jbrentd's 2nd Chance CQ

[Jaswan]

Jeez, it's no wonder your old shocks were harsh, it looks like you have about a half inch of travel before it's metal on metal

[jbrentd]

Took almost a month to get it from Florida to Alberta.
still waiting for coilovers though

Geez. Bright side is, you won't be waiting on them when the coilovers arrive. I finally got mine as well.

[jbrentd]

Jeez, it's no wonder your old shocks were harsh, it looks like you have about a half inch of travel before it's metal on metal

Yeah, very harsh...they just weren't meant to go that low. I really like the way the BC's adjust for ride height compared to the old set.

[jbrentd]

So, before going through the effort of removing and replacing the master cylinder, I thought I would try adjusting the length of the rod at the brake pedal...as suggested by Dan over on TPP. The thought was that maybe the brake pedal was holding pressure against the master cylinder slightly.

When I removed the clevis pin, I could tell the master cylinder was pushing a little on the rod. So, I shortened the rod by 3 full turns of the clevis. The brake pedal now has a very slight amount of play between where the MC is at rest and the brake light and cruise control switches. And it gets taken up by the return spring. I went for a lengthy drive on a warm day and the brakes never did lock up. Hoping this is a good sign.

[jbrentd]

Spent some more time behind the wheel this weekend and still no sign of the master cylinder not releasing. So, I am going to return it for a refund. The steering felt quite loose and upon inspection, I found the front ball joint nuts needed to be tightened. Much better after that, but I need to get her in for a real alignment soon. Also adjusted the struts from full soft to the halfway setting. Now that the coilovers have settled, I need to adjust them a bit.

I really have missed driving her since I took her off the road a little over 4 years ago. The 3B really wakes up the car...should have come to the US with this engine!

[Cqbolidas]

Quick question, a lot of interior parts has to come out in order to replace rear coilovers?

[jbrentd]

Quick question, a lot of interior parts has to come out in order to replace rear coilovers?

Just a few things. Going from memory here...

Fold down the rear seats and remove the striker posts. Then remove the rear seat side bolsters. This should give you access to the top plastic trim pieces that house the rear speakers and surround the seat belts. Loosen those and move them to the side and you can get access to the strut bearings.

[Cqbolidas]

Thanks, appreciate it

[jbrentd]

Was able to get out in the shop last weekend to adjust the ride height on the BC coilovers. Not quite as easy of a task as the more traditional style coilovers, but not hard at all, especially with the QuickJack there to help. Just had to loosen the top nut and lower strut body ring, then rotate the strut body by the desired amount. Now to get her in for an alignment.



Next thing on my list is to get the AC working. I hope to drive the coupe a lot this Summer and working AC would be really nice. Has anyone ever documented the wiring side of a manual airbox swap with working AC? I can't seem to find much info on this, so I am taking a stab at it.

Swapping the manual airbox and control panel is fairly straightforward, once you have the dash all torn apart. It's the wiring that I am looking at currently. The blower motor controls are plug and play, but AC controls...not so much. I don't think it'll be a ton of work, but just wanted to know if there any good resources out there already.

[jbrentd]

It appears that all of the wiring happens between the T5 going to the AC/recirc switch on the manual control panel and the T10 plug that used to go to the AC programmer. Here's what I have so far. Yet to be determined if this will work.

• #3 is 12v coming into the switch from programmer plug #4 (comes from Fuse S17)
• #1 is 12v going to programmer plug #5 (trigger to the AC relay) and programmer plug #3 (trigger to the fan low speed relay)

See this post for updated details. https://www.s2forum.com/forum/member...83#post2147683









Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jbrentd]

It turns out, only 3 wires needed to be spliced...power to the AC clutch relay, low speed fan relay, and the ECU as a signal to increase RPMs. All of them are fed from the same #1 terminal on the AC switch. The airbox gets its ground from the plug connected to the blower controls and that plug is a direct swap from the auto cc airbox.

See this post for updated details. https://www.s2forum.com/forum/member...83#post2147683


After finishing the wiring, I was trying to bump the system on, but wasn't having any luck and getting a bit frustrated. So, I started checking the wiring end-to-end with my multimeter. While I had the AC clutch relay out, I took it over to the bench to test it and 12v to the trigger wasn't activating the coil. So, now we wait for a new relay.

[jbrentd]

Just when you think you've got it all figured out, you find that Audi is using a non-standard relay for the AC clutch control. So, if you're trying to follow along, disregard what I wrote in the previous posts. Good times!

It turns out the AC clutch relay has a PNP transistor in it, along with some diodes and other things I don't totally understand. This is why I could not get my original AC clutch relay to energize on the bench. Once I figured that out, I was able to energize the relay with a ground to the "T" spade.



So, I will need to add a standard relay to the mix that will pass a ground to that programmer plug (T10/5), using the 12v from the AC switch as the trigger. Will post up the details once I confirm everything works.

