Resurrection of my CQ20V

[Bowie69]

Oh, and something else I have been meaning to write up, the rear ABS sensors, which are NLA/very very expensive.... well upon removing mine they came out minus the stainless caps, which was hardly ideal.

So, with them out of the car, I spent aaaaages trying to find something with the right length (1500mm) and the right grommets, but nothing really came through, even ordered a couple of Audi 100 front sensors, but they ended up too short. So.... needs must(!)

I took a hacksaw and CAREFULLY cut the stainless cans off the Audi 100 sensors, right at the top, and cleaned the edge up with some needle files, so they wouldn't damage my stock sensor.

Then, after checking my stock sensor still had continuity and resistance ~1KOhms, I test fitted them making sure I didn't damage the fine copper wire that is wound in them -they fitted nicely, and were the right length too.

So... out with a reasonably generous amount of epoxy glue, squidge my stock sensor into the new can, and make sure it is all nicely sealed around the top, leave to dry. There is also an o-ring on the stock sensor to seal the can, so I am fairly certain there will be no ingress.

Fitted them back to the car, with new retainer clips/springy things and copious quantities of grease to stop them from rusting again and ABS all working well, no warnings

Money saving tip, as you can buy the cheapest wheel speed sensor and chop the cap off and swap it over, job done

[Bowie69]

Cool, cheers Steve, will definitely ask them what thickness pipe it was, good tip!

For the engine speed/timing sensor, they are the two white plugs next to the blue and green knock sensor plugs that are next to the coil. Disconnect here and measure the resistance of them both, they should be ~ 1KOhm, anything less than 900 is no good, from memory. From that point the plugs go straight to the ECU, as per this diagram:

page3.png

[steve briance]

Brilliant work! Some REALLY useful snippets there - especially the knock sensor info, mine work and i have used spares but, the option of buying new donut style does appeal now they are shown to work.

The fault finding for autocheck is also interesting as when its cold (below zero deg c) i get an annoying no start occasionally. Fault codes show its a lack of engine speed sensor and the sensor that looks at the ignition firing pin seems to be suspect. The sensor seems to be working fine as when the car warms up in the morning sun, it starts!

Its a difficult one to sort as the continuity comes back with the engine running and when the fault is happening, its usually to damned cold to be probing the wiring!

One day I shall trace the wires from sensor to ecu and clean them...


As for your exhaust noise. Id be asking what thickness stainless was used. I had a system made at pdgough in mansfield and its a 2 box system, boxes same size as original and with no cat. Its perfect and seems no louder than original. I think they used 1.2mm thick tubing and sheet to make up the silencers. If you are going to get into an argument with the company who made yours, its perhaps just calling pdgough to ask the question of 'what grade stainless and what thickness is used'.

[Bowie69]

So, a couple of mammoth days getting everything fitted back to the car meant I got it down to the MOT station about a month ago now, and it passed, after a fiddle with the number plate lights (just corroded connectors/tracks in the fitting.

Car then looked like:

IMG_20210417_130333.jpg


Has since been washed again and the bumpers taken back to black.

Apologies for lack of photos in all this, I was very much in the "get 'er done" mode, which left no real time for photos, suffice to say it is all very clean underneath, even the MOT man said, and as he has a bright orange 2.8 quattro we nattered for quite a while about it. He picked up a couple of things, one of which was the steering wheel rocked a bit, suggesting it was just loose on the splines... after some investigation it turns out the column bearing at the top had play in it, and with no adjustment I replaced with an ebay sourced second hand item -much nicer

As far as niggles with the actual driveline goes, the only thing really to come from testing has been that I think the prop is slightly out of balance, as I get a whole car slight vibe around 25-35mph, which is a bit annoying, I need to find somewhere, ideally locally to balance it, anyone know of someone in Somerset that will do it? Otherwise there are no leaks from gearbox, diff etc, nor any other unintended noises! Dampers are fantastic, as expected, really control the car so much better, much flatter in turns with the rear ARB, tempted to try it one notch stiffer again, but will see.


Another issue was the speedo and odometer had decided not to work any more, I swapped back to my known good sensor and without unwrapping the loom in the engine bay I think have done about all the diagnostics I can. I pulled the cluster and took the speedo unit out, after a lot of fiddling and testing, the speedo itself is OK, you can get the needle to move by applying 12V to the back and blue wires going to it, the normal gear to fail is fine (I replaced that a few years ago), and everything looks OK..... until I noticed this:

IMG_20210509_172636.jpg

Forgive the blurry picture, but you can see the capacitor has swollen quite badly and blown its rubber cap out of the bottom. This fits with the failure mode, the speedo will sort-of work for the first few minutes, reading a bouncy maybe one third of the speed you are going, then eventually doing nothing.

