Loxxrider's 200 20v Revver: See you on "The Project Pad"

[loxxrider]

So I went to change out my BOV spring today. Upon trying to remove it, the bolt bound up. Bound quite badly and snapped when I tried to get it free. Didn't take much. Thats what sucks about using stainless hardware.

Not sure if the little nut things in the tial V-band clamps for the Q are carbon steel or not. If so, thats why it bound with the ss bolt. I spent about 30 min drilling the damned thing out and then got a real nut and bolt from the hardware store.

So I changed my spring and the bastard doesn't open upon throttle lift now. DAMMIT I guess I overestimated. Huge waste of time lol. You can hear the WG chatter upon throttle lift and then the BOV opens about a half-second later. Maybe I should just shim the old spring. Shoulda thought of that first! That one was just on the verge between open and closed at idle. Oh well, two good lessons learned.

The big news of the day was my D90 arriving. I got a video of the BOV haha. Also one from in the car. Its pretty lame, but I guess I'll show you guys anyhow. 6psi = SLOW but still sounds sorta cool I guess. Vids will be up shortly

[Marc]

lol. BTDT on too big a BOV spring. its especially painful if you pick a spring thats so stiff its hard to get the cover on without stripping out the bolts. then you get to take it all back apart again. Boooo.

[oldsklaudidub]

hows the new mushroom filter?

[loxxrider]

Yeah, it was the v-band one that got bound up though...not the ones for the top of the BOV. Those I knew to be careful with. Not sure if you knew I was talking about the v-band one.

Anyway, I waited a long time to get that damned spring because Race Part Solutions was waiting on the spring from Tial. The awesome thing is I looked in my bank account today and they refunded my shipping!! Sweeeeeeeeeet! Usually stuff gets here in a day from them and this took over a week, so I guess they felt bad. Now that is good customer service. I didn't even ask for it!

haha mushroom filter is doing well even though I bashed its face in. You'll see it featured in the vid

[oldsklaudidub]

Yeah, it was the v-band one that got bound up though...not the ones for the top of the BOV. Those I knew to be careful with. Not sure if you knew I was talking about the v-band one.

Anyway, I waited a long time to get that damned spring because Race Part Solutions was waiting on the spring from Tial. The awesome thing is I looked in my bank account today and they refunded my shipping!! Sweeeeeeeeeet! Usually stuff gets here in a day from them and this took over a week, so I guess they felt bad. Now that is good customer service. I didn't even ask for it!

haha mushroom filter is doing well even though I bashed its face in. You'll see it featured in the vid

It came with the metal mesh cover right?

[loxxrider]

Yeah, which is what I bashed in. Stupid chrome flakes went everywhere, but I had to do it!

[loxxrider]

OK here we go. Youtube definitely downgrades the quality even when you try to post in HD. Poop.

Oh well, still sounds alright. I plan on getting a good external mic sometime to really pick up superb sound.

Another vid will be uploading over night. Still boring, but I know how much we all like vids even if they suck Just wait until I get my video editing computer back up. Should make for some awesome stuff.


Link to video

[loxxrider]

Link to video

[oldsklaudidub]

whoops lol. get er latched down.

[85oceanic]

SWEEET! Sounds mean! Now lets see a video that I can actually see whats going on! HAHAHAHA

[loxxrider]

Ha I know I was hoping we could see what was going on but it definitely didn't turn out that way. Too damned dark.

I plan to make a camera mount this semester

[85oceanic]

Ha I know I was hoping we could see what was going on but it definitely didn't turn out that way. Too damned dark.

I plan to make a camera mount this semester

Good Idea!!! I have been thinking about the same thing for the 4kq where I have access to the shop all year.

[loxxrider]

wow

So I was getting the 200 prepped to go back to school today. Tires have been wearing badly on the inside since I never aligned the car after doing the coilovers. Took it to get the tires changed from wheel to wheel (they are directional) such that the worn part would be on the outside of the tire now. Also paid to get lifetime alignment plan.

