Nibbler’s Universe: past and present

[Rightnider]

Judging from what I can make out of the registration, it seems to have spent most of its life in a salt free environment, Gotland.  That’s certainly reassuring.  

[Nibbler]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

5 Cyl? COTY here, IIRC

No it’s a 1,8 litre 4 banger with carburettor. 90 wild and furious horsepower. 

[Nibbler]

On 21/04/2025 at 20:27, Rightnider said:

Well done!

Tell us more! 

Sold new in Norrköping but made the journey to Gotland in 1994 if I remember correctly. I have the service history and it stayed on Gotland until the guy I bought it from needed a car to get home from Gotland. So he gave his father order too find the cheapest car that could get him home and this is what the father bought. 400 000 kilometers or around 250 000 miles on the odometer. Looks terrible inside, mostly just dirt but the drivers seat is pretty knackered. Engine has some issues, it’s running a bit rough and it failed its last MOT because of a ball joint. I need to fix that before the end of this month. 

[Rightnider]

We want more pictures! What’s your plan for it?

[Nibbler]

On 22/04/2025 at 22:19, Rightnider said:

We want more pictures! What’s your plan for it?

Ah, you want dirty pictures! I can give you dirty pictures. 

Drivers seat is knackered and so is the backseat. 

 

This is probably the dirtiest car I’ve ever bought, it’s unbelievable filthy so yesterday evening was spent cleaning.

Close up on the aftermarket speaker on the dash just to give you guys an idea about the amount of dirt.

I’m not done yet, but the interior actually cleaned up pretty nice.

[Nibbler]

Audi 100 1,8 Avant: Quite a productive day today. The previous owner told me that after changing the timing belt and doing some stuff with the cooling system he had overheating issues. I know that these engines are notoriously hard to bleed so I thought I would try to vacuum fill the cooling system. 

This took some time because I found issues with a couple of hoses. One disintegrated when I touched it, another one was leaking. 

I fixed the leaks with som universal hoses. Filled the cooling system and tomorrow I will see if it still overheats. There are no signs of a failed head gasket. No oil in the coolant and no coolant in the oil. The car smokes but it looks blue to me. Tomorrow I will check the spark plugs and see what they can tell me.

So after that I continued with the knackered ball joint. You can’t change just the ball joint, instead you change the complete arm. I’ve done it 4 times the past 12 months so it went relatively smooth. It was done in about two hours. 
 

Then I had a bit of disaster. Checking why the air filter was loose I found this sleeve (or whatever you call it) in the carburettor.

Just pure luck that it got stuck, but where is the nut? 😱 I’m not sure I want to know 😱

All the bolts that hold the air filter was loose and the threads in the carburettor was stripped. I can buy a new carburettor but for the same price I can get around 5 second hand ones. So I think I buy a couple of used ones. Maybe i try to re-thread the carburettor.  

[Nibbler]

Audi 100 1,8: I also managed to change the last part of the exhaust system. Really simple operation, took like 10 minutes. 

Here is a picture on the underside of the car. Between 1994 to around 2022 it spent it’s life in a salt free environment. 

Then i continued with cleaning, that included a session with the pressure washer. 

I also tried to clean up the threads in the carburettor that holds the air filter , nope not even close. The threads are completely destroyed. So I ordered a second hand carburettor. 

[Nibbler]

But I managed to to get the 1,8 thru the MOT so now it’s good for another 2 years. 
At 100 km/h i cruises fine but at lower revs it misfires,  or cut out is maybe more accurate. It can be quite violent. Driving in city traffic means that you accelerate to 45 km/h and then press the clutch and coast to maybe 35 km/h and then repeat…

The car works fine on higher revs and on load. But with just a little bit of throttle applied or on lower rpm it shudders quite violently. I’m suspecting the carburettor but what do you guys think???

…and one more thing. The previous owner talked about overheating issues. The temperature gauge can sometimes jump up to really high temperatures. Like straight up to 115 degrees and then back to more normal reading but without any signs of overheating. I actually opened the radiator cap when the gauge said 115 degrees but it didn’t boil. Even when cold the gauge can jump up in temperature. I’m starting to wonder if there is a voltage regulator involved that’s causing this problem???

[Rightnider]

It definitely sounds voltage related. 

[Surface Rust]

2 hours ago, Nibbler said:

But I managed to to get the 1,8 thru the MOT so now it’s good for another 2 years. 
At 100 km/h i cruises fine but at lower revs it misfires,  or cut out is maybe more accurate. It can be quite violent. Driving in city traffic means that you accelerate to 45 km/h and then press the clutch and coast to maybe 35 km/h and then repeat…

The car works fine on higher revs and on load. But with just a little bit of throttle applied or on lower rpm it shudders quite violently. I’m suspecting the carburettor but what do you guys think???

…and one more thing. The previous owner talked about overheating issues. The temperature gauge can sometimes jump up to really high temperatures. Like straight up to 115 degrees and then back to more normal reading but without any signs of overheating. I actually opened the radiator cap when the gauge said 115 degrees but it didn’t boil. Even when cold the gauge can jump up in temperature. I’m starting to wonder if there is a voltage regulator involved that’s causing this problem???

Sounds a bit like an intake leak / lean mixture. If the carb mounting is dodgy then that might fix it.

A lean mixture can cause hot running as well.

[Nibbler]

20 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

Sounds a bit like an intake leak / lean mixture. If the carb mounting is dodgy then that might fix it.

A lean mixture can cause hot running as well.

Not uncommon on these engines. I did spray starter fluid on the carb mounting and the engine reacted immediately so I will order a new one.

[Nibbler]

What happened to the fleet in May?

Well…

Audi 100 Avant Turbodiesel: New wheels and tires. Ronal 15-inch Minilite copies from a Saab 9000 with budget tires. I also got the  glowplugs to work. I thought it would be something difficult but it turned out a new relay was all that was needed. 

Audi 100 2,3E: new door lock fitted as the old one broke. Quite straight forward job and I had the cat to keep me company. Used this car as my daily for a week until I started to hear a knocking sound when at full lock. Drive shaft boot had gone bad and all the grease had disappeared… just great! 

Audi 100 1,8 Avant; second hand carburettor fitted together with a new carburettor mounting plate. The car now runs better and worse at the same time. Better att low load on low revs but I don’t think that the seconds stage kicks in on full throttle and it still has a misfire on lower revs that I will have to adress.  Also changed a couple of badly corroded spark plug wires but that didn’t do anything. Main thing with the carburettor swap was to get a carburettor with fresh threads för the air filter and that was achieved 👍

 

The strange behaviour of the temperature gauge seems to be down to an electrical problem. Temperatures measured just fine with an IR thermometer. 92 degrees with the engine just turned off is fine by me. Temperature down at the thermostat housing was around 87 degrees with the engine still running.

I also fixed a broken door lock and mounted a couple of period correct loudspeakers for the kids to enjoy at the back. Cat kept me company as usually. 

I would say it looks pretty good for a 700£ car. New tires fitted and the Fondmetal wheels looks so much better with tires at the correct dimensions. There is signs of an old and badly done crash repair at the rear left. But i think I tackle that next year.

 

Honda Civic 1,4: gave it an oil and filter change and a front wheel alignment. I really like this car! It’s really, really entertaining to drive and the engine is cheap on gas. 
 

Volkswagen T4 Multivan: first camping trip for the season. Just one night up on the north of Öland. Another car I really enjoy driving.

[Rightnider]

Is that a very heavy cat?

[Nibbler]

On 08/06/2025 at 20:16, Rightnider said:

Is that a very heavy cat?

Well, now that you mention it.