My minor modding thread

[<tuffty/>]

Car is now MOT'd so no excuses for not cracking on with the DSG swap... other than lack of motivation at the moment!!... the recent rather warm weather and being a little busy work wise has numbed my enthusiasm some what coupled with spending a good couple of months sorting the body work out I feel I just needed a break...

That break will be coming soon as a week off work in which time I might even build up a bit of motivation to make a start... in the mean time... I bought these...

My car never had them fitted as standard (they were an option?) and have been on the fence about getting some... however these came up at the right price and are for the most part in decent nick... they were dirty obvs and had a couple of scratches on the ali covers but generally nice..

Taking them apart was a bit of a pain as one of the screws snapped off in the casting... I will address this at a later date but its not really made it unusable...

Painted the inside...

And cleaned everything else up... used the DA on the ali cover... which I am pretty sure is anodised... this means that it will make removing the scratches a bit more difficult so will ask a few of my engineering friends for advice on sorting this out...

All looks lots better though...

...and as my car is silver they do not look too obvious either...

Pretty happy with that... although I now have the gear to mod for folding mirrors and the bases won't work with the ali covers... would need to get B5 ones I believe to get it working... and tbh I CBA

Next little job was to sort out the DSG selector... or more the colour of it... I have only been able to find 'grey' leather ones... the S3 8P is black I believe but they typically run to 3 times the amount of a more basic model so decided to dye the leather instead....

I got the kit from the 'Scratch Doctors' and its pretty comprehensive...

Following the instructions I cleaned off the original coating then applied the black dye...

Finished off using the matt clear coat they supply...

For comparison this is the original grey knob (fnarr) against the now black gaiter it came with....

I also found a perforated leather knob (fnarr) that was grey... now black

Put together in the modded trim...

Happy with that

With all that out of the way I moved a load of the kit needed for the DSG swap into the boot of the car... hoping that knowing this is there it will get the motivation going to crack on lol

<tuffty/>

 

[Gops]

When you bringing the A4 down to Bills mate??


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Hopefully within the next week! Done as much as I can but time has come to get this thing out of my garden!


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[Gops]

Car is now MOT'd so no excuses for not cracking on with the DSG swap... other than lack of motivation at the moment!!... the recent rather warm weather and being a little busy work wise has numbed my enthusiasm some what coupled with spending a good couple of months sorting the body work out I feel I just needed a break...

That break will be coming soon as a week off work in which time I might even build up a bit of motivation to make a start... in the mean time... I bought these...
View attachment 258078

My car never had them fitted as standard (they were an option?) and have been on the fence about getting some... however these came up at the right price and are for the most part in decent nick... they were dirty obvs and had a couple of scratches on the ali covers but generally nice..
View attachment 258079

View attachment 258081

Taking them apart was a bit of a pain as one of the screws snapped off in the casting... I will address this at a later date but its not really made it unusable...
View attachment 258084

View attachment 258085

Painted the inside...
View attachment 258090

And cleaned everything else up... used the DA on the ali cover... which I am pretty sure is anodised... this means that it will make removing the scratches a bit more difficult so will ask a few of my engineering friends for advice on sorting this out...
View attachment 258091

All looks lots better though...
View attachment 258092

View attachment 258080

View attachment 258082

View attachment 258093

...and as my car is silver they do not look too obvious either...
View attachment 258094

Pretty happy with that... although I now have the gear to mod for folding mirrors and the bases won't work with the ali covers... would need to get B5 ones I believe to get it working... and tbh I CBA

Next little job was to sort out the DSG selector... or more the colour of it... I have only been able to find 'grey' leather ones... the S3 8P is black I believe but they typically run to 3 times the amount of a more basic model so decided to dye the leather instead....

I got the kit from the 'Scratch Doctors' and its pretty comprehensive...
View attachment 258086

Following the instructions I cleaned off the original coating then applied the black dye...
View attachment 258087

View attachment 258088

Finished off using the matt clear coat they supply...

