SM Flywheel Conversion, Clutch, Cambelt, Waterpump and Tower bearing, plus Gina's A2 videos.

Sidewinder

A2OC Donor
United-Kingdom
Hi, I’ve just finished a job on my ATL (90) engined A2 involving clutch kit replacement, cam belt kit, waterpump, shift tower bearing replacement and SM flywheel conversion.

The transmission started to get noisy, clanky and the cluch pedal would vibrate with a small amount of pressure on it, researching on here and other places this looked like the DMF or a clutch component issue (clutch slave cylinder was ok).

I’m lucky to not live far from ex member @JIGSAW here in Norwich and Gary gave me advice that a SMF should be considered, a 3 pot SMF flywheel of course, one from a AMF etc, I saw the flywheel thread by @Menno and I found on Ebay one from a polo, and this was received, wire wheeled to remove light corrosion and cleaned with brake cleaner, sprayed with black paint and the contact surface cleaned back to metal with 100grit to make a nice ready to fit replacement.

Reading the many posts on here especially by @depronman about clutch replacement gave me courage to attempt it and I followed his steps and it worked really well, but Gary had an extra tip to preserve the air air con gas circuit which was to unscrew the air con condenser and rotate it 90 degrees towards the front of the car after dropping the compressor off so it can follow it. I was removing the aux belt anyway to do the cambelt and this was easy and no issue once the front was off.

Tool wise I used a normal socket set, a set of spline, hex and torx bits, and other standard tools, a engine support beam for £39.99, and a £7.99 clutch centring tool were the only tools I bought. The whole thing was done over a week whilst working a full week doing a bit each evening and the pre and post weekends, a stage at a time and I would encourage others to attempt the same without any fear, its not that hard at all, and I’ve learnt so much about how the front of the car comes apart.

I bagged up screws, bolts and poppers etc in bags, labelled such as ‘undertray and wheel arch liners’ and ‘slam panel and radiators’ etc.

In steps: place car on axle stands, Remove undertray, engine cover and wheel arch liners. Remove headlights, bumper skin, crash bars, horn and slam panel plastics around intercooler and radiators.

Disconnect wiring loom from slam panel (air con pressure, rad temp, fog lights, lower water temp sensor, screen wash pump and tube etc) and pull it up into the top of engine bay.

Drain coolant and disconnect rad pipes, intercooler pipes, unscrew flap release plunger, unplug fan cable, disconnect screen wash fill pipe, oil fill pipe, dip stick pipe, remove oil fill point giving access to air inlet pipe screws, disconnect drain cup pipes, unbolt 3 bolts holding air con silver cylinder?.

When the slam panel is free from any connections, support the slam panel and remove fixings, undo 4 screws holding air con condenser and split it from the rad/intercooler panel, supporting both.

Lift and remove both black plastic pegs holding in the rad panel, move slam panel forward and tilt backwards rad/intercooler panel and lift out of rubber lower grommets, then either lift out or slide out sideways to the left, the air con condenser can then be left supported and the slam panel removed.

Undo the aux belt and the 3 bolts holding the compressor and rotate the air con condenser 90 degrees towards you , with the pump, there is a 8” odd rubber pipe that allows this, a pipe support clamp can also be unbolted too to give more ‘flex’.

You then have complete easy access to the engine and box and lots can be easily done, the SM flywheel was fitted with a Luk clutch kit which included the release bearing, new top hat, arm, pivot bolt and spring, all new bolts. As access was so easy a cam belt and WP was done (my 2nd A2 belt in 2 months) and the gearbox tower bearing was replaced (under a fiver from audi).



These videos helped with removing and replacing everything and where to apply moly grease, size of bolts/sockets and tightening torques, I’ve never seen any of Ginas video’s before but they are excellent and with the subtitles/translations, quite amusing ? They are worth a watch even if you are not interested in a clutch change.


and


All went back together with no issues, a few poppers replaced, a few new bolts but nothing hard, I did drain the box and remove the flange (before removal) as @depronman detailed and this helped no end.

After assembly and refill of coolant, gearbox oil, screen wash, the engine was started and coolant system bled of air, engine torsion timing checked with VCDS.

Its been in use a week now and is lovely to drive, quiet, no vibration, light clutch and good performance, it’ll be interesting to long term test it.

Regards

Andy
 

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Hi, I’ve just finished a job on my ATL (90) engined A2 involving clutch kit replacement, cam belt kit, waterpump, shift tower bearing replacement and SM flywheel conversion.