I have ordered a couple of capacitors (I will replace them all in the speedo) and hopefully that will fix it, fingers crossed.

In other news, I have finally, yes, finally, fixed the false oil pressure warning coming up on the mini-check. After years of not being able to get it fixed, at least not 100% reliably I spent an age trawling wiring diagrams and other posts trying to work out what was happening.... I'll try and walk you through how I got there, but it may be a bit muddled, apologies if so.

So, the warning was coming on at 2K, so reading up on this, this is the high pressure switch signal not getting to the mini-check. The high pressure switch is the normal single connector switch on the side of the block, and NOT the cotton-reel pressure sender. The high pressure switch is 1.8 bar, and the cotton reel sender also contains a 0.3 bar switch, in this case it was not relevant to me, but was part of the diagnostics procedure.

I took a multimeter and checked the continuity of both switches with the engine off, both went to ground, i.e. they were correctly showing that there was no pressure, with the engine running, they both went open circuit, i.e. they were working!

From the high pressure switch there is a white/grey wire, this was important as it runs from here all the way out to the instrument cluster and mini-check, though this is where much of the info out there is wrong for my car, most state that this wire goes to a mini-check controller in the aux relay panel under the dash, or via 5 pin connectors, or via 8 pin connectors in the engine bay, all of which was wrong, it went via this connector in the aux relay panel:

IMG_20210507_114426.jpg

You can pop the entire connector out (both halves) from the panel by releasing a couple of clips , once apart, I took a look inside it:

IMG_20210507_125715.jpg

You can probably see quite a bit of green powder in there, this was on quite a few of the pins and definitely affecting the one with the white/grey wire on it. I tested this before cleaning it all up by grounding the wire going off to the instrument cluster, and bringing the engine RPM up above 1900rpm and holding it there -magic, no oil pressure warning!

So, out with the tiny screwdriver and contact cleaner to scrape the male side clean, (all the pins to make sure) and then used more contact cleaner and a small stainless wire brush pushed into the female side. Both looked much better after, and when all connected back up, it werks!

Other minor irritant, I have written about it before, the tach stopped working after I fiddled with the speedo, and must have knocked something, certain it is the trimmer pot on the board that was corroded before, and must be worse now, so have ordered a replacement pot, and will swap it out when I do the capacitors for the speedo.

Then, last week..... dun-dun-duuuuun.... engine started playing up, was initially worried, was misfiring and smelled stinking rich, after a physical check, pulled codes -knock sensor 2 no signal, doh.

Ordered a pair of the later style through-bolt sensors, and fitted them last night, Bosch part numbers were:

0261231036
0261231038

And the proper bolts:

N0102336. M8 x 1.25 x 28mm

Fitted them and engine running sweetly again!

So yes, they do work on 7A engines for those that were wondering. One thing I would do again is order two of the longer, 'green' sensors, as the blue shorter one is rather tight, and I couldn't get it to go back in the convoluted loom protector, but other than that, all good


Biggest issue remaining is the exhaust, when I first drove it back from the exhaust shop in November before pulling all this apart, it felt like it sounded great, and I had a blast down Cheddar gorge and the surrounding roads, however in every day use there is just waaaaay to much noise, it is most problematic around 2K with the pedal down, where you get a real 'bark' from it, and accelerating on the motorway in 5th is almost deafening. I'm going to have to go back with it, and see what they say, but given I asked for a quiet exhaust without any droning I'd say they missed the mark entirely. Honestly, it is spoiling the driving experience, and I feel like it is loud enough that I can't use a bootful when in any built up area or near pedestrians, so it has to be fixed.

Any suggestions from anyone on how to fix that issue with box options etc, I am all ears, as I would love to be able to go in there prepared.

.... and that's the update for now, more to come in the future, for sure

[Bowie69]

You'll be looking forward to all this being back on the car?!

Yeah, a 50hp Morris is *beginning* to get a little old.... end of the month is the plan

[John.]

Thanks, and yep, standard 30 year old springs,

Standard on mine too, and I can't help thinking they've lasted 30 years for a reason !!

Have been through Somerset but it was just a fleeting visit on route to catch a ferry.

You'll be looking forward to all this being back on the car?!

[Bowie69]

Are you on standard springs, can't remember reading if they're something else?

Liking your work and update/report!

Thanks, and yep, standard 30 year old springs, with a coat of hydrate 80 and two-pack gloss black paint -the CQ20V came with slightly lower suspension than the other lesser coupes, as did the 90Q20V *Sport*, so that's what I have. I don't think I need anything stiffer, in fact if you follow Lotus you could well say otherwise....

