The past week in Car repair

[Calimus]

What OS do you need. I have snow leopard disks coming out my ears at work. We are an all mac shop so we have OS disks everywhere. Macs are alright, I have a 21" iMac for a workstation at work and an assigned 15" MacBook Pro to keep with me along with an iPad to play with. I'm by no means an expert but I'm fairly dangerous

On a good note, I just finished flogging the a6 for a second time today and no coolant leaks to speak of. Oil leaks are another issue, but those are very minor and you learn to expect them with Audi V6's.

[Briano1234]

Its the older A1212 running osX 10.4.1 I installed 2gb ram in it, and I have Snow leopard upgrade, but need to do cold install to reclaim disk space. Trying to find the original os X disk that came with the PC is going to be fun fun fun..... But well hell anyways, gives me something to do.....

[kamzcab86]

Got into the van at Lake Havasu to leave Buses By the Bridge a few weeks ago and noticed something odd: the e-brake that I had set days before was now disengaged and would not engage. By the time I got home, the button wouldn't even move.

Finally got around to disassembling it thinking that the spring was broken. Well, spring was just dandy and so was everything else... except for one thing:


The lever was bent preventing the spring and connecting rod from moving.

Straightened it back out, cleaned everything up (including the switch, which was bent as well thanks to the carpet), put it all back together and it's once again ratcheting into place.



And, let's not get into computer hassles: Desktop won't allow Google access of any kind now, and the laptop is not allowing Firefox to connect after upgrading to the latest version. I'm using IE at the moment and it sucks!! One of these days I'll fix it, but I've got more pressing things to do.

[gull]

I think the luck is spreading through the Internet, actually...jacked up the Mercedes to rotate the tires, and the left inner CV joint boot split cleanly in two.

[oshwass1969]

Im still waiting (1 week and counting) for my cabby to get out the shop for a simple fuel leak at the pump on the banjo fitting between the copper washers. machanic tried that sealant (perma gold ?)and still leaking, he is about to give up too
If he cant get it tommorow then i'll take her to another shop.....why wont she stop leaking ?????? I'll post pics tomorow Brian so you can see what im talking about, im already close to $280 over a fuel pump any other suggestions or wanna wait till you see the pics?

[Briano1234]

Im still waiting (1 week and counting) for my cabby to get out the shop for a simple fuel leak at the pump on the banjo fitting between the copper washers. machanic tried that sealant (perma gold ?)and still leaking, he is about to give up too
If he cant get it tommorow then i'll take her to another shop.....why wont she stop leaking ?????? I'll post pics tomorow Brian so you can see what im talking about, im already close to $280 over a fuel pump any other suggestions or wanna wait till you see the pics?

If the washers aren;t the correct thickness, then it will never seal as you are bottoming the bolt. But I had those on my diesel, and I made sure the bottom of the head was clean and smooth, then lightly sanded the washers hit then with flame a wee bit to discolor or take the sheen off. Same for the mounting point of the bolt smooth and shiney. It could be that your pump socket is defective.

[gull]

Couple things:

- The crush washers need to be new. If you re-use the old ones they won't seal well due to work hardening.

- In tough cases, I find the seal washers with a rubber center seal much better than the bare metal ones.

[eric4321]

Well think about this logicaly. What was changed the pump? Is it posible the bolt could have bad threads on it that are creating the fealing it is tight when it is not? What about the pump itself? Check the sealing surface for bumps or imperfections that are causing it not to seal. Also are the washers thick enough like Brian said? I don't like to use sealent with gas fittings just because it is just a matter of time before the gas eats it up and it leaks again.

[Briano1234]

Well maybe I wasn't too off the mark in having that timing belt farmed out... Those radiator hoses baffle the shit outta me.....

I hope the Irish touch didn't come over the phone.... as it was a cell call.

She just got it back from the shop The timing belt was shredding, it skipped time 1 tooth, no damage, the noise was from the idler it was totally destroyed. The intermittant missfire was the timing belt ad the coil pak. total repair 1800.00. Chris has the pics, on his cell so maybe I can post them later.

[Calimus]

Big bullet dodged man. Hope you said something about how close she came to a toasted engine since she didn't like the driving routes you suggested. In the end, I'm glad you farmed it out. High cost, but certainly cheaper then another trip to the ER.

In my world, I've actually been paying some attention to the A1's. I fired the cabby up and let her idle a bit the other day. The fuel pumps weren't as noisy as they were last time, so I'm hoping the more I fire it up, the quieter they get while still working.

I've also hauled the 87' rocco into the garage this week and done a few things. Replaced the front motor mount only to discover that it had a TT HD mount and proper bracket for it, which means the factory mount moves around in there, I'll have to order the HD mount from TT to solve that problem. Also adjusted the v-belts as they were slack from sitting for...well, I'm not even going to admit.

Found the plug wire for cyl #1 was arcing on the dizzy which sucks because that means it's possible the plug wire itself. I'm going to try some silicone to resolve that before I shell out $140 for a new set of wires. Also adjusted the air/fuel mix a bit. Took it for a test drive and came to a large realization. I've gotten way to used to the quiet cabin of the MKIV's and the audi. Ever rattle, squeak and shimmy of interior bits drive me bonkers. I know it's something I will have to get used to again.

[Briano1234]

Photos as promised

[Calimus]

Wow. That was some bad times just waiting to happen at a moments notice.

[Briano1234]

I hate plastic parts...... the frigging 5 week old water outlet on my cabby decided to puke coolant.. Damn I am glad I buy them in 2's... I actually think the o-ring failed, but I can't see it at the moment in my light, and that is the o-ring that plugs up the oil cooler port.

So this week Scheduled is a heater core replacement on my Green cabby as well as the Radiator switch, and the t-stat.
I have validated that the Fan works, and that I am suspicious of the after run circuit, but that is for WED.

I have an idea for the heater core as far as the easy way, but don't like the look of the heater box after.. So I am tinkering with making a plate out of either lexan or tin to cover the hole in a more esthetic fashion. If I had the choice of ripping the dash and kneebar out to take the heater box apart, I might try it... but I am still on restrictions...

[gull]

I have an idea for the heater core as far as the easy way, but don't like the look of the heater box after.. So I am tinkering with making a plate out of either lexan or tin to cover the hole in a more esthetic fashion. If I had the choice of ripping the dash and kneebar out to take the heater box apart, I might try it... but I am still on restrictions...

I've done it the "easy way." It saved taking the dash out, but I still had to remove the knee bar for clearance. It was a bit of a struggle to slide the old one out through the side of the heater box because the foam seals had bonded to the plastic.

[Briano1234]

Removing the knee-bar isn't the problem, I have my son to do the heavy lifting, what I don't like on the "easy" method is the look of the air-box when finished. So I am tinkering around with making a plastic or tin coverlet held in by a couple of screws. Ok, 4 of them so that it looks more finished or "pseudo" factory, and not the typical rabbit lets do it the easy way.

So most of my time will be spent proto-typing the finish.

If I can't get it to look right or to function well then I will probably yank the "Airbox" out. Either way, I spose another how do I do that is in order....

Besides I have to drain her a/c and replace all the o-rings as one is leaking somewhere, but slow enough to not let the dye show. So I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone so-to-speak I have gotten a lot of use out of that cheap assed vacuum pump from Harbor Freight.