The transmission started to get noisy, clanky and the cluch pedal would vibrate with a small amount of pressure on it, researching on here and other places this looked like the DMF or a clutch component issue (clutch slave cylinder was ok).

I’m lucky to not live far from ex member @JIGSAW here in Norwich and Gary gave me advice that a SMF should be considered, a 3 pot SMF flywheel of course, one from a AMF etc, I saw the flywheel thread by @Menno and I found on Ebay one from a polo, and this was received, wire wheeled to remove light corrosion and cleaned with brake cleaner, sprayed with black paint and the contact surface cleaned back to metal with 100grit to make a nice ready to fit replacement.

Reading the many posts on here especially by @depronman about clutch replacement gave me courage to attempt it and I followed his steps and it worked really well, but Gary had an extra tip to preserve the air air con gas circuit which was to unscrew the air con condenser and rotate it 90 degrees towards the front of the car after dropping the compressor off so it can follow it. I was removing the aux belt anyway to do the cambelt and this was easy and no issue once the front was off.

Tool wise I used a normal socket set, a set of spline, hex and torx bits, and other standard tools, a engine support beam for £39.99, and a £7.99 clutch centring tool were the only tools I bought. The whole thing was done over a week whilst working a full week doing a bit each evening and the pre and post weekends, a stage at a time and I would encourage others to attempt the same without any fear, its not that hard at all, and I’ve learnt so much about how the front of the car comes apart.

I bagged up screws, bolts and poppers etc in bags, labelled such as ‘undertray and wheel arch liners’ and ‘slam panel and radiators’ etc.

In steps: place car on axle stands, Remove undertray, engine cover and wheel arch liners. Remove headlights, bumper skin, crash bars, horn and slam panel plastics around intercooler and radiators.

Disconnect wiring loom from slam panel (air con pressure, rad temp, fog lights, lower water temp sensor, screen wash pump and tube etc) and pull it up into the top of engine bay.

Drain coolant and disconnect rad pipes, intercooler pipes, unscrew flap release plunger, unplug fan cable, disconnect screen wash fill pipe, oil fill pipe, dip stick pipe, remove oil fill point giving access to air inlet pipe screws, disconnect drain cup pipes, unbolt 3 bolts holding air con silver cylinder?.

When the slam panel is free from any connections, support the slam panel and remove fixings, undo 4 screws holding air con condenser and split it from the rad/intercooler panel, supporting both.

Lift and remove both black plastic pegs holding in the rad panel, move slam panel forward and tilt backwards rad/intercooler panel and lift out of rubber lower grommets, then either lift out or slide out sideways to the left, the air con condenser can then be left supported and the slam panel removed.

Undo the aux belt and the 3 bolts holding the compressor and rotate the air con condenser 90 degrees towards you , with the pump, there is a 8” odd rubber pipe that allows this, a pipe support clamp can also be unbolted too to give more ‘flex’.

You then have complete easy access to the engine and box and lots can be easily done, the SM flywheel was fitted with a Luk clutch kit which included the release bearing, new top hat, arm, pivot bolt and spring, all new bolts. As access was so easy a cam belt and WP was done (my 2nd A2 belt in 2 months) and the gearbox tower bearing was replaced (under a fiver from audi).



These videos helped with removing and replacing everything and where to apply moly grease, size of bolts/sockets and tightening torques, I’ve never seen any of Ginas video’s before but they are excellent and with the subtitles/translations, quite amusing They are worth a watch even if you are not interested in a clutch change.


and


All went back together with no issues, a few poppers replaced, a few new bolts but nothing hard, I did drain the box and remove the flange (before removal) as @depronman detailed and this helped no end.

After assembly and refill of coolant, gearbox oil, screen wash, the engine was started and coolant system bled of air, engine torsion timing checked with VCDS.

Its been in use a week now and is lovely to drive, quiet, no vibration, light clutch and good performance, it’ll be interesting to long term test it.

Regards

Andy

Well done


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@Sidewinder; Top job Sir!
Just to make sure; I hope you've left out the alloy spacer between gearbox and engine when switching to SMF?

Cheers.
 
@Sidewinder; Top job Sir!
Just to make sure; I hope you've left out the alloy spacer between gearbox and engine when switching to SMF?

Cheers.
Yes :) , its available to anyone FOC considering a DMF upgrade ;).
I forgot to mention, all the clutch components were all in their right places, there was plenty of meat left on the clutch plate but there was play in the release bearing, it would rock from side to side, the DMF was seized solid, no movement against the springs at all, it was also fairly scored. The pressure plate fingers were showing signs of wear, but all in everything not too bad for the 158Kmiles the car has done.