For comparison this is the original grey knob (fnarr) against the now black gaiter it came with....
View attachment 258089

I also found a perforated leather knob (fnarr) that was grey... now black
View attachment 258098

Put together in the modded trim...
View attachment 258095

View attachment 258096

Happy with that

With all that out of the way I moved a load of the kit needed for the DSG swap into the boot of the car... hoping that knowing this is there it will get the motivation going to crack on lol
View attachment 258097

I used to hate those mirrors but then when I got them, I started to love them. Dsg conversion looks some work though PT!


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[Dohcwp]

This is a goldmine of knowledge here, this thread needs to be archived on archive.org

 

[Welly]

Stop fannying around with mirrors and leather Tuffin and get that gearbox in! (With love)

 

[<tuffty/>]

Stop fannying around with mirrors and leather Tuffin and get that gearbox in! (With love)

Planning on making some progress next week Mr Wellings... these things need a considered approach rather than a pour flammable liquid into a relentless manifold and see what happens kinda thing

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Made a start

Had to drop the exhaust and the front of the prop to get the heat shielding off the get at the selector...

Now that the shafts were out I could see how they compare to the Mk1 TT 3.2 DSG shafts I have...

Left shaft is more or less the same length which tbh I was expecting based on my previous measurements... I could in fact replace the left drive cup with an 02M cup and use the S3 shaft but tbh I would only want to do that if I could run the right side on a normal inner CV but the R32 transfer box I have uses the wrong drive cup and as its part of the shaft that goes through the transfer box its not just a case of swapping it out...

The right shaft is clearly shorter than the S3 one which again is to be expected as the 02E (and 02Q for that matter) transfer boxes are 'wider'..

I have the TT's transfer box but cannot use that as the transfer boxe's shaft is too short for the R32 box... I also have a transfer box from another quattro (not sure which as was sold as spares/repairs) and this has the right cup for a normal CV but the shaft is too long!!... seems very un VAG like to have that many variations of the same thing but I will do a bit more research at some point as I would prefer to use normal inners over the trilobe type...

On that subject... I spent today stripping and cleaning the shafts (fnarr)... the boots were questionable so I really wanted to replace those before fitting them...

The outers looked fine but had to replace the boot on the right shaft so cleaner the outer joint too

The inners on the TT DSG shafts are trilobe... not a massive fan of these but it seems VAG have taken to use these on more and more cars these days so hopefully they will be ok for a while given the power I am running... I do plan to look into converting back to normal inners as mentioned before though...

As the R32 transfer box inner is a different pitch to the TT one I had to buy a new inner so it would fit... the design is a bit different though.. (not a genuine joint) but uses needle bearings and not spherical bearing style setup like the OE... not sure if there is any real advantage to this tbh as trilobes are generally weaker (but cheaper to make no doubt)...

Left is the pattern part which is the same PCD as the middle OE one from the left shaft... the joint on the right is the right shaft inner... fits perfectly on the TT transfer box but not the R32 one!!!..

Motivation is coming back now... will be doing a bit more tomorrow and then on Tuesday I hope to get back up to Bills and sort out what I need to do on the gearbox to get it ready for fitting...

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Nice work mate! Good to see it’s moving along looking forward to seeing it once it’s finished


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[Dohcwp]

Tri Lobes cant handle alot of power, my one mate keeps blowing inner cv's and thats on an a3 thats probably making between 300 - 350 bhp

Made a start

View attachment 258312


View attachment 258313

Had to drop the exhaust and the front of the prop to get the heat shielding off the get at the selector...
View attachment 258314
View attachment 258315

Now that the shafts were out I could see how they compare to the Mk1 TT 3.2 DSG shafts I have...
View attachment 258310

View attachment 258311
Left shaft is more or less the same length which tbh I was expecting based on my previous measurements... I could in fact replace the left drive cup with an 02M cup and use the S3 shaft but tbh I would only want to do that if I could run the right side on a normal inner CV but the R32 transfer box I have uses the wrong drive cup and as its part of the shaft that goes through the transfer box its not just a case of swapping it out...

The right shaft is clearly shorter than the S3 one which again is to be expected as the 02E (and 02Q for that matter) transfer boxes are 'wider'..