[jbrentd]

So, I had a good day in the shop yesterday and was able to wrap up the wiring for the AC controls. With a jumper in place of the low pressure switch and the key in the ON position, the AC button now activates the AC compressor clutch!

Next up is to tighten up some of the connections on the refrigerant piping, pull a vacuum and charge the system.

As a reminder, I am using B4 Cabriolet manual controls/airbox in place of my stock B3 auto climate control/airbox. If you don't want AC, the wiring for the swap is plug n play. Here's a rundown of the wiring that was needed. Keep in mind, all of the original relays and auto climate control wiring harness are still in place.

• AC Clutch Relay Trigger - Added a standard 4 post relay to trigger the oem AC clutch relay. This is needed because the oem relay is triggered with a ground. The new relay uses the 12v from the AC control switch to pass the ground to the clutch relay.
• AC Clutch Relay Ground - Old ground goes through the AC programmer that was removed.
• AC Clutch Relay 12v Input - 12v from the low pressure switch on the airbox didn't connect to anything on existing wiring harness.
• 12v to Fan Low Speed Relay
• 12v to ECU for Idle Speed Increase Signal

See this post for updated details. https://www.s2forum.com/forum/member...83#post2147683

[jbrentd]

So, back in April 2021, I was in on a group buy for some aftermarket windshields that were to be imported from Europe (Finland if I remember correctly). About a year later, they showed up in the states and were being stored in Asheville, NC. Since it was proving impossible to find someone that would ship a windshield, my wife and drove out to pick it up and made a road trip out of it. That was in June 2022. And after sitting in the shop for 2 years, the windshield has been mounted to the car!

When I posted to some of the Facebook groups, there were several questions about how it went and how some of the trim pieces come off. So, here's a little rundown.

• For starters, the old windshield in my car was not the original OEM windshield. So, it's possible that you could come across something different that I did.
• The installer said the windshield is entirely glued in and the glue is the seal.
• Upper/Lower Trim - The upper and lower trim pieces were hard plastic and glued to the windshield. Both were destroyed in the removal process. I don't think there is any way to avoid it. The installer had various rolls of trim on his rig and he picked the best one to fit the glass. The replacement is actually rubber and it looks like it will do a better job of keeping water out of the channel between the glass and the front edge of the roofline.
• Side Trim Removal - The side trims consist of the painted metal piece that is on the exterior of the A pillar and a rubber strip that is glued to it that sits between the metal and the glass. Some might call the rubber piece a seal, but I think it just acts as a buffer between the metal and glass while also channeling water downward. In my opinion, it's not the primary seal for water ingress into the cabin.
  • How they are mounted - The side trim is riveted to the car and there are clips holding onto a channel from underneath.
  • Removal - You have to remove the door seal in the area of the A pillar. With it removed, the black plastic/rubber window trim will be exposed. This window trim is riveted to the car and there are holes in it that allow access to the painted side trim. The side trim is also riveted to the car. We were a little usure on how everything came apart, so we first removed some of the rivets on the black plastic trim so that it would separate from the body on the A pillar. However, it may be possible to remove the side trims by only removing the rivets that hold it on. Once the side trim rivets are drilled out, don't just start pulling and prying on the side trim. The side trim has to slide downward a few inches to align the notches in the channel with the clips that are mounted to the body. Once they are aligned, the side trim will come off easily.
• Glass Removal - The installer used a knife of some sort that has a 90 degree bend in it. It has to be run between the glass and body around the perimeter to cut the old glue. Lots of glass crunching in this step...no turning back now for sure!
• Clean Up - They scraped all of the old glue off and cleaned up the body so the new glue would have a clean surface. Luckily, we didn't run into any rust, but he did lay down a coat of sealer that has a rust converter in it.
• Glass Install - The upper rubber trim was glued to the glass prior to installation. They laid down a healthy bead of the black glue/sealer to the body and set the glass in place.
• Side Trim Install - Reverse of the removal steps with new rivets. I used 5/32" rivets.
• Miscellaneous - Immediately after the installer had set the new glass in place, we noticed there was no window for the VIN to show through. It's not like I could do anything about it (like return it for a new one). So, if/when the VIN is needed to be viewed by someone, hopefully the ones on the firewall or door jam will suffice.

Here are some pictures...

This shows the clips on the A pillar that hold the side trim. One of the clips fell out and was re-installed with a new rivet. This was before the cleaned up the old glue.


Side trims, showing the channel on the bottom side...notice the notches


Close up of the side trim showing how the rubber is oriented


New glass goin on


New glass in place


Close up of the new upper rubber trim

[jbrentd]

This is not what I wanted to see when i put the CQ on the lift last weekend. I have a couple spare AC compressors, but I bit the bullet and bought a new 4 Seasons unit for about $300. The Denso compressors are in the $800-$1000 price range. Just have to transfer one of the manifolds over to it. And will need to scheduled a time to take it somewhere to get evacuated. Ugh.



One of the spares...