Andy
 
Last edited:
Is your car remapped? Is it just the flywheel and clutch (also for an AMF?) that have been swapped in?

Do keep us informed of any further thoughts as they occur - or any experiences / developments now the car is in use.

Thanks for sharing, very interesting.
 
Is your car remapped? Is it just the flywheel and clutch (also for an AMF?) that have been swapped in?

Do keep us informed of any further thoughts as they occur - or any experiences / developments now the car is in use.

Thanks for sharing, very interesting.
Hi, No, my 90 is not remapped or engine modified in any other way, Yes, just the flywheel and Luk SMF clutch kit, the flywheel I actually think is from a BHC it is part no: 045105273. I renewed the other clutch release components as recommended:

release lever 02J 141 719C
spring 012 141 741
Top hat guide bush 02A 141 180A
Top hat guide bush bolts x3 N90355405
pivot bolt 02A 141 777B

Also bolts for the SMF:
bolts, Flywheel to crank x6 N90206103
bolts, pressure plate to fly x6 N10104501

I thought long and hard about it as I could have just re fitted a new DMF and clutch preassembled from Luk for about £380, The SMF kit and secondhand flywheel was £159 but it wasn't at all financial, I wanted to experience a car that had been converted and the A2 needing a clutch was the experiment. I own 2 other DMF equipped diesels and my 4wd boat and caravan tow machine I may also fit with a SMF when it needs one if this turns out ok.

I know audi fitted the DMF for a reason, but was it more of a luxury than necessity? or just what was happening to diesel engined cars at the time? many people with 75's have them mapped beyond the torque or power of the 90 without feeling the need to fit a DMF? and hopefully I have removed one of the problems the 90 is known for.

Regards

Andy
 
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I'm very curious too!
Unfortunely I'm not driving my SMF converted ATL due to various reasons yet....... But I'm convinced it will be allright and did take a good decision to get rid of the DMF.
A DMF can cause engine trouble when they get really worn out.
The advantage of the DMF is a smoother "cushion" like of power transfer and bigger diameter and therefore more capable of getting higher torque values transferred.
As already said, a standard ATL will be able to drive very sufficient with an AMF clutch set up, trouble will be present when they're getting tuned to the max and beyond........

Maybe @A2Steve has some experience? If I'm right the golden brown A2 he owned had a clutch set up that was not always doing what it should due to a engine tune/high torque output.

I'm still searching the WWW for information regarding 3 pot tdi clutches. So far I found a Belgium guy who managed to fit a 228mm clutch in a Polo 1.4 tdi and brought the SMF flywheel to an engine shop to have it rebalanced so it could be used on the 3 pot. Cannot find it very easy anymore, but if I do I will post the link.
 
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Why did Audi fit a DMF to the 90tdi when the accountants question the smallest price increase on every component ?
Don't know for sure but can have a good guess,

All engines produce torsional vibration due to the crankshaft twisting slightly from the forces induced on the crank throw during the combustion stroke. A high speed camera could probably slow down the rotation enough to show the crank does not spin smoothly but rotates in 'fits and starts' as the load changes during each firing stroke. This is what induces the torsional vibration,
They fit a torsional damper on the front of the crank to reduce this 'twisting' vibration but if vibration levels are high, they are transmitted to the gearbox and can cause gear tooth wear and gear chatter. In really severe cases torsional vibration can cause crankshaft failure

Lots of torque at low revs is the killer and with the variable geometry turbo on the 90tdi, the higher bottom end torque must put it into this category.
A sympathetic driver will feel when the engine is laboring too much and drive round the problem by easing the throttle or dropping a gear.
Audi however have to build cars for anyone to drive and deem it safer to fit a DMF


Remapping a 75 tdi probably does not increase the torque at low revs enough to make vibration levels an issue

Cheers Spike
 
Hi, I’ve just finished a job on my ATL (90) engined A2 involving clutch kit replacement, cam belt kit, waterpump, shift tower bearing replacement and SM flywheel conversion.

The transmission started to get noisy, clanky and the cluch pedal would vibrate with a small amount of pressure on it, researching on here and other places this looked like the DMF or a clutch component issue (clutch slave cylinder was ok).

I’m lucky to not live far from ex member @JIGSAW here in Norwich and Gary gave me advice that a SMF should be considered, a 3 pot SMF flywheel of course, one from a AMF etc, I saw the flywheel thread by @Menno and I found on Ebay one from a polo, and this was received, wire wheeled to remove light corrosion and cleaned with brake cleaner, sprayed with black paint and the contact surface cleaned back to metal with 100grit to make a nice ready to fit replacement.