I have the TT's transfer box but cannot use that as the transfer boxe's shaft is too short for the R32 box... I also have a transfer box from another quattro (not sure which as was sold as spares/repairs) and this has the right cup for a normal CV but the shaft is too long!!... seems very un VAG like to have that many variations of the same thing but I will do a bit more research at some point as I would prefer to use normal inners over the trilobe type...

On that subject... I spent today stripping and cleaning the shafts (fnarr)... the boots were questionable so I really wanted to replace those before fitting them...
View attachment 258317

View attachment 258318

The outers looked fine but had to replace the boot on the right shaft so cleaner the outer joint too
View attachment 258320
The inners on the TT DSG shafts are trilobe... not a massive fan of these but it seems VAG have taken to use these on more and more cars these days so hopefully they will be ok for a while given the power I am running... I do plan to look into converting back to normal inners as mentioned before though...

As the R32 transfer box inner is a different pitch to the TT one I had to buy a new inner so it would fit... the design is a bit different though.. (not a genuine joint) but uses needle bearings and not spherical bearing style setup like the OE... not sure if there is any real advantage to this tbh as trilobes are generally weaker (but cheaper to make no doubt)...
View attachment 258321

View attachment 258322

View attachment 258323

Left is the pattern part which is the same PCD as the middle OE one from the left shaft... the joint on the right is the right shaft inner... fits perfectly on the TT transfer box but not the R32 one!!!..
View attachment 258324

Motivation is coming back now... will be doing a bit more tomorrow and then on Tuesday I hope to get back up to Bills and sort out what I need to do on the gearbox to get it ready for fitting...

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Tri Lobes cant handle alot of power, my one mate keeps blowing inner cv's and thats on an a3 thats probably making between 300 - 350 bhp

Yeah... fully aware of the limitations but hoping that it being AWD will help lessen the strain until I sort out a more suitable solution

<tuffty/>

 

[Stuart B]

What does Karl have on his TT? Or is it a totally different DSG?

 

[<tuffty/>]

Gearbox stuff done today.... the mechatronic cover was pretty rusty so I bought a new one to replace it with...

Bottom two bolts were particularly difficult and shock (actual) horror!...

...one sheared... yay!.... (said no one ever!)

Probably should have cleaned the box first too as all kinds of nasty was falling in places I'd rather it didn't...

Bit of vacuuming and careful cleanage later and I was ready to tackle the sheared bolt... first job... flatten it enough to get the punch on it...

Drill a hole then insert extractor... apply heat (carefully)... and bingo bango bongo!!!

Phew!!!... I then chased the threads to be sure all was good...

Next up was to drain the oil (what was left at least).... DSG boxes are a bit different to normal boxes when it comes to sorting the oil... manuals are typically filled for life but DSG require "regular" (if you think 40k is regular) oil and filter changes due to the wet clutch setup (much like the haldex)...

Undoing the oil drain plug reveals a plastic (and fragile) filler nozzle used to 'set' the final fill depth... you unscrew this to drop the oil then screw it back in and fill from underneath (again, like the haldex)...

...there is also a process of warming the box up and going through gears etc to do but obviously I am not in a position to do that at the moment and do not want to start the engine once fitted with a dry box (fnarr)... so I plan to put about 5ltrs in to start with and then once I have tested the box is ok go through the process to top it back up...

There are a few ways people say it can be done to ensure the right level... one is the measure the oil volume that came out and replace like with like but there was certainly no more than a litre or so that came out (assumedly drained before being shipped to me) I have no real way of telling how much is actually left in there so will have to make an educated guess then sort it out once running...

Before fitting the new cover I had a go at cleaning up the mounting face as there were signs of corrosion and crustiness so wanted to make the new seal would 'seal'

Bit of scotch bright and brake cleaner later and the face was looking better...

The old cover's seal did not look healthy at all

and neither did the old cover...

Still... new one looks fine...

I think I might add some wax protection around it too as I have seen a few of these now and they all end up looking a bit nasty after a time...

Last job of today was to sort the left drive cup out... I swapped the R32 one over to the Mk1 TT DSG one as it sits closer to the box giving the right distance for the left shaft...

And on the subject of drive cups... I grabbed my mate Alex's transfer box he is using for the DSG/AWD conversion on his Mk4 Ibiza... this one came from a Mk6 Golf R...

