Dave's shonkers - bye bye S3 (sadface.jpg)

[Dave_Q]

Left the car with my m9 who is a semi-pro 2 bucket wrongun today, these are the pictures he's sent me of his efforts.

Looks alreet that.

[Fabergé Greggs]

19 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Left the car with my m9 who is a semi-pro 2 bucket wrongun today, these are the pictures he's sent me of his efforts.

Looks alreet that.

At this rate you'll be divorcing us for Pistonheads. 

[Dave_Q]

Why yes, as it happens I am powerfully built, but not currently a company director.

Couple of extra pics after I picked it up.

[mat_the_cat]

On 25/10/2023 at 21:11, Dave_Q said:

It is an OEM part FWIW. Good point on the mileage. I guess I can keep the invoices for the fluids and stuff and write "done by owner" or summat in the service book. 

It's either that or keep shelling out to garages for everything it needs which just isn't me - I got quoted £250 to do the thermostat as apparently it's a bit awkward to get to.

Am I a sad bastard for recording everything in Excel?

[Matty]

26 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

Am I a sad bastard for recording everything in Excel?

Yes. You've just made me feel better about just writing it down 😆

[mat_the_cat]

The ironic thing is I'm not doing it for potential resale value, as I (almost) never sell anything! Just for sheer geekery I guess...

[Dave_Q]

@mat_the_cat I think that's just a modern equivalent of one of those notebooks full of spidery handwriting you sometimes get with a properly giffer owned car, if you ever did sell someone would appreciate the level of detail and care. 

[Dave_Q]

Did a brim to brim calculation on the last tank of fuel in the S3 and got 18.06mpg.
This was a full tank of local runs with the toe down where possible.

I wasn't expecting miracles, the book combined mpg is 31 but maybe mid 20s would be good?
98ron minimum according to the flap, this tank was V-power, I have filled up with Tesco 99 this time to see if any difference (and save 20p a litre).

I did ask for input on the S3 owners group and some people reckon this is about right, I did have a bit of a vagcom sesh to see if there is anything untoward going on.

Got a misfire recorded on cylinder 1. They are a bit famous for coil packs but I swapped the coil pack and spark plug to different cylinders and it's still showing number 1. Doesn't seem to affect driving but is perceptible on idle. 

Gonna try some snake oil (STP 5 in 1 injector cleaner) that my mate reckons fixed a similar issue on his. I think ideally it needs the injectors cleaning/refurbing and probably the inlet manifold blasting out but that can wait till next year.

Otherwise all is well, I fitted a reverse camera and generally belmed round happily in it.

[loserone]

12 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

18.06mpg

Fucking hell

[Matty]

6 minutes ago, loserone said:

Fucking hell

Using it right 😄

[Popsicle]

On 10/11/2023 at 22:58, mat_the_cat said:

Am I a sad bastard for recording everything in Excel?

I love keeping a spreadsheet of work done, just one thing though, why is there no column for cost, I do understand only to well it can make for depressing reading sometimes.....

[mat_the_cat]

Partly that, and partly as I often tend to do the work at a different time to when I buy the parts (preventative maintenance anyway) hence have forgotten the costs. I do still keep the receipts, so I guess if I was ever bored could match them up...

[mat_the_cat]

3 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Did a brim to brim calculation on the last tank of fuel in the S3 and got 18.06mpg.

Is it worth it though? Some of my lowest mpg tankfuls have been the most fun

[Dave_Q]

5 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

Is it worth it though? Some of my lowest mpg tankfuls have been the most fun

Oh yeah, absolutely. My regular trips tend to be going from one town to the next which goes up and over a hill, 40-50 limits in which nobody can do more than 30, 35 on a good day. I very much enjoy blasting past people in the provided overtaking/crawler lanes but you can just see the mpg plummet on the computer whenever you properly boot it.

I never get good scores on mpg anyway, lots of fairly short journeys in a hilly area. I never did a brim to brim on the A4 but I was getting around 25mpg on the OBC. I get low 30s in the van when the Vito groups are full of people posting that they got 40/45/etc, presumably by drafting lorries at 55mph. Life's too short.

[SiC]

12 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Got a misfire recorded on cylinder 1. They are a bit famous for coil packs but I swapped the coil pack and spark plug to different cylinders and it's still showing number 1. Doesn't seem to affect driving but is perceptible on idle. 

😱

(Hopefully not carbon build up and valves burning up 😬)

[Dave_Q]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

😱

(Hopefully not carbon build up and valves burning up 😬)

One thing that's not in the history is anything relating to inlet cleaning so it's going to want doing. I was planning to do it next year when the weathers better, I have a small compressor, shop vac and a 3D printer so I reckon I can lash up a walnut blasting arrangement DIY.

I don't feel like this is a major issue as surely I'd notice something other than a minor stumble at idle? I also read that carbon related misfires tend to be better warm, this is there both warm and cold.

But if I should be more concerned I can pull the inlet sooner rather than later.

[Dave_Q]

Another tank down and the score on this one is 18.75mpg. 

The slight misfire at idle is still there, I do think the snake oil has make it a little better and it sounds a little smoother overall but if you stick VCDS on with it warm it still counts misfires on cylinder 1. Not plug or coil as they were swapped with other cylinders.

Think the plan will be to get on with some inlet cleaning and send the injectors off sooner rather than later.

[Dave_Q]

As above I decided to get on with getting the inlets cleaned and the injectors sent off before places close down for Christmas.

