The Project Pad

So on the subject of oil pan removal, cleaning, etc...

I found a fantastic writeup on how to do the procedure here: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthrea ... nstall-DIY.

Most of what's in that writeup is spot-on, but IMHO he could have put a little more emphasis on getting the subframe down far enough... it makes ALL the difference. When we removed the pan, I was using his "pry the subframe down with a 2x4" technique or a variation: I actually used a crowbar. But in practical terms you can only pry one side at a time that way and it's hard to get it down far enough. With my wife's help, we were barely able to get the pan out on Thursday.

Yesterday I was working by myself and had to find another solution, and as it turns out a MUCH better one. Here's a photo:

That's a gear puller, with the arms removed, pushing against a random object I had lying around with a hole in the middle (so the little point on the end of the puller has a place to sit). You crank down the screw on the gear puller and down goes the subframe! I'm fortunate enough to own two gear pullers and used one on each side, and not to pat myself on the back too much but it worked brilliantly. With the subframe down far enough you don't have to deal with that one $#@#$ bolt that is blocked by the subframe but you can't get the pan out without removing it, and you don't have to worry about messing up the bead of RTV on the pan when you reinstall it. If you're going to do this job, I'd highly recommend getting a couple of gear pullers, or maybe threaded rod and nuts and washers to create a setup like this.

When we finally got the pan out, it really wasn't all that bad:


The pickup tube wasn't horribly clogged but definitely wasn't great:

Interestingly, most of what was in it looks to be bits of the RTV they used to seal the oil pan at the factory!

The worst part was when I realized the pickup tube I was going to use as a replacement, that I got from ECS, was the wrong part. So instead I got to clean this one and reinstall it... that took a while (including a long time soaking it in different solvents) but I think I got 90% of the guck out.

Other than that I did the motor-flush thing then changed the oil again, but I didn't get a chance to do another leakdown test to see what effect there was. Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I'll be able to do that. I will say that with the motor flush, the oil that came out of the engine was a LOT darker in color than when I put it in 5 minutes earlier!

Moving right along... today's topic is "the front bumper".

First a little advice: I've seen in a few places on the intarwebs that when you separate the quick-disconnect thingy for the headlight washers when removing the bumper, you should check and if necessary replace the o-ring that's there. My advice: do it! The morning after I did the oil pan job, I found a gallon of washer fluid had leaked out onto the garage floor. Yay. Time to remove the bumper for the 20th time...

And speaking of removing the bumper, has anyone ever had trouble with those goofy captive nuts that the bumper bolts go into?

One is fine, but the other is both partly broken off and stripped. I looked in ETKA but it doesn't look like that part is available separately... is that correct? I suppose with a lot of difficulty I could fabricate one... :(

Hello again!

Well to close the loop on one thing, I replaced the MAF sensor and the code went away and hasn't come back. So Mr. Sensor was apparently junk.

And... on to this week's problem. Leaking flex in the downpipe. What's a good replacement downpipe? I can get genuine VAG for ~315, Emico stainless from GAP for $165, Bosal non-stainless for $110, or Techtonics 2.5" for $260. I've ruled out the Bosal because I want stainless - the Emico and Techtonics are, and so presumably is the VAG.

Has anyone here installed the Techtonics DP on an automatic car, especially with an otherwise-stock exhaust? Did you notice any changes in exhaust sound or performance? How did it fit? I know it comes in two different versions - with and without a reduced end to mate with stock rear bits. I'd be using the reduced one.

If anyone's used the Emico I'd like to hear about that one too.

Thanks!

And to close the loop on a couple of other things...

The bumper captive nut thing I mentioned a couple of posts back I think I got fixed. The nut failed in a very weird way... as far as I can tell it's made from one piece of aluminum, but this one had split in half horizontally and the upper part, in addition to having stripped threads, had tilted upward so the bolt could not engage it. Not that that would really matter because as I said it had stripped threads.

Anyhow here's how I fixed it: I removed the mostly-split-off top part, filed the top of the bottom part flat, and J-B welded a stainless nut on there. And it worked like a champ, I was able to get the bolt nice and tight. I may end up doing the same to the other side... those things are made of pretty soft metal and I suspect eventually the threads will fail - you can tell it's been R&R'ed quite a few times.

And next, we have the exhaust. The #!@!@#!@#!@#~!!! exhaust. :frustrated:

I bought the Emico pipe from GAP and the good news is it seems to be decent quality and fits well. But man is that a biatch of a job! Particularly removing the old parts.

Following the advice of the intarwebs I decided to remove the cat and DP together from the top. I think that was a good choice because when I finally got it out, the bolts on the cat-DP flange were seriously rusted and I doubt I could have removed them in the car.

Things started out just swimmingly. I originally figured I'd just unplug the front O2 sensor but after seeing how many different zip codes the wire goes through I decided to unscrew it from the cat and it came out with no trouble. The rear one I did unplug since the wire was more accessible and the sensor much less so.

Next were the bolts holding the cat to the turbo. The top two... no problem. The bottom one... problem. There's no room to swing a wrench on that damn thing! Finally with a crow's foot, universal, and a ratchet I was able to get it out... one sixth of a turn at a time.

