1.4 SE Project AZ by Miniswift

miniswift

A2OC Donor
Hi,

I always wanted Audi A2 and when I was lokking for 1 many moons ago, I couldn't justify at the time.
Since 2 of my girls are starting to learn to drive, I thoght A2 will be good as they are one of safest car in it's calss.

So I bought 2004 1.4SE with 144k miles for £800.

It came with some spares but few warning lights were on. ABS, EPS then "!"...
After checking error code, brake switch needed replacing.
"!" was for EGR valve.
ABS light was on for rear left sensor.
Usual repair work on wiper arm.
Slow air leaks due to paint peeling off one of wheel and white powder called ali oxide! Took tyre off and sand down and piant solved.

Today, I was going to drive down south in it to get good run(due to my company car "Outlander PHEV" is making kronk noise")
It was going well for 58mins in heavy rain.... then my wiper stopped working!
Called AA as I didn't have any tools with me. When AA man came he checked and we came to conclusion that stalk switch is the cause.
We couldn't do any temp repair so he towed me home.

So far my budget for this car was £1k.
Due to small mishapps, it is approaching close to it soon!
 
With the wiper IF it is the stalk then as long as you know what you are doing with airbags and all the safety requirements then not a bad job. I would however use a jump lead from the body of the wiper onto the engine block as the earth in the wiper wiring plug can / does fill up with water and corrode the terminals. If the jump lead brings the wiper back into like then run a permanent earth between the wiper body and a car chassis earth point.

I strongly suggest that if you have a Windows laptop with a USB port that you download VCDS Lite for free from Ross Tech and either use a cheap KKL cable from ebay or if you can afford it the better Gendan cable. This really helps us help you diagnose errors.
 
Thank you for your reply.
The screen wash work even my wiper doesn't. When we were testing, we supplied +ve direct to wiper connector and wiper worked.
So power to relay was checked and so on.
After 1 hour of trying to carry out temporary repair, we decided to recover my car and tow it home.

What cable are you talking about audifan?
I have ordered OBD-II to USB cable and waiting for last 2 weeks to get here.. Is this KKL cable you are talking about?
AA guy connected to OBD-II but he didn't get any error message. Some of wiring did look to be starting show raw material so I might heat glue it to insulate them.
 
If you need a standard (i.e not cruise control) stalk, I’ve got a genuine used Audi one here you can have for the cost of postage.
 
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If you need a standard (i.e not cruise control) stalk,
Morning Ian,

Did you mean:

If you need a standard (i.e. not DIS) stalk.

As the cruise control function is on the indicator stalk that resides on the left hand side.

If you don’t have one then I think I have a non DIS wiper stalk that can be donated for the same FOC plus postage fee.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
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Morning Ian,

Did you mean:

If you need a standard (i.e. not DIS) stalk.

As the cruise control function is on the indicator stalk that resides on the left hand side.

If you don’t have one then I think I have a non DIS wiper stalk that can be donated for the same FOC plus postage fee.

Kind regards,

Tom
That’s exactly what I meant. Posting on the forum when knackered isn’t ideal!
However, it appears the OP has bought one off eBay
 
OK, so I got my new wiper stalk and wiper start to work...(didn't do anything with original one).
Then stopped again. Took wiper arm off and it works freely, meaning motor is on it's way out as well....
So my budget for this car was £1k. It is getting close to it soon.
 
Couldn't 'not enough power' to move the whole arm be a result of 'not enough current' as much as it could be a failing motor? You're now sure of the positive connection to the motor. It won't cost you anything to connect the motor body to the engine via a jumplead and see if having a known decent earth connection makes a difference. Be sure before doing this though, that the engine earthing strap is sound (it can corrode through under its plastic coating) and its connection to the body behind the passenger headlight is clean. Otherwise it's not a known good earth :)
 
OK, so I got my new wiper stalk and wiper start to work...(didn't do anything with original one).
Then stopped again. Took wiper arm off and it works freely, meaning motor is on it's way out as well....
So my budget for this car was £1k. It is getting close to it soon.
I would also lubricate the wiper spindle bearings with 3 in1 oil as they will most certainly be partially seizing , normally a brass/phosphor bronze sleeve easy to access whilst stripped down.
Hope that helps you
Keith.
 
Hi,

Like you guys suggested. I connected jump lead direct to the wiper body.
Hey presto! It works.
So I took left head light and bolt is very much Galvanic corroded.
IMG_2451.jpg


So I made a new earth lead to connect to engine direct.

IMG_2456.jpg


My wiper works very well now.
Thank you everyone for your advice. I'm new to Ali body car but I'm OK with Swift and classic Minis.

Cheers
Atchi
 
I would also lubricate the wiper spindle bearings with 3 in1 oil as they will most certainly be partially seizing , normally a brass/phosphor bronze sleeve easy to access whilst stripped down.
Hope that helps you
Keith.
Hi Keith,
I took your advice too.
I took off cir-clip off and little squirt of engine oil(new) then re fitted again on both of them.
 
Great the wiper now works correctly. Did you replace the main earth behind the headlight? This is required for the engine to work correctly. An alternative is to fit a new engine earth in the right wing area to the engine side of the right engine mount. Many of us have both a restored main earth behind the headlight and a second earth to the engine mount.

Back to your wiper bet if you removed the wiring plug you would find corrosion in the plug where the earth wire is located. This is due to the connector filling up with water. Another source of water getting to the wiring plug is the double rubber gromet that fits around the wiper spindles as it wears oval then leaks.
 
Great the wiper now works correctly. Did you replace the main earth behind the headlight? This is required for the engine to work correctly. An alternative is to fit a new engine earth in the right wing area to the engine side of the right engine mount. Many of us have both a restored main earth behind the headlight and a second earth to the engine mount.

Back to your wiper bet if you removed the wiring plug you would find corrosion in the plug where the earth wire is located. This is due to the connector filling up with water. Another source of water getting to the wiring plug is the double rubber gromet that fits around the wiper spindles as it wears oval then leaks.
I made new earth wire as well which was from my Suzuki Swift spares I have.
So my engine is earthed same on LH side to aid battery charging just in case.
Rubber grommet wasn't on properly either so I fixed that, also.
 
I would like to keep this Audi for a long time... then again I hope my girls won't damage it too much once they start driving it!
 
Hi,

So I took A2 for a long drive of 260 miles.
I filled tank to brim using trapped air remover thing next to filler neck.
I managed to do 240 miles/half tank, great!
Now I plugged into OBD2 reader and tells me there is a miss fire.
Is it common things for 1.4 Petrol engine?

Also, my battery light is on constantly but very dim. I checked my battery condition when I stopped for a lunch.
It says half full and condition is OK but not great.
My alternator is working OK according to diagnostic tool but when I was driving down, I was using day light and stereo(for 160 miles).
Then I thought just in case, I didn't use stereo or Bluetooth radio transceiver for mobile using cigarette lighter power feed.

So my question is that I added extra earth for engine but may be there is another earth point for non engine electrics.

Can any of you know where it is?
Just in case, I bought an alternator which is refurbed item but it will be good.
 
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