As ever, getting the inlet off was something of a pain. Most bits weren't too bad to remove but I had to get some new 1/4 drive stuff to access some of it.

This bolt which holds a support bracket to the block was the worst, you can't fit 3/8 extension through the gap nor is it quite straight.

The inlet ports look about right for the mileage, have seen worse TBH.

I've ordered some walnut dust and a shit gravity blast gun, I'm gonna give it a go with my little 22l compressor. I reckon it will work, albeit slowly.

Expecting to hear back from the injector people today, kinda hoping they find something wrong on cylinder 1 as none of these look particularly worse than each other for carbon.

[hairnet]

On 18/11/2023 at 21:48, Dave_Q said:

1. Did a brim to brim calculation on the last tank of fuel in the S3 and got 18.06mpg.

 

 

2. generally belmed round happily in it.

1. FUCK

2. SEE 1

 

[Dave_Q]

Some progress.

The £12 blast gun was, probably predictably, shite. It did blast stuff out but the size of the thing meant I couldn't point it where I wanted to.

I bought a Draper kit which is pretty much a plastic bucket with a hose attached to the bottom and this was much better. It still wasn't amazingly powerful but it shifted the majority of the build-up. I got round the lack of oomph by scraping, then blasting, then pouring carb cleaner down and scrubbing with a little brass brush on a drill, then repeating, Sounds long but was about 30min per cylinder. 

Injectors came back with a clean bill of health, they apparently passed the flow test before cleaning but have had new filters and seals and a good clean anyway for £80 all in from Bob Beck Fuel Injection on ebay.

Got to pick up some gaskets and stuff tomorrow then throw it all back together.

[Dave_Q]

Car is back in one piece. 

Hilariously, I managed to break this plastic coolant flange doofer when removing the vacuum hose to the brake servo which goes through it for ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD REASON

£36 later I was replacing that coolant flange, and EVEN MORE HILARIOUSLY managed to break this one in the fixing of that one:

So now all is amazing and running super brilliantly?

No. It's fired up fine but we now seem to have a crank sensor issue where the car shits the bed the first time you go over about 1500rpm, needles bounce all over the shop then it goes into some sort of limp mode where it idles at 1200rpm and is well down on power. I assume this is some sort of fallback mode where it's using the cam for engine speed and therefore doesn't VVT or boost properly. 

It seems super sus to me that this would suddenly go just when I've had it in bits but there we are. The sensor is down on the front of the engine in the region where I've been taking the inlet pipe on/off so I guess I could have knocked the sensor or the wiring?

Anyway new sensor coming tomorrow, Febi for £30-odd rather than OEM for £170 (!)

[loserone]

On 22/12/2023 at 12:12, Dave_Q said:

Anyway new sensor coming tomorrow

Didn't work then?

[SiC]

Didn't know Dave lived on the continent (France I think?). Also I think that is the MK1 S3 too...

[Dave_Q]

It could be me but for the mild differences in car, wheels, plates and location.

I didn't start on the crank sensor yet but might get it done today.

[Dave_Q]

Put the sensor on and we are back to driving normally with full warp restored. 

All this effort has still left me with a slight misfire on idle on cylinder 1.

Bit stuck as to where to go with this really, I think the only things left are compression or maybe coil packs or wiring? 

I'll do a compression test and see if I can borrow my mates coil packs as he has the R8 ones.

[Split_Pin]

I haven't read back again but have you changed the spark plugs? If so how much were they? The PO of my TT had a mystery misfire and it turned out that the NGKs he bought were fakes and one had started to break down after just 2000 miles.

Also, do you still have the 1.8T cabby?

[Dave_Q]

14 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I haven't read back again but have you changed the spark plugs? If so how much were they? The PO of my TT had a mystery misfire and it turned out that the NGKs he bought were fakes and one had started to break down after just 2000 miles.

Also, do you still have the 1.8T cabby?

I haven't changed the plugs, they look good to me and there is an invoice for them being changed at the last service.

I did swap the coil from cyl 1 to cyl 3 and the plug to cyl 2 and the misfire didn't move.

I want to get to the bottom of it but hopefully not by parts darts, a new set of plugs is only £40 or so but I'm not expecting them to make a difference at this point.

I'm going to do a compression test and also have a check of the cams, a bloke on the S3 group said he had exactly the same symptoms and his cam looked like this:

The other A4 is still here yes, I am not trying too hard to sell it, other than fending off the odd message on FB from giants of trade and industry whose negotiations read along the lines of:

lowest

Yeah, just that one word.

[Split_Pin]

10 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

new set of plugs is only £40 or so

OK fair enough but that seems fairly cheap, I think the genuine NGK items are £20 each. Hopefully you'll get it sorted.

Just asking for a friend* on the A4.

[Dave_Q]

5 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

OK fair enough but that seems fairly cheap, I think the genuine NGK items are £20 each. Hopefully you'll get it sorted.

Just asking for a friend* on the A4.

This is what I was going on, hopefully these guys wouldn't (knowingly) sell snides.

https://www.awesomegti.com/shop-by-brand/ngk/ngk-iridium-x-spark-plug-set-2-0-tsi-and-fsi-turbo/

Maybe 1.8t ones are more expensive?

[Split_Pin]

I'm out my depth on VAG stuff as its all still quite new to me but let me find a link that @AndyIggs posted up on how to identify rogue items.