Then the real fun started. I jacked the car up, made a quick attempt to loosen the bolts on the sleeve connecting the DP to the rest of the exhaust and was not surprised when they refused. Got out the whiz wheel (god I love that thing), made a few cuts in strategic places in the sleeve, and it was off. The bolt holding the DP to the hanger on the tranny put up no fight whatsoever.

So now the pipe+cat is disconnected at both ends, you just pull it out the top, right? Yeah sure you do. It would NOT fit through the opening. I ripped the flex apart which was easy since it had failed anyway, but that did not help. Finally what I ended up doing was cutting off the tab where it bolts to the hanger on the tranny... thanks again, mister whiz wheel! That got the old pipe out, but it was clear I could not get the new one in with it attached to the cat. And while I realized afterward I might have misjudged a little, I thought bolting it to the cat with the cat in the car would be nearly impossible.

But I finally came up with a good solution. I got some bolts out of my hardware stash and welded them into the holes in the cat, effectively equipping the flange on the cat with studs. After that and reinstalling the cat, it was a simple matter of putting the DP in place from underneath and attaching it to the cat with some nuts.

So... a little while ago the little lady called all freaked out because the "lemonette" as we call it, was not running right and the check-engine light was flashing. I drove to where she was, pulled codes, got a code for a misfire on #3. Swapped #2 and #3 coils and the misfire moved to #2. So...dead coil.

Interestingly, it's a 06B905115R, which doesn't seem to be one of the recalled ones.

But it's clearly dead, because when I pulled one of my 077905115Q "red top" coils from my pile-o-parts, trimmed one of the tabs off the side and shoved it in there, the engine ran perfectly and threw no codes. Apparently that coil fits a B6 S4.

So clearly we need a coil or 4. But my question (finally): do you think the car's okay to drive with that S4 coil in there, temporarily? I'd love to hear from anyone who's BT and DT.

It will be fine with that coil, it is a common swap for guys who want the red coil look. And its not uncommon for even the new coils to fail. Luckily they are not very expensive.

Hey if anyone's interested, this car, or parts from it, may be available for purchase soon.

The wife, and I to a lesser extent, are fed up with this thing. The latest? A CEL and a catalyst efficiency code. It's been throwing "catalyst efficiency - intermittent" codes with no CEL for a while, but I think the latest coil failure was the straw that broke the camel's back. And, of course, it needs an inspection sticker next month and that can't happen with the CEL on.

We've put $thousands in parts and hundreds of hours of my time into this car... and what we got was a car that drives beautifully and is very dependable. Dependable in the sense that we can depend on it to develop new problems almost on a weekly basis. So I think we're done.

:( :( :(

Dont give up when you are so close

I appreciate the encouragement, but we're close to what, the next problem? :frustrated:

The car's got a ton of things wrong with it that we've been putting off or ignoring... mysterious coolant leaks, bad LCD in the dash, flaky fuel gauge, rear door locks that don't work, rust, rust, and more rust, an exhaust that's going to need replacing. And it's got 210K miles on what appear to be the original transmission and turbocharger... how much longer can those last?

It's kind of pathetic that my 25-year-old 80 with ~250K miles has way fewer issues and has required way fewer repairs than this car that's less than half the age. Yes I've spent a lot more money on it, but most of that was for mods and performance upgrades, not fixing things that were broken.

I completely understand what you're saying... I've bought cars in similar circumstances myself. My first Saab 9000 was bought from guy who had it 90% fixed up and his wife got fed up and made him sell it. I fixed the few remaining issues and had an awesome car that I put almost 100K on.

But in this case, every time I see a light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out to be an oncoming train.

Never mind. In that case part it or sell it to a sucker from craigslist

Well, now it's *really* done. :(

The missus just bought a new car (not an Audi) and we're going to be trading in this one. Got $1000 for it, which actually seems decent given its age/mileage/condition and the fact we got a smoking deal on the new car exclusive of the trade.

We do have an extra set of rims with snow tires on them we'll be posting for sale if anyone's interested. With a brand-new-in-the-box set of lug bolts from ECS since the ones that came with the car were too short...

Whatcha get?

$1,000... which I don't think is bad, considering. Kbb.com gives trade-in values in the $500-1000 range and I was expecting lower given the condition of the car. Never mind that we've put $6,000 in parts in the damn thing since January... :x

I think he ment wht was the replacement.

Oh that!

She got a Chevy Volt. She had one prior to the A4 and really liked it, but it was one of those lease deals with a low monthly payment and a stupidly high buyout ($26K). When the time came she didn't have the $ to buy it, as she was putting money into starting a business. Thus the Audi.

But this new car she got an insane deal on, with a little help from the US and Mass. taxpayers. MSRP is a little over $34K, but it's a leftover 2015 car. She got it for $28K, and because it's a hybrid, there's a $7500 rebate from the federal government and a $2500 one from the state. So she's going to end up driving a reasonably nice (at least in her opinion) brand-new car with a warranty for $18K!

Of course the ironic thing, as she delights in pointing out to me repeatedly, is if you add that $18K and the $9K we put into the Audi ($3K purchase + $6K parts), she could have bought the leased Volt in the first place.

I have to say given the choice, *I'd* take the Audi. But the Volt definitely has some things to recommend it. Biggest being that in the 3 years / 18K miles she owned the other one, she filled the gas tank - the 9-gallon gas tank - *6 times*. Really! Of course having a 5-mile commute didn't hurt.