Reading the many posts on here especially by @depronman about clutch replacement gave me courage to attempt it and I followed his steps and it worked really well, but Gary had an extra tip to preserve the air air con gas circuit which was to unscrew the air con condenser and rotate it 90 degrees towards the front of the car after dropping the compressor off so it can follow it. I was removing the aux belt anyway to do the cambelt and this was easy and no issue once the front was off.

Tool wise I used a normal socket set, a set of spline, hex and torx bits, and other standard tools, a engine support beam for £39.99, and a £7.99 clutch centring tool were the only tools I bought. The whole thing was done over a week whilst working a full week doing a bit each evening and the pre and post weekends, a stage at a time and I would encourage others to attempt the same without any fear, its not that hard at all, and I’ve learnt so much about how the front of the car comes apart.

I bagged up screws, bolts and poppers etc in bags, labelled such as ‘undertray and wheel arch liners’ and ‘slam panel and radiators’ etc.

In steps: place car on axle stands, Remove undertray, engine cover and wheel arch liners. Remove headlights, bumper skin, crash bars, horn and slam panel plastics around intercooler and radiators.

Disconnect wiring loom from slam panel (air con pressure, rad temp, fog lights, lower water temp sensor, screen wash pump and tube etc) and pull it up into the top of engine bay.

Drain coolant and disconnect rad pipes, intercooler pipes, unscrew flap release plunger, unplug fan cable, disconnect screen wash fill pipe, oil fill pipe, dip stick pipe, remove oil fill point giving access to air inlet pipe screws, disconnect drain cup pipes, unbolt 3 bolts holding air con silver cylinder?.

When the slam panel is free from any connections, support the slam panel and remove fixings, undo 4 screws holding air con condenser and split it from the rad/intercooler panel, supporting both.

Lift and remove both black plastic pegs holding in the rad panel, move slam panel forward and tilt backwards rad/intercooler panel and lift out of rubber lower grommets, then either lift out or slide out sideways to the left, the air con condenser can then be left supported and the slam panel removed.

Undo the aux belt and the 3 bolts holding the compressor and rotate the air con condenser 90 degrees towards you , with the pump, there is a 8” odd rubber pipe that allows this, a pipe support clamp can also be unbolted too to give more ‘flex’.

You then have complete easy access to the engine and box and lots can be easily done, the SM flywheel was fitted with a Luk clutch kit which included the release bearing, new top hat, arm, pivot bolt and spring, all new bolts. As access was so easy a cam belt and WP was done (my 2nd A2 belt in 2 months) and the gearbox tower bearing was replaced (under a fiver from audi).



These videos helped with removing and replacing everything and where to apply moly grease, size of bolts/sockets and tightening torques, I’ve never seen any of Ginas video’s before but they are excellent and with the subtitles/translations, quite amusing ? They are worth a watch even if you are not interested in a clutch change.


and


All went back together with no issues, a few poppers replaced, a few new bolts but nothing hard, I did drain the box and remove the flange (before removal) as @depronman detailed and this helped no end.

After assembly and refill of coolant, gearbox oil, screen wash, the engine was started and coolant system bled of air, engine torsion timing checked with VCDS.

Its been in use a week now and is lovely to drive, quiet, no vibration, light clutch and good performance, it’ll be interesting to long term test it.

Regards

Andy
Hi Andy, I know this is an old thread but I am looking at doing a SMF conversion on a 90. Did it work out well over time and what Polo did the flywheel come from please?

George
 
Hi George,

Yes its all still good, it's done about 7K since the conversion, and its still just as light and quiet as it was when first done.
You'll need a SMF from a 1.4TDi 3 pot with the cut out for the balance, they are used across the A2, polo, fabia etc. I used part no. 045105273.
@depronman 's AMF flywheel would be perfect!

With the 90 timing torsion set to 0-+0.6 the power band is above 2K where the torque comes in and the fun starts 🤣.

Regards
Andy
 
Let me dig it out for you George. I say it only the other week
Next question is how to get it too you. I don’t fancy trying to post it
Maybe collect it when your taking or bringing a car from/to WOM

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Paul, I’m off for a knee op in a couple of weeks so realistically I won’t be going anywhere for the next 8 weeks. If there’s a chance to get it to WOM I could arrange something from there
 
Let me speak to Tom when he is back from down south and see if he is going to wom in the foreseeable future

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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