My S2 coupe bit of a rebuild and repair thread.

[johne]

Now on to the rear of the car, and so far I'm presently surprised! I was expecting the rear to be far worse than the front but it's a hell of a lot better.

Just wait until you've got the subframe off the car and see the state of the body mounting points

There's no need to remove the exhaust and prop shaft or even the diff if you just want to attack all the corrosion and replace the mounts and bushes.

[B5NUT]

Big Red do an axle set calliper repair kit for £23.

There's a calliper rebuild guide on Audiworld.com. Don't know if I'm allowed to post the link to it but you'll find it under: Other Audi/C4 platform/rear calliper rebuild.

At the part a hub puller is used, a drill press is quicker and easier if you have a tall enough one.

Thanks, I'll have a search and will PM you if I cannot find it.

[B5NUT]

Just wait until you've got the subframe off the car and see the state of the body mounting points

There's no need to remove the exhaust and prop shaft or even the diff if you just want to attack all the corrosion and replace the mounts and bushes.

I've seen the mount points there is rust there, but I've seen a lot worse.

The diff need new seals and the prop is going to get refurbished, as it's on the list of things to do.

[B5NUT]

Had an interesting day removing the uprights and the rear subframe. First issue I had and still have is removing these trim pieces
1-trim.jpg

If anyone has any instruction on how these are removed I would be grateful.

With the trim still in place I managed to get a 22mm spanner and 7mm allen key in and removed the uprights. While I was in the boot I decided to strip it down as I did find a few issues. First the near side light bar was only held in place by the trim as the clips were missing to hold it in place. Second issue was the fuel tank, looks like someone has removed this before as there were a few bolts missing that hold it in place.

2-missing.jpg

Whatever garage (cowboys) did the work on this car, they should be ashamed as the quality of the work is appalling. The replacement copper pipe fuel lines just appear to be a right bodged job, and the cheapest parts have been used. So I will also be replacing the fuel lines while they are easily accessible.

Next issue was the overflow pipe, it was just dangling in the boot, so if you splashed any petrol near the filler neck it would have just drained in the boot!!!
3-cowboy.jpg

So on to taking the propshaft out, with the car on axle stands I don't have much room to work so it was a tad difficult removing the bolts. 2 came out easy and the rest did not. So I found hammering a 12m multi spline socket over the bolts took them out with ease. Then the propshaft would not come away from the diff. So after reading this thread https://www.s2forum.com/forum/genera...ft-stuck/page2 I used a lump hammer and an old woodworking chisel which did the job. So finally ready to remove the subframe, however one of the bushes had other plans. The bolt had rusted sold inside the bush and I snapped the head of the bolt. Then had to use a drill bit to destroy the rubber in the bush enough so I could remove the subframe & diff.

I'll sort this out tomorrow
4-bush.jpg

5-bush.jpg

All the rear bushes on the car are in a far worse condition that the front surprisingly, and it looks like I will have to go down the heritage poly bush route as I cannot find any standard rubber bushes for the rear end.

6-out.jpg

The rear subframe is in good condition with the only rust issues that I have found to be around the arb mounts. But I will have it blasted and see if there are any other issues, but after smacking it with a hammer in several places it's very solid.
7-rust.jpg

With the diff of the car I checked to see if the drain & filler plugs could be removed and thankfully both removed with ease. However I am going to have to sort out some oil leaks.
8-diff.jpg

The leak on the left is 100% the output shaft seal, and the leak on the right is from the rubber boot. Now I figured it was split however it appears that the clip at the end has long since given up.
9-clip.jpg

So will degrease that area tomorrow and see if there is any other damage.

I do have a quick question. Any idea on removal of the pin as I've removed the lower clip but it's stuck solid?
10-pin.jpg

[steve briance]

The pin holding the diff lock arm to actuator.

I would try a dremel multi or angle grinder to grind head off and that should release it. Im surprised its that stuck as isnt the arm it passes through made of plastic? Its all a bit sensitive in that area to use heat which is my go to method for seized fasteners.

Seized bolt in subframe hole.

Thats really unfortunate. You probably know there is a captive nut welded inside the mount. I hope you can get the bolt out without breaking that and keeping threads intact or else it is: cut open, fix and weld shut that part of bodyshell.

When i last took the rear subframe off mine, i found all 4 of those mounting points were full of dried mud. Seems dirty road water can get in but not out, stays damp that leads to the problem you have. Fished it all out with a bent piece of wire and air line and then flooded it with penetrating wax once re assembled.

Good luck!

[Tractor Dave]

Stuck subframe bolt
This happened on my ur. I welded a nut on the broken end of the bolt and it came out. Clean up really well first and lots of penetrating oil before. Have some water handy in case.
Diff pin
Again, had this on the Ur. Lots of wire brushing and soaking. Some of the diff parts were available at Tradition when I last looked. I do have a few spare parts if you are stuck.
Wow! You do work quick

[johne]

Had an interesting day removing the uprights and the rear subframe. First issue I had and still have is removing these trim pieces
1-trim.jpg

If anyone has any instruction on how these are removed I would be grateful.