It fitted up perfectly which is a good sign at least and has the right cup for a proper inner CV...

The left drive cup from an 02M box (like any S3 manual) will fit onto the box too apparently (not tried this as yet) so if I can get hold of one of these transfer boxes I can use the proper inner joints... one for the watch list given they seem to carry "R" (same as BAM or RS) tax

Plan to try and get the car ready to accept the box tomorrow... strip stuff from the bay to be able to access the gearbox for the swap and remove things like the clutch pedal and swap out the brake pedal too... maybe even get the selector swapped over!!!... makes it kinda real then lol

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

What does Karl have on his TT? Or is it a totally different DSG?

DQ250 like mine only for a 4cyl engine

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Day at home doing things....

I painted the transmission cooler as it was looking a bit scabby...

Then moved onto the car... first job was to swap out the old fuse box for the inline pump and WMI for a new 4 fuse setup to allow me to fuse the DSG selector power... the fuses have LED's that light up when blown as its difficult to see where I have it fitted and had the fuel pump fuse blow on me a month or so back and only noticed as I didn't hear it running

Redid all the crimps too....

Now for the 'fun' part (said nobody ever!)... to remove the clutch pedal I needed to get to the master cylinder behind the heat shielding, where there was a turbo and a downpipe in the way... so removed them

Much better access... the pipe has a spring clip holding it and you need to block off the fluid feed from the brake reservoir so used an M8 shouldered bolt cut down to size for that...

Inside you need to undo three 13mm nuts and unplug the clutch switch then the whole clutch pedal assembly just pulls out... watch out for fluid as this will drip everywhere...

This of course leaves a nice pear shaped hole... I will need to make up a cover plate for that later

You can remove the brake pedal without having to remove the brake pedal assembly... however you do have to smash the plastic retainer apart to be able to do it...

My TT pedal didn't have one so I had bought a new one anyway...

...but I ended up taking it back out to fit on the servo actuator rod first then fit the pedal and clip the plastic clip into the pedal after...

That's the pedals done...

Next job was the selector... old manual one came out pretty easy but the 6R Polo selector I am using required a bit of modding to fit (go figure)...

A couple of extra holes at the back were needed...

I had to mod the back of the selector to fit under a bracket that the S3 has for some reason...

And cut the rear studs short as they hit the inside of the centre console...

...which needed a little modding to get the nuts on...

But after all that... the selector was in...

Sadly it seems that the lever sits higher than it would in an 8P (or 6R Polo I would assume) as the 8P DSG gaiter I used wasn't big enough (depth) and would stretch and pull out of the trim panel when the lever was moved to extremes...

However it was fine in neutral so left it there for now

Other than the gaiter issue which tbh I wouldn't have known about until I had fitted it I think the selector mods turned out quite well...

Bit more work in the engine bay to do to prep for the gearbox swap now....

Need to remove the transfer box and power steering pipes (I have a DSG one to go on as they are differently routed), remove the starter motor and anything else attached to the box then I can look to bring the DSG box home from Bills and I guess just get on with it

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

May have a solution for the short s-tronic gaiter... fitted a spare 8L one I had kicking about and this seems to work perfectly in park and S mode positions... its a bit tatty but I have another one on the way so will look to remod the mod to get that ticked off... part of me actually likes that the lever looks like a manual with no auto display but then I also kinda like that its there for the double take

Went to Bills to sort out the box... fitted a new filter and pumped 6ltrs of oil in which in hindsight was not really the best idea (more on that in a bit)... the box was pretty much empty and should take 7ltrs from dry... I added 2ltrs at a time and used a DSG flywheel to spin the input shaft as it drives the oil pump to circulate oil round... the oil cooler is thermostatically controlled and there wasn't any oil coming up through the ports to the cooler but 6ltrs is enough to get it all running and I can sort out the rest later...

The transfer box has its own oil supply and takes GL5 75W80... this is different to the oil in the DSG of course and is why the newer transfer boxes no longer share oil from the box like the 02M boxes do... however... I neglected to realise that removing the transfer box (as I was going to do to fit the box) was no different to pulling a drive cup that would essentially let the box oil leak out... epic fail!!!... so I guess I will be fitting the box with the transfer box on then... hopefully!!!