Ride and handling wise, I am after something that will be more entertaining in the corners (the rear ARB sorted that out) still comfy over the rough roads round here (so soft-ish springs) and well damped reactions, again for the bumpy roads at speed.

If you've never driven Somerset, it is quite a unique place with all the peat moors around, constantly shifting! And I live in the middle of it all.

[John.]

I am experimenting with Bilt Hamber S50 ( I think it is) clear aerosol wax, as a coating for suspension components on top of the paint... I seem to remember Audi did something similar, but I can't remember details

Can't beat a bit o' Bilt Hammer !

Are you on standard springs, can't remember reading if they're something else?

Liking your work and update/report!

[Bowie69]

I'm not, but I did get a PM from Lago about it, but think it will be ok, these struts are used all over the VAG group cars and I don't see it mentioned too much, plus, I had painted them by then

One other thin to mention, I am experimenting with Bilt Hamber S50 ( I think it is) clear aerosol wax, as a coating for suspension components on top of the paint... I seem to remember Audi did something similar, but I can't remember details

[steve briance]

Are you drilling the lagoblue drain hole in the bottom of the strut? Well worth a search and read of his thread on it as it seems the b6 can / sometimes / not all the time may suffer from hydraulic lock caused by the space the internal bump stop occupies filling up with water. Small hole to let it out and no problems ever occur...

I love b6 on my cq20v. Firm but not harsh and SUPER controlled.

[steve briance]

Haha, my 7a clutch alignment tool is also made up of sockets!

[Bowie69]

Final update, I rubbed down, etch primed and top coated the track rods, and refitted to the rack -time will tell if this makes it much more difficult to get the gearbox in, but it is only two bolts to get it out of the way, so I guess we'll see
IMG_20210314_154601.jpg IMG_20210314_154605.jpg IMG_20210314_154611.jpg

Complete with some lovely 17mm S2Forum adjusters from Greg

[Bowie69]

Sooooo... moving on.... my chosen clutch arrived. I had tried the refurb route from the link Error404 gave, however when he looked at the cover he decided it was scrap, I did wonder, as the fingers were very worn, but I only noticed as I was boxing it up to send it to him. Oh well.....

They did offer to make a clutch, but I would need to send flywheel, release bearing etc to them, and while I am sure it would be lovely, I went with one of these instead, delivered from Germany within a week (I am looking at you Audi Tradition!):

https://www.dcperformance.co.uk/cheap/2006791/audi/black-diamond-stage-1-organic-clutch-kits/bdc9464pwr.html

IMG_20210314_145922.jpg IMG_20210314_145928.jpg IMG_20210314_145948.jpg IMG_20210314_145958.jpg

These are built to order, and then confirmed with me a couple of details during manufacture, and it fits! (the most important thing).

I needed a clutch alignment tool, and with an absence of scrap gearboxes, I came up with this, which fitted *perfectly*:

IMG_20210314_152731.jpg

That's a 10mm socket, on a 1/4 to 3/* drive adapter, inside a 15mm socket, all snug fits to the splines and the input shaft bearing, with very little wobble.

Here's the adapter from inside the 15mm socket:

IMG_20210314_152738.jpg


Clutch is bolted up, gearbox is next job, I had to give it a blow over from dust accumulation:

IMG_20210314_162823.jpg


That's Friday's job

[Bowie69]

OK, a slightly delayed update, apologies for those following along

First, a few picks of the Bilstein B6s:
IMG_20210312_094215.jpg

Hint: Don't fit the boot before fitting to the strut, it will get in the way, and these boots are NOT the nice soft rubber found in the rear for some reason. Oh well, still better than most of the rubbish you find out there masquerading as damper boots!

B6s are rebuildable:

IMG_20210312_094223.jpg

You can clearly see where the tool goes in, but this is a pro-rebuild only from what I can work out, due to the pressures involved in them....

One of the boot, definitely in Bilstein blue:

IMG_20210312_094357.jpg

A couple of close ups of the caps, in case you missed it last time:

IMG_20210312_094334.jpg IMG_20210312_094337.jpg

These are a slightly different size compared to the rears, so I had to modify my home made tool to torque them up, but all fitted up and done, ready to go in the vehicle once the gearbox and then subframe are in:

IMG_20210312_135022.jpg

There was a minor issue that delayed assembly, I tipped one of the struts up after removing the old damper, and this came out:

IMG_20210312_100745.jpg


Gave it a good battering to clean it out and then treated the inside with Bilt Hamber S70 -it should never rust again now.

[newsh]

Thanks struikie !

More work today, will post up tomorrow probably, front shocks arrived, and clutch kit, so think I pretty much have everything here now to complete

Exciting!