS and no error showing either, so all in a very good weekends work on the old bus.

Took the old bus out for a run this afternoon to see how it runs now and the performance improvement with the HFC is very impressive.
The car is already on a remap to 250 and went like stink , but now with the HFC fitted its even better, bottom end performance is better than before but the biggest gain has been midrange, it just flies now..... awesomes is a very good description , so i'm very pleased and the hassles were well worth it , what the BHP gains are I cant say at the moment until it goes in for a re-remap but from a seat of the pants point of view it is a fair gain.

anway, i'm a happy chappy for a bit longer and most certainly wont be parting company with this particular old bus, perfect stable mate for the RS4 now.

pics below of the few bits I have done this weekend, and to anyone considering the 034 HFC upgrade , just do it.

rob

 

[Sandra]

You have been busy Rob, but it's worth it. x

 

[Charlie Farley]

I have indeed Sandra, I had been putting off some jobs until it was worth doing them all at the same time so things worked out very well overall.
The next thing will be to deal with this whole recirclulation of the PCV gases problem, I think the best plan will be binning the factory PCV in favour of a catch can setup , maybe that will help address the continual oil in the intake system problems.

 

[Nozrul Islam]

Greetings Rob, post a pic of the silicone pipe fitted please and does it make a difference from the stock pipe?

 

[Charlie Farley]

will do chap, not sure on what the gains/ benefit are just by using the silicone pipe alone but in combo with high flow filter and other parts it all adds up.

 

[Charlie Farley]

So a few days on now and the old bus has really come to life , very pleased overall thus far , the sports cat has changed the tone of the exhaust now aswell to more of an angry growl now at higher rpm, it is no louder but give the old bus some welly and it growls in anger now, kinda like it ...

On a more negative note , I ran vcds yesterday and had the " runner flap " error , so ordered a flap delete kit just to be on the safe side, just another problem that will be done and out of the way, other than that things are running very well.

rgds
rob

 

[Dani_B19]

Looking well Rob. Glad to hear your happy with the new HTC.

Told you all it's amazing how much Carl is in the air box and what that foam holds. It's disgusting.

Can I ask what fixings you have used for the under Yeah? I need to sort mine out.

 

[Charlie Farley]

So had a good session on the old bus today, sorted out the O2 sensor and voltage problem , been out for a good old few hours driving and run vcds again , nice and error free now...hopefully for a while but just waiting on the runner flap delete kit to arrive and then that's another job to be done but should deal with any possible future errors in that dept.
had the PCV assembly and pipes of and as I suspected they were really oily.....so safe to say the revised PCV valve audi supplied is no better than the previous part.....anyway going order the all the parts for the PCV delete tomorrow ,looks like i'll be busy during next week..haha.
Just for Nozrul , pic of the 034 intake pipe......looks like just another silicone pipe aswell but I suppose every part makes a whole setup better.

 

[Nozrul Islam]

Rob, is there any difference in performance with the new silicone tube fitted?

 

[Charlie Farley]

hard to say, certainly a big improvement with the sports cat , maybe its all a combined effect, I think it will make a difference over the stock item as it is larger diameter to start with , so more air flow .....

 

[Charlie Farley]

Well then, the lambda sensor clean lasted a fewdays and error was back this morning , to be honest it wasn't a surpise but would have been nice if the problem had not returned, anyway had a look on ECP and they had one in stock near me and with the 35% today it worked out at £75.00 instead of £115.00 normal ecp price....so I can work with that.
going to fit it tomorrow and hopefully that will see an end to that issue....
Also managed to change the two click unlocking on the doors , now just one click for all doors....much better plan.

washed the old bus and then it rains 30 mins later....arghhhhh

 

[Beardymat]

Rob, don't know if you've got this covered but the 034 cat will make it throw fault codes unless its mapped out or you use a spacer on the lambda sensor although I've read that this often doesn't work. I've got a used 034 with a spacer on it in my upgrade collection and its very ugly looking and sets off my oem ocd every time I look at it, Ill be getting it mapped straight out. Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs but I thought it was worth a mention.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Well the old bus just gets better and better at the moment, it was going very well before the sports cat, then better still after fitting it, but having just fitted a new pre cat lambda sensor to deal with the recent error occurance in vcds the old bus is flying now and fuel consumption is much better than of late.
I suspect the sensor had been on the way out for some time and the swapping of cats had finished it off, anway very happy with the old bus at present...

 

[Charlie Farley]

Rob, don't know if you've got this covered but the 034 cat will make it throw fault codes unless its mapped out or you use a spacer on the lambda sensor although I've read that this often doesn't work. I've got a used 034 with a spacer on it in my upgrade collection and its very ugly looking and sets off my oem ocd every time I look at it, Ill be getting it mapped straight out. Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs but I thought it was worth a mention.

I had not been getting any errors from the after cat sensor as the 034 cat had a spacer with it to address that possible problem , it was the pre cat sensor that had become an issue , anyway new one fitted and all is excellent now.
the after cat sensor spacer is not that easy to see to be honest and it works so no point in messing around with it .

 

[Beardymat]

I thought you would have it covered, didn't realise it was the pre cat sensor that was throwing the error. A nice side effect though getting better mpg and a few more bhp in the old backside dyno!

 

[Charlie Farley]

yep, it's going a treat at the moment , most certainly the best performance since it has been in my ownership, also with the new lambda sensor fitted today I may get less soot in my exhaust tips, they have been really sooty for the last few months , and even moreso since the 034 cat fitment, well it would be nice but not relying on it ....
Just need to sort out the inlet carbon build-up , pcv delete and runner flap issues and i'll be cooking on gas..

 

[Beardymat]

How will you be tackling the carbon build up? I'm taking my Quattro for its MOT today at last (had it since April) and have noticed on the last few occasions I have started it up it has a bit of a misfire until it warms up and its on 84k so its ripe for some tlc which I want to do before anything else. My red 2wd got noticeably more responsive after a few weeks of using the hold 3000 rpm method on the drive home from work but to my mind this is more a preventative measure than a cure.