While at Bills I also checked if I could use normal inner cv's on my TT drive shafts...

That would be a no then!!... guess I will be doing the drive shaft shuffle at some point when I finally need a right shift lol

After that I went home and pulled the transfer box and PAS pipes off (DSG uses a different line from the pump to the rack)... undone all but three of the bolts holding the box on...

Today I dropped the manual box...

...pulled the old spigot bearing (the engine used to be attached to a DSG, you don't need a spigot bearing for a manual) and fitted the new one supplied with the flywheel...

Popped back up to Bills and flung the DSG into the back of the A2...

Lifting it back out the A2 at home was well... hard!... its soooooo heavy!!... I can lift 02M's all day long but the 02E is another league!

One thing to bare in mind too is that the R32 gearbox mount is lower than the Mk1 TT 3.2 DSG mount...

...so will use the TT one as thats designed for the Mk4 platform... part numbers for ref...

R32 one that came on the JPZ gearbox...

Mk1 TT DSG mount...

After much grunting and swearing I had dragged the box under the car ready to 'plonk' onto a jack... and then it rained!!!...

Much dampness and sad face followed as I rushed about clearing up my tools and wiping them down before putting them away... whilst getting wetter...

So close!!!... maybe tomorrow... or whenever the weather stops being a hole of the rear...

<tuffty/>

 

[Ian W]

Epic work as usual.

If you're planning on manhandling that DSG box in on your own off a trolley jack then you deserve a medal

 

[<tuffty/>]

Epic work as usual.

If you're planning on manhandling that DSG box in on your own off a trolley jack then you deserve a medal

I have a mate helping thankfully... lifting it out of the back of the A2 and dragging it under the car was enough... 75kg or so apparently

<tuffty/>

 

[Bluepower]

4wd Dq25 is a little over 108kg with the transfer box attached.. without its 94kg

 

[Dohcwp]

I have a mate helping thankfully... lifting it out of the back of the A2 and dragging it under the car was enough... 75kg or so apparently

<tuffty/>

I Love those A2's pity they're so rare and expensive here, Alot of the Guys here seem to hate it for some reason.

 

[<tuffty/>]

I Love those A2's pity they're so rare and expensive here, Alot of the Guys here seem to hate it for some reason.

Its a marmite car for sure but has been the most practical and reliable car I have owned tbh... ticks all the boxes as the ideal second car

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Weather looked iffy this morning but had cleared up by lunchtime so out I went....

Ended up having a go at fitting the box myself as my mate couldn't get to me until after 6pm and wasn't sure what the weather would be like... figured if it got to a point I felt it needed an extra person then I would wait... If I got it in then winna..

Getting the box onto the jack and centred enough to balance was the challenge... that way at least the jack would be doing the heavy lifting and I can use less effort to keep it balanced and more making sure it was heading in the right direction...

Just in case you are wondering... the angle the jack is over at is within factory tolerances for DSG box installation... probably!!!

I used the lever bar to help move the front of the jack over while positioning the box... and...

..in!!!... phew!... wasn't that hard really in the end... yes... the box is chuffing heavy but work smarter not harder right?

I need to now drain the coolant to sort the oil cooler out plus tbh I want to remove a load of the pipes to be able to make sure the starter is fitted correctly and to route the DSG PAS pipework as there doesn't seem to be any room to do this...

The oil cooler hoses will be easy...

The hose in the top of this t-piece goes to the right of the cooler and I just need to get a 'U' shaped hose to go from the 'T' to the left of the cooler...

I also need to wire in the starter inhibiter and the reverse light as well as redo the selector gaiter...

I will be painting the subframe and shafts hopefully next week if the weather keeps off with the aim to get all that back together soon after...

I have also noticed a small weep from the oil drain so thats coming off to be tested and fixed if need be and I have seen a crack in the exhaust manifold... no white staining that suggests its leaking but will get it welded while the car is mostly apart... bit of a shame that the mani has cracked so soon but not unsurprising given its a 70 quid aliexpress special..

Happy with the progress though... the week off work has been productive...