Remove the bolt, washer and nut assembly that the rear seat latch engages with. (This will allow the not so captive nut behind it to drop down and cause you no end of grief when you come to re-assemble but that's a pleasure for later) With the latch bolt gone, remove the padded bolster to the side of the rear seat by pulling it forward and then lifting it up and out.

The trims are held in by two screws. The first one you can now see and is right at the front on the inside edge and holds this trim to the top of body panel trim in front of it.

To get to the second pull out loads of seat belt length, lift up the belt where it slides through the trim and move the plastic seat belt guide sideways which will let you remove the guide and slide it down the seat belt. If you now look down into the trim where the guide was clipped in - or use a mirror - you'll see the second screw which will need some right-angled tool to remove.

The edge of the trim has plastic tongues that engage with the top of the carpet. These are easy to break and should have a soft rubber insert in them - worth looking out for a saving if your car still has them.

[Lago Blue]

Regarding the seized diff actuator pin and sub-frame bolt.

Besides honest to goodness real penetrating oil or diesel fuel, what soaking really needs is simply lots of time to work, as in several days, perhaps a week or more.

I would not use heat or a grinder in haste, but instead time and patience.

Further to what Steve was saying, 3 of those sub-frame nuts are somewhat captive and need to move laterally for S/F re-alignment. The 4th (RH Frnt on Rr S/F IIRC?) is fixed. Because their correct function is vital, and any required proper fix is so intrusive, before attempting stuck bolt removal here I would consider first welding a nut on the stud, then drilling a small hole, up-hill in that short chassis leg so as to be able to get plenty of penetrating oil into that cavity, and then simply wait the till stud is turn-able with only moderate force, don't hurry it. That way you only have a very small hole to plug.

Below is a 7-Zap drwg. of the one of the shelf speaker-panels and some(?) of the fasteners John described.

Coupe Rr shelves over top-mounts illus Screen Shot 2022-01-03 at 06.43.27.png

[B5NUT]

Thanks. I'm in no rush, I've done what I've needed so I can now start removing rust and painting the rear. I removed the shocks from the strut this morning, and these have some sort of oil inside the strut, it smell's like WD40! So why the front's were dry and the rears filled with oil I have no idea. I wonder if the shocks have been replaced in the past as they were in a lot better condition than the front.

[Tractor Dave]

Thanks. I'm in no rush, I've done what I've needed so I can now start removing rust and painting the rear. I removed the shocks from the strut this morning, and these have some sort of oil inside the strut, it smell's like WD40! So why the front's were dry and the rears filled with oil I have no idea. I wonder if the shocks have been replaced in the past as they were in a lot better condition than the front.

Mine were exactly the same. Original shocks and smelt like diesel

[johne]

I'll sort this out tomorrow
4-bush.jpg

What I found when faced with exactly the same situation was that the flange had welded itself to the body mount. I cut the flange away first and then the remainder of the bolt unscrewed relatively easily.

Subsequently I drilled a 20mm hole in the side of the turret so I could get inside and see what was going on. Had I done that before attacking the bolt I could have got a visual on the state of the thread and got lots of penetrating oil in.

Like Steve I found my turrets full of sand so I cleaned them all out before filling them with wax. Also the same for the cross member that runs between the two rear turrets so check that out as well.

[nribs]

(This will allow the not so captive nut behind it to drop down and cause you no end of grief when you come to re-assemble but that's a pleasure for later)

Haha. Sooo true. Try and thread that for 30 minutes and no success. Walk away to take a phone call, use the restroom, or get a drink.....threads on the 1st try!

[newsh]

Haha. Sooo true. Try and thread that for 30 minutes and no success. Walk away to take a phone call, use the restroom, or get a drink.....threads on the 1st try!

Also quite tricky getting it back in just the right position to latch correctly.

[B5NUT]

Got a few things done today the subframe has gone to the blasters and should get that back at the end of the week so I will see how much work is required to repair the offside arb mount. Also got the pin out, tried twisting using the bottom of the pin but it was still stuck and it finally snapped off. So I filled the top of the pin and that appeared to free it up!
1-pin.jpg

The state of the actuator was also not the best. I'll just use longer self tapping screws to get around the issue
2-act.jpg

I then finally got to use my blasting cabinet, first up was the mounting plate for the actuator. I was please with the result but disappointed with the condition of the plate. It's got far too many holes so I'm going to have to make a new one
3-shot.jpg
So made a template this evening and will make one out of 1mm steel tomorrow.
4-temp.jpg
Also started blasting other small parts, and please with the results.
5-mount.jpg

[marksmith]

Thanks for your information.