Shoestring7's tdi

I'd booked it into a local 'little man' for the cam belt, water pump and themostat to be replaced. He collected the A2 from my house (leaving his A4 Avant) and dropped it off 24 hours later. Pleasingly, he reported no other issues found. The parts were all OE VAG, and labour was £150-, which I felt was good value, even if its just mainly for peace of mind.

The next time I headed off to the supermarket I was pleased to see the water temps sitting at 90 degrees, and the heater keeping the cabin nice and cosy:
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Next trip out is click&collecting bookshelves from Ikea, something I couldn't do with my Mini (even if a recent visit to a mappers has resulted in 273ps!).

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Mini on the dyno before torturing its front tyres.


PS Anyone know how to reset the A2's dates?
 
You are doing well considering you are relative beginners. Well done, might be worth downloading VCDS onto a laptop and buying a cable of ebay for around £6.
Someone will give you advice on how to use it.
 
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Have you noticed any benefit from having cleaned the EGR and pipe work? Just wondering if it’s worth the effort!
 
Silverpig said:
Have you noticed any benefit from having cleaned the EGR and pipe work? Just wondering if it’s worth the effort!
Click to expand...
Hi,
We(I!) decided to tackle it as I'd seen examples of bunged up EGR/ASVs on-line, the car had had non-enthusiast owners previously and the service history was incomplete. It was also something we could have a go at without having the get the car in the air - my parking/working area is earth so I can't use a jack in the colder months.

As it was, the EML light was on before we cleaned it, and went off afterwards. But this might be down to chance as we haven't yet read error codes.
 
Shoestring7 said:
Here y'go:

Open Door
Put key into ignition and turn to ignition (do not start car just turn to 2nd click where dash lights up)
Immediately turn off and remove key
Press unlock on remote fob
That's it!



Sarge
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Hi. Yes, I've done that one as well as a couple of others. Sometimes the remote works, sometimes not. (Battery replaced, contacts cleaned too). I've also been round the loop of disconnecting the car battery for half an hour to reboot everything but no joy. I'm now making enquiries about replacement CCCU. Thanks anyway!
 
Steve Langridge said:
Hi. Yes, I've done that one as well as a couple of others. Sometimes the remote works, sometimes not. (Battery replaced, contacts cleaned too). I've also been round the loop of disconnecting the car battery for half an hour to reboot everything but no joy. I'm now making enquiries about replacement CCCU. Thanks anyway!
Click to expand...
Thats a shame, I must be lucky in that it worked for me.
 
It's been a while since the last update, and I've not done many miles in the car. Partly that's because due to lockdown I'm no longer commuting to work, partly because I have other vehicles to use, but mainly because the A2 was not properly sorted for driving. I did have one failure, but that was down to me leaving the window open on a warm day and not closing it when it got dark. At 2am the next morning it was pouring with rain and I needed to go to the airport, but the window was not at all interested in closing after it's soaking....

During the summer I accumulated the parts needed for a suspension refresh. I once read that more than 90% of cars go to the scrapper wearing their original dampers. I've always considered them a service item at around 80k miles, so at 130k were well overdue on this car.

Taking advice from the Suspension thread here, I bought over several months top mounts, droplinks, Bilstein B4 dampers, Eibach springs and ARB mounts. The rear discs were corroded, so I added those to the mix.
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I don't have garage or workshop, or even hardstanding, so had to entrust the work to local VAG specialist.

They returned the car after a couple of weeks - I told them not to hurry. Luckily all the parts fitted and no problems were encountered with corroded fittings, although it transpired that the rear callipers we're FUBAR'd so they needed replacing also. If you've ever had to pay Porsche parts prices you'll perhaps understand why coughing up £140 for two new brake callipers din't bring me out in a sweat! I also got them to do a service and change the gearbox oil while they were at it.
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The car drove much better, but still didn't have the combination of decent ride with good body control and handling I was after.
 
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The car was still in the same standard 16inch SE wheels and tired rubber fitted when I purchased the car. I'm convinced that Audi's engineers always intended their 900kg lightweight car to run on small, light wheels, and it was only when it was realised that it would cost too much that the idiots in marketing insisted on fitting big heavy wheels, to the detriment of ride on our imperfect surfaces. It was therefore always part of my plan to fit 15" wheels.

I bought a couple of days of the std 15" s, with a view to refurbishing them myself, but better good deprived beyond me. Around the same time, I managed to snipe a set of tyres on Blackcircles taking advantage of a spot sale. Four 175/60 Kumhos cost me £140 delivered, the same as a friend just spent on one replacement for his new Mini!

I must admit that at this point I was thinking of giving up and moving the car on, there was wheel wobble at any speed over 65mph, ruling out the motorway journeys I'd intended to use car for.

So I was a little hesitant to spend any more, but decided to give it one more chance, and bought a set of very nice pepperpots from a member here.
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It involved a long drive (this was the third time I've bought used wheels and on each occasion they were located in the Birmingham area - a right schlepp from home on the South coast), but after an early start I was home by 2pm, although 280 miles motorway hobbies are not what my old Ford Fusion is good at!

I spent a few pounds in a set of hubcaps on eBay then sent the car down to the local tyre depot who did a nice job of fitting them.
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This affected something of a transformation!

Even after a mile the difference was obvious. Not only had those high frequency harsh vibrations gone, but a layer of filtering had been removed from the steering. There was also a significant reduction in road noise, and that annoying high speed vibe was also gone. The softer ride wasn't accompanied by a drop off in body control: the Bilsteins proved to be a good choice in that respect.

There are still limitations, it will crash into the bumpstops when it runs out of travel, but it's pretty good considering the humble origins of the components.

Audi A2 Dec 2021.jpg


All in all I'm very pleased; the car definitely gets a stay of execution and I'm now starting to think about ICE and interior upgrades.
 
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I schlepped over to Bristol and back yesterday, a journey of mostly 300 motorway miles but with 35 miles of the A272* at the end. The car went really well, I'm very pleased with the new chassis set-up, and a long trip does no end of good for the little Tdi, by the end it was happier pulling from low revs - something that's a problem with the higher 4th and 5th gears on the 90bhp car's gearbox.

However the heater's gone on strike. It has played up a couple of times recently, once when it stuck on hot, then it stuck on cold, now its stuck on no-heat. Fan works and the numbers change on the heater control unit. It wasn't a problem yesterday as it 15 degrees, but I don't fancy cold toes when it's freezing.

Am I correct in thinking I can get access to the (presumably) stuck flap through the glove box? Give it a jiggle and a squirt of GT85?

*If you don't know this East/West route across Hampshire and Sussex, its one of those roads that bikers use as a playground,
 
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The trip to Bristol was to collect some cloth Sports seats from a young chap who had reportedly put his A2 in a ditch when he fell asleep at the wheel. He survived the experience I'm glad to say, and a set of seats fits easily in the A2.

I'd bought an upholstery cleaner a while ago, and this was pressed into service on the 'new' seats.
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The amount of butt juice the machine lifted off is pretty terrifying - I don't think I'll ever look at a British Rail seat in the same way again.

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The seats are now in the car:
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I know many people prefer leather seats in a car. I've never been particularly convinced; leather is cold in winter, hot in summer and slippery the year round. In fact, if you look at a limousine from the 1920s or 30's, you'll see the the front seats for the chauffeur are leather, but the owner sits on luxurious fabric in the rear. And as my friend says, cow skin stopped getting any better thousands of years ago

The MOT is now (over) due. My attempts to free the heater flapper motor with GT85 failed, so I'm going to add it the the specialists fix list.
 
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