<tuffty/>

 

[Ian W]

Epic Hope you're rewarding yourself with a pint tonight

 

[<tuffty/>]

decided it would be a good idea to drain the coolant and remove the rad to get better access to the area by the top and front of the box...

Somewhat of a surprise was how much coolant came out... I collected it all as its less than a year old (changed when I fitted the CFS rad) and wasn't grotty looking...

...yep!... 8 ltrs!!! and I think there is still a bit left in there...

I needed to do something with the coolant anyway to sort the gearbox cooler out but removing the rad has made working on the car a lot easier... (if I ever have to do this again the engine is coming out!!)

Not sure how I would have got to the lower starter bolt tbh if I hadn't....

Access to sorting the PAS pipe was a bazillion times better too... once the starter was in it become obvious (ish) where it needed to route...

I had to give some attention to the turbo oil feed pipe too as this was now quite close to... well, everything!...

Attached one of the box cooler hoses, just waiting on a 180 degree hose to sort out the other side and thats the coolant stuff sorted...

I wired in the reverse light to the relay panel and ran the starter solenoid wire up to its relay too... just got to grab some 2.5mm wire to run from the relay back to the starter solenoid and thats the inhibit circuit sorted...

By this time I was done... for the week!... productive week off work... although a little bit of R&R would have been nice I did what I set out to achieve and behold!... the box is in

With the weather being a bit on the iffy side over the coming week or so I am not sure how much I will get done but two jobs I need to sort before I can get the car running again...

Spotted a weep of oil from the oil drain so will be dropping the oil and removing that for a smoke test...

The other more disappointing issue is this...

...a crack... a little surprised at this tbh as the casting is quite thick and my EGT's are pretty low typically maxing out at 750 degrees measured just past the collector in the hotside... not exactly hot in the grand scheme...

Been making a little progress on the selector mods too but will post about that when done...

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Mega work PT! Shame about the crack in the exhaust manifold. Looks like taking the front off the car made a big difference in access……. Something to consider for myself.


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[desertstorm]

Great work, so much more than I did. I never bothered swapping the brake pedal just removed the existing clutch pedal and actually left the slave cylinder in place so that I didn't have to block up a hole, It weighs next to nothing. I didn't bother with the starter interlock, I always put the car in park when parking it so not an issue for me. Are you going to use the in line thermostat on the oil cooler for the transmission?.

 

[<tuffty/>]

Great work, so much more than I did. I never bothered swapping the brake pedal just removed the existing clutch pedal and actually left the slave cylinder in place so that I didn't have to block up a hole, It weighs next to nothing. I didn't bother with the starter interlock, I always put the car in park when parking it so not an issue for me. Are you going to use the in line thermostat on the oil cooler for the transmission?.

I am aware of the stat but I am keeping it as god intended for now... will be running the map at actuator pressure initially until I know it is all working ok and ideally need to get the box mapped before I turn it up as with its current iteration I suspect my mid range torque is a bit higher than before as I am running 1.2bar a lot sooner in the rev range now and was at nearly 480ftlbs before

As my car is primarily used to get me to places in a 20 mile radius I am not entirely sure I need it as yet but want to get a feel for what temps are doing what first as I think I need an engine oil cooler anyway so will just evaluate the whole cooling situation once I have some data...

I am not using the second rad yet as I think there is cooling capacity in the CFS rad for now but again will look at the data once I have some and go from there...

<tuffty/>

 

[desertstorm]

You will find that the engine takes a little longer to warm up without the stat. I fitted an alloy filter housing that I have fitted a temp sensor too and log that in Ignitron. I find normal driving DSG oil temps take a while to get to around 60 degrees, when pushing on they might get to 80 degrees. Flat out on track they peak around 110-115 degrees. So most of the time there is no coolant flow through the oil cooler.The oil temps I see very closely match those seen in VCDS of the gearbox oil temp.The stat is around 80 degrees I think and I have seen several posts by people with DSG cars that take a long time to warm up and have found the DSG stat has stuck open.
I use a Golf R DSG cooler rad and pass the coolant from the engine through this then into the oil cooler on the gearbox. So I have better cooling on the DSG by using cooler than engine temp coolant. This is how they do it in the Golf R , TTS, S3 etc.