So I wait a while, get the car back and I have one black wheel and one silver wheel on each side. WTF is up with that?

So then I notice that the entire cluster wasn't working anymore. They also charged me for a tire disposal fee and I didn't have any tires to dispose of (just rotating). They said I'd have to come back tomorrow because they were closed but I have to leave for school before they open in the morning.

Also, earlier in the day my door got stuck shut AGAIN and after the alignment I was attempting to fix that. Got the door popped open finally (no clue how). I had been listening to the car's radio for about 10 minutes while I was working and then it fizzled out. Car then wouldn't start. I figured it was the battery and sure enough it had almost no juice. So I have to assume that the fucktard who did my alignment also left the keys in the on-position for an hour and a half, thus draining my battery and somehow killing the inst. cluster in the process.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why my cluster is dead now? NONE of the gauges work and neither does the trip computer. I assume the main power or ground solder joint to the board got effed somehow. I don't have time to deal with it before I leave though. So I'll be flying VFR tomorrow. No instruments at all. Everything does light up however!

I really need to learn to do my own alignments and such. I know better than to trust the morons at places like that. Oh well, now I have them free fo life I guess.

[loxxrider]

FWIW I'm going back to them in the AM to demand they make reparations for this crap. I mean come on...I have black one one side of the car, and stripped down to metal on the other side. WHY IN THE WORLD would you decide it would be OK to mix it up?

My battery doesn't hold a charge as well as it used to now and I have a feeling that the dude had to jump it and hooked it up backwards. Maybe that would have caused my problems. We'll see what happens when the shit hits the fan tomorrow.

[jcarrick]

Wow dude, that sounds like a pretty shitty situation... I wouldnt use those "lifetime" alignments with them anymore, ha

[SeStone]

Eesh, that's shitty. Checked fuses for the instrument cluster?

Sam

[loxxrider]

Ya I need to go do that actually

[loxxrider]

twas indeed a fuse

car hardly started with the condition of the battery so that has to be taken care of though

[loxxrider]

Today was the old battery's last day. Couldn't use the radio anymore, ignition was breaking up because it didn't have enough battery to work with, cranking was really sad, etc.

Bought an Optima for it. Everything is peachy again

It was hilarious. Great greasemonkey encounter at the Autoparts store. I ask for an Optima. Of course the guy was like OK what car is this for...I regretfully oblige and tell him the details. He says, oh no we don't have Optimas for that car. I'm like uh, I don't care if it says it fits my car or not...I just want one. He's like no, it has to be a certain kind. I proceeded to argue with him a bunch and the (lady) manager came out and showed me to the batteries finally. Just silly.

[pitts]

you got to remember though, a lot of those parts counter places bust pretty hard on their employees if they have too many returned items... its a retail performance metric... probably important when you're dealing with electronic parts that could be ruined if installed incorrectly and what have you and they pretty much just suck it up when joe redneck returns it broken

[loxxrider]

ya, well apparently they also don't do battery installs on Audis (not that I wanted them to) because "they have too much computers and such." You have no idea how majorly lol-tastic it was.

[my2000apb]

ya, well apparently they also don't do battery installs on Audis (not that I wanted them to) because "they have too much computers and such." You have no idea how majorly lol-tastic it was.

hahahahahaah rednecks haah

[Mcstiff]

I got mine from Costco; when it dies I'll exchange it ;D

[oldsklaudidub]

Ok so your battery is not holding a charge, your cluster is giving you crap.

Lets go down the old list.

check the tension on the alternator
check the voltage reg
test the alternator
test the battery
check the main power cable that goes from the alternator to the battery (were the splice is under the front passenger compartment, Look at your repair manual and ETKA for more detail)
Check suspected grounds

[loxxrider]

I'm pretty sure it was just a dying battery

alternator works great considering I drove the car for 4 hours straight the other day with no batt