Today the garage took the new HEL brake pipes made to the same spec as the above part number but braided and coloured black to match the rest of the kit and fitted them - a swine of a job because the hard lines on the car ahead of the rear axle both broke and needed partial replacement.
Their comment was that this part number is an excellent work-around to the problem of the NLA originals however, once fitted they look like they are OE in terms of their fitting, so this is definitely one all TDi90 and FSI owners should take note of. I’ll take pictures next time I’m under there.
Once bled and handed back to me, I found the brakes to now be pretty good (as in more than up to the job and better than I’ve ever known - although I must confess I was expecting slightly more from the upgraded disks and pads, so it looks like Martyn and Mac were right to be dubious; glad I didn’t pay anything like the RRP for these!)
I believe further gains could be had by going up in brake disk size, however they are now confidence-inspiring enough for fast country roads and also the cut and thrust traffic on today’s motorways, so I’m happy with them.
The outer handbrake cables were also replaced and the handbrake now works as it should - the old cables were indeed partially seized which was the cause of the dragging callipers - plus they were grossly stretched, the handbrake adjuster needed to be backed off a long old way to replace! Interestingly the central cable that can only be purchased from Audi Tradition was fine so that was not replaced with my new one, which will go back into storage for if/when needed.
Oh - almost forgot: That Singaporean website cancelled my order due to lack of stock; no great surprise really.
Jobs left to do:
- fix right rear door lock (a job for
@timmus next month)
- replace the duff headlamp level adjuster (new genuine one turned up today, my advice would be buy Valeo to anyone else as that is who made it - both theirs and the VW logo on it)
- fit straight-through inlet pipe
- clean and feed the leather seats, which Tom will also be upgrading to electrically adjustable lumbar support when I see him too.
- swap over the passenger front door card with a spare I have
- renew the slightly tired central locking switch with the new one I have and similarly, replace the electric window switch panel surround to help smarten the interior further.
Other than that it’s just maintenance - The next service is in around 3500 miles or so and will mark the completion of 20k miles in my ownership since purchase.