 

[<tuffty/>]

Getting warm is something a VR6 has no issue with lol...

Thanks for the info... I have the take off ports for the second rad if I need to and the VR coolant paths suggest the DSG cooler gets fed directly from the cool side of the rad

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Having a chill day today as my 'holiday' is now over and its back to work tomorrow!! booooo!

Got hold of a length of 3.0mm wire to finish the starter inhibit and a 'U' tube (not like the thing @Prawn is the queen of) to finish the coolant system off with...

I can start to put the front back together now but will drop the engine oil and remove the manifold and oil drain first...

Also over the past couple of evenings I have been sorting the gear gaiter out... I obtained a spare manual gaiter and re-dyed it black...

Went to try it out and hit another issue...

Seems the indicator panel needed tweaking to allow the trim to fit so had it... and....

W00t!... now articulates from Park to Sport without pulling the gaiter out




Happy days... hopefully the weather stays decent enough to let me crack on with some more this week after work

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Lovely job on the gear selector! I do really like how you’ve used the black panel, looks very subtle and OEM++ as always may have to ask for your expertise again soon


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[<tuffty/>]

And now with added electricity



<tuffty/>

 

[Dohcwp]

suprised you didnt change the selector led's e.g green for drive and yellow for sport etc

 

[<tuffty/>]

suprised you didnt change the selector led's e.g green for drive and yellow for sport etc

lol... I am ok with the red...

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Things have slowed a bit what with being back at work and the weather but have managed to get a few jobs done...

First up was to drain the oil and remove the exhaust mani and oil drain...

....done... took it up to Bill's and aqua blasted the mani...

Sad face

Alex tried to weld it but...

He has a plan... will see what happens... worst case is I buy another and sort that one out in the hope that they used actual metal this time around... its a shame as the mani is actually rather decent as a 'thing'... needed a bit of modding to suite but it works... apart from the cracking of course... plan 'Z' will be to fabricate a tubular mani but tbh I am happy if I can get one of these just to work...

While that saga continues on I got around to refurbing (painting obvs) some things...

The front drive shafts...

The subframe... wire wheels and Hydrate 80 to sort the rust

Etch primer....

Zinc rich primer...

...and finally Tough Liner as the top coat...

...and the front ARB (R32 one)

Along with the front arms I did a while back they all look loads better and should be a little more resilient to the elements...

Manifold and maybe the oil drain are essentially holding me up at the moment so will have to see what happens with those... hopefully not too long now...

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

I have ordered a replacement exhaust manifold... yes.. its another Aliexpress special but I am kinda hoping that this one may actually be made of metal this time... I like the manifold, it works (when its not cracking) so will give another one a go and see where we end up...

I am still getting the current one welded... this will be used to get the car back on the road and the DSG tested etc... I will pull the mani off over the winter and sort it then...

Other jobs that got done...

Drive shafts made up, brackets de-rusted and painted... next up... I needed to mod the DSG selector cable bracket... the Polo 6R uses a different DSG box to my DQ250... the hole for the cable end needs to be smaller and the bracket need to sit back a bit so... measured and marked it up...

Found something suitable to weld into the current hole to make it the right size for the 6R cable...

Threw some metal at it using the hot spanners...

...and test fitted it...

As the MIG was out I made up a DSG oil fill adaptor that I can use with a cheap 3ltr pressure bleeder..

The collection of painted parts is getting larger

...and I can't really fit them until the oil drain and manifold is in as it will give me better access...

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Few more jobs done today... refitted the tunnel heat shielding and the front end of the prop... also fitted the left drive shaft as this wont get in my way for anything...

Made up a panel out of 3mm ali to block the hole where the clutch master cylinder passed through...

Fitted brackets for the DSG selector and transfer box...

Fitted the engine bay heat shielding and connected up the PAS pipes...

Built up the front subframe...

...and painted some more things...

The list is getting smaller but still waiting on the mani and oil drain at the moment so I don't want to fit the subframe just yet as it will make it easier to sort out...

Not that its massively difficult tbh but why make life hard

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

The replacement manifold turned up this week... pretty quick considering...

Next job then was to carefully remove the adaptor flanges from the old mani so I (and by that I mean Alex) can weld them onto the new one...

...that went as expected

Bit of clean up required then....

....and bingo...

After Alex TIG welded them I needed to do a bit of porting...

Waved the die grinder at it...

Happy days... so I fitted it

Nearly looks ready to run... but it isn't... as I am still waiting on a replacement flexi sadly... maybe next week...

In other news... I painted the front headlight levelling assembly

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

As I am still unsure when a replacement flexi will arrive (they are typically made to order) I have decided to try a more available solution... I have ordered up some AN10 fittings.. 2 x stainless weld on bungs, a length of PTFE stainless braided hose and suitable fittings... PTFE hose should be fine for this application as its not got to wind past a hot manifold like a tubular 1.8t one and if it does get damaged I can replace the hose more easily or I will have the flexi to fall back to when it eventually turns up...

This is all due to arrive by the end of the week so I am really hoping to get it sorted this weekend and potentially have the car on the ground next week at the latest...

In the mean time I got onto a job I have been meaning to do for quite some time.... I modded a mirror a while back from a hyundai tucson... basically the same auto dimming mirror found in the newer Audi's but has a green compass display rather than a red one...

To get to the display I needed to split the mirror... used blue masking tape to prevent marking the plastic...

Carefully removed the "mirror" to get to the display which basically has a green filter over it...

Its held on by a couple of sticky strips so can be removed carefully..

I used some red lighting gel I have kicking about for my photography to change the colour...

Its a little darker than the green it seems but tbh thats not really an issue for me... if you try this it may be worth trying a few 'shades' to see how you get on...

All reassembled and looks OE now...

This time I actually wired it up as I had fitted the mirror a while back and never got around to it... I also wired in a 'dash cam' fitted behind the mirror while I was at it...

One last thing... I bought a spare DSG box....

...mainly because VR boxes are a bit thin on the ground, I feel a little happier having a spare of something that is known to be a little temperamental and it was actually very cheap... the other 'upside' is it has the right transfer box drive cup for ball and cage inner joints...

Guess that means I will be selling the manual box after all

<tuffty/>

 

[Dohcwp]

As I am still unsure when a replacement flexi will arrive (they are typically made to order) I have decided to try a more available solution... I have ordered up some AN10 fittings.. 2 x stainless weld on bungs, a length of PTFE stainless braided hose and suitable fittings... PTFE hose should be fine for this application as its not got to wind past a hot manifold like a tubular 1.8t one and if it does get damaged I can replace the hose more easily or I will have the flexi to fall back to when it eventually turns up...

This is all due to arrive by the end of the week so I am really hoping to get it sorted this weekend and potentially have the car on the ground next week at the latest...

In the mean time I got onto a job I have been meaning to do for quite some time.... I modded a mirror a while back from a hyundai tucson... basically the same auto dimming mirror found in the newer Audi's but has a green compass display rather than a red one...
View attachment 259612

To get to the display I needed to split the mirror... used blue masking tape to prevent marking the plastic...
View attachment 259613

Carefully removed the "mirror" to get to the display which basically has a green filter over it...
View attachment 259614

View attachment 259609

Its held on by a couple of sticky strips so can be removed carefully..
View attachment 259610

I used some red lighting gel I have kicking about for my photography to change the colour...
View attachment 259615

View attachment 259611

Its a little darker than the green it seems but tbh thats not really an issue for me... if you try this it may be worth trying a few 'shades' to see how you get on...

All reassembled and looks OE now...
View attachment 259617

This time I actually wired it up as I had fitted the mirror a while back and never got around to it... I also wired in a 'dash cam' fitted behind the mirror while I was at it...

One last thing... I bought a spare DSG box....
View attachment 259623

...mainly because VR boxes are a bit thin on the ground, I feel a little happier having a spare of something that is known to be a little temperamental and it was actually very cheap... the other 'upside' is it has the right transfer box drive cup for ball and cage inner joints...

Guess that means I will be selling the manual box after all

<tuffty/>

Thought you finished the mirror mod loooong ago already

 

[<tuffty/>]

Thought you finished the mirror mod loooong ago already

I had modded the mount and fitted it... just not wired it in... so thought I would change the colour if I could before doing that